Phillip Bobbitt is an enemy of the Republic of the United States of America.

In a recent edition of the Austin-American Statesman a book review of Phillip Bobbitt’s new book Terror and Consent goes into how the book calls for the shredding of the Constitution. The article written by James E. McWilliams features an image of the Constitution being torn with a big bold headline that states “Everything must go.” The words “How to Fight Terrorism”, are put in place of where the Constitution is torn. The article is blatant propaganda to make people think that the answer to fight terrorism is to destroy the Constitution. As disgusting as this is, the contents of Bobbitt’s book advocates exactly what the picture depicts. Bobbitt endorses using nongovernmental organizations and multinational corporations to take over the roles and functions of nation states. He also endorses giving the United Nations the authority to wage war without approval from the Security Council and the use of non-lethal chemical weapons to fight terrorism. If he really wanted to end terrorism using non-lethal chemical weapons, he should be endorsing the use of non-lethal chemical weapons on the headquarters of the CIA, British Intelligence and Mossad because that’s where the majority of terrorism comes from. Of course, Bobbitt won't mention that fact.

Let’s look at a blurb from the Austin-American Statesman article that gets into some of the things that Bobbitt endorses in his book.

Bobbitt’s previous book, "The Shield of Achilles," explored the grand themes of warfare and state development, marking his penchant for the magnum opus. At nearly 700 pages (including more than 100 pages of notes), "Terror and Consent" follows suit, taking on a similarly big picture. If "we want to defeat state-shattering terror in the twenty-first century," Bobbitt writes, we will have to "transform the emerging constitutional order of the twenty-first century State."

Specifically, we must stop thinking like a nation state and start thinking like the "market state" that we are inevitably becoming. The nation state — a constitutional order dedicated to protecting and improving the material welfare of its citizens — served the United States well from the mid-19th century to the end of the Cold War. But Bobbitt contends it’s vulnerable to a new battery of threats. The accessibility of weapons of mass destruction, the globalization of international capital and the "universalization of culture" have eroded the conventional borders that once legitimated national security.

What’s needed is a constitutional order that takes its structural cues from multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations, relying "less on law and regulation and more on market incentives" to expand people’s options. Such a market state keeps its finger on the pulse of consumer demand, advocates trade liberalization, is prone to the privatization of public works and "will outsource many functions." In the seminar rooms of political science departments this change is referred to as "neoliberalism" (on the streets, it is known as "globalization") — and Bobbitt, who is a geopolitical realist, believes we have no choice but to embrace it.

Simply put, Bobbitt is endorsing what the elites have long sought after and that’s a New World Order or a global government. Bobbitt advocates the destruction of the Constitution and the transfer of power to multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations. This man is a traitor. In the New World Order that the elites envision, people will only have the illusion of choice via phony democratic rule. Real decisions will be made by multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations behind the scenes. Unfortunately, what Bobbitt advocates is already happening considering initiatives such as the Security and Prosperity Partnership which seeks to dissolve the national borders between the Canada, United States and Mexico.

Bobbitt also endorses preemptive use of force by the United Nations without a Security Council authorization as well as the use of non-lethal chemical weapons to prevent terrorism. This is confirmed from a blurb in the Austin-American Statesman.

Bobbitt believes that the UN Charter should be amended to allow the preemptive use of force without a Security Council authorization, that the Geneva Conventions should be changed to forbid the indefinite containment of terrorist prisoners without trial and that we must, in cases in which the use of non-lethal chemical weapons could be used to prevent terror, be able to redefine such methods as "counterforce measures."

What is not mentioned in the article is what sort of non-lethal weapons he would advocate using. Considering that the public is having pharmaceutical drugs and fluoride dumped in their water, mercury put in their vaccines, pesticides sprayed over populated areas and all sorts of other horrors one has to ask if Bobbitt would endorse these methods to fight terrorism?

The war on terror is a proven fraud which makes Bobbitt’s book entirely irrelevant. He bases all of his conclusions off of something that is a lie. Bobbitt also refuses to acknowledge mainstream history which shows that anytime power is concentrated in the hands of a few it always turns out badly. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the New World Order is seeking to gain absolute power. If they are successful in achieving this, we will see a tyranny like no other. The New World Order will be a global enslavement system in which advanced technology is used to dominate the people of the world. It is disgusting that Bobbitt prefers a system that concentrates power in the hands of the unelected few over the freedom and inalienable rights guaranteed by the Constitution. It is insane to say that the Constitution is outdated and a new form of governance is required in the 21st century. Free speech, the right to bear arms, the right not to have your home searched and personal belongings seized without a warrant are concepts that are just as applicable in the 21st century as they were in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Bobbitt is an elitist hack and a traitor for the statements he is making in his book. While he has every right to say these things under the First Amendment, his statements undermines everything that has made this country special. What he doesn’t realize is that the New World Order will dispose of him like they will everyone else when they see that he is of no further use to their insanely corrupt and tyrannical system. Bobbitt is nothing more than another useful idiot for the New World Order enslavement system and he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.

Below is Bobbitt’s contact information if you’d like to express your displeasure at his anti-American and pro-NWO statements.

Phone: (512) 232-1376
Fax: (512) 471-6988
E-mail: PBOBBITT@LAW.UTEXAS.EDU

If for some reason the AAS should stop posting the above linked article, I have archived it on my server, here.

Here's what I've been up to.

Ok, so I know that my posting has fallen off to almost nothing in the recent couple of months, not only am I getting ready to graduate, but things have been coming down the pipe faster than I can keep up. You know that I've discussed the recession that we are clearly in, and you know that I've blasted the MSM (main stream media) for not telling you what myself and others have been screaming to the tops of our lungs. We may have made a breakthrough, but you're not going to like it.

What follows is a WALL STREET JOURNAL article. Yep, the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Who's a conspiracy theorist now?

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008 6:47 p.m.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.

Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.

"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)

Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you'll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.

Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.

And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.

These are trends that have been in place for some time.

And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.

The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.

Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point.

The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.

A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply.

You can't easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.

If this seems a stretch, ponder this: The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it's the rosy memory of a bygone age.

The good news is that it's easier to store Cap'n Crunch or cans of Starkist in your home than it is to store lots of gasoline. Safer, too.

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Ok, so I'm sitting here this morning, recovering from one helluva case of hay-fever/103 degree fever... You know the deal. Anywho, at around 0535 the house began rocking. As soon as it began I knew what it was. I looked around the room and sure enough, everything that was hanging free was swinging like a pendulum.

For the record it lasted for about 20 seconds and was apparently somewhere 5.4 at the epicenter. Where was the epicenter? In southern Illinois. I'm four and a half hours East of the epicenter... We don't do earthquakes here!

Proof it wasn't the fever.

You should have listened to Thomas Jefferson...

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

How's your dollar doing? How much did gas go up in your locality today? Five cents over night for me. How well is your Dollar standing?


I told you so.

Back door gun control taking on a life of its own.

Can't take our guns outright, yet. So what are they doing? Attempting to tax, ban, encode, and pretty much any frigging thing possible in order for it to be impossible to own ammunition. Sneaky fuckers, eh?

Jerry the Geek is tracking this epidemic that is sweeping the nation.

I've pulled Jerry's article from his above linked site, in case you guys don't click the link. I would however urge you to click the link and see everything that he's got going on over there.

Given the plethora of "Encoded Ammunition" bills introduced into various State legislatures in January, 2008 (five so far; there may be more, I'm still researching), it occurred to me that it would be handy to have some kind of 'tracking document'.

Accordingly, I spent a couple of hours building an Excel Spreadsheet listing the salient characteristics of all the bills I have so far discovered. You can download the "2008 Geek Guide ..."( etc.) here.

Note that the file, 2008_Encoded_Ammunition.xls, will require that you have Microsoft EXCEL loaded on your computer. You can download it, but you can't read it without the software.

Here's a list of the states reported to date: Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Hawaii, Tennessee.

And here is a list of the data items found there, along with a short (?) description of the data points:

* State: The name of the state in which the bill is introduced.
* Bill #: The designation of the bill(s). Note that in at least one state (Tennessee), the identical bill was simultaneously introduced in both houses.
* Link to Text: A "Tiny URL" code. Copy and past it into your web browser, and the original URL will be generated to take you to the document which contains the full text of the bill. Note that I neglected to include this link in at least one of my original articles. I hope I've corrected those articles, but ALL are referenced here.
* Sponsor: The name of the state legislature(s) who sponsored and/or introduced the bill. This allows you, if you are a resident of that state, to follow him/her back to his/her personal website and send him/her emails appropriate to the amount of outrage you feel about his/her disenfranchisement of honest shooters.
* Justification for bill?: A simple YES/NO, if the text of the bill includes verbiage which attempts to justify the introduction of this disgusting piece of .... legislation. (Sorry, I can't help editorializing, even when I know I shouldn't. I'm just that irritated.)
* Date Bill Introduced: The date the bill was first read into the record in the state house, assembly or senate.
* Bill Status: The current status of the bill, usually, "referred to Committee" or similar verbiage. Bills so designated sometimes STAY in committee until the end of the legislative session (January 1 of the following year), after which they will die. At least one bill has a "bill expiration date" built into it, which I presume refers to the legislative guidelines for that state.
* Type of Ammo: The limitations on the kind of ammunition which is subject to these restrictions. ALWAYS "Handgun", but may also include "Assault Weapon" or "Assault Pistol". Some states include a list of "Designated Weapons" in the bill, which usually refer to what is essentially an "Assault Weapons" list established by existing state laws.
* Sell Only By Date: The date upon which vendors (retailers, etc.) may offer for sale 'only' ammunition ... or bullets (some states mention both) which has been "encoded".
* Own Only By Date: The date upon which all vendors and private citizens may not possess ammunition (or bullets? .. not always clear) which has not been "encoded". Possession may or may not involve specific penalties; see below.
* Per-Round Tax/Fee?: ALL states have, as far as I know and of this date, imposed some kind of tax or fee per bullet; this is most commonly five cents, although one state sets the fee at ".005 cents" which works out at five cents per thousand rounds or bullets. As noted, this last may be a typographical error. It's difficult to imagine politicians setting the fee so low, as long as the bill is obviously designed as an ipso facto impediment to free exercise of the second amendment. (There I go again!) Mississippi politicians aren't even honest enough to set the fee as part of the bill. They merely stipulate that a "End User Fee" will be established. Don't expect a "five cents per thousand rounds" fee from these boys. They ALL have to finance a database system, enforcement, and undefined other expenses needed to administer this bogus bill. (Oops! Sorry.)
* Fee Retained by Retailer: A couple of states provide that the vendor may retain a portion of the fees they collect, presumably to encourage the vendors to support the bill. Fat chance, ammunition sales will be so undercut by this oinker that the resulting market won't support any retail sales of ammunition or other firearms-related business in these states. (Dammit! Stop that, Geek!)
* Owner Penalties: This identifies the fines or penalties which may be imposed on 'anyone' who attempts to defile, obscure or obliterate the serial numbers on a bullet or round of ammunition. Usually a misdemeanor ... but we're usually talking about a year in the pokey and/or a fine of $1,000.
* Merchant Tax Penalty: One state (Illinois) imposes a penalty on a vendor who fails to accurately report tax revenues (the "per-round tax/fee"). This is a Class 4 Felony in Illinois. As may be presumed, the bureaucrats don't like it if you file the serial numbers off bullets but they take it seriously when you don't pay them their Dane Geld, hence the Felony vs the Misdemeanor. (That was okay, wasn't it? Not 'editorializing'?) The rest don't mention it ... to date. Apparently, that is covered in another section of the Code.
* Merchants Adherence Fine: I THINK this is the fine for selling non-encoded ammunition after the cutoff date. Your guess is as good as mine. Universally, it's $1,000.
* Buyer Data Collected: The information that the vendor is required to collect to define the retail buyer. Always Name, Date of Birth, Driver's License Number, and "any other information which the (governing agency) may define/require". More weasel words; they can ask for the serial number of the firearm in which you choose to shoot the ammunition, if they want to, and if there are not state laws forbidding this ... it's okay!
* Retailer Reporting: The vendor must report the information recorded on each ammunition sale periodically. This is either Monthly or Quarterly, if it is included in the Bill. Presumably, when you report the information, you must also remit the 'End User Fee' collected at the time of sale.
* Enforcement: For the Average Joe, this is one of the most important facets of the bills. In Illinois, the 'administrative authority' (usually the DOJ) can make it up as they go. Excuse, I mean the "any reasonable rules" may be imposed. That's an administrative decision, not subject to normal Congressional Oversight. Not encouraging. In Tennessee, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is the administrative authority. Isn't it nice when the police get to make the rules?
* Exceptions: Who do these bills, if they become laws, NOT apply to? In those states in which the legislators actually spent more than ten minutes writing the bill, the "Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement Organizations" are exempt. No word yet on whether the National Guard and the U.S. Military are exempt; but since they are not LEOs, and they are not specifically exempt ... hey, they might grab a few bucks from the Feds! (Must ... Control ... The ... Fist ... Of ... Death!)
* Bill Expiration Date: As mentioned above, one state included and expiration date for the bill if it is not enacted into law. Probably an administrative requirement, but I include it just for ... well, actually, no reason at all.
* Notes: Miscellaneous notes included only to show that not all states just stuck to boilerplate. The general text is obviously taken from a template ... source not yet identified ... but some states legislatures seemed to feel that they needed to assert their individuality. Indiana declared an emergency; Hawaii and Mississippi granted an 'income tax credit' for in-state bullet/ammunition manufacturers to purchase, install and use bullet-encoding machinery; Tennessee included a really onerous records-keeping requirement for both vendors and manufacturers.
* Text for Justification of Bill, if present: For states which included a justification of this bill (a minority, only Hawaii and Tennessee), the full text of their 'justification' is included just so you don't have to read the actual bills. I found it interesting that (so far) the majority of states which accepted this bill-template didn't feel it necessary to explain WHY this bill was necessary. I interpret this to mean that they don't care enough about the citizens who have to live under these egregious rules; they just entered the bill because they can. I'm guessing that they're Liberal Democrats who are just looking for a real good rating from The Brady Campaign, and don't expect the bills to get out of committee, let alone actually pass, so why bother? This may be "a good sign" that the authors aren't serious about the bill(s).

I'll be updating this document, if and as more states are found to have proposed similar bills. (What am I saying? These are all the same bill, with minor variations.) If you find an error in the document .. and I do strongly encourage you to view this document critically with the goal of correcting errors and providing more information ... please let me know.

I'm tempted to dismiss these bills as bogus, not likely to pass; nothing to see here folks, move along. But since the Microstamping Bill (not the same thing) was passed in California last year, it is demonstrably NOT SAFE to expect that any gun-control bill, no matter how unreasonable or how irresponsibly enacted or how badly worded, cannot be passed by any given legislature. EVERY TIME a bogus gun-control bill is passed by a state, it sets a precedent for other states which are controlled by liberal gun-grabber politicians who just want to get their names on the roster of 'people who are trying to accomplish something about crime!'

No more editorializing. Every time I write one of these articles, it makes my guts ache for the rest of the night. I find it hard to believe that these weasels are stomping on the rights of their constituents for their own career advancement.

But then, if they weren't rats and weasels, they would find honest work.

Oh, and just as an aside, the Supreme Court is about to start ruling on the wording of the 2nd Amendment and comparing every other state's legislation to D.C.'s. There's a serious problem with that however... D.C. is not a state of the union of the United States of America; it doesn't fall under the same laws as we do. Also, don't you find it funny that while we're in a war against terrorism, the largest supposed target would decrease the budget for emergency planning and security cost in the District of Columbia from $14 million in 2006 to $3 million in 2008?

Just remember... "We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here."

I'd advise you to get ready to rally against your government and take our country back, but you'd just ignore me and go back to watching whateverthefuck it is that you watch.

Greenspan urges the further collapse of the US economy.

First of all, you need to understand that dumping of the dollar will not help our inflation. If the oil producing nations drops the dollar peg(US dollar reserve), we will further spiral into a recession. No, I don't know more than Greenspan, but come on people, use your frigging heads here. Even Dick Cheney has liquidates his US holdings into something else.

Get ready for stagflation.

Arabianbusiness.com article link

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday near-record Gulf Arab inflation would fall "significantly" were the oil producers to drop their dollar pegs, in contradiction to Saudi policy.

"In the short term, free floating... will not fully dissipate inflationary pressure, although it would significantly do so," Greenspan told an investment conference in Jeddah.

But Saudi Central Bank Vice-Governor Muhammed Al Jasser and UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al-Suweidi both said dollar pegs have served their economies well by attracting foreign investment.

"They did very well for our economies because it has led to more capital flows," Al-Suweidi told an investment conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Likewise Al Jasser, questioned by newswire Reuters about the riyal/dollar peg on Sunday, said: "It just happens to be serving our economic interests and continues to do so."

The pegs restrict the Gulf's ability to fight inflation by forcing them to shadow US monetary policy when the Fed is cutting rates to ward off recession and Gulf economies are surging on a near five-fold jump in oil prices since 2002.

Inflation in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, hit a 27-year peak of 7% in January, while in the UAE, price rises in 2006 - the latest available figure - rose to 9.3%, at least a 19-year high.

Still, "Gulf governments should consider the implication of such a move in the long term," Greenspan said of the idea of floating their currencies.

Rifts in Gulf monetary policy widened last May when Kuwait broke ranks with its neighbours by severing its link to the dollar in favour of a basket of currencies, saying a weak dollar was driving imported inflation.

Oman has said it will not join a single currency at all, and Al-Suweidi said in November he was under mounting social and economic pressure to drop the peg.

He has since backtracked, mirroring the position of Saudi Arabia, which has in the last month introduced public sector wage increases, welfare payments and subsidies to offset the impact of inflation.

Qatar, contending with the region's highest inflation, is urging Gulf states to bridge differences over a single currency, saying monetary union could avert possible unilateral revaluations, its prime minister told Reuters on Saturday. (Reuters)

On a side note, here's an article where Greenspan says that the US economic recovery is going to take longer than previously thought. And most of you people didn't even know that you were in a recession.

Hexy in the Hall of Fame.

It's an awesome thing to see one of your favorite individuals get the recognition that they deserve, in their lifetime, and even more so while they are young and able to truly appreciate it. Last night, Number 27, Ron Hextall, in my opinion, one of the greatest goalies to ever grace us with his abilities, was inducted into the Philadelphia Flyers' Hall of Fame.

Hexy made you want to watch hockey. Hexy made you want to play hockey. Hexy made you look at other goalies, past and present, and see where they were lacking. For his aggressive nature and raw ability, Philadelphia was the only place for Hextall. Truly, he was a Broad Street Brawler. When I was a teenager, Hexy, for me, was larger than life and the only validation needed for ESPN's "Hockey Night". Honestly, I could really go on, but I'll turn it over the the Flyers' site and Philly.com.

(Philadelphia, PA) – Ron Hextall became the 19th member of the organization to be inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in an on-ice ceremony at the Wachovia Center during Wednesday night's Flyers-Washington Capitals game.

Hextall, 43, appeared in 489 regular season games during his 11-year Flyers career (1986-87 through 1991-92 and 1994-95 through 1998-99 seasons), posting a 240-172-58 record and 2.91 goals-against average. His 489 games played and 240 wins as a Flyer rank him first all-time in Flyers history. In 84 playoff games for the Flyers, Hextall registered a 45-36 record and 2.95 GAA. His 45 playoff wins are the most in Flyers history.

As a rookie during the 1986-87 season, Hextall posted a 37-21-6 record, 2.52 GAA and one shutout in 66 regular season games. He led the NHL in games played (66), wins (37) and minutes played (3,799). He compiled a 15-11 record, 2.77 GAA and two shutouts in 26 playoff games as the Flyers advanced to the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals. He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team and NHL First All-Star Team for the 1986-87 season. In addition, he won the Vezina Trophy as “the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position” and the Conn Smythe Trophy as “the most valuable player for his team in the playoffs”.

The 1986-87 season was the first of five seasons that Hextall recorded 30 or more wins (only goaltender in Flyers history to post five 30-win seasons - 1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1995-96 and 1996-97). On December 8, 1987, Hextall became the first NHL goalie to score a goal by shooting the puck into the opposing net as the Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins at the Spectrum, 5-2. He repeated the feat when he became the first goalie to record a playoff goal as the Flyers defeated the Washington Capitals at the Capital Centre in Game Five of the Patrick Division Semifinals, 8-5, on April 11, 1989.

He was traded by Flyers, along with Steve Duchesne, Peter Forsberg, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, a first round pick in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, $15 million and future considerations (Chris Simon and a first round pick in 1994 NHL Entry Draft) to the Quebec Nordiques in exchange for Eric Lindros on June 30, 1992.

After two seasons with Quebec (1992-93) and the New York Islanders (1993-94), he was traded by the Islanders, along with a sixth round pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, to the Flyers in exchange for Tommy Soderstrom on September 22, 1994.

Over the final five seasons of his career (1994-95 through 1998-99), Hextall posted two 30-win seasons (31 in 1995-96 and 31 in 1996-97), led the NHL in GAA (2.17 GAA in 1995-96) and helped the Flyers to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

He still holds team records for most penalty minutes by a goaltender in one season (113 in 1988-89) and most points by a goaltender in one season (8 in 1988-89).

The Flyers Hall of Fame was established in 1988 to permanently honor those individuals who have contributed to the franchise’s success. The Hall of Fame induction is held, as needed, with candidates nominated and voted upon by a panel of media members and team officials.

The following people have been previously elected into the Flyers Hall of Fame:

1988 - Bob Clarke and Bernie Parent #1
1989 - Bill Barber, Ed Snider and Keith Allen
1990 - Rick MacLeish and Fred Shero
1991 - Barry Ashbee and Gary Dornhoefer
1992 - Reggie Leach and Gene Hart
1993 - Joe Scott and Ed Van Impe
1994 - Tim Kerr
1996 - Joe Watson
1999 - Brian Propp
2001 - Mark Howe
2004 - Dave Poulin

Hextall nets special Flyers honor

By Ray Parrillo

Inquirer Staff Writer
Even if you had your eyes closed, you knew Ron Hextall was guarding the net.

All you had to do was listen, and you'd hear the loud clang of Hextall's stick against the uprights and the crossbar, a ritual but also a sort of siren call that the goalie was daring any shooter to come his way.

Of course, when Hextall was playing goal for the Flyers 20 years ago, you wanted to keep your eyes open, focused on him, because you never knew what you might see.

He was unique. When Hextall came into the NHL as a 22-year-old rookie for the 1986-87 season, the league had never quite seen anything like him: a tall, rangy, athletic goalie who wandered far out of the net to deftly stickhandle the puck. He'd go on to become the first goalie to score a goal by actually shooting the puck into the net. He did it twice.

Hextall also used his stick in more violent ways, chopping down intruders around the crease as if they were so much timber. The league didn't always appreciate Hextall's stick-wielding, which is why it suspended him for eight games for slashing Kent Nilsson in the back of the leg during the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals against Edmonton. He still holds the record for most penalty minutes by a goalie, 113 in the 1988-89 season.

And Hextall was a goalie who played with an anger that seethed just below his engaging, mild-mannered surface, a goalie with a hair-trigger temper who was quick to drop the gloves and join the fray.

Who can forget Hextall's racing out of the net and throwing his blocker at Chris Chelios in Game 6 of the conference finals in 1989 to avenge a vicious hit Chelios made on Brian Propp earlier in the series?

Tonight at the Wachovia Center, Hextall, now assistant general manager with the Los Angeles Kings, will become the 19th member of the Flyers' organization to be inducted into the team's Hall of Fame, and the first since Dave Poulin in 2004.

Before the game, there will be a highlight video and a ceremonial puck drop. Between the first and second periods, Hextall will be joined on the ice by his family for a tribute video and the induction.

"It means a great deal," Hextall said yesterday by telephone from Los Angeles. "Everybody knows I have extremely strong ties to the Flyers and to the city of Philadelphia. To be honored means a lot to me, and to have my family and friends there, and obviously the fans, it's going to be great."

The Flyers' promotions department will have little trouble filling the jumbo video screen with highlights from Hextall's colorful past.

A year after Vezina Trophy winner Pelle Lindbergh was killed when he drove his turbocharged Porsche into a wall in front of Somerdale Elementary School in South Jersey, Flyers coach Mike Keenan made Hextall, just up from the minors, his No. 1 goalie.

In his first game, Hextall stopped Wayne Gretzky on a breakaway to preserve a 2-1 Flyers win over Edmonton.

According to Full Spectrum, a detailed history of the Flyers by Jay Greenberg, Gretzky said to Hextall, "Who the hell are you?" Hextall snapped back at The Great One, "Who the hell are you?"

The victory was the start of an unforgettable season by Hextall and a young Flyers team. With some of the most remarkable goaltending by any netminder from any era, Hextall strapped the Flyers onto his back and carried them into the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals against Edmonton, probably the greatest offensive power in NHL history.

Hextall was spectacular in Game 6 at the Spectrum, which shook from the crowd's roar after J.J. Daigneault scored to complete a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Oilers. To this day, just about anyone who was inside the Spectrum that night of May 28, 1987, says they never heard a louder arena.

"Winning Game 6 at the Spectrum was absolutely insane," Hextall recalled. "One of the best moments of my career, if not the best."

The series shifted back to Edmonton for the ultimate game and, again, the 6-foot-3 Hextall was brilliant, holding off the Oilers until Glenn Anderson scored with three minutes remaining to seal a 3-1 Flyers loss.

Long after the game, a tearful Hextall sat in the corner of the locker room, too devastated to remove his uniform. The pain, he said, still lingers.

"I can't explain to people how difficult that was for not only myself but every guy in that room," he said. "To be so close and to have gone through what we went through for the two months leading up to Game 7 and to be sitting in that locker room after the game with a hollow feeling, that all that work kind of went for naught.

"I mean, I can say it took me two, three months that summer to kind of get over the real, real stinging part. But there's a pain there that will never go away for me."

Hextall won the Vezina Trophy and became only the fourth player from a losing team to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the most valuable player in the playoffs.

At the time, it seemed impossible that Hextall could repeat such a stunning rookie season. For various reasons, including injuries that forced him to alter his style, he never did.

"That's a special team and special year for me," he said.

He never allowed a goal he didn't think he should have stopped, and he was always man enough to accept blame.

The goalie was included in the huge package the Flyers sent to Quebec for the rights to Eric Lindros in June 1992. Hextall returned to the Flyers in '94 for five more seasons and helped reenergize a team that had gone five straight years without making the playoffs.

Hextall, who had boldly predicted he would one day score a goal, did so early in his second season, against Boston on Dec. 8, 1987. (He repeated the feat against Washington in 1989.) Eight years earlier, the Islanders' Billy Smith had been credited with a goal because he was the last offensive player to touch the puck. But Hextall became the first to shoot it into the net.

"I remember [the media] bugging me every day: When are you going to score a goal? When are you going to score a goal?" Hextall recalled. "I remember the fans started to chant whenever the net was empty. I was like, just give me time. I was looking for the right opportunity, and it presented itself."

I've lost a hero.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary, who has died at the age of 88, made it to the summit of Everest in 1953, and became the first man on the planet to reach its highest point.

As a boy in New Zealand, Edmund Hillary's fragile appearance belied his ground-breaking potential.

At school, he was in a gym group for those lacking co-ordination and admitted to feeling a "deep sense of inferiority".

But the 40-mile journey to school in Auckland each day gave young Edmund many hours to pore over adventure stories and travel ever further in his mind.

Unrecorded achievement

Early ideas of following his father into beekeeping were shelved soon after a school mountain trip in 1935.

Seeing snow for the first time as well as learning to climb, Sir Edmund found his vocation.

After spending two years as a navigator in the New Zealand Air Force, he joined a local Alpine Club to take on all the national peaks.

Unsatisfied by these local triumphs, he also travelled to the Himalayas and started wrestling to improve his strength.

This was all with the idea of taking on the ultimate challenge, becoming the first man to climb Everest.

By the time Sir Edmund attempted his ascent, seven previous expeditions to the top of the world's highest mountain had failed.

Sir Edmund recalled: "We didn't know if it was humanly possible to reach the top."

Despite this general trepidation, the determined New Zealander joined a trip led by British climber, Sir John Hunt, up the south-west ridge of the edifice.

By the latter stages, all but two climbers were defeated by exhaustion and the effects of high altitude and bad weather.

Only Sir Edmund and his Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, were able to continue.

'All this - and Everest too!'

When they finally reached the top Sir Edmund, who lost four stone on the expedition, reported his first sensation as one of relief.

He took the famous photo of his Sherpa companion posing with his ice-axe, but refused Tenzing's offer to take one of him, so his ascent went unrecorded.

Well, George, we've knocked the bastard off
How the laconic Sir Edmund reported his ascent of Everest to a team mate

On the morning of Queen Elizabeth's coronation in May 1953, her subjects were told that Sir Edmund had made it to the summit.

As he was a New Zealander and therefore a citizen of the Commonwealth, British subjects celebrated his achievement as their own.

On the day the Queen was crowned, one newspaper headline crowed "All this - and Everest too!"

Sir Edmund was knighted for his efforts, and Tenzing given a medal.

The pair initially reported the ascent as one made in unison. Only after the Sherpa's death in 1986, did Sir Edmund reveal that he had been about 10 feet ahead at the final ridge.

Personal tragedy

Sir Edmund was apparently so shy that he even proposed to his wife with a message via her mother.

In the years that followed his famous ascent, he shunned the celebrity that had become his overnight.

On the 50th anniversary of his achievement, he even turned down an invitation from the Queen, so that he could instead travel to Kathmandu to be with lifelong Sherpa friends.

He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

Sir Edmund was far happier exploring.

During the next two decades, he led expeditions to the South Pole, searched for the fabled Yeti, and completed six Himalayan ascents.

And he became increasingly concerned by the plight of the Sherpa people he had met on his expeditions.

He spent two years as New Zealand's High Commissioner to India, and founded the Himalayan Trust in 1964, which helped establish clinics, hospitals and nearly 30 schools.

It also supported the construction of two airstrips, bringing in more tourists than Sir Edmund liked.

He continued this work after personal tragedy in 1975, when his wife and daughter died in a plane crash on their way to meet him at a construction site.

Although the explorer was inconsolable for a long time, he found solace in the Nepal landscape and its people.

"Life's a bit like mountaineering..."

He was a vociferous opponent of what he considered the commercialisation of the mountain, rich tourists paying their way to the ultimate altitude thrill, and often leaving rubbish behind them.

Seemingly forgetting his own determination to conquer the high ridges, Sir Edmund urged these later climbers to "leave the mountains in peace".

Although he will always be remembered for reaching the world's highest plateau, for the explorer himself, his greatest satisfaction came with the Nepalese people he befriended.

He said: "My most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain."

Sir Edmund Hillary remained philosophical about living with such an early achievement. He explained: "I've had a full and rewarding life. Life's a bit like mountaineering - never look down."

Rest easy sir, I'll meet you at basecamp.

Want to laugh and cry at the same time?

I read a headline today that states:

Bush Predicts Mideast Peace Treay

I really don't need to go into the particulars as we all know that it's bullshit. A president who didn't have a clue about foreign relations before he took office and doesn't have a clue now, who hasn't set foot in Israel until now, and who has no plan to stop warring in the Mideast, really has no right or place in speaking about peace int he Middle-East.

Don't get me wrong, as you may have read here before, I don't think that we have any business supporting Israel in their little terror-capade, but to try to salvage what's left of a bullshit presidency by discussing peace in the Mideast is a complete, side-splitting, joke.

Why did he run off to Israel? Because, recently, in the middle of the night, he signed a piece of gun-control legislation into law that was pretty unconstitutional, and he had to run somewhere in order to avoid the onslaught from us, the "We the people", that are supposed to run this country.

You people do realize that the government of this Constitutional Republic that we live in, work for us and not the other way around, right?

Are you a fellon who can't vote? Don't worry, there's a job for you... Controlling everyone's vote.

I knew this was coming. I've been fighting the urge to even discuss Iowa and New Hampshire. I've had to sit back and check my facts and cross reference my sources. Further down on this page, I used to have an embedded version of "Hacking Democracy", a very important documentary that illustrates how easy it is to build an empire using the simplest code and electronic voting machines. Diebold are at the forefront of the criminal vote changing/stealing/nullifying.

If you've seen "Hacking Democracy" then you are familiar with Bev Harris of Blackboxvoting.org, and yesterday she once again thrust Diebold directly into the spotlight.

Ken Hajjar, the Marketing and Sales Director at LHS Associates was arrested, indicted, and pleaded guilty to "sale / CND" (sale of controlled narcotic drugs) and sentenced to 12 months in the Rockingham County Correctional facility, and fined $2000. As things go for the politically connected, he was then given a deferred sentence and $1000 of his fine was suspended.

LHS Associates is a private company that counted over four fifths of the New Hampshire vote with no oversight whatsoever and also holds Diebold contracts for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

Follow this link for a copy of Ken Hajjar's criminal record.

In case you're not sure about what you saw with the criminal record sheet. He's a convicted Narcotics Trafficer.

"They program every single voting machine in New Hampshire, Connecticut, almost all of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine." Harris comments. "But did state officials in five New England states ever do a criminal background check on this company's executives? Do the laws of these five states even ALLOW them to hire convicted criminals for services paid for by the state? What about over 500 local towns and municipalities?"

What's even more disconcerting is the information provided in a Ken Hajjar interview.

While I'm not going to get into who got cheated and how many discrepancies are gushing from the wound of the New Hampshire primary, but for a bit of illustration on how completely rigged this system is, all you have to do is look at the suspicious percentages that Rudy "The Steaming Pile" Giuliani received:

Campton, Hampton, and Sandwich are townships in New Hampshire.
Campton - 604 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Hand Counted Paper Ballots
- Giuliani = 55 votes = 9.11%

Hampton - 3,141 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Diebold Accuvote optical scan ; contractor: LHS Associates/John Silvestro
- Giuliani = 286 votes = 9.11%

Sandwich - 395 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Hand Counted Paper Ballots
- Giuliani = 36 votes = 9.11%

How fucking sick is it that in three townships, Giuliani gets 9.11% of the vote?

There's so much corruption connected to all of this that in order for it all to be exposed, a person would have to devote their lives to it an create a website to supply the information to you. Luckily, that person is not me. You want more information and fact? Visit Blackboxvoting.org. Be prepared, however, to be shaken to the very foundation of your liberties. It is your responsibility to make sure that your vote counts.

I don't really care who you vote for, but don't you want your vote to count?

Chalk one up for the 2nd Amendment!

A grocery store customer in Indianapolis is being credited with halting an armed robbery by pulling his own weapon and pointing it at the assailant until police arrived.

According to a report in the Indianapolis Star, Charlie Merrell, 51, was in a checkout line at a grocery store called Bucks IGA on the city's south side when a "masked man jumped a nearby counter and held a gun on a store employee."

The police report cited by the newspaper said the incident happened at 5:17 in the afternoon Monday as Merrell was doing some year-end shopping.

"While the suspect was demanding cash from the workers," according to the police report, "Merrell pulled his own handgun, pointed it at the robber and ordered him to put down his weapon."


The newspaper noted that Officer Jason Bockting, in his documentation of the incident, said when the suspect seemed to hesitate, "Merrell racked the slide on his gun to load a round in the chamber."

At that point, the report said, "the suspect placed his gun and a bag of cash on the counter, dropping some of the money … the suspect removed his mask and lay on the floor."

Merrill, meanwhile, held the suspect at gunpoint until officers arrived and took him away in handcuffs.

Police reported Merrell had a valid permit to carry the handgun, and they recovered an unloaded .380-caliber handgun and $779 cash from the suspect.

Police records show Dwain Smith, 19, was being held in the Marion County Jail on a bond of $30,000 on initial charges of robbery, criminal confinement, pointing a firearm, battery and carrying a handgun without a license.

As my daughter would say, "Put that in your juice box and suck it!"

Romney numbers among the zealots/assclowns who believe that the United States was founded on christianity. Him and his kind need muzzled, less their rabid ignorance be spread even further than it already has. David Ignatius did a damned fine write up in today's WaPo, for those of you who do not yet have a membership(it's free) there, I have provided the full text below.

Link to the article at the Washington Post



Wisdom From The Founding Rationalists
What Jefferson and Adams Might Tell Mitt Romney


A bracing text for this Christmas week is the famous correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Their letters are a reminder that the Founders were men of the Enlightenment -- supreme rationalists who would have found the religiosity of much of our modern political life quite abhorrent.

It's not that these men didn't have religious beliefs: They were, to their deaths, passionate seekers of truth, metaphysical as well as physical. It's that their beliefs didn't fit into pious cubbyholes. Indeed, the deist Jefferson took a pair of scissors to the New Testament to create his "Jefferson Bible," or, formally, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," which cut out the parts he regarded as supernatural or misinterpreted by the Gospel writers.

It's useful to examine the musings of these American rationalists in this political season when religion has been a prominent topic. Politicians and commentators have suggested that for the Founders, the very idea of freedom was God-given -- or, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, that human beings are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." Yet this famous passage begins with a distillation of the Enlightenment's celebration of human reason: "We hold these truths to be self-evident."

My Christmastime reading of the Adams-Jefferson letters was prompted by this year's most interesting political speech but one I also found troubling -- Mitt Romney's Dec. 6 speech on "Faith in America." It was a fine evocation of our twin heritage of religion and religious freedom, until he got to this ritual denunciation of the bogeymen known as secularists. "They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism."

Anyone who reads Adams and Jefferson -- or for that matter, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton or other voices of the American Enlightenment -- can make their own judgment about what the Founders would say about Romney's broadside against secularism. My guess is that their response would be something like: "That is bunkum, sir."

Many of the Founders liked to speak of the "God of Nature," notes Garrett Epps, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Oregon. Adams used this term in a June 20, 1815, letter to Jefferson: "The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by His own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?" Adams mistrusted priests and kings, but he was also skeptical of the revolutionary philosophers who had overthrown them in France. He spent his life looking for a middle ground.

Jefferson spoke in a May 5, 1817, letter of "true religion" as based on "moral precepts, innate in man," and the "sublime doctrine of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth." He contrasted this true faith with "sectarian dogmas." If the sectarian version prevailed, warned Jefferson, then he might agree with Adams's speculation that "this would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it."

Before leaving these restless men and their ruminations on man and God in what one editor of the letters called "an epistolary duet," let us recall this caustic Nov. 4, 1816, missive from Adams: "We have now, it seems, a national Bible Society, to propagate King James's Bible through all nations. Would it not be better to apply these pious subscriptions to purify Christendom from the corruptions of Christianity than to propagate those corruptions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America?"

The Founders certainly believed in God, but for most of them, their faith was a deeply private matter, as Jefferson put it in a Jan. 11, 1817, letter, a subject "known to my God and myself alone." Indeed, they found loud, public displays of religiosity a profanation of this inner and spiritual practice of religion. Adams, the more conventionally "religious" of the two, insisted in a Sept. 14, 1813, letter that there is "but one being who can understand the universe, and that it is not only vain but wicked for insects to pretend to comprehend it."

One theme in this year's political campaign has been whether the United States will move from the faith-based policies the Bush administration has celebrated to a more rationalist and secular approach. In this debate, religious conservatives like to stress their connection to the Founders and to the republic's birth as "one nation under God." But a rereading of the Adams-Jefferson letters is a reminder that in this debate, the Founders -- as men of the Enlightenment -- would surely have sided with the party of Reason.

Go get yourselves a WaPo membership.

They hate our freedom!

Christmas in Iran.

Yep, you heard me correctly. Those evil Muslims are at their old tricks of tolerance and friendly celebration, again. What ever shall we do?

Keep drinking that Kool-Aide you fascist loving fucks, and keep trying to sell the war on Iran to those that will listen.

As for the rest of us... Happy Holidays!!

Hey Ohio!! Corrupt much?

Link to NYT Article. Posted below, for those of you who are not registered at NYT.

CINCINNATI — All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found.

“It was worse than I anticipated,” the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report. “I had hoped that perhaps one system would test superior to the others.”

At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers.

Ms. Brunner proposed replacing all of the state’s voting machines, including the touch-screen ones used in more than 50 of Ohio’s 88 counties. She wants all counties to use optical scan machines that read and electronically record paper ballots that are filled in manually by voters.

She called for legislation and financing to be in place by April so the new machines can be used in the presidential election next November. She said she could not estimate the cost of the changes.

Florida, another swing state with a history of voting problems, is also scrapping touch-screen machines and switching to optical scan ones for the election. Such systems have gained favor because experts say they are more reliable than others and, unlike most touch screens, they provide a paper trail for recounts.

Ms. Brunner, a Democrat, succeeded J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who came under fire for simultaneously overseeing the 2004 election and serving as co-chairman of President Bush’s re-election campaign in Ohio.

She ordered the study as part of a pledge to overhaul voting after problems made headlines for hours-long lines in the 2000 and 2004 elections and a scandal in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, that led to the convictions of two elections workers on charges of rigging recounts. Ms. Brunner’s office temporarily seized control of that county’s board of elections.

The study released Friday found that voting machines and central servers made by Elections Systems and Software; Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold; and Hart InterCivic; were easily corrupted.

Chris Riggall, a Premier spokesman, said hardware and software problems had been corrected in his company’s new products, which will be available for installation in 2008.

“It is important to note,” he said, “that there has not been a single documented case of a successful attack against an electronic voting system, in Ohio or anywhere in the United States.”

Ken Fields, a spokesman for Election Systems and Software, said his company strongly disagreed with some of the report’s findings. “We can also tell you that our 35 years in the field of elections has demonstrated that Election Systems and Software voting technology is accurate, reliable and secure,” he said.

The $1.9 million federally financed study assembled corporate and academic teams to conduct parallel assessments. A bipartisan group of 12 election board directors and deputy directors acted as advisers.

The academic team, made up of faculty members and students from Cleveland State University, Pennsylvania State, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Pennsylvania, said systemic change was needed. “All of the studied systems possess critical security failures that render their technical controls insufficient to guarantee a trustworthy election,” the team wrote.

In addition to switching machines, Ms. Brunner recommended eliminating polling stations that are used for fewer than five precincts as a cost-cutting measure, and introducing early voting 15 days before Election Day.

Soon, I'll be able to say that I told you so.

I've been screaming about the Saudi complicity for years to anyone who would stand still long enough.

The following article was lifted from George Washington's Blog

Co-Chair of Congressional 9/11 Inquiry and Former Head of Senate Intelligence Committee Confirms White House Cover Up

The Co-Chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham, revealed that the White House refused to let the 9/11 inquiry interview one of the most important witnesses imaginable:

Senator Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who is a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, accused the White House on Tuesday of covering up evidence that might have linked Saudi Arabia to the Sept. 11 hijackers.

* * *

The accusation stems from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's refusal to allow investigators for a Congressional inquiry and the independent Sept. 11 commission to interview an informant, Abdussattar Shaikh, who had been the landlord in San Diego of two Sept. 11 hijackers.

In his book "Intelligence Matters," Mr. Graham, the co-chairman of the Congressional inquiry with Representative Porter J. Goss, Republican of Florida, said an F.B.I. official wrote them in November 2002 and said "the administration would not sanction a staff interview with the source.'' On Tuesday, Mr. Graham called the letter "a smoking gun" and said, "The reason for this cover-up goes right to the White House."

This isn't some fresh-face kid talking. This is a consummate insider: the former head of senate intelligence and co-chair of the congressional 9/11 inquiry.

If the White House refused to allow an interview of a government informant who was landlord to two of the hijackers -- one of the most valuable leads it could possibly pursue -- what other investigations did it spike? And if the White House killed an investigation to, allegedly, protect its Saudi friends, how much more motivated would the White House have been to kill investigations into areas which implicated elements of the U.S. government itself?

You have got to be fucking kidding me!!!!

I'm really not sure exactly how pissed off I am right at this moment. These cocksuckers have blatantly violated the Constitution of the United States of America, and almost by unanimous vote.

So, I'm curious as to how this works out. If I protest this unbelievably ridiculous bullshit am I a terrorist? Who the fuck needs the Congress of the United States to hold their fucking cock-jacking hand and reassure them that fucking Christmas and Christianity are important enough to have legislation enacted?

What am I going on about?

HR 847

Please allow me to refer you to the very piece of paper that this fucking country was founded upon. It's not far down the page. It's only the First Fucking Amendment.

Read the following very slowly so that it has the fullest of opportunities to sink in:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Just as an aside. This vote basically says, "FUCK YOU, YOU NON CHRISTIAN FUCKS!!" to every single person of a faith that is not christianity. While I don't have a particular dog in the "GOD WARS", I am a United States citizen and the shit just hit the fan.

I may touch upon this again. I have to go and brush my teeth, as I just threw up in my mouth.

Obama sounds what should be the death knell of his public/political career.

Remember that "Thought Crime" legislation that I wrote about not too long ago? If not, scroll down and educate yourself.

Barack Obama supports this legislation, and this fact alone should end his political aspirations. We have had enough fascist legislation foisted upon us in the last eight years; we do not need any more. This truly sickens me, and I hope that you will take up the torch of liberty and engage in this battle as well.

Obama to Support Homegrown Terrorism Bill

By Jessica Lee, The Indypendent

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama says that he will support the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (S. 1959). According to the automatic email responses constituents are receiving from his office, Obama appears to be straddling the fence between preserving civil liberties and being tough on terrorism.

“The American people understand that new threats require flexible responses to keep them safe. They also insist that our responses to threats respect the constitution and do not violate the basic tenets of our democracy,” Obama’s email said. Several people who have written to Obama have posted his response on various blogs, including “Justin” who’s personal blog was picked up on diggs.com.

“I wrote Senator Obama (my senator from Illinois) about this act, which is now in a committee of his (the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs). I asked that he read the bill (not to insult his intelligence, but after the Patriot Act it appears this is a necessary request for most senators), and that he recognize the dire consequences that could result from its vague language,” Justin wrote Dec. 6 below the post of Obama’s email. “He’s quite eloquent, you’ve got to give him that. This act ‘includes provisions prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts from violating civil rights and civil liberties of U.S. citizens.’ Didn’t we used to have something like that? What was it called? Oh right… The Constitution.”

The House version of the bill, H.R. 1955, passed Oct. 23 by a vote of 404-6 under the “suspension of the rules,” a provision that is available to quickly pass bills considered “non-controversial.”

Obama is on the 17-member Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where S. 1959 was introduced by Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) Aug. 2. “I will keep your important comments in mind as I work with my colleagues on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. I will work to ensure that this legislation helps to achieve our domestic security objectives while protecting civil liberties and constitutional rights,” Obama stated in his email to Justin.

Many scholars, historians and civil liberties experts say they fear that the proposed bill will set the stage for future criminal legislation that be used against U.S.-based groups engaged in legal but unpopular political activism, ranging from political Islamists to animal-rights and environmental campaigners to radical right-wing organizations.

“This bill fits the pattern we are seeing coming out of Congress – both Republican and Democratic – of a continued campaign of fear, which gets into heads of Americans that we now need to start criminalizing ideology,” said Alejandro Queral, executive director of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center. He said he is very concerned about the bill’s vague definitions of “violent radicalization,” “homegrown terrorism,” and the terms within the definitions including “extremist belief system,” “violence” and “force.”

“What is an extremist belief system? Who defines this?” Queral questioned. “Planes flying into the World Trade Center is an extremist belief, but are anti-abortion activists extremists? Are individuals who liberate mink extremists? These are broad definitions that encompass so much, which need to rather be very narrowly tailored. It is criminalizing thought and ideology, rather than criminal activity.”

Jules Boykoff, an assistant professor of politics and government at Pacific University and author of Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States, told The Indypendent said he is concerned about how the government is broadening the definition of terrorism.

“Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act is a law that created a new brand of terrorists, the ‘domestic terrorist.’ Under this definition, the civil rights work Martin Luther King, Jr. did could have been construed as an act of ‘domestic terrorism,” Boykoff said.

In a Nov. 30 Common Dreams article, ‘Homegrown’ Suppression of Dissent,’ Boykoff provided a historical-based critique of who could be included under the umbrella definition of terrorism. “Even a cursory look backward through U.S. history reveals heroic figures who could be dubbed ‘violent radicals’ or ‘homegrown terrorists’ under the proposed bill, from U.S. revolutionaries like Sam Adams to gun-toting slavery abolitionists like John Brown to militant civil-rights organizers like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Kamau Franklin, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), also expressed concern that H.R. 1955/S. 1959 will foster a legislative momentum on criminalizing a broad range of dissident voices. “The Commission’s broad mandate can lead to the ability to turn civil disobedience, a form of protest that is centuries old, into a terrorist act,” he said. “My biggest fear is that they [the commission] will call for some new criminal penalties and federal crimes,” says Franklin. “Activists are nervous about how the broad definitions could be used for criminalizing civil disobedience and squashing the momentum of the left.”

“It’s possible that someone who would have been charged with disorderly conduct or obstruction of governmental administration may soon be charged with a federal terrorist statute,” Franklin said.

Many activists and civil liberties advocates have expressed concern across the nation on blogs and radio shows about how the bill’s use of vaguely defined terms can be seen within a historical pattern of sweeping government repression of dissenting voices throughout the history of the United States where citizens have been targeted for their political beliefs. Two generations of Americans experienced first hand the two “Red Scares” (1917-1920 and 1940-50s) and the FBI’s secret Counter Intelligence Program, nicknamed COINTELPRO, which enabled the FBI to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” domestic protest groups for “subversive activities” and “potential crimes.”

To many, the similarities between COINTELPRO and the bill are unsettling. The proposed legislation calls for the National Commission to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States” in order to develop policy for “prevention, disruption and mitigation.” This investigation is needed, according to stated Congressional findings, due to possible threats to national security.

The secret program continued until it was discovered COINTELPRO was investigated by a U.S. Senate select committee on intelligence activities (commonly known as the Church Committee) which convened in 1975. The Church Committee found that from 1956 to 1971, “the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.”

In the last 30 years, significant evidence has surfaced about how the FBI and local law enforcement disrupted non-violent social and political movements, even “neutralizing” individuals through target assassinations. The secret program was vast, with agents monitoring and agitating people involved in the “New Left,” including anti-Vietnam War efforts, the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the American Indian Movement, Puerto Rican independence groups, popular musicians and counter-cultural and revolutionary independent newspapers.

OTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VIEWS ON THE BILL

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said that he believes the proposed bill is unconstitutional.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in New York City Nov. 29, Kucinich took several questions from the audience, including my question asking why he voted against the bill. Kucinich was one of only six representatives to oppose the bill on Oct. 23.

“If you understand what his bill does, it really sets the stage for further criminalization of protest,” Kucinich said. “This is the way our democracy little, by little, by little, is being stripped away from us. This bill, I believe, is a clear violation of the first amendment.”

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul was one of the 22 House members not present for the vote.

A small demonstration against S. 1959 took place outside Senator Hillary Clinton’s office in New York City Dec. 10. Her office did not return an Indypendent’s call for comment.

–

Read Jessica Lee’s Nov. 16 article on HR 1955:


“Bringing the War on Terrorism Home: Congress Considers How to ‘Disrupt’ Radical Movements in the United States.”

Blog Update Dec. 2 — Kucinich Opposes H.R. 1955

Blog Update Nov. 27 — Opposition to the Bill and how the Legislation would Target the Internet

Read the proposed Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act:

H.R. 1955

S. 1959

This article was taken from The Indypendent

I have published this information elsewhere. Think that your state is different?

When you call your representatives and urge them to represent your beliefs, wants, and dreams, are you getting what you ask for, or are you getting what you deserve for not demanding proper performance from those that work for US?

Take a four minute rollercoaster ride of how your legislators and, as the example, the Texas legislation represents you.

Call me the Grinch, call me Scrooge, but don't say that I didn't tell you.

If you're running out and spending all of your earnings/savings on iPhones and every other gadget being hawked this holiday season, you're setting yourself up for some serious hurt. If you didn't read my previous post on the recession that you're not aware of. I suggest that you pay very close attention to this one. Keep your cards close to your chest and keep your money in your wallets. Do you ever stop to consider why you don't read/hear these types of stories in the American press? Believe me when I say that it is not going to be easier on you if you ignore the issue. Turning a blind eye will not save you from the avalanche of issues born of a trillions dollar debt and the fact that the world is refusing to do business in US currency.

Morgan Stanley issues full US recession alert

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 1:24am GMT 11/12/2007

Morgan Stanley has issued a full recession alert for the US economy, warning of a sharp slowdown in business investment and a "perfect storm" for consumers as the housing slump spreads.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will be hoping he can keep the US economy from recession

In a report "Recession Coming" released today, the bank's US team said the credit crunch had started to inflict serious damage on US companies.

"Slipping sales and tightening credit are pushing companies into liquidation mode, especially in motor vehicles," it said.

"Three-month dollar Libor spreads have jumped by 60 to 80 basis points over the last month. High yield spreads have widened even more significantly. The absolute cost of borrowing is higher than in June."

"As delinquencies and defaults soar, lenders are tightening credit for commercial, credit card and auto lending, as well as for all mortgage borrowers," said the report, written by the bank's chief US economist Dick Berner. He said the foreclosure rate on residential mortgages had reached a 19-year high of 5.59pc in the third quarter while the glut of unsold properties would lead to a 40pc crash in housing construction.
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"We think overall housing starts will run below one million units in each of the next two years -- a level not seen in the history of the modern data since 1959," he said.

Although the US job market has apparently held up well, an average monthly fall of 138,000 in the number of self-employed workers over the last quarter suggests it may now be buckling. "Consumers face what could be a perfect storm," said Mr Berner.

The partial freeze on subprime mortgage rates announced last week by US treasury secretary Hank Paulson may help cushion the blow for some banks, but it could equally backfire by adding a "risk premium" that drives even more lenders out of the mortgage market.

Like Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers, the bank no longer believes Asia and Europe will come to the rescue as America slows.

It has slashed its 2008 growth forecast for Japan from 1.9pc to 0.9pc, and warned that credit stress will weigh heavily on the eurozone.

Mr Berner said US demand is likely to contract by 1pc each quarter for the first nine months of 2008, but the picture could be far worse if the Federal Reserve fails to slash rates fast enough. It is betting on a quarter point cut this week, with three more cuts by the middle of next year. "We expect the Fed to insure against the worst outcome," he said.

Morgan Stanley is the first major Wall Street bank to warn that it is may now be too late to stop a recession, though most have shifted to an ultra-cautious stance in recent weeks.

The bank at first treated the August crunch as a "mid-cycle correction", much like the financial storm after Russia's default in 1998. But the collapse of the US commercial paper market has now continued for seventeen weeks, suggesting a "fundamental deleveraging of the banking system."

Mr Berner -- known at Morgan Stanley as the "resident bull" -- is one of the most closely watched analysts on Wall Street. While he began to turn bearish last April as the credit markets turned nasty, the latest report is written in tones that may is rattle the fast-diminishing band of optimists.

How bad is it when Iran starts refusing US dollars for oil? What currency are we having to convert to, at a higher rate, in order to pay for our oil imports? Euros, that's what.

I advise you to get a Plum RAZR from Sprint for $.99 and save the other $499.99 for keeping you house together. It really is time to reel in the spending.

HEY, NATHAN GALE!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!

You should have just ate your fucking gun and left the rest of us the fuck alone, YOU FUCK!

5 times?






Also, not to ever be forgotten:

Nathan Bray of Columbus
Erin Halk of northwest Columbus
Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson of Texas

Hey!! Shut Up!! Pay Your Respects!!

Iconic Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69

By MITCH STACY
The Associated Press
Friday, November 30, 2007; 5:01 PM

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundel said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundel said.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

Though Knievel dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, the image of the high-flying motorcyclist clad in patriotic, star-studded colors was never erased from public consciousness. He always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Knievel made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival, which Rundel organizes.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. To Knievel, there always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

He had a knack for outrageous yarns: "Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though."

He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.

In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the West and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jump over two cars parked between ramps.

He steadily increased the length of the jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace. He cleared the fountains but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.

His son, Robbie, successfully completed the same jump in April 1989.

In the years after the Caesar's crash, the fee for Evel's performances increased to $1 million for his jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London _ the crash landing broke his pelvis _ to more than $6 million for the Sept. 8, 1974, attempt to clear the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a rocket-powered "Skycycle." The money came from ticket sales, paid sponsors and ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

The parachute malfunctioned and deployed after takeoff. Strong winds blew the cycle into the canyon, landing him close to the swirling river below.

On Oct. 25, 1975, he jumped 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island in Ohio.

Knievel decided to retire after a jump in the winter of 1976 in which he was again seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and broke both arms in an attempt to jump a tank full of live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater. He continued to do smaller exhibitions around the country with his son, Robbie.

Many of his records have been broken by daredevil motorcyclist Bubba Blackwell.

Knievel also dabbled in movies and TV, starring as himself in "Viva Knievel" and with Lindsay Wagner in an episode of the 1980s TV series "Bionic Woman." George Hamilton and Sam Elliott each played Knievel in movies about his life.

Evel Knievel toys accounted for more than $300 million in sales for Ideal and other companies in the 1970s and '80s.

Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.

Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, he went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.

He also formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player.

Knievel also worked in the Montana copper mines, served in the Army, ran his own hunting guide service, sold insurance and ran Honda motorcycle dealerships. As a motorcycle dealer, he drummed up business by offering $100 off the price of a motorcycle to customers who could beat him at arm wrestling.

At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.

Evel Knievel married hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.

Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000. He also jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon.

Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and Butte. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

More info on the annexation of Iraq.

This is a continuation of my previous post. This information is to aid you in understanding that we are now in an "official" occupation and have no intent upon leaving. Who are you going to tell?

Follow this link to the original post, and other pissed off information from Little Country Lost

President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a deal on Monday arranging for permanent bases and “investment opportunities” for the Bush Administration in Iraq. In return, Nouri al-Maliki and his government will get protection from the United States military against any threats to Maliki’s power (at least until Bush decides to renege on the deal). The Bush Administration is calling this arrangement an “enduring relationship with a democratic Iraq”. While this imperial arrangement is the exact opposite of what the American taxpayers are demanding, this is a victory for the Bush Administration, which has been quite clear that its intention is to keep our military in Iraq.

In reality, this deal is a treaty between President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki. However, because President Bush decided not to call it a treaty and instead a “Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation”, the Bush Administration is going to use those semantics to circumvent Senate approval.

The result of this not-a-treaty, while it may not happen right away, is that the shit shall soon hit the fan. First, this deal is a slap in the face to Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shi’ite leader of the Mahdi Army. At the end of August, Moqtada al-Sadr called for a six-month Mahdi Army ceasefire, partially to rehabilitate his army and partially to ensure that he is viewed as a legitimate leader in Iraq. Moqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army, prior to the ceasefire, had been violently protesting the Shi’ite Maliki government, which al-Sadr considers to be too cozy with President Bush, and the possibility of a permanent presence of United States forces in Iraq. A political agreement that arranges for permanent US military bases, allows the pillaging of Iraqi wealth by American corporations, and protects the Maliki government from other groups that would want to be a part of the government, like Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers, is a development that will not make Moqtada al-Sadr a happy camper.

Along with pitting Shi’ite against Shi’ite once again by screwing Moqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army, the Bush Administration’s “Declaration of Principles for Friendship and Cooperation” will also piss off the Sunnis. The political reconciliation that the Bush Administration told us American and Iraqi suckers the “surge” was designed to create was a deal which would bring the Sunnis back into the government. Instead, in typical Bush Administration fashion, they doubled-down on Prime Minister Maliki, vowing to protect him with violence if and when needed. The Sunnis have been effectively eliminated from the government and will be left only with violence to further their interests once again.

Basically, the last three months of semi-good news from Iraq are just the calm before the storm. And our troops are sitting on the levees. This might be a decision that is looked back upon as being as devastating as when the Bush Administration disbanded the Iraqi army after the initial invasion. It has the potential to be way worse. The most devastating part is that it didn’t have to be this way. Both Sunnis and Shi’ites were cooperating. That’s all over now.

The question we need to be asking ourselves is what goal could the Bush Administration have that this treaty would help facilitate and why would that be their goal? While it is the complete opposite of what is in the best interest of the American people, the Bush Administration’s goal seems to be a larger, more permanent war.

But why would they want that?

One reason is that a full blown war, that engulfs the entire Middle East and the kills a bunch of United States troops, would be a big enough shock to allow the President to claim further and more extreme executive powers, like the ones laid out in NSPD-51, and possibly allow the Bush Administration to claim that it, or at least its Republican co-conspirators, must stay in power for our own safety, just as was done by President Musharraf in Pakistan. At the same time, the Bush Administration and its partners would have a huge distraction which would allow it to further privatize the commons, making heinous amounts of money for the privileged few that have benefited so greatly from the Milton Friedman inspired privatization bonanza that has charged forward at full speed during the last 7 years.

Sound impossible? Just look the policies implemented by some of the same exact people who make up the Bush Administration and the Republican party in other countries around the world during the last few decades. Since the 1970’s, democracies were destroyed in places such as Chile, Argentina, Poland, Russia, and others. In all these countries, while obviously not taking the same exact courses, a functioning form of democracy was transformed, with the encouragement and/or assistance of the United States, in order for unfettered “free-trade”, or privatization, to thrive.

Privatization policies naturally concentrate huge amounts of money into the few hands that own and operate the gigantic corporations which are able to swallow up all other businesses and exploit their workers when regulations disappear. In effect, privatization policies have severe negative impacts on the lives of the vast majority of a country’s citizens, due to disappearing jobs, wages, benefits, and government services, and therefore must be implemented quickly and while the public is in a state of shock. As told by Milton Friedman, the privatization prophet himself, "Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change." It was military coups that shocked Chile, Argentina, and Pakistan, paving the way for their dictatorships. Economic shock and violence took democracy out of Poland and Russia. After the shocks occurred and the economies transformed, huge profits were reaped by those who invested in the misery of these countries, much of that money flowing to the filthy rich who currently control our very own United States government. Iraq is the country that most vividly displays the disastrous effects of war-generated privatization on the daily lives of citizens (to have these patterns laid out in brilliant detail, you simply must read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein).

The difference now is that the Bush Administration is going for the grand prize – milking the United States of America itself, which at one time, before he took office, was the richest country in the world. The United States got its first shock on 9/11. In the aftermath, the American public willingly went along with the Patriot Act, two occupations of Middle Eastern countries based on little evidence, our government torturing innocent people, and the Military Commissions Act, which voided habeas corpus, one of our most basic rights. We also allowed our military to be broken and replaced by private “contractors”, allowed our media to be consolidated to the point that it is now controlled by only six companies, and allowed the land where poor people used to live in Louisiana to be sold off to private developers in the wake of a hurricane, just to name a few of the most egregious examples of how the Bush Administration used our collective shock to quickly push through policies we would never otherwise authorize. The results have been disastrous. Thousands of us have died and tens of thousands of us have been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gas prices have soared and the implementation of policies that might make it possible for Americans to use less gas have been effectively shut down. The dollar has weakened by 30% against the Euro since the Bush Administration took office, making our savings worth significantly less. Health care is too expensive for many of us to afford. People who can no longer afford their mortgages are being thrown out on the street. Unfortunately, I could go on.

The thing about shock though, is that it is a temporary state, and the United States citizenry seems to be shaking it off. Unless we believe that the Bush Administration is done, we must be prepared to be shocked again.

It’s all about tricking Americans into going along with the Bush Administration’s plans. The Bush Administration, after signing their dirty deal with Prime Minister Maliki, told the press that they will be focusing on “achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made.” Not actually making progress, but fooling us into thinking they have, while they pursue their real goals. We may not know the fine details of those goals, but history seems to repeat itself. And I think we know enough of the big picture to know the Bush Administration agenda has got to be stopped.

At the very least, even if privatization, poverty, and treason don’t concern you, it should be crystal clear, in the wake of President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki's deal, that the Iraq war will continue as long as the Bush Administration is in power. Trying to cut off funding, or passing a bill requiring withdrawal, is just a shell game. To end the war, we must end the Bush Administration. Impeachment must happen. It’s the only weapon we have to use against the United States taxpayer’s real enemy, which is not brown people in the Middle East, but is instead the treasonous regime that started this phony “war on terror” in the first place. The stakes are too high, and we better use our weapon quick if we don’t want our 157,000 troops and God only knows how many contractors all coming home in body bags when the Iraqis who are not part of the Maliki government start violently fighting the occupiers of their country once again.