NoBullU Has Relocated

I have relocated the NoBullU blog, please make note of the new location.

All new posts will be made at that location.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Obama Man Can

UPDATE III: JibJab on Obama Man:

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

UPDATE II: Our President, the Miracle Maker. Read The New York Times, And the Angels Rejoice.


UPDATE: More about Obama Man. Read the Washington Post, Obama's Center-Left Two-Step.

Who can save them from bankruptcy? Obama Man can:



Cute.

Health Care (Industry) Scare Talk

UPDATE III:




UPDATE II: How will health care be reformed? For one possibility of what will be accomplished, and how, read The New York Times, You Be Obama.

The article is a good primer on how the "skinny guy with big ears" 'gits r done.'

Also, another interesting point of view from The New York Times, Keeping Them Honest, which argues that health reform will fail without serious cost control, which will require a fundamental change in the way the insurance industry behaves.

And for more on SGWBE, read The New York Times, The Chicago View, which describes Obama's idealistic facade on a realist structure perplexity.


UPDATE: Read The New York Times, Following the Money in the Health Care Debate, and enjoy this editorial cartoon:

Talk again of reforming health care. If you want to continue to spend more and get less than you should, then don't read this informative article describing how one woman’s medical experience in Canada can teach the United States about health care reform at The New York Times, This Time, We Won’t Scare.

If this example is true and typical, then something really is wrong with the American health care industry that puts obscene profit ahead of care.

It is also interesting to note that the Canadian financial industry didn't collapse like it did in the U.S. and Britain. "Canada [is] — a mostly English-speaking country, every bit as much in the American cultural orbit as Britain, but one where Reagan/Thatcher-type financial deregulation never took hold. Sure enough, Canadian banks have been a pillar of stability in the crisis."

Maybe I'll move to Canada, at least it will be temperate as the American energy industry fights sensible environmental regulation.

Can you guess the common theme -- industry doesn't really care about you, only profit. So why have sooooooo many people fallen for the Republi-con-American industry BS hook, line and sinker? Go figure.

Lateralpalooza

Watch the final play of the 2007 Trinity vs. Millsaps football game:



Sometimes persistence pays off.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Fridays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today so hopefully Mike or Ken will substitute. Until the next show, post a comment or two.

Plumber with a Sense of Humor

Ya gotta love this guy:

Not So Lite Summer Reading

UPDATE: And for a good movie, based on a true story, about a corporation trying to stick it to the little guy, watch Flash of Genius, which tells the stroy of Robert Kearn, inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper.

It has a happy ending, sort of.

Looking for a good book to read during the summer, then consider the books mentioned in this article, The New York Times, Greed Layered on Greed, Frosted With Recklessness, about the economic mess and the causes, including greed of course.

Tammy, let us know what you think.

The Flyswatter-in-Chief

Obama is no Budda. Watch:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Or if you like your news with a little, or a lot, of humor, then watch:



And believe it or not, PETA is upset about it. Read The Virginia-Pilot, PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly.

You Better Watch Out, He's Making a List, He Knows When You've Been Bad or Good, and It Ain't Just Santa

UPDATE II: Intercepts of Americans’ phone calls and e-mail messages are broader than previously acknowledged. Read The New York Times, E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress.

Another I told ya so from NoBullU.


UPDATE: To a post from December to say I told ya so, they listen to everybody, including a mad Congresswoman. Read the Washington Post, Harman to Holder: Release the Tapes, and CQ Politics, Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC.

I may be paranoid but . . .

Ever wonder how the NSA electronic surveillance program, nicknamed the Terrorist Surveillance Program by Bush, spies just on terrorist. It doesn't, unless of course terrorist is a euphemism/doublespeak for citizen. Read:

• Newsweek, The Fed Who Blew the Whistle
• Newsweek, Now We Know What the Battle Was About

Welcome to Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Torture/Enhanced Interrogation Demonstration

UPDATE: For more about what the government does in the name of 'freedom,' read the decision issued late Friday allowing a civil lawsuit by Jose Padilla to go forward against former Bush administration lawyer, John Yoo, who wrote memos which purported to justify "gross physical and psychological abuse at the hands of federal officials as part off a systematic program of abusive interrogation intended to break down Mr. Padilla’s humanity and his will to live.”

Padilla v. Yoo, Order Denying Motion to Dismiss

Are you ready yet Eric?

In recent weeks at NoBullU on 1330 AM WEBY we have discussed whether the techniques the U.S. used constituted torture or just simple enhanced interrogation. In one radio program I argued with Eric, a caller who denied that waterboarding and other methods, including 10+ days of sleep deprivation, confinement in a small enclosed dark space with insects, exposure to freezing temperatures and very,very cold water while naked, and/or prolonged restraint in stress positions, were torture.

It would be ironic that these methods which were copied from a 1957 USAF study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain false confessions, except for the fact that these methods were used because Cheney wanted false confessions linking Iraq to 9/11 in order to justify the invasion.

During the discussion, I challenged Eric, a life long Republi-con party member, to submit himself to these techniques. I would prove that after a short period of time I could force him to swear loyalty and allegiance to the Naive-crats and Reed and Pelosi.

Eric has accepted the challenge, and as soon as I find volunteers who were instructors in military SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) programs and are trained in these methods, and Eric signs a liability release that includes an acknowledgment of the possibility of death, the demonstration will begin.

In the meantime Eric, in order to help you prepare if you think you could, watch the following:



After the demonstration with Eric, I'll be ready to issue the challenge to Rusty and Sheepish.

If you are a former SERE instructor and would like to volunteer for this demonstration, please contact me.

Unhappy 40th Anniversary?

It has been 40 years since the start of the 'war' on drugs. Is it time to try an alternate strategy? Read The New York Times, Drugs Won the War.

Think of other things that once were illegal, and are now revenue sources, like playing the numbers and gambling. Bought a lottery ticket or been to a casino lately?

Another Example of How Fear, Anger, Hatred = Violence

UPDATE IV: And yet another interesting editorial from The New York Times, The Obama Haters' Silent Enablers.


UPDATE III: Two more interesting editorials from The New York Times, The Way We Are and Hate in a Cocoon of Silence.


UPDATE II: For an argument, with examples, that "right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the conservative media and political establishment . . . [going] out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the White House," read The New York Times, The Big Hate.

BTW, the writer's opinion is worth considering even if you might disagree with him, he won the Noble Prize for Economics last year, and is also a Princeton economist and a New York Times columnist.

Does anyone know how many Noble Prize winners work for Hedgehog News (which falsely uses the name FOXNews)?


UPDATE: From the Washington Post:

Read Feeding the Lone Wolves, and enjoy:

Is it more Republi-Con inspired violence? Probably not so much this time.

But if you need another example of how fear, anger, and hatred can warp judgment, read The New York Times, Museum Gunman a Longtime Foe of Government.

Those that prey on fear, anger, hatred for their own success should know that all too often it leads to violence.

For Your Lazy Boy

Need an idea for Father's Day, then watch this:

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Fridays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today so Mike will substitute. Until the next show, post a comment or two.

And watch the Baby Boomer Battle Hymn, it is funny:



Must of us don't like getting older, but it beats the alternative.

Contempt of Court or Contempt For God?

UPDATE IV: An interesting development in the matter, a teacher threatened to sue the Santa Rosa County School Board for violation of his First Amendment rights after "he and other teachers were prohibited [by the School Board] from participating in the private baccalaureate services that were scheduled to occur on Sunday evening, May 31, 2009, and would be terminated if they chose to do so." Read the Santa Rosa Press Gazette, ADF represents Jay Teacher in discrimination case.

It doesn't seem to me that it is a discrimination case as much as a First Amendment case.

And BTW, the School Board decided that the teacher was right and that the Board could not prohibit "district employee from attending or participating in the baccalaureate, or any other religious service or event, while on their own time and in their personal capacities."


UPDATE III: Everyone is trying to spin this story, even Pastor Poppins, AKA Carl Gallups, on WEBY last week. Now read WorldNetDaily, Graduating students defy ACLU.

The article is misleading. The ACLU never tried to prevent students from praying. The lawsuit was aimed only at stopping school officials from leading the students in religious activity.


UPDATE II: Who is wrong here, the school board in its interpretation of the consent decree, or the Principal who is defying his boss? Read the consent decree below and then at the Pensacola News Journal, Pace principal: We won't back down.

Doesn't sound to me like the Principal is setting a good example for the students. But he is getting close to retirement, so maybe he just wants to be the next Roy Moore.


UPDATE: Read the Pensacola New Journal, Superintendent Wyrosdick has a very big problem.

First the lawsuit and settlement.

Then the protest.

Now defiance.

Is it contempt of court, or contempt for God? Read original and follow-up posts (with links to court documents), and then these documents, and decide:

The consent decree and order:

Consent Decree and Order

Publish at Scribd or explore others:

The ACLU motion for contempt:

Motion for Order to Show Cause Why the Court Should Not Find Contempt

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law & Government Business & Law

And exhibit:

Motion for Order Ot Show Cause Why the Court Should Not Find Contempt, Exhibit 86-02

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law & Government Business & Law

The School Board's response:

SRCSB Response to Motion for Order to Show Cause Why the Court Should Not Find Contempt

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law & Government Business & Law

And exhibit:

SRCSB Response to Motion for Order to Show Cause Why the Court Should Not Find Contempt, Exhibit

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Law & Government Business & Law

What do you think?

Republi-Con Treason

Why would a Republi-con Congressman tell Chinese officials "the budget numbers that the U.S. Government has put forward should not be believed."



Don't forget that the executive director of the Beijing Private Equity Association and a director of the China National Association of International Studies, has already demanded "inflation-protection measures for China’s existing investments in America, and [requested] additional security or collateral for its continued investments. America should also provide its largest creditor with greater transparency and information."

Because he wants to bankrupt the country for the benefit of his political party.

So who is the real un-American?

Is NW Florida Going Nuclear?

Didn't we discuss this on the show several months ago? Read NorthEscambia.com, Possible Nuclear Plant? Gulf Power Continues To Buy North Escambia Property.

If NW Florida develops a nuclear program, will there be international sanctions?

Operation Iraqi Shtick

Must see TV, Stephen Colbert declares victory:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Why Are You Here?
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat

Then gets a hair cut by Gen. Odierno, the commander of the American troops in Iraq:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama Orders Stephen's Haircut - Ray Odierno
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat

A week of shows will be/were taped as part of USO shows in Iraq. Watch the highlights.

I wonder if the suit will catch on.

Cursing Obama

The Mess That is the Middle East

UPDATE: A new foreign policy for the Middle East:

Some, no make that many, took issue with my frank discussion of the options in the Middle East. As I see it, kill them all (one side or the other, right-wing radical propose killing all the Muslims and letting Allah sort it out, but not very Christian if you ask me), relocating one party to someplace outside the Middle East, such as South Florida (again either party makes no difference for the discussion cause it ain't gonna happen), or relocation within the current borders of Israel, I suggest Palestinians to the north.

Of course the discussion wasn't well received. But I think most people fail to understand the situation in the Middle East. As luck would have it, Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist sums it up well in his article today, Don’t Try This at Home:

"Where to begin? Palestinians are now divided between the West Bank and Gaza, with a secular Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah in the West Bank and a fundamentalist Hamas government based in Gaza. But Hamas is further divided between a military and political wing, and the political wing is further divided between a Gaza-based leadership and a Damascus-based leadership, with the latter taking orders from both Syria and Iran.

Are you still with me?

Best I can tell, the Palestinians from Gaza are simultaneously negotiating a cease-fire with Israel in Cairo, pursuing war-crimes charges against Israel in Europe, digging new tunnels in the Sinai to smuggle more rockets into Gaza to hit Tel Aviv and trying to raise money for reconstruction from Iran. Meanwhile, the West Bank Palestinian leaders are busy publicly collecting food and blankets to help all those Palestinian civilians brutalized by the Israeli incursion into Gaza, while privately demanding to know from senior Israeli officials why they wimped out and didn’t wipe Hamas in Gaza off the face of earth — casualties be damned.

Israel, meanwhile, has a government in which the prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister each has a different peace plan, war strategy and cease-fire conditions for Gaza, and the foreign minister and defense minster are running against each other in Israel’s election on Tuesday. Speaking of that election, a whole new party, Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, which has been accused of having “fascist,” viciously anti-Arab leanings, appears headed to make the biggest gains and possibly become the kingmaker of Israel’s next government. The other day, the Labor Party leader, Ehud Barak, was quoted in the newspaper Haaretz as criticizing Lieberman as a lamb in hawk’s clothing, asking: “When has he ever shot anyone?”

How did this conflict get so fragmented? For starters, it’s gone on way too long. The West Bank is so chopped up and divided now by roads, checkpoints and fences to separate Israel’s crazy settlements from Palestinian villages that a Palestinian could fly from Jerusalem to Paris quicker than he or she could drive from Jenin, here in the northern West Bank, to Hebron in the south.

Another reason is that every idea has been tried and has failed. For the Palestinians, Pan-Arabism, Communism, Islamism have all come and gone, with none having delivered statehood or prosperity. As a result, more and more Palestinians have fallen back on family, clan, town and tribal loyalties. In Israel, Peace Now’s two-state solution was blown up with the crash of the Oslo peace accords, the rising Palestinian birthrate made any plans to annex the West Bank a mortal threat to Israel’s Jewish character, and the rockets that followed Israel’s withdrawals from both Lebanon and Gaza made a mockery of those who said unilateral pullouts were the solution.

All of this has led to a resurgence of religiosity. According to Haaretz, the following questions were posed by a well-known rabbi in one of the pamphlets distributed by the Israeli Army’s Office of Chief Rabbi before the latest Gaza fighting: “Is it possible to compare today’s Palestinians to the Philistines of the past? And if so, is it possible to apply lessons today from the military tactics of Samson and David? A comparison is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land.”

Who in the world would want to try to repair this? I’d rather herd cats, or become John Thain’s image adviser, or have a colonoscopy, or become chairman of the “bad bank” that President Obama might create to hold all the toxic mortgages. Surely, any of those would be more fun. If Mitchell is still up for it, well, then God bless him. My next column will look at some ways we might just start over. "

Here is my suggestion, rearrange the current borders as such:

In short, New Palestine to the north, New Israel to the south, exact borders TBD, BIG wall in between.

Better hurry, before the next war starts.

Sub Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Fridays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today so Mike will substitute. Until the next show, post a comment or two.

Republi-Cons Warp the Public Debate

Fear, anger, and hatred are powerful weapons. Read the Washington Post, Rush and Newt Are Winning.

More Republi-Con Inspired Violence

UPDATE: More on why FOX News is responsible for a murder, allegedly on behalf of God, in a house of worship. Read the Washington Post, Why I Turned Down O'Reilly.

Fear, Anger, Hatred + Talk Radio & FOX News = Violence

For another example, read The New York Times, Doctor’s Killer Is Not Alone in the Blame, Some Say.

For Republi-cons, like other zealots, abortion doctors are fair game.

Republi-Con Funny Values

It is official, Cheney supports gay marriage, but only because he sees marriage as a form of torture.

Hard as it might be to believe, only the last part is the joke. Watch:

Obama Man Can Continued

UPDATE: Here is an argument that the GM bailout won't work. Read The New York Times, The Quagmire Ahead, which argues convincingly that while the Obama plan for General Motors is bureaucratically smart and financially tough-minded, it won’t revolutionize the company’s corporate culture and will likely make things worse.

From the Washington Post, After Many Tuneups, A Historic Overhaul:

"In the space of five head-spinning months, the economic downturn and a few strong-willed financial officials in the Obama administration have done what legions of car executives, consultants and policymakers had failed to do in three decades: overhaul the U.S. car industry."

The auto industry 'restructuring' will be part of Obama's historic legacy -- good or bad as it may be. It will make an interesting comparison to his predecessor's historic legacy.

A Republi-Con Filibuster Rally

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words:



A party of angry white men isn't much of a party.

UPDATE: Read the Washington Post, GOP Faces Demographic Dilemma and The New York Times, The Howls of a Fading Species.

Fighting Mother Nature

Speaking of mother nature, read the Pensacola News Journal, Flouting Nature.

Replacing sand washed away from barrier islands during storms is a waste of taxpayer money.

Nearly everyone around these parts claims to be conservative, but I hardly think a true-red conservative would approve of throwing money at and into the ocean like this. Just one more example of the Republi-con ideology at work.

Caution, Don't Be Stupid

Should government officials interfere with mother nature's law of survival of the fittest? Read the Washington Post, What Not to Do with a Dead Bat, and you'll know what I mean.

Give new meaning to the saying, stupid is as stupid does.

Potato Chips of the World Unite Against Tax and Spend Judicial Activism

How dare they call Pringles potato chips. Read The New York Times, The Lord Justice Hath Ruled: Pringles Are Potato Chips.

It is outright judicial activism to advance tax and spend socialism. We know how Sotomayor would rule, don't we. I bet that she would even cite the British case.

Beheaded and Put on Display, Not Cruel and Unusual in Saudi Arabia

Is it cruel and unusual or just and appropriate? Read CNN, Convicted killer beheaded, put on display in Saudi Arabia.

For Mom & Pop Tammy

UPDATE: It seems that greed is out of fashion for now. Read The New York Times, A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality.

Is it the the goal of a business manager to “serve the greater good” and to act responsibly, ethically and refrain from advancing their “own narrow ambitions” at the expense of others?

And how long will it last?

As a follow up to a radio program in early May on greed, good or bad, with special guest Mom & Pop Tammy, a regualr listener and frequent caller. Read the Washington Post, Greed's Saving Graces.

What do you think Tammy?

Lies, Fear Mongering, and Hope for the Worst

A pattern is emerging to help understand the Republi-con strategy to win elections -- lies, fear-mongering, and hope for the worst.

And the personification of that strategy: Rusty and the Chicken Hawk.

Here is more evidence of the strategy: The New York Times, Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack and McClatchy Newspapers, Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths.

Be afraid, be very, very afraid! Now, Comrade Republi-Cons, for the party, repeat -- be afraid, be very, very afraid!

Our California Future

Want to know the future of the country? Read The New York Times, Deep Cuts Threaten to Reshape California. I particularly liked this statement:

“Government doesn’t provide services to rich people,” Mike Genest, the state’s finance director, said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “It doesn’t even really provide services to the middle class.” He added: “You have to cut where the money is.”

I don't agree. Good government services benefit everyone. Roads are a case in point. But I do think that the poorer you are, the more you depend on government. And since the Republi-con war on the middle class has effectively destroyed millions of good paying jobs in this country, what will people do as the government cuts back?

Watch California, because as California goes, so goes the country.

Does the Star-Spangled Banner Wave Over the Land of the Torturers?

UPDATE IX: Is Cheney lying about the effectiveness of torture? Read the CNN, Memos don't show what Cheney says they do, so says Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.


UPDATE VIII: A couple more articles about torture. Read The New York Times, When Israel Confronted and Rejected Torture and the Washington Post, Torture? No. Except . . .

Finally, who is to blame for the policy? We the citizen, who reelected Bush in 2004. Read the Washington Post, Where This Buck Stops.


UPDATE VII: A couple more must read articles about torture (should it be called the torture scandal?). Read The New York Times, Official Defends Signing Interrogation Memos, in which Judge Bybee's defends "the conclusions of legal memorandums he had signed as a Bush administration lawyer" and yet struggles to come to terms with his actions; and A Torturous Compromise, about the 100 or so detainees that have died in U.S. custody, and the decision to expose but not prosecute those responsible for torture.

At one point, as an attorney, I thought that the lawyers involved in providing 'legal justification' for torture should be disbarred. But now I think that if the lawyers would acknowledge violating their oath to uphold the rule of law, the ABA should simply reprimand them.

What do you think?


UPDATE VI: Did torture prevent terrorist attacks? Yes, in the Bush administration's alternate reality. From The New York Times Magazine, Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush:

"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''"

Cheney has his own special reality for the torture program, code named 24. Now you can read the Congressional debriefing of Cheney to learn about all the terrorist attacks that Cheney and his torture program prevented in this newly declassified report in The New York Times, Vice's Secret Vice.


UPDATE V: A couple of must read articles about torture.

An article in The New York Times, The Banality of Bush White House Evil, gives a good historical synopsis of the torture debate.

Another in the Washington Post, If Everyone Knew, Who's to Blame? , discusses paradoxes of the torture scandal, including this:

"Republicans from Dick Cheney on down have been unflagging in their arguments that these "enhanced interrogation techniques . . . were absolutely crucial" to preventing "a major-casualty attack." This argument, still strongly supported by a great many Americans, is deeply pernicious, for it holds that it is impossible to protect the country without breaking the law. It says that the professed principles of the United States, if genuinely adhered to, doom the country to defeat. It reduces our ideals and laws to a national decoration, to be discarded at the first sign of danger." [Link to definition of pernicious added.]

UPDATE IV: Read the new Senate Armed Services Committee report, which includes testimony from an Army psychologist at Guantanamo Bay who described increasingly relentless pressure from Washington in the summer of 2002 to prove a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq:

"[T]his is my opinion, even though they were giving information and some of it was useful, while we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between AI Qaeda and Iraq and we were not being successful in establishing a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish this link...there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."

Sort of ironic if you think about it. American the land of liberty and freedom, abandoned its core values to torture prisoners, adopting "methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans," to get information to justify an war which turned out to be a debacle.

Sounds like a Shakespearean plot.

BTW, these recent revelations placing the conduct at Abu Ghraib in a new context. Maybe the soldiers, who Rumsfeld called "a few bad apples," were following orders of higher-ranking military officers or the CIA. Of course who cares? As the war showed, Republi-cons don't mind sacricing a few soldiers for political purposes. The convicted soldiers were just collateral damage necessary for Bush's reelection.

But the soldiers are starting to realize that they were just scapegoats. Read CNN, Abu Ghraib head finds vindication in newly released memos.

UPDATE III: Read the Red Cross report on the CIA's handling of fourteen 'high-value' detainees, which describes the brutal tactics used on detainees, and concludes that the treatment amounted to torture.


UPDATE II: Bush sold America's soul, the Constitution, to the devil, and for what -- lies -- or more accurately false leads procured by torture. Read the Washington Post, Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots.

Time to disbar Bush's lawyers, if the Spanish don't prosecute them first. Read The New York Times, Spanish Court Weighs Inquiry on Torture for 6 Bush-Era Officials.


UPDATE: Read Washington Post, Cleanup Task for a Shining City. For America is to remain that "shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere," there must be a public reckoning of the Bush administration's dark legacy.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The final two lines of the first verse are: "O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Read this article and tell me if you think that is still true: The New York Review of Books, US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites.

Makes ya wonder if OBL won.

Tape Replay Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Usually on Fridays you can listen to me, the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- no political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

But I can't make it today so tune in and enjoy a replay of last week's show. Until the next show, post a comment or two.

Told Ya So: Economic Stimulus

UPDATE: Read the Washington Post, Mortgage Delinquency Reaches Record High.

Read The New York Times, More Homeowners Facing Foreclosure.

Then reread my solution for the economic mess

I think that the economy would be better off if the government had spent the money used to bail out Wall Street financial institutions (some call them banks, but I think that using the term banks when referring to those institutions is a misnomer), and instead had spent it on stabilizing the housing market with a program like Remortgage America, as we discussed at length on several programs.

Of course, all the government officials who own stock in Government Sachs would be poorer, ergo, the looting of the treasury by the robber financial institutions.

Unhappy Anniversary

For a good reminder about how the current economic mess began, read the Washington Post, An Unhappy Anniversary for the Financial Crisis.

As the old saying goes, may you live in interesting times.

It's a Republi-Con Cat Fight

UPDATE II: Darn, he gave them good advice. Read the Washington Post, Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'.

The only thing a true Republi-con wants to do is reach out and chock ya if you don't agree.


UPDATE: Read the Washington Post, In TV Appearance, Powell Plans To Answer Right-Wing Critics. Here is a preview:

"The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington this month, according to the National Journal. The party should realize that the country has changed, he said, adding: "Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

He said of Limbaugh, "I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without."

Who's the real Republi-con?

Read CBSNews, After Criticism From Cheney And Limbaugh, Powell Returns Fire.

Class Friday at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Topics:

Local and regional: why was a poor black kid prosecuted without any evidence, and why did the PNJ disable comments on the story, and are you having problems with the NoBullU website?; and

Nation and international: Cheney disses Bush not Obama, and China's threat to American sovereignty.

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth!

WARNING: You may not want to call in if you have veritasphobia, especially if you are a certain veritasphobic politician.

Why Was a Poor Black Kid Prosecuted Without Any Evidence?

The question answers itself.

The State knew there was inadequate evidence to prosecute Jamal Lee. Read comments made by the prosecutor just a few days ago at the Pensacola New Journal, Lee goes to trial.

So the Judge was forced to dismiss the case. Read the Pensacola News Journal, Jamal Lee goes free.

More telling is that the newspaper disabled comments by readers on the story. If you read comments on earlier stories, you'd know why.

UPDATE: For a full account of the trial, read the Pensacola News Journal, Judge acquits Lee of murder. Still no comment allowed.

UPDATE II: A comment from another blog: "I’m guessing the PNJ disabled the comments for that story because they knew it’d be like a KKK rally on there. All the racists that post on there would be up in arms, much like they were for the fights at the beach by the folks from Mobile this past weekend."

The Worst Slide Story

Really cute, especially if you are a fan of West Side Story:

Check out these other editorial cartoons by Pulitzer Prize winning and nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist Walt Handelsman, including Republicans Sing the Blues.

Who's Drinking the Kool-Aid Now

First "the well-trained Republican loyalists who danced like organ grinder monkeys every time their leadership played a new tune. But [you] hear that organ grinder warming up for the Democrats."

Read the Pensacola News Journal, Democrats should not drink the Kool-Aid.

Class Today at NoBullU on WEBY

Listen to the voice of wisdom and reason in a wilderness of partisan rhetoric -- No political insanity, no conservative hypocrisy, no liberal foolishness -- Just straight talk, straight at you, and that’s no bull!!

NoBullU will broadcast today from 4:05 to 6 p.m. at 1330 AM WEBY and on line, courtesy of Cyber Smart Computers.

Topics:

Local and regional: is it contempt of court, or contempt for God, with guest Matthew Cotton, founder of OK2Pray.org. and are you having problems with the NoBullU website?; and

Nation and international: the Republi-con family feud, with a poll, would you vote for Crist or Rubio in the 2010 Senate race, or just watch to see if the party implodes, and China's threat to American sovereignty.

But I'll discuss anything. (Disclaimer: the host reserves the right to end any discussion and hang up on you.)

So tune-in, call-in, but only if you can handle the truth!

WARNING: You may not want to call in if you have veritasphobia, especially if you are a certain veritasphobic politician.

Don't Confuse the Stimlus With Bailouts

Republi-consare now, as true hypocrites, criticizing any deficit spending. But they are only half right. Don't confuse government bailouts with stimulus spending. Bailouts are generally unnecessary, while spending designed to stimulate the economy is, thanks to the Republi-cons' war on the middle class, now necessary.

To understand why, read Time, If Consumers Won't Kick-Start the Economy, What Will?

The End of America's Zenith?

UPDATE II: Will the dollar soon be worth less (pun intended)? Read The New York Times, The Almighty Renminbi?

And if you doubt the growing power of China, read The New York Times, China’s Heart of Gold, in which the writer, the executive director of the Beijing Private Equity Association and a director of the China National Association of International Studies, demands "inflation-protection measures for China’s existing investments in America, and [requests] additional security or collateral for its continued investments. America should also provide its largest creditor with greater transparency and information."

This is a stunning demand and challenge to American sovereignty.

This is also the beginning of the end of America's debt addiction, and the withdrawal/detox of the American economy is going to be ugly.

All thanks to Republi-con unfair trade policies as part of their war on the middle class.


UPDATE: Read The New York Times, America the Tarnished.

Will this decade prove to be America's zenith? I predict that the economic mess will be the event leading to the emergence of Chinese economic and military dominance.

Read Washington Post, In Downturn, China Sees Path to Growth.

Bon Appétit

UPDATE: Manly BBQ needs a Man's Grill! Now this is a BBQ guaranteed to get everyone's attention. It should be towed with the barrel facing backwards, then you wouldn't have to worry about anyone tailgating you! My guess is the owner is from Texas!!!!!!

Ok, ya don't like French, but this ain't French cooking:















Looks yummy.

Called "The Bacon Explosion," but modestly called by its inventors "the BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes." It has swept the Internet blogs and I blog so I thought I'd let ya know.

Get the recipe at: The New York Times, Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog.
And invite me to your Superbowl party for a taste.

UPDATE: For more details, see BBQAddicts.com, Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes.

Thriving Socialism

You hear it said everyday by the Republi-cons, socialism will bankrupt the country. But maybe it ain't true. Read The New York Times, Thriving Norway Provides an Economics Lesson, which points out an interesting fact:

"[I]n the midst of the worst global downturn since the Depression, Norway’s economy grew last year by just under 3 percent. The government enjoys a budget surplus of 11 percent and its ledger is entirely free of debt.

By comparison, the United States is expected to chalk up a fiscal deficit this year equal to 12.9 percent of its gross domestic product and push its total debt to $11 trillion, or 65 percent of the size of its economy."

Republi-Con Desperation, Delusion, and Hatred

First, I heard Open Mike talk about an Obama takeover of Cheerios. Apparently Obama is personally responsible for anything that the government does wrong (but not what it does right of course), like an unannounced Air Force flyover of New York City.

Then I heard about an article on Bush moving to Dallas in D Magazine, in which David Feherty wrote;

"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."

The new Republi-con strategy is desperation, delusion, and hatred.

It won't be any more successful than fear, anger, and hatred.

Talking about the events above today, even Boortz realizes it is a loser strategy. He referred to an article at Salon.com, Radio rage.

It's almost as if the Republi-cons are determined to lose the next election. Don't believe me? Then read the Washington Post, A Driving Desire To Lose, written by Michael Gerson, a former Bushie.

At this rate, the Naive-crats won't even have to campaign.

A Final Word On Torture?

Read these previous posts:

Does the Star-Spangled Banner Wave Over the Land of the Torturers?

WWJT (Who Would Jesus Torture) and

Bush, the Hypocrite-in-Chief

Then read this article from the Washington Post, Treatment of Terror Suspects a 'Collective Failure.'

Republi-Con Gun Control

No guns once the government designates you a suspected terrorist. See H.R. 2159, sponsored by four Republi-cons: Rep. Peter King [R, NY-3], Rep. Michael Castle [R, DE-0], Rep. Mark Kirk [R, IL-10], Rep. Christopher Smith [R, NJ-4].

And who is a 'suspected terrorist? Anyone the government says is a 'suspected' terrorist.

"In any case in which the Attorney General has denied the transfer of a firearm to a prospective transferee pursuant to section 922A or has made a determination regarding a firearm permit applicant pursuant to section 922B, an action challenging the determination may be brought against the United States. The petition must be filed not later than 60 days after the petitioner has received actual notice of the Attorney General’s determination made pursuant to section 922A or 922B. The court shall sustain the Attorney General’s determination on a showing by the United States by a preponderance of evidence that the Attorney General’s determination satisfied the requirements of section 922A or 922B. To make this showing, the United States may submit, and the court may rely on, summaries or redacted versions of documents containing information the disclosure of which the Attorney General has determined would likely compromise national security. On request of the petitioner or the court’s own motion, the court may review the full, undisclosed documents ex parte and in camera. The court shall determine whether the summaries or redacted versions, as the case may be, are fair and accurate representations of the underlying documents. The court shall not consider the full, undisclosed documents in deciding whether the Attorney General’s determination satisfies the requirements of section 922A or 922B.’."

They have already started compiling the list -- 'militia' members, 'disgruntled' military veterans, and 'rightwing extremists' -- to name a few. See the Missouri Analysis and Information Center (MIAC) and Department of Homeland Security reports.

Collapse of the Republi-Con Ideology, and the Party

UPDATE VI: The 2010 Florida Senate race is shaping up to be Washington leadership v. grassroots, whether to moderate the political agenda or go all-in conservative hypocrisy, whether the campaign theme should be hope for the future or fear and loathing, whether the party can include people like "a four-star general who spent his life serving his country" or should be limited to those like a chickenhawk, "who had five deferments himself to get out of going to Vietnam, [and] a blowhard entertainer who has had three divorces and a drug problem (who also avoided Vietnam)."

Read the Washington Post, Fla. Governor's Senate Bid Renews Optimism of Some in GOP and The New York Times, Rogue Diva of Doom.

It should be an interesting campaign.


UPDATE V: The 2010 Florida Senate race will help divine the future of those wild and crazy Republi-cons. It is possible we may witness the implosion of the party. And those of us in NW Florida will have a ring-side seat.


UPDATE IV: This man thinks this man is the future of the Republi-con party. Also read The New York Times, G.O.P. Worries About Sounding a Negative Tone.

Of course, playing in the gutter won't help.

The future ain't lookin too bright for those Comrade Republi-cons.

Maybe they should read the Washington Post, An Anti-Obama Agenda for the GOP.


UPDATE III: Republi-cons are "starting to look like the Federalists of the early 19th century: an embittered, over-the-top, out-of-touch regional party en route to extinction, doubling down on dogma the electorate has already rejected."

Read Time, Republicans in the Wilderness: Is the Party Over?


UPDATE II: Republi-cons, the party of "phony-baloney, dime-store philosophies . . . that doesn’t seem to care about anything other than devotion to a set of so-called principles that never amounted to more than cult-like rhetoric." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Read The New York Times, Out of Touch.


UPDATE: It's extreme makeover, Republi-con edition. Read CNN, Republican Party plans comeback.

But if you listen to rabid right-wing radio, it doesn't seem that the 'fear, anger, hatred' group wants a makeover. Read The New York Times, G.O.P. Debate: A Broader Party or a Purer One?

I don't think it is an issue of purity, it is delusional rabid McCarthist ideology and forty years in the wilderness for the Republi-cons.

Just have faith in the market, while Republi-con policies undermine middle class America. But what happens when people quit believing and start questioning certain assumption? Read the Washington Post, Capitalism's Reality Check and The Financial Times, How libertarian dogma led the Fed astray.

With the collapse of the Republi-con ideology it looks like forty years in the wilderness for the Republi-cons.