Do all roads lead to Afghanistan via the Pentagon?

It is pure shenanigans,I say! Nothing else but pure and simple war mongering shenanigans! In my opinion, the sub-title of this post could read, “Putting the screws to Obama!”

First there was this “suspicious” leak of Gen. McChrystal’s letter to Pres. Obama.

Secondly, there are three separate and supposedly unrelated etherial terrorist plots exposed on American soil, would you believe, from American citizens all within a few weeks.

Thirdly, we get a message from the elusive Ben Laden and this time, we were not even told we had to wait for the translations of the message. We just did not get any translation and now…..

Fourthly, we hear *Gen. Petraius and McChrystal are in Germany, of all places, discussing the Afghanistan war with them! What the hell is going on??

Selective memory especially with the media.
by Vera Lofaro
Excerpt:
However, if President Obama commits 40,000 more troops he will own this war and if more American lives are lost, it is on his watch, if the efforts don't suceed, that too is his problem. I don't know what he should do, however, I do know this is not a decision that should be made hastily, and I respect President Obama for gathering all the information he can and taking his time before committing anymore troops.
Some times you need to do the right thing, not the politically expedient thing.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/26/786700/-Selective-memory-especially-with-the-media

And
*US commanders hold secret meeting on Afghan war
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjqYLJ3E0-ASwRFK71MT6qSMLmPQ

Question: Are all of these event designed to put pressure on Pres. Obama to commit more troops to Afghanistan? I wonder as I wander….
As always,
BB

Pres. Obama: That “boy” with no name who “tries” hard

1. That “boy"

Is 'this guy' instead of 'that boy' the new racism?
by truthseeking missile
Excerpt:
Have you noticed that ever since President Obama announced his candidacy, some folks don't ever never call him by his name and never refer to him as President Obama? Their favorite expression in reference to the president is 'this guy.' I have heard this expression ad nauseum whenever liberal as well as conservative commentators, like Chris Matthews and Bill O'Reilly, discuss the president, as if he so strange and different that he cannot be called by his name.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/25/786446/-Is-this-guy-instead-of-that-boy-the-new-racism

2. Who “tries hard…"
The first time I learned how to really read and write English was when in my high school Spanish Class learning how to conjugate verbs. I learn a lot! It was a further milestone in my ability to comprehend English when the teacher in our “Test and Measurements” class told us “would be teachers” to be cautious of the word “Not” when taking a test.

She suggested you have to spend too much time de-constructing the sentence and you should perhaps skip the question altogether and come back to answer it later if you have time. She also cautioned us using the word “Not” in constructing test we compose for our students.

And so it was with Ed Henry, a White House correspondent, who was one evening constantly saying what Pres. Obama was trying to say at a news conference. I have noticed it ever more with various correspondents saying, “Obama was trying to tell the audience..” this or that. It seems what the President was trying to say has caught on big time! If correspondents report what the President actually said, it would be in the vain of, “Obama was outraged..” or “Obama slammed…” or “Obama Warns Iran: "Come Clean" On Nukes
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

As always,
BB
P.S. I love the “Read more at:” tag Huffington Post is using. Saves a lot of time and makes this poster feel better using quotes from the site. Kudos!

America also has an art gallery of note...(Update)

We have an interesting portrait art gallery. France has the Louvre, Germany has the Guggerheim and there is the Uffizi Art Gallery in Florence, Italy. World treasures all of them. Elegant and under constant efforts of refinement.

America’s portrait gallery, as any other gallery of a country, informs the voyager of many things about its people and its past and present culture and perhaps, in some cases, displaying art pieces predicting the future. With its integration of polished floors, just the right wall color and lighting with the addition of picture-perfect picture frames, I note art galleries do what art galleries are supposed to do; strive for aesthetic perfection.

From flawless coordination of drapes behind an art piece to color coordinated roped off areas allowing for the appropriate viewing distance of the art work, we savor with greedy eyes, taking a cursory view at whatever information is available to read before shamelessly devouring the eye candy. (Smile) You have your eye napkin - tissue if you will- readily available. If not, you know where it is if you need it.

America’s portrait galleries could not be sub-titled horror chambers due to the fact beauty is in the eye of the beholder but what is one to think when one goes into a gallery dominated by the portrait of American hero Dr. Martin Luther King? And from that portrait hall into the gallery of Malcolm X and into the even larger Hewey Newton gallery with its newest acquisitions, Minister Lewis Farrakhan, Rev. Al Sharpton and Bertha Lewis of ACORN?

You next find yourself ushered by a immaculately polite and hansom Black guard into a gallery with portraits of The Dixie Chicks, The Smothers Brothers, William Ayers and Cindy Sheehan. All fine portraits. Their faces are familiar to you. You mentally “Ooo and Ah!” with a polite smile as you read the accompanying material below or beside the meticulously produced portraits.

But it is the fascination of the last gallery getting your arrested attention after emerging from a small alcove featuring portraits of Roger Ailes, Rupert Murdock ect., due to the fact there are not rows of portraits lining the wall. No roped off areas. No reading materials. Empty frames of all shapes and sizes only accompanied by a name. There are names like “Anti-Abortion Movement”, “Tea Baggers” and “Health Care Reform”. You ponder the mystery as to why there are no faces accompanying the pictures. You wonder why there are no faces, no personalities, no biographies. The tour members feel safe in this gallery.

In one corner of the room there is a concession stand to buy things, to mill around and chat. You think how different the experience is than world famed “Pictures At An Exhibition”. When Molly reaches into her purse to pay for a glass of wine, a tea bag falls to the floor. She hopes it is not noticed.

Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
P.S. I am mindful of a story the late Dr. John Hope Franklin told: As a Boy Scout, while accompany a blind white woman across the street, while in the middle of the street when he answered her question as to whether he was colored or white, she told him to take his dirty hands off her before she call the police.
(Update)

Teabagger Robo-Call: Is this illegal?
by Reality Bites Back
Excerpt:
This call did NOT identify what organization was making the call, or provide an FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) or FEC number.

And
The federal law requires all telephone calls using pre-recorded messages to identify who is initiating the calls and include a telephone number or address whereby the initiator can be reached.
Read more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/25/786405/-Teabagger-Robo-Call:-Is-this-illegal

(Author) Is there no one individual name associated with TeaBaggers i.e., MLK with Civil Rights and Stokely Carmichael with SNCC?

Mid-term Elections 2010

Re: An excerpt from an article written by Dylan Loewe for Huffington Post.

Here's my problem. The political atmosphere in July and August of 2009 has essentially no relationship to what voter attitudes will be more than a year later. Which isn't to say that health care reform won't have a major impact on the outcome of the midterms. But the issue will be whether or not the Democrats pass a bill, not whether or not they did it gracefully.

In my opinion, Mr. Loewe has done some fancy dancing with the English language but if I understand his steps correctly, he is saying, (Wishing?) many of us will not remember the traitors of our country come this time next year. Not I! They can hire all the Public Relation firms they want but they will not make me forget how they have conducted themselves in both the House and the Senate in relation to several issues critical to our country. In my opinion, Mr. Loewe and others who feel this way are naïve. (Smile) I am banking on successes of the past and of the future I heard articulated by Pres. Obama this morning at the U.N. and it will not happen if many in the group we now have in Congress are re-elected. I color the situation “Impossible!” I note a comment to the article:

NCAV2 I'm a Fan of NCAV2 I'm a fan of this user 6 fans permalink
The Democrats have not given progressives a reason to vote for them in 2010 other than the fact that they are the better alternative to the Republicans. Seriously, what have they done since gaining power in both Congress and the White House? Giving handouts to Wall Street, backpedaling on healthcare reform and not ending the wars are not the change people wanted. Many progressives will simply stay home or vote third party next year if the Democrats don't stop with the spinelessness and inaction.

Complete article:
Everything You Think You Know About the Midterms is Wrong
By Dylan Loewe
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-loewe/everything-you-think-you_b_295811.html
As always,
BB

Oh God, those pesty Palestinians again!

Pres. Obama’s {{{Brilliant!}}} presentation at the U.N. this morning did not fail to mention the Palestinian/Israeli saga.

It is my understanding one of the major stumbling blocks to the peace talks is Israel insisting “…the Palestinians must first except Israel’s right to exist.”

It seems the Palestinians are willing to accept Israel’s right to exist as of the 1968 borders but not its right to exist including all the land it conquered since then. In other words, Israel wants to have its existences verified after taken over significant (3/4th?) portions of Palestinian land and the Palestinians are saying, “No, no, no by my chinny, chin-chin! We don’t want you here, go back where you came from!"

And off we go into the wild UN Yonder (I/P)
by volleyboy1
Excerpt:
A senior U.S. administration source Tuesday told Haaretz that "during the tripartite meeting Obama strongly expressed his impatience."
The source said the meeting was "businesslike" but not cordial. Netanyahu and Abbas voiced their opinions but did not attack.
"The time has come to re-launch negotiations - without preconditions - that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem," Obama said in his first address to the world body since assuming office in January.
"The goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security - a Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people," Obama told the UN.

And
It is time the U.S. stepped into the breach that eight long years of Bushco. inattention or worse created. Palestinians need to know that America WILL support their national aspirations and that their participation at the bargaining table will be respected and rewarded.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/23/785658/-And-off-we-go-into-the-wild-UN-Yonder-%28I-P%29

Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB

America, America, where forth art thou, America?

As if I, as a citizen, did not feel bad enough, I had to stumble upon this post by Raymond Learsy relating information about a Thomas Friedman article.

After watching the Mark-Up performances on the HealthCare Bill this morning and concluding Sen. Grassley and Baucus are your old fashioned “wind-bags”, and reading articles and seeing on Cooper Anderson 360 the reasons why we don’t want Gadaffi in our country and hearing Tea Baggers are still doing their thing and reading about the deification of Glenn Beck and other important(?) issues that should concern us American citizens and finally ending up with the Learsy post cited below can hardly be consider a light at the end of the tunnel for my day.

The only thing that keeps rattlin’ in my head is the quote: “If you want to keep a man in the gutter, you have to get down into the gutter with him and hold him there.”

I suspect just understanding the shit that is going on in this country is the light at the end of the tunnel I need, because everything is now beginning to get on my MF nerves!!

Tom Friedman's Take On "Wimps" and "The Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys"
Excerpt:
France, has a government with vision, having the welfare of the general public foremost in its sights. Examples of its accomplishments in recent years has not only been a uniquely efficient power grid, but according to the World Heath Organization, France is first in the WHO's ranking of world health systems. This while the United States lingers 37th in ranking. (Behind, with apologies, such countries as Malta, Morocco, Colombia, Cyprus, Costa Rica, and on. I'm sure you get the drift.)

And
But in making this broad brush judgment a key point is lost. The issue doesn't simply attain to limiting fossil fuel consumption by significantly increasing gasoline taxes, as Friedman suggests. It attains to something much more fundamental. France's governance emanates from an elite corp of public servants, graduates of the "grands ecoles" who run the sinews of the Ministries of State. It has given France a government whose dedication and commitment to the general weal is keenly suited to a fiercely competitive world. Ours, by contrast is progressively dysfunctional, where the electorate has become increasingly powerless, neutered by moneyed and narrow constituencies whose parochial interests are served by an increasingly token government molded to do their bidding and override the general good with growing abandon.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/tfriedmans-take-on-wimps_b_294370.html

As always,
BB
P.S. I have never heard of “Cheese eating monkeys” before. Is this a metaphor about Blacks? Those neo-con racists always have to have something in order to get Brownie points with their peers.

Bailing out (Tee-hee) newspapers? (Update)

Little Ricky standing on the busy corner in his knickers and high buttoned shoes with his baseball hat turn sideways selling his newspapers is a relic of the past and now the government is going to interfere by stepping out of the present into the past to buy all his newspapers from him. How noble! "Smashing!" some would say. I also note little Ricky did not need a license to sell his papers.

In my opinion, just as the auto and banking industries, the newspaper industries have seen and heard John Q. Public having a Hissy fit for decades telling them they were wandering deeper and deeper into the foreboding wilderness of our society, cultivating one Prince of Darkness after another giving them sanctuary, platforms, and as much blood their thirsty little bellies could hold.

I am mindful in Washington D.C. when all cab drivers had to suddenly pass a test to get a “Hacking” licenses as did beauticians to get a “Cosmetology” license. This was a big impact on the Black community especially the illiterate ones. We were so proud when my father, with a third grade education, passed the one for cab drivers and my mother, who never discussed her schooling, passed the exam to be a beautician.

I remember when school teachers had to go back to school to get a “Teaching” licenses and later down the line, they had to take re-fresher courses.

If memory serves me correctly, doctors and lawyers are the two prime public servants not required to keep abreast of their fields by taking re-fresher courses.

Now to newspaper owners and reporters. An un-regulated public service job wherein any person of a certain persuasion can be given a job as a reporter, who, along with their bosses and editors, can serve whatever elixir they choose to the public with absolutely no formal training, no test to get a license nor mandatory restrictions to stay abreast in their field. No license can be taken away when they violate the norms of our society. They are protected only by the many neo-con cabals hiring them.

I note the enclosed article states revenue is dwindling for newspapers and I posit it is also going down for the thirty year old prostitute who has not invested wisely. At least she could consider becoming a successful porn star.

In my opinion, newspapers don’t need no bailing out; they need to have degreed reporters who have to keep their licenses up-dated and more non-white managers and board members i.e., a Barack Obama or Ray Jones. Otherwise, I say no bailout for newspapers; “let’em eat (Devil’s food) cake!”

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill
By Michael O'Brien - 09/20/09 04:24 PM ET
Excerpt: Opening paragraph
The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/59523-obama-open-to-newspaper-bailout-bill?page=2#comments

As always,
BB
(Update)
Finding the Voice of Truth Amid the Noise of Old and New Media
Somewhere in this new century, it was forgotten that journalism was once considered a noble profession, one that strove to uphold the ideals spelled out by the Society of Professional Journalists in its code of ethics. Today, it has become increasingly apparent that too many television and online "writers" fail to realize what William Bernbach of Doyle Dane Bernbach stated so eloquently back in 1989, before the first blog was ever dreamed of: "All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level."
And
The voice I've chosen to turn to is that of NPR. With a reputation for some of the finest journalism in the country, the nonprofit organization is renowned for its unbiased stance -- to the point that it's been accused of being both conservative and liberal. The fact that it both satisfies and angers both sides is a true indication of its journalistic integrity.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynda-resnick/finding-the-voice-of-trut_b_294186.html
(Author) In the morning, I try to listen to NPR but those two guys who do the traffic report drive me up a wall! In the less than a minute they are on, they call out each other’s name at least four or five times. It gives me the impression they feel us knowing their names is far more important than the traffic report. The arrogance to me is sickening. I have finally stopped listening to NPR in the early morning entirely just due to their silly antics.