Bombshells #12. . .

A Select Few Bombshells That Clears Much Of The Manufactured Fog
compiled by The Old Hippie Because I Truly Believe It Might Help Clear The Fog

*   Ask This? - Lt. General William E. Odom, (Ret.) [11/21/05]        [Read It, Then Link To A Video] (Starts 50 secs into this video)   1.  Attack of the Cronies - AlterNet   2.  34% (and falling) - Wall Street Journal   3.  Break Up Cheney's Cabal - The Nation   4.  We Should Hold Off On Celebrating - Bob Harris

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  5.  Woodward Joins a Decadent Dance - Los Angeles Times via CommonDreams.org

  6.  Torture Part of School's Curriculum? - AP via Truthout.org

  7.  Our Monsters In Iraq - TomPaine.com

  8.  Who is Col. Danny Bubp? - Daily Kos

  9.  Sex, Lies, and Abramoff E-Mails - Daily Dissent

 10.  The Man Who Sold the War - Rolling Stone

 11.  Dick Cheney: War Profiteer - CommonDreams.org

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This Is America Today. . .

So Many Have Recently Asked...  What Have We Become?
by The Old Hippie Because The Absentee Revolt Is so Telling

What Have We Become?  This Is What We Have Become:
A nation of, by, and for the corporations, not the people.
A nation that allowed three corrupt national elections to go un-corrected.
A nation where those same corrupt corporate voting machines are increasing in use.
A nation that is the #1 most polluting nation on the planet.
A nation that allowed over 400 environmental laws/regulations to be "disappeared."
A nation that is the #1 imprisoned nation on the planet - and in history.
A nation that allows and condones the torture of human beings.
A nation that has officially given up habeas corpus protection.
A nation that is still allowing a network of secret torture chambers to exist.
A nation that is the only 1st-world nation without universal health care.
A nation that is the only 1st-world nation that still executes prisoners.
A nation that allows sneering oil CEO's to not have to "swear in" when testifying.
A nation that shortly finds out that they lied through their teeth - does nothing.
A nation that confronted with mountains of evidence of corruption - does nothing.
A nation whose majority now admits to the truth of their lies - still hasn't revolted.
A nation that actually thinks the Constitutional Democracy system still works.
A nation that knows the next election will again be using even more of the same corporately corrupted voting machines that have been proven to have been allowed to corrupt the last three national elections, and so far, nothing "real" has been done to stop another election from being corrupted by them again.

A nation so deep in denial of reality that it is blind to its own demise.

If you happen to be one of those 35% that currently still approve of this administration, I truly hate you, for the allowed manipulation of your ignorance, for your contribution to the destruction of this nation, a once great nation that could only be destroyed from within, by the sneeringly and arrogantly corrupted manipulation of the fears, ignorance, and stupidity of "citizens" like you. . .

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I know I am singing to the choir here - But I had to get it off my chest.

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They Never Give Up. . .

And As Long As We Continue To "Allow" It - Their Lies Will Continue
by The Old Hippie Because It's Not Outside Forces - It's The "Us Destroying Us" That Is Reality

George Bush said in his Veterans Day speech...  "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began.  More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." That was a direct and purposeful lie, and he knew he was lying when he said it.  The Democrats, like the rest of us, had only the "intelligence" that the WHIG, and the Office of Special Plans, (housed in the corporate offices of the AEI, not inside our government's offices,) "allowed out" to the Democrats and the public.

Is It Possible?  Like So Many Nations Before It - America Destroyed From Within?
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I am a realist, not a denialist.  I know it is possible that America can be, and most likely will be, if it happens, destroyed from within, not from without.  In my short 58 years on this mortal coil I've watched my nation go from respected to hated, from a sane guiding light to the world to the feared bully, from battling tyranny to being a tyranny - From what used to be a functioning Constitutional Democracy to the brink of an enhanced opportunistic and corrupt Corporatist Theocratic and Ideological state, with totalitarian safeguards, with a six-corporation controlled media. And I have witnessed the successful erosion of the Separation of the Church and the State, to the point that religious [nut-job Evangelical Christian] mythology is being allowed to be purposely and opportunistically confused with the reality of science.

I really don't think most Americans truly realize just how close we are to losing "America."  Throughout the whole history of this unique experiment of the American Constitutional Democracy, the American Revolution, the internal turmoil of the Civil War, the Great Depression, the two World Wars, the Cultural Revolution during the 60s/70s and the Vietnam War," never has our nation been so close to losing all of its protections from the "Separation of Powers."   Never.

Our once powerful protection of the Separation of Powers has now been consolidated into one corrupted party of the corporations, which is still in power, still doing all it can to take as much "power" away from the people and the other branches, and put it into the single branch of the Executive - the hands of the few - away from the "Republic" and into the corporate controllers of the "Empire."  And "they" are continuing to do so even in the face of all of the recent exposures of corrupt cronyism.

These are not "interesting times" we live in, they are very dangerous times, for the Constitutional Democracy, for the hope of real freedoms and liberties for all peoples, and not to mention for the reality of our environment. I can't deny that I find the fact that 35% [currently] of my fellow Americans still live inside the denial of this reality.

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Reluctantly. . .

This Article Does "Say It All" For So Many Of Us Americans Today
[Note: I've gotten away from pasting others words - But this is too well said. . .]

What Have We Become?
by Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate - November 10, 2005

I can't get over this feeling of unreality, that I am actually sitting here writing about our country having a gulag of secret prisons in which it tortures people.  I have loved America all my life, even though I have often disagreed with the government.  But this seems to me so preposterous, so monstrous.  My mind is a little bent and my heart is a little broken this morning.

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Maybe I should try to get a grip -- after all, it's just this one administration that I had more cause than most to realize was full of inadequate people going in.  And even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice President Cheney.  And after all, we were badly frightened by 9-11, which was a horrible event.  "Only" nine senators voted against the prohibition of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control the United States."  Nine out of 100.  Should we be proud?  Should we cry?

"We do not torture," said our pitifully inarticulate president, straining through emphasis and repetition to erase the obvious.

A string of prisons in Eastern Europe in which suspects are held and tortured indefinitely, without trial, without lawyers, without the right to confront their accusers, without knowing the evidence or the charges against them, if any.  Forever.  It's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."  Another secret prison in the midst of a military camp on an island run by an infamous dictator.  Prisoner without a name, cell without a number.

Who are we?  What have we become?  The shining city on a hill, the beacon and bastion of refuge and freedom, a country born amidst the most magnificent ideals of freedom and justice, the greatest political heritage ever given to any people anywhere.

I am baffled by these "arguments": But we're talking about really awful people, cries the harassed press secretary.  People like X and Y and Z (after a time, one forgets all the names of the No. 2's after bin Laden we have captured).  The SS and the Gestapo and the KVD weren't all that nice, either.

Then I hear the familiar tinniness of the fake machismo I know so well from George W. Bush and all the other frat boys who never went to Vietnam and never got over the guilt.

"Sometimes you gotta play rough," said Dick Cheney. No shit, Dick?  Now why don't you tell that to John McCain?

I have known George W. Bush since we were both in high school -- we have dozens of mutual friends.  I have written two books about him and so have interviewed many dozens more who know him well in one way or another.  Spare me the tough talk.  He didn't play football -- he was a cheerleader.  "He is really competitive," said one friend.  "You wouldn't believe how tough he is on a tennis court!"  Just cut the macho crap -- I don't want to hear it.

If you are dead to all sense of morality (please let me not go off on the stinking sanctimony of this crowd), let us still reason together on the famous American common ground of practicality.  Torture.  Does.  Not.  Work.  Torture does not work.  Ask the United States military.  Ask the Israelis.

There seems to be some fantastic scenario floating around -- if Osama bin Laden had an atomic bomb hidden in a locker at Grand Central Station, and it was due to go off in 12 hours, and we had him in prison ... I seem to have missed some important television program on this theme.  I am told it was fiction, but it must have been really scary -- it certainly seems to have unbalanced the minds of some of our fellow citizens.

Torture does not work.  It is not productive.  It does not yield important, timely information.  That is in the movies.  This is reality.

I grew up with all this pathetic Texas tough: Everybody here knows you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs; and this ain't beanbag; and I'll knock your jaw so far back, you'll scratch your throat with your front teeth; and I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you; and I'm gonna open me a can of whip-ass ...

And that'll show 'em, won't it?  Take some miserable human being alone and helpless in a cell, completely under your control, and torture him.  Boy, that is some kind of manly, ain't it?

"The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad.  In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors.  Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of some dictatorships." -- The Washington Post.

Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become it?  Shame.  Shame.  Shame.

To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.  COPYRIGHT 2005 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

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Trivia For The Day. . .

Just Thought You Would Find This Strange, If Not Scary
by The Bush Administration Because They Stole All And Needed More To Steal

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, from 1776 through 2000, the first 224 years of our nation's history, all 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions. . .

But in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.

I repeat - That Is More Than All The Other Presidents - Combined - !

Wake up you other 35% that still live in denial.  Come on people, did you think all of this had to do with terrorism, or security, or liberty, or freedom???  It had to do with moving all of America's public wealth into the hands of the few - Through tax-cuts, no-bid contracts, etc...  They completely wiped out the federal surplus in the 1st year of their 1st term alone, then moved the wealth of the nation with tax-cuts for the wealthy, tax-breaks for the corporations, and openly corrupt war-time profiteering, and when that ran out they kept moving and still are moving, the federal borrowed monies, and national tax collections into their corporations and personal pockets. . .

Wake up people. . .  They are still there. . .  Still taking. . .

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Nothing else for now...

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Bitter Fruit. . .

"Bitter Fruit" Photo and Voice Essay
by Paul Fusco


- Just Click On The Image Above To Watch This Important Photo Essay -
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Nothing Else - Just Watch It.

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Bombshells #11. . .

A Select Few Bombshells That Clears Much Of The Manufactured Fog
compiled by The Old Hippie Because I Truly Believe It Might Help Clear The Fog

1.  Twilight of the Oil Age - AlterNet   2.  Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre - Independent/UK        Video Link (Several formats and languages)   3.  Democrats Win Elections in NJ, Va., Calif. - Yahoo News, et al   4.  Weird.  We won.  Onward to 2006! - Daily Kos

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  5.  "White House Woes" - Oberman/Fineman via Crooks & Liars (video-MSNBC)

  6.  Rear Guard Action - (Opps: It appears the leak came from the GOP - Video Proof)

  7.  The Sleeping Giant Stirs - Crisis Papers

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Hey Evangelical Nut Jobs. . .

You Are Going To Be Pissed - Here's Proof They Use Your Ignorance
by The People You Evangelicals "Trust"

[Link To Source] ...one memo highlighted in a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday that Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tx., sent...  In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.  "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

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Evangelicals, as proven by studies by Evangelicals, have the highest divorce rate, the highest domestic violence rate, the highest teenage pregnancy rate, the highest STD rate, the highest rate of unhealthy children, the highest rate of child poverty, the highest rate of no health insurance, the highest rate of murder of pregnant wives, as compared to non-evangelical "blue-state" types of Americans.

Keep denying that those you "trust" do not care about you, do not share your beliefs, do not care about your families - Keep denying that they are using your arrogant ignorance and insane ideology against you, for their own profits, to the point of your own destruction.

Trouble is - Their use of you and your ignorance is effecting the rest of us out here, and we are really pissed off at your continued denial and arrogant ignorance.  More and more of us each day, with each lost job, with each lost life.

Currently Bush has a 35% approval, and the real president, Cheney, has a 19% approval - Almost all of both of those 35% and 19% are you fringe Evangelical nut jobs (my apologies to the non-nut-job Evangelicals) the rest comes from the remaining denialist and sycophants.

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Congrats Bush. . .

On This, The 1st Anniversary Of Your 2nd Term, A 35% Approval Rating
by The Old Hippie Because I Cautiously See That The Tide Is Turning, But Too S-l-o-w--l--y

New Poll - 35% "Approval" - Linked Here

Fundamentalist Watch: Instant Evangelicals! - Linked Here

I juxtaposed those two articles on purpose.  A few days ago I mentioned that the "replacements" named by this administration are always as bad, or worse.  Addington for Libby, Alito for Miers, Gonzales for Ashcroft, Rice for Powell, etc.  This has been true all the way through the whole of all of "our" federal regulatory agencies, congress, and the judiciary.  And in almost every single case, the replacement has been an advocate of tearing down the wall separating the Church and the State.

All of these people, except for Libby now, are all still there - Still in power - Still changing "our" laws - Still doing all they possibly can do to destroy "our" Constitutional Democracy because, as Scalia once said, "...government—however you want to limit that concept—derives its moral authority from God..." [Source Link]  And, of course, that God can only be a "Christian" God.

The opportunistic thieves behind the corporatist powers are taking full advantage of the ignorance of radical fringe religious nuts, and insane ideologues, to turn "our" Constitution Democracy into a feeding-trough of stolen profits of wealth and power from this nation's citizens, and through the American Empire's military might, the stolen profits of the wealth and power of all the peoples of this planet.

The irony is - Those most damaged by the crimes of these opportunistic and corrupt corporatist "profits over life" thieves, are the ones allowing them to do it.

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If you think this is "bullshit" - Then you are either one of them, or blinded by denial, or you only get your news from FOX, and/or the Evangelical media network.

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