Open Slap heard around the world
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Thought for the Day: Ogden Nash
The rhino is a homely beast,
For human eyes he's not a feast.
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
I'll stare at something less prepoceros.
-- Ogden Nash
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Reminder: Vigilance
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
-- Walt Kelly
"If you wants to get elected president, you'se got to think up some
memoraboble homily so's school kids can be pestered into memorizin' it,
even if they don't know what it means."
-- Walt Kelly, "The Pogo Party"
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Hunger: Everyone wants to eat...
The entire article is a well written wake-up call for a hot-potato issue that no one as yet wants to take on.Farmer in Chief
Thursday 09 October 2008
by: Michael Pollan, The New York Times
Federal policies to promote maximum production of commodity crops such as wheat, from which most of our supermarket foods are derived, have succeeded in keeping prices low. But suddenly the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. (Photo: Nouriche Nutrition Ltd.)Dear Mr. President-Elect,
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food.
. . .
...make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on - but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Editorialization = Propaganda
Private Military Contractors Writing the News? The Pentagon's Propaganda at Its Worst
Friday 17 October 2008
by: Liliana Segura, AlterNet
A newsstand in Baghdad. The Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to produce media for Iraqi outlets. (Photo: Joao Silva / The New York Times)Less than a week after the Washington Post reported that the Department of Defense will pay private contractors $300 million over the next three years to "produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to 'engage and inspire' the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb wrote a strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "I have serious reservations about the need for this expenditure in today's political and economic environment," he wrote. "Consequently, I am asking that you put these contracts on hold until the Armed Services Committee and the next administration can review the entire issue of U.S. propaganda efforts inside Iraq."
Emphasis mine!
Where can I get a piece of the THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR pork pie? For writing 'feel-good' rhetoric to convince the Iraqi's that they are doing well???
...the declaration of the "War on Terror" itself. It's a project the Bush administration has always approached as a PR campaign as much as a military one.Tell that to the brave young men and women who are actually on the ground.
Is this really the price of Petroleum Politics???? Wouldn't we be better served by supporting American social programs that have recently been gutted by our OUR economic downturn???Selling the War to Americans
Perhaps one of the Bush administration's most egregious PR undertakings in the war on Iraq was revealed this spring, when the New York Times blew the lid off the Pentagon's military analyst program, in which more than 75 retired military officials were recruited to spout pro-war rhetoric on major networks in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Why do I even have to ask questions like these?
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Open Gouging
Top GOP Fund-Raiser Tied to Iraq Fuel Contract
Friday 17 October 2008
by: James Glanz and Michael Luo, The New York Times
Rep. Henry Waxman released documents on Thursday alleging that a top McCain fund-raiser has been overcharging the military for fuel deliveries in Iraq. (Photo: Sam Hurd)The Democratic chairman of a House investigative committee presented documents to the Pentagon on Thursday alleging that a top Republican fund-raiser, Harry Sargeant III, has made tens of millions of dollars in profits over the last four years because his contracting company vastly overcharged for deliveries of fuel to American air bases in Iraq.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Freedom
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Open Nursery Rhymes
Winking
Blinking
...and Nod
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Honesty: In a mother's eyes.
'I hope Johnny can forgive me...
... but Obama gets my vote.'
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Open Arrest Warrant for McCain and Palin
... for the incitement of terroristic threatening.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Opportunity: We Americans, the people, will fix it.
Barack Obama said (paraphrasing here) that these are difficult times and we must work together to overcome them.
He did not say that he would fix them. He did not say that the government would fix them. He didn't say Democrats or Republican (or liberals or neocons or hawks or tycoons) would fix them. Instead he made a simple statement that has done more for national identity and pride than any other politician to date. Barack Obama used the word 'we' to describe the answer to our problems.
Under his leadership We have been empowered to fix what is ailing America.
Under his leadership We are allowed to be responsible for the direction of our solutions.
Under his leadership We Americans, the people, will be able to say, "We fixed it!"
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Open ACORN Supporter: John McCain
[H/T to my sister (who doesn't blog, yet!)]
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Analysis: Cleese on Palin
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Open Analysis: GWB's Driving Record.
[Tip-o-the-hat to my brother, who doesn't blog, yet!]
Two people are in a fast car. The passenger who is looking at a map says “there is a cliff up ahead” and the driver says “no there isn’t” and the passenger holds the map up so the driver can see it and says “look, it says right here on the map, there is a cliff just up ahead” and the driver grows angry and says “FOR THE LAST TIME THERE IS NO CLIFF” and speeds up even more. The car flies off the cliff. Just before the fiery final explosion the passenger says “I told you so.” and the driver says “No. No. YOU DOUBTED.”
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Insult: We are not that stupid
[Tip-o-the-hat to Chris M. who carefully doesn't blog politics, yet.]
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Open Insult: Palin's assumption of our stupidity.
Why would Ms Sarah "Troopergate" Palin think we are so stupid?
I am tired of being insulted by
McCain't & Palin Won't
I am tired of being insulted by
McCain't & Palin Won't
Time Magazine...
What the Troopergate Report Really Says
The 263 pages of the report show a co-ordinated application of pressure on Monegan so transparent and ham-handed that it was almost certain to end in public embarrassment for the governor. The only surprise is that Troopergate is national news, not just a sorry piece of political gristle to be chewed on by Alaska politicos over steaks at Anchorage's Club Paris.
A harsh verdict? Consider the report's findings. Not only did people at almost every level of the Palin administration engage in repeated inappropriate contact with Walt Monegan and other high-ranking officials at the Department of Public Safety, but Monegan and his peers constantly warned these Palin disciples that the contact was inappropriate and probably unlawful. Still, the emails and calls continued — in at least one instance on recorded state trooper phone lines.
The state's head of personnel, Annette Kreitzer, called Monegan and had to be warned that personnel issues were confidential. The state's attorney general, Talis Colberg, called Monegan and had to be reminded that the call was putting both men in legal jeopardy, should Wooten decide to sue. The governor's chief of staff met with Monegan and had to be reminded by Monegan that, "This conversation is discoverable ... You don't want Wooten to own your house, do you?"
Monegan consistently emerges as the adult in these conversations, while the Palin camp displays a childish impetuousness and sense of entitlement.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open List: 10 Things to Know About Bill Ayers
Posted in the Chicago Sun Times ...
10. Are all former alleged terrorists/radicals shunned?
No. Former IRA bomber Gerry Adams is welcomed at the White House as a peacemaker. Former PLO leader Yasser Arafat was too. Former Students for a Democratic Society member and Ayers friend Tom Hayden was elected to the California State Assembly. Former Black Panther Bobby Rush is a congressman representing Chicago, as is former Puerto Rican independence activist Luis Gutierrez.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Question: America, can you see yourself?
What excuse would America use if the Republicans had nominated Colin Powell?
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Open sense of impending doom...
In response to David Weinberger's post
Let’s hold the election right now
I commented...For my efforts another poster suggested that I put my tinfoil hat back on...We must be ever vigilant!
We must let due process proceed. We can let no opportunity for deviation sway us from our established right to self determination. This current difficulty is one of the least acknowledged costs of Democracy.
Sadly I can foresee our current fearful “leader” GWB, in response to some real or perceived slight, declaring marshal law and suspending the electoral process. Fear ensuing would only play into the hands of the fearful.
We must be ever vigilant!
Now, for the
In October 1, 2008, the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team was redeployed for 12 months on what is expected will be a permanent mission to respond to the threat of terrorist attacks on American soil and perform crowd control of unruly American citizens in the case of civil unrest. The force was renamed CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force and is now under the the daily control of United States Northern Command's Army North, whose mission is to protect the United States homeland and support local, state, and federal authorities.
-From here
[H/T to Kalilily Time]
I’ve read a number of stories (here's one) this week about the deployment of Army troops within the U.S. which would appear to violate the Posse Comitatus Act, except that in a signing statement, President Bush apparently has repealed that Act. Naomi Wolf - who believes a fascist coup d’etat took place in the U.S. on 1 October - the day the Army deployment went into effect - has published a new book, A Handbook For America which she discussed in this interview.
[Link - Time Goes By]
I reiterate: GWB, in response to some real or perceived slight, declaring marshal law and suspending the electoral process.
It is a perfect irony that in order to prevent the coup d'état that Naomi Wolf speaks of we must rise up and counter the government. The very government that has so completely poisoned us with fear of terrorism, both foreign and domestic.
Welcome to the United Totalitarian State of America!
(Remember George, 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose!' When you leave us with nothing then we will be free to counter an oppressive regime.)
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
Open Dept.of Justice, insert political pressure
Reported in TruthOut, Marilou Johanek responsibly reminds us that the economy is not the only story that we should be paying attention to...
Justice Department Scandal Almost Buried by Financial Crisis
Friday 10 October 2008
by: Marilou Johanek, The Toledo Blade
. . .
It was an overlooked bombshell in breaking news cycles preoccupied with financial crisis, rescue plans, presidential politics, and a vice-presidential debate.
But what the Justice Department's exhaustive investigation and blistering report concluded about the enormous damage done to the department through improper politicization is far more troubling than even Sarah Palin in disjointed attack mode.
Investigators from both the department's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility found that political pressure did indeed drive the dismissal action against at least three of the nine federal prosecutors abruptly fired. At the time, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted the individuals were all dismissed for inadequate performance, or failure to implement the President's law enforcement agenda.
But it appears the longtime pal and adviser to President Bush was lying through his teeth. Turns out the real reason some of the top federal lawyers were removed from the job, according to the Justice Department report, was that either the U.S. attorneys had the audacity to prosecute Republicans or because they failed to aggressively prosecute Democrats.
I am William "Papa" Meloney and I endorse this message.
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