Mormon Mitt's Defining Moment

Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 09:15:45 PM PST

Romney will get the plasticky android vote but the nomination? Only if he can give one hell of a speech on what the talking heads have taken to calling his "Mormon Problem," which is funny enough all on its own.

Mitt's initially attempted to make his "Mormon Problem" a non-issue with the master stroke of claiming he'd like to talk about it but he's not allowed:

"Is there going to be a special speech? Perhaps, at some point. I sort of like the idea myself. The political advisers tell me no, no, no — it's not a good idea. It draws too much attention to that issue alone."

It was a positively brilliant distraction: we all end up thinking that he's just an idiot that can't think for himself and is too stupid to cover this potentially damaging fact up rather than a Mormon that is...well...a Mormon. Look, stupiding your way to the president worked just fine for George 'Dubya' Bush not once but twice and Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi is on the record as suspecting the same strategy hard at work for Fred Thompson. Well, sort of hard at work. At work. Point is, post Dubya, stupid is the new smart in American politics, so why shouldn’t Mitt jump onboard as well?

All for naught, it seems his advisors now tell him he is indeed allowed to talk openly about his Mormon problem, for which we all await with baited breath and which the media has already dubbed Romney’s ‘JFK speech’ (offend anybody? No? Moving on...). This in reference to Kennedy’s very successful pitch to the masses in 1960, the major difference being that Mitt wouldn’t dream of saying he’d keep his Faith seperate from his job but rather that his Faith is just as pro God, pro Bible, pro Jesus, pro-Torturing-and-Nuking as yours is and a mighty Amen to all that.

Can he pull it off? Dunno. Tough row to hoe. Many feel he'd have better luck being elected as an Atheist than a Mormon. A Mormon? Multiple wives? This is America. Might as well start marrying the livestock. Blacks not having souls until the late sixties? Might not be a big deal with the Far Right who evidently still doubt they have souls in 2007 but these are the kind of things that can come back and haunt a would-be presidential contender that needs to win more than just the Big Business and Bible Belt vote. Secret, fireproof underwear? Sounds like James Bond stuff to me and I'm all for it. Seems like a good idea for just about anybody, let alone a presidential candidate, so maybe it's a good place for him to start.

His all knowing handlers have claimed Mitt’s speech is "not going to be a lesson in Mormon doctrine" but rather "an open discussion of how important and critical faith has been and is in Romney’s life" and "how faith is what shapes our values.."

And if that’s the case, Mitt’s sunk and his advisors are punks. People don’t really want a good sermon but if they did, Huckabee’s got that market cornered like no candidate in history. (Did you know he’s the only running candidate with a theology degree???? Bet yer ass! Talk about qualified!) Yessiree, Mike Huckabee, who asserts that he doesn’t even think we’re primates, which is funny and weird all at the same time, has the religio-chops to sermonize rings around any and all comers, Romney obviously included, which would be great if he were running for Pope, scary and extremely backwards since Huck’s running for President of the United States. Nonetheless here we all are.

Nope, Mitt’s gotta make the case for not just a religious president but a Mormon one or he’s dead in the water and to do so he’s gotta shed light on the ‘Otherness’ that clings to him like a wet fart and has from the start. That means (at the very least) confronting the multi-wife thing (only weird Mormons, a minority of what we like to call the ‘Other Mormons’ do that sort of thing and I am certainly not one of those), the no souls for black folks until the late sixties thing (yeah, well, somebody had a revelation, okay? Old Testament meets New Testament, okay? You either believe in revelations or you don’t, okay? Okay?!?) and the fireproof secret undie thing (Steve Young wore secret Mormon fireproof underpants while quarterbacking the Niners through how many championship seasons? How many Superbowl rings did your underwear ever get you? None? Boom! Done! Mormon’s fuckin' RULE!!!).

He takes these issues head-on and in the manner I’ve laid out then he has a chance against the possibly sleeping actor, the creationist preacher, the confused war vet and the transvestite. Anything less and he’s officially an also-ran.

Truth Decay: Deconstructing Rove

Sun Dec 02, 2007 at 11:30:38 PM PST

To many, including former Whitehouse chief of staff Andy Card, Karl Rove's latest blossom was laughable on it's very face. The ineffectual, kowtowing Democrats were somehow responsible for anything at all to do with the run-up to the Iraq War? Yes, it’s ridiculous. Yes, it is entirely unassociated with what actually happened. Shake your head and laugh at him if you like. I don't laugh. Betcha Orwell wouldn’t either. It's not funny.

Karl Rove is not ‘the National Enquirer’. He’s the man that got George ‘Dubya’ Bush elected, not once but twice. Everything the man does is strategy. It's who he is. So why lay out the stinkin'est most obvious of laughable lies for all and sundry?

You and I may never forget who started this thing, when and why they started it but none of us can expect the same from our brothers and sisters. Or the people we work with? And that gaggle of folks that hang out around the watercooler and yammer daily about the latest American Idol winner? They’ve already forgotten much and are looking to forget yet more. Rove is never, ever afraid to underestimate the intelligence, the memory or the attention span of the common man. On that, and that alone, he and I are in full agreement.

Where Dubya’s legacy will always be the Iraq war, Rove’s will always be the permanent Republican 50% + 1 majority. As always, for this to be the case you and your fellow Citizens must remain angier at your polar opposites, (be they Far Right Religio-Nutjob or Bullgoose Loonie Lefty) than your ineffectual government or your powergrabbing leader. It’s worked swimmingly so far, why on earth should he stop now?

Create the mere perception of a debate on even the most obvious of Truths and soon both wings will happily fight it out for you, creating (or in this case, perpetuating) the most fertile of grounds for the schemer of schemers: an environment in which there is a lot of anger, a lot of confusion and no objective Truth. No objective Truth means maybe the Democrats did push America into the Iraq War, maybe Saddam did have WMDs, maybe Saddam did have connections with Osama, maybe it actually is okay to wipe one's arse with the Constitution and maybe there actually is no such thing as an objective Right or Wrong. That America even now debates the legitimacy of torture is proof enough of the success of this strategy in the last few years. This is to be expected in a society turning ever closer to Fascism. Orwell, if he was that type of guy, would say "I told you."

The grim thought I’ll wrestle with whilst trying to sleep: each and every time we rally at the next Repubbie (be they Senator, Governor, Talking Head or the guy next door) that inevitably repeats this most obvious of lies, Rove chuckles deeply to himself and rubs his porky hands together with sick glee, and why not. We’re doing all he could ever ask of us. And we’re powerless to do otherwise.

Genius.

Frontrunner Nothing: Why Hills and Gules Won't Win

Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 12:12:29 PM PST

Media coverage to the contrary I never bought for even ten seconds that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President. She's not even the next Democratic contender. Too far Right of the Zeitgeist is my sense of it. People want out of Iraq and they don't want to go to Iran and Hills bolloxed it up badly when she voted to name the Iranian Whoozitswhatzits as a terrorist organization, knowingly opening the door for Retarded George to have one more vicious, failing stab at a Middle East Apocalypse during his mad reign. It's her biggest mistake yet. She can't blow it off, she just voted for it. Edwards called it 'a neocon dream' and scored huge points for that one sentence and rightfully so.

Media coverage to the contrary I never bought for even ten seconds that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President. She's not even the next Democratic contender. Too far Right of the Zeitgeist is my sense of it. People want out of Iraq and they don't want to go to Iran and Hills bolloxed it up badly when she voted to name the Iranian Whoozitswhatzits as a terrorist organization, knowingly opening the door for Retarded George to have one more vicious, failing stab at a Middle East Apocalypse during his mad reign. It's her biggest mistake yet. She can't blow it off, she just voted for it. Edwards called it 'a neocon dream' and scored huge points for that one sentence and rightfully so.

Hills is the Republican-lite candidate, has her eyes on gaining the middle ground in the general election when she hasn’t won the first battle amongst her fellow Democrats. Edwards can go far by continuing to demonstrate how deeply cozy Hills is with the Big Business establishment and the status quo and should beat her like a drum daily for her vote on the Iran deal, all of which will benefit Barrack Obama more than anybody else.

As for the other media generated, Big Business champion/frontrunner, Guiliani toes the Bush-line without reservation and, in a sane world, should be utterly doomed for that and that alone. What it actually means is that Rudy 'Always 911' Guliani enjoys full neoconservative support, materials, funding, department of dirty tricks, timely governmental threat alerts, prob'ly Rove and the gargantuan weight of the Far Right, Fight-to-the-Death Cult. Having said all that, I just don’t believe anybody can win the Republican nomination if he’s been photographed wearing a dress on at least seven different occasions, which Gules most certainly has.

Vegas odds have it an even bet that should this man ever get elected he’ll get caught smooching an expensive portrait of John F. Kennedy while dressed up like Marilyn Monroe and singing "I Feel Pretty" inside of three weeks in the White House.

the Ongoing Media Hackjobbery on Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore

Tue Oct 16, 2007 at 09:52:28 AM PST

As of 12:30 last Saturday morning I watched a typically beautiful but vacuous CNN commentator casually bring up recent Nobel Prize winner Al Gore "inventing the internet" again, to chuckles all around. In 2007, that "the Most Trusted Name in News" CNN is repeating these well established falsehoods (the latest Vanity Fair covers the whole odious enterprise quite succinctly) goes a long way towards explaining just how terrified of this man Big Business really is and how far they’ll go to try to stick it to him again.

Forget FoxNews, everyone knows they’re propaganda fiends and utterly full of shit but an alarming amount of people still trust supposed Leftist (but actually centrist) outlets like CNN or the NYTimes, either of whom have no problem toeing the party line when push comes to shove and both of whom pulled as much of a hatchet-job on Gore in 2000 as anybody else. Hopefully it goes without saying that they will of course do so again given half the chance. Or else they’ll try to convince him, and you, and everybody else, that Gore doesn’t need to run, that he has nothing to prove or that he will only hurt his cause of increasing awareness of Global Warming. All of which is, of course, utter horseshit on the face of it but that’s the script as I perceive it for this week in the MainStreamMedia. All of which means you and yours have work to do. Especially when (not if) he actually does announce he’s running.

There were many excuses for the Media to claim and repeat ad infinitum falsehoods about (not by) Gore in 2000, the result of which being nothing less than the Gore/Bush vote being as close as it was, making the vicious power seizure by Bush Sr. via his buddies on the Supreme Court even possible. Blame the media or ‘Fourth Estate’ as much or more than anybody for the mess in Iraq, the total evisceration of your Constitution and the Murderous Run of the NeoCons. And be pissed about it, would you? Know why? Because they’re still doing it. As recently as 12:30 last Saturday morning.

It’s abundantly clear: the jackals and greedheads also know he’s going to run and think they’ve got all their artillery all lined up, same as last time. Do they though? Hasn’t the battlefield changed at least a little? They think the ways of the old are going to work in the Now and it won’t, and I don’t even have to tell Gore fans, of all people, cuz you know it better than anybody: It’s a brand new world. It’s a "YouTubeMySpaceFaceBookWikiBlogWorlde" and in it, for a change, people are actually being held accountable. Politicians are seeing their own fithy lies come back and smack them in the face, for the whole www to see. Media hackjobbers like O'Reilley and the rest of his demogoblins are having all their lies repeated, deconstructed and disproven on sites like the DKos or crooksandliars.com seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 a year. And the whole world is really watching now. Everybody has their digi-cams and their laptops and their websites and their blogs and I just have to believe your folks’ll fight for him. For it. For us? Organizations like yours have to be the first line of defense against dark Repubbie and yes, even Democrat dirty play. Why should Al, ever again, have to dirty his hands with this muck when it gives the common folk such raw pleasure exposing these lying whores (and for this I apologize to actual whores everywhere) for what they are.

And it’s not just about writing letters to people and getting their support for Gore, it’s about writing letters to CNN and asking them not to rebroadcast proven falsehoods generated by the sick and depraved Right Wing or else losing the not insignificant viewership groups like yours represent. See where I’m going with this?

Let’s face it, I’m not an American. It’s not my fight. It’s just so totally and uniquely yours. It’s up to you guys to make this thing happen. Fact is, never before in human history has one single society’s decisions and choices meant so much to so many. The world. Save the planet or keep burning it, that’s the choice that Gore brings to the table and the interesting part is that so many people already know this. Even the people who hate his guts know he runs for something much larger and more important than an office.

Love him or hate him every man-jack out there knows he represents not only a change but a dramatic departure from the status quo, a vast and interdependent effort to be made not only by every American but every citizen of the First World. He’s become a living symbol of the dedication to the kind of large-scale, interdependent, international action required to save the earth, action that America can lead, genuinely lead and the world would follow. Maybe not right away but when one of the very biggest polluters on earth lays down that kind of example how can my own country, no small polluter in its own right, not follow?

Your People have to understand that this next election is the deal breaker. You and Al gotta package the thing like it’s never been packaged before. The Choice of the Greatest Generation of Americans. Cuz you know what? It actually is precisely that, should you decide to make it that. Make yours the generation that decides how they want to live and how they want to treat the world and the earth and everything else and not only that but how they want to be treated! How they want their votes counted, how they want their bridges, levees and infrastructure maintained, how they want their governments to interact with other governments and Nations. Ultimately, this generation, if and only if it gets its shit together, might just get to kick-start a Renaissance and who knows, maybe it takes nothing less than that to save America. And everything else.

The good news? Such things have happened on this earth before and will undoubtedly happen again. The point is that never before has there been this absolutely breathtaking opportunity for an entire populace to knowingly decide upon and seize a Renaissance. And the rest of the world will follow, I promise you.

I know, it asks a lot from a buncha tv-heads (and that’s no slight against you, believe me, a comparable percentage of my own countrymen are actively lobotomizing themselves with Reality TV, meaningless sitcom shlock and the like), but it all comes down to how the next election is framed and cutting through the window dressing, the background noise and the omnipresent bullshit. Fortunately in Al Gore you have one of the more articulate, gifted and intelligent men to ever run for president.

Look at it this way, you do it, you get him elected and you’ve forced your country to try to lead the fight to save the planet. How relevant does that make your particular generation of Americans? How epic is this choice? Sounds like one of your BLOCKBUSTER movies, doesn’t it? "In a world gone mad, one man..." Okay, you write it. Act it out. Do it. Are you doing it? Well, here’s the thing: you’ve already done a lot but you’ll need to do much more.

Good luck on it, we’re all going be hoping for you, and, between hockey games, watching and cheering for you.

-iSenseChange

p.p. I believe in you. Now get off your asses.

RandomMP3age: "Sex and Candy" by Marcy Playground

Iran Just Made America Look Like a Buncha Dicks

Say what you like about Iran, at least they gave them soldiers back to their country and families. If it were Iranians captured anywhere even close to american waters is there any doubt they would already have been tortued extensively by now? No doubt whatsoever and I defy anybody to refute it. You can't. You all know that's what goes on now, that America tortures, no matter what GWB and Darth Cheney say out of both sides of their mouths.

Ugly times when Iran has the moral highground over the good ol' US of A but hey, shit, welcome to the PNAC America!

-iSC

Scandal Made Easy: the Gonzales Attorney Firings

Deal is these cats do indeed serve at the President's pleasure and he can fire them anytime he likes and for whatever reason. So long as he's not breaking any laws. How can he break a law in firing them? If it can be demonstrated that these attorneys are being fired to halt federal investigations into criminal enterprises. That's not only a crime but a Federal Crime if my reading of it is accurate, and it's called multiple counts of "Obstruction of Justice."

Whom was investigating whom when these attorneys got their pink slips? If you can figure that out you've got all you need...

THIS HANDLE ON THE SCANDAL BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE GOOD FOLKS AT THE SENSECHANGE CENTER FOR POSITIVE CHANGE. THANKS, AND HAVE A GREAT DAY.

More Kidnapped Troops and Other Reasons to Launch the Apocalypse

You voted him in twice. I wouldn’t even trust him with the keys to my car. And now he’s gonna, what would you say…demo Iran? Whew. The Brits start fishing their sailors around Iranian waters providing that invented aggressor that this administration needs to get it’s last piece of the puzzle, that final kick at the can: Iran! Man! They’re gonna play the Iran card. If not now, when? To not would show immense restraint where before there’s always been absolutely none at all. This is genius. Is Rove on this? I feel in my heart its Cheney. It’s just his type of dastardly, utterly wreckless plan to keep the mad, PNAC, Neo-Con Nutter drive alive: Congress gonna subpoena this or investigate that or impeach what?!? Guess what, motherfuckers? We’re at war with Iran! That’s right! We’re goin’ in! What are you gonna do about it?!? Nothin.’ HAH!!! I’ll take my money now. George ‘Dubya’ Bush is fuckin’ ballsy, I’ll give him that. Crazier than a shithouse rat but pretty fuckin’ ballsy. It’d be admirable if you didn’t absolutely know that he’s a huge fuckup, maybe the biggest in history. Either that or he’s Kaiser Sose and at this point in time things are too fucked up for anybody to make any kind of meaningful guess. Still oscillating at this late date. Utterly insane whichever end of the scale you take.

If we look at this from an Axis vs Allies scenario it clarifies. In times of war the actions of your ally are your own, if you’re any kind of a team at all. Subtlety of a flying mallet, fer fock’s sake. Eh?!? And the UK knows it won’t have to do any of the heavy lifting for this one, if ever again. They don’t even have to get involved beyond lighting the fuse of the damned enterpise. Maybe they’ll take charge of the aftermath and it’ll actually all work out in some crazy way. The Brits clean up whatever mess the US makes in the perfect servile relationship and why not? They’ll be the perfect butlers. They already have the accents. A gold star for you, friend, in your brand New American Century! Where the Rich Get Richer and the Poor go to Prison!

Weird times, many things happening at the same time, so much, so fast. What’s it all mean? Was gonna write this one out of character. Might be impossible now, but what an odd thought. Out of character? What possible impulse? It’s been well established by now that Gonzo is the only way to cover these, the weirdest of times. Yes sir, HST had his finger to the pulse when he fathered this vein of political reporting. Because when Lies and Deceit are universal and the Change is coming on fast and hard, your writing has to be as mercurial as the times or you’re already two steps behind, which is one step away from useless! You gotta be outta yer mind to really have your finger on the pulse of what’s comin’ next because what’s comin’ next might well be out of anybody’s mind. The inmates are running the asylum, they have been for a long time and it turns out this isn’t really an efficient way to to run things. No, Gonzo’s the way to write it, that’s the only certainty in the whole thing maybe, so that hasn’t changed. But what has? Is it her? You?

With so much going on some stuff slips by the filters as your paying more attention to some stories, trying to see how this thing is gonna play out. It’s all about Congress versus President right now, so that’s what your watching and waiting for, some hint about how that scene’ll play out and in the midst of all that you don’t have the focus for the ‘Iran/Uk hostage’ deal. So maybe you don’t see it right away, even after the ridiculously obvious pre-kidnap interview with the single-mother soldier just days before she was taken. How many soldiers in the UK and they just happen to interview one of the hostages days before the kidnapping and she’s a plucky single mom trying to give her child a better life? So, it’s like, you see it happening, right in front of you but you don’t even recognize it as it happens, it looks like something else, even though you’ve been calling for something exactly like this for months now (Yeah. And I saw it. I said the US was gonna do explicitly that on Februrary 12 in a little ditty I wrote that I like to call:NeoCon Versus Nazi: Next Stop Iran! None of which makes me necessarily politically adept or anything, lots of people saw precisely this coming, it just means that I’m catching the obvious ones. Which is more than we can say for the mainstream media, right everybody? Right, Sense). Embarrassing that Rosie McDonald or whatever her name is beat you to the punch on that one, Sensey, oh shit, nailing it for what it is. You’re getting soft, dude. First time I’ve ever found her even remotely interesting. And hey, shit, dissent has found the mainstream! It’s about bloody time!

Not that that’ll stop anything at this point. We all know Bush’s been chompin’ at the bit for this. We all know Cheney’s been foaming at the mouth for this. Everybody’s been crafting plans, everybody’s been shaking fingers, everybody’s been prepared for that all-important reason which turns out to be any reason at all to turn the largest arsenal on earth onto oil-rich Iran and give it a good boot-fucking. You hit Afghanistan, you hit Iraq but you leave the piece in the middle? Are you kidding me? What on earth for?

Who knows. Maybe they’ve learnt something from Iraq but you know what? I doubt it. Don’t think this crew is about learning at all. Betcha George Bush still watches four hours a day of old baseball games.

Right! That’s all for now, Citizens. Keep your eyes on the skies. Time has never been better for a little distraction. Or a big one.

-iSenseChange

NonRandomMP3age: "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode

Scandal Made Easy: Walter Reed

You want to find out who’s responsible you have to look at what got put into the budget for soldier care. Next to nothing? Thanks, Dubya! But I sure do support the troops though! That should be a no-brainer but we’ve over-estimated the Far Right before. It’s called putting your money where your mouth is.

Supporting the troops begins with funding their recovery when they get hurt. Plain and simple. WHAT’S IN THE BUDGET? This Truth is self-evident. You don’t send these folks into battle with the proper armor or training and you don’t take care of them properly when they get hurt but you feel you support them because you support their war, you support them dying for your country while you go about your life making gruff noises about the Left Wing Media and what not. But you know what, you’re the pansy that doesn’t support them. Their lives ain’t piss to you.

Dubya's the only guy on earth who can decide not to fund soldiers when they get hurt then act all surprised when it comes out in the wash, then announce he's gonna launch a probe that history DEMANDS he's gonna totally ignore, just like the 911 probe. See also Katrina. See also Iraq Study. Get the picture? He doesn't give a shit. Never has. Do you?

Supporting the troops, it turns out, involves a little more than beating your puffed up chest and calling people names.

-iSenseChange

No Recollection of Anything, Actually

Dim memories of a weird night. Much booze. Have taken to Jack Daniels and rocks of late. Mix has sugar, sugar’s poison and besides, where do you think all those vicious hangovers are coming from? It’s not the booze, I can assure you that! Because all I had was various combinations of straight booze and though I had to make the bartender pull over so’s I could launch a mighty barf on the sidewalk in front of a group of total strangers, I feel it’s incumbent upon me to say, there is no splitting headache element to my hangover on this particular Sunday morning. Or afternoon. Just fuzzy memories. Maybe I should work for the government.

Because nobody seems to be able to recall, well, anything, right? Libby can’t recall meetings with the Vice freaking President, Gonzales can’t recall conversations with the President of the United States of America (which I find fascinating. Like, what else do you have going on that’s distracting you from conversations with the President? Must have some super ultra sweet kind of tail your tapping, hope it ain’t what Foley’s been into but at this phase would that surprise any of us? Or maybe it’s just because all the conversations are kinda the same? GWB quietly works away at his coloring book as Cheney tells you the real deal through blood-stained teeth as he bites the heads off of live, mewling kittens). I wasn’t there for that, I don’t know, I haven’t read the report yet, may not ever. Why not work for the government? I can forget with the best of them.

“Driver, pull this fucking thing over, STAT! Gonna barf, gonna barf, gonna barf barf BAAAARF!” Dr. Suess, eat your motherfucking heart out. And I remember that crew of strangers on the road, some horrified, some finding humor in the situation and me just trying not to get any on my fine coat or hotel slippers. They’re saying something to me, that random crew but it’s totally slo-moed and horror-movie twisted. I don’t respond. I have more pressing issues on my mind at the present. Like barfing. So it’s easy to see how one can be distracted around momentous events.

Is Gonzales a drinker? If he wasn’t before he is now, I can assure you of that. Screw it. It’s not like any of this wasn’t anticipated, right? Fella wrote all about the potential fallout of this mess when he camwe up with the idea and why not? It’s good to be prepared, even if you know you’re not going to be able to remember any of it two years from now or even tomorrow if needs be. And they be, Citizens, they be. Hey, can’t figure the Press is gonna lay down forever, right? Media’s been used like Saturday night Shirley and everybody knows it. Maybe media’s tired of that next-morning-walk-of-shame-no-make-up-wrinkled-clothes-Just-Been-Fucked-and-Still-Cummy-Hair. Everybody knows it’s perfectly okay to be a whore, but it’s not okay when everybody knows that you specifically are that whore. At least, that’s what I’m told, and the difference is crucial.

I remember being a kid and the nuns at St. Mary’s were heavy into Iran Contra, watching these important-looking and serious people ask all sorts of questions and nobody seeming to be able to remember much of anything. On a 12 inch black and white tv, with coathangers covered in foil for reception.

“Sister Francis,” I remember asking, “why don’t they leave that poor fellow alone?” Didn’t seem fair, fellow was obviously not very smart and they keep asking him about things he can’t remember. He was a soldier, I thought, maybe he’d injured his head in the War. When I asked sister Francis about it she took a big drag from her smoke, exhaled and said “you see all the medals on that guys jacket?” and she wrinkles her brow like Bruce Willis as she continues, “you don’t get that many medals if you’re the type ‘a guy that forgets stuff all the time.” When I asked her if the other guys, the guys asking him the questions were lying too was the first time she looked at me as anything other than a necessary burden. She saw it had my interest and the rest of the nuns couldn’t have been more surprised when I joined them for the rest of the afternoon and every afternoon subsequent during those investigations. That poor fellow was Ollie North and that was when I started turning things to my advantage at the orphanage, now that I think about it, was when I started watching politics.

All of which is a far cry from last night’s shenanigans. Apparently had they not seen my hotel slippers theyd’ve never found me under the pool table, fast asleep. I remember the lights coming on, somebody taking a picture and me being loaded into a car by the owner and the bartender and I remember those good folk I nearly barfed on not six minutes later. Did I actually barf on somebody? I just can’t fucking remember, man! Which means I just don’t fucking know! Right?


-iSenseChange

RandomMP3age:“The Chauffeur” by Duran Duran.

The iSenseChange Guide to Impeaching Your Vice President

"You know what? [Wells] said something here that we're trying to put a cloud on the vice president. We'll talk straight. There is a cloud over the vice president. He sent Libby off to [meet with former New York Times reporter] Judith Miller at the St. Regis Hotel. At that meeting, the two hour meeting, the defendant talked about the wife [Plame]. We didn't put that cloud there. That cloud remains…”
-Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's closing arguments in Scooter Libby’s perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial.

This all-important quote brought to you by the good folks at the SenseChange Center for Positive Change in lieu of the Media living up to its responsibilities and actually doing its job. Thanks, and have a GREAT day!

Yossarian Lament: Go to Mars, Not Iraq

We’ll need war only so long as we believe it to be an inescapable component of the human condition. It isn’t. Not anymore. Many nations with nukes means we lose the evolution game. Intelligence, the advantage that preserved us to the position of ultimate power on earth ends up destroying us, making the whole of human experience little more than a catch 22. Which is, of course, madness! I want no truck with it! I suspect you war people want to kill me! And everybody else! Worse yet, I suspect you want to kill yourselves, even! Bloody nutcases, the lot of you!

I want to know when we’re going to get serious not only about fixing the mess but designing this world, this civilization of ours to accommodate people of all races and geographic locations using clean, fully safe and sustainable energy. The blood of dead dinosaurs have sustained us to the point where we will raze other nations to rubble for control over it. It’s well established that Mankind does not have a great history of sharing rare things with one another, and in light of this we have to recognize that it is far past time to utilize the very energy that all matter in the universe is made from. Make it safe. Make it available. You can. You’ve done so much else. Right? Of course you have.

I want to know when we get serious about actually colonizing both Mars and the Moon. That’s the reality tv I’m interested in. And I’m not talking about sending Gary Coleman up there or anything, I’m talking about the real deal. Genuine top-drawer ExtraTerrestroNauts. Get those assholes from American Idol on the horn, I’m bloody serious, man! Bet we could get a pretty good scene up there on the moon (next stop, Mars!) for far less than the cost of Iraq Deux alone. Sad but true. Am I wrong? By how much? You figure it would have to be an international venture? Of course! Shouldn’t all things? Isn’t it necessary to avoid this tired ‘my backyard versus yours’ mentality that has ruled our relations amongst one another for for centuries of war and inequality?

ExtraTerrestroNauts. ETNs? Sure. A ring to it. Can’t be cosmonauts til we get past the range of the Sun, OneForce tells me, but also likes the ring of the ETN thing. Go to Mars, not Iraq, that's what the Flaming Lips said and who knows better than them?

Alright, enough for now. Straighten up you filthy swabs, get yer shit together!

-iSenseChange

NonRandomMP3age: "Change" by Blind Melon

Gonzo Letters: Ash and Leopold: Next Woodward and Bernstein

Gentlemen,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you two for some of the only in-depth coverage of the Libby trial. My feeling is that in the years to come, yours will be the analysis (and text, I would imagine, and the second you write a book on it you just go ahead and let me know about it. I’ll buy, I’ll read and I’ll encourage others to do the same) people turn to when they seek answers about this strange time in American political history. What you’re doing is important, fellows, for as Georgie and the NeoCons even now seek to make a case so they can try their luck at Iran, a careful examination of the lies that began the Iraq mess could not be more timely or have more far ranging implications.

I say this little note of Cheney’s (involving ‘this Pres’) is the number one story in the realm, the second being the Media’s complete and utter lack of coverage on it. It’s not like there’s any digging involved. It’s out there. Somewhere in the halls of the Chief High Big Media Muckety Mucks a decision was made that the world can’t handle the Truth.

My position on Plame’s outing is that it’s extremely damning for ‘this Pres’ and this Vice President and enough to kick both of them to the curb and ideally into prison. I haven’t heard anybody calling it what it is, but I affix the label ‘High Treason’ and keep it there, for Plame was working on getting a handle on loose WMD’s from international arms gangs, the very thing that can and will be used against America in the years to come. If you knowingly disable a defender of your country for your own sick ends you are an enemy of your country, President or not. High treason in the highest office of the land. Strange days, friends, but that’s the situation as I see it.

CNN has decided not to cover this story, or to cover it enough to remain credible to the majority of the lemmings, and they’ll continue to do so (or not do so, depending on how you see it). The latest example is the non-coverage of the Fitzgerald’s summation in which he openly targets Richard ‘Dick’ Cheney as co-conspirator in this mess. What are the ramifications of this? Not sure, but one thing is certain; we’ll all know a whole lot about Anna Nicole Smith in the coming days, the death of a whore rather than impeachment of one.

I seek to help get this story out and as such have put a call out to the Gonzo Warriors, an international consortium of ne’er-do-well, miscreant bloggers that, from time to time, coordinate to hold leaders and industries to task for their meddling and malevolence. We’ve been firing piss-fueled emails into the head vampires at CNN demanding they start telling us the Real Story, and if they want to keep calling themselves the ‘Most Trusted Name in News’ they better start deserving it. Will it have an effect? On CNN? Probably not. But every letter that gets written is cut and pasted into our blogs, raising awareness within the larger community in which the Warriors thrive, that of the writingup.com community and maybe, just maybe we’ll hit one of Blitzer’s staffers with one of these things and get ‘em thinking about a little thing called ‘the Real Story.’

Anyways, you guys have been a source of inspiration to me and I get a lot of my information from Truthout. I link to your articles all the time and it has been an invaluable resource for my own crazed warblings. Check us out!

Sincerely,
iSenseChange, acting Co-General of the Gonzo Warriors

From the Desk of the General: A Call to Arms for Gonzo Warriors, WritingUppers and Unaffiliated TruthSeekers

The Libby defence team has admitted evidence into the case in the form of a handwritten note that Dick Cheney wrote that directly implicates President George ‘Dubya’ Bush in the conspiracy to out Valerie Plame, making the whole world that much safer for international WMD vendors. This evidence, if wholly substantiated, should shitcan the Bush presidency and Cheney Vice-Presidency in one fell swoop, because, to me anyway, it means both dudes were entirely in on it, an admission of criminal action by those in the very highest Seats of Power in the Land. The Lands! And CNN has chosen not to cover it.

A dead, money-grubbing whore gets 24 hour play rather than the potential impeachment of a President, and I don’t know what’s worse. Or if there’s any difference. Death of a Whore versus Impeachment of One. One difference only, that I can think of at this point, and that is that I can be assured of every single excruciating detail about the one story and precious little of any value on the other. I like porn and I like politics but for me this one’s no contest: I want the Real Story over Fake Tits.

CNN has chosen not to cover this ‘Bush Treason’ thing (for is it not treason to divulge the identity of undercover operatives seeking to disarm those that would strike your country? If not treason, what? Certainly criminal, we must all agree on that, yes?) and my feeling is that they never will unless the People make them. The people, in this case, are YOU. And ME. If you’re a Gonzo Warrior I’m ordering it in my capacity as co-General or else the title don’t mean a lick to me. If you are a WritingUpper then I’m asking you as a fellow citizen and member in good standing of the same blog neighbourhood as you. If you’re just a netsurfer that’s found this page somehow amidst the rest of the Sound, Fury and Pornography and feel within you a soul that seeks Truth, write them a fucking letter, a letter to these BigBiz stooges that think they know what’s safe for you to learn about in that big scary world out there. Because it’s getting bigger and scarier, and these jerks’ll lull you right into an apocalypse if you let them. And if you let them, does that mean you deserve it? That’s how it looks from where I sit, Citizens.

If you dig my shit, think I’m a cool dude or owe me any fealty or favour, I ask of you to write these dicks. Call these people out. Tell them you want the Real Story. Cuz we’ve seen the byproduct of them choosing what to cover and not cover and it helped lead the World into War. At cnn.com , you can reach any of your personal faves or anti-faves there, or even the head vampires at CNN themselves. If you believe that Truth is important in these dangerous times then you write that letter. The media will not, cannot police itself, but it’s deader than shit in a box if nobody wants to watch it anymore.

-General iSenseChange of the Gonzo Warriors

p.p. I hereby wholeheartedly endorse Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential elections (09-02-07). The question is NOT whether he’ll do a great job –because he would- but rather if America deserves him and can elect him without murdering him first. I think Clinton’s a Big Biz shill as much as anybody else out there, Lefty or Righty. Obama’s a Change, Clinton’s More of the Same.

Neocon versus Nazi: Next Stop Iran!

Seems like all I ever hear these days is about going to Iran. At what point is it established? Is it when four major carrier groups are placed in the Gulf, or five? When is it official? Do things have to be blowing up? Is that how we’ll all know that it’s officially Going On Over There Now and we should all be prepared to continue our steady diet of raw, pre-packaged Fear for some time, garnering the consent they’ll not need when the transition to open Fascism and Tyranny is complete? Orwell knew what the fuck was going on, he was just off by a few decades. But what the hell! I’m getting drunk! And so should you! Because they’re firing up another one, these fiends and for my part I only hope they can sell it better at home this time. That last deal was atrocious. This one’s easy and everybody knows it.

RECIPE FOR WAR IN IRAN: go to battle scene. Find bodies. Place evidence like weapons and I.D.s and BANGO, cake and pie, just like that Iran is now funding the Enemy in America’s Big Iraq Adventure and guess what friends and neighbors? The Adventure just got a whole lot bigger. And more expensive. But Dubya’s got a plan. “Ahm jus, hittin’ my stride, heh heh,” Georgie chuckles in his Connecticut, faux-Texas drawl, and why not? He gets another hand at the table, doubling down with dollars and blood against the Anarchy and Chaos in the most dangerous and strategically important area in the world. Maybe he’s got stuff figured out now. Maybe Afghanistan, Iraq and Katrina were just the warm-ups he needed to really dig in and fix this whole MidEast thingy out once and for all. Hey, could happen, right? Right? No? Oh. Shit. I see.

“Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, well, you’re not gonna fool me again!” But, awful mispronunciations aside, if there’s one thing this War and this President has shown the world several times over is that there’s seemingly no limit to the amount of times even a dolt like him can fool the American people, or at least enough of them. Stole the election twice. About to lead his country into another failure of a war, Iran, being the biggest fuck-up yet. It’s going to make Iraq look like the cakewalk it was always said to be but never, ever was.

ALTERNATIVE RECIPE FOR WAR IN IRAN: float all manner of American military and weaponry into an already crowded and enemy-filled Persian Gulf (I gather the Straight of Hormuz is nice this time of year and as good a place for an ambush as any) and start pushing around til somebody pushes back then pound the bejeezus out of them. I see this in the bars all the time and it almost always initiates the response it seeks, for varying degree of Good or Ill.

Iraq war lead-up? Iran War lead-up? Same shit and very nearly the same pile. Exact same loudmouth far Righties making wild claims and going totally unchallenged from this supposedly Left Wing media conspiracy, unchallenged by the simplest and most basic of questions: “but sir, you were wrong with practically everything that had to do with this Iraq fiasco, why on earth should America believe you in Iran? Shouldn’t you be pretty much finished in the information-providing game? Aren’t we dicks to let you keep broadcasting shit into our homes having already clearly demonstrated that it is, in fact, shit and dangerous shit that costs lives, money and international respect?”

According to Ray McGovern these NeoCons were know throughout Washington as the ‘crazies’ and rightfully so. Name a nuttier group in history. I know you’re gonna say it was the Nazis and yes, they had their own particular vision of how the Earth should be dominated by the Nation they served and yes, they did nutty, awful things because nobody was able to stop them, but would you say they were nuttier? Have you read “Project for the Next American Century?” Maybe not the same game but certainly in the ballpark. Haven’t checked it out yet, never heard of it? PNAC? Until you’re aware of who said it, who signed it and what’s happened since you got absolutely nothing to say about Nazi versus Neocon, and, quite frankly, don't know fuck-all about fuck-all as far as the status of your America in the Y2Ks. Anything you gotta say is just gut reaction and a lack of Real Knowledge of the Facts, you are leap years behind performing your duty as a Citizen and keeping an eye on those that would keep an eye, on governing those that would govern. You’re not interested in that duty, you assume other will do it for you, you can just keep your fluffy, Dorito-crumb encrusted existence for what it is and everything’ll somehow get better, maybe through God or through some kind of latent Positivist leanings or you’re still just hungover from that Last Great Rip before the American Dream floats right down the shitter to be replaced by it’s polar opposite, the American Nightmare. A SuperPower turned Desperate and Depraved, and what’re the Citizens doing? Enjoying the finest television programming in history. And working more hours. For less money. A Nation of Slaves for a Cadre of Vampires, and it’s not like you don’t know it. You do know, somewhere in ya, you know. But it’s always been easier to do nothing. For all of us.

Do I have to wait until they’re actually as bad as the Nazis before I can make a comparison? Because that’s not how it works in pro sports! “This guy might be the next Michael Jordan! Wayne Gretzky! Muhammed Ali! Babe Ruth! Jenna Jameson!” We do it in sports and porn but not politics or history? Why? Oh yeah, there’s just some comparisons we’re not supposed to make until it’s already Too Late, until the Damage has Been Done and the bootheel’s on my freaking neck? Well, fuck you, I guess. That doesn’t sound like a decent plan to me. And shit, how do you know I’m under your sway? I’m a blogger! I have no nationality! I am Earthian, you fucking hayseeds, and you have no sway over me! I am of that larger collective that recognizes the brotherhood of Humanity as transcending in importance over nationalist or religious affiliation. It’s time for the NextLevel, folks, because for good or ill it’s looking like we’ve just about used up this one and it either gets better or worse from here but not both and certainly not neither. Change is not only here but upon us. What color’s your Future?

Iraq War? Iran War? Same shit and very nearly the same pile because it’s all part of the same War, friends, these are “the Great Oil Wars.” Didn’t you know? Catch up. It actually started a long time ago…

Peace, Friends and Fellow Earthians.

-iSenseChange

RandomMP3age: "So Alive" by Love and Rockets

the Gonzo Letters: Anderson Cooper, 360 Degrees of Bullsh*t is Still Bullsh*t

Mr. Anderson, (Cooper? Why do you guys always go by two last names? How's Tucker Carleton doin'? You guys ever give a listen to Wilson Phillips?)

I dare you to interview Nader and ask him what he thinks about George W. Bush. Or the Iraq War. Or the impeachment of the Thief In Chief. Or the destruction of Habeus Corpus and the rest of the Constitution. And the Project for the Next American Century. I triple-dog dare you to interview Noam Chomsky on these same items. Are you even allowed to? I have my doubts. I’m sure you understand. 360 degrees of bullshit is still bullshit, Anderson, and now's as good a time as any to pick up on that little gem.

Got balls, kiddo? Or not? Makes no difference to me. One of you guys is gonna crack and start telling the Real Story. Just lose it out there. Become Big Media’s Hamlet, go all post-modern on the set and find out that rather than getting fired the ratings shoot through the freaking roof, man! They try to cancel the dude and a huge audience that’s been starving for the Real Story actually backs his play. Brings dude back like Family Guy. We’re that hungry for Truth, man! We’d actually watch CNN for it! And you too, Andy!

Yes sir, one of you guys is gonna crack and start tellin’ the Real Story and the rest of you’ll be considering yourself lucky to be judging wet t-shirt contests for a quick buck in Ft. Lauderdale outside of fifteen years, way things are shaping up in America today. People are pissed and there’s all sorts of culpable jackals for people to blame but the one thing just about anybody can agree on, Lefty or Righty, is that the Media is full of shit. And you, friend, are the Media, as much as anybody on earth. And most have an inkling that you and guys like you totally shit the bed on Doing Your Job during the Gulf Deux lead-up lies, leading to Iraq, aka the big, deadly, expensive and stinking mess that every single one of your america citizens has to now find a way to deal with.

Not to mention the whole neoconservative thing? How exactly did you guys miss that? Things like PNAC, so you know, are classified as one of those things people like to know about during things like, for example THE 2000 ELECTIONS before these HIDEOUS FREAKS TOOK OFFICE! People like to know that the running VP is a sick and weird man with sick and weird fiend-buddies that share sick, weird dreams of world domination. People like to know about these things, Andy. It’s called the Real Story. And people want to hear it. All of it.

So do it. Save your soul. Start telling the Real Story, Andersen. Be That Guy. Better you than that chowderhead Zahn, I think we can all agree on that, right? Right. So, do it!

I dare you.

Sincerely,
Manny Duke

p.s. Got another one for you. I dare you to interview the protestors, Andy. Go out there on the street and grab a few of them. They’d love to talk to you. I promise. Be the easiest thing you could ever do, and yet it’s barely ever done. You know how many years I read about Cindy Sheehan before I actually heard her voice on your network? Thanks CNN! You’re the “Most Trusted Name in News!”

*

From : 360
Sent : Saturday, February 3, 2007 8:26 PM
To :
Subject : Anderson Cooper 360

| | | Inbox

Thanks for your email. Here’s our problem. We want you to know that we really do read every single email you viewers send us. No, honestly. But reading your email is one thing, and composing individual answers to each one is another. That would be a full-time enterprise. In which case, there’d be no AC 360. In which case, there’d be no emails. You see where we’re headed.

Anyway, the best we can do is to acknowledge that we have indeed received and will read your message, and this little note is to let you know that. It’s automatic, yes; fails to take into account whether you’ve patted us on the back or slapped us across the face; does not differentiate between praise, correction, fury, proposals of marriage, or invitations to get lost. But rest assured we’ll know that part when we read it!

Thanks again for your interest. Go to CNN.com and click "Watch" for instant access to FREE Video!

AC 360 staff & CNN Public Information
“CNN, The Most Trusted Name In News”

the Gonzo Letters: to Big Fat Pimp Lou Dobbs

Hey Lou,

I'd like to know when you guys are going to cover the biggest piece of news to yet come out of the Libby case, specifically a personally handwritten missive from VP Cheney directly implicating the President in the scandal. I refuse to believe CNN has not yet heard of this news, as the evidence was admitted in the case by Libby's defenders and you no doubt have all manner of reporters on the case (no excuses, here’s the link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107Z.shtml). I can only assume somebody up in the chain of command has decided America doesn’t need to know certain types of news during ‘wartime’ and about the President. This is the same type of half-assed coverage that got America into the Iraq war mess in the first place! Guys like you, Mr. Dobbs, have just as much culpability for the Iraq war as anybody on earth, in deciding as you do what to cover or not cover.

So much for the ‘Most Trusted Name in News.’ More like ‘Most Regular Source of Propaganda’. Other than Fox of course, but that’s a pretty low bar to set for anybody even remotely interested in calling themselves journalists, right? Right.

Try to be the champion of the People all you like but until you start telling the whole Truth many will see you as little more than a big, fat pimp (or worse, I guess, a whore?) no matter how many books you write. I’m asking for Truth Lou, and more than that, I’m asking you to do your fucking job.

Don’t be a pimp! Or a whore!

Respectfully,
iSenseChange

*

From : Lou Dobbs Tonight
Sent : Saturday, February 3, 2007 2:31 AM
To :
Subject : Thank you for your E-mail

Thank you for your e-mail. We read each and every comment, but are unable to respond personally to so many.
We value your interest and thank you for watching Lou Dobbs Tonight

the Gonzo Letters: Mr. Wolf Blitzer

Mr. Blitzer,

I'd like to know when you are going to cover the biggest piece of news to yet come out of the Libby case, specifically a personally handwritten missive from VP Cheney directly implicating the President in the scandal. I refuse to believe CNN has not yet heard of this news, as the evidence was admitted in the case by Libby's defenders and you no doubt have all manner of reporters on the case (no excuses, here’s the link: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013107Z.shtml). So when will you cover it and more importantly, why haven't you yet? 20 minutes every hour on the non-story of Biden's 'supposedly racist but not really' comments and not one mention of this huge story emerging in the Libby case.

Mr Blitzer, you are, as much as anyone else on earth, an established and esteemed member of the 4th estate, sir, and it's well past time all you guys started acting like it, doing this extremely important job of yours so the People get the whole story. What you decide to cover shapes the landscape of discussion and debate, and what you decide not to cover gets buried forever. It's an awesome responsibility, Wolfy, and dude, you ain't cuttin' it! So START!

It’s called evolution Wolf, and if you don’t remain relevant then don’t be surprised when the internet and the blogworlde buries you’re like a stinking, dead cat.

Yours,
iSenseChange

p.s. appreciated your mewling interview with Veep Cheney very much. You very nearly showed some sand asking the Dark Lord himself about his lesbian daughter! ‘Out of line’ indeed, imagine you asked him the questions that really matter! Like his profiteering with Halliburton! Hoo boy, the fit hits the shan then, eh Wolfy? Anywho, glad to see an inkling of spine for once. Peace to you Wolfy. And do your fucking job!

*

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Evidence Implicating Dubya in the Libby Trial: CNN Doesn't Cover the Story

How many of you are aware, as of this moment, that George W Bush has been directly implicated in the Libby case with evidence penned from the Dark Lord himself, Dick Cheney? Hear of this yet? Ask yourself; why not?

Less talk. Go here. Check it out. Then meet back here.

Deal is, Cheney names the Pres in a note discussing the vile act of outing an undercover agent to get back at her husband for speaking the Truth against the war lead-up lies and this note remains as evidence. Against the Pres. In a criminal case. Which'd make impeachment a bloody snap. We always knew this thing went high up, folks, and we always knew in our hearts that it went up to at least that creep of creeps, Dick 'Darth' Cheney, but this note indicates that 'the Pres' had his grimy mitts all over it too. Fairly important shit, no?

Worthy of coverage? Absolutely. Being covered? Not at all.

CNN is covering the case daily but I've been waiting for that mamby-pamby Wolf Bullschitzer et al to talk on this extremely important document and nothing at all. It's been introduced to the court, a piece of the case and CNN is actively choosing not to cover it. Fucking criminal. After everything that's happened, after all the lies, all the grime, all the crime, all the time, Dubya still gets a free pass.

Want to know what this translates down to? CNN actually has a reprter on the scene all day every day to 'cover' this story. This piece of mind-numbingly important evidence is introduced in the trial, this 'reporter' calls in this information and somebody at the office decides this is not newsworthy. Or rather, that John Q. Public shouldn't see it. For whatever reason.

Need another reason to join some kind of media reform group and force an independant fourth estate?

All. And I'm bloody sick of this shit.

-iSC

p.p. Cheney could very well go down in the Libby case. And Dubya? Could go down in so many different ways it's crazy. It ain't about crossing your fingers, America, it's about pointing the finger, and it's about making your representatives represent you like they're supposed to.

Cult of Personality: the Strange Birth of the Bushite

It was Johnny Canuck that alerted me to this emerging segment of humanity, the uniquely American creature I’ve taken, for a time, to call the Bushite. They are that still sizable chunk (yes Virginia, 30% is extremely low for an American president, but it’s still a chunk, do you see? Go look at a pie-chart. That’s a good girl!) that remain fiercely defensive of all things Bush in spite of all the evidence of so many foul and hideous goings-on. This is a brand new field for us armchair Cultural Anthropologists, and make no mistake about it, friend, “Doc” Sensey’s on the case! To learn, and by learning, ease you through these most difficult days. And it’s absolutely free of charge! Sure! It’s of Historical Significance, I’m told, by those in the know.

After a scintillating session in which Cajun Rooster suggested it irresponsible for Johnny Canuck (and indeed, others) to blame the President for the War in Iraq, I start to get a little bit of a glimpse about what you 30%ers are about, finally, which leads me to think about what you're going through right now.

Okay, let the healing begin.

First a survey here. Your opinions are fine, no right or wrong answer, okay? Tally ho!

1) Has George W. Bush, in your opinion, ever lied about anything to anybody during his tenure as President?

2) What mistakes (if any) would you say George W. Bush made before and during Gulf Deux?

3) Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction?

4) Was Saddam Hussein responsible, in any way, for the events of 911?

5) Is there a demonstrable link between Saddam Hussein and Al Queda prior to Iraq Deux?

6) Might George W. Bush just be the best President America has ever had?

7) Would you say George W. Bush is a smart man?

8) Is America winning the War in Iraq?

9) Should America wage war with Iran, and, if yes, should they do it sooner rather than later?

Remember: No right or wrong answers here,
I'm looking for your opinion, okay?

And listen, I have a question, do you 30%ers have a name for yourself? I mean, I've heard 'Bushite' bandied about, maybe as good as any, but your input is invited. What are the hip kids calling it these days in the prep schools? This is MetaCulturalAnalysis here, cutting edge shit. We know all about the 'observer effect' here at the SenseChange Center for Positive Change and don't give a crap! We factor it into the equation. because we can, Mister! It's just like accounting for the warp in the table when you take your shot at the 8 ball. Nothing to it at all.

We study what makes a Bushite tick, the breadth of their devotion to this man, etc. Shit Cajun, I'll split the proceeds with you. I mean it man. Maybe not split, you understand, you're still not that limited a resource, right? You understand. But I'd definitely send you a nice chunk of change on the deal.

Right! Thanks for this, Cajun, Radical Patriot, and yes, even the bloodthirsty Pastor! C’mere ya big lugs! Not so close, not so close! Yeesh, Pastor! Hands off, you scoundrel! I'm only fifteen!

-iSenseProfits! Ding bloody ding, Captain!

p.p. Starting to see similarities in GWB and the Bushite 30%ers, in their actions, in their ability to create reality from sheer fantasy, and they believe it themselves. Heavy. Will expand on the idea as it evolves. I smell cutting edge Pulitzer stuff here, folks an as always, yours for a bargain at six cents a year!

p.p. C'mon, Cajun, Johnny's absolutely right, you fellows need a NAME! "ProBush" seems pretty bland but "PATRIOTS(!!!)" or "AMERICANS(!!!)" could create confusion. You think it over, okay? Input welcome, as always. otherwise you get Bushite, kissing cousin to Bullshit, so it may be apropos...yeah...you know what, Cage? Forget the name thing. It's Bushite for sure...

Porno Justice and the Impending Rennaisance

Many say that things can never change but I assure you the reverse is certain: the only thing that never changes is that everything, over time, undergoes not only Change but Massive Change. I think it has never been closer. I see it and feel it and walk out amongst it, for the wheels of change grind slowly and once it can be picked up by a dude standing in the right place with the right kind of ears it's already moving too fast to stop. It has once again manifested itself, the irresistable, perhaps immortal force that has been felt before, during and after whatever sized Bang started the whole shootin' match off for Good or Ill or perhaps both. Definitely both. That's the oppositional binaric omnipresense, you have always (or perhaps never) existed under! Suck it in! 2K7 is the year the Rennaissance begun. Be a part of it. Contribute. Make it so. Because you'd rather define the Change than have the Change define you!

Rennaisance requires of us (all of us) to agree upon a set of rules that we can all live by.
-No more starvation amongst us.
-No more War amongst us.
-Protect the Earth.
-More dialogue amongst us.
-An atmosphere of Mutual Benefficienality amongst Citizens of all nations.
-That the People demand it to be so.

And what of the death of Saddam over the holidays? That one kinda snuck up on me but I'll call it what it is:

"Murder Amongst Puppets,
a Play on a Stage!
Penultimate present from the NeoCon Age!"

World breathes sigh at death of despised dictator? Hardly. A play on the stage presented both by and for America. And what makes better meat than the Death of an Asshole? Do you believe it was Justice? So too will I, if and only if we also include (like the good criminal investigators we all are) an investigation of those who have both aided and abetted said individual in the perpetration of said criminal acts. That's if you truly believe in Justice. But take heart if you don't. You are in the majority. For us 2 %ers it's Porno Justice at best and we'll have no truck with it.

Meanwhile intense debate continues in the Whitehouse but the last thing they're discussing is Vietnam and how to win it.
"Figger we still got time to bomb Iran?, Dick? Heh heh."
"Absolutely, Georgie. Have a cookie. Thataboy!" Cheney's a schemer. He knows what time they have left. And he wants, more than anything else, to do.

Grim words on these early days of 2K7, but i don't feel grim. I feel hopeful, Citizens, i truly do. I think we've seen how bad it can get and don't want to go there. i think we are starting to believe that Positive Change is an outright necessity. For our own survival. I believe it in my heart to be so and I am hardly alone.

Peace, Citizens. Prosperity to all in the Coming Age.

-iSenseChange

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At Zeitgeist’s Zenith: the Slugging of George W. Bush.

“We’ll succeed,” says Georgie under the literal shadow of Ho Chi Minh and ever the apt pupil of History, “if we don’t quit.” This, the lesson Dubya’s chosen to learn from America’s Vietnam adventure. Jesus! What in the Christ does that mean?!? Anybody?!? In a cornucopia of weird things this man has said and done during his presidency alone, how is it he can still surprise me? Gotta hand it to him.

Tell you what I learned from America’s Vietnam Adventure: If you leave, IT DOESN’T MATTER. None of the scary things all the war hawks bleat about ever end up happening. Never. Just as America’s dismal failure in Vietnam never had bupkis to do with either halting or advancing the spread of Communism, so too will America’s inevitable failure in Iraq have nothing to do with the halting or advancing of some UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE, wide ranging, superpowered, Islamofascist Caliphate. A bunch of scary words that don’t amount to a hill of beans. You figure the Shiites and the Sunnis are gonna get together to take over the world? They’re actually blood fucking enemies! And that’s just two of the many splintered and rivalling Islamic sects that have all sorts of ancient reasons to hate one another until the end of time. Another ugly lie from the NeoCon hoard of ugly liars designed to make them and their buddies in the MilitaryIndustrialComplex somehow yet richer.

Speaking of Lies and Liars, Bush may now be impeached. You realize that, yes? Cheney may now be held accountable for his very obvious war profiteering with the ineffectual but now ‘vastly richer for the experience’ Halliburton, also. And he ought. They ought. American Citizens of all stripes, you owe it to all your country holds dear to remove these two men. If you are a politician, get the ball rolling. If you are an American citizen, start writing letters. Do it because these men are scoundrels that deserve it, more than any men in America's checkered political history or do it for the savage beating they delivered to your once grand Constitution but most importantly, do it as an example to the next round of liars and thieves that think they can twist and pervert your American Dream to their own sick ends. A message must be sent to whoever comes next. Nothing else you can do could be more important than that. Period. Get your shit together, America, the rest of us are sick of waiting for it and watching these fucks take what was Great and turn it to Shit.

I had the chance, I’d slug him. Right in the face. Love to. Dubya, I mean. Can’t. No access. But maybe you do? Maybe you’re a congressperson and you’re at a dinner party and President GWB is there and he says or does something really stupid and you just slug him right in the face, hard as you can. What happens? Sure, you get jumped by the secret service, but would they off you? Prob’ly not. So, what happens? Especially if, as a congressperson and pretty much all of yer constituents are glad as hell you did it? The path to the next election may well lay in slugging George Bush in the mouth. Hard as you can. Or maybe it just gets you and extended stay in Leavenworth. Or worse.

Fuck it. I had the chance I’d do it and let the chips fall where they may. No amount of waterboarding would ever remove the smile from my face. But I haven’t access. But maybe you do? Maybe you’re a ten year old winner of the National Spelling Bee and the President is gonna perform some utterly meaningless publicity function (rather than figuring out any kind of realistic solution to the Iraq Problem) that involves you, giving you the access that I lack. Well, here’s what you do: you screw up your little fists and right when he opens his mouth to say something stupid you pop him one, hard as you can. See if you can drop him with a ten-year-old, spelling-bee-champ haymaker and when he looks up at you with tears streaming down his face, right before the savage beating at the hands of the Secret Service, you look him dead in the eyes and tell him you did it for the soldiers. The world will see it and cheer you on, small comfort, perhaps, as thirty years later you’re still wasting away in some dingy prison in Syria (“waterboarding” W-A-T-E-R-B-O-A-R-D-I-N-G, “waterboarding”), but at least you’ll know in yer little heart o’ hearts you did the one thing that entire rest of the world would have loved to do. And you’d be famous! Maybe you write a book or something? There’s money there, kiddo, and ol’ Sensey’s here to help, should you need it. You can bet yer sweet bippy on that.

Have I said enough to be labelled an enemy combatant yet? I’m never certain anymore. Fuck it. Torture, I’m told, builds Character and as for the gulags, well, I’m no stranger to hard work. The fresh air can only do me good at this point.

Peace to you Citizens. Of all stripes. Even those that don’t look or talk like you and me. You dig? You better.

-iSC

p.p. Impeach them or deserve whatever dicks gain power next. You’ll get no sympathy from me and the whole world’ll agree that you deserve it. Wake up. Throw out the trash.

Citizen's Note # 911: inre 'What To Do About George 'Dubya' Bush

IMPEACH HIM. AND EVERYBODY AROUND HIM. FOR YOUR VERY SOULS. AND APOLOGIZE TO THE WORLD. FOR ACTING LIKE DICKS.

That is all.

This message brought to you by the good folks at the SenseChange Center for Positive Change. Thanks, and have a GREAT day.

-iSC

Oedipus Bush and the Tale of Two Daddies

But didn't this always Oedipal Bush presidency just get ratcheted up a notch when Rummy finally got the bum’s rush for messing up everything he laid eyes on, for now Georgie’s gotta choose between two daddies, right? Sure!

Here’s the call, folks, and remember where you heard it first: Before the 2006 Election Thumpin’, the Presidency belonged to ‘OilSlick’ Dick Cheney. After the "2006 Thumpin' heard Round the World," the Presidency belongs to former President George ‘Also a Liar and War Profiteer’ Bush Senior. Dubya becomes the bumbling Prince George he’s always been with Jeb as maybe some kind of a Prince Hal type. This is Shakespeare, right? But what does it mean and how does it end?

IRAQ: Ol’ Cheney’ll howl “Stay the Course” forever. Twice as loud now that Rummy’s been turfed. No cost in dollars and blood is too high, ever. Not his money and not his blood, thankyew veddy much. So who cares?

Daddy Bush and his crew’ll be leaning towards declaring a meaningless victory tomorrow and getting the fuck out, but keeping the big Superbases intact (you know about the huge SuperBases, right? America's not really leaving Iraq no matter what they say they're gonna do), making scads of money every which way but loose (why stop now?) and leaving options for MidEast control firmly intact. Smart money’s on never declaring any kind of finish to the thing. Leave, but leave your options open…

ON IRAN: Before the 2006 Election Thumpin,’ Dubya’s daddy of choice was the ideological neoconservative father; ‘Oilslick’ Dick, who remains, to this day, very obviously balls out for attacking Iran as soon as possible. Probably the very first words out of his mouth when he showed up to to work the day after the Thumpin Heard Round the World was “find some kinda good reason before January first to bomb Iran to smithereens and just bloody do it.” Been grumbling menacingly about it for years.

Daddy Bush, who once resisted pressing on to Baghdad for fear of the type of chaos we’re now actually witnessing, will tell Georgie (through his old cronies who now have total access to the Whitehouse, new SecDef Gates and Baker III) to lay off Iran, to put it back in his pants for awhile. ‘Finish you’re plate, Georgie,’ Pappa Bush will admonish: ‘no Iran until you’ve finished your Iraq! And you haven’t even touched your Afghanistan!’

So, Dubya’s gotta choose between his two daddies, one ideological, one biological. Like bein’ a President wasn’t tough enough! Gosh! But enough on that. Dubya has to go with Bush Sr because it’s like a default position. He’s used to daddy bailing him out. Happened all his life. And everybody, everywhere, knows it.

How deeply embarassing for Dubya, who tried so desperately to become every bit the swaggering dick his 'wimpy' father never was. That's the thing that so many people get wrong and I see it all the time. Bush Sr was never running the show for Dubya because he quite simply never woulda ran it that way. Dubya saw Daddy's presidence as a humiliating failure and surrounded himselves with as many tough guys as he knew. Unfortunately, for the whole world, these tough guys were also insane. But so endeth the song of the NeoCon, a return to a presidencey thought long gone, two Bush presidents; a Father, a Son.

There you have it. Take it to the bank.

-iSC

p.p. Impeach Bush. Bust Cheney first for War Profiteering. Now.

Schoolyard Diplomacy and the Apocalyptic Chicken

Never speak to your enemies. Even if they ask you to. Only threaten them. Because that’s what just always, always works.

Dubya holds True to Form: He’s nuts, first of all. Can we establish that? Nuts. I mean, whatever the measuring stick is, he’s nuts. And he still wants to attack Iran!?! After mismanaging ever single thing he’s ever done in office, including two preemptive and illegal wars and a natural disaster. And yes, Billy-Bob, I understand that you cannot manage a Natural Disaster. You can, however, manage your response to one. Fair enough?

Want more? Ground Zero remains a smouldering hole, the Constitution in tatters, SoleSuperPowerStatus in jeopardy, global opinion at lowest in history, went from balanced books to the Largest National Debt in the entirety of Human History. And in spite of all that (and so much more it staggers me) Dubya still thinks maybe he can pull off somethin’ against Iran. Which most experts agree won’t be the cakewalk that Iraq was supposed to be but never was. It will take nothing less than magic for GWB to somehow not fuck that up. Act of God, maybe. Just throwin' that in there.

Attacking Iran? I figure you’re gonna want a particularily good quarterback for that one, and GWB has never actually been a particularly good anything. Wasn’t he a cheerleader at University? Did I hear that? Is that fact?

I digress. But it’s weird, no? A cheerleader? So weird. Best not to think of it. Where were we? Iran! Right!

Everything you need to know about Iran and America can be broken down into a game of ‘Apocalyptic Chicken.’ “Sure!” America says, “you don’t quit fucking with the nukes we’re gonna smack you down. Hard. Like Iraq. We might not be 'winning' anything but how anxious are you for a big mitful of Iraq-Styled Chaos in yer faces? Wanton, random destruction, pretty much everywhere, no plans and no problems just one big stinking mess. Well? You want that kind of shit on you? Cuz fuck it. We’re on a tear.”

And Iran is like, ‘well, shit, there’s a chance they can’t attack us because of this whole emerging world (America, even!) public opinion thing. There’s that. And the whole fear of finally unifying the Arabs, who could all, regardless of creed or culture, legitimately see the American Adventures as a full fledged invasion on all things Oil. And they’re still stretched ridiculously thin with the wars they’ve got, not to mention the thumpin’ heard literally around the world when the Dems took back the House and Senate.

No way Iran’s gonna blink first. There standing up to the biggest dog on the block and the whole Arab world is watching them do it. If anything, an American attack would only make Iran stronger in the eyes of the Muslim world, ala Hamas after the Israel-Lebanon thing.

So that’s Iran-America for you (see also: North Korea). A game of chicken. Schoolyard Diplomacy in the Nuclear Age, the diplomacy of choice for the manchild American President. And former cheerleader(?). But the Times they are a changin', eh Citizens? You bet yer fur they are.

-iSenseChange

p.p. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Impeach Bush. And Cheney. Now.

p.p.p. Out of Iraq and into Selma! Yowza!

Blogger's Brew

Inre: My Morning
These are authorities. They carry weapons and they are allowed to do so. They are the Apparatchik of State. And they’ve just waltzed into your house like they own it and busted you like the bank. You’re place, as usual, is absolutely lousy with illicit substances. What do you do? Nothing to do. Nothing you can do. Submit to it. Try not to let it wreck your day. Find a reason to smile on your way to the patrol car. Ask them if they’d mind turning on the radio. Treat ‘em like a cabbie.

Inre: Iraq
Declare victory. Tomorrow. And you get…the…fuck…out. That easy. Sure, the World will know it’s a load but most Americans probably won’t. At most, in time, a generalized and vague recollection of some kind of confusion followed by some kind of victory. And all will be bliss once more in the Land of the free and the Home of the Distracted. The argument will go ‘Yeah, but we won.’ With the obvious response: ‘Won what? How?’ Righty and Lefty will argue about it for years, forever, like IranContra and ultimately, BullGoose Loonie Lefty and Religio-Redneck Righty agree to disagree, and so it goes. And you’re out. Right?

Inre: Fashion Trends, and Other Ways I Suffer for the Whim of the Capricious Masses.
Nobody sells turtlenecks anymore. You notice that? Their not fashionable. But my last one’s shot all to hell and well, shit man, I just like a nice, thick, black, turtleneck sweater. Maybe just tight enough to show the shoulders off a little, y’know? But they don’t sell ‘em. Everything's got zippers. It’s what they think you’re gonna think is hip the next time you’re at the mall. But where the fuck, pray tell, does that leave me? This culture is not adequately servicing my needs and hasn’t for a long time. Maybe it’s time to take off again.

Hmmmm.

Inre: Impeachment.
He ought be. And deep in America’s collective heart of hearts, they all know it, every damned one of them. The deal of the thing is nabbing Cheney first for Halliburton-related war profiteering. Also a Federal Crime. Should be nothing easier to do on earth. But maybe I’m missing something…

Inre: Her
Yeah. I fall in love too easily. But I fall in love for this just barely fathomable ideal. If it were summertime I’d suggest we go to the desert, do huge rails and see what comes out of our mouths. Or into them, for that matter. Yeah. Absolutely. Take ‘er some place fun. Have fun. No pressure with the understanding that I will conspire for a kiss. Powerless not to. It’s entirely in her prerogative to yeah or nay at any point. Yeah. That’s the plan. Something like that. Not summer though. SO what then? Something fun.

Inre: The Finally Dead NeoCon Movement and America Killing It.
Always said the only thing that can save the World from America was Americans. Turns out I was dead-on balls on that one friends and neighbors. This makes the Far Right comes back a little. The big NeoCOn experiment is over, a miserable failure on every count, something we can all agree on. Maybe the whole American Tragicomic experience of GWB spontaneously generates this feeling that regardless of Lefty or Righty leanings, Things are Bollixed and Need to be Fixed. That’s the reality, America. Not only do you have to deal with that reality but you have to deal with the situation. You have to fix it. Sorry. It’s not easy and it’s not something you can just make a phonecall about as you laze on the couch with the remote and that heaping bag of Doritos. Nope, things need to be fixed and they take Time. Your Time.

Inre Alcoholism and Minding Your Own Business.
Am I an alcoholic? Absolutely! And more! I’m all sorts of aholics! I’ll take no stones from anybody for it neither! Kiss my ass! Shuffle on! Yeah! I’ll take a Jack Daniels. On the rocks. In a brandy snifter. To go. And make it a double. Heh heh heh.

Inre My Writing Style and Who the Hell is Spenser Tracy? Why Not Miles Davis?
Some dude called my writing style some kind of cheap, Spencer Tracy ripoff. Had he called me some kinda second-rate Hunter S Thompson hack there woulda been nothing I coulda said. But dude prob’ly doesn't even know who the good doctor even was. Needless to say I wasn't offended. Told him the whole thing's actually a kinda first person narrative, which is old as dust.

Inre: Getting Things Fixed
Like monitoring your elections. And not forgetting it the day after it’s over, regardless of the outcome. Things need to be fixed. The elections are a sham. Machines going home at night with “administrators”? What the hell, pray tell, is that? A great big, yellow button that enables anybody to add as many votes as they like? Ridiculous. Lefty or Righty it is ridiculous. Dubya made his America Votes Act and, for Lefty or Righty, it has proven insufficient. Like everything else he's touched. Needs to be fixed, or rather, needs to be corrected. The fix is already in, Voters. The day after the vote, the week after, the year after, the People need to ensure that Democracy is protected, corrected and they need to not back down, ever, until an election’s result is at least as unimpeachable as the old, pieces-of-paper-in-a-cardboard-box deal that happens to work about a thousand times better than these dubious machines.

Inre: This Little Blog o’ Mine, I’m Gonne Let It SHINE!
Prob’ly I coulda just blogged anyone of these little paragraphs on their own and got reads, comments and whatever else be the coinage of the realm. As it is it’s a big jumbled mess that only the Faithful will read right through but what of it? I like it. Feels like some kinda jagged jazz scene and me and you are rippin’ it up out there, flyin' for a crowd that's snappin' they fingers and bobbin' they heads. Dig on that. Yeah.

Exeunt.

In Defence of Third World Debt Relief: As it Stands, We Look Like Dicks

I believe in third world debt relief. Fuck it. We have everything, they have nothing. What’re we gonna do, watch the little bastards choke to death or what? Look how horrifically skinny so many of them are when they die and how grotesquely fat so many of us are when we die. They look like fucking Auschwitz victims and we look like that big fat dude in ‘Seven’ that was forced to eat himself to death. Y'know, the one the serial killer set up to represent the deadly sin of Gluttony? What better evidence of a fucked up status quo? And i don't see any way of denying it, bubba.

You have onboard GPS systems in your shoes, they have dust and seeds, maybe some rice and they’re being taxed to hell for every mote of it by their governments. Do you know in some places they tax the very same water that some people’s ancestors have sustained themselves from since the beginning of time?

Fuck it. We look like dicks. All of us. Even you. Chew on that, friend. No way they can ever pay it back, especially with the fucked up interest we’re layin’ on ‘em. Here’s the motto: “Join the globalization scene! Be poor forever! Like you have a choice anyway! Hah!”

I’m of a mind to give a hand to these fuckers, you know? But you know what? You don’t just give money to their politicians because what do we know about politicians? Right. They almost always take the money. At every possible junction. SO how do you circumvent that? You give ‘em infrastructure, if they’ll accept it. And you make it clear, you’re people ain’t free then neither are the sewer systems. Or the universities. Or the hospitals. Am I being crazy here? Ignore, if you will, the madman in the corner. For as long as you can bare it. The sheer weight of daily hypocrisy.

I say let's give ‘em a chance, not another half-century of debt.

Greed is also a Deadly Sin, you know that? Look it up.

-iSenseChange, but it's gotta start somewhere...