COSANOSTRADAMUS PREDICTS

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PROGNOSTICATIONS FOR THE MULTITUDES

HEEL, MULTITUDES! SIT! ROLL OVER! BEG! BEG FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE!!! MUAHAHA!!

We Will Now Reveal To You Tomorrow's Headlines Today. And The Comics.

1. Both Google and Microsoft will fail to survive the next major economic downturn. The new force in computing is now called Hang-Seng Silicon Noodles, Kowloon, China.

2. Madonna will adopt Angelina Jolie. But not Brad Pitt, breaking up the set.

3. Conan O'Brien will divorce his wife and marry David Letterman in a secret ceremony in Provincetown, Mass. His ratings will still suck.

4. Nancy Pelosi will reveal that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich regularly used botox during his tenure. On his dick.

5. Barack Obama will appear at an Alabama town hall meeting wearing a Nazi SS uniform, and promise to round up and gas only liberals if Republicans vote for his healthcare holocaust. Republicans are tempted, but still won't vote for it, despite their natural attraction to holocausts, in which they claim not to believe.

6. Glenn Beck will be found to be an actual escaped mental patient with delusions of cable grandeur. Rupert Murdoch will give him a raise.

7. The New York Times and the Washington Post will merge and then quietly go out of business, cursing this new-fangled blogging thing.

8. Kathy Griffin will be found in Margot Kidder's back yard, doing something completely sane. Police will tase her, causing her to make the "C" list. (I told you it would work, Kathy.)

9. Silvio Berlusconi will fly around Florence's Old Bridge in Leonardo DaVinci's aerial screw on Assumption Day. It sounds better in Italian.

10. One of the surviving Beatles will die. Eventually.
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SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY

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POLITICS MAKE BEDFELLOWS STRANGE

OUR POLITICAL MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE IS FALLING APART

Republicans Are Guilty Of Fostering Irreconcilable Differences

Another great post from Ms. Willpen, formerly of the Borough of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and Junior's, now the budding conscience of the Left. While it might not bother some of us to crack some Nazi heads, there are many here among us who feel that life is too precious to pollute or endanger with bloodshed, even in a worthy cause. So, nu, we wrestled with the better angels of our nature and this is how it all came out. As Honest Abe, our second Jewish President (Madison was "passing;" named after a street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan --His wife: Dolly, HELLO!!!) put it,

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."



The post that launched a thousand megapixels:

WILLPEN'S WORLD
"Pay it forward…"
The beginning of the post that started this conversation.

' I have been feeling so depressed and upset and tense lately regarding all the craziness that has been going on in this country. We are at each others necks ready to strike the first blow for what we believe in. Instead of fighting against each other, we should be reminding each other how much we all love this country regardless of our political leanings. We should not be at war with our fellow Americans. So I thought that it would be a nice thing to pay it forward. Watch this video and pass it on. Post it on your blogs. Pass it on to someone you love and someone who bugs the crap out of you. Pay it forward until it has reached around the country and reminded each and every one of us that we are all fighting for the same things. '

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MY RESPONSE:
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I’d have to disagree on this one. We are not all fighting for the same things. We are all fighting each other over the same things.

Moderates, liberals, progressives and democratic socialists all believe in human rights, equal justice under the law, a strong social safety net, limiting the use of force and violence in general, a truly democratic government of the people and not of the corporations.

“Centrists” (Blue Dogs), libertarians, conservatives, corporatists and Fascists believe in the opposite of all that. They are who and what we are opposing. They have made it very clear that there can be no compromise, no middle ground, no accommodation. All of our efforts to achieve consensus with them have simply led to nothing being done on healthcare, climate change, equal rights, control of corporations, fair trade, etc. Not only have they held us, the majority, back for many many years, they have trashed this country just to fill their own pockets and empty their own bile sacs.

All this is out in the open, now. There are no more “moderate” Republicans. They are all in the thrall of the extreme right-wing. Even silver-haired millionaire old-money Senators talk like crazed illiterate thugs about our government and our polity. This is no time for compromise. You cannot show weakness to bullies. That’s what happened to the Weimar Republic. If you think I’m being hyperbolic here, folks, go to the library and read up on it. It’s not just that there are parallels between the early Nazi Party and what the Republicans are trying to do today. They are actually using the Nazi playbook as a day-by-day guide to strategy & tactics right now in America.

Not that the Right hasn’t always done this. But there has rarely ever been this level of hatred, violence and hysteria among ordinary citizens, without a word from anyone in the media or government. Those who have forgotten the days of mass rallies of the Bund in NYC’s Madison Square Garden (1930’s) and KKK political assassinations in broad daylight (1970’s & 80’s) will perhaps recall the era when John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were all assassinated without any satisfactory investigations into who was behind it all. The net result was Nixon, and forty years of corrupt, incompetent conservative Republican & DINO rule, a disaster for the American middle class.

So go ahead and make nice with the Nazi’s if you want to, folks. They will never respect you for it. You’ll just be making it easier for them to stab you in the back. After all, they’re the minority; they can’t win fairly in a democracy.
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WILLPEN'S WORLD
"willpen August 12, 2009 at 2:32 pm"
Comment in response to mine, above.

' Now we are having a dialogue.

While I wholly respect and understand where you are coming from, I have to say that I have been doing a lot of thinking about this lately. After the stuff that has been going on here for the last few days, with some crazed and pent up person using me as their whipping post, I have been observing the behavior on both sides.

I suppose that I am trying to be the devil’s advocate here, trying to push everyone just a bit in order to open up a conversation. I really think that is what is missing.

I read a very interesting article at the Huff Post this morning: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-leo-rangell/understanding-conversatio_b_257037.html
It talks about what I have been trying to say here.

People do not speak to each other but past each other, do not absorb and process what others say but pick and choose that which serves their own inner purposes. This 24/7 phenomenon, which plays a ubiquitous part in human life from Wars to broken friendships, was discussed in depth at a Round Table on “The Closed Mind” held at that Congress.

I too am angered to the point of frustration. I know deep in my heart that when the tables were turned I may have been angry and upset, but I never reverted to the tactics that are being used now against the duly elected establishment. But I also know that we cannot continue this way. There has to be someone who just yells "I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE". Someone that has to start to try and turn things around. I see us slipping back in history and I fear a racial undercurrent simmering below the surface, such as the Rosa Parks poster that was torn out of a woman's hand at a Claire McCaskill town hall meeting. We have to be the cooler heads that prevail. I must follow the same instincts that I follow in business, which is the road to success is best paved by a slow and steady march.

I know that there will be times when my head will want to explode again, but I am trying to get the better of my demons to stop and think before it does. '

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MY RESPONSE:
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Agreed.

The thing is, they have NOTHING to fear from us. We’re not Stalinists. We’re barely liberals by any objective measure of international politics. And we’re mostly pacifists; all of us are certainly against unnecessary violence.

We have a great deal to fear from them, as recent history and current events show. This isn’t a conversation any more. It’s a battle, by their own definition, and they started it. And now they’re getting violent. You can’t reason with violent, armed lunatics who won’t even talk to you.

As to hearing what they have to say, how can I avoid it? They own the media. I’ve had them screaming in my ear all my life. It’s the progressive majority that has no voice, that isn’t being heard. It’s the Right who will not listen, who mischaracterizes everything we say.

In business, you can always walk away from a bad deal. Usually. There’s always another deal. Usually. In our civic life, not so much. You can’t just walk away from under-funded schools, non-existent healthcare, brutal police, an empire-building military, and a rising corporate medieval State. And they have no reason to “hondle” with us, the majority. They hold all the cards. Except one. We’re the majority. It’s time we started acting like it, while we still can.

Yes, it may not be all that pleasant or warm and fuzzy. Wars rarely are. But brutal occupations aren’t, either. That’s what we’ve had for forty years. That’s our choice: A short painful non-violent political fight, or an endless painful accommodation with these violent Nazi-wannabees.

We really do not have a third choice. That’s their doing, not ours. We are the reasonable ones, always. But often in life, it’s the least reasonable people who win. They know that. Hence these tactics. We cannot allow them to succeed. This is only the beginning of their insanity. Have we forgotten what happened over the previous eight years? How many died? How our good name was lost? How our rights were trampled on? Look where they’re STARTING this time! Does it take much vision to see where they’re headed?

Never again.
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WILLPEN'S WORLD
"willpen August 12, 2009 at 5:10 pm"
Comment in response to mine, above.

' Cosa,

I agree with you 150% but I also feel like I have been losing my sanity. I feel a rage inside of me that I don’t like. I have visions of blowing some of these people’s brains out while smiling about it. My life has been turned upside down financially because of what has been done to this country for the last 8 years and then sometime before that.

I am trying to rationalize this all like a RATIONAL person, not a screaming banshee. I don’t know what more to do, so trying the approach of offering an olive branch is what I need to try now, because if I don’t, I don’t know how I can continue reading and watching what is going on in this country without wanting to blow my own brains out.

I am frankly scared shitless that this is all gonna end in some kind of tragedy. Something that we can’t take back. Something that is more than words.

I need to add something else here. I hate having to be filled with hate and rage. I despise the feelings that these people are making me feel. I spent most of my formative years protesting against the Vietnam War and government abuse. I may have gotten rowdy at times and boisterous, but I was young and passionate and I learned from it. I learned that hating is a bad thing and it was so difficult for me to have to deal with Bush for 8 years. I could never even bring myself to listen to anything that he had to say. I hated the sound of his voice, but I kept it to myself because it was what was needed to do. So I understand the rage that you and so many others are feeling now. '

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MY RESPONSE:
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Don't let them get to you. You exist at a higher level of consciousness, and represent a higher moral standard. Nothing they can do will ever change that, Willpen, and if there were such a thing as a Judgment Day, I think we all know who could stand without fear and who should be trembling.

Personally, I don't think there is a Judgment Day, except for the one every day here on Earth. I think that all decent people of any faith or no faith try to live their lives in as just and righteous a manner as they can, and treat one another with respect and generosity of spirit Those who do not are simply not decent human beings.

I really do not feel rage toward them, just outrage. I don't care how they live their own lives, though I feel sorry for the people around them, especially their kids. But people with such warped and twisted values as those militating loudest on the Right these days simply cannot be allowed to prevail or predominate in our public discourse. They are blindly or deliberately in the wrong and doing wrongs that are not excusable or ignorable. They are like out-of-control adolescents who will just keep pushing until somebody gets hurt. We have no choice but to be the adults and stop them before that happens.

That's why I say we simply have to say "ENOUGH!" right now, before there is another great historical tragedy and derailing of our polity. The assassinations of the 1960's seemed to come out of nowhere, though there was plenty of general turmoil at the time. The constant ratcheting up of the threat level by very visible figures on the Right today is an obvious warning that we cannot help but perceive. It does not require that we respond in kind or engage in some extra-legal measures. We just have to demand firmly but peaceably that our government put a stop to this before it becomes any more violent.

It's not your job or mine to physically oppose these thugs. All we need to do is let our government know that we support any reasonable action that will stop the escalation of violence before it becomes any more physical. Call it "reading the riot act." Give them fair warning right now that they have already crossed almost every line ever drawn on political conduct in this country. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt all took action against sedition and potential violence well before there were any major tragedies. It's time for Obama to do the same. Not in the name of partisan politics, but in the name of public safety and defense of our democracy.

I would recommend that everyone who feels strongly about this write the White House and maybe their representatives in Congress, and demand that they take action against the worst of these thugs now. That includes the Fox News and Clear Channel networks. Johnson and Nixon never hesitated to let the broadcast Net's know when they had crossed a line. Hints were even dropped as to possible suspensions of FCC licenses, for mere trivialities compared to the violent craziness being broadcast now. The 'Nets backed down rather than risk losing their sweetheart licenses. Something similar could be done now. I think it is time for that. Let's ask for it now.

The thing about bullies and their toadies is, they're cowards. Like dogs, if you stand your ground they will withdraw. If you show fear, or turn and run, they'll tear you apart. Limbaugh, Beck, and the rest of them need a rolled-up newspaper across the snout, right now. I'd like to see it come from some unassailable American hero, maybe even a conservative. I'd like to see a Mr. Welch stand up in Congress and say, "At long last, have you no sense of decency?" It's time.

So write that email to your candidate for Voice of Reason. And keep the pressure on. But don't let these dweebs get to you. They're pathetic, at best. Take comfort in knowing that decent folk outnumber them, and are universally appalled by them. It's only a matter of weeks at most until the backlash takes them down. All the conservatards are really doing right now is digging their own grave. It's going to be a LOVELY symbolic funeral! See you there!

Remember, you're not alone, folks. You're not losing this battle, they are. We're going to continue winning and making this world a better place. We're unstoppable. All we have to do is stick together and persevere in being decent human beings. You're doing a great job at that, Willpen. Take comfort in that, and in the vast community of like-minded people who are all together in this.


TO BE CONTINUED...
(Further dialogue with any civilized person is welcome.)
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FREAKIN' OUT

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HUNGRY FREAKS, DADDY

THERE WERE NO HIPPIES, BABY
ONLY FREAKS

You Were Either Cool, Or You Weren't

Anybody who called himself or herself a hippy back in the day was either joking or a narc. We were heads, stoners, freaks, or just plain cool. "Hippy" was one of those derogatory Time Magazine labels that tired old useless -ssh-les with no imagination and no clue used to slap on people who were younger, smarter and hipper than them. The same d-ckheads called the Beats "beatniks," and feminists "women's libbers." All they were really saying was that they were very very angry that they were missing all the fun, all their lives. And the music.

They were people like Pat Buchanan and Gordon Liddy. They hated everything and everybody, and they made a pretty good living at it. Of course, they weren't welcomed by decent people anywhere. They pretty much had to hang with -ssh-les like themselves. Nixon. Agnew. Reagan. Bush. We all knew what foul things they did to get where they were, which was nowhere. Things like labeling people, stirring up hatred and fear, dividing & conquering, ripping us all off. -ssh-les.

They missed the whole Revolution. The music, the art, the books, the films, the sex, the drugs, the gods & goddesses. They never played cops & robbers for real. Never explored the universe, inner or outer. Never rebelled or protested, never changed anything for the better. Never knew peace, love or understanding. And now it's too late for them.

Now they're old, bitter and alone. They're still on the tee-vee labeling people. But no one pays them any mind. Because they're not cool. And they never were, man. Peace, freaks.



[NOTE: For Video Tyros & Those With Slow Computers And/ Or Narrow Bandwidth, Or Something:
For Smooth Playback: click "PLAY" on the video, then click the "PAUSE" button on the video, and let the video download completely, till the RED LINE at the bottom is all the way to the RIGHT, then click the "PLAY" button.]



YOUTUBE: THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION
"Frank Zappa - 01 - Hungry freaks, daddy"
Frank Zappa, Freak Daddy.




YOUTUBE: LARRY "WILD MAN" FISCHER
"Wild Man Fischer - Circle"
Larry fit right in, back then... And he wasn't even trippin'.




YOUTUBE: CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND
"Captain Beefheart - Click Clack"
See, beef heart is like... mm... Let him explain it...




YOUTUBE: HOWARD KAYLAN & MARK VOLMAN
"Flo & Eddie (Keep It Warm)"
The Turtles' last incarnation.



YOUTUBE: CSN&Y
"Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair (Wembley Stadium '74)"
The Flight Of The Freak Flag.




YOUTUBE: COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH
"Country Joe McDonald - "Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die""
"Next stop is Vietnam..." Or Canada.




YOUTUBE: THE GRATEFUL DEAD
"Grateful Dead - Truckin'"
Coke, cops & cross-country cruisin'.




YOUTUBE: THE JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
"Somebody To Love/White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane"
Gracie!




YOUTUBE: JANIS JOPLIN
"Janis Joplin - Get it while you can"
And she did.




YOUTUBE: THE NEW YORK DOLLS
"New York Dolls - Jet Boy"
The band that discovered sexual ambiguity. Except for, you know, Little Richard. OK, the WHITE band that...




YOUTUBE: JIMI HENDRIX
"Jimi Hendrix May this be love"
Floating along with Hendrix.




YOUTUBE: GEORGE HARRISON
"George Harrison My Sweet Lord"
George calls ahead.



(cross-posted at CoffeeHouseStudio by cosanostradamus)


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We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else.

Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

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TO POST A COMMENT: CLICK ON "COMMENTS," "Post a Comment" or "# of COMMENTS" just below the SOCIAL BOOKMARKING LINKS (Digg, Delicious, etc), about three inches down from here. Please do comment. Thank you.

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SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!

REPUBLICAN COMEBACK IN 2010?

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UNLIKELY BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS
"Voter Turnout In Presidential And Midterm Elections"
A ten to fifteen per cent drop in voter participation from Presidential to "off-year" Congressional midterm elections:



WHY VOTE DEMOCRAT IF THEY'RE JUST LITE REPUBLICANS?


YOUTUBE: OBAMA IN SOCAL FOR DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER
"Obama: I've Done as Much as FDR"
""One of them said, 'Obama keep your promise,’ " the president said. "I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about." Ha-ha! "



Why Vote At All If Obama Doesn't Keep His Promises On Gitmo, The War, Healthcare, Cardcheck, Etc, Etc, Etc?

[In response to a post on Docudharma.com by Something The Dog Said:

' ...There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the Republican Party. The Dog has, himself, been part of this talk. Whenever this topic comes up there are those that point out the various times where the Republican Party or even the Democratic Party were down and looked as though they might be out, then have come back in with surprising swiftness. These arguments are true as far as they go but one of the major failings the Dog always finds with these comparisons is they only look at the results and fail to take into account the circumstances which allowed these changes of fortunes for the Party. One of the major influencers has been the direction of the nation over time. This is often ignored by folks making the come back argument. Over the last 30 years we have been seeing a general trend towards a more conservative point of view. This coincides with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. It is a sociological fact that folks tend to be come more conservative as they age, so the fact that the biggest generation, to that point, in American history were all moving towards middle age at the same time it make sense that the conservative point of view would gain traction. As the Generation Y citizens have grown up and become more politically active in their 30's they are overcoming the conservatism of their parents the Baby Boomers. This combined with the consequences of eight years of Republican rule is how we have gotten to this place where the Democrats control both Houses of Congress and the White House. But a big part of our electoral victory was the ability of our Party and President Obama in particular to articulate a positive vision for the future. In the 2000 election, then Governor Bush had this positive message on two fronts. First he and his campaign talked about returning honor and dignity to the White House. We can see from this vantage of 2009 how completely hollow that message was, but at the time the nation was tiered of the controversies (real and fabricated) of the Clinton Presidency. This made the returning honor and dignity message an appealing one. The other positive vision was the "Compassionate Conservative" meme. It was just what independents who leaned Republican wanted to hear, a Republican Candidate who was not tied to the perceived meanness of the Republican culture warriors. These two factors combined were enough to get President Bush close enough for the Supreme Court to award the Presidency to Mr. Bush... ' (continues)]

I would agree with Somethingthedogsaid (now I know why he chose that name: He doesn't want people to say that, or to agree with him) on some points. But, on others, I think he is way off base. It is far too early to count the Republicans out. Wishful thinking will not win us any votes. We have to look at this realistically, and never underestimate the power of the corporate & redneck Right. Also, keep in mind, Americans like divided government, generally speaking, and most voters no longer give permanent allegiance to any Party. Plus, we like to punish our Presidents in the midterm Congressional elections. The Democrats could gain in the midterms, but they could lose if they fail to get out the people who normally don't vote, but did vote in 2008. That won't happen if Obama keeps heading to the Right.

Having said that, let me address some of the "The Dog"s points. It will take up too much space on his website, so I will include a link to the bulk of it on my own blog.

Trends: If what Dog says is true about the "boomers," then we're headed for a more conservative era as they all retire and keep hanging on well into their 80's & 90's: 30-40 years for the youngest "boomers." Meanwhile, the oldest "boomers" oldest kids are getting near their 50's, so, more conservatism, according to Dog.

"Conservative. "Liberal." "Democrat." "Republican." "Boomers." "Gen-X." We need to take a big old Q-tip and clean all this nasty old label sh*t out of our ears, here. We're people, not robots or trendoids or demographics or electoral units or partisan acolytes. America never has been and never will be an ideologically-driven country. We're not much for partisan politics, either. We're pragmatists and all we expect from government is to be protected from the bad guys, i.e. foreign & domestic enemies both military and economic; to not be impoverished and otherwise to be left alone. It's only the tiny minorities on the fringes that give a sh*t about all these philosophical "issues" that just don't concern the vast majority of us.

What the last 40 years have shown us (based largely on bread & butter and certain hot-button issues) is that the vast majority, though economically & socially center-Left more and more, will still cross Party lines back and forth at will. The Democratic majority of Kennedy & Johnson shifted very slightly to a thin Republican majority for Nixon and Ford, based on the contracting economy and inflation, as well as racial issues and Vietnam. That majority shifted again to the Dems with Carter, and back again to Republicans Reagan & Bush, on money, race & "national security." Then back to Clinton on "the economy, stupid."

The Republican "victories" have in fact been largely Electoral College anomalies: Without Third Party candidates like Wallace and Anderson, the Right could not have won: Nixon won by a squeaker in the popular vote in 1968, and so did Reagan in 1980. Without Perot, Clinton might not have won, but in all these elections, the majority have leaned toward the center-Left, where the Democrats are (or should be), rather than the extreme Right, where the Republicans increasingly live. Only by virtue of these electoral tricks, i.e., covert support of splinter candidates, etc, has the Republican minority been able to win the White House.

It wasn't any "meme" or stylistic affectation that won Bush the White House. Nader cost Al Gore the White House in 2000, along with much help from Bush's brother in the Florida Governor's mansion, and Cheney's friends on the Republican Supreme Court. Bush then had the advantage of incumbency and war in 2004, plus voting-machine manufacturer Diebold's chairman running his Ohio campaign; but he still barely beat Kerry. He never had any kind of a "message." And there were no meaner culture warriors than Bush's brain, Karl Rove, and his boss, Dick Cheney. Nobody outside of his majority among rich people and Red State idiots could even stand Dumbya. He was a ridiculous, inarticulate, crude little moron and everybody who was paying attention knew that very well. He never represented anyone or any "vision" but those of the very rich and the very redneck, both minorities in this country, as Rush constantly laments. That's why Nixon, Reagan and both Bush's had to cheat.

Even after eight years of Clinton-bashing, people were still ready to vote for Gore. Bill Clinton was still wildly popular with the center-Left in 2000, thanks to a great economy and all those years the Repukelickin's wasted in bashing him, which only made him a martyr. If Gore had accepted Clinton's help campaigning, he probably would have won despite all the cheating by Bush. On that, and on the fight over the cheating, Gore screwed up. He actually still won the election, but then he lost the fight over it for lack of trying.

It wasn't ideology or "vision" that drove all this: It was electoral trickery and voter fatigue. Negative campaigning worked for the Republicans for years, right on up until the the point when the economy collapsed in the middle of McSame's campaign. In previous elections, up to 60% of those eligible to vote simply failed to do so, year after year. Negative campaigning was a large part of that failure to turn out, and that was its' goal. What was there to vote for? Wimpy, wonky Democrats trying to look like Republicans-Lite? Rich racist Republicans trying to look like good old boys? What a joke! That left it up to the 20% of actual voters who were hard-core Dems and the 20% hard-core Repub's to battle it out over the last couple of percentage points-worth left of those few who bothered to vote at all. But in this last Presidential election, it was money, not "vision" that won.

What Obama did was not ideological. Obviously, if you did look at his campaign website, or his Cabinet & staff choices, he's not a progressive, or even a liberal on many issues. But he did tap into a sentiment among the 40%-60% of those eligible to vote who frequently do not vote, and it was enough to counter any Republican dirty tricks. It seemed like he might actually be different on money issues that matter to the majority, if you didn't look too close. He wasn't ruling out things like healthcare, like McBush, who also stupidly admitted he was lousy on the economy. Mainly for economic reasons, many in the non-partisan majority voted for Obama, and for the "center-Left" issues we care about.

Certain very real bread & butter issues that the majority actually cares about are finally coming to a head now after more than forty years of suppression. Number one is health care. So far, Obama has effected little or no change that favors unions, gays, the anti-war movement, secularism, and other "leftist" causes. He will lose those people in 2010 & 2012 if that doesn't change very soon. If he continues to pander to the big healthco's and drops the ball on what the majority wants, universal single-payer national healthcare, then that 40%-60% is likely to sit out the next two elections in record numbers.

By energizing their own base, and discouraging the already disappointed Democratic base, the Republicans could not only stem any losses, but make some gains in the next election. This has been the pattern in mid-term Congressional elections for a long time. Democratic over-confidence, Obama's pandering to the corporations & the religious Right, and his Bush-lite stands on civil liberties and militarism may exacerbate this trend next year.

Don't count on Gen X or Y: If the economy is not back on its' feet well before NOV 2010, many of them could be unemployed, bankrupt and even homeless. They may very well register a protest vote with a Green, a Libertarian, a "reasonable-sounding" Republican; or None Of The Above, the real majority Party, by not voting at all. If they choose to stay home in large numbers next election day, Republicans can win, and they know it. That's been their very effective strategy for over forty years now.

All media bullsh*t and wonky "memes" aside, Barack had better watch his back and start producing for us, the center-Left majority, economically, or he could end up like Carter or Clinton. With all that inherited wealth and international corporate money behind them, the Republicans are not going away any time soon. And don't even THINK of another 9/11. The first one is murky enough: The next one could succeed in decapitating the government. Personally, I wouldn't trust the military or their friends the Republicans if Obama were to be sitting in the White House when a plane or a missile hit it, or Capitol Hill. Don't even THINK of it!


WIKIPEDIA
"United States midterm election"
"Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance. They usually don't turn out well for the party of the president; over the past 17 midterm elections, the president's party has lost an average 28 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate: TABLE:"



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HEAVY METAL DEBATES

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CANDIDATES CLASH & CLANG



IRON MAN OBAMA VS. TIN MAN MCCAIN

YOUTUBE: CSPAN
"Third 2008 Presidential Debate (Full Video)"




Obama's Cool, McCain's Hot, Thermodynamics Gives Barack The Win

In watching these debates, and the public's reaction to them, you might almost believe that lying, slander, double-talk and deceit were no longer the most effective tools of a highly successful politician. By remaining "aloof" as the corporate media labeled him, Obama has continued to project a kind of decency we'd almost forgotten about in politics. By sticking to the issues that confront us all like an army of rabid repo men, Barack has given us hope that we might find an advocate in Washington for a change. And change is what it is all about.

McCain has tried desperately to purloin the mantle of Change. But he can't stop himself from parroting the same old loony conservative notions and failed solutions that have made us all so sick of Bush and the rest of his Party. McCain hasn't had an original idea since the Fifties, and neither has the rest of his tired old crowd. Whatever chance he may have ever had went out the window with his ethics, morals and sense of decency when he joined in on the sleaze-fest that is the typical Republican campaign. How can McCain claim to be different when he sounds just like every other Repuke?

As one observer put it, you could hear it all better with the sound off: Seeing McCain's bizarre antics and facial expressions during and after the debate, you couldn't help but view him as a sad, desperate, mean-spirited, hot-headed old fool that you wouldn't trust to run your lawnmower, much less your country. Obama's dignified but amiable demeanor, his coolness under fire made his case and killed McCain's as to whether Obama was fit to be Commander-In-Chief. Really, folks, who would you rather have as your champion in the next big international joust: a man of real mettle or clanking cranky old clunker?
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DRACULA IS DEAD

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AT LEAST, WE THINK HE'S DEAD

ROMANIAN NAZI OILMAN BURIED IN TRANSYLVANIA

Family Requests Mourners Send Donations Against Charity, Rather Than The Traditional Garlic Wreaths

Iosif Constantin Dragan, Romania's richest man, passed away quietly in the Spanish resort of Mallorca, where he had lived luxuriously for many years on his profits from World War II. Dragan was a Fascist, a member of the Romanian Iron Guard, and a corporatist entrepreneur who supplied gas and oil to Mussolini's military in the 1940's.

After the war, Romania fell to the Communists, and Dragan set up shop in Italy, where his Fascist activities during the war did not preclude his increasing his fortune in the petroleum industry. Toward the end of the Communist era, Dragan allied himself with dictator Nikolai Ceausescu. Dragan managed to survive Ceausescu's overthrow, and went on to become Romania's first billionaire under the re-established capitalist regime.

Dragan was an unrepentant Rightist fanatic, and founded Liga Mareşal Ion Antonescu after the fall of Ceausescu. Antonescu was the Nazi collaborator who ran the Bucharest government during WWII, with disastrous effect upon the Romanian people and their neighbors. He built the "labor camps" and the "trains of death" responsible for the "ethnic cleansing" of much of Romania's Jewish and Roma population. Able to support all this, yet continue doing business with all parties, Dragan was a survivor, adapting to his environment like a man turning into a bat at the full moon.

Dragan's old organization, the Romanian Iron Guard, were considered by the Nazi's to be too violently and unscientifically anti-Semitic: Unprofessional mass-murderers. The Guard, or Legion of the Archangel Michael, conducted pogroms and slaughtered Romanian and Ukranian Jews wholesale in orgies of violence that made even the Germans cringe. All together, the Romanian Fascists killed over 300,000 Jews and Gypsies outright, second only to the Germans in the Holocaust.

Unique among extreme Rightist ideologies in Europe at the time, the movement was based upon elements of Orthodox Christian theology, and thus appealed to religious conservatives among the peasantry in the Romanian countryside. Their symbol was the Triple Cross, similar to the "Pound" or "Tic-Tac-Toe" sign on modern telephones. The Iron Guard's founder, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, started out in the National-Christian Defense League, which succeeded the National Christian Union founded by A. C. Cuza, who based much of the group's political philosophy upon Romanian Orthodox Church doctrine, and raw anti-Semitism.

Cuza also founded the Universal Antisemitic Alliance in Bucharest in 1895, pre-dating Hitler by over thirty years, and The League Against Alcoholism, a sort of prehistoric private "War on Drugs." They also considered abortion to be a sin, homosexuality to be a scourge, and demonized liberalism. American Republicans will find much to admire in the Romanian fascist movement. They even controlled the legislature for a time, under the Conservative banner. They also founded private militia's, like America's Pinkertons, Wackenhut and Blackwater. Ultimately, violence and intimidation in the name of the established order of wealthy individuals, giant corporations, and powerful government entities was their hallmark.

In addition to raking in cash, oilman Iosif Dragan devoted his life to rewriting and distorting history, to which end he built up a media empire that might have been a model for Italy's Berlusconi, or Australia's Rupert Murdoch. In all but name, Dragan was a modern American Republican.

Villagers drove a stake through his heart before burying him. "Just a precaution. We don't believe the legends, so much. Just a precaution," the priest said, and hurried away before the sun set behind the Transylvanian Mountains.


THE CANADIAN PRESS
"Ex-Nazi Romanian billionaire Iosif Constantin Dragan dead at 91"

' Iosif Constantin Dragan, a billionaire businessman who supported Romania's pro-Nazi movement during the Second World War, died Thursday. He was 91. Dragan died in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, where he lived, Romanian news agency Agerpres reported, citing a family statement. No cause of death was given. Dragan was banned from Romania after the war by the communist government because of his support for the Nazi Iron Guard movement. He moved to Italy and in 1948 founded petroleum products company Butan Gas. He had an estimated wealth of $1.6 billion in 2006 making him Romania's wealthiest man, Romanian Capital magazine reported. After the communist government was overthrown in 1989, he backed far-right politicians and newspapers in Romania. '

BALKAN INSIGHT.COM
"Romanian Billionaire Buried in Transylvania"

' Thousands of people from the Transylvanian town of Lugoj in central Romania have attended the funeral ceremony of billionaire Iosif Constantin Dragan. Dragan, who was 91, died last week in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Reports in the local media show that in 2006 Dragan had a wealth of around $1.6 billion, making him Romania's wealthiest man. Dragan was mainly involved in business dealings with oil and gas. A close friend of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, he was a promoter of the Latin origin of Romanian people. After the end of communism in Romania in 1989, he founded a university in Lugoj and set up several newspapers, including a hardline nationalist weekly magazine. '

ADEVARUL
"Ms. Milliard"

' At the age of 35, Veronica Gusa de Dragan became the richest Romanian woman. She administers the 1,5 billion dollar belonging to his dead husband. After the death of her multi-millionaire husband, Veronica Gusa de Dragan (35 years old) became the richest woman in Romania. She will administer a fortune equivalent to approximately 1,5 billion dollar. Iosif Constantin Dragan’s widow has lived for 13 years by "Ceausescu’s multi-millionaire" side. Now, she will be in charge of managing ButanGas, company whose turn-over this year will reach 86 million dollar. Actual Ms. Dragan is the only daughter of General Stefan Gusa, former head of the Romanian Armed Forces and the key-character in December 1989 events. The general mysteriously died in April 1994, four years after the Revolution. Veronica married the businessman, former congenial with Iron Guard and, subsequently, with Ceausescu, in 1995. She was 22, he was 78. Yesterday, at her husband’s funeral, the widow behaved like "an iron lady". She denied the access to funeral of the approximately 800 people who wanted to say good-bye from the most popular man in Lugoj. '

WIKIPEDIA
"Iosif Constantin Drăgan"

' Drăgan was involved in a series of controversies, including some alleged deals with the Securitate, his admiration of Romanian Fascist leader Ion Antonescu and being one of the main figures in the Protochronist current of Romanian historiography. Born in Lugoj, he graduated from Law School at the University of Bucharest in 1938, and earned in 1940 a scholarship at the University of Rome, where he studied political science and economics, earning a Ph.D. in law. At the time, Drăgan was attracted to fascist ideals and the Iron Guard, representing a corporatist trend inside the latter. In 1941, he started a company which exported Romanian petroleum products to Fascist Italy. After World War II, in 1948, he established a gas distribution company in Italy, Butan Gas.[6] After the war, with the Romanian Communist Party gaining power in Romania, he was not allowed for 30 years to return to Romania. '

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SUMMING UP

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POLITICS BY THE NUMBERS

Figures Lie & Liars Figure


JAPAN HAS A BETTER IDEA: WHY WASTE TIME WITH IMPEACHMENT?
Seppuku Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry
"Japanese minister commits suicide"

THESE PEOPLE EAT DOGS. BUT THEY WON'T EAT OUR BEEF.
Wow. We Really Need To Work On The FDA
"South Korea May Relax Restrictions on U.S. Beef"

HILLARY, RUPERT, ARE YOU LISTENING?
Wonder What Dubya Would Do If Fox Called For His Overthrow?
"Troops seize equipment of anti-government TV station"

WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER, GET ABUSED FOR IT
Red Square Runs Pink With Blood
"Gay activists beaten and arrested in Russia"

DEMS CAN'T EVEN TAKE A STAND ON THEIR OWN ISSUES
Speaker Pelosi Wimps Out On Climate Change
"Pelosi non-committal on US climate stance for G8 summit"
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ALOHA SPIRIT, REVISITED

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RETARDS, HAWAIIAN STYLE

Another One Rides The Bus

In the era of political correctness, calling black women "nappy-headed ho's" can get you fired; if enough people complain to your employers/ sponsors: Even arch-hypocrites, race-baiters and anti-Semites such as Al "Tawana" Sharpton and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson.

On the other hand, if the perceived group you wish to stigmatize is not on the protected species list, you're free to call them whatever you want, and everyone will laugh. Harvey Fierstein made this point about "faggots" and "fatties," recently on one of his infrequent visits to Cul's place.

On the same site, I myself compared Bushco and the Bushies to the mentally challenged, or whatever we're calling retards these days.

And then I caught a couple of local headlines. It seems that a 79-year-old "mentally challenged" man was beaten to death in the men's room at the Waianae Burger King, on the Leeward Side of Oahu. And a "mentally handicapped" man was harassed, then followed off the city bus by four men, and beaten into a coma, here on the South Shore.

These men were strangers to their attackers. They did nothing to justify or provoke such violence. All they had in common was that they were obviously retarded.

Now, to nice, sensible folk like you & me, such unfortunate souls are objects of sympathy, pity, curiosity, amusement, discomfort or embarrassment. They are, at best, like children; and are treated, and spoken of, as such, even to their faces, with the best or worst of intentions. Their behavior wins them a name, and the name becomes shorthand for that type of behavior in people who are not so afflicted.

Unfortunately, those who carry such burdensome labels are clearly tagged by society for any kind of abuse, not just verbal. To some people (with another type of mental challenge), retards, faggots, bull-dykes, fatties, etc, are pre-approved for even the most violent attacks, simply for being labelled by the rest of us.

I'm not saying we should, could or ever would stop it. Terms like "gay" and "retarded" were originally intended to replace the bad old words. Well, they did. Now they are the bad old words. Either way, they are still labels. Either way, sick, violent people will seek out the outcasts, the weakest and most vulnerable among us. But when they glance furtively over their simian shoulders for approval from us, tacit or explicit, maybe we should growl at them. Primate 201. Introduction to Humanity 101. Ascended Beings Tutorial: Requires prior approval, successful completion of Humanity 404.

It doesn't make any difference what we say, divorced from what we do. If we treat our "fat" "retarded" "faggots" like welcome members of society, and treat sick, violent punks like pariahs, maybe there will be a real, positive effect. If we don't, then our funny, bantering asides may continue to be a signal to the punks that it's OK to attack.

Given that the victims in this case are mentally handicapped, and the victimizers are themselves mentally ill, who bears the responsibility here?

Does this seem gay to you?

Do I look fat in this?

Oh, shut up you retard!


"Victim in attack at Burger King dies"

"Police seek suspects in attack"

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