Granny Rant
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
::::::: How Quickly We Forget ~ Bush :::::::
::: Smuggled Part Of Patriot II Into Law :::
All the goings on around the world got me thinking and remembering about
last Christmas Eve, When Dubya gave us a Christmas present ... two actually.
While Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, Bush signed
parts of Patriot II into law and the FBI had just obtained the power to probe
their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime
or terrorism.
With the Supreme Court hearing cases re American Citizens rights, the Bush
administration being accused of being "Worse Than Watergate," threats
blaring from the TV that we may be attacked by terrorists inside the United
States before the election, frankly, Granny is frightened.
No, not of terror attacks or the war in Iraq, but rather the direction in which
this country is headed. Through lies and manipulation of intel, a banging drum
that carried this country into an unnecessary war, we arrive at this unpleasant
juncture. I am afraid when I realize how badly this war was bungled. Because
of improper planning, not sending enough troops, and apparently not even
taking the time to "study up" on Iraq, the Iraqi people, their customs and
worst of all ... not understanding the Democracy enough to know it cannot be
presented as a gift or a threat. When you free a people who have lived under
a yoke of oppression for 35 years, certainly a reasonable, logical, thinking person
would consider the consequences of that freedom.
Perhaps it is because G.W. Bush, like his father, has no connection to ordinary
Americans. He never had to worry about money for school, peer pressure that
demands all the latest designer clothes, pledging a great frat ... or is Skull &
Bones a real frat? For some reason, I see them dressed in black robes and the
vision only descends into a place you and I do not want to go from that point
forward.
George Bush never worried about finding a job, affording the things his children
wanted or needed, wondering about how to survive as a "senior" in America. Now
that's a problem Bush has really been working on ... I will not begin to comment on
the absurdity of the new Medicare Bill to be crammed down seniors throats in
a couple of years. Good thing Bush won't be in office when the Medicare Bill is
implemented ... (Surely NOT) ... The Medicare Discount Card Program promises to
have seniors marching in front of the White House with torches and pitchforks.
Oh, sorry, that's right, ordinary Americans don't have close access to the
White House anymore. Too dangerous.
Due to arrogance and the "cowboy way," America is hated, under threat, and
made a fool of (the propensity of the administration and the neocons to place
trust in Chalabi, who has been quoted making fun of the Americans and how
gullible they are) all in a couple of Bush years in the oval office. And we now
have over 600 dead American boys, men and women to show for it.
Last December I posted a bit about Bush pulling a sneaky on us ... check it
out if you wonder exactly what he singed behind our back.
As usual, Gran must heed the siren call of the pork chop and fried potato.
Nice evenin to all.
::: A Sure Fire Way To Defeat Bush :::
OK ... all we have to do is make sure this news is reported by ALL media
outlets. Email all your friends and tell them to tell everyone they know. If
people realize Bush is holding a Military Draft Bill until after the election
... probably in January ... well, I do not think Americans would like it.
[..]
There's a sign on the horizon, no bigger than a man's hand, that there's a military draft in the works. The Defense Department has announced that Selective Service is making preparations for an other draft, "in case one is needed." The New York Times in an inane editorial pleads with the president to articulate a goal for the war that if it "was clear and comprehensive and people understood how to reach it, then Mr. Bush could . . . even bolster the desperately straitened military with a draft if Americans understood the need to sacrifice."
If the editorial writers of the New York Times are talking about a new draft that would send young men and women to die in the deserts of Iraq fighting crazy religious fanatics, then the idea is certainly being whispered about in the upper echelons of American society. A draft would not be proposed before the election -- if it were, Bush would be wiped out in a landslide. But a wise person would not bet against the draft being proposed next January.
What in the world is the Times talking about? Why should Americans sacrifice for the Iraq War? Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination can one seriously argue that the war in Iraq is to defend vital American interests. We found that there were no weapons of mass destruction there and no connection with al-Qaida or the Sept. 11 attack. The only issue seems to be whether we can impose democracy on Iraqis who don't seem seriously to want it or to prevent a civil war that will happen anyway as soon as our army leaves. Americans are supposed to accept the need to sacrifice their unwilling sons and daughters to fight for such absurd goals?
[..]
*** Granny's biggest fear is there WILL be another terror attack ...
*** once again to be used against the American people for continued war,
*** war profiteering, enrichment of cronies at the expense of our children.
[..]
Bush has made "the war on terrorism" a mantra to cover everything his administration has done. But the Iraq war has nothing to do with the war on terrorism, as we now know. It was a plan of Cheney and Rumsfeld and their coterie of "neo-conservative" intellectuals (like Paul Wolfowitz) long before they came to power. It was supposed to make the United States a major power in the Middle East; to provide a democratic alternative to the typical Arab autocracy; to give the United States control of major oil fields; to take pressure off Israel, and to establish that the United States was a superpower that could go anywhere in the world and do anything it wanted. The "war on terror" was only a pretext to implement this plan, as accounts of the early White House reaction to the Sept. 11 attack seem to indicate.
[..]
Now Gran is really depressed, but am firing up emails to spread the news.
::: Are We Sure About Lakhdar Brahimi? :::
[..]
As President Bush said during his April 13 press conference, the United States counts on the UN special envoy to "determine the nature of the entity to which" it will "return Iraqi sovereignty" on June 30. The Americans don't bear a grudge. In January, Lakhdar Brahimi tore apart their initial idea of organizing indirect elections to designate a provisional government. This time, he dismissed one of their replacement schemes: enlargement of the present Interim Government Council. In its place, Mr. Brahimi advocates a government of "technocrats" that would handle current matters only between June 30 and elections in January 2005.
The 70-year-old Mr. Brahimi has just spent ten days in Iraq. After a stop in Rome, he came to Paris where his family lives and where the Political Science College expects him for a seminar on peace-keeping. Friday, he presided over the engagement of his daughter, Rym, a CNN journalist, with Prince Ali of Jordan, King Abdullah's half brother. Saturday, he met with Jacques Chirac.
The Afghanistan File
At the Elysee, he was asked about a declaration he had made a few days earlier on France Inter, which had created a little scandal in New York and in Washington's hyper-conservative chorus. Did he really believe that "the big poison in the region" was "the Israeli policy of domination and suffering inflicted on Palestinians"? The answer was yes. "It's not an opinion," Brahimi insisted. "It's a fact."
[..]
Makes you wanna go hmmmm ... Gran
:::: OK, India, You Are Not Welcome To Our Jobs, ::::
::: But You Can Have Those Dumb Voting Machines :::
New Voting Machine, the Same Old Fraud
[..]
MAUJEMPUR, India, April 26 - Standing under a blistering sun in this destitute farming village in northern India on Monday morning, about 100 sinewy men and 30 rail-thin women waited patiently for their chance to cast ballots on India's newest accomplishment: an electronic voting machine.
Indian officials trumpet the sleek and sophisticated device as the latest example of the new India, a nation of surging technology jobs, rising optimism and roaring economic growth. For the first time, electronic machines are being used across India in the staggered national elections that got under way this month. On Monday, the third stage of the voting was held here in the state of Bihar and in 10 others.
[..]
*** Unfortunately, India's voting machine problems are a bit more
*** serious than ours. They use bombs.
[..]
In what appeared to be a carefully planned series of events, two small bombs exploded near the polling place and party workers threatened the five policemen guarding the booth and then brazenly took control of it. As poll workers and policemen averted their eyes, young party workers pushed the button for their party on the electronic voting machine over and over again, casting vote after fraudulent vote.
The men had carried out a new version of a storied Indian electoral trick: "booth capturing," in which armed thugs hired by political parties seize control of a polling place and stuff ballot boxes. The events on Monday suggest that like the rest of India, the country's political operatives are becoming more businesslike and more technologically savvy.
[..]
*** After the police came and went, it was Indian business as usual.
[..]
Minutes after his [the police] departure, Mr.Yadav's workers gained control of the booth. One party worker slipped into the room where people were supposed to be voting alone. When voters entered, he told them to push the button for Mr. Yadav's party or placed their index fingers on the button for the party and pressed it down.
In a lull between voters, he pushed the button for Mr. Yadav's party over and over again himself. After 15 minutes, another party worker replaced him and did the same thing. The poll officers and the police, seemingly intimidated, did nothing to stop them. No representative from Mr. Vajpayee's party was present
[..]
*** Well, not much difference really. India has thugs stealing elections,
*** but we use the much more official Supreme Court.
Gran, who is happy to read many are now wise to those Diebold ripoff boxes.
::: Who Wins The Medal Toss? :::
[..]
Nearly 800 veterans "gave back" their medals, ribbons, dog tags and other military items during a protest in April 1971. However, a tape of a television interview Kerry gave shortly after the protest suggested he had claimed that he also threw his medals.
[..]
Come on guys, this is way too stupid for a Presidential
Election Campaign. Lets talk about substantive issues.
What would really be news is for Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz, and
Rumsfeld to toss their medals over the MOON. No? Oh well,
they can toss their cookies after being outsourced to Iraq in
November.
Now for some important debate!
How about Dubya's eye-popping tie at the press conference?
Gran
::: Supreme Court To Decide -- Can Cheney And Bush :::
::::: Operate A "Sort Of" U. S. Elected Dictatorship? :::::
Paul Krugman sifts through the myriad possible reasons the Supremes are
taking the time to consider the Cheney Energy Task Force Secrecy Riddle.
[..]
The real mystery is why the Bush administration has engaged in a three-year fight - which reaches the Supreme Court today - to hide the details of a story whose broad outline we already know.
[..]
Could it be there is something incriminating in the task force docs?
Or, as Krugman wonders, could the intimates of the meetings reveal a
chummy relationship with energy pals?
[..]
Those of us who have been following such things know that the Bush administration is so deeply enmeshed in the energy industry that it's hard to know where one ends and the other begins>. Campaign contributions are part of it, but it's also personal: George Bush and Dick Cheney are only two of the many members of the administration who grew rich by relying on the kindness of energy companies. Indeed, the day after the executive director of Mr. Cheney's task force left the government, he went into business as an energy industry lobbyist.
In return, the Bush administration has given energy companies a lot to celebrate. One policy decision alone, effectively scrapping "new source review" in regulating power plant pollution, is worth billions of dollars to industry donors.
[..]
Considering there are enough snakes writhing in Cheney's secret pit
to erupt into scandal at any time, perhaps Cheney is simply worried about
unfavorable publicity.
*** One is the grand jury investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame
*** as a CIA operative.
*** Paris court contemplates an eventual *** indictment of the present
*** United States Vice President, Richard Cheney, in his capacity as
*** former CEO of Halliburton. The investigations concern 180 million
*** dollars of commissions paid on the occasion of a gas complex bid
*** in Nigeria. Bribery, huh? Didn't hear that in the media, did you?
*** And isn't there something about Halliburton and asbestos? (not
*** sure on this ... no link, but am not at all worried about mentioning
*** something that could possibly, turn out to be false ... why? ...
*** 'cause they are obviously not everworried about the truth!)
[..]
The main public justification for the Cheney task force was the 2000-2001 electricity crisis in California. For at least two years, we've known that this crisis was largely the result of market manipulation by energy companies - and surmised that some of those same companies were advising Mr. Cheney on energy policy.
[..]
*** Conclusion ... It's the Power they're after, stupid.
Gran
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
::: Granny Holding Forth: Kerry Not Supporting Weapons Programs :::
Quickie
On one of the news channels last night, I heard Co-President,
Dick Cheney expounding on the inadequacies of Candidate
John Kerry re "non support for weapons systems."
Excuse Me! Is this not the administration, including the so called War
President, Bush, that failed to provide enough troops in the first
place, failed to provide the troops that were sent with body armor,
and failed to provide armored the vehicles they would need? And
then required them to be fed by KBR (subsidiary of Cheney's old
company Halliburton), a company that was cited several times by the
Pentagon as providing an area for feeding the troops that was filthy,
and was said to have blood and rotting meat in the food preparation
areas?
Plus ... considering reports from Gulf I on the performance of Patriot Missiles
that turned out to be false, and the high praise for the performance of said
missiles during Iraqi Freedom ... which also turned out to be FALSE. I cannot
find it logical to fault John Kerry for non-support of that weapons system.
Can You?
These rest on your head:
Imperfection, deficiency, demerit, shortcoming, sin, failing, foible,
vice, blame, culpability, guilt, onus and the odious practice of trying
to shift responsibility onto the back of a man who served this country
rather than dodging his duty.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
::: Americans Are Truly Stupid If They Allow This To Happen :::
A Diamond Encrusted Bracelet
Not even sweet 16 yet and we are willing to give up Hubble?
[..]
To celebrate Hubble's 14th birthday this Saturday, mission managers have given fans and supporters a diamond ring of sorts, a star-studded galaxy in an odd configuration. And as with many Hubble pictures, this one provides plenty of cause for wonder.
The unusual galaxy is made of bright blue star clusters circling a yellowish center. It was long ago victim of a violent collision, which created a sight we earthlings can only try to envision: Anyone living on a planet in the ring would see a brilliant band of blue stars arcing across their night sky, Hubble astronomers said today.
[..]
Granny Votes an emphatic NO to giving up this eye on the Universe!
Thursday, April 22, 2004
::: Bush Administration and Pentagon Delusional :::
Coalition Memo And Seeds Of Civil War
Our leaders need to get their head out of ... hmmmm...
wherever they have stuck them.
[..]
As the situation in Iraq grows ever more tenuous, the Bush administration continues to spin the ominous news with matter-of-fact optimism. According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Iraqi uprisings in half a dozen cities, accompanied by the deaths of more than 100 soldiers in the month of April alone, is something to be viewed in the context of "good days and bad days," merely "a moment in Iraq's path towards a free and democratic system." More recently, the president himself asserted, "Our coalition is standing with responsible Iraqi leaders as they establish growing authority in their country."
But according to a closely held Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) memo written in early March, the reality isn't so rosy. Iraq's chances of seeing democracy succeed, according to the memo's author - a U.S. government official detailed to the CPA, who wrote this summation of observations he'd made in the field for a senior CPA director - have been severely imperiled by a year's worth of serious errors on the part of the Pentagon and the CPA, the U.S.-led multinational agency administering Iraq. Far from facilitating democracy and security, the memo's author fears, U.S. efforts have created an environment rife with corruption and sectarianism likely to result in civil war.
[..]
Wow ... this is even more fun ... an addition to the sad story.
Ahmed Chalabi: The Movie
[..]
Ahmad Chalabi has the biggest cajones since P.T. Barnum, the pumped-up carney-barker who might have coined the phrase, "There’s a sucker born every minute."
A charming, ever-so-resilient Iraqi rogue, Mr. Chalabi is hustling to consummate a stunning caper. If only someone would pay me to write the screenplay, a sequel to my childhood favorite, young Tony Curtis in "The Thief of Baghdad."
[..]
Ah ... I was thinking Chalabi was to be the pipeline to Iraqi Oil .. Yes? / No?
[..]
When - or if - Washington hands over nominal sovereignty to whichever group of Iraqis on June 30, will our Ahmad become Prime Minister, as top Pentagon civilians and their neo-conservative cronies originally hoped? Or, will the White House ban him from a new caretaker government, as the UN’s Lakhdar Brahimi reportedly wants?
Either way, will the shameless scoundrel and his American co-conspirators - I use the term advisedly - hold onto enough Iraqi oil and American-financed construction contracts to become as rich as their greedy hearts desire?
When macho American "boots on the ground" stomp on one prayer mat too many, what will the locals do to Ahmad? Will we have a chase scene?
[..]
Check out the screenplay for Chalabi, The Movie."
Get it together!
Gran
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
::: Puzzles In Our Skies :::
In Our Face
Ok, Granny is going to go public ... and this is only the tip of the nasty iceberg.
Indeed, when I have tried to speak to anyone on this subject I don't get the
thousand yard stare, I get the ten-thousand yard stare and I notice people
reaching for a net.
I admit I never noticed this phenom myself for a long time, but once pointed
out and due to the fact there are planes spraying over my house right now,
I consequently always look up when I go outside.
Granny has be studying this chemtrail, aerosol scattering, spraying or whatever
you want to call it for over a year and a half. I began noticing it a few months
after 9-11 when a co-worker, who had become extremely ill, joked, "They must
be spraying something on our heads." Unfortunately, I am a smoker and when
I would go outside to smoke, I had the opportunity to notice the sky. I "looked up"
only occasionally at first, but then gradually began to notice a patter. The planes
would appear and begin stripping the sky, making grids and X patterns whenever
there was a patch of blue sky.
How can you tell the difference? Follow the link below
and be sure to use the "next" button.
Good Clouds/Fake Clouds -- How to tell the difference
These odd aerosol cloud formations are everywhere now ... pictured in movies,
on television, in photographs and the post office is now preparing to offer a
series of "Chemtrail" stamps! Amazing.
In artwork and advertising
Much, much, much more to come ....
Gran
::: Rockefeller Regrets Vote On Iraq :::
::: New Weapons Search Is A Sham :::
West Virginia Senator on Iraq: "My Vote Was Wrong."
[..]
"The decision got made before there was a whole bunch of intelligence," said Rockefeller, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I think the intelligence was shaped. And I think the interpretation of the intelligence was shaped.
"We had this feeling we could be welcomed as liberators. Americans don't know history, geography, ethnicity. The administration had no idea of what they were getting into in Iraq. We are not internationalists. We border on being isolationists. We don't know anything about the Middle East."
[..]
Granny thinks there are going to be many "Regrets"
and hopes the Senator from W. Virginia is sincere.
