During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Corruption is Legal in America via Doku Mentor ~ https://vimeo.com/135398031
For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. ~ President John F. Kennedy, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, April 27, 1961, assassinated, November 22, 1963
Nobody Cares About Tainted News &
None of the Above should be a valid choice on voter ballots?
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday, July 1st with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we once more explore the history of Jazz from Wilmington over the decades with the first installment of The Secret City of Jazz. At 8am (EDT) on Rockabilly Ridge Michael Ace spins a batch of tunes by nobodies. At 9am (EDT) we bop back to this day in 1965 with the Beatles, some hits on the British pop charts, some hit tunes that were part the the British Invasion in the USA, and some homegrown favorites. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday, June 24th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we present some light opera from Gilbert & Sullivan in the form of The Mikado coming to you at a breakneck speed with Groucho Marx, Helen Traubel, Stanley Holloway, and others. At 8am (EDT) on the Club Baby Grand Larry Williams and I pay tribute to Clifford Brown with some of his final recordings, both live and studio, on the 67th anniversary of his passing. Then we will proceed to Clifford’s Corner with more jazz. In the late 1940s through the early 50s a lot of R&B contained double entendres or downright suggestive lyrics, and after 9am (EDT) we’ll play some of them along with other choice tunes from the era. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Feetlines ~ Reject the Evidence of Your Eyes & Ears
Documents containing sensitive information could be
used as leverage to get billions of investment dollars ?The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State. Joseph Goebbels
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday, June 17th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we’ll hear some classic Modern Jazz Quartet in the form of their soundtrack for the Roger Vadim film “No Sun in Venice,” and conclude with selections from MJQ’s soundtrack for the American film “Odds Against Tomorrow.” At 8am (EDT) Larry Williams joins us on Clifford’s Corner with a few sides from women jazz artists, including one from Ella Fitzgerald accompanied by the Arch Cupcake, and that’s just for starters. On the R&B side we’ll spin a couple of lesser known sides from the late, great Tina Turner, along with tunes from Bettye LaVette, Doc Starke, Percy Mayfield, Fats Domino, and of course Louis Jordan. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Nobody for President ~ The BIRTHDAY PARTY speaks
Nobody's "Birthday Party" provided an easy, cost-effective, way to restore political balance:
None of the Above
should be a valid choice on voter ballots.Unfortunately, a jaded two party system rejects this simple fix because Nobody has all the answers and believes: if a majority of citizens voted for None of the Above, rather than lesser of evils, voters would have to find someone competent to lead them !!! The media said, "Nobody could argue with that logic."
(1) Put "None of the Above" on voter ballots.
(2) Change requirements for President:
(a) Extremely hard civil service exam.
(b) Top scores compete in Prezolympics.
(c) Top 10 winners become candidates.
(d) Election winner becomes President.
(e) Gets device implanted in brain that explodes if a lie is told.(3) Hire a Ribbon Cutter for President.
(a) Saved money pays off national debt.
(4) Declare election day a holiday.
(a) Voting receipt required for pay.
(5) Tie election participation to jury duty.
(a) Those who don't vote go on jury rolls.
Nobody brought peace to our time, lowered taxes, balanced the budget, fed the hungry & destitute, established a corporate death penalty, created free health care, ordered Congress & Senate to use same benefits as "The People," reminded everybody Jesus said, "Love one another" (NOT murder or maim), and ...bakes apple pie better than Mom!
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday, June 10th with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we present a plethora of mostly obscure rockabilly tunes from 1958, then at 8am (EDT) we head down on the farm with Michael Ace on Rockabilly Ridge for some barnyard fun. At 9am (EDT) we bop back to this day in 1961. John F. Kennedy was the new President, and who had met with Nikita Khrushchev the Saturday before in Vienna, and Gidget went to Hawaii at the movies ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Heaven or Hell?
Donald Trump passes.
His soul arrives in heaven and he is met by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.
"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem: We seldom see a Republican around these parts, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in; I'm a believer," says Trump, "did you see that picture of me holding a bible?"
"I'd like to let you in, but have orders from the Man Himself: He says you have to spend one day in hell and one day in heaven. Then you must choose where you'll live for eternity."
"But, I've already made up my mind; I want to be in heaven."
"I'm sorry, but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter escorts him to an elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to hell.
The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a lush golf course; the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, the temperature a perfect 72 degrees.
In the distance is a beautiful clubhouse. Standing in front of it his dad and thousands of other Republicans who had helped him out over the years: along with Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoullos, Roger Stone, Mike "Fake Christian" Pence, Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon, Ronald "I created the homeless" Reagan, and the entire "Jr. talks with God" Bush family.
The whole of the "Right" is here, everyone laughing, happy; casually, but expensively dressed.
They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they had getting rich at expense of the "suckers and peasants." They play a friendly game of golf, then dine on lobster and caviar.
The devil himself comes up to Donald with a beautiful golden scepter and says, “Relax Donnie, ...this scepter belonged to Julius Caesar and I want you to have it!"
"This is Hell, son: you can drink, eat all you want, do whatever / whomever you like and not have to worry, plus, it just gets better from here!" says the devil.
Trump takes the scepter and finds himself liking the devil, who is a very friendly guy that tells funny jokes and pulls hilarious nasty pranks, kind of like the relationship he had with his own family, except for having real horns.
They are having such a great time that, before he realizes it, it's time to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves as Trump steps on the elevator and heads upward.
When the elevator door reopens, he is in heaven again and St. Peter is waiting for him. "Now it's time to visit heaven," the old man says, opening the gate.
So for 24 hours Trump is made to hang out with a bunch of honest, good-natured people who enjoy each other's company, talk about things other than money, and treat each other decently.
Not a nasty prank or billionaire’s joke among them; no fancy country clubs and while the food tastes great, it's not caviar or lobster. These people are all poor; he doesn't see anybody he knows, and he isn't treated like someone special!
Worst of all, to Trump, Jesus turns out to be some kind of Jewish hippie with his endless 'peace' and 'do unto others' jive.
"Whoa," he says uncomfortably to himself, "Jerry Falwell, Jr. never prepared me for this! Guess he was too preoccupied watching the pool boy bang his wife?”
The day done, St. Peter returns and says, "Well, then, you've spent a day in Hell and a day in Heaven. Now choose where you want to live for eternity."
With the 'Jeopardy' TV theme playing softly in the background, Trump reflects for a minute, then answers, "Well, I would never have thought I'd say this -- I mean, heaven has been delightful and all -- but I really think I belong in hell with my friends."
So Saint Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down, all the way to hell.
The doors of the elevator open, and he finds himself in the middle of barren, scorched earth covered with garbage and toxic industrial waste …kind of like Houston?
He is horrified to see all of his friends dressed in rags and chained together, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags.
They are groaning and moaning in pain, faces and hands black with grime. The Devil comes over to Trump and puts an arm around his shoulder.
"I don't understand," stammers a shocked Trump. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a clubhouse and we ate lobster and caviar and drank booze. We screwed around and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and everybody looks miserable!"
The Devil looks at him, smiles slyly, and purrs,
Yesterday we were campaigning;
today you voted for us!
Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck in the middle with who?
The Original Complete List Of The
45 Declared Goals
For A Communist U.S. Political
Partisan Takeover Of America?
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. [Finally ended 3 October 1990]
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. ~ [Albania, 14 December 1955 ~ Poland, 15 October 1945 ~ Bulgaria, 14 December 1955 ~ Romania, 14 December 1955 ~ Czech Republic, 24 October 1945 & 19 January 1993 ~ East Germany, 18 September 1973 ~ Hungary, 14 December 1955]
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Dahbud Mensch ~ AMERICAQANON GOTHIC by R.J. Matson @ Cagle Cartoons
Are Insurrectionists Living in
a Federalist GOP partisan Supreme Court Paradise?
Terrorist & Insurrectionist
share a similar definition?
terrorist, noun & adjective [attributive]: person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
insurrectionist, noun & adjective [attributive]: person who commits violent uprising and armed insurrection against an authority or government.
If you are an insurrectionist,
you are a terrorist?
"If you harbor terrorists insurrectionists, you are terrorists. If you train or arm a terrorist an insurrectionist, you are a terrorist. If you feed a terrorist an insurrectionist or fund a terrorist an insurrectionist, you're a terrorist, and you will be held accountable by the United States and our friends." ~ GOP, Republican: George W. Bush, WMD Liar ~ NY Times 11/22/2001
I can't see why Leftists
call us Terrorists
Whataboutism Hypocrisy, meme of Chris Britt cartoon @ creators.com
via Tom Wellborn ~ original cartoon here via The Ghost of Elizabeth Shue
Supreme Court to democracy:
Drop dead
With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.
By Gary Kamiya, Salon's executive editor
Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory.With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision.
The court was the last American civic institution to have preserved an aura of impartiality, to be regarded as above the gutter of partisanship and self-interest. The reality, of course, is that no court, no judge, no human being, is completely free of those entanglements. Yet the court has generally acted wisely in avoiding judgments that would inevitably and utterly besmirch it. With one reckless and partisan ruling, it squandered its most precious possession: its reputation. It may take years, even decades, to repair the damage done by the Scalia-Rehnquist court's decision to cancel the election and crown the winner.
It's hard not to conclude, now that this whole sorry saga is over, that the fix was in from the beginning. Not the crude, "vast right-wing conspiracy" fix of Hillary Clinton's imagination, but a de facto fix. Why shouldn't one think the game was rigged, when five Republican-appointed justices -- one of whose son works for the law firm of the lawyer representing Bush, another of whose wife is recruiting staff for the Bush administration and two of whom have made clear their desire to retire under a Republican administration -- trashed their entire judicial philosophy to ram through, with only the most cramped of legal justifications, a last-second victory for a Republican who lost the national popular vote and, when the votes in Florida are actually counted, is likely to have lost the Florida one as well?
Perfect justice does not exist. But this was judicial folly, politically explosive and judicially threadbare. This was the court stepping in and awarding victory to one side before the game was over. Even those of us who don't often agree with the court's conservative majority expected better.
As Justice Stevens wrote in his savage dissent, "The position by the majority of this court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land ... Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
As soon as the ruling was handed down, a nearly hysterical chorus of TV commentators, many of them cynical bear-baiters who wouldn't believe oaths sworn by their own mothers, suddenly pulled long faces and began urging the American people to accept the court's verdict, defer to its wisdom, venerate its grandeur, unite around Bush and generally go quietly back indoors to await further instructions. Television is never more nauseating than when it slips imperceptibly into its role as quasi-official national nanny, instructing the unruly masses in correct civic comportment. But if the dissenting justices can pour bile on the majority's opinions -- Stevens explicitly accuses his conservative brethren of impugning the integrity of their judicial colleagues -- why is it so frightening for the people to do the same thing? The American people's allegiance to democracy should be greater than our fealty to a court that has just spat in its face. In any case, we survived His Fraudulency I, the unduly elected Rutherford B. Hayes, and we will survive His Fraudulency II.
What the court ruled, when you get down to it, was that democracy shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of bureaucracy. One man, one vote? Overrated. Every vote counts? Too much trouble. None of those democratic pieties, the court in its infinite wisdom ruled, are as important as strict adherence to niggling rules and timetables -- rules and timetables that the court itself had the power to set aside.
If a court received evidence that a condemned prisoner was actually innocent, but that evidence arrived five minutes after some subclerk's filing deadline, you would not expect it to simply blithely proceed with the execution on the grounds that proper paperwork had not been done. But that, in effect, is precisely what the Supreme Court did. And what it killed was not only any possibility that this election will ever be regarded as fair or final but the principle that every vote must be counted.
Of course, the Florida recount was flawed. The justices had legitimate reason to be troubled by irregularities in the recount process. The differing standards about what constituted a legal vote, left open by the vague Florida statutory language about the "intent of the voter" and the "clear intent of the voter," opened a Pandora's box -- start recounting without a clear standard and you're in an endless wilderness of enigmatic chads.
But the court's position that those irregularities -- which are comparable to the irregularities that plague every election in every state in the country -- violated equal protection rights and therefore are a matter for federal intervention, is indefensible. It's indefensible on grounds of judicial consistency, considering the court's long history of deference to the states in establishing and interpreting local law. But the real reason it's indefensible is factual.
If the recount violated equal protection rights, then the entire Florida election -- not to mention the national one -- did, too. As Gore attorney David Boies pointed out in oral arguments before the court (although he might as well have been talking to five potted plants -- those minds were closed), the different standards used in counting punch-card ballots have considerably less impact on which votes end up counting (the heart of the equal protection claim) than the different voting machines that are used. Optical scan devices, found in richer, whiter, pro-Bush counties, generate many fewer errors than punch-card devices, which are found in poorer, blacker, pro-Gore ones. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court did not suddenly drop its long-standing aversion to meddling in state affairs and rush into Florida to rectify this grave inequality. That apparently only happens when a fellow Republican needs rescuing.
In any case, even assuming that the differing standards used to evaluate punch-card ballots constitute grounds for federal intervention, there was a clear and fair solution, as suggested by Justice Souter in his dissent: Impose a statewide standard, to be overseen by a judge, and see if the recount could be completed by Dec. 18, the date set for the meeting of electors.
What harm would there be in attempting to carry out this remedy? The court made much of Dec. 12, the "safe harbor" deadline after which the frail craft carrying Florida's precious electors would be buffeted by unknown seas -- smashed by Hurricane DeLay, drenched by Tsunami Lott. But as all the dissenters pointed out, nothing in the Constitution requires states to send electors by that date. A safe harbor means exactly that: a safe harbor. Why not expose the electoral dinghy to those seas? What was the court so worried about? Could it be that, like the man to whom they served up the election, their real fear was that Bush might not win? How else to explain their refusal to pursue the option that many observers thought they would -- an evenhanded solution that would have guaranteed victory to neither man, honored the sacred principle that every vote counts, restored the luster to the court and prevented their legacy from being tarnished forever?
Instead of starting with the principle that the sacred duty of any court intervening in an election is to get the votes counted, and doing everything in their power to make that happen in as fair a way as possible, the five GOP justices simply declared that it couldn't be done because recounts weren't perfect and -- gosh, look at my watch! -- time had expired.
This argument is the epitome of probity, if you take your judicial philosophy from Kafka. The majority said the recount couldn't be done in time -- then smashed the clock with a hammer. They had the colossal gall to write, "A desire for speed is not a general excuse for ignoring equal protection guarantees" -- when they were the ones who halted the recount and imposed artificial deadlines that made that "desire for speed" necessary. As Justice Ginsburg said in her dissent, "The court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the presidency of the United States."
It is difficult to avoid the degrading conclusion -- degrading, because it implies a substantial lack of judicial competence and integrity on the part of the court's majority -- that from the start the court's right-wing majority, like the Bush camp to which it has so many ties, secretly regarded the very idea of a recount as suspect, inferior, secondary, an ignoble and unacceptable tainting of the God-given, majestic, sacrosanct first-count results (which just happened to show Bush in a razor-thin lead). The single most frightening image of the entire surreal episode may have been James Baker's icy, contemptuous rage as he denounced Gore's request for a recount -- his scowling face almost a caricature of the left's cartoon image of the authoritarian, white-haired, vengeful, win-at-all-costs, God-is-on-our-side right-winger. The Supreme Court ruling had footnotes instead of rage, but it seems to have operated on the same assumptions.
Justice Scalia confirmed this with his bizarre defense of his order to stop the recount, in which he gratuitously said, "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner, and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." It was prudent of Justice Scalia to include the words "what he claims to be," but does anyone really doubt that Scalia, like those Bush supporters who kept angrily braying that Bush had "won," believed that the Texas governor should by rights have already moved into the White House, and Gore's attempts to find out what the vote actually was were damn near treasonous?
This we-already-won mind-set explains why the court signally failed to look at the election as a whole, and craft a remedy that tacitly acknowledged the errors both sides made -- a ruling that would have been as politically wise as the one it issued was divisive and rash.
Courts are not explicitly political institutions, but when dealing with an issue as momentous as the election of a president, it would seem wise for the court to assess the entire context in which a given legal challenge takes place. The Florida election was an equal-opportunity debacle: Both sides acted wrongly and bear some responsibility for the mess. But no one objective could conceivably look at it and claim that the Democrats had overreached so badly that they deserved to be terminated by judicial fiat.
Florida's governor was George W. Bush's brother. Its secretary of state, who never ruled against him, was a high-ranking official in his campaign who hired a private voter-roll cleansing company with Republican ties that disqualified hundreds of legitimate Democratic voters. The Florida GOP illegally completed Republican ballot applications in Martin and Seminole counties while denying Gore campaign workers the same opportunity to correct Democratic ballot applications. It took every opportunity to disqualify improper ballots for Gore, while demonizing Gore for doing the same thing to military overseas ballots. Determined to ensure a Bush victory at all cost, the GOP-controlled Legislature voted to push a slate of Bush electors through -- regardless of what recounts might show. And, of course, the GOP dragged its feet at every turn, resisting recounts and trying to run out the clock.
The Democrats, for their part, lost the moral high ground by failing to call for a statewide manual recount from the beginning. They squandered more capital threatening to sue over a ballot designed by a Democrat. They ignored the obvious injustice of changing the definition of what vote should count in the middle of the process: Palm Beach's recount, in which the standard kept changing, was a travesty. And, like their Republican counterparts, they played hardball with every ballot they could get their hands on.
In light of this situation, a ruling that handed victory to one side and not the other was the last thing, from a political as well as an ethical perspective, the court should have been looking for. And fortunately for the court, a decision to remand back to the Florida Supreme Court would not by any means have ensured a Gore victory -- Bush was actually gaining votes by some accounts -- making it the right thing to do both legally and politically. Yet the court, in thrall to the idea that Bush had already won and, one suspects, secretly accepting the Rush Limbaugh crowd's canard that the hand recounts were not just subject to different standards but to malevolent Democratic manipulation and chad chomping, did not even try. It stopped the counting. It stopped the election. It stopped democracy.
Justice Ginsberg, in her dissent, summed up the case with quiet eloquence. "Ideally, perfection would be the appropriate standard for judging the recount. But we live in an imperfect world, one in which thousands of votes have not been counted. I cannot grant that the recount adopted by the Florida court, flawed as it is, would yield a result less fair or precise than the certification that preceded recount."
Thousands of votes have not been counted. Think about that, whatever your political persuasion is, from time to time during the next four years. Imagine them, gathering dust in a filing cabinet somewhere, each one of them expressing the choice of a person who, when he went to the polling place that Tuesday in November, had every expectation that the United States would do its very best to ensure that whether he was rich or poor, black or white, he would be heard.
The people have not been heard. They will not be heard. And each of those uncounted ballots is a cry of reproach against the act of judicial arrogance that has now forever silenced them.
[Ed. Note: This article has been linked since 2000, in many pages, to: http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/14/bush/index.html, which no longer works and takes one to here: http://www.salon.com/news/.]
Closing Argument
Telecom Crimes ~ Patriot Act ~ Denialist ~ He Said It ~ Rethinking 9/11 ~ Are you better off?
Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretapping's, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?
*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.
Alan: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
Judge Robert Sanders: Please get out of the chair.
Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
Judge Robert Sanders: Get out of the chair!
Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un American.
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentially, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!
Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say, please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.
Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her. ~ Boston Legal ~ Stick It ~ Season 2 ~ Episode 19 ~ [Video at link] ~ Written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy ~ Directed by Adam Arkin.
ASIFA-SF, Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation, SF Newsletter
ASIFA-SF June 2023 Newsletter [PDF]
Boptime ~ w/Even Steven Leech ~ Saturday Mornings
Boptime begins at 6am (EDT) on Saturday, June 3rd with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we present a special Beatlemania!!! beginning with Strawberry Fields Forever followed by a surprising cover version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. At 8am (EDT) we revisit The Monterey International Pop Festival that was held June 16 to 18, 1967 with interviews focusing on Janis Joplin, from Charlatans’ band member Mike Wilhelm and Sam Andrew from Big Brother & the Holding Company, along with an in depth report from old friend Curtis Spangler, who was in the vortex of that momentous event. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in Delaware on:
WVUD-FM 91.3
Shoutcast = [Search: WVUD] || TuneIn
Notes from ~@~
June 4th, Forty-Nine (49) Years Ago
Haight/Ashbury Photograph: C. Spangler
Notes from Erb
Satan's demons take on the image of God similar to that done in Eden (II Corinthians, 11:14). How else do they take control of earth? Ministers of Satan are variously understood as being a consummately evil system of government; or leader... are liars who will deceive many people... want to divide the world and create war without end... will declare things which are evil are good, will refer to war as peace, death as a solution for justice, and serving the wealthy as a means of helping the poor. Many nations will recognize they are evil, but their own people will be inclined to believe their deceptions.
Christians are to no longer execute sinners, so they should not wage carnal war, but spiritual warfare ~ (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 6:11-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-5; 4:6-8), must be peacemakers forgiving those who do them harm treating their enemies with love and not seeking revenge ~ (Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:19), (Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 6:9-15; Mark 11:25-26), (Luke 6:27-36) (Romans 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:8-12), and Hatred, which is the same as murder, is unforgiving, vengeful and hostile towards one's enemies ~ (1 John 3:15)
Flashbacks
Susan Collins Tried to Gaslight US
The Proof is In... via Rewire News GroupMore Examples of Republican, Communist McCarthyism...
Up there with: "I am not a crook", "Babies in Incubators", WMD, etc. ???You want to know what this [war on drugs] was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. ...You understand what I’m saying? ... John Ehrlichman
We [GOP Republicans] knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but... by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the [corporate media] evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? ...Of course we did. ... John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
Bush Family's Link To Nazi Germany
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/guardian-bush-familys-lin_n_438635
Bush's new world order
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/14/september11.usa6
New Order (Nazism)
Dahbud Mensch ~ Stuck in the middle with who? ~ “State capitalism” is just capitalism
Beck ~ Where it’s at *Stage graphics via Drew TyndellThe Left says corrupt billionaires are the problem... the
Right says corrupt government is the problem. And I'm here like...
You do realize corrupt billionaires are running the corrupt government, right?
“State capitalism” is just capitalism (i.redd.it) via Dependent-Mission999Time for a Corporate Death Penalty ???
5FDP vs. Billy Idol ~ Rebel Yell Over It, DJ Schmolli via SrvTechNONE of the ABOVE should be a valid choice on voter ballots!
ASIFA-SF, Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation, SF Newsletter
ASIFA-SF March 2023 Newsletter [PDF]
This is a big issue including an advancement in animating
dinosaurs, festival news, and a lot more, size/2MB ... K.C.
Notes from ~@~
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. Tom Smothers
Carlin Step, DJ Steve Porter & Eli Wilkie via Roland Kardeby
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) via R Smittenaar
One Day, Matisyahu
Unsung Hero via Rattakarn Srithavatchai "Garn"
The Sacred Clowns ~ Heyókȟa
The Heyókȟa symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakȟáŋ. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.
Principally, the Heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyókȟas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.
In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyókȟa's don't seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness.
Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites
Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten. ~ Cree Prophecy
Nobody for President ~ NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on voter ballots!
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President, 197610.12 ~ Photo: James Stark
Nobody bakes apple pie better than Mom, is eternal, perfect, has all the answers, ended war, will love you forever, brought peace to our time, fixed global warming, fed the hungry & destitute, knows, cares, shives a git about you, loves you when you're down & out, and if elected will not lie to, or steal from, 'the people'; ...begging a question, What's NOTA's entry fee ...more lies that lead to mass murder or human sacrifice, when Nobody says why not try love again?
American Dream, George Carlin via Ishtar [Not Work Safe] Alternative source with text
NOBODY should have that much power!
NONE of the ABOVE should be a valid choice on voter ballots!
Message via Mike Pinder
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light. Mike Pinder
Why I Think This World Should End, Prince EA via Prince EA
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man, But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because
it isn't packaged the way you expect!
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