"We don't all have to believe what our president believes to be a patriot." -- Neil Young
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Friday, April 28, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Throw the Bums Out!
As Americans, we are very proud of our heritage, but what will future generations think if we sit idly by and do nothing when we actually do know the truth:
The U.S. military is plagued with following the orders of an incompetent Bush administration. There is continuous Iraq mission creep and increasing war costs in blood and treasure with no accountability. Iraqi forces still cannot defend their country, leaving American soldiers to die in their place. Iraq is presently sitting on top of two trillion gallons of unrefined crude, and could have paid for it's own liberation. Three years ago, the Administration had a specific proposal for Iraq to do just that before it and failed to pursue it. Thus the economic cost of the war soars into the hundreds of billions of dollars, paid for by the American taxpayer. But most disgraceful of all is that we were lied to about going to war in Iraq in the first place! Remember the Downing Street memo? It was just swept under the table. What about the weapons of mass destruction?
This Administration has never vetoed the republicans' pure pork laden spending bills or a tax cut for fat corporations and the rich. Thus, we are over eight trillion dollars in debt.
The normal response by this White House is change the theme and fire or try to disgrace anybody who disagrees with their official version of events or policy positions. Enough is enough. Stand up for the truth. Clean up Washington. Tell Congress the time for impeachment of both the president and the vice president is already long overdue.
-(heavily) edited from the People's Email Network newsletter of 4/20/06
Go to the sidebar for resources on contacting your representatives in Washington D.C., now!
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The U.S. military is plagued with following the orders of an incompetent Bush administration. There is continuous Iraq mission creep and increasing war costs in blood and treasure with no accountability. Iraqi forces still cannot defend their country, leaving American soldiers to die in their place. Iraq is presently sitting on top of two trillion gallons of unrefined crude, and could have paid for it's own liberation. Three years ago, the Administration had a specific proposal for Iraq to do just that before it and failed to pursue it. Thus the economic cost of the war soars into the hundreds of billions of dollars, paid for by the American taxpayer. But most disgraceful of all is that we were lied to about going to war in Iraq in the first place! Remember the Downing Street memo? It was just swept under the table. What about the weapons of mass destruction?
This Administration has never vetoed the republicans' pure pork laden spending bills or a tax cut for fat corporations and the rich. Thus, we are over eight trillion dollars in debt.
The normal response by this White House is change the theme and fire or try to disgrace anybody who disagrees with their official version of events or policy positions. Enough is enough. Stand up for the truth. Clean up Washington. Tell Congress the time for impeachment of both the president and the vice president is already long overdue.
-(heavily) edited from the People's Email Network newsletter of 4/20/06
Go to the sidebar for resources on contacting your representatives in Washington D.C., now!
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Saturday, April 15, 2006
Bush and Cheney: Scam of the Earth!
Based on the copy of the couple's 2005 tax return released Friday by the White House and filler information in the New York Times of today's date, the President and Laura Bush reported an adjusted gross income of $735,180 for last year and paid federal income taxes of $187,768. This is slightly less than they paid in taxes in 2004 and still much, much less than the 33% rate under present tax law for person's in their income bracket. The tax return listed as income the president's salary of about $400,000 and proceeds from investment trusts that hold the couple's assets. They paid $207,307 in taxes in 2004 on income of $784,219. Most of their income derives from interests in oil companies and related relatives' consulting firms. What a scam. . .
Their 2005 return was made public along with that of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who reported that their taxes were $529,636. The Cheneys' adjusted gross income was $8.82 million, but most of it was not taxable (?): $6.87 million was proceeds from stock options(note that these 'proceeds' were from undisclosed amount of stock options, not including probable deferred options of much greater amount, and reflect assets in the tens and tens and more tens of millions plus in Haliburton stock!) that the couple had set aside for charity and that were distributed last year, plus charitable contributions that came from royalties on books written by Mrs. Cheney. This rate of taxation was less than 10% of their gross income (their actual worth probably in the hundred million range plus), making their rate of taxation below that of the average person of poverty in the U. S. As a result, the Cheneys' taxable income was $1.96 million. In a statement, the White House said that over the course of the year, the couple paid $2.5 million in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments, in part to deal with the exercise of the stock options. Given that their 2005 taxes are a little over half a million dollars, they are due a refund of about $1.9 million, the statement said. Unbelievable!
The White House emphasized that the Cheneys had received no personal financial benefit from the charitable donations (?). "The transactions were tax-neutral to the Cheneys," it said, adding that the large tax refund would return them "to a neutral position of no personal financial benefit or financial detriment resulting" from the gifts. The White House said the stock options had been granted to the Cheneys by the Halliburton Company (we wouldn't have guessed), Mr. Cheney's former employer, and from the couple's work on the boards of other companies. It is clear that the Vice President's inside nod for Haliburton on the no bid Iraqi contracts and the subsequent documented ripoff of the taxpayers has paid off quite handsomely. What a scam. . .
Meanwhile the public suffers the indignity of the death of their children and the squandering of their treasury for the Bush-Cheney greedy war for oil. For this alone, they should be tarred and feathered and run out of Washington, D. C. on a rail!
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Their 2005 return was made public along with that of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who reported that their taxes were $529,636. The Cheneys' adjusted gross income was $8.82 million, but most of it was not taxable (?): $6.87 million was proceeds from stock options(note that these 'proceeds' were from undisclosed amount of stock options, not including probable deferred options of much greater amount, and reflect assets in the tens and tens and more tens of millions plus in Haliburton stock!) that the couple had set aside for charity and that were distributed last year, plus charitable contributions that came from royalties on books written by Mrs. Cheney. This rate of taxation was less than 10% of their gross income (their actual worth probably in the hundred million range plus), making their rate of taxation below that of the average person of poverty in the U. S. As a result, the Cheneys' taxable income was $1.96 million. In a statement, the White House said that over the course of the year, the couple paid $2.5 million in taxes through withholding and estimated tax payments, in part to deal with the exercise of the stock options. Given that their 2005 taxes are a little over half a million dollars, they are due a refund of about $1.9 million, the statement said. Unbelievable!
The White House emphasized that the Cheneys had received no personal financial benefit from the charitable donations (?). "The transactions were tax-neutral to the Cheneys," it said, adding that the large tax refund would return them "to a neutral position of no personal financial benefit or financial detriment resulting" from the gifts. The White House said the stock options had been granted to the Cheneys by the Halliburton Company (we wouldn't have guessed), Mr. Cheney's former employer, and from the couple's work on the boards of other companies. It is clear that the Vice President's inside nod for Haliburton on the no bid Iraqi contracts and the subsequent documented ripoff of the taxpayers has paid off quite handsomely. What a scam. . .
Meanwhile the public suffers the indignity of the death of their children and the squandering of their treasury for the Bush-Cheney greedy war for oil. For this alone, they should be tarred and feathered and run out of Washington, D. C. on a rail!
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Thursday, April 13, 2006
A Quote Worth Quoting:
"Faith means not wanting to know what is true."
-- Friedrich Neitzsche
Has there ever been a better description of the Bush administration's driving force?
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-- Friedrich Neitzsche
Has there ever been a better description of the Bush administration's driving force?
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Tuesday, April 04, 2006
In Memorium to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
THEY DIE YOUNG:
(Read at first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King -- Jonesboro, AR, 1969 by Bill Stroud, Ph. D.)
"Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people. But it seems the good--
They die young. I just look around and he's gone."
Yes, they die young. But they die young because they lived before becoming old. They live centuries within the span of youth. They died young, convinced that life must be measured by its dimension and not by its extension. They die young, yet with hoary heads of ageless wisdom learned in the search for justice. Martin died young but not before he lived.
You look around and he's gone? You look too much around. You must have looked around the hope which Martin sparked in thousands of youngsters; for with raised chins poised in flinty determination, black youth now view themselves in dignity, demanding their just place in American culture. You must have looked around that tear shed in pride as the aged black parent watched the son and daughter set their faces steadfastly toward positions of high repute. Look around, but see the hundreds of organizations which have come to life through his death, organizations which are dedicated to the alleviation of suppression of peoples. Martin died young but he was the father of the black American dream.
Some people merely live and die; others die and live. Some cannot really die because their lives extend beyond their own history. Some men merely make history, others change it. Martin's death creates life, for because of his life even the past seems to change. What was once our religious heritage of days of yore now seems spotted with inequity and pain. The great South with its antebellum homes which once evoked a feeling of repose, hospitality and comfort, now has moved out of focus as black hands are seen busily grasping the cotton within the hot fields behind the proverbial magnolias. That past is now seen as it really was, is criticized as it is, and will continue to be pressed to become what it should be.
Martin is yet alive because he has become a symbol which transcends the mere human form. As a symbolic personage he transcends time and his signification reaches beyond that small span of history sandwiched between birth and death. A resurrection has been actualized already for Martin because his spirit of love and peace yet permeates new flesh which will make up the new humanity of the new America.
Has anybody here seen my ole friend Martin? Look for him among the Abrahams. Martin echoed Lincoln's words: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Like Lincoln, Martin took his stand and forced the recognition of the breach within the social structure of America, the breach which was nothing but a crevice which for years had been skillfully covered with the veneer of expediency. And like a Lincoln he died.
Has anybody here seen my ole friend Martin? Look along the paths of John and Bob. He made God's work truly his own; he showed what he would do for his country. We must become a part of what he could do. He "helped a lot of people;" and oh, how he did die young!
We just look around and he's gone? No, we can see him in every determined effort which is made to gain for his people their deserved heritage. We must envision his dream; in every pledge of allegiance we must commit ourselves to his America of humanity, where colors are used for flags and humans used for nothing.
Yes, Martin is still working and marching as every effort is made to heal the prejudiced eye which blinks at blackness. He is reborn in every child who is black and proud. He walks your streets today in every soul who loves humanity first, humanity second, and humanity last.
"The good--they seem to die young. . .
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?"
(Read at first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King -- Jonesboro, AR, 1969 by Bill Stroud, Ph. D.)
"Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people. But it seems the good--
They die young. I just look around and he's gone."
Yes, they die young. But they die young because they lived before becoming old. They live centuries within the span of youth. They died young, convinced that life must be measured by its dimension and not by its extension. They die young, yet with hoary heads of ageless wisdom learned in the search for justice. Martin died young but not before he lived.
You look around and he's gone? You look too much around. You must have looked around the hope which Martin sparked in thousands of youngsters; for with raised chins poised in flinty determination, black youth now view themselves in dignity, demanding their just place in American culture. You must have looked around that tear shed in pride as the aged black parent watched the son and daughter set their faces steadfastly toward positions of high repute. Look around, but see the hundreds of organizations which have come to life through his death, organizations which are dedicated to the alleviation of suppression of peoples. Martin died young but he was the father of the black American dream.
Some people merely live and die; others die and live. Some cannot really die because their lives extend beyond their own history. Some men merely make history, others change it. Martin's death creates life, for because of his life even the past seems to change. What was once our religious heritage of days of yore now seems spotted with inequity and pain. The great South with its antebellum homes which once evoked a feeling of repose, hospitality and comfort, now has moved out of focus as black hands are seen busily grasping the cotton within the hot fields behind the proverbial magnolias. That past is now seen as it really was, is criticized as it is, and will continue to be pressed to become what it should be.
Martin is yet alive because he has become a symbol which transcends the mere human form. As a symbolic personage he transcends time and his signification reaches beyond that small span of history sandwiched between birth and death. A resurrection has been actualized already for Martin because his spirit of love and peace yet permeates new flesh which will make up the new humanity of the new America.
Has anybody here seen my ole friend Martin? Look for him among the Abrahams. Martin echoed Lincoln's words: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Like Lincoln, Martin took his stand and forced the recognition of the breach within the social structure of America, the breach which was nothing but a crevice which for years had been skillfully covered with the veneer of expediency. And like a Lincoln he died.
Has anybody here seen my ole friend Martin? Look along the paths of John and Bob. He made God's work truly his own; he showed what he would do for his country. We must become a part of what he could do. He "helped a lot of people;" and oh, how he did die young!
We just look around and he's gone? No, we can see him in every determined effort which is made to gain for his people their deserved heritage. We must envision his dream; in every pledge of allegiance we must commit ourselves to his America of humanity, where colors are used for flags and humans used for nothing.
Yes, Martin is still working and marching as every effort is made to heal the prejudiced eye which blinks at blackness. He is reborn in every child who is black and proud. He walks your streets today in every soul who loves humanity first, humanity second, and humanity last.
"The good--they seem to die young. . .
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?"
-Couldn't have said it better. . .
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Saturday, April 01, 2006
The Biggest of Bush's Many Deficits. . .
--David Mamet, huffingtonpost.com/theblog, 04/01/2006
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