The Guerrilla Campaign

Let's hope the new year is better.

Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza Written by Chris Floyd Monday, 29 December 2008 http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1666-shock-awe-and-lies-the-truth-behind-the-israeli-attack-on-gaza.html Here is a simple, stone cold fact. You cannot read or hear the truth about what is happening in Gaza from any corporate media in the United States. The only thing you will find there are regurgitations of Israeli spin, which are themselves only regurgitations of the kind of spin that American militarists have put on their own depredations -- for centuries now. Up and down the American media and political establishments, you will find nothing but bleatings about Israel being "forced" to launch its vicious blunderbuss attacks against heavily populated Gaza because of the "recent spate of Hamas bombings" since the end of a six-month ceasefire. This is of course a damnable and deliberate lie. Papers in Israel -- in Israel, but not the ...

by Mary Pitt 12/22/08 The whole country is agog with the news of the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the billions he scammed from big investors, but nobody appears to realize that it is only the tip of a huge iceberg. There are other so-called legitimate institutions afloat in the private sector that are profiting from similar scams with the heartfelt approval of the raging capitalists in government as well as private individuals. Foremost among these are the insurance companies as they have become established in America. Even the government social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are administered by the accounting departments of insurance companies. The regulations regarding these programs were written in large part by the insurance companies and, as the result, even the very poor are not getting the services they need under their provisions. Look at the case of a lady I will call Suzy, a middle-aged lady who, though mentally retarded, had worked as a bus person in a hospital cafeteria ...

by Mary Pitt Tuesday, December 16, 2008 The Republicans are already indicating their intent to use the same tactics that they used in the past two years in the minority to block many of the programs that are vital to the plans of President-elect Obama. They cling to the "sixty-vote cloture" rule as if it were the Holy Grail and intend to exercise it at every turn in the deliberations of the upcoming Congressional session. Let them! Let them filibuster! That can be done by refusing to sit back and whimper as has the past Congress under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. The Legislature can pass all the programs of the President but the Democrats in the Senate need to grow a spine and stand up to the filibuster threat by pushing those programs despite them. What's the worst that could happen? Under the rules of the filibuster, one speaker must continue to argue until the opposition surrenders and decides to let the bill in question die. This becomes ...

I'm tellin' ya. Livin' here's a trip. Hendry Sheriff Sells Car To Georgia Town Transferring Assets To Keep New Sheriff From Getting Them Says Story Don Browne Thursday, November 27, 2008 http://swflorida.blogspot.com:80/2008/11/hendry-sheriff-sells-car-to-georgia.html LABELLE, FL. -- A news story in the Cordele Dispatch in Georgia says Hendry County Sheriff Ronnie Lee is selling his 2007 Dodge Charger police cruiser to a Vienna, Georgia Police Department to keep Sheriff-Elect Steve Whidden from getting it. The issue came to light according to the story when the Vienna Mayor questioned the purchase at a city council meeting Monday. According to the story Vienna Police Chief Jamey Reed bought the vehicle without notifying the Mayor. According to the story "Reed said a sheriff in Hendry County, Fla. had lost his bid for re-election and had a black 2007 Dodge Charger he did not want the new sheriff to get." The Vienna Mayor was disappointed that he wasn't noti...

By Sheila Samples 11/28/08 Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The recent blowout election that gave us President Barack Obama resulted in a flood of emotion that engulfed both parties. The one thing they had in common was that neither party could believe it. Political comedian Mort Sahl once said, "Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen." If we have learned nothing else about Republicans, it's that, with few exceptions, they are vindictive, immoral, blood-thirsty, and just plain power-mad. Republicans are so much better at destroying things than Democrats are. They say and do whatever it takes to win. And if that doesn't work -- they seize it anyway. So we were braced for another disappointment -- not because we didn't share Obama...

Well, Johnny, (I can call you Johnny, right?) Anyway, don’t feel too bad. I got danced on Election Day too. You and Sarah (I can call you Sarah, right?) should do what me and Lumpy did. We looked at each other at 3am, and said, “Well, that’s it. Let’s go get a banana” And we did. Then we fell asleep on the pillow. And when we woke up, it was another day. We’d like to congratulate President-elect Barack Obama on his historic victory, and remind him that we will always be available to help. We’d also like to congratulate the American people for their obvious wisdom and courage. Oh yeah. We concede. SockMonkey and Lumpy http://tmars.iwarp.com/sockmonkey08/index.html paid for by money we found in the sofa cushions

:-) and, as they say, the rest is history

by Mary Pitt The most memorable points made in the McCain/Obama debate, from my lowly viewpoint, was the plight of poor old Joe, the Plumber The story was that Joe has worked for a plumbing company for twelve years, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Now he wants to buy the company and "give jobs" to other men. He is worried that, should he do well and earn over a quarter of a mil a year, he may have to pay a higher rate of taxes then he would now. Having some experience in running a small business and having employed up to seven people at any given time, the efforts of both my husband and me never came close to turning that much profit in a year. For that matter, we never, by each holding separate jobs at the same time, our individual wages never matched the figure that Joe has been earning for the past twelve years. Let's do some math: If Joe has truly worked twelve hours a day for seven days a week, if he was earning union wages, let's say conservatively, $25.00 pe...

Let’s take a look at this two clips, shall we? And then we’ll have a quiz. Congressman asks Justice Dept. about Qwest wiretap charges By John Godfrey Last update: 6:45 p.m. EDT Oct. 15, 2007 http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/congressman-asks-justice-dept-about/story.aspx?guid=%7BE944A27D-75C3-4D12-8CA4-2C22302AB947%7D […] Once-classified documents that were unveiled in the insider-trading case of Nacchio also suggest the U.S. government didn't offer lucrative contracts to the company after Nacchio refused to cooperate with what the documents call "improper government requests" in February 2001. The documents, submitted as part of Nacchio's defense in the insider-trading case, don't elaborate on the government requests. Nacchio has said in the past he didn't comply when asked by the National Security Agency, which heads up U.S. electronic surveillance, for access to the private phone records of Qwest customers. […] Speaking from the White House lawn Oct. 10...

The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult Written by Chris Floyd http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1627-the-god-that-failed-the-30-year-lie-of-the-market-cult.html Perhaps the most striking fact revealed by the global financial crash -- or rather, by the reaction to it -- is the staggering, astonishing, gargantuan amount of money that the governments of the world have at their command. In just a matter of days, we have seen literally trillions of dollars offered to the financial services sector by national treasuries and central banks across the globe. Britain alone has put $1 trillion at the disposal of the bankers, traders, lenders and speculators; and this has been surpassed by the total package of public money that Washington is shoveling into the financial furnaces of Wall Street and the banks. These radical efforts are being replicated on a slightly smaller scale in France, Germany, Italy, Russia and many other countries. The effectiveness of this unprece...

by Mary Pitt 10/08/08 I was watching the candidates as they deplaned for the debate. First, Obama skipped down the steps alone and galloped over to shake the hands of the flight crew. When the McCains arrived, Cindy walked down the steps first. Only the polite thing to do but something looked different. She walked slowly with her back against him and her hands braced on the rails as if to prevent his pitching forward. Once on the ground, she fell back to walk behind him but she walked very closely with her hand behind his back as if to steady him These little "tells" may not be noticeable to just everyone but, since I so recently was responsible for an elderly, unsteady man, it appeared obvious to me that this campaign has taken a toll on John's strength and they are being very careful to hide that fact from the public. I think you can sometimes tell more about a man's physical health by the solicitude or lack thereof on the part of his wife and the actions of Cindy M...

Sure, Barack Obama knows somebody who was a radical 40 years ago when Obama was 8. We all do, even you, john. But, you, john, were a traitor during that time. Remember those anti-American propaganda movies you made for the Vietnamese while you were a POW? Hey, don’t give me any crap about being tortured. There were a whole lot more of your fellow POW’s who stayed true to their country, while undergoing far worse torture than you did. and, sarah, how’s about we talk about the traitor you sleep with, and allegedly had children by? You know about the Alaska Independent Party’s hatred of America, and it’s desire to secede. You should, you and your husband are involved with it. Well, listen. The DOW is down 24% since Jan 1. 270 more US military were killed in Iraq since Jan 1. 2.2 million more American workers have lost their jobs since Jan 1. Factories are closing, people are losing their homes, their savings, their health insurance. Our country’s infrastructure is falling apart, and so ar...

Palin hits Obama for 'terrorist' connection 10/4/08 http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/04/palin.obama/index.html ENGLEWOOD, Colorado (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday slammed Sen. Barack Obama's political relationship with a former anti-war radical, accusing him of associating "with terrorists who targeted their own country." Palin's attack delivered on the McCain campaign's announcement that it would step up attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate with just a month left before the November general election. "We see America as the greatest force for good in this world," Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, "Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." Palin made similar comments later at a rally in Carson, California. [...] With friends like these ... McCain finds his own radical ...

by Mary Pitt Friday, October 03, 2008 11:18 PM As a small voice from the back of the room, I have one question regarding the discovery of the illiquidity of all the huge corporate conglomerates who have taken over the finances of this ostensibly democratic nation. When is somebody going to jail? Now, I don't profess to truly understand the ins and outs of our financial system and I have absolutely no concept of anything over a million of anything. I think I am in good company as you would be safe in assuming that the majority of the American people are in the same boat as I. However, those of us with intact brain cells do remember the Enron fiasco when Congressional hearings were held which exposed the various forms of chicanery which had been perpetrated by the corporate moguls and their compliant accountants. It seems that they had engaged in what they termed "creative accounting" in order to induce pigeons, (pardon me, investors), to continue to trust them with trust f...

Paulson's Reasons for Delaying Day of Reckoning by Jonathan Weil 10/3/08 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_weil&sid=aMaWyNFImi4o Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- If you think this bailout is expensive, just wait until you see the next one. The $700 billion rescue plan approved by the U.S. Senate won't fix the core problem with the nation's ailing financial institutions. And it almost guarantees that you and I will have to pony up for an even costlier bailout someday, maybe soon, if the House of Representatives passes it tomorrow. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has correctly identified the quandary: Lots of shaky banks and insurance companies are showing strangely high values for assets that aren't worth squat in the market. Many need more capital and can't raise it. And he's right in saying the outlook is grim if we don't get this fixed. What's stunning is how little the taxpayers would get in return for their money under Paul...

By Sheila Samples 9/26/08 We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men ~~ George Orwell So here we sit, our heads jerking back and forth so rapidly most of us are suffering severe whiplash. Will the US attack Iran? Will Israel attack Iran? Or will the two war-mongering bullies join forces and "bomb, bomb, bomb" that belligerent twit-nation into subservience? It's a great game. A deadly game. The momentum to attack Iran has been building for so long that we're conditioned to watching it like some grotesque international tennis competition. It's the Peter Principle Playoffs, with neoconsters and ziomonsters out on the court milling around, working at their highest "levels of incompetence," feverishly plotting Iran's destruction. Foul lines mean nothing to them. There are no rules, no officials, no scores, no accountability. Bolton's Law Immediately before Bush invaded Iraq, the criminall...