The Guerrilla Campaign

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...

Spies Warn That Al Qaeda Aims for October Surprise Intercepted Messages Asking Local Cells To Be Prepared for Imminent Instructions By ELI LAKE, Staff Reporter of the Sun September 22, 2008 http://www.nysun.com/foreign/spies-warn-that-al-qaeda-aims-for-october-surprise/86326/ WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of two major terrorist attacks on Western targets, America's counterterrorism community is warning that Al Qaeda may launch more overseas operations to influence the presidential elections in November. A Pakistani army soldier stands guard by the devastated Marriott Hotel following an overnight suicide bombing at Islamabad on September 21, 2008. Call it Osama bin Laden's "October surprise." In late August, during the weekend between the Democratic and Republican conventions, America's military and intelligence agencies intercepted a series of messages from Al Qaeda's leadership to intermediate members of the organization asking local cells to be prepared for...

by Mary Pitt 9/21/08 (on behalf of all the poor and near-poor who "litter our streets") So Wall Street is in a panic! So the trillion-dollar corporations are in danger of going broke! So the big-time investors are in danger of losing their silk shirts! So what? We have been told for years that we must not be cry-babies who go bawling to the government for handouts to help us through the bad times; we must bear up under the load of "personal responsibility"; when our jobs disappear into the "global economy" we must "re-train", mechanical engineers need to become truck drivers, automobile designers to learn to put roofs on house, and secretaries and bookkeepers should go to school to "re-train" for jobs as motel maids! We are not moved by the plight of the moguls leaving broken corporations equipped with only their golden parachutes. We have been the victims of their business practices for a very long time and now that their unethical pra...

So. Once again the workers, you know, the people who actually produce things, have to bail out the financiers. That certainly explains why there isn’t any money to help people who are losing their homes, or have lost their jobs. Certainly explains why we can’t have universal health for every citizen, or why we can’t keep our infrastructure from collapsing, or our schools full of books. The bastards need every penny they can get their hands on to kill, and to bail out wall street and the banks, and the insurance companies. The very ones who have made it their mission to extract every bit of money they can from the workers through usurious interest rates, spurious fees, and just plain theft. Now, these are the same people who say that the people who have made bad decisions should just suffer the consequences. And that’s why the bankruptcy law needed to be changed. You know, people were taking advantage of the old law, and trying to hold onto their homes and cars, after being bankrupted t...

by Mary Pitt 9/13/08 This comment may seem to come from far left field but, when you stop to consider it, the perfect sense of it will become apparent. First, Senator John McCain was all set to prove his "bipartisanship" by naming his colleague and good buddy, Senator Joe Lieberman, as his running mate. His Republican advisors vetoed that idea and told him he needed to choose someone to bring around the religious right who had, to that time, been lukewarm about the prospect of voting for the secular McCain and would not be impressed by the addition of a Jew and a Democrat. Now, McCain was not overly impressed by Governor Mike Huckabee and the other possibilities might have expected to be asked to actually do something in the McCain administration if they won. I am a contemporary of John McCain, (actually a few years older), and I am familiar with his history throughout his adult life. He is a man who, while being happy to appear to be agreeable to a bipartisan approach to get...

War is Terrorism Too

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Atrocity in Azizabad: More Child Sacrifices on the Terror War Altar Chris Floyd Monday, 08 September 2008 http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1601/135/ Every day, the shame mounts, the lies grow more brazen and more brutal, and the dishonor spreads and deepens -- ineradicable, like a white garment soaked with blood. The atrocity in Azizabad , an Afghan village hit by an American airstrike on the night of August 22, is by no means the worst depredation of the so-called "War on Terror," which has left more than million innocent people dead in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia over the past seven years. But the mass death visited upon the sleeping, defenseless citizens of Azizabad encapsulates many of the essential elements of this global campaign of "unipolar domination" and war profiteering: the callous application of high-tech weaponry against unarmed civilians; the witless attack that alienates local supporters and empowers an ever-more violent and radical insurge...

In case you haven't been paying attention, tonight, mcsame is scheduled to give his acceptance speech. This is after Gustav played with the start of the convention. In case you haven't been paying attention, tonight, the New York Giants (the superbowl champions) are playing the Washington Redskins in the NFL season opener on ABC. Guess which one football fans will be watching.

Oscar came to live with us in February 2004. He came from a small dog rescue place after being abandoned in Texas. He died today of cancer. We buried him in the gazebo.