Former Bush official: 4000 Americans "had to die"

The lesser angels of my nature are wanting to cry out that stuff like this, is enough to make me think - however fleeting and regrettably - that if the "neo-conservatives" of this country were wiped out to a man, that this would have been a much better nation for it.

However, as a Christian, I have to fight against saying that I agree with that urge.

Frank Gaffney, former Assistant Defense Secretary and now with the "Center for Security Policy" (whatever the hell that is) declared on Hardball with Chris Matthews yesterday that in spite of the overwhelming evidence that the Iraq War was begun on false pretenses, "My position is that it’s regrettable that any Americans died. It is regrettable that they had to die, but I believe they did have to die."

Here's the video...

I've thought for a very long time now that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their supporters have no sense, at all, of the value of human life. That they have no conscience or grasp of the soul like most people possess and as a result, that is why they have no regret at wasting the lives of others.

What if I or anyone else were to put a gun to Frank Gaffney's head, and blow his brains out, and then offered up the excuse that "he had to die"? What if someone did that to Dick Cheney's wife or either one of Bush's daughters? I mean, morally, it would be the absolute equivalent to what Gaffney is arguing: that people "had to die".

Who the hell gets to make that kind of judgment? How the #&@$ does Bush and Cheney and Gaffney get away with believing that God has anointed them with such power?!

Four thousand and more American families will be without a loved one this holiday season, because the psychopaths of the Bush Administration and the "useful idiots" who have backed them all this time, do not give a damn about anything but the raw, naked power they worship and make sacrifice to.

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

-- Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings

But then, since when has wisdom been a quality of George W. Bush and his supporters?

Read More

So we're not becoming a fascist state under Bush, huh?

Americans may soon be required to have a passport to board a domestic flight. Or... get this... to picnic in a national park.

Yup, you may soon have to possess a passport the next time you want to fly off for a visit to Aunt Tilly in Akron, or take the family to vacation in Yellowstone.

How in the world is this different from "Your papers, please..." in the Soviet Union?

How, indeed?

Will people keep ignoring what is happening, now so obviously right before our eyes? Will the people of this country ever take off the rose-colored glasses and stop denying what is going on?

I've said it before, will say it again: America has suffered more grievous damage during George W. Bush's time as President than she ever has throughout her entire long history. And I don't know if we'll ever recover from it all adequately enough.

Read More

... Then maybe America doesn't need saving at all

Stu Bykofsky, a writer with the Philadephia Daily News, is seriously suggesting that the best way to "save" America is to have another attack like 9/11.

Two months ago, a Republican party official also said that America needs to be attacked again so that people would appreciate President Bush.

If "saving" America means not only anticipating, but openly hoping for the deaths of innocent people, then America does not deserve to survive at all.

I mean that.

Here is the biggest problem that I have with these self-styled "neoconservatives": they believe that America's strength is supposed to be in material wealth and military might. They don't give a damn about the value of individual life. How else can they sincerely consider it to be "good news" when it's reported that the death toll of American military is the lowest in several months... and not bother to ask themselves if even one life needlessly lost because of this fiasco is one life too many.

These people don't care if others die for America. So long as they aren't the ones having to do the fighting and the dying.

If America is a country where the many are deemed to be expendable assets for the betterment of the few, then that America does not merit survival. If we are ceasing to be a people that values the life of the individual and the rights that God has bestowed upon him or her, then there is no longer anything inherently good in America at all. Certainly not worth fighting or dying for.

Read More

This blog is now illegally exporting munitions data

I wonder if I'll get a "cease and desist" from the U.S. government for posting this amazingly detailed cutaway diagram of the Saturn V rocket. Slashdot is reporting that NASA is censoring information about the Saturn V launch vehicle.

How much information? Well, there are reports that NASA is ordering the confiscation and destruction of Saturn V posters that were purchased at gift shops at Kennedy Space Center and other NASA facilities. And now UpShip.com, a website that's loaded with technical specs and blueprints of various air and spacecraft, has been sent a warning from officials at NASA's Export Control Office that files pertaining to the Saturn V the site has on this page are in violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). That's the list of things that the federal government doesn't allow to be disseminated because it classifies them as "weapons".

So of course, I couldn't resist posting the biggest, most detailed picture of the Saturn V's internal structure that I could find.

Some are wondering if the appointment of one of Karl Rove's cronies to the position of White House liaison to NASA has anything to do with this ridiculous move to ban images of the Saturn V.

I'm expecting jack-booted thugs to bust through the door at any moment now to confiscate my 10th Anniversary Edition DVD of Apollo 13.

Does this mean that the Bush Administration will soon move to ban the sale or purchase of Estes model rocket engines because they could conceivably be used by "terrists" to deliver armed payloads? Seriously, I have to wonder if this government would actually consider doing that.

This is one of the loonier things that I've seen the federal government do in the past several years. If it sends me a sternly-worded e-mail or some other communique about the placing of the above image, I'll make sure to share it with y'all.

Read More

Ron Price channels spirit of Trotsky in latest show of cockiness

It finally dawned on me today: Ron Price really is, unequivocally, a neo-conservative. And "neocons" are the most loathsome political movement in American history, without a doubt. These are people who believe in "the noble lie": that it is perfectly okay to deceive people if the goal in mind is political power. As was proudly boasted in National Review recently, neo-conservatism is an off-shoot of the teachings of Leon Trotsky, who helped bring communism to Russia along with Lenin. Well, neo-conservatism is Trotsky's beliefs in absolute power without apology... coupled with excessive narcissism and feeling of self-importance without regard for others.

Sounds just like confessed thief and disgraced Rockingham County Board of Education member Ron Price, who is now violating his oath of office by suing his opponents for practicing their constitutional rights.

Well, as considerably more than one person told me months ago would happen, Price is letting his sense of power go to his head. Today on his blog he lashes out at local media for spending "a disproportionate amount of time on rumors and gossip". Here's more from his post:

In order for Rockingham County to climb out of its pattern of decline, the attitudes and concerns must shift to an emphasis on creating wealth and away from an emphasis on gossip.

As one looks around the county it is apparent to me that there are organizations in the media that concentrate on emphasizing the negative and even exacerbating the negative to the point of senseless and useless ridicule and cynicism. All the while they are doing this they are pulling attention away from creating wealth and directing it towards gossip and failure.

As we move forward we must all concentrate on the goal of wealth building and allow those organizations that don’t to die out from lack of support. Some of these groups and people are on the wane but may regain strength if the county loses its focus on creating wealth.

Henry County, one of our sister counties to the north in Virginia, share some of the same economic conditions and a common TV station problem as well.

"A common TV station problem as well." That says it all. Price hates WGSR-Star 39 in Reidsville for helping to keep his "sign incident" toward the forefront of most people's minds around here.

He can't own up to his wrongdoing, so once again he's lashing out at his "enemies".

But this time he's attempting to spin this as if those who have tried to hold him accountable are now a threat to the community! According to this latest screed by Ron Price, stations like Star 39 and "independent" media like the Neely Chronicle (and this blog, no doubt) are economic and cultural liabilities that are holding back development in Rockingham County.

Really, Mister Price, I think you are seriously attributing too much power and influence toward me!

This thing about "creating wealth" that Price harps on troubles me. If you were to believe Ron Price, the only thing that we should be concerned with is materialism. He completely glosses-over such matters as simply doing what's right. There are things you can't put a price tag on y'know... like principles.

By the way, in case Ron Price is wondering: I don't like to brag about it, but I am doing my darndest to cultivate a real filmmaking industry in Rockingham County. Something that everyone in this community can have and take pride in. I grew up here. I have real love for this area. It's not like I'm some carpet-bagger from Florida who only blew into town a year ago and hasn't done anything toward promoting the local economy.

Dear Lord, has there ever been a politician in the history of Rockingham County who has tried to frame so much in reference to himself as Ron Price is doing now? Does Ron Price actually believe this is all about "Me Me Me"?!

"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end."

-- Leon Trotsky

Ron Price really is a student of Trotsky, isn't he? I mean, he can't win any other way, so he's trying to rile up the "proletariat" so that they'll revolt against his political enemies. And if he has to lie and deceive and obfuscate everyone so that he can get his way... well, he doesn't think there's anything wrong with that, does he?

I swear, people like Ron Price make me sick. They're part of the cancer that's eating away at this country. The "SCREW YOU I GOT MINE JACK!" mentality is destroying America, and right here in our own backyard we see it personified in Ron Price.

Why am I so opposed to this man? Because we either do our damndest to stop people like him now, or else we have to tell our children that we didn't stop the bad things from happening when we had the chance. We have to, as Barney Fife so eloquently put it, "nip it in the bud!"

In the meantime, "Ron Protsky" wants to incite revolution. Let us hope that he doesn't get exiled to anywhere that has a surplus of icepicks.

Read More