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REPORT: OBAMA USING BLACKWATER FOR PAKISTAN ASSASSINATIONS

We have entered a new epoch. One where freedom, democracy, fairness and due process are publicly touted, but here reality is just the opposite. We should be worried, very worried. Right now, these assassination operations are being perpetrated abroad. How long before our clever leaders determine that these measures need to be applied right here at home? Of course that will happen - as surely as God made little green apples. Here's a parallel: at one time, only the largest cities in the country had (or even needed) SWAT teams. Now every podunk burg that can afford one has a SWAT team. All the "forces" want riot gear and be outfitted like military black ops. They are using military-speak too. Such as "deploying assets" and other inane, revolting military jargon. There are simply an insufficient number of real enemies to feed this Moloch. Too many eager players and too few legitmate targets. So you and I and our neighbors will eventually be pressed into service in the role of the "enemy". Bet on it.

Obama was talking about escalating the war in Afghanistan and killing people in Pakistan before the primaries started. No surprise there. What's surprising is how 'progressives' are dropping their opposition to the war -- first it was 'Code Pink', now comes the 'Network of Spiritual Progressives':
"Of course, we recognize that effective development needs security, and when we have massively intervened in a country as much as the U.S. has in Afghanistan, we can't responsibly just walk away."

A FIFTH GRADE TEACHER TAKES ON 'FORMATIVE' ASSESSMENTS

My fifth grade health and home room teacher sang in the Metropolitan Opera. He read episodes from Huckleberry Finn aloud after lunch. He produced two operas at our school, H.M.S. Pinnafore and Hansel and Gretel (in which I sang Hansel). Good teacher; I'm sure he'd be crucified today.

DON'T LOOK THE WRONG WAY AT THE AIRPORT THIS WEEK

Just the fact that the nation of Jefferson and Lincoln now has "Behavior Detection Officers" is amazing.

In 1775, Patrick Henry's speech of 'give me liberty or give me death' led to the British royal governor sending out the royal marines.

In 2009, an American citizen shouting 'Give me liberty or give me death' in an American airport would most certainly be detained by these 'Behavior Detection Officers'.

King George III would be proud. And he's also probably satisfied that some 230 years later, its clear that he won the war.

WHY HELPING LOWER INCOME PEOPLE HELPS REVIVE THE ECONOMY

Too bad Bush and Obama already gave all the money to the bankers.

BISHOP BANS CATHOLIC CONGRESS MEMBER FROM COMMUNION

Yes, time for the Kennedys to seek a new church. Renounce the church of pedophilia and mass murder.

The Kennedys have been transparent frauds since the early 20th century, but they've met their match with Pedophile Central. To preserve self-respect, Paaahtrick needs to either publicly break with the church or introduce some legislation to strip tax-exempt status. . . which means it will never happen.

Seems it is OK to bash Catholics wherever you find them, but everyone else should be a protected group, like Buddhists and Muslims, for example. They are really just misunderstood. . .

Weird that it comes into the public light right before the debate on the health care bill in the Senate with the Stupak Amendment still attached. Weird that it would come up now after the bishops are in the news for continuing to stand up for their religion, which earns them nothing but scorn from the 1st Amendment crowd. What happened to the idea, from Mencken (one of Sam's favorite authors) that you have to defend First Amendment freedoms for everyone? Or, "I may disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

And to the 'church of pedophilia and mass murder' comment, I can only assume you are referring to Buddhism, as there are many documented cases of Buddhist priests sexually abusing young men trying to join their ranks and the tradition of the fighting monks. No? Maybe you mean Islam and the many victims worldwide of Jihad and Mohammed's consummation of a marriage with a nine-year old?

Maybe you are referring to secular humanism and the rampant sexual abuse apparent in public schools and wars fought over controlling every inch of the globe? No? Perhaps you are too cynical my friend. That may just be the case as the hypocrisy that is on display here is just astounding.

Lessee. . . a religious official inflicting intentional harm on an elected legislator in order to coerce the legislator into a particular public policy position compatible with some sect's dogma -- how is this anything but terrorism? And, the Vatican being recognized as a city-state, state-sponsored terrorism at that? - vemene

INTERNET GLEANINGS: KID STANDS UP FOR GAY MARRIAGE

West Fork, Arkansas is a small community adjacent to Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas. As such, it is viewed by much of the state as an hotbed of communism and radicalism. You'll find people with PHDs and MAs waiting tables because they don't want to leave. I wouldn't say it was your typical Arkansas town, but the kid makes me proud to be a Razorback. - Hog Wild

FLOTSAM & JETSAM: A BRIEF GUIDE TO AVOIDING SOCIALISM

That's a 20th-century US liberal's definition of socialism, not a socialist's definition.

Having economic life controlled by a small number of government bureaucrats who are only nominally and indirectly accountable to the people is not "socialism" in any meaningful way.

It's similar to other definitions by the ruling class that liberals embrace, like "democracy" and "freedom".

"Democracy" does not mean being allowed to choose between 2 political rulers chosen by slightly different factions of the ruling class.

"Freedom" does not mean being allowed to choose which members of the owner class we will maintain in luxury by our labor.

I thought you were more radical than that, Sam. It's a real disappointment.

FIFTEEN PERCENT OF EUROPE'S ELECTRICITY COULD COME MID EAST

How do you protect your power supply if it's located on another continent? Madness upon madness upon lies.

So instead of taking others' oil we'll now be taking up the land that they could otherwise be using to produce their own power? Wonderful. - Lars

MAINE CITY TAKES ON FEMA'S CYA FLOOD MAPPING

At least Portland has the resources to hire a consultant to rebut FEMA's modelling assumptions. Other small coastal communities in Maine do not have the money to question the draft flood mapping. The economic impact of this low resolution science will be severe

ALL IN THE FAMILY: HOW EVAN BAYH IS BOUGHT

Back in the 60s and 70s, the two Senators from Indiana were Birch Bayh and Vance Hartke. They were known as "Bayh and Bought." Now it appears that Bayh the younger has consolidated the title.

From a distance the brouhaha over the "public option" doesn't make much sense. If it is as rotten as opponents say then it will die a deserved death because no one will sign up. If people do sign up and like it then it will be doing something right. One suspects that this is the real worry, no? - JR

CATHOLIC GENDER SEGREGATIONISTS STRIKE AGAIN

Well, the churches always claim that it is the sin they hate and not the sinner. This article shows what a huge load of bullshit that is. If they meant such statements, they would have no problem with employing sinners in the hope of turning them away from sin.

The city is trying to force a religion to perform an act contrary to the religious beliefs. Like instituting a ham day in New York and forcing Jewish and Muslim business owners to eat ham. Or, say, forcing a Buddhist to own property, a Hindu to eat beef, and so on. In prison, these beliefs are given their latitude, why should anyone expect differently here? Odds are this would make its way to the legal system, and DC gets egg on its face for being knuckleheads about excluding religious institutions. - David

COPS STEALING FROM THE INNOCENT

In St. Louis, cops translated their usual incestuous relationship with towing companies into megabucks and free cars. My dad always said you had to wash out as a pimp and a cabdriver before you could be a cop.

GREAT MOMENTS IN REGULATION

I just got another note from my state senator. In it he gives me a count of the new laws that he has helped to pass. Nothing much said about the cost, benefits or effectiveness of those laws, just how many as a demonstration of hard he is working. - M

SWINE FLU STATS

The reason the pandemic H1N1/09 vaccine is in short supply is that pharmaceutical companies were reluctant to produce it because it isn't very profitable. Flu vaccines in general are not profit-makers, and many companies have quit manufacturing them because of the very real risk of losing money if any year's flu turns out to be milder than expected. They are hardly a likely culprit if the danger has been overplayed. I'm not defending them, just saying they are more likely to try to stir up a panic to sell cash-cow drugs like Viagra than flu vaccine.

And certainly, pandemic H1N1/09 does not kill as many total people as seasonal flu, but most of those who die from seasonal flu are elderly or immune-compromised. H1N1/09 is unusual in that it kills or causes major complications for otherwise-healthy young people. The real lesson from all this isn't whether the danger of H1N1/09 is being over-hyped, but rather that the danger of seasonal flu tends to be seriously underestimated.

STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING ANGST

There's nothing wrong, of course, with strategic planning. Proper strategic planning, of course. What wrong, and what you obviously object to is the bullshit that surrounds it.

Was watching Ghandi the other day. I was struck by one scene, I think when he was first marching to the seashore to launch his salt campaign. He made a couple of points very clearly to the reporter he was walking with, or at least Ben Kingsley made this plain to Martin Sheen.

One was that he was in control. He held the initiative. . .

"The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response and we will continue to provoke until they respond or change the law. They are not in control; we are."

In the same sequence, he made it clear that this was a campaign that he had thought through. He made it clear that no matter how the British reacted, then he had a counter-move ready.

That's proper strategic planning. And not a word of bullshit coming out of Ghandi's mouth. Or at least not out of Ben Kingsley's mouth.

The problem is that most groups that do strategic planning don't know what they are doing. They don't have a strategy, but someone told them they need one. They don't have a clue as to how to create a proper strategy, so they hold long meetings hoping someone else in the room will give them the answer. At the end, they don't want to admit they just wasted three days in bullshit meetings, so they come up with a long, incomprehensible statement that pretends to be a strategic vision, but which is instead just bullshit.

Or, like in my ex-corporate job, they simply don't want to tell the employees that American employees are a thing of the past and are to be replaced by cheaper labor whenever possible. Can't come right out and say that, so they spin mountains of bullshit that doesn't say a thing instead.

But there's nothing wrong with a strategic plan. In fact, to me, the contrast between Ghandi's action and the typical leftist protest or action these days was striking. Typically these days, we see a protest or an action planned on its own without any reference to any larger strategic plan. The action becomes the thing. And nothing is thought beyond that. Thus we get anti-war demonstration that march through the empty streets of a city on a weekend and thus accomplish nothing. All because someone said a protest was the thing to do. And because the city would only give a permit to march through empty streets on a weekend. Thus, the organizers accept this, because the whole goal is to pull off a protest, any protest, and the fact that any real significance of the protest has already been lost during the planning stages when they agreed to march through empty streets on a weekend eludes them.

What we do not see at all on the left these days is any protests, actions, or political campaigns that seem rooted in a larger, sensible strategy.

Here's a proper strategic plan.

1) Goal? We want to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

2) What pressure can we apply to obtain the goal? We may or may not be a majority, but we most certainly have the power to sink most Democratic campaigns by mounting independent anti-war campaigns that take votes from the Democrats.

3) How do we use that pressure? We run independent anti-war, pro-peace candidates in the closest elections. We threaten first the Democratic majority in the House in 2010, and by 2012 we are building to both threaten the Senate majority and also threaten to make Obama a one-term President.

4) Result? When the Democrats are faced with losing power, they'll come to us and ask us what we want. Do not give away our hard-earned power for nothing at this point. But if you want the Democrats to commit to ending the wars, put them into a position where they have to do so to stay in power.

What do we do if it doesn't work as planned? Keep building, keep organizing, and come back even stronger and more threatening to Democratic power in the next election. Enjoy your retreat! - Marc Schuler Denver, CO

Sam, during your meetings to develop a "strategic plan" to keep your mind occupied I suggest you play Bullshit Bingo. I won't take the space here to explain how it works - just Google it.

NURSING HOME PATIENTS GIVEN DRUGS WITHOUT CAUSE

As someone who spent four years living in a nursing home, I can tell you that if you aren't alert, in full possession of your mental faculties and able to advocate for yourself or have family that will do so, it is very easy to be given the wrong drugs or incorrect doses of the right drugs. So you can just imagine what must happen to those nursing home residents that are mentally challenged in any way. Although I personally have never seen any one of my fellow inhabitants being forcibly administered drugs, some of the nurses could be very intimidating if you attempted to challenge what drugs they were giving you.

SHARP DECLINE IN NUMBER OF AMERICANS WHO SEE GLOBAL WARMING AS A PROBLEM

Most people have never understood "global warming" very well, they seem to think that any time there is cold weather that there can't be any global warming. They fail to understand that warmer temperatures create more extremes of weather which means a very cold winter could be because of global warming.

But spring does come about 2-3 weeks earlier in the winter then it did when I was a kid, I know this because I've lived in the same area all my life. I watch flowers bloom before the native pollinators are ready to get to work in the spring. Flowers that used to be thick with native bees in mid March are now empty while they bloom in late February and early March. Pollinators out of sync with their food sources is the sort of problem that will over time lead to food shortage.

Even if the problem isn't "global warming", and "excess CO2", the truth is human activity has steeped the planet in a toxic stew that causes all sorts of human misery, and will, unless we take action, poison the planet until it is too toxic for human life. Why that is so hard to grasp for people is beyond me.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE INTERNET TO RUPERT MUROCH?

Murdoch would prefer to only have right-wing nut-job readers who are willing to pay a premium in order to avoid objective journalism and only read stories that are slanted toward their particular prejudices and misperceptions. This could also have the side effect of making it harder for those who oppose this sort of slanted journalism to even know what News Corp is reporting because few will want to financially support such propaganda.

FLOTSAM & JETSAM: POLITICS IN A TIME OF MYTH

Climate change is natural. Study the Sun cycles and you will find its now waning and thus its getting cooler. The politics behind this are all designed to give more regulatory power over every single fact of human life. Its people control and ultimately population control. Let's address the real pollution causes - of which there are no controversies - PCB's, prescription drugs and rocket fuel in drinking supplies, factory farms, loss of coral reefs, etc. I just can't fathom why people don't see through this scam by bureaucrats and paid off, herd=like scientists who go along.