The McCain Effect . . .

Remember the Mary Hart seizure complex? Remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer convulses uncontrollably when hearing her on TV?

Here’s a similar effect. General Petraeus passes out when listening to John McCain.

Visually Impaired? Sucks To Be You If You Seek Government Assistance!

Here’s a fun one.

Chances are, you know what a Captcha is. If you don’t, check it out here on Wikipedia. In a nutshell, a Captcha is a type of challenge-response test used on many webforms. It is to ensure that a human is filling out those forms rather than a computer program.

Go to Recovery.gov, click on Contact Us link on the top toolbar. Click on “Feedback” on the left toolbar. You are presented with a webform. Skip filling out the form. Scroll to the bottom and see the Captcha. Pretend you are visually impaired, and click on “Get an audio challenge” link indicated by a microphone icon. You’re presented with random – I think – movie bits, most of which are undecipherable.

All I have to say is you’ve got to be kidding!

Sarah Palin – The Next Republican Candidate For President

Who can deny that Sarah Palin is now a GOP candidate for President?

Remember when she resigned her position as Governor? That was the first step of the plan. Conservatives installed her as an analyst on Fox News. And now she’s the de facto leader of the Tea Party. → source

It all reminds me of how George W. Bush was groomed for Presidency a decade ago.

Democrats better prepare themselves for Palin. She will run for President, and she will be a force to content with. Don’t get hung up on her qualifications (if you believe she’s insufficiently skilled). They don’t matter. Think back on GOP primaries of a decade ago: Bush vs McCain. Who would have thought McCain – with his congressional and military experience – could lose the nomination to Bush. Neo Cons created a buzz around G.W. and how he was just one of the ‘guys’ you can have a beer with. They could certainly do it again with Palin by crushing the competition from any other GOP candidate.

At CPAC, we learned that the other contenders are Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (as they should be). Ron Paul will never have a chance even though he won the straw poll. → source

Sarah Palin for President. Get used to the idea.

The Hijacking of Tea Party ‘Cause’

Tea Parties!

At first, the idea unreservedly appealed to me. I was proud of the Tea Party folks. It was all about people standing up and coming together for what they believed. To me, the cause didn’t matter. Fox News’ involvement didn’t matter. I was ecstatic to see Americans congregating around a common issue and getting involved in mass. I truly believe that kind of action is good for our country – whatever the cause may be.

But now, my respect for Tea Parties is completely evaporated. They’ve been infiltrated by Neo Cons, and the entire idea has become too political. Not only have they shunned Ron Paul (he was one of the original instigators of Tea Parties), they’ve inducted Sarah Palin as the leader. Tea Parties were all about ordinary people, neighbors and friends coming together. There was no clear leader. No more! It is now all about grooming Palin to run for President. Wake up tea party folks! The ’cause’ is no longer yours. You are now sheep following Neo Con directives.

Fortunately, it appears that several grassroots Tea Party organizations have recognized this sneaky infiltration. One example is Dale Robertson, the founder of teaparty.org, who recently posted the following on his website:

“[W]hat I am witnessing is an attempted defilement of the concept of what the Tea Party’s purposes are and where we are going. The bastardization of our message I find bilious and disingenuous on its face.

Tea Party members are being eyed as just another piece of voting meat.”

Oh, one more thing! You may now cough up $500/plate for dinner with leader Sarah Palin in the name of Tea Party fund raising.

Haiti – The Tragedy & The Conspiracy Theory

I was looking around Fox News’ website the other day when I noticed an interesting article: Hugo Chavez Mouthpiece Says U.S. Hit Haiti With ‘Earthquake Weapon’ → source

I’m the first to admit Chavez is crazy, but I’ve always felt crazy people view the world from different lenses. And different does not necessarily equate to false. Remember in the movie Men in Black when they checked the ‘hot sheets’ (tabloid)? That kind of ‘different’!

So I looked around. Here’s what I found. You’ll like this.

The Earthquake Machine

In a Department of Defense (DoD) briefing on Monday, April 28, 1997, the then Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen said:

. . . some countries . . . are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco- type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

Yes, earthquakes! Don’t bother looking for that information on DoD’s website. It’s not there. You’ll find it on web archive site → here.

It’s not too far-fetched to think that governments, including our own, are working on top-secret and unthinkable weapons that we, normal people, don’t consider within the realm of possibilities. Don’t assume something is impossible just because you think it is.

The Plan

OK, so what if we possess an earth-quake weapon? Where’s the proof we might have used it? Consider this. One day before the earthquake, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in Miami was testing an emergency response system. The scenario? Providing relief to Haiti in the wake of a fictional hurricane. After the earthquake hit on Tuesday, SOUTHCOM decided to go live with the system immediately. How convenient! Check it out for yourself here.

The Reason

So, let’s review. It’s possible that we possess an earthquake machine and it’s also possible that we deployed it in Haiti. The question is why. Well, oil – possibly. Google oil in Haiti, and you’ll find many sources suggesting the possibility.

The Proof

According to bloggers monitoring flightaware.com (a site that records tail number of airplanes landing at most airports), at least one of the planes landing in Port-au-Prince since the earthquake has the following registration: N419AR  → source.  Who owns this plane? Mar-Don, Inc. What kind of company is that? An oil reclamation service → source

One more thing.  Somehow, much of our relief efforts for Haiti has ‘reform’ connotation attached to them. Here’s one example from a CNN headline: “Ex-envoy: Earthquake gives opportunity to reform Haiti”. Why reform? Why now? And that brings us back to oil.

Even Ron Paul said the following about the Haitian relief efforts: “There’s been a coup – have you heard?” → source

My heart goes out to those affected by this earthquake – whatever the cause may have been: God, tectonic plate geology, or earthquake machine.

The War On Terror – An Un-winnable Strategy

The war on Terror . . .

Once again, news stories about our war strategy in Afghanistan are dominating headlines. And the recent icing on the cake is President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize and how that may affect Afghanistan’s military direction.

Have you ever really paused to reflect on how our current strategy of ‘war on terror’ began? I’ve had this conversation numerous times and, almost regardless of political affiliation, the conversation resembles the following:

Q: Why are we in Afghanistan?
A: Because al-Qaeda attacked us, and the Taliban helped them.

Q: Why did they attack us?
A: Because they hate us.

Q: Why do they hate us?
A1: They hate our freedoms.
A2: They detest our wasteful lifestyle.

This is about the point where I shake my head in utter disbelief. How naive and stupid can we be as a nation? Terrorists don’t give a damn about our freedoms or how much of it we have. They couldn’t care less about our lifestyle either. They don’t have time for this non-sense. Grow up people. Jealousy is not their motivation. They attacked us because they detest our presence in the Middle East and our meddling in their affairs.

The conversation continues:

Q: Why are we in the Middle East?
A: To protect our interests.

Q: What are our interests?
A: Peace, democracy, Israel, ensuring 9/11 never happens again.

How small-minded! Most Republicans I speak to do not even cite oil as a top reason for our presence in the Middle East. Democrats jump all over the oil issue, but are unable to see the big picture.

The only reason we are in and care about the Middle East is oil. If you’re unable to see this truth, you live in a fantasy world. As a nation, we don’t care about democracy in other parts of the world. We are not interested in human rights. We are not able to control terrorism abroad. Don’t be fooled by what the government is telling us.

Democracy

Who’s our best friend in the Middle East despite the fact that they produced 19 of the 20 9/11 hijackers? Saudis, of course. Do they have a democracy? Far from it. When was the last time we threatened them with UN sanctions? Never. Why? Oil! I rest my case.

Who’s our other best friend in the Middle East? Israel. Do they have a democracy? Yes. Has that helped us in any decipherable way in the past few decades? I, as a member of the American public, am not aware of any. Are you?

Human Rights

Where was the last Olympics held? In China. Did we force them to confront their human rights violations in return for awarding them the Olympics? No. Why? They own our currency.

Terrorism and Spread of Democracy in the Middle East

The war on terror is not winnable. There, I said it. It is so un-impressively naive to believe that a democratically-elected government in Afghanistan is going to bury terrorism for us. Even if that was the case, then what? Pakistan is next, and we’ll have no choice but to invade them as well. At some point, we’ll have to deal with a nuclear face-off between India and Pakistan. In the mean time, Saudis will produce generation after generation of terrorists.

Democracy does not stop terrorism in the Middle East. In fact, there’s evidence that it will increase it. Israel is a democracy. Has any of that rubbed off on their neighbors in Palestine?

So much for protecting our interests in the Middle East.

In Support Of Publishing Photos Of Dying American Soldiers In Afghanistan

We the people . . .

A major news story recently is about Afghanistan and how President Obama must make a decision to either send more troops there or scale down the forces. This reminded that earlier this month, AP published a photo of a dying American soldier in Afghanistan. Aside from objections from the family (I’ll address this later), most of the outcry came from Conservatives (don’t tell me it’s not true, you know it is!). The basic premise was that publishing the photo is an attempt by the liberal media to break the resolve of the American people for support of the war(s).

First, that argument is pathetically disingenuous. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear Conservatives cry foul about Obama’s policies. The phrase most used is socialism. The objection most aired is that the government is taking over everything.

Let’s examine that argument for a moment. In a socialist state, the government controls everything and the people are along for the ride. The American government was established based on a constitution with a pre-amble of ‘we the people‘. Have we forgotten that? ‘We the people‘ should run the government (we haven’t for a long time, but work with me), not the other way around. Therefore, ‘we the people‘ have every right to see pictures of war casualties. That is our right, and it is the only way ‘we the people‘ can decide for ourselves whether the sacrifice is worth the price.

Second, although I whole-heartedly support the right of ‘we the people‘ to see war pictures, I see no altruism in AP’s act of publishing this picture. Director of AP photography, Santiago Lyon defended publishing the photo by saying:

“We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is.”

I don’t believe a word of it! Where has AP been for the past 8 years? Their claim of ‘journalistic duty’ doesn’t impress me. This is nothing more than a stunt in search of more readers, attention and revenue.

Third, my heart goes out to the family of the soldier. ‘We the people‘ have every right to view such photos if we wish, but that should not be at the expense of a grieving family. That soldier’s face could easily have been pixellated with the click of a mouse. His identity was not germane to the story; the rest of the picture conveyed the narrative adequately.

Finally, if you’re in the slightest bit afraid of what such pictures may do to the resolve of ‘we the people‘, or if you’re unable to stomach the gruesome nature of such pictures, then perhaps it’s time to rethink our war strategy.

Are we still ‘the people’ referred to in the preamble to the US Constitution?

Who Says Secession Is Bad?

So a few months ago, everyone was talking about secession – OK, maybe just some Republicans in southern US States. All went quiet for a while until just recently.

As I think about secession, I’ve come to believe that it is not necessarily bad for America or that it will negatively impact our country.

Consider this. The old Soviet Union was  a super power and the controlling center of many states – willing and otherwise. Soviet Union’s breakup resulted in many independent countries; some prospered and some continue to struggle. Nevertheless, I believe that all those independent states are more content now than they were under the Soviet umbrella.

Think about it. Russia is just as powerful as when it was the Soviet Union. That power may not resemble that of the days of the cold war, but it is unmistakable. Russia is able to derail many UN resolutions by voting against them. It is able to alter the course of international policy purely by projecting (or retracting) its support. How many times in the past few years have we heard that Russia and China formed an alliance to oppose international sanctions or policy proposals?

By the same token, a separated United States could also conceivably remain just as powerful and effective but perhaps in different and, as of yet, undetermined ways.

Here’s more food for thought. Consider a severely contentious issue in American politics. Let’s choose abortion. I’m willing to bet money that if we asked Californians whether Texans should have access to abortion, a majority will say that they don’t really care. The greatest thing that matters to Californians about abortion is preservation of their own right to abortion. On the other hand, I’m betting the same amount of money that if we asked Texans the same question about abortion involving Californians, a majority will say that no one in the US should have access to abortion. In other words, the more Conservative and religious the state, the more likely it will be to impose its views on the entire union.

What does this tell us? Well, remember what this country was based upon: individual liberties for all and a non-dictatorial central government. So, why not permit a State such as Texas to secede from the union if the values of its people are in direct contradiction to those of the rest of the United States? Texas and anyone who cares to join this independent state will be happier and more free. In the process, the balance of power will remain the same for the rest of the union, and the US will continue to exist and prosper over time (once we get past this recession).

Change and opportunity come in one package. Embrace them.

Why Erin Andrew’s Peephole Video Was Good For Fox News

By now, everyone has heard about the infamous Erin Andrews peep-hole videos. Google it if you haven’t. A million people have blogged it already, so I will refrain from explaining the obvious. I will not weigh in on whether this was an inside job at ESPN, if this will boost Erin’s career, or how much pain this has brought to her life. But I have two observations that no one else seems to emphasize.

First, I find it fascinating that O’Reilly’s coverage of this event focused on how privacy in the digital age has all but disappeared. For a guy who regularly sends his producers out to stalk people that he doesn’t like, O’Reilly argument is stupid. He is one of the biggest violators of privacy himself. His whining about lack of privacy is hurting his credibility and my ears!

Second, I watched Geraldo Rivera’s segment on this issue, and I was stunned to hear him defend the right of the person(s) who recorded the videos. He said:

This is not necessarily a crime. Unless this is a state – there’s only 12 of them that I know – that require both parties to consent. If this is a single party state, and the guy is looking through a peep-hole, I don’t know what’s the crime? What’s the crime?

It really did take me a few minutes to make sense of why he was defending the videos. Now that I understand it, it’s so simple. Geraldo works for Fox News, and this is a clear way of justifying the hidden ACORN videos and defending the rights of the students who made them. I don’t see any other explanation.

By the way, don’t judge what I think of ACORN. You’re most likely going to guess wrong.

The Difference Between Barack Obama & Gordon Brown