The very nature of terror is best explained by the various elements of it’s definition:  a state of intense fear, often intentionally induced in a population by the actions of others for political purposes.

The present War on Terror, as it has come to be labeled, was initiated by Al Qaeda with the first bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, and culminated in the final attacks and destruction of those buildings on 9/11.  The ends of those attacks were achieved in that Americans have now lived in a state of persistent and intense fear going on for nine consecutive years. 

The subsequent failures to complete additional terrorists attacks on the United States since 9/11 are not near as important as the mere affect that those attempts have on the psyche of the American public.  After all, the achievement of the singular objective of creating terror does not require that anyone be killed or maimed.  To the contrary.  In fact, it is simply the capacity to maintain a steady level of an intense feeling that the potential for harm is always present in our minds that determines the success of Al Qaeda.  In that sense, they have certainly surpassed their expectations.

Even more important to the goals of Al Qaeda is the general breakdown of the civil, political and economic fabric of America.  To the extent that those elements of our social structure begin to crumble and dissolve into complete turmoil as a result of the fear that has been instilled in us, the greater the degree of success the terrorists will have achieved in reaching those goals.   Once again, on that basis, the terrorists are achieving their objectives.

As we bear witness to the daily political and psychological assaults on our fellow Americans by others who pretend that they are somehow more patriotic and superior because of their personal philosophies, we should stop and ask ourselves these questions:

First - to what extent do these unwarranted criticisms of the patriotism of other Americans merely increase our fear of terrorism?

Second – to what degree do these personal attacks on other Americans tear at the fabric of our social and political structure, thereby inadvertently facilitating the goals of the terrorists?

Finally – does wrapping oneself in the American Flag make you anymore American than others?

I think most of us know the answer.

 ATTICUS FINCH (Gregory Peck) in “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

Hardly!

Why?  Because she advocates the use of fear that rises to the level of McCarthyism, as demonstrated in the recent video released by her political organization, Keep America Safe. 

A significant number of well-respected Conservatives have deeply criticized the video’s characterization of current Justice Department lawyers as Un-American because of their previous legal representation of suspected terrorist detainees.  One of the greatest callings in the American legal system is defending both the unpopular and the guilty. This role is epitomized by the lawyer Atticus Finch in the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird“, rated as the best courtroom movie of all time by the American Film Institute.

Liz Cheney is a lawyer.  If she attended her classes in law school, she should have a basic understanding of the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, as well as the principles of American Jurisprudence, all of which ensure due process for everyone who is charged with a violation of the laws of the United States, regardless of citizenship.  Her failure to grasp those most fundamental principles of the American justice system only further undermines any semblance of credibility regarding her legal or political opinion. 

One of her former law professors, the esteemed Richard A. Epstein, of the University of Chicago School of Law. said it best:  “There’s something truly bizarre about this.”  Which only begs the question:  Is she a moron, or just pathologically shameless and void of any conscience?  Maybe it runs in the family?

Most importantly, however, is the real reason why Liz Cheney cannot “Keep America Safe”. 

If she relies on the argument that America was much safer from an attack by terrorists during her father’s tenure with the Bush Administration, one need look no further than the Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”, in order to completely discredit this notion.  Her father publicly admitted in May of 2002 on Fox News that he read the brief, and then attempted in vain to dismiss it’s warnings as inconclusive, while simultanously advocating that the brief not be released for public disclosure.   Interesting . . .

As this author has pointed out in the post titled “Failing to Connect the Dots: The Lights Were Blinking Red“, that evidence is the most damning indictment of Dick Cheney’s part in the collective negligence of the Bush Administration’s failure to prevent the attacks on 9/11.  No wonder he did not want you to read it’s contents.  To compound matters even further was their colossal failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden at the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December of 2001.  Simply put, Dick Cheney obviously has no valid standing to criticize the Obama Administration’s policies regarding terrorism and the prosecution of terrorists.

By extension, as well as by her own volition, neither does Liz Cheney. 

Case closed.

That is by her own admission.

I would hope the irony of this little factoid is NOT lost on the Conservatives who support Sarah Palin and oppose President Obama’s Health Care Reform. 

Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y?

DOES THIS STONER LOOK UNBEATABLE TO YOU?

If you accept the conclusions underlying the U.S. drug policies opposing the use of marijuana, then you should find this story a little ironic. 

If you do not accept the conclusions underlying the U.S. drug policies opposing the use of marijuana, you still should find this story a little ironic.

It seems Lance Mackey, the current consecutive three-time Champion of the Alaskan Iditarod dog-sled race, openly admits he uses medical marijuana while he races.  In a competition where they have never previously drug-tested the participants – although they have had a policy prohibiting the use of alcohol or illegal drugs - the organizers of the Iditarod have now declared that they will administer random drug testing during the race  (Note: the dogs have been tested for performance-enhancing drugs [PED's] since 1994).  

So now marijuana is a PED?

Look.  I have serious doubts about whether riding on a snow-sled in sub-zero temperatures for fifteen straight days while stoned out of your freakin’ gourd gives anyone a distinct competitive advantage.  If anything, I would think there is a much higher (no pun intended) likelihood they might find the guy frozen to death out in the middle of the Arctic while his dogs are trying to lick that stupid smile off his face.  After all – according to opponents of legalizing marijuana -  smoking pot makes you lethargic, unmotivated, as well as affecting one’s judgment and ability to think.

Conclusion:  If you cannot beat a person who is stoned or drunk (or both) for three straight years in the Iditarod, you need to just “throw in the towel” guys.

Or taking up smoking pot.

SENATOR RICHARD SHELBY HOLDING HANDS WITH SADDAM HUSSEIN [circa 1990] 

Dear Senator Shelby:

As noted in this author’s previous post, you were playing politics with the lives of young American soldiers in order to get your way over the issue of awarding Northrop Grumman a contract to build a refueling tanker plane in your home state of Allah Bama.

Now Northrop Grumman has withdrawn it’s bid to build the planes, and will not file a formal protest because, in the words of Northrop’s chief executive, Wesley G. Bush, “service men and women have been forced to wait too long for new tankers.”

Senator Shelby:  Service men and women have also been forced to wait too long for Senate confirmation of Obama’s appointee who is designated to become top Department of Defense point-man for readiness and managing deployments to Afghanistan, all because of you. 

They are still waiting . . .

P.S.  The picture in the caption was taken in 1990 during a Congressional junket to Iraq by Senator Shelby and Senator Arlen Spector.  The authenticity of this trip can be confirmed right here on Senator Spector’s website.

MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE

No more famous words were ever spoken in the clash between Science and Religion.

Galileo’s name is synonymous with the former, having been called “The Father of Modern Science“.  But his deepest convictions regarding the scientific certainty that the Earth circled around the Sun (heliocentric theory) almost cost him his soul, placing him at odds with his own religion. 

It was the year 1616, when the Catholic Church and all of mankind was still convinced that Earth was the center of the universe, and everything revolved around our world (geocentric theory).  After a very long and openly contentious battle with the Catholic Church over this issue, Galileo was forced to publicly recant his belief that the Earth circles around the Sun in order to save his soul - thereby avoiding torture and excommunication from the Church.  Legend has it that after he had “confessed” that the Sun revolves around the Earth, he reputedly whispered under his breath those famous words,  ”And yet it moves” - referencing the fact that the Earth does move. 

As ludicrous as it may seem that the Catholic Church held such antiquated beliefs back then, and even forced a man of science to be brought before a religious inquisition, we should not ignore the power of religion to keep our minds stuck in the “Dark Ages” even today.  Case in point:  a biology text that is currently being recommended for home-schooled children which attempts to refute Darwin’s classic Theory of Evolution by replacing it with Creationist theory – which a Federal Court has already declared unconstitutional for inclusion in public education curriculum, and further debunked as unscientific.  Even worse is the fact that this “biology” textbook also contains a not-so-veiled threat in very stern terms warning young science students what they should believe if they want their souls to be saved. 

Here is some of the text from that book:

 [A] “Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is.”

So now ask yourself, does the Earth revolve around the Sun? 

Be careful how you answer that question.  The salvation of your soul may hang in the balance . . .  as well as your child’s education.

TEABAGGER ANTI-STIMULUS PROTEST AT WHITEHOUSE ON 2-27-09

OK.

Let’s analyze this Tard logic.

1)  Teabaggers (members of the American Tea Party) are so incensed that Rachael Maddow calls them by that name – sarcastically referencing the sexually-perverted act - that they have filed 1,239 Indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)against MSNBC (subsidiary cable network of parent company NBC), the broadcaster of The Rachael Maddow Show.

2)  The Teabaggers were the first ones to reference the term for political purposes in their February 27, 2009 anti-stimulus protest in front of the Whitehouse (see 2/27/09 post on web containing the picture above).

3)  So now their politically-correct sensitivity is insulted?

Including the Teabaggers Chief Tard, Sarah Palin? 

Hail to the Chief.

S.E.C. LAWYERS’ GRADUATION CLASSES: 1999-2008

If you hired a security guard to watch your house, and it kept getting burglarized – even after someone told him countless times who the thief was – would you let him keep his job?

Stupid question, you say?  Really? 

So why do we keep the same morons on our government payroll to watch the financial markets?  Now that is a good question.  And there really is a simple answer.  The foxes make sure to instruct their under-lords to have those dumb sharecropper farmers whom they pay beggars wages to for working their land, to keep that same old deaf and blind dog guarding the chicken coop.  This metaphor should not be lost on anyone.

Bernie Madoff may be a household word – and one of Time magazines 2009 Top 100 people who affected the world.  But Harry Markopolus is just another quiet hero in a global financial market run by pimps and whores.  Markopolus has a new book coming out today called, “No One Would Listen“.  The book chronicles the story of how Markopolus doggedly pursued a fraud case against Bernie Madoff from 1999 through 2008 by trying to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyers to investigate Madoff’s House of Cards.  All to no avail. 

WTF you might ask?  At least that’s what I have been saying since this story first broke in early 2009 when Markopolus testified before Congress (you can read his testimony right here), and then was interviewed by CBS’s 60 Minutes. 

 This is beyond a comedy of errors.  This is Dumb and Dumber, The Three Stooges, and Beevis and Butthead all working in concert to unwittingly thwart one another while the criminals continued to steal from us with unbridled impunity.  Now is that not a terrifying image?  Meet your S.E.C., America.  Wall Street owns these guys.

Starting in 1999, Markopolus made several attempts to give the most fundamental proof of Madoff’s fraud to numerous investigators at the S.E.C. - all of which was either willfully or woefully ignored (Markopolus calls them “idiots” – that is too kind, don’t you think, Sarah Palin? I would have called them retards).  By 2007, he was fed up with their wanton stupidity, and decided to document it by submitting a nineteen (19) page memorandum to the S.E.C. outlining the basis for his claim.  That too, was ignored.

View the complete 60 Minutes interview with Markopolos - or just watch the real BOMBSHELL from minute 7:25 to 8:18 of the interview.  That brief one minute segment is incomprehensible.   And you wonder why so many investors were “Madoffed” by Bernie?

So after all this, has anything changed?

Hell no! 

Harry Markopolus is still trying to settle his first big whistle-blower case, he has spent years living in fear, and yet he remains undeterred in his dogged pursuit of financial racketeers and corporate fraudsters.  Of course, his new book should help keep his wife and young boys fed until payday comes.  Ironically, Markopolus refers to himself as a “$50 Billion dollar failure”- because he could not get the S.E.C. to listen.  One might conclude that he is being flippant, since he all but beat them over the head with his evidence.  However, he is serious about characterizing this as his “failure” - he honestly takes it very personally that all these people were hurt by Madoff’s fraud in the face of the S.E.C.’s utter incompetence.  

You just have to love this man.  After all this, the crooks and the “police” shirk responsibility, and the hero feels guilty?  And you wonder why it seems the world has started spinning in the other direction?

Meanwhile, back at the S.E.C., they are still re-disorganizing the deck chairs on the U.S.S. Financial Titanic, and there should be smooth sailing on the calm seas of Neo-Capitalism all the way back to port.  No need to worry.  They have their securities regulation minions fast asleep on night watch while the next massive financial iceberg awaits in the darkness.  And brace yourself, because this next one’s really going to be a doozy folks. 

In the meantime, bring them some Dom Perignon, the exquisite pate’, and that rare Russian escargot they just had imported, all paid for with your financial bailouts.  And don’t forget to put that on a silver platter. 

Oh, they almost forgot to mention it.  You can ignore the water rising on the Italian marble dining room floor.  That’s just from the watered-down financial regulation reform we are about to get from Wall Street’s wholly-owned public subsidiary, Congress.  They have the S.E.C working on that minor leak down in the hull right now. 

One Final Note: please do not bother counting the number of lifeboats.  Those seats have all been reserved.

Enjoy the cruise. 

P.S.  They saved several seats in the lifeboats for the S.E.C. lawyers.  You didn’t really think the Financial Terrorists were going to row those things themselves, did you?

So you don’t want some government bureaucrat giving you the runaround about your health care coverage, or choice of doctors and hospitals?  Or wasting taxpayer money with an inefficient bureaucratic nightmare where nothing gets done right or on time?  Nor get caught in this eternal loop of incompetent faceless idiots who keep asking you the same questions over and over again, day after day, while your affliction goes untreated and grows worse with each passing week?

Thank Goodness, you can now have your own private health care insurance Hell.  At no additional cost, Sarah Palin.  And have no choice regarding which company will provide your coverage since your employer is the one who gets to decide who that carrier will be.  Damn!  In hindsight, that public option sure would have been a nice fallback position.

And because a majority of you voters opposed Health Care Reform . . .   

 Welcome to the machine.

P.S.  No bitching, please.  Just remember to say you were wrong when it all goes to Hell in a hand-basket, thank you!

P.S.S.  If you happen to be a glutton for more freakin’ private health insurance nightmares just click here, here, here, and here.    SWEET DREAMS . . .

WOW!

If you do not know who Michael Smerconish is, you are not alone.  

Smerconish is well known in political circles as a Conservative columnist and radio talk show host in Philadelphia, PA.  He frequently makes guest appearances on some of the cable news shows, and his insight into Pennsylvania politics was of great interest during the 2008 Presidential primaries, as well as the general election.  There is no other media personality in Pennsylvania that has a better finger on the pulse of that state’s politics.  Although I was skeptical of his politics when I first saw him in 2008, he won me over as time went on, and I took great interest in what he had to say regarding the political landscape of a state that was very diverse in it’s political leanings.

That is why his announced “resignation” from the Republican Party this past week is very shocking, and should not be lightly dismissed by party leaders,  nor Conservative pundits.  Particularly the manner in which his decision was made – while standing in line at the drivers license bureau, when prompted by a bureaucrat as to whether he would like to declare an affiliation with either political party. 

Such a seemingly spontaneous act was obviously not a decision that was either taken lightly, or consciously contemplated.  After all, he had publicly and openly sworn allegiance to the Republican party and it’s principles for the last 30 years.  And in the course of 30 seconds, while standing in line at the drivers license bureau, all of that changed. If you want to understand why, read his statement.

That is why it is so consequential.  His leaving is evidence of a quiet tsunami of voters who are likely not even aware of their subconscious preparations to abandon their parties, and demand a return to political and economic sanity in a country that has apparently gone quite mad.  They feel alienated and abandoned – by both of the parties and the political system. 

Most importantly for both parties is this:  My politics and Mr. Smerconish’s diverge on a number of issues, none of which are relevant to the subject at hand.  Nonetheless, we now both consider ourselves independent voters.  What I divine from his public statement of why he is abandoning his party is that he is a man of reason and logic.  A person who can clearly see that things are not always so clear cut.  A man who is certain of the uncertainty of the future of this country.  A citizen who refuses to participate in a process that will bring about the destruction of this great nation.  But most importantly, an American who is willing to put his country ahead of his own personal political beliefs, without sacrificing the principles that underlie those beliefs.

That Michael Smerconish and I can find agreement on what the most important issue is that the majority of voters believe this country must immediately address speaks volumes.

Quite simply . . . STOP THE MADNESS!