How Much Do You Love School?

Blood and Oil: American Presidents Continually Bow to Saudi Kings

I am not anti-Israeli, or anti-Jewish, as some may think. If anything, I am anti-Zionist, maybe. But really, I am against any and all of these relationships where we (our country) promise other countries to protect them and give them weaponry, etc, just for oil (or for our ability to control that oil). Or to have a base of operations to attack someone in the ME (or another Cold War attack position).

Our Founding fathers were quite clear about these relationships (we shouln’t have them, period) and it is obvious that oil is the biggest reason. They lived around a time when they were escaping an Empire and knew damn well they didn’t want the same path for America.

We need to get away from the dependence on petro-chemicals, but to do so will be to tell the controlling monarchy in the US (Big Money and its lapdogs, the government) that the jig is up. We know and understand how they have us by the balls.

I’m ready to take my balls back.

A little history lesson from ChallengingMedia at YouTube.

The Real State of Our Union is one that we are controlled by Big Money and we do whatever they want of us, no matter how far we stray from the intent of this experiment we call the U.S.A. It is these controlling interests that will be our demise, if we don’t take it back.

Richard Noggin’ Saturday Redux: Barack Obama Has Moved Right

B’Man: Barack Obama has shown his true stripes for all Americans and Progressives to see. If you haven’t listened to his speech at AIPAC, where he garnered even more applause and support from them than the neocon asshole, McInsane, you should listen closely to see how Mr Obama has flip-flopped on the Palestinians and moved towards an irreconcilable solution for Gaza. In my estimation, to gather as many right-wing votes as possible and ensure the neocon coffers that he is the same old, same old. Follow the money and see who is giving to who now.

In Part 1 of his commentary, The Real News Network Senior News Analyst Aijaz Ahmad tells us that when Senator Barack Obama finished his speech at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington DC, he got an applause more thunderous than there had been for McCain on the first day . Obama has come along way from the days when Karl Rove called him a man of the far left. He no longer speaks of the “tragic plight of the Palestinians” and adds that postponing elections would have been the best way to deal with Hamas as they were sure to win a majority in free elections.

Filed under B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch

UPDATE: Part Two of this commentary.

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: Taking On The Lobbyists

John McCain has said that he would “take on the lobbyists”. One might think that he meant that he would “fight” against their interests and persuasive motivations (money and influence). One would be quite wrong to think it.

I’m no Democrat and am leaning heavily Independent, but this ad is perfect to explain how McCain is a damn liar and not only will not “fight” against the lobbyist mindset, but has actually embraced them and brought them into his campaign to run things. But not only that, he has embraced some lobbyists who have many tyrants under contract and subsequently have blood on their hands.

McDickhead McCain doesn’t care about any of that. He cares about winning at any cost and has sold his stinking soul to the neocon devil.

We need truth and honor to prevail, rednecks. We do not need another Bush asslick in office. Ever again!

To this end, Obama’s promise to keep lobbyist and corporate money out of the election is a great chess move (although he, too, will find ways to get that money, even if forced through the individuals that run those organizations).

I do not believe, for a second, that those “pacts” aren’t controlled by the same assholes. But the meme is excellent enough to persuade enough rednecks that he is the real “change” candidate, although many of the things he is pushing for is not really any REAL change.

I hope I am wrong, if he wins it.

Report: Love Letters From U.S. Troops Increasingly Gruesome

Report: Love Letters From U.S. Troops Increasingly Gruesome

WASHINGTON—According to a Pentagon report leaked to the press Monday, love letters written by U.S. troops have nearly tripled in their use of disturbing language, graphic imagery, and horrific themes since the start of the war.

The report, which studied 600 romantic notes sent over a period of two years, found a significant increase in terrifying descriptions of violence and gore, while references to beautiful flowers, singing bluebirds, and the infinite, undulating sea were seen to decrease by 93 percent.

“Not only are U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq less likely to compare their lover’s cheeks to a blushing red rose,” the report read in part, “but most are now three times more likely to equate that same burning desire to the ’smoldering flesh of a dead Iraqi insurgent,’ and almost 10 times more likely to compare sudden bursts of passion to a ‘crowded marketplace explosion.’”

According to detailed analysis of the letters, the longer a U.S. soldier had been stationed in Iraq the more macabre the overall tone of his correspondence became. Troops who had been fighting for less than a year lapsed into frightening allegory only 15 percent of the time, while those who had been serving between two and three years described their affection for loved ones back home as more vibrant and alive than any of the children in the village of Basra.

Troops stationed in Iraq for four years or longer composed their letters entirely in blood.

“The more often U.S. soldiers are confronted with images of carnage, the more these elements become present in their subconscious and, ultimately, in their writing,” said Dr. Kendra Allen, a behavioral psychologist who reviewed the Pentagon’s findings. “This is precisely why we see so many passages like, ‘Darling, I miss the way your bright green eyes always stayed inside your skull’ and ‘Honey, how I dream of your soft, supple arms—both of them, still attached as ever, to the rest of your body.’”

Allen went on to say that many of the harrowing details found in the love letters were linked to specific events in Iraq. A bloody clash with Islamic extremists in late March resulted in more than 40 handwritten notes from a single battalion, all of which contained some version of the message “My love for you spills out of me like my lower intestine, my gallbladder, and my spleen.”

The most noticeable change came after a violent border skirmish in May that left four U.S. soldiers dead and dozens more severely injured. Since the incident, a number of letters, which had previously signed off with “Yours forever,” instead ended with “Please God, deliver me from this nightmarish hellhole! The screaming—it never stops! Christ, I beg you, make it all go away! Make the parade of blood and pain and tears go away!”

A number of wives and fiancées of servicemen in Iraq, many of whom are now unsure how to reply to their partners abroad, provided personal accounts of how the tone of their correspondence has changed.

“Getting love letters from my husband used to be my favorite part of the week. But these days, they’re almost impossible to get through,” said Sheila Miller, whose husband, Michael, has been in Iraq since 2004. “Yes, it’s still flattering to be told that you’re as beautiful as a syringe full of morphine, or that you’re as much a part of his being as the shrapnel near his spine. But I’m really starting to worry about him.”

“My husband has never really been the romantic type, but even this is strange for him,” said Margaret Baker, the wife of Sgt. Daniel Baker. “How am I supposed to react to hearing that my name is the sweetest sound in a world otherwise filled with desperate cries of anguish? I made the mistake of showing [daughter] Gracie the birthday card her father sent her from Tikrit and she hasn’t spoken for a month.”

In response to the damaging report, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke on behalf of the thousands of soldiers on active duty in the Middle East, saying the study’s findings were “misrepresented” and any rise in horrific metaphors and similes was in no way related to the situation in Iraq.

“I’ve been to our bases overseas and let me be the first to tell you that conditions in Iraq are the best they’ve ever been,” Gates announced at a press conference Friday. “In fact, I would go so far as to say that we’re making as much progress here as, say, an army private who accidentally falls on a land mine, and instead of choosing to die in the middle of the road like some dog, drags his bleeding trunk—inch by throbbing inch—to the side of a nearby ditch.”

Added Gates, “It’s that good.”

How Free is Free Trade? Roger Wicker Knows

B’Man: h/t Jeff at Cotton Mouth

Southern politics was hijacked by neocon asswipes a while back. The Mississippi governor was elected, even though he was a lobbyist for many years and became the Chair of the ReTHUGlican National Committee. You can put a lot of blame on these individual democrats who endorsed this maniac over Musgrove: Xavier Bishop, Mike Espy, Brad Dye, and Bill Waller.

Also, Trent Lott was a mainstay in Mississippi politics, but he took the opposite approach the idiot governor took and is now a lobbyist. I believe the move will cost the THUGS in the general elections in November. Hence how important Cotton Mouth’s post and facts are.

With that asshole gone, we need to continually highlight the abuses and idiotic party voting for things that are ravaging our America. One of those “things” is “Free Trade” and Cotton Mouth ensures we understand precisely where Roger Wicker stands on this “free” trade, especially in light of the fact that he hails from Tupelo, MS, where furniture makers are shutting their doors to Asian competition.

Roger Wicker and Free Trade

A quick look at Roger Wicker’s voting record shows that he is a strong advocate of free trade. While the pros and cons of this can be debated for days, lets look past that argument to Wicker’s vote against assistance for those who lost their jobs due to free trade. The irony runs deep since Roger is from Tupelo, once the state’s industrial shining star for it’s furniture industry, now feeling the effects of shuttered factories that have left for the low wage, low regulation shores of the globalized frontier.

From On The Issues:

Wicker’s votes for free trade,

Voted YES on promoting free trade with Peru. (Nov 2007)
Voted YES on implementing CAFTA, Central America Free Trade. (Jul 2005)
Voted YES on implementing US-Australia Free Trade Agreement. (Jul 2004)
Voted YES on implementing US-Singapore free trade agreement. (Jul 2003)
Voted YES on implementing free trade agreement with Chile. (Jul 2003)

So Wicker is a big time advocate of free trade, but what about those left behind? What about the family of four from Nettleton, MS whose principle bread winners have lost their jobs to Chile or Mexico?

Voted NO on assisting workers who lose jobs due to globalization. (Oct 2007)

Once again Rubber Stamp Roger is exposed. He would rather vote with Wall Street than Main Street. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at his voting record and decide for yourself.

The Job-Loss Ripple Effect as American Auto Makers Decline

Parts suppliers suffer due to auto-plant closings, cuts

The Chicago Tribune reported, “The latest round of plant closings and production cuts by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are already rippling through companies that supply their parts.” For example, “Lear Corp., a Michigan-based maker of seats and other interior components, lowered its earnings forecast Wednesday, the day after GM said it would close four North American pickup and sport-utility-vehicle plants by 2010.” While “Lear is better positioned than most as a global player,” tens “of smaller companies feel the pain of auto industry cuts more.” Thus, “300 jobs at Logistics Services Inc., which delivers parts to the Janesville assembly plant, will disappear, as will 135 at Allied Automotive, which delivers the assembled vehicles to dealers.”

B’Man: This has been a slow bleed over the past several years anyway. Now that the gas prices and economy has tanked, however, we will begin to see the support industry take a huge hit. Auto making is not JUST the builders of the cars, but the out-sourced products that go in (seats, dashes, radios, electronic control modules, etc). Everything inside these cars are normally out-sourced through Tier One and Tier Two suppliers.

It is these folks that are going to lose their jobs, as will the auto assemblers. If you hear of a plant closing that employs 2,000 people, there will likely be off-shoot suppliers who will also go down. For every 2,000 auto-assemblers, there will likely be another 500-1,000 support jobs lost, as well.

Hello, Burger King. Taking applications?