Memoirs of a Godless Heathen: Now Endorses Nader

My friend Brian drops in pretty often and shares his opinion. For some reason, I don’t always pay attention to the detail about the contributer (like, if they have a blog or not). It just so happens that Brian does have a nice blog and unsurprisingly has a great talent for writing. His blog is called ‘Memoirs of a Godless Heathen‘ and worth the visit.

He told me a while back that he was changing his mind about Obama, but now that I got over my brain fart, I saw that he wrote a nice post about it here. But to share it…

WANTED: Change I Can Really Believe In

I was an Obama supporter since he announced his candidacy. I believed the Illinois senator really represented change. He was a breath of fresh air, a junior senator, not corrupted by the politics of Washington. A political “outsider” is what this country really needs. Barack was tenacious, ready to challenge the status quo, until this FISA thing started happening.

The FISA Amendments Bill of 2008 gives retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that violated the 4th amendment on orders from the NSA. It also, however, requires that warrants be obtained for any foreign wiretapping from a special FISA court. In emergencies, the wiretapping can be done without a warrant, but the paperwork must be filed within the week. This is a return to the previous conditions of the original 1978 FISA Act, with the exception of immunity.

Obama initially opposed the immunity of a bill, and pledged to support the removeal of that provision. However, after gaining the endorsement of Rahm Emmanuel, a Congressman from his home state of Illinois, Obama did an about-face and supported the bill, immunity included.

Barack Obama did precisely what he pledged not to do: give in to the powers of Washington. He had the opportunity to co-sponsor the removal of immunity, but did not do so. What was his reasoning? To keep the people of America “safe.” Sorry, Senator Obama, we’ve heard that song and dance before, from the other side of the aisle.

Safety is an illusion. There is no way that anyone can be totally safe from anything, including terrorism. For someone who was supposedly a “constitutional lawyer,” Mr. Obama must not have payed much attention to the 4th amendment. It clearly bans all warrantless searches, period. Any warrantless wiretap of the phone of an American citizen is against the highest law of the land. The entire concept of FISA is illegal when it comes to American citizens, and now Obama is throwing in his support for it.

For a while I didn’t know where to turn. I don’t like John McCain or Barack Obama, I disagree with Bob Barr’s libertarian policies, and I’m really turned off by the radical pseudoscience-based environmental whackiness behind Cynthia McKinney’s campaign. Really the only candidate I have left is Ralph Nader.

I know, just a few weeks ago I made a post mocking his bumbling statements about Obama, but I can forgive an unresearched rant here and there. I can overlook Nader’s attitude towards nuclear power. What I cannot overlook is Obama’s willing to appease people who are clearly in the wrong about surveillance and wiretapping. I cannot tolerate his compromise. I cannot tolerate it because I know this is only the beginning.

If Obama can reverse himself so easily on this issue, what about all the others? Instead of pushing national health care for all citizens, I see Obama more likely to buckle under the pressure of the powers-that-be. Obama now represents the current tendency of the Democratic party to appease and yield to drum up votes rather than stick with principles. I understand he’s trying to get the support of the swing voters, but quite frankly being on the right side of this issue is more important.

Thus, I can no longer throw in my support for Obama. He can no longer count on my vote (the very first one I will ever cast) in November. I am now supporting Ralph Nader for President. Mr. Nader is the most compatible with my sensibilities. His unyielding advocacy for freedom of the American people makes him the most desirable of all the candidates.

So am I wasting my vote? I don’t think so. I realize that Nader will not win, but voting for the winner is not what a voter should strive for. I am voting for the person who I believe can best do the job. This November, I will have the satisfaction of voting for someone I like, rather than the lesser of two evils. I may be just one vote, but breaking the hold of this two-party system requires people like me to make the choice to do so.

Will I be helping John McCain’s campaign? No, because I will not be voting for John McCain. If Ralph Nader was not a choice, I would not vote, plain and simple. Thus, I am not taking a vote away from Obama, since I wouldn’t have voted for him anyway.

So good luck Ralph, you got my vote.

Iraq Wants Us Out: Bush Says, “So What?”

B’Man: How many times have we heard our own lying government officials say that when the Iraqis wanted us out, we would go?

I’m sure the excuses will come any moment now, suggesting that now the Iraqi government and people are too stupid to figure out when we should go, or somehow we can decide for ourselves that they really don’t want us to leave… or…

Bush’s fools will come up with some excuse to thumb our noses at the Maliki government and stay just as damn long as there is oil to be pulled from their land.

jperryam has another poignant video up, with associated information and a clip from W, himself, saying that if they asked us to leave, we would. (he then said they wouldn’t do it).

As usual and is the case in every instance, this dumb asshole is wrong. Sorry, not wrong. Just caught in another lie like all the others.

Iraq is now demanding a firm date for complete withdrawal of all foreign troops before they will sign a security agreement with the Bush administration. Bushco is refusing, of course, because they truly don’t care about anybody’s objectives but their own. But what did the Pretender-in-Chief say back in April of 2007 during an Interview with Charlie Rose?

Just more Bushco propaganda, no doubt.

Go here for the full video interview with Charlie Rose:
http://www.charlierose.com
Enter “George W. Bush” in the search box. Scroll 11 minutes into the video for the quote about leaving Iraq.

And here’s an interesting piece on this subject that I came across today:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnew…

Ex-Hooters Waitress Outraged Over Toy Yoda

Former Hooters waitress settles toy Yoda suit

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — A former waitress has settled her lawsuit against Hooters, the restaurant that gave her a toy Yoda doll instead of the Toyota she thought she had won.

Jodee Berry, 27, won a beer sales contest last May at the Panama City Beach Hooters. She believed she had won a new Toyota and happily was escorted to the restaurant’s parking lot in a blindfold.

But when the blindfold was removed, she found she had won a new toy Yoda — the little green character from the Star Wars movies.

David Noll, her attorney, said Wednesday that he could not disclose the settlement’s details, although he said Berry can now go to a local car dealership and “pick out whatever type of Toyota she wants.”

After the stunt, Berry quit the restaurant and filed a lawsuit against Gulf Coast Wings, the restaurant’s corporate owner, alleging breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.

The restaurant’s manager, Jared Blair, has said the whole contest was an April Fools’ joke.

B’Man: My buddy TR sent this to me and my first reaction was to say that there is no way this woman worked at a Hooters. Look at her tits.

Secondly, I have heard of people looking like their dogs, but this chick looks just like her toy Yoda. How weird is that?

Volkswagen chooses Tennessee site for car factory

B’Man: Perhaps a bright spot for those who have lost their jobs. Alabamians aren’t as happy.

The Wall Street Journal (7/16, B2, Linebaugh) reports, “Volkswagen AG said it will build a new car plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., as Europe’s biggest carmaker returns production to the U.S. after two decades.” The decision “highlight[s] how the weak dollar is increasing the attractiveness of the U.S. as a low-cost manufacturer.” The car company “aims to begin production in early 2011 of a midsize sedan developed for the U.S. market.” The Chattanooga factory, which “will have an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles,” is part of Volkswagen’s “expansion plan to sell 6.6 million VW-brand passenger cars globally by 2018, with 800,000 planned for the American market.”

According to the New York Times /AP (7/16, C6), “Christian Wulff, the governor of the German state of Lower Saxony and a member of VW’s supervisory board,” said “that the company had picked Chattanooga after the board debated the merits of the location and its benefits.” Tennessee authorities “have not released details of what” the state “is giving Volkswagen, but the company’s statement said the ‘incentives are tied to job creation and capital investment. Additional support includes assistance for public infrastructure and job training.”

The Chicago Tribune (7/16) adds that Volkswagen said it would “invest $1 billion in [the North American] economy.” VW also considered “[s]ites in Alabama and Michigan” for the factory. The company “said the plant near the Georgia and Alabama borders would create 2,000 direct jobs and ‘add a significant number of jobs in related sectors.’”

Tennessee’s Chattanoogan (7/15, Schmidt) welcomed the announcement and noted, “Since they are starting from scratch, this is the time to build a truly innovative vehicle for the 21st century.”

Alabama’s CBS affiliate WHNT-TV (7/15, Stuart), Times-Journal (7/16), Huntsville Times (7/16, Brewer), and Gadsden Times (7/15, Powell) all criticized Volkswagen’s choice for the new plant.

Bloomberg (7/16, Thomas, Reiter), the AFP (7/15), the Detroit Free Press (7/15, Hyde), the BBC (7/16), and BusinessWeek (7/16, Kiley) also covered the story.

Then This:

$11 billion plastics venture plans to open HQ in Michigan.

The AP (7/16, Hoffman) reports that Dow Chemical Co. and a Kuwaiti company, Petrochemical Industries Co., a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp., “plan to open a headquarters building near Detroit for a new $11 billion joint venture.”

The Detroit Free Press (7/15, Christoff) added that the plastics venture “will bring 800 jobs to a new Michigan global headquarters, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced.” K-Dow Petrochemicals, the new company, “will decide this year on its headquarters location in southeast Michigan close to the I-96 and I-94 freeways,” according to company executives. “K-Dow will make plastics used in a wide range of materials such as milk jugs, packaging materials, pipes, and automotive parts.” The Free Press noted, “The joint venture chose Michigan over Louisiana and Texas because of Michigan’s diversity — particularly its large Arab-American population — [and] its closeness to an international airport and the quality of schools, including those with bilingual education programs, said James Fitterling, CEO of K-Dow.” GlobeSt. com (7/16, Carr) and Michigan’s WWJ-Radio (7/16) also covered the story.

B’Man: The thing I want to point out is that it is foreign investors coming here to manufacture. What the hell is happening to America when an ME company is investing in our plastics industries? Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Sure, I appreciate the jobs for people, but we are losing our way in the world. We aren’t Number 1 anymore when these companies are coming here to take advantage of lower wages.

Don’t you rednecks get it? They are forcing you to be poorer than ever before and expecting you to like it.

Grassy Knoll Revisited

I have ALWAYS been a Grassy Knoll believer. Being a survivor of the 60’s living in D.C. I don’t think I would ever of thought anything else. The documentary series “The Men Who Killed Kennedy” [the uncut version from England] is about the best layed out piece of work on this topic I have ever seen.

I came across two videos about the one poor soul who finally was vindicated about seeing the gunman that day. My heart breaks for him after all these years. By the by– get your hands on the entire documentary– it is really good.

Part 1

Part 2