bird? plane? What the hell..

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/hes_barack_obama

… a Beer Celebration!

Facts
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States.

By the fall of 1621 only half of the pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived. The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to give a thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada.

The Plymouth Pilgrims were the first to celebrate the Thanksgiving.

The pilgrims arrived in North America in December 1620.

The Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America.

The pilgrims sailed on the ship, which was known by the name of ‘Mayflower’.

They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day in the fall of 1621.

They celebrated the first Thanksgiving Day at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The drink that the Puritans brought with them in the Mayflower was the beer.

The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.

The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, had organized the first Thanksgiving feast in the year 1621 and invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians also to the feast.

The first Thanksgiving feast was held in the presence of around ninety Wampanoag Indians and the Wampanoag chief, Massasoit, was also invited there.

The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.

President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795.

The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.

Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.

Abraham Lincoln issued a ‘Thanksgiving Proclamation’ on third October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving. Whereas earlier the presidents used to make an annual proclamation to specify the day when Thanksgiving was to be held.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in the year 1939. He did so to make the Christmas shopping season longer and hus stimulate the economy of the state.

Congress passed an official proclamation in 1941 and declared that now onwards Thanksgiving will be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

        http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/thanks/turkswap.htm

Turkey/Pig Swap Game VERY FRUSTRATING!

Shrouded Shroud…

Over 30 years ago– I had read a small leather-bound book about the Shroud. I enjoyed the starting point that the researcher used . Art. It was amazing and thought provoking. Anyway– since then I have always found the research facinating. Of course I am lost when it comes to why no DNA research– but thats just me. lol
Sun, Nov. 22, 2009

Researcher says faint text proves shroud’s authenticity
By Ariel David
Associated Press
ROME – A Vatican researcher asserts that nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves that the artifact revered as Jesus’ burial cloth is authentic.
The assertion made by Barbara Frale in a book drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.
Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, said Friday that she used computers to enhance images of faintly written words in Greek, Latin, and Aramaic scattered across the shroud.
She asserted that the words include the name “Jesus Nazarene” in Greek, proving that the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have labeled Jesus a Nazarene without referring to his divinity.
The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ’s image was recorded on the linen fibers at the time of his resurrection.
The fragile artifact, owned by the Vatican, is kept locked in a special protective chamber in Turin’s cathedral and is rarely shown.
Skeptics point out that radiocarbon dating conducted in 1988 determined it was made in the 13th or 14th century.
While faint letters scattered around the face on the shroud were seen decades ago, serious researchers dismissed them because of the test’s results, Frale said in an interview.
But when she cut out the words from photos of the shroud and showed them to experts, they concurred the writing style was typical of the Middle East in the first century A.D. – Jesus’ time.
She believes the text was written on a document by a clerk and glued to the shroud over the face so the body could be identified by relatives and buried properly. Metals in the ink used at the time may have allowed the writing to transfer to the linen, Frale said.
“I tried to be objective and leave religious issues aside,” Frale said. “What I studied was an ancient document that certifies the execution of a man, in a specific time and place.”
Frale is noted in Italy for her research on the medieval order of the Knights Templar and her discovery of unpublished documents on the group in the Vatican’s archives.
Earlier this year she published a study contending the Templars at one time had the shroud in their possession. That raised eyebrows because the order was abolished in the early 14th century and the shroud is first recorded in history about 1360 in the hands of a French knight.
But her latest book, The Shroud of Jesus Nazarene, in Italian, raised doubts even among experts.
“People work on grainy photos and think they see things,” said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian who has written books about the shroud. “It’s all the result of imagination and computer software.”
Lombatti also rejected the idea that authorities in the time of Jesus would officially return the body of a crucified man to relatives after filling out some paperwork. Victims of the most cruel punishment used by the Romans would usually be left on the cross or were disposed of in a dump to add to the execution’s deterring effect.

Rocking the Kremlin!! A must see!

Accidentally last night, I watched a PBS documentary titled “How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin”. I cried so hard. I had no idea about this little known, to me, huge part of history. I Immediately flashed back to the time of my daughters and my reunion. It was filmed live-time in 1998 for The Learning Channel– and as a heart felt thank you, I will never ever forget or regret giving Boris [ the TLC Reunion cameraman-- from Moscow] my ‘Meet the Beatles’ album! I never fully understood his weeping when I gave it to him… not until now. I sincerely hope that you can watch this program . It is just Awesome, and above all just plain humbling. I never knew– I just never knew. Below are 6 links to the documentary that someone was awesome enough to post on youtube!!!

Brief::
Mon, November 9 | 9PM How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
This is the extraordinary and untold story of how the Beatles punctured the Iron Curtain. In August 1962, award-winning director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film, in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, with a raw and unrecorded group of unknown rockers — the Beatles. Twenty-five years later, while making a series of films in Russia, Woodhead learned just how powerful Beatlemania was in the Soviet Union. Even though the Beatles never performed there, their music and rebellious style had soaked into the lives of a generation of Russian kids. This film features personal stories from members of Russia’s Beatles generation, who talk about how the Fab Four changed their lives, gave them hope and helped to undermine the foundations of the Soviet system. The music was the number one enemy of the State, and teens learned English, revolution and gained strength to over throw the Communist system by listening to underground recordings made using old x-ray film negatives called ‘bones’. To this day, the Beatles remain engrained in the life changed hearts of a once hostage entire youth of a nation .

Part One

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

The Hunt: And Other Miscellaneous B’Man Babblings

Folks,

It is high time for the nut cuttin’.

Many people who visit here don’t really know how to take the place. Supposedly a redneck from the south who is anti-corporate, anti-Republican (and anti-Democrat, for that matter) and who cannot idly accept what the minions in government tell us, when it is obvious that their purpose is money and protecting those that give it to them.

I have had links (on the side over there ——->) for various places that are truly Progressive (“Progressive” Does NOT Equal Democratic party, btw) and also linked to some Conservative blogs (“Conservative” Does NOT equal Republican party).

I also have linked and appreciate as much or more than any others, blogs that are written by Black folk, Latinos, Europeans, Canadians, Afghanis, Iraqis, and even by an American in Seoul. The reason for this (other than appreciating their work) is that it is my opinion that these “fringe” groups (as some would describe) are being played against each other and against the white establishment (which the establishment wants me and other rednecks to think we are a part of).

Fat, rich white people against the rest of humanity, to a certain degree and they don’t care what color you are.

Any sane, thinking redneck must understand that we aren’t any part of that elitist group. It is simply the divide and conquer game that the richest of the rich use to control us: keeping us attacking, even killing each other over bullshit that means so little in perspective of the truth, that it astonishes me that we still fall for it.

My buddy (and contributer here), kelso’s nuts, says often that it will be the Black Power activists, the Socialist Parties, and the Southern Christian libertarians and Town Hallers that will make change happen. Rednecks, black folk and other minorities must be able to connect, make amends, and devise a way forward that will eliminate the Corporate Control of the majority of politicians. It is truly these few groups that recognize that American Exceptionalism is BS. It will be the people that are raising the most hell about Obama’s lies and deceit that will eventually hold him (them) accountable.

I like this that Kelso commented once:

There are but two sides: those who favor peace and freedom and those who don’t. The serious White Southern monetarists are very committed. The militant Black Power movement is really committed. The (real) socialist activist left is really committed. The world Green Parties are really committed.

It is this dance of the Republicrats and their blind hate and fear and perversion of Christianity and patriotism and the wealthy, indifferent, Big Government Liberals who are in lock-step to oppress.

It will NOT be those at the Huff Po, C&L, Daily Kos, etc. They are too invested in the system and Obama’s Ass (as in tonguing his ass). Too much clout, too much ability to rub elbows with power, and monetary gain from the very ones who perpetuate the shackling of us “peons”.

Nor will it be the Tea-baggers and the ravenous right-wing freaks whom only consider defeat of the “other party” as the goal. They are playing into and are likely a part of the mind games played on an American public who is scared to death about the future of this country and for their families.

I already know places that I want to highlight and you should get to know these folks, for truth is rampant at their blogs:

Losing The War on Humor

One of my newer Favs. 2truthy’s blog that addresses my favorite topics and is damned funny, as well. They, “are dedicated to drop-kicking truth and justice, laughers and screamers, strange and terribly real stories about living out the death of American civility and the hubris soaked perps who profit from it.”

Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon’s blog that addresses America’s Empire and organizing against it. Powerful stuff from a dedicated Patriot.

Jay Midnyte

Jay is a young black man who has his shit all together regarding the financial crisis we are in. His knowledge is impressive. Also note that if you are a redneck (like me), this may be a good place to begin to learn about Hip Hop (whether you like it or not isn’t the point). Understanding a culture that you have been brainwashed to fear is paramount to making this work. As an example, Hip Hop sells more to white folk than black folk.

Steve Lendman’s Blog

Powerful writer and radio host that focuses much time on the Empire and many other like-minded subjects.

The Disbrimstone Daily Pitchfork

Excellent assembly of writers (where I first read Kelso’s writing). The site is definitely NSFW (not suitable for work) and for some who have an aversion to porn, you may want to avoid it. However, the information presented here is well reported by quality, professional writers.

Chycho

This man is a freaking genius. He posts about math (which goes over my head, at times), but posts even more about politics and the empire that reigns. Marijuana legalization is one of his key interests and is about to embark on a Sabbatical to help Marc emory’s case in Canada. One of my favorite sites on the entire web.

Raw Dawg Buffalo

Torrance is absolutely brilliant. Depending on the particular post, he speaks in different voices (he can speak with a redneck, a politician, black folk or a king). He is one of the most insightful Professors, Authors, THINKERS that I have encountered. Well worth the visit.

Operation Itch

Davis Fleetwood’s Social Networking Site for progressives. It is “in-your-face” and REAL.

The Black Agenda Report

Glen Ford, Margaret Kimberly and Bruce Dixon (among others, I believe) lay out the truth about African American politics, thought and action. A must read for any American.

One of the most impressive interviews I have seen lately was a Real News interview with Glen Ford:

The Black Sun Gazette

I have featured Nick’s work here several times. Well worth the visit and RSS feed.

The Largest Minority

Manila Ryce’s blog of unadulterated gob-smacking of the idiocy we call American politics (not as active as usual, lately).

Once Upon A Time

Arthur Silber’s Blog. One of the better writers I have encountered on the web. Whether or not you agree with his point of view (I do, by and large), his posts are extremely well prepared, organized and informative.

Mock, Paper, Scissors

Tengrain’s blog who is slowly coming around to my way of thinking (wink). Funny, smart and a great writer.

Washington’s Blog

Last, but not least featured today is a blog that has been very informative for me on a variety of topics, especially the financial mess. But all things “Imperialization” are addressed in a brilliant and well thought out manner. Great Blog!

This is just a small sampling of truly progressive sites that see the overall picture, much like I do (I link and visit many others, but they are not necessarily political in nature, so I haven’t featured them in this post… like one of my favorite women bloggers that addresses blogging in general, Roschelle at Inconsequential Logic). There are many others that you should visit, like, “After Downing Street;  “A Tiny Revolution“; Sam Smith’s UnderNews (the blog for the Progressive Review); Glen Greenwald’s Blog (just a few among several you can click on over on the right panel). I have not formally set up Blog link exchanges with these, but they are a part of my daily read.

So here is what I am looking for. I want to expand on this by having you suggest similar sites, especially those that focus on the southern white portion that I have been discussing (I have a hard time finding them). I want to find sites that I can link to and share their ideas here that will help make this connection that is needed NOW, especially from that southern, white perspective.

It boils down to this: We MUST come together and fix this shit. We will never be whole until we take back the control. We will never be able to do that unless we work things out between us, without the diversions and horseshit divisional tactics that have worked for so very long.

And don’t be fooled by the name of a blog (like the “Pine Belt Progressive”, as an example). There is nothing “Progressive” about a site dedicated to ass-kissing the status quo and continuing the fake two-party divide.

And please don’t blow smoke up my ass. I can do that on my own:

Tobacco Enema

h/t Vital Signs and their article called, “20 Scary Old School Surgical Tools“

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Davis Fleetwood

Join Operation Itch

All the Justice Oil Can Buy

http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/on-air-was-it-right-to-release-the-lockerbie-bomber/

BBC

He’s going home. The man convicted of killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing of a Pam Am flight over the Scottish town in Lockerbie, has been released from prison on compassionate grounds. Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi is already on his way home to Libya, where it is believed he will die of prostate cancer within three months.

In making his decision, the Scottish Justice Minister has brought earned the ire of plenty of people. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pleaded that it would be “absolutely wrong” to release him. Many American families of the victims agreed with her, and the White House has already issued a statement expressing ‘deep regret’.
But in Scotland, many of the victims’ families supported al-Megrahi’s release – generally because of widely held questions over the safety of his conviction.
Last week we talked about whether people convicted of serious crimes should ever be released on compassionate grounds. That’s still a very valid question to ask today, but his release also throws up other issues.
Libya sits on the largest oil reserves in Africa, oil reserves many companies are keen to have access too. Two years ago, then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair laid the foundations for Al-Megrahi’s release by agreeing a prisoner transfer deal with Libya. Just a few hours later British oil company BP announced a multi-million dollar deal to search for oil in the country.
Scotland says Al-Megrahi’s release was agreed only taking into account the law relating to compassion. But there are many who say it also has to do with improving ties with a potential major oil source.
Al-Megrahi’s freedom also throws back into the mix questions over the safety of his conviction, and whether he was indeed just a pawn in a bigger game designed to bring Libya back in from the cold.

**

Terrorist Attacks Made By Terminally Ill Patients

Davis Fleetwood had a little help today from The Punk Patriot:

After a hearing in which health insurance CEOs stated that they would not consider changing their rescinding policies, that- in fact- health insurance workers who rescinded the policies of individuals of expensive and/ or terminal illness were given performance bonuses- terminally ill patients whose policies have been rescinded by health insurance companies have organized into a terrorist organization.
They are calling themselves the living dead.
Todays episode was guest scripted by The Punk Patriot. Say hello to him here: http://www.youtube.com/trichenosis

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DavisFleetwoodFACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/DavisFleetwood

Got an Itch? Join here for the operation.

Can You Say Posse Comitatus?

My friend and Patriot, David Fleetwood, gives us another history lesson in his ongoing series, “This Day In The USA”. This is my favorite “social network” (I am not the most active member, admittedly). Check out Operation Itch and join, if you feel kindred attachment.

BONUS ARMY ♦ This Day in the USA ♦ July 29
It was the summer of 32, the great depression was tightening is group on the nation, and veterans of War World I took up residence in a shanty town on the coast of the Anacostia river with a beautiful view of downtown Washington DC.
But by the morning of July 29, Gen. MacArthur and the US ARMY would have set the shanty town ablaze.

Where Do I Sign Up?

from my friend Davis Fleetwood at Operation Itch

THE 9/10 PROJECT LAUNCHES

THE 9/10 PROJECT LAUNCHES

In a public rebuke of the Glenn Beck 9/12 Project, popular pundit and left wing video blogger (“one of the most prominent voices in YouTube politics“- Steve Grove, YouTube News & Politics chief) launches the 9/10 Project

CONTACT: Davis Fleetwood, Political Action Entertainer/ www.OperationItch.com
thedavisfleetwood910project@gmail.com

CAMBRIDGE, MA. – Davis Fleetwood, former spokesperson and media advisor to the Dennis Kucinich 2008 Presidential campaign, today launched the 9/10 Project with a video posted to the Operation Itch website (see the video:)

The 9/10 project asserts that the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the coordinated terror tactics of the U.S. Federal government in the months and years following have had the intended effect of turning the populace of the United States into a herd of servile, submissive, stooges. According to Fleetwood: “The election of Barack Obama has only made things worse. People have their Obama goggles on. What they fail to understand is that the words of Martin Luther King, Jr still hold true; The U.S.A. is still the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”

The 9/10 project is for citizens of the world who have born witness to the growing imperial reach of the United States in the post 9/11 era and have reached the only logical conclusion one came come to: the long-term survival of the human species requires the United States of America to dismantle peacefully and immediately.

Like Glenn Beck’s 9/12 project, the Davis Fleetwood 9/10 project is built on 9 Principles & 10 Values (see them here: http://operationitch.wordpress.com/the-9-10-project/9-principles-10-values/ )

The 9/10 project acknowledges that the founding fathers were certainly “on to something” but it is time to hit the reset button.

Small is the new big.

The goal of the 9/10 project is to harness the viral power of the Internet to brainstorm a new path, one that would lead to the peaceful dissolution of the United States. In other words, we seek to increase demand for the cartographers of the world, and for the first time in history, put those cartographers to work without first waging war.

This bears repeating: The aim of the 9/10 Project is nothing less that the peaceful break-up of the United States of America into four smaller countries.

Really.

Like-minded citizens of the world are encouraged to visit Operation Itch, where they can begin the work of brainstorming a path towards the peaceful dismantling of the American Empire.

For more on the 9/10 project & Davis Fleetwood, visit: http://operationitch.wordpress.com/the-9-10-project/

Obama and Lincoln: Two Peas In a Pod?

Only if you are blind in one eye and can’t understand shit with the other. Please visit Operation Itch and join a few people that actually “get it”.

Obama and Lincoln

Pop quiz: What is most serious security peril facing the Unites States today?
Is it a) Al Qaeda B) Nuclear proliferation in Iran or C) the Afghan Government’s inability to halt the spread of the Taliban?

If you said none of the above, congratulations for paying extra attention to the news last week. Not that you could be blamed for missing this major shift in national security priorities during Stimulus week 2009! It was a week in which Obama took every opportunity to compare himself to Lincoln- endowing himself with the bi partisan magic wand the better to bridge the gap of a house divided.

The last time a piece of legislation was passed so quickly, with so few lawmakers actually reading it before signing it, it was called the Patriot Act. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that this Stimulus package will be remembered as Obama’s Patriot act- this administrations policy embodied as legislation and shoved down the throats of Congress before they could even read it.

Consider that climate in which reporters trying to get details of the stimulus package had to turn to lobbyists- the first people to receive the 1 thousand page plus document and the only ones to read it. But the stimulus package has more in common with the Patriot Act than the executive branch of government muscling the legislative branch.

And that brings me to the answer to our little pop quiz.

Last week, Barack Obama’s new director of Intelligence Dennis Blair, told congress that the number one security peril facing the United States was global economic turmoil. Blair laid out the reasoning that the risk of social and geo political instability that could arise from the world economic crisis has now outpaced terrorism as the number one threat. There was even a warning of blowback against the U.S.: since the economic crisis now spreading like the black plague through the global economy began in American markets, Blair postulated in his prepared testimony, that there would be “increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy,”And, as congress & political pundits went through the charade of what Obama paternally and proudly called an honest and rigorous debate over the merits of the stimulus package, Blair warned “The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,”. Sub textual translation: get on board with the stimulus package or you are not patriotic.

Sound like a familiar playbook?

How else could the economic crisis rise to the level of number one security risk? Last week I brought to your attention the admittedly outrageous theory of Rus…, who foresees civil war in the United States arising from the economic crisis. And I have said often that people in the U.S. will take to the streets when they can no longer take to the mall.

If the economic stimulus package fails to stop the bleeding, more and more U.S. citizens will begin to ask how the coffers were emptied in an environment where it was the lobbyists, and not our elected officials, who had their hands on the stimulus package first. Add up enough angry, unemployed and idle hands asking such questions & Blair knows this could become a security risk that could mirror the situation in Argentina several years ago, where citizens frustrated with their politicians and bankers took to the streets in truly post partisan fashion and said “THROW THEM ALL OUT”

And while Obama is clearly inviting comparisons to Lincoln, one parallel he certainly will wish to avoid is civil war breaking out on his watch.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dennis Trainor, Jr is a regular video contributor to The Uptake and the host at Operation Itch. He was a writer & media consultant for Dennis Kucinich’s 2008 presidential campaign & a 2007 “Best of YouTube” nominee for his work as writer/ performer on “The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood.” He is currently at work on two books, “My Progressive Dilemma” (chronicling President Obama’s 1st year in office) and a novel adapted from his play, “I Coulda Been a Kennedy.”

Article from the Jerulsalem Post—promise tracker

The Obama Promise Tracker is an electronic tool with which to follow all the promises the new President has made – 895 by its inventor Todd Smiths count. Of these 895 promises, made between February 10 2007 – the day he announced his candidacy – and November 4 – the day he was announced President-elect – 14 are tagged under “Foreign Policy, Israel”.

The first, “I will bring to the White House an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security”, is a commitment hard to define. Obama also promised to make the peace process “a key diplomatic priority”. This is easier to check, and one Obama is evidently serious about. Proof: the appointment of George Mitchell as special envoy to the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Mitchell is not new to this contentious conflict. He was in the Middle East over eight years ago, appointed by President Bill Clinton, to report on the raging second intifada. The report was not very helpful. The intifada continued. One of his recommended measures was not well received by the Israeli government: to halt development in the settlements, including measures taken to meet the needs of “natural growth”.

“We can’t ask people not to have children. We can’t ask the children not to live with their families,” Israeli opponents claimed.

Mitchell is coming back to a different Middle East. In the past eight years Yasir Arafat died, the intifada was defeated, Israel evacuated Gaza and Hamas was elected. Mitchell will find a Palestinian leader who is willing but incapable and a new Israeli government that needs time to organize. A realistic, modest approach will have to be formulated. One thing can ignite some friction: the man who wanted a total settlement freeze cannot be expected to let Israel off on illegal outposts. The promise that Israel made to evacuate them will have to be executed. This might be possible for a government of the right-centre (more likely) or centre-left (less so, according to polls). It will be very difficult for a government of the right, headed by Likuds Binyamin Netanyahu and supported by right-wing parties only. Netanyahu knows that for his own good, he needs Labor, Kadima or both as part of his coalition.

But for most Israelis, Obama’s commitment will not be tested in Palestine, but rather in Iran. Smith’s Promise Tracker notes three promises: “incentives” for Iran to abandon its nuclear program; a promise to “tighten sanctions”; and “direct diplomacy, without preconditions”. This will be enough only if Iran agrees.

Obama has not always been consistent regarding Iran. Earlier this week, I sent Smith a quote from my May 2007 interview with Obama: “I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to engage in full-scale diplomatic discussions without some progress or some indication of good faith on the part of the Iranians,” the then senator said. “I do think the US needs to send a signal to Iran that if they change their behavior that they have avenues available to them for improved international relations.”

This assertion somewhat contradicts his later promise for unconditional high-level talks. Smith will add the quote to the next edition of the Obama Promise Tracker. This will present a dilemma to those following these promises: do they want the first promise to materialize, or the second?

We Don’t Torture… But We Let Torturers Run Free In America

Operation Itch’s Dennis Trainor, Jr (aka Davis Fleetwood on UTOOB), speaks for me (while showing his writing expertise) in regards to Obama’s turning back the torture clock, but allowing those who wound it up to live and flourish without accountability.

President Obama does not want to look backward and wants to focus forward, but, from experience sake, the future cannot go unimpeded without taking care of the past’s criminality. No one can “move on” when they have such a blight and horrible past that has gone on for so long. I am sorry, Mr President, but your stance is just wrong… and anyone thinking knows this. So, what is your motive?

Remember my letter about honor and integrity yesterday?

We are watching you…

And hope is dwindling…

MAYBE HE CAN! OBAMA REVERSES CRIMINAL POLICIES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CRIMINALS?

Dennis Trainor, Jr • Operation Itch writer/ editor

Barack Obama went from becoming the first black president of the Harvard Law Review (1990) to becoming the first black president of the United States of America so quickly, that it is not a stretch to say that we have only known him as a candidate. His life, for the last eighteen years, has been one carefully modulated and expertly managed campaign. Even when he held such underachieving slacker status positions such as United States Senator, his votes, his appearances, his public statements- and even the shirtless beach photos – have all been part of the larger campaign. As a candidate, perhaps no one has ever been as good as Obama. He has been so good, in fact, expectations of his presidency are rivaled only by an Evangelical Christian’s expectation that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Like Christ, Obama is now a myth. The man will never walk in step with what we think of him, because we have projected so much onto him. Yes, it does speak well of his campaign that it was able to leverage the desperation of so many who were so horrified of our own inaction these past eight years. We needed a savior to rescue us from the shame brought on because we had, collectively speaking, done nothing after George Bush stole the 2000 election save for prop up a cottage industry that fed us a steady stream of clever anti-Bush t-shirts and bumper stickers for us to brandish on the sidelines as our President proceeded to treat the constitution as a pesky little obstacle in his way as he waged his comic book battle of good vs. evil, now let loose from the safe confines of his little village idiot of a head and leaving a trail of blood soaked deserts and unknown blowback in its wake.

There are some who will give Obama high grades for a longer than average honeymoon period simply because the man has replaced will be remembered by history as the worst president to ever hold the office. Alfred E. Newman would have been an improvement on Bush, the subliminal thinking will go, and Obama is surely better than Alfred E. Newman. But for many, the bar is set unreasonably high. Like Christ, many praise Obama as a revolutionary. I’m more inclined to agree with Ashley Sanders, former spokesperson for the Ralph Nader campaign, who described the change that Obama has sold us as

a hazy feeling that Obama (despite all evidence to the contrary) was the peace candidate, the environmental candidate, the Black candidate, the people’s candidate. The whole production borrowed ideas that were actually dangerous to Wall Street, gutted them of danger, and resold them as ideas that were dangerous to Wall Street. It used spectacle to create the illusion that an infinity of similar options was the same thing as a meaningful choice, as real change or authenticity. It was the triumph of ideology: getting people to vote against themselves in the name of themselves.

The whole thing smacked of buying punk clothes at Hot Topic.

As Americans, we know not where to get punk clothes but at Hot Topic, and are so entrenched in ad culture that we would not know a revolution unless it was being sold to us. Here is what is being sold to us in the first week of the Obama presidency: Obama has swept into town and takes swift action in reversing the criminal culture of torture and rendition and secret prisons by issuing an executive order to shut GITMO. This much is true.

However, in reversing the criminal policies, Obama is still reluctant to go after the criminals. The Obama faithful, like abused foster children in a new home, do not want to look back. They agree with Obama when he says, “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.” One does not need their special superhero decoder ring to get the message that Obama is not going to rush in to investigate Bush, Cheney and company. And many on the left are out front supporting such an attitude that can best be summed up with the attitude of “ah- so what Bush lied to Congress lied to Congress, the American people, the U.N. and the result of those lies is an illegal, immoral and (no longer a footnote in these tight financial times) pornographically expensive war. And so what that as we wage this war we torture. We participate in secret renditions. So what! We elected a guy who walks on water, let’s just move on! (dismissive pun intentional)

To be fair, some approach it with a little more political savvy, couching their cowardice in Machiavellian political strategy. Dan Sweeny, blogging at the Huffington Post, sums up a persuasive argument for inaction. Listen closely, and you hear an argument that will be repeated, one way or another, in coffee shops, bars, and Hot Topics all throughout Obama nation:

What we know for certain is that the mushy middle of the country wants to move on. They want the cooperation and bipartisanship that Barack Obama has promised. And if the Democrats can show those people that they’re making every effort to reach across that aisle, even as they push a solidly progressive agenda, the Democrats have the opportunity to effect a seismic shift in voter trends. Karl Rove once boasted of creating a permanent Republican majority through his brand of slash-and-burn politics, so it’s particularly ironic that now, less than a decade later, the Democrats have the opportunity to do the same, mainly because of the utter failure of Rove’s methods.

The Democratic Party will only get one shot at killing the GOP with kindness. If it elects instead to put every ex-Bushie before a congressional committee, to investigate every alleged crime and misdeed of the Bush administration, the opportunity will be lost. We will return to the bomb-throwing, trench-warfare politics of the past several decades, and the huge gains that Obama has made for the Democratic Party’s image as the adults in Washington will be destroyed by the endless partisan battles that follow.

Even as Sweeney holds up the carrot of a bipartisan America, his endgame is rooted in crushing the Republican party. What can be more partisan than that? This is the very context that is strangling us. When judged against the intentions of the founding fathers, the current two party system fails. It was George Washington, in his farewell address, who warned against the two party system, saying “It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration….agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one….against another….it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption…thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.” Arguments rooted in the left vs. right, or Olberman vs. O’Reilly, or Obama vs. McCain only distract us from a more accurate descriptor of how our system works: Corporatism. It was Mussolini said that Fascism should be called Corporatism, because it is a merger of state and corporate power. Can anyone look at the handling of the bailout, or how we elect presidents for that matter, and tell me that we do not live under the stranglehold of Corporatism?

Trying to convince the Obama administration to investigate the Bush administration for war crimes is a noble cause, but it is not going to happen. Unless, that is, Obama is a Trojan horse. Thomas Friedman, ( in a January 20th Op-ed for the New York Times, wrote “…Indeed, dare I say, I hope Obama really has been palling around all these years with that old Chicago radical Bill Ayers. I hope Obama really is a closet radical. Not radical left or right, just a radical, because this is a radical moment…” If Obama is truly a radical, a kind of post modern, Trojan horse of a radical, he will shortly appoint Dennis Kucinich to a cabinet level position to establish a Department of Peace that will replace the Bush doctrine of preventative war with one of pro-active, preventive peace (image the peace core on steroids, with a budget even 1/10th of the pentagon). If Obama is a radical, he will instruct the Senate to pass HR676 this session and bring single payer universal healthcare for all to the United States. If Obama is a radical, he will stop using the word clean next to the word coal. Thomas Friedman knows, and you and I know, that Obama is not that type of radical. He is a “Hot Topic” kind of radical.

What needs to happen, if the past administration is to be held accountable for war crimes, was outlined recently by John Nichols, who pointed out:

A Founding Father seeking evidence of the checks and balances so carefully constructed to guard against executive tyranny would be hard-pressed to discover them in the Washington of 2009.

This is not Obama’s fault. He inherits executive powers so massively inflated by his predecessors George II and Prince Regent Dick that even he has said they must be diminished.

But presidents are not in the business of defining downward the authority vested in them. That is Congress’ job.

The work should begin immediately. Members of the House and Senate should assert that theirs is a co-equal branch of government. This need not be an affront to Obama. It is about identifying and condemning the excesses of the Bush era.

Lucky for us, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison has already drafted the Executive Accountability Act.  In addition to affirming that it is the sole legal right of Congress to declare war and restoring the writ of habeas corpus as an essential principle,  the act would also criminalize lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for going to war.

That, in this age of corporatism, is the kind of radical you can’t get at Hot Topic.

Dennis Trainor, Jr is the host of Operation Itch. In addition to regular video commentator for THE UPTAKE, he was the the writer/ performer of The Hermit with Davis Fleetwood. He is currently at work on two books, My Progressive Dilemma (chronicling President Obama’s 1^st year in office) and a novel adapted from his play, I Coulda Been a Kennedy.

Let Me Tell You About The Torture

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7821569.stm

 

 

Former guard on Guantanamo ‘torture’

A former guard at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has spoken in his first television interview about the brutality he witnessed to inmates.

Chris Arendt told the BBC what he saw amounted to ”torture” and that some of his fellow guards were so violent as to be ”psychotic.”