Perspective

When I was growing up, here in what's now known as Silicon Valley, this area looked a whole lot different than it does now. It was a whole lot different back then. It has changed so much that it's literally unrecognizable from the valley I used to know.

I grew up here, went to grade school, high school and colleges here, got my first job and first apartment here, and lived in the midst of many changes going on around me. Yet I never saw the bigger picture. I never suspected what was coming or what was underway even with all the growing evidence in plain sight.

In the 80's I got my first glimpse of a bigger picture when I visited what was at the time a brand new and rather strange theme park called "Great America". (And they say social engineering doesn't exist.) In the earliest days of its opening it didn't have much going for it, but when reports came back that folks enjoyed themselves when they went, I finally decided to go see what this place was like for myself.

It's absolutely true to say there was little going on, just a few rides and some goofy live shows that were truly bad. One of the less than exciting things being offered was to take a ride to the top of a tall thin structure for the sole purpose of being able to get a view of the valley. It didn't seem very exciting but I thought since I was there, I might as well go up and see what there was to see. It was a profoundly amazing experience.

Stretched out all around me was this enormous valley, with huge patches of green where local produce used to grow in abundance. There were highways and houses, flat miles of green and acres of buildings supporting millions of lives, and it was all cupped in by an immense ring of tall, green colored mountains.

Even though I knew all of those things were there, I'd never seen them from this perspective before. I'd never seen them from a position where I could take it all in and get this amazing view of the whole area and see that whole and the strong statement it made as a whole. It was my first look at the bigger picture and my first very real comprehension of how different things look when taken in from a different perspective.

It was weird to realize that I'd always lived smack dab in the middle of a bigger picture but had no way of knowing that or seeing it. It honestly never even occurred to me that there was a bigger picture. It's partly youth and inexperience, partly ignorance in the ways of the world, and partly human nature in that we don't really tend to see much or care about much beyond our own little piece of reality. That makes sense. After all, life is local. Reality is local. What's going on with other people in places I know nothing about couldn't make up much of my own experience. I wouldn't even know these other people and things existed.

Then there's the other perspective, the close up perspective where the bigger picture disappears and single lives take up the whole view.

I remember sometimes driving at night through clusters of brightly lit city streets and then stretches of unfamiliar residential areas and looking at homes and businesses alive and buzzing with activity, or sometimes just silently sitting there with the lights on, or off. I'd always think that there were people in there, in all of those places, each of them completely unaware of me or my life, thoroughly engaged in living their own lives in this very same moment, doing whatever it was they were doing, talking about whatever it was they were talking about and it all had nothing to do with me.

They were having arguments, falling in love, having sex, doing homework, making travel plans, speaking foreign languages, cooking and eating their meals; some were healthy, some sick; some were bound to be playing instruments, or recovering from surgery, some would be really happy and some were suffering through private agonies; and all of these people were fully immersed in their own network of private lives and work, school and business, revolving around and around in what would be a meaningful circle to them, something I would never and could never know a single thing about.

Yet to all of those people their lives were absolute reality, and whether or not I knew anything about them didn't matter a bit. My world and theirs were completely removed and in no way the same, yet all of our worlds were absolutely real. In some ways it made me feel kind of lonely, but in other ways it was very interesting to think about the millions of lives being lived, with people doing so many different kinds of things.

Life is a very different experience from person to person, and it was apparent to me even then that the folks who'd been abundantly blessed with cash lived very well indeed, and in absolute oblivion to their own next door neighbors who were not similarly blessed.

We live in a society that ignores those who must struggle through their days. Indeed it seems we are anxious to be rid of them. We think of them as eyesores instead of human beings, and never ask why some have so much while others have no one and nothing and cannot keep up.

I feel quite strongly that this is not the normal way for people to be. It's not normal to ignore other's struggles or needs. That some should have enough while others don't have enough in the midst of plenty feels unfair and I think a lot of people feel that unfairness when they see it.

It's about justice, which is something natural to human beings and something many of us inherently understand and feel and can judge. I believe this disregard for others is a product of the ruling classes of Earth, who are the major purveyors of global injustice. They set the standards we all inevitably follow to some extent or another.

I've also come to believe that at the very core of evil is injustice. Unfairness. Man's inhumanity to man. It's all about injustice perpetrated by force, the truest most destructive form of evil in existence.

In our world it is commonplace to let others suffer and not feel any compulsion to do something about it. That's the way our ruling classes feel, if you can call it a feeling. It seems to me to be more along the lines of psychopathy. Regardless of the origins of our obliviousness, this indifference along with a judgment of those suffering as being less deserving than ourselves is a reality, whether it's conscious or not.

I guess as long as we're enjoying enough prosperity and comfort we're not much inclined to stop and take a look around and see how society is put together. We simply assume that everything is functioning as it should and that everything is exactly what it seems to be.

We see a vast network of people busily going about their lives and assume everyone else is pretty much like we are, wanting the same things, valuing the same things, believing the same things. We believe we're all on the same team in spite of minor differences and don't worry too much about ideas like politics because, believing that what we see as good is what everyone thinks is good, it doesn't really matter who's president or who's a senator. They're all supposedly working toward the same goals and wanting the same things we want.

What a shock it is for those who wake up to look around and see that nothing we thought of as reality is at all what it seems to be. It's especially hard, even impossible for some to believe that there is real evil in this world and that people who embody evil could actually be those individuals charged with leading our own country.

In our day to day lives we rarely if ever encounter true evil. We have problems, yes, and society has its problems to be sure, but to directly confront evil is a very rare thing indeed. Since many of us never run into evil personally, or comprehend that there is a bigger picture, it makes perfect sense for us to come to believe that real evil just doesn't exist.

One of my greatest struggles over the last couple of years has been coming to accept that evil does exist, it really does exist. I didn't believe it for a long time and even though my hunger to understand what was happening to our country kept bringing me evidence that evil is real, I just couldn't get my mind to go there. It had to be something else. It had to be selfishness, or it had to be politics, or stupidity, or a lack of understanding that simply needed to be corrected.

The furthest I could get for a while was to accept that some people were truly stupid, and that stupidity was harming us. Eventually I broke through the membrane and at last came to see that it goes way beyond stupidity. There is evil in this world. Real, serious evil. The frustrating thing is that evil always hides behind good. It suddenly became so obvious. I began to recognize it time and again in all the likely places and with all the same characters behind it. Hiding evil behind good is possibly the most evil and effective ploy ever conceived of, and it works beyond my ability to put into words. It's rock solid and virtually guarantees success. But if it was this hard for me to come to see it, someone without a team or a belief system beyond just wanting people to be decent to each other, then how hard would it be for the next person to see?

Unbelievably, incredibly hard. In fact I'd have to say it's impossible. What I've had to do to be able to get a look at the bigger picture took a lot of time and hard work and in effect I've taken another ride to the top of another structure, and from there I can see a bigger picture as clear as day. No one else standing next to me seeing the same thing would argue that what we're looking at isn't real, it is real. But unless someone's perspective can be similarly changed, raised up and away from the static focus of their own lives, they cannot possibly take in this view. Expecting them to see what I can see is simply ridiculous even though we're looking at exactly the same things. Yet, it doesn't mean I can stop myself from trying to get people to step on board and take that private ride to expanded perspective where at last we can stand looking at the same things, and see the same things.

Remembering how less than enthused I was about simply being lifted up to get a view of my own world, imagine how much less enthused busy people would feel about the interruption of my voice and urgings that they take a moment and ride up to the top of my unimpressive structure for a better look at what they're already so familiar with. Why should they believe that their familiar world looks so very different when seen from a slight change in perspective? And even if they accept that it could look different, why should they care?

When people are confronted with the evidence that evil is real and it hides behind good, there are different ways they can react. I think the vast majority of people, at least initially, always dismiss the evidence. Evidence to the contrary of our beliefs is never welcomed, that's human nature too, and it makes perfect sense. Why should we be inclined to chuck our whole life's experience on the basis of some obnoxious incongruous factoid that falls into our lap? The most sensible reaction would be to judge it as incorrect somehow. A misrepresentation, an error.

And if it offends our sensibilities enough we may even declare that it's a pernicious lie purposely constructed to undermine the strength of our convictions and we look upon those delivering the message as beneath our contempt. People can and do become enraged over things like these, which is frightening and leads to an obvious question. Why do we first resort to judgment and anger before even considering the possibility that the messenger is telling the truth? Doesn't it border on self-delusion or hypocrisy to simply snap our fingers and assert that they are wrong and we are right when we won't even bother to take an objective look at the message or the evidence that comes with it?

But it's more complicated than that, and at the same time it's more simple. Truth is an interesting animal and it's a fact that what's true for me may not be true for you. For instance I could say that I love the taste of oranges and because of that I could stand up and unequivocally state that oranges are good. It would be a true statement that could not be rebutted. It's my own personal hands-on experience, I can't be wrong about it. In my life it would be a fact and I could prove it.

But what happens when someone else comes along who does not like the taste of oranges and they stand up and say that oranges are bad? They might really hate the things, so much so that they feel driven to warn everyone they meet off oranges. I could call them a liar but I'd be wrong in doing so, because they are telling the absolute truth as they know it. And it's a truth I cannot deny. To them oranges are bad. It's their very real life experience. So now what do we do?

In matters much more complex than oranges, I see this dilemma playing out everywhere around me today, and it's frankly depressing at times. As I observe my fellow man I'm saddened to see how plugged into our own egos we are to the point that we flatly refuse to even try to see things from anyone else's perspective.

How do we get to the place where we realize that oranges are neither good nor bad, only our experience of them is one or the other? It boils down to having your own opinion, and true and even factual as it may be, it's still only an opinion. It is not an overriding universal reality and asserting it is one, is again nothing but an opinion. It simply cannot be proven.

Can we see that difference and appreciate it? I think we can and we should because the alternative is a descent into pointless battles that cannot be won. No one can prove once and for all the goodness or badness of oranges because they aren't good or bad, they simply exist. They aren't even a topic of conversation until we encounter them and experience them for ourselves.

In matters of right and wrong this is catapulted onto a massively expanded stage and if we're not able to recognize that absolute opposites can both be reality, then we will always dig in to our own perspectives and fight anyone who says different.

What is needed, it seems to me, is to find common ground. Do we want to live in peace? Can we choose to be okay with each other even when we see things differently? If we respect each other and understand that there is always more to any story based on individual experience and perspective, then we might not feel such a need to do battle to prevail. After all, what are we really winning when our way of existing boils down to eradicating those who are not of like mind?

Creating a peaceful and just world requires a heightened perspective that allows us all to live our truths without being offended or threatened when they're different, specifically when those differences don't even affect us. It's a lovely thought but I see this battle raging all over the world and wonder if we'll ever rise above our need to feel right at any and all costs.

We don't have to adore each other, we don't even have to like each other, and we don't have to agree with each other. It's pointless to argue about the differences. No one's perspectives will change. The only thing that can change is deciding it doesn't matter whether or not we agree and that there are more important things than needing to feel superior. What matters is finding common ground and working forward from there.

Of course there are times when there is no common ground and what's at stake is precious and irreplaceable, which is why I'm against all war. I see every life as precious, important and worthwhile and I believe that war is pure evil that solves nothing and doesn't even attempt to solve anything. It's about killing your way to obscene wealth and power and forcing millions of people into powerlessness where you then let them starve and struggle for mere survival while you take their entire accumulated wealth and spend it to make yourself feel even more arrogant and more removed from the truth of who and what you are.

From the sick desire to exploit and control equal beings comes all of the decoy excuses for war to hide behind: racism, sexism, religion, greed, patriotism, power and all of the destructive ugly things that we are conditioned to believe are just how the world is. I disagree with the notion that it's just how the world is. This is not organic, it's 100% inserted into our cultures through public institutions, education, entertainment and the media and driven by a class of people who control and own all of those things and have been at this for centuries.

I can't and will never agree with what they're doing or their arrogant disrespect for other people's lives. They may believe they are superior beings on this earth, but it's only a belief. It can't be proven. It's an invalid belief because it uses force and bludgeons their will onto others, and in my simplistic way of seeing things, that's just wrong. It's the definition of everything we think of as crime. So if they hate oranges, too bad. Oranges exist whether or not they like it. They don't get to rid the world of who they hate, that's not logical or reasonable. They don't get to slaughter millions of people for wealth and power, that's just not acceptable.

Some of our differences are hard, and some are easy, and sometimes the answers are complicated and hard to agree on. I can't stop believing that as long as we're not hurting anyone else we should be free to live our lives as we choose. What other way of seeing things makes sense? What is more just and fair than that?

There are those who would say there are other ways and that exterminating those we dislike is valid and righteous. I guess that's what is at the very heart of all conflict and brutality in this world. The battle is between those who want to share our planet and live in peace and those who want to own it outright and act like spoiled Gods. Since there is honestly no way I can say that one or the other way of seeing things is ultimately true, then it should logically boil down to something we hear bandied about but see precious little of: democracy. Letting the majority decide.

It's no wonder the very individuals responsible for all the war and death and economic injustice are the same ones hiding behind words like democracy and freedom when the truth and the fact is they despise the very notion of these things and want nothing to do with them. They are stamping out democracy and freedom anywhere it tries to rise up because democracy and true freedom would obviously be their undoing. The people of this world would never choose to be reduced to poverty and powerlessness so that a few greedy individuals can play God over all of us.

It all begins to make sense with a little change of perspective. If only I could find a way to get people to look, maybe they could see what I can see. And maybe, just maybe once they did, we could come together and finally rid the world of the problem that is the genesis of all other problems, the evil that hides behind everything we think of as good. For once we could let the majority decide what the world should be instead of letting the evil, greedy few rape it into submission and
eventual total destruction.

It grieves me to say it, but I'm beginning to wonder if that's even possible. Not because it isn't literally and physically possible, because it is, but because the very notion of achieving global justice goes against the beliefs of a great many others who see things in a completely different way than I do. They're not even interested in getting there and in some cases would even say that it's wrong of me to want that global justice to become our shared reality.

As disheartening as that is, to me it's still only an opinion, and no one is obligated to buy into it. I can only speak the truth as I see it, and I'll keep doing that. Because really, what else is there to talk about that matters anywhere near as much?

One and One is One

I'm not impressed with george w. bush or his supposed deep connection to Christianity. Either the man is an all out liar and fraud, or he's absolutely the stupidest 'leader' of the century. I'm going with fraud. He's no rocket scientist but the amount of damage he's done has far exceeded any possible accident, ineptitude or stupidity. He knows exactly what he's doing. And to get it done, he lies. Fraud is the man's M.O.

He uses religion as a costume and mask to hide behind, believing that if he keeps asserting his heart felt belief in God that people will see that to the exclusion of all else, and that they will believe everything he's doing is sanctified. They will see his religiosity and say, "There goes a Godly man". They will excuse his every flaw, even the worst ones, believing that because he professes his love of Christ that he must be honest and he must be trustworthy. They will not ask themselves how it can be that everything the man does is in direct conflict to his supposed religious beliefs, they will excuse his errant behavior. Somehow in their minds, if people see bush as a strong Christian it will mean he can do no wrong.

Why do people believe that Christians can do no wrong? Who do they suppose our prisons are filled with? They are filled with Christians. Christians who lie, cheat and steal. Christians who murder. Come on people, get over yourselves. Just because someone says he's a Christian doesn't mean he can't be a lying, cheating criminal.

This knee-jerk belief that a Christian leader can do no wrong is both naive and supremely arrogant, and it's not just hurting the credibility of the Christians, it's doing irreversible damage to our country and countless people in other countries. Particularly the countries gw bush has decided to invade and crush to death to keep us 'safe'.

I'm not a Christian but I'm also not a stranger to the bible. I've studied it, I've actually read it, and I'm with Ghandi when he expressed this opinion. "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ". There is more truth to this than a lot of Christians want to face.

How can I say that? Well let's turn it around, and why don't you tell me how Christian it is for a leader to do any of the following:

Torture people.

Break treaties that are in place to protect human rights.

Turn his back on the people to serve the sole interests of corporations at our expense.

Allow tens of millions to go without access to medical and dental care.

Betray us with lies about a growing economy that is actually teetering on the brink of total collapse.

Call for wars on false grounds and kill over a million innocent people.

Swear to uphold the law and then circumvent it at every opportunity.

I can read as well as anyone and what I can tell you without doubt is this. If Christ were president, none of the above would ever have happened.

But it's safe to say that we will never have Christ in the oval office, and frankly I think it's obvious it's the last place he'd have any interest in being. Jesus Christ had no time for the trappings of the glitterati of power, wealth and government. He spent all of his time with regular people and he worked to feed the hungry, heal the sick, get rid of demons, and overthrow the cheating, thieving money changers. He forgave Judas for betraying him to the government. He did not take up arms. Ever. He was a teacher and a peace maker, standing up for what is right in the face of a mob mentality that supported the state in all of its iniquity.

Jesus made it perfectly clear what he thought of government power. When people came to him and asked him about whether or not to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus said a whole lot in one sentence. "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and render unto God that which is God's". He wasn't just talking about paying taxes. He was talking about the whole government and power thing. How much are we supposed to give the government? According to Christ's own words, the government and God are not connected, they are not the same. He makes the distinction plainly in that one sentence.

God and government are two completely different things and Jesus never even suggested that there was any such thing as a middle ground where they connected, he knew better than that.

Christ wasn't telling the public to obey the government and pay taxes. What he was saying was that the government is a powerful force that can and definitely will mess you up if you don't do what it demands. That's just reality. The government killed Christ in case anyone missed that part. No single person can stand up to government power, take it on and expect to come out in one piece. Not even Jesus Christ could make them be decent people who respected God.

I always read Christ's response to mean, "Do what you have to do to keep the state satisfied, but then get back to doing what really matters: God's work." He did specify to also render unto God that which is God's, and then he lived the example of how that's done. He blew off the government otherwise, but knew full well it was there. He didn't waste his time dinking with it because it didn't matter to him. He knew they were power hungry thugs who loved money and he meant to keep his focus on what mattered to him. The example he made was in the hopes of teaching others the same. Do what you have to do but keep doing God's work.

Did I get any of that wrong? I don't think so. I'll ask again then, what is so Godly about gw bush?

Since he came into power, illegally, due to subverting the vote, he's changed the fabric of America into dirty laundry. He's used illegal, heavy handed tactics to force his will on this country every bit as much as he's done abroad. This man has no respect for human life, for our lives, for anyone's life in the middle east. How can anyone be responsible for the deaths of over a million people and not feel sick to their soul? What on earth is worth that price? I really want to know. You tell me.

There's nothing worth having that comes at the cost of genocide and destruction of countries. What on earth do we believe he's doing over there? If we are too arrogant to ever step outside ourselves and see ourselves as others see us, then we will continue this deadly charade of hypocrisy. We are perfectly capable of engaging in every kind of wrong doing that humanity is capable of, and it's high time we got that through our heads. I don't care how Christian anyone claims to be, if their actions are the opposite of how Christ would act then they're frauds.

If they hate people just because they look or speak different, wear different clothes or have different cultures then they are bigots. They are not like Christ at all. If they want war and more war, they are war mongers and nothing like the Christ they claim to love. If they support torture, rape and pillage and ignore their leader's obvious attempts to defraud the people, then they are hypocrites. They are not patriots, they are not Christians, they are fooling themselves, anxious to serve a crooked human master. They want to worship a man not God.

God gave them eyes to see with and minds of their own, and expects them to use those things wisely. To not be blind followers of such obviously corrupt loathsome leadership. To not ignore the suffering this leader's policies are causing both at home and abroad.

I expect Christians to be amongst the most tolerant, kind, forgiving people on this earth, but are they? Are they supporting bush's torture tactics? Are they happily laying down to allow an abusive government to destroy every freedom we once had?

As I said, I'm not a Christian, but I have every right to be here and live my life, every bit as much as Christians do. Certain Christians, like bush, believe that living on this earth is their right alone, and they're wrong about that. This is not their private world, it is filled with billions of others and they have to share it. They must also strive to get along with those others, and to not accept policies of a government that insists that the only way to keep us safe is to aggressively attack other countries and wage wars without cause or provocation of any kind. That's not even sane much less Christian.

I've had to learn tolerance for all of the religiosity around me, and I have. It wasn't hard. But when exactly will it be a two way street? When will Christians begin to show acceptance of those who are not in their private club? When will the Christians begin to share the planet and show some of Christ's love for the other peoples of the world, and for their own countrymen?

We all have the right to our own beliefs and values, it's not up to the Christians or any other group. It's not up to the government, or the Zionists, or the corporations, or the neo-cons or the right or the left; or the political bullies on the airwaves and in Congress, or the other bullies behind the scenes guiding the mentality of total control by force into the public mind. Freedom means the individual right to have one's own beliefs and to live them without being relentlessly attacked, attacked to death. Nobody's gang is right to abuse anyone else. There's a very old saying, 'Live and let live.' What else is there?

For Christians who are also Americans, you'd think they above all others would understand that, and sincerely support it. Not just for themselves but for everyone. Bush doesn't do that. Freedom is not in contradiction with Christianity, but bigotry, intolerance and hate are. So is war. So is attacking people for having different points of view in politics or religious beliefs. So are small-minded petty assertions that somehow you're special and no one else is. We're all in this together no matter what any group may believe.

Some beliefs are just wrong. They're wrong even though they're widely accepted and familiar to everyone. Just because something is widely accepted doesn't make it true. It just makes it widely accepted. It used to be widely accepted that the world was flat. If you were alive back then and said otherwise you'd have run into some serious trouble. Another belief that's long overdue some correction is almost as old as the flat earth belief, but it's still in full swing. It's the notion of 'God and country'.

Somehow these two totally unrelated opposite things have been laid side by side so closely they became one thing. But there is no such thing. The phrase evokes immediate images of a waving flag and parades and patriotism, and it brings up strong feelings of righteousness and honor. All of the things it evokes are about war. The phrase is used specifically to get people to support wars they would not otherwise support. Who needs slogans when your home is under attack? If we were being attacked or invaded we wouldn't hesitate to pick up arms and defend ourselves. It's not about apple pie and glory then, it's a reality that you either fight to defend your own life and property or you die and lose it all.

God and country means supporting wars of aggression, and it's used time and again with other mind games like 'support the troops'. That one means 'support the war of aggression or you won't be supporting your own families abroad killing strangers and being killed by strangers'. It seeks to make you look and feel like you're unpatriotic when the fact is, you just don't support bogus wars of aggression. How about supporting the truth for a change?

There's nothing in either of those phrases that have one single thing to do with God. What's the God part of God and country? There is no God part. What a deceitful phrase it is. Think about it. God has nothing to do with country.

This phrase was constructed by skilled practitioners of social engineering, devised for a very specific purpose. The same purpose that gw bush constantly asserts his religiosity for. By linking God to country, or to anything else for that matter, the lines between them become blurred. Blurred to the point that there's no separation between them in the eyes of the public and the two separate things meld into one.

The public simply hears the God part and the link is automatically established. God and country become inseparable, as though they're the same thing, and the people are then compelled to act is if they are the same thing. They treat the government with all of the respect, reverence, trust and obedience they'd show God. But they aren't the same. They have nothing in common. Just as gw bush's actions have nothing in common with Christian doctrine, God and country are not only opposites, they are in a state of perpetual conflict and competition. They're both competing for people's minds and hearts and lives.

People like to believe that their government is really truly linked to their own religious beliefs and values, and it's strongly encouraged for them to believe that. But why? Because a great deal of what government does cannot be justified. It can't stand on its own merits and be accepted by the public because it's completely unacceptable. A lot of what government does is actually harmful to the people, face it. They take your money at gunpoint and send you off to die in wars they contrive for reasons of their own. They throw people in prison whether they're guilty or not and deprive them of their freedom, property and rights at will. They kill people. They use us for their own purposes and for personal profit long after they leave office.

In order for the government to achieve its goals they need to get the population on board. But why would anyone in their right mind accept being taxed into poverty or being shipped off to kill strangers when its obviously not in their own best interests to agree to or go along with? They wouldn't.

The government knows that and that's why it is always desperate for credibility, and this handy trick is the primo short cut to getting that credibility. They know very well that if they can successfully blur the lines between church and state that in very short order anything the state gets up to will be supported by the people, who will have forgotten that the government is not Godlike. That distinction will be completely lost on the vast majority of the people who will then feel that it is right and noble and valid to do whatever the state demands of them. They will also feel very strongly that those who disagree with the government are disagreeing with their deeply held religious beliefs. Attacking the government becomes the same as attacking God. Disagreeing with the government makes you a traitor. This false connection leads to a breakdown of the peoples ability to think for themselves and to keep the government under control, instead allowing the government to control them. This is the goal of all government. That's just a fact.

And that is precisely why the myth of 'God and Country' is the number one tactic used to get the people of any country to look to their leaders and see them as credible. Hitler did his thing after getting the people on board with the "God and country' trick. Look at England, their royal heads of state are the 'defenders of the faith'. They aren't leaving the connections up to the imagination, they're casting them in stone in the people's minds. This is the only bastion of indelible credibility that governments have, and they are not ashamed to use it. Even our own government uses it in spite of the fact it's against our Constitution for exactly this reason.

It works exactly the same in advertising. That's why sex can sell beer. Sex can sell about anything. They just show you a scantily clad buxom babe next to any product and boom, instant sales. And the funny thing is that the guys who rush out and buy those beers or motorcycles or whatever it is, actually feel they are sexier and that scantily clad buxom babes are just around the corner for them now that they've got the product in hand. Obviously, a well paid model in a swim suit posing next to a carburetor has nothing to do with auto parts. She will not be in the box, nor will some other pretty woman on the street feel any compulsion to date a guy with a certain brand of beer or carburetor.

We humans are strongly inclined to blur the lines between totally unrelated things simply because they are asserted to us together and then are repeated; soon we come to believe a great many falsehoods because of this, and we act on them. Such things form the core of some of our most strongly held beliefs and the sad thing is that all the while it was contrived. It was the goal. To get you to connect one thing with another until you couldn't see them as separate anymore. Until you believe that one plus one is one.

It's not like you can accuse the advertising industry of lying. They'll never directly say, "Buy our brand of beer and get chicks". They'll show you ridiculous scenarios on the TV where beautiful girls are interacting with men who have their beer brand in hand. The suggestion is powerful, and what cements it is the emotional response the viewer has when he sees the silly ad. Consciously he knows it's a gimmick, but those emotions inside him don't get that. They think it's real because emotions are always real. And every time they see that brand of beer on the store shelves they'll remind the guy they want that beer because of the chicks on the TV commercials. It's all very subtle and automatic, and in case it needs to be said, it works like crazy. But are the ads lying? Nope. You couldn't take them to court and say it's false advertising, they'd just turn it all around on you as if you're crazy for not being able to tell the difference between a six pack and a chick in a bikini. YOU'd be the one being laughed out of court.

Of course they'd know all along they got you. Yes they entrapped you. Yes they strongly asserted the connection. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars figuring out exactly how to hit you so hard with an emotional connection to beer and sex that you'd almost have to be abnormal to not get sucked in to some extent. It's all subconscious and nearly impossible to deflect. You can't make yourself immune from this kind of emotion based mind control, and that's exactly what it is. It's quite insidious.

Advertisers do this for one reason and one reason only: they want your money. They are going to compel you in any way they can, to get you to want to open your wallet for their products and give them your money. Not just once but again and again and again, that's where branding comes in. They want you hooked for life, opening your wallet for them and only them every single day. They want you to be completely sucked in by their subconscious emotional hooks because they work so well, and corporations have gotten richer than God because of it. They've achieved astounding success and they've perfected the techniques of manipulating masses of people with these emotional hooks, and all the time people don't even notice it happening.

We tend to believe that because we can consciously reject an obviously stupid message that we will not be sucked in, but that's clearly not true. The messages aren't directed at your brain, they're directed at your inner emotions, the ones you don't talk about, the ones that drive you, that you obsess about, are embarrassed about or dream about. We are totally conditioned to receive these hooks deeply into our subconscious minds and we don't even notice the hundreds of companies living inside our heads, compelling us to buy this and that, and only brand X of some make of car or another, or some brand of soda, when the fact is it just doesn't matter at all. And the rest of the fact is you don't even need or want the junk they've gotten you hooked into thinking you have to have or you just won't be okay. We buy things for reasons we don't even understand and feel like when we do, we are going to be rewarded in some way.

Look at McDonalds connecting itself to children having fun. There's nothing fun about a crappy mass produced synthetic meat burger pumped full of chemicals. These things are not in any way related, they have nothing in common. But if you believe they are one and the same, or more importantly if your children believe it, then McDonalds knows you'll drag your kids out to their greasy processed junk food restaurants and fill their bodies with what amounts to cheap toxic waste. They would never dare claim their food is good for your kids. They don't care if your kids get sick, they want your money. They've found the exact formula to get it too.

The examples are endless, you can find them during every commercial. Try some of those pharmaceutical ads. Erectile dysfunction ads showing a man and a woman with the raging hots. Hmmm, somehow that pill is going to affect her too? How is that possible? Or is it? Of course not, the pill won't affect anyone but the poor schmuck who swallows it. But if he swallows it with the belief that it will make him feel sexy and desirable and that he'll be having mad passionate intercourse if he runs out and gets that prescription from his doctor, then he'll have done exactly what the ad was designed to make him do. Buy a bottle of pills because he connects them to sexual intercourse. It works every time. No questions asked, no facts necessary. Just assert that sex is yours with a bottle of this prescription and you go off asking your doctor to write you a prescription.

The government, desperate for credibility, did not miss out on this phenomenon. In fact I suspect they probably invented it. They do it because they want your money too, but they want a whole lot more than your money. They want everything you have and they want you to believe that's a good thing and even to support their agenda even though it's bad for you. They've done it. They really know how to pull this off. They know exactly how to address the public and mix ideas like security with killing a million innocent people overseas to make the public think that the one will assure the other. But it's completely untrue. They have nothing to do with each other.

The so called war on terror is the mother of all head games. There is nothing credible or possible in the statement 'war on terror'. It's a non thing. And that means they've lied us into paying for and engaging in unnecessary wars for reasons that only they know. It's about money and power, but it's not about ridding the world of terror and it's not about keeping anyone in this country safe. A million plus people are dead now. Are you safe yet?

In the first place, acts of terror are civilian crimes, not military attacks. They are carried out by individuals who are not connected in any formal way. They should be treated as crimes and prosecuted as crimes. What killers in our own country are tracked down by invading military forces that shoot everyone in the city in the attempt to locate and arrest a murderer? That would go against common sense wouldn't it? If someone is in trouble for killing innocent people, then how can we go around killing innocent people ourselves in the name of arresting a killer who kills innocent people? You see it doesn't make sense. It doesn't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. It's bull. If we're trying to save lives we probably wouldn't be taking so many of them in the process and be suggesting it makes perfect sense to kill people in order to save them from bad guys. Good grief.

Secondly there are specific reasons that acts of terror happen. They happen when life becomes so unbearable due to the injustice and oppression of some stronger group that they cannot take it anymore. It means there are no legal means to approach oppressors and work out equitable solutions. The oppressors aren't the least bit interested in working anything out, or any equitable anything. They want this other group gone. It means that people are being treated with such disrespect and cruelty that it literally gets to the point where they would rather die trying to fight back than to go on living on their knees. That's what it means.

If we truly want to end terrorism then we're going about it in the worst possible way. We're adding fuel to the fire. We cannot end violence with more violence. We can only end it by addressing the problems and solving them once and for all.

The problems are easy to pinpoint. They're the same problems everywhere you go and find unrest. What's missing is justice and autonomy, the right to decide your own fate and to live free from control and violence from those who don't want you to have those things. Along with that always comes the widespread lack of the most basic levels of prosperity for everyone.

These things are easy to understand. They're perfectly reasonable things to want. Everyone needs these things or life is a very hellish experience. And all of these things are more than obtainable but the reality is that there are those who have far more than enough, more than we can comprehend, and they don't want everyone to have what they need to survive. They'd rather let millions die so that they can have it all for themselves. So, millions of people have nothing and are excluded as if they don't matter, but they do matter. This is what we need to be addressing. This is what we should be fighting for, to bring legal and economic justice to all of the areas of the world where people are being prevented from having what they need to survive and are not able to do anything about it.

When the only thing left is an act of terror, that should be something we can understand. We should be able to see it for what it is and choose to investigate all sides of any story, not just take official stories at face value. Let the other sides speak too. Let them speak for themselves and tell it as they see it because they will see it very differently. Then we can say we have an idea of the truth, but in lieu of that, we have no truth. We're being manipulated into fighting when that's already what the problem is. In effect, we're punishing the victims instead of helping them. We've been sold this gigantic mountain of bull puckie with the same lies that equate acts of terror with insane people who don't even deserve to be heard out, and so off we go killing people by the thousands.

Our current situation is a spectacular example of officials using mind-warping 'one and one is one' tactics to get the public on board with a private agenda of greed and power. Connecting the events of 9/11 to an aggressive military attack and invasion of two other countries really shows how good they are at this stuff. They discouraged our critical thinking immediately after 9/11, while everyone was still in shock and reeling from the blow and they stepped in and said, "Look to us now, you're in terrible danger and you need us to save you. You must trust us and do whatever we say. If you do then we can protect you from the evil people. Stay terrified, but go shopping and just do whatever we say or you will all die horrible deaths". And the traumatized public said, "Okay."

The government then immediately launched into it's own ready made game plan, safe in the knowledge that it was now a belief amongst the public that everything they were doing would be for our own safety and security, and they've played this as far as it can go. If anyone criticizes their obvious illegal acts or points out their nonsensical logic those persons are simply attacked and accused of wanting another terror attack to happen. It's easy to whip up a whole lot of hysteria with this game, and a whole lot of other stuff too. In reality, this country is being used as a big dumb obedient thug with a giant club to pound helpless people into submission or just to death in order to allow a small group of corporate greed mongers to get us off to a hundred year war to make weapons sellers futures bright for a long time to come. Just look at who's been raking in the hundreds of billions of dollars of our money, money we'll never see or be able to use to make our own lives better, and you'll know who these phony wars have been waged to benefit. You don't have to be Harry Houdini to figure it out.

There are a lot of co-tactics they can use as the basic big lies begin to wear thin and the public starts waking up. Our consciences are still intact and the deaths of thousands of innocent people, much less over a million, for most of us is a horror beyond comprehension. People do finally begin to see that they've been lied to and used. Then they begin to complain and speak out. Almost every complaint has been anticipated and as you've witnessed, when the complaints hit the fan they are cast aside with a single message from the 'party' in control. Like mockingbirds they all repeat the same sentences. They all make the same bogus claims. They try to turn it around and make the truth out to be a lie, and make the ones criticizing them out to be 'for the terrorists'. This is very dangerous stuff.

It goes further than that too, they've thought this through for a very long time. They knew how to take advantage of the publics emotions as soon as 9-11 happened and get us to connect whatever they were planning to do to security and safety. They knew their lies about going to war would slowly but surely break down as people became aware of the reality of what was being done, and they knew people would see right through the lies and claims that wars and brutality could in any way bring us peace of mind. It's an obvious oxymoron by itself. They also knew that in spite of their ready-to-go think tank created strategies to keep the public unbalanced and unable to confront the leadership to demand changes, after a while the numbers of people would grow large enough to finally be able to make them shut up and get real. They could only use tactics to attack and destroy critics for so long.

So, quietly in the background they built and refurbished prison camps right here on our own soil, and the same big corporations who are raking it in in Iraq got the no-bid contracts. They're even on retainer.

The police have systematically been turned into soldiers, not public servants. They are turned into violent thugs who are encouraged to see the public as the enemy and treat us with ever increasing brutality. The prisons are growing like wildfire, indeed they may be one of the only industries on American soil that are growing. This government intends to keep people from waking up, from catching on and from stopping them, no matter what it takes. With continued total domination of the media that never allows a dissenting channel to come into mass view, they continue to spin their lies and control games and for those who dare to speak up they are ready with astonishing speed to have those people dragged away. This government is clearly terrified that at any moment the public will suddenly wake up and tear them from their liars thrones and give them what they so richly deserve.

Our descent into Orwell's world is well underway, it's not even a question of potential danger, we're in it. We're in it when the government is standing up for it's own law breaking, standing up and arguing in defense of torture, standing up and claiming that corporations are people and that people are not people and so they deserve no due process. It happens when liars lie and mix two unrelated things to inspire our emotions to control our thoughts and actions. We will blindly follow them anywhere they lead us, even if it's right into hell.

Oh yes, it's a very slick, very well orchestrated operation this bush regime has going. It's been staffed with the worlds greatest experts in propaganda techniques to keep Americans on board for as long as possible. Endless lies keep on coming while old lies are repeated and the ones that don't work are quickly discarded and not mentioned again. Many lies are interwoven too, to make layers of lies that are carefully catapulted out to the public to make us think and feel exactly what they want us to think and feel. All it takes is information control and repetition of the lies on every major news channel. People can only draw conclusions from the information available to them, so what they get in the way of information is very carefully decided and controlled. Yes, we have censorship in full swing, and propaganda to a degree so obvious to outsiders it makes their heads spin that we can't see it for what it is. But we can't see it.

The Layers Of Lies combined with Total Information Control makes it so much harder for our own people to extricate themselves from all of the deception. By and large the public will never be able to get a clear idea of who's who and what's really going on.

Most important of all are the foundational lies all the other lies are built on, and those continue to be repeated to this day. God and country. Support the troops. We're making progress. Another 9-11 could happen any second unless you give up more of your rights. The fear mongering, threats of dirty bombs, threats of home grown terror which is nonexistent, threats of raging pandemics, any threats at all that scare people and make them actually turn to the government and beg to be protected, those are the lies holding everything else up. As long as the public still believes the basic foundational lies then whatever evidence comes up to prove that other sets of lies are indeed lies won't be enough to totally break through the deception and expose these guys for what they really are.

The tricks and tactics are getting more desperate too, they're breaking down every last one of our rights and tossing them aside to make sure we can't legally rise up against them. They've already halfway passed so called anti-terror speech laws that entitle the government to imprison people who are aiding the terrorists just by criticizing the government. They're pushing hard to make dissenting opinions a death offense crime. That's desperation. They've made the foundational lies nearly untouchable through hyper-politicization turning our congress into subservient lap dogs who are too afraid to speak the truth while the lies are still so widely believed. The bush regime will continue to get away with all of its crimes and wrong doing as long as the public is kept in fear and anxiety suckling at the governments' big fat phony security teat, hysterically crying out to be kept safe from bogeymen.

They've got America right where they want America. Stupid, believing, and down on our knees begging them to make this country into a hellish police state, a nightmare of control and brutal tactics, a nation of sheep obedient to authority of any and all kinds saying 'please and thank you sir' to guys with badges. That's what the bush team knows it has to have in place long before the slowest Americans finally wake up and smell the coffee.

The bushco will continue to destroy our future as well as our present. It will continue giving our power to corporations while it undermines us more and more, eventually leaving us under continual surveillance, bugged, DNA sampled, drug tested and reporting to authorities for every little thing. They are desperate to maintain total control and keep all of the ground they've gained through their lying and deceiving of the people.

Ground work is being laid through horrendous and shocking legislation that Congress just keeps on rubber stamping. They've denied bush nothing, no matter how much damage it does to the people of this country. No matter how illegal his actions are they stand by ready to make them legal and to cover for his partners in crime. They're injecting prisoners with animal tranquilizers, torturing people, jailing people without cause, without charges and without due process. They are snooping into every teeny space of our private lives to know what we're thinking so they can be prepared to knock us down, and we keep letting them do it and we keep letting them get away with it.

Nixon famously said, "It's not a crime when the president does it". That pretty much tells you who these people are and how really willing they are to say anything it takes to keep people believing that they are good people who are working hard to protect this country. There does come a point though when only the most brainwashed are unable to see the wreckage piling up around all of us every single day. It's something I'd like to study. What does it take to wake some folks up when evidence up the ying-yang won't do it? Well, we're talking about the same animal here too. We're confronting emotion based beliefs, that came into being when liars lied and connected two things that have nothing in common so that they could get what they wanted from the trusting unsuspecting decent people standing before them.

I sincerely hope that bush's idea of Christianity is not an accurate take on Christian beliefs in the minds of American Christians. If it is we're toast. In any case we have to see how asserting religiosity is not proof of being a good person. We have to get it through our heads that church and state have no business being in bed together and that when they are, the offspring is hell spawn and death.

Tricks By Number

After watching the ugliness that is the bush administration for the last few years, I have grown all too familiar with their ways. Their tricks, lies and tactics are no longer surprising. These people have lost all credibility, and of course, they know that. They had no credibility coming in, they sure as heck never earned any while in office, and they'll leave with even less than they got here with.

In fact, it's safe to say that never before has such a dishonest, depraved sociopathic bunch of thugs ever disgraced this country than these singularly repulsive excuses for human beings. You'd either have to be comatose or a fundamentalist Christian to still not be able to smell the rot that is them. Nobody believes these people. They are the world record-holding championship liars, cheaters, and hypocrites of all time; and they keep company with only the same.

These well dressed greed mongering losers run in packs, not because it's some clever ploy but because they'd have no one to talk to otherwise. Bird turds of a feather must flock together or end up way lonesome. Who the heck with half an ounce of self respect would let these guys use their bathroom, much less want to hang out with any of them? Ugh, the thought of it makes me feel woozy.

Am I being too harsh on the global crime syndicate gang? No, I don't think so.

Oh all right, I will admit it. I am angry at these jerks. I am offended by them. I am so sick of them I could hurl. Their faces, their voices, their stupid vapidity and offensive self-serving, self-worshiping, self-excusing hypocrisy has surpassed all of my ability to endure any part of them for even one more moment. I want them all to go away, and to not live to be very old either. I don't know what it is with their cadre of death loving vampires but these monsters live forever. How old is Kissinger now, 116? He looks it. Why should such despicable characters always live to such ripe old age? And they're never debilitated in a wheelchair, no no. They are up and atem. They all work to their last dying day, devoted to their last breath to destroying every good and decent and noble and real and beautiful and just and sane and necessary thing they can get their hands on. It's just not right somehow. I will never understand it.

Now that I have that out of the way, as truly nasty of me as it was, I will attempt to focus on the subject of the day. Yes there actually is one. It is about something I read in the Boston Globe, dated January 30, 2008 with the title, "Bush asserts authority to bypass defense act. Calls restrictions unconstitutional".

Just reading the title was enough to bring on the above emotive vociferation, and by the way, I do apologize to all decent people who are exposed to it. Somehow I know you'll understand. We all have our moments and this just happens to be one of mine.

Now regarding that article, I have to do this. It needs to be done. If the dang mass media won't step up to the plate and point out glaring reality then it is up to us to do it for ourselves. Allow me to start with this little article, and you can take the next one. Deal? Excellent.

It reads:

"President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill."

What!? He only has 'the power' to bypass FOUR laws? Holy cow! Can we get him on this one? He's bypassed every law he ever ran across up to now. But geez, if he only has 'the power' to bypass four specific laws, then by gosh, we should have him this time. Go ahead, toss that in the bucket with the rest of the overwhelming evidence against him and his motley crew so that Congress can go ahead and ignore that too. Clunk! Thank you.

As I see it, resident bush can declare anything he likes, it doesn't mean a thing. This is good old trick # 42, "Just put it out there as if it were true and maybe no one will notice". To their credit, #42 has worked very well for them during the entire course of their illegitimate residency. (It must always be pointed out that this goofy maroon never won a single election; he was installed by corrupt supreme courtiers. That's all there is to that).

Trick #42 is often used in conjunction with trick # 13, "Pretend there's nothing insane about what you're saying, maybe they won't notice". These two tricks go hand in hand, especially for these liars because often what they're spewing into our ears is beyond belief. They know that. They came prepared. They keep #13 handy at all times. In fact, if they had to pay license fees on the use of #13, they'd all be flat broke by now.

I will now proceed to directly address the asininity of the articles' first statement. Item one: the president doesn't have powers, he has authority. Authority is not power. Authority is not rights. A job cannot have rights, only human beings can have rights. Authority is permission which is given him by the Congress, which, ostensibly, represents US. So in essence, WE give HIM permission to do his job. Where he gets power out of that must come from the same place he gets all of his lying assertions from.

So scratch the 'power' thing. It's a red herring. A dead one too. It can't swim. It doesn't exist. Next case.

The next case just happens to rub my funny bone. bush asserts he can defy Congressional laws that forbid him to use our money to build permanent bases in Iraq. I wonder if he would be so kind as to share his 'thinking' on that one. Because that's plain amusing.

Let's see here, it might go like this. "Okay see, that is not my money, it's your money. And I get to spend it on anything I want whether you like it or not because I have POWERS". Is that some smooth logic or what? Well, that would fall into the 'or what' category. How dumb do you have to be to believe it's your right to spend someone else's money after they expressly forbid it? About as dumb as he is, I guess.

But he's not dumb, not really. His clan does not suffer from stupidity, or incompetence. Those are just excuses they try to use to cover the fact that they are evil, criminally insane sociopaths who are purposely trying to destroy this country. And really, being called stupid or incompetent is way better than being identified for what they are. That would bring on prosecution and perhaps even public hangings. No doubt they embrace the whole incompetence idea. No doubt they're the ones putting it out there to make sure we don't catch on to reality too fast.

It's all getting so old. Asserting their stupidity or incompetence is of course, good old trick #7. We saw a lot of that one after 9-11. I've seen more of that one than I care to ever see for the rest of my life.

This is also related to trick #8, which is "Pretend the legal definitions are not clear as day and inarguable. Just say there's room for debate even though there's not even the width of a single atom to wiggle around in. Maybe they won't notice". Because once again, pretending there is room for debate is way better than being pegged for being law breaking liars and scoundrels, so they push the "room for debate" thing, real hard too. They really need us to buy into the idea that they believe there is room so we have to be polite and wait until they are proven incorrect. The joke's on us though because you cannot prove lying thugs to be incorrect. It's a tactic, and as we all know, it's another one that works.

"Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them."

So to briefly summarize his position, bush is asserting that the only people in our whole country who have 100% of the power to make 100% of the laws which apply to 100% of everyone, are not bad enough to make HIM obey their silly laws. HE is above all that. No doubt he can whip out the part of the constitution that says that. Right?

Uh-huh. Anyone got a can of Cheez Whiz? Would you empty it on his head please? It might raise his IQ. If it doesn't, no problem, it would do my heart good to see his head piled high with Cheez Whiz. Put a pimento at the top too, would you? Perfecto!

"Provisions of the act . . . purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the president's ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as commander in chief," Bush said. "The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President."

ROFL! Ohmigosh, that's funny. Since when has this president EVER carried out his constitutional obligations? Oh jeez, I need a tissue, I'm crying over here. Faithfully executed laws? ROFLMAO! Snort! Oh God I can't go on, this is too rich. Protect National Security?! CHORTLE! Snicker! Snort! For Pete's sake, the man has done everything possible to avoid doing any of those things, why on earth would he suddenly start now? Supervise the executive branch?! That's just nutty. The executive branch needs supervision. What comedians these guys are. I'm crying over here. They're too much.

And don't miss the sweet irony that he JUST said he doesn't have to obey any of our stupid laws, and now he's saying it's not fair that anyone tries to keep him from being able to uphold the laws. The laws he couldn't give a rat's ass about. Yes, that's so believable. Lie #2: Pretend that you care about upholding the law, maybe nobody will notice". I'm afraid we've all caught on to that one mr. bushy. You little weasel.

"One section Bush targeted created a statute that forbids spending taxpayer money "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq."

We don't want to pay for the continued oppression of the Iraqi people for the benefit of major oil companies mr. bushy. You got a problem with that? If you do, too bad. Deal with it.

"The Bush administration is negotiating a long-term agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The agreement is to include the basing of US troops in Iraq after 2008, as well as security guarantees and other economic and political ties between the United States and Iraq."

You can't always get what you want. It's a concept none of these spoiled brats is familiar with. I think it's high time they were introduced to it. Don't you?

"The negotiations have drawn fire in part because the administration has said it does not intend to designate the compact as a "treaty," and so will not submit it to Congress for approval. Critics are also concerned Bush might lock the United States into a deal that would make it difficult for the next president to withdraw US troops from Iraq."

No, oil contracts are not treaties. This must be one of those public-private partnerships. Well, they can kiss our butts. We're kind of tired of being on the payout end of all those oil company riches. What part of bush's brain is reserved for thinking? How does he figure it doesn't concern us that he uses our dough against our express will or tries to legally obligate us well into the future without Congressional approval? Where is this guy's brain? Does he have one? No he doesn't. He is using trick #42 again, "Just put it out there as if it were true and maybe no one will notice". Uh-oh. They noticed.

"Every time a senior administration official is asked about permanent US military bases in Iraq, they contend that it is not their intention to construct such facilities," said Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, in a Senate speech yesterday. "Yet this signing statement issued by the president yesterday is the clearest signal yet that the administration wants to hold this option in reserve."

Does anyone remember a discussion about building a half-trillion dollar embassy smack dab in the middle of a war zone? Against the will of the Iraqi people and without our knowledge or consent? There was no such conversation. Does anyone remember when the questions started coming up about whether or not we were building permanent bases in Iraq? Because reports were coming in that they were building 14 enormous, sprawling bases over there. Do you remember what they said?

I do.

They said, "Huh? Permanent bases? Heck no, whatever gave you that idea? We would NEVER do that. We are NOT doing that! We have NO INTENTION of doing that! Now shut up! How dare you even suggest it." Then they showed us photos of tent bases and told us about how they had no flush toilets or anything. They kept saying, "See? No permanent bases! We're roughing it in tents! Now shut up!" But then we found out about the reality that they had built several enormous, sprawling, EXPENSIVE flaming unbelievable FANCY ASS brand spanking new PERMANENT BASES all over the damn place. And what did Congress say? Nothing. Thanks guys, we knew we could count on you.

"Several other congressional Democrats also took issue with the signing statement."

Oh yeah? What, are they fanning themselves and fainting in the corners? Give me a break. Don't bother taking issue with a flaming piece of sheer nonsense like 'signing statements'. What the hell legal weight do those things have? YOU write the laws, YOU tell him! Tell him to quit being a lying piece of scum and tell him to obey the laws or go to prison. Otherwise, quit pretending you aren't his biggest supporters. He couldn't do a damn thing without you.

"I reject the notion in his signing statement that he can pick and choose which provisions of this law to execute," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. "His job, under the Constitution, is to faithfully execute the law - every part of it - and I expect him to do just that."

If only Ms. Pelosi were half as dedicated to us as she was to Israel we might not feel the need to throw up every time she opened her mouth. I am tired of running out of barf bags too by the way. Apparently Ms. Pelosi has not yet noticed that all these people do is lie, cheat and steal. That is not faithfully executing anything, except justice. They've snapped its little neck, kicked its dead carcass out of the way and are proceeding as if everything were normal. It's also impossible for bush to break the law when congress is bending over backwards to write criminality into the law and make it legal for him. Yes, she's keeping an eagle eye on bush. I feel so much better now.

"Bush's signing statement did not explain the specific basis for his objection to the prohibition on establishing permanent military bases in Iraq."

One more time for the road. No. These criminals will NEVER be specific. They will never tell the truth about anything. They can't. There is nothing legitimate about any of them. They are the most corrupt bunch of liars and scum bags the world has ever known. The whole thing is a scam. A ruse. A bad joke. They are robbing this country blind and cutting us all off at the knees while smiling in our faces and telling the same damned lies over and over and over about upholding the law when all they do is break the law. It's lie #1: "Pretend you aren't a huge global crime syndicate lying and killing its way to world domination, maybe nobody will notice".