Vietnam War Symbolism and Signs

All of these symbols are personal to me in some fashion. They are not inclusive, many got lost. Many are now.....forgotten.

There ain't nothing in the world for symbols like the military at war. You learn real fast like to read the symbols or you get in trouble, deep trouble.

Symbols on the hat, the shoulder, the chest, the sleeve, etc. tell you instantly about how important the wearer is, how long they've been doing what they are doing, what part of the military they belong to, their unit, whether or not their "superiors" think they are brave, their training, their history, their wars, and all sorts of stuff.

Some symbolism tells about historical cowardice. Some says this division stands their ground. Some say don't mess around here. Don't drive down this road. Some are found in the wrong place at the wrong time because those who wore them didn't give a damn.

Some are worn in full bright colors rather than regulation O.D. and Black, another don't give a damn.

Some symbols tell about relationships between units. Some show disdain. Some get you in trouble. Ignore some and you die.

Some are full of pride. Some have secretes.

Some symbols just mean you've been away from home too long.

Addendum for the record:

The MI insignia was quite interesting. On top was the five petal rose with blue petals for truth and honor. Beneath the rose, i.e. sub-rosa, were the secrets hidden behind the light of the ancient Sun symbol of Hermes, Hermes who saw and heard everything. Within Hermes symbol is the compass rose for everywhere, and beneath the Sun was the upturned dagger, a symbol of danger, vigilance, death and protection. The gold color was for Hermes, the Sun, and victory. Who would ever guess it would mean so much?

Why Do they Lie

Remember when CBS faked an explosion in an auto crash and got caught?

There was Hell to pay.

So why can Fox News and the GOP and Republican pundits lie to me and to you and get away with it? No sanctions what so ever. Not only have they lied they are still right now telling the same lie.

What have we become?

Controversial CBO Report On Stimulus Turns Out Not To Exist

Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.
Funny thing is, there is no such report.
"We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study," a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.
Rather, the nonpartisan CBO ran a small portion of an earlier version of the stimulus plan through a computer program that uses a standard formula to determine a score -- how quickly money will be spent. The score only dealt with the part of the stimulus headed for the Appropriations Committee and left out the parts bound for the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee.

Read it all:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/a-controversial-cbo-repor_n_160495.html

What happens to those who blatantly try to make us out as fools?

Nothing?

Has that part of America lied so much and so long that they can't tell what is true anymore.

The back side of this of course if they tell us something we really need to know, we can't believe that they are telling us the truth.

Remember that old "X File" slogan? 'Trust No One"

The Wisdom of Solomon, Susan That Is

I have said repeatedly that the cow has done been tipped over boys and girls.
The climate warming of the earth hit the tipping point years ago.
Yep emissions are important(for breathing, cancer and such), but not to the climate. It is too late.

First thing is to understand that a warming earth is a prelude to an ice age earth. That is such a counter intuitive result that it escapes everyone. That's the cycle of climates. Our speeding it up over the past three centuries or so doesn't change the cycle.

The past is prologue. Want to know what's coming, look back at what was. Look back 10,000 years and then project that into the next 1000 or so years.

Our public policy on this subject has been a joke. That has to change. What shall we do to save Houston, Los Angeles, or New York from inundation by rising sea levels. Do we just write Florida off as a loss. How shall we organize and shift our agricultural production? These are the levels of things to be done.

Not that we seem to be able to do it. Guess we will have to get rid of some of the really stupid naysayers. Then we wait for the first absolute disaster on the order or level of maybe 10 tsunamis or 20 Katrinas.


Climate change fallout irreversible
Study finds shift 'unstoppable'
ASSOCIATED PRESSTuesday, January 27, 2009

"Many damaging effects of climate change are already basically irreversible, researchers declared Monday, warning that even if carbon emissions can somehow be halted temperatures around the globe will remain high until at least the year 3000.
"People have imagined that if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide the climate would go back to normal in 100 years, 200 years; that's not true," climate researcher Susan Solomon said.
Miss Solomon, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., is lead author of an international team's paper reporting irreversible damage from climate change. The paper is being published in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
She defines "irreversible" as change that would remain for 1,000 years even if humans stopped adding carbon to the atmosphere immediately.
The findings were announced as President Obama ordered reviews that could lead to greater fuel efficiency and cleaner air, saying the Earth's future depends on cutting air pollution.
Said Miss Solomon, "Climate change is slow, but it is unstoppable," all the more reason to act quickly.
Alan Robock, of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University, agreed with the report's assessment. "It's not like air pollution where if we turn off a smokestack, in a few days the air is clear," said Mr. Robock, who was not part of Miss Solomon's research team. "It means we have to try even harder to reduce emissions."
Miss Solomon's report "is quite important, not alarmist, and very important for the current debates on climate policy," said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate researcher at the University of Arizona.
In her paper Miss Solomon, a leader of the International Panel on Climate Change and one of the world's best known researchers on the subject, noted that temperatures around the globe have risen and changes in rainfall patterns have been observed in areas around the Mediterranean, southern Africa and southwestern North America.
Warmer climate also is causing expansion of the ocean, and that is expected to increase with the melting of ice on Greenland and Antarctica, the researchers said.
Global warming has been slowed by the ocean, Miss Solomon said, because water absorbs a lot of energy to warm up. But that good effect will not only wane over time, the ocean will help keep the planet warmer by giving off its accumulated heat to the air.
Climate change has been driven by gases in the atmosphere that trap heat from solar radiation and raise the planet's temperature - the "greenhouse effect." Carbon dioxide has been the most important of those gases because it remains in the air for hundreds of years. While other gases are responsible for nearly half of the warming, they degrade more rapidly, Miss Solomon said. "

http://www.washingtontimes.com/themes/people/susan-solomon/

Will Obama in the White House Satisfy the Ghost in the Parking Lot ?

About a half mile from my home there is a small strip mall that holds several small stores and an independent grocery store. I'm not going to mention the grocery store by name, after all it is not their fault that a racist killer made them famous for a while.

Every time I go by that store I think of the crime that happened there. Every single time I go by it, I remember.

I was working at the time on a court ordered plan for the integration of higher education in Oklahoma. I was not a popular fellow to say the least. I am white, but I had an integrated staff so we all felt the effect of what happened. We could put ourselves or our families in this picture without any great effort of imagination.

The recent inaugural of Barack Obama has brought back so many memories like this to so many people. Have we really changed we ask? I don't think deep down we have. But then again maybe we have.

It was on October 21, 1979, ".... The weather had been perfect for the children's Hula Hoop contest that warm October Sunday. As nurse's aide Marian Bresette, her black common-law husband, Jesse Taylor, and her three children piled into the family Ford afterward, their thoughts were on supper.

They stopped at a supermarket on the way home, and as Jesse was returning with a bag of groceries the first shot was fired. Store employees heard him moaning "no, no, no" as he slumped against the door of the car. Then two more shots threw him dead to the pavement. His wife ran screaming to his side and, as she bent over him, she too was hit—by a single, fatally accurate shot to the chest.

Casings from a high-caliber rifle were reportedly found in a grove of evergreens 75 yards away, but the killer escaped without being seen. There was no apparent reason for the killings."

From: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20077938,00.html

That Monday I had a staff meeting and told my staff to cancel their meetings and appearances for the next two weeks until we knew more about these killings. We often went out as mixed race teams to do our job across the State. It seemed prudent to hold back and find out what this was all about. After the two weeks even though we didn't know why it had happened we went back to business, but kept our senses tuned to our environment.

It took a while but eventually we found out it was a racist serial killer named Joseph Paul Franklin that had blow away Jesse and his wife Marian in that grocery store parking lot on that warm Sunday afternoon.

"Franklin was a drifter, roaming up and down the East Coast, always looking for chances to "cleanse the world" of people he considered inferior, especially blacks and Jews. He sustained himself by robbing banks and often sold or traded the guns he used to kill. Despite being partially blind in his left eye and completely blind in his right eye, Franklin was a proficient marksman, and killed most of his victims from over 100 feet (30 m) away. He did not touch or try to contact the majority of victims, instead assassinating them from a distance; thereby falling into the category of a mission oriented serial killer. He was a highly organized killer, who would plan in advance several escape routes and techniques in which to leave no evidence."
---Wikipedia

He may have killed as many as 20 people or even more. We just don't know. He might have been able to really up the score except he got too ambitious and shot Larry Flynt and Vernon Jordon, two highly visible targets. That put him in the lime light.

He was caught in Florida in 1980 while selling his blood plasma. The nurse on duty recognized a tattoo from a TV program about him.

"Franklin has been linked by either indictment or confession to 20 murders, 6 aggravated assaults, 16 bank robberies and two bombings. He has confessed to eight murders, and has received several life sentences or death sentences for others. He made several confessions in the late 1990s on the condition that he confessed to "an attractive white female investigator"."
--Wikipedia

I drive by that grocery store maybe about twice a week. I always think about the killings when I do. I can see the trees from where Franklin fired his rifle when I go by. There are ghost there standing in that parking lot. Ghosts that have yet to be vindicated.
Franklin has never been tried for their murders.

I wonder how many ghost will have to be satisfied before we truly are a different Nation?
Can the Obama effect give them all rest? Maybe some of them. At least I hope so.

Franklin is still being held on death row at the Potosi Correctional Center near Mineral Point, Missouri.

Do You Have Faith In Naked Singularities?

This morning as I lay in bed with my sinuses draining the Amazon River down my throat, I read about naked singularities in my most recent issue of Scientific American Magazine and how if you fell into one you would be flung out somewhere else along the energy stream from the singularity.

Naked singularities are collapsed super stars that have lost the concretions of the vent horizons around them that would normally trap all matter and energy that fell into them and cause them to function as a black hole from which nothing escapes.

In the stream of a naked singularity space/time does not exist.

Now ain't that a theological wonder.

Is there any Faith system or religion that does not require space and time?

In the beginning .....something.

It is a strange world isn't it when people believe in things much stranger than anything in the Bible and yet such a belief is not based in Faith at all, but in mathematics and science. Even stranger, when you consider that all of the black holes, naked singularities, stars, planets and other objects in space or energy impacting what can be seen actually only comprise 4% of existent universe or cosmos.

And God, knows and controls and is it all.

Of course there are a number of Republican pundits and U.S. Senators and well, others, who wouldn't believe what's said in Scientific American any way. So when the "Star Gate" budget comes up for reauthorization they will probably work against it.

Read it for yourself:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=naked-singularities

Security: Our Kabuki Dance With Death

Having been involved in the aftermath of the terrorist bombing in OKC and many of the ice storms or tornadoes in Oklahoma, it is almost like we are trained to function without the power grid and supply system for a couple of weeks. We personally have at least two weeks of non-cook food available. We keep at least two land line phones that work without electricity. Our home heat does not need electricity to work (a heat-coupling on the furnace generates micro-voltage to control the unit).


Our current 'homeland' national security is a kabuki dance with death. It is 90% show and even the substance that is there is outdated. What we need is good criminal police work on an international level. How about some elemental security like burying the com/data systems, scanning all shipping containers, installing the Israeli 'passengers who fly' program. Patrolling the rivers and checking the boats and ships there on.


I spent a week wandering along the entire Oregon Coast last Summer. There is no visable security there. Only saw two cops patrolling the highway and no, none, nada, Coast Guard.


The Feds can't completely shut down the com systems during a terror attack to keep the bad guys from talking to each other as they say they would . Many of those com systems in operation are outside any control by the U.S., satellite com for example. Even so doing so, they would step on their own toes.


The next attack will be biological. That or maybe an atomic device. Shit, just blow up the old abandoned nuclear fuel processing plants spread around the States. Now don't think the bad guys haven't thought about that.


I used to talk to a friend,the husband of a TSA official, about the geographic and transportation weakness of the city they lived in. He asked how I would take down the city. I told him, and I haven't heard from him since. We are scared shit less of our own shadows and our own people, and up till now, our own government. Too much television I guess.



We act as though we are weak and defenseless. It is not hardly the case. We can be stupid however.

Stand On Zanzibar

Looking at that satellite picture of the Mall during Obama's Inaugural the people really do look like some bacteria growth in a petri dish. There are not many opportunities to see humanity in those numbers crowded together like that.







That reminded me of a novel I read once, oh say 40 years ago, it was 'Stand On Zanzibar'. There was a statistic that was the premise of the book's title. It was that by 2010 the world population would be doubled to 7 billion souls. It forecasted a very crowded earth short of resources and big on Governments and control.



Well the population prediction was right on the money. In 2010 we can expect to have about 7,000,000,000 neighbors. It does boggle the "Love thy Neighbor..." concept a bit don't it.



Well the premise was that if all of the people of the world stood in one place shoulder to shoulder that would cover an area equal to the square footage contained on the island of Zanzibar.
Zanzibar is just off of the "arm pit" of Eastern Africa near the border of Kenya and Tanzania.

Yes we looked like ants on Tuesday from space. It was one of our great historical events, but from a far enough perspective we are left resembling bacteria in a petri dish. Sobering is it not.

What Would 2/3rds of Oklahoma look like on the National Mall

Well let's see what two million people watching Obama looked like.
So click on the picture below to get the larger version.
The Capitol building is on the far right.
The Washington Monument is on the far left.
The Mall, that open space in between the two runs 1.2 miles from the West steps were the President was to the Washington Monument.
The Mall between the buildings in the middle is 300 feet or as wide as a football field is long.
Now actually the people watching the giant screens and waiting along Pennsylvania Avenue extended twice as long as this satellite shot. They technically were not "attending" the Inaugural and are not counted in the 2million by the U.S. Park service.
Not to mention the 240,000 people with tickets turned away who were supposed to be let into the area near the Capitol.

So it is like near absolute zero degrees with the wind adding a wind chill factor (how cold would the seats of those porta potties be)and yet they came, and they stayed, just to see this turn of history. If that doesn't impress the most cynical of the naysayers then damned they truly are.

Also see the picture at: http://www.popsci.com/content/inauguration-day

Thanks to Carol for alerting me to this picture.

God Is A Bore And Faith Is A Farce

This morning at the National Prayer Breakfast (traditionally attend by the new President) there was a correlated effort among the ministers, priest, rabbis, and mullahs to give a united message that the common ground of all these faiths is the two concepts:

1. Love God
2. Love your Neighbor as you would love yourself

It was a magnificent accomplishment.

report:http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/21/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4743183.shtml

The prayer message was delivered by a woman and the "clergy" contained a muslim, both were major "First" that went almost totally unreported.


Want to read the text of the of the "sermon" go here:
http://oikoumene.org/fileadmin/wcc-usa/files/2009/Obama_NPS_sermon_Watkins.pdf

As for the message of common faith and ethics, it was simply ignored by the press and the media. Well that is not entirely true, the local press out in the Bible Belt and in papers with "Religion Editors" covered it , albeit only slightly.

So based on the media reactions, God is a bore and faith is a farce and certainly not worth being discussed or reported. ?????? They just don't get it, yet.

The Ground Has Shifted Beneath Us & May God Help America To Be A Blessing

President Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States during the inauguration ceremony in Washington, January 20, 2009. The Bible Obama uses is the same one that President Abraham Lincoln used at his Inauguration in 1861.

REUTERS

Excerpts from the Inaugarul Address of President Obama

To Choose Our Better History:

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.
The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

There is Work to be Done:

"For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."

Do You Get It?:
"What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. "

The Rule of Law:
"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake."

To Those Who Work Against Us:
" ... for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

Dissolve the Lines of Tribe:
"...we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

My Comments:
The very ground beneath our feet has moved. Hope has returned to our hearts. We can see a future that has promise. It feels good don't it?

There are those that don't get it. There are those who will insist on their discredited ways. There are those who meanness will rise to oppose this. If they cannot be dissuaded, they still need to be forgiven. If they persisted, their misery will be from their own gall that they have swallowed.

May God help America to be a blessing!

We Have Aready Lost??????

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 (extracts)

"Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
and is gravely to be regarded. "

---Public Papers of the Presidents, Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 , 1960, p. 1035- 1040





While surfing Google Earth, as Geographers are apt to do, I ran across this image. When I ponder the inane farewell speech of GW Bush and compare it to this speech by President Eisenhower I realized that unless we somehow turn back now, we will have lost. The Military Industrial Complex of which Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney et.al. are all products, seems almost too firmly entrenched to overcome. How can it ever be done?

"We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

It has gone so far, can we put it back into a proper mesh?

Thank You George Walker Bush

As I watch George W. Bush smirk his way through the self delusions of his congratulations to himself, I can't help but think that I am grateful to President Bush for his Presidency.

Thank you, President Bush for help ending the viability of the Republican Party and the farce that it had become.

Thank you, President Bush for being so dense, unreflective, and ignorant of cause and effect that we longed for a man as intelligent, far sighted, and educated like President Obama.

Thank you, President Bush for stomping on the alternative energy programs so hard that even the dumbos can see the light now.

Thank you, President Bush for tearing the envelope of tolerance for unConstitutional actions, so that we now treasure that Constitution even more than before.

Thank you, President Bush for showing us our underbelly of hatred and meanness so that we may realize that it is there and do something about it.

Thank you, President Bush for pushing the Neo-Con agenda so hard and so far that even the far right understands that such is not an American way of doing things.

Thank you, President Bush for exposing the 20% of radical idiots that live with us so that we may label and isolate them from any serious influence on our way of life.

Thank you, President Bush for showing us that manichean moral clarity isn't moral much less legal.

Thank you, President Bush....well thanks.... for being so you...and showing us that just a regular guy and a normal decent human being can be such failure as President of the United States.

Thanks George. Now shut-up and go away.

Tomnibus Bill Rolls Over Oklahoma's Dr. No

It is about damn time.
Not only did the Senate stick it to Oklahoma's Senator Tom Coburn, but they did it 160 times and on Sunday at that.
It's about damn time.

NYT Blog: THE CAUCUS

January 11, 2009, 3:42 pm — Updated: 1:55 am -->
On a Sunday, the Senate Votes Yes on a Lands Bill
By Carl Hulse
The Senate conducted its first vote of the 111th Congress –- on a Sunday no less -– and overrode the objections of Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, to push forward a public lands bill.
On a vote of 66-12, the Senate agreed to take up a package of 160 different bills joined under an umbrella measure. The package has been dubbed a Tomnibus since the whole idea is to merge multiple proposals opposed by Mr. Coburn -– a physician known in the Senate as Dr. No. — and win passage all at once. Fifty-nine votes was the threshold.
The bill, which faces more debate and possible approval later this week, sets aside 200 million acres for public wilderness in nine states. It adds more than 1,000 miles to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System and 2,800 miles of new trails to the federal system.
Mr. Coburn said he did not dispute that the bill did some good, but he objected to the opposition of Democrats to allowing Republicans to offer amendments to the measure. Given the problems facing the nation, he said, Congress should be focused on matters other than legislation that will eventually drive up federal spending.
“I have no doubt that there are key, significant things that need to get done that are in this bill,” he said. “But I will tell you, I am always going to be opposed to wasting money.”
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, was sending a message with his decision to schedule the vote on Sunday. Democrats have been frustrated by Mr. Coburn’s determination to hold up so many bills and the Sunday vote was intended to let Republicans know that Democrats are no longer going to go along easily. They hope Mr. Coburn’s colleagues put pressure on him to relent, though Mr. Coburn is not the sort of lawmaker to respond to that kind of pressure.
A dozen Republicans did vote for the measure, which irritated Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, one of Mr. Coburn’s chief allies.
“If my colleagues on my side continue to accept this, there’s going to be no such thing as a Republican Party,” he said.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/on-a-sunday-the-senate-votes-yes-on-a-lands-bill/

One of those 160 bills that the Oklahoma Republican, along with six other social conservatives, put a hold on in the Senate was Bush's bill for $50 million to fight Aids. Tommy boy locked it up in committee and would let it out unless a provision was added to direct most of the spending toward "treatment" for HIV/AIDS rather than "toward prevention and other priorities". Otherwise, Coburn said, “the vast majority of the money is going to get consumed by those wanting to help people with HIV, rather than [by] people with HIV.”

Gobbler Tommy, an M.D., may have been reflecting his own practices as a doctor. He basically only trust himself, so in his entire time in the Senate only 14 bills he has authored have made it out of committees. Can't get shit done, so he stops others from doing things. Now the Democrat Senate majority can isolate the fool.

Sadly that means Oklahoma will have to rely on the good graces of others in the Senate for anything we want. I mean, Inhofe isn't going to be so popular either. The Turkey Tom and Slowmind Jim, our Senators, will be out in the cold for a long time to come.
It's about damn time.

George W. Bush: War Criminal, Dumb Ass, Oblivious Boob, and Fool, in His Own Words:

For The Record:

Bush's Last Press Conference
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090112.html

Q -- that you think the Republican Party needs to be more inclusive. Who needs to hear that message inside the Republican Party?

THE PRESIDENT: You see, I am concerned that, in the wake of the defeat, that the temptation will be to look inward and to say, well, here's a litmus test you must adhere to.
This party will come back. But the party's message has got to be that different points of view are included in the party. And -- take, for example, the immigration debate. That's obviously a highly contentious issue. And the problem with the outcome of the initial round of the debate was that some people said, well, Republicans don't like immigrants. Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's what -- that's the image that came out.
And, you know, if the image is we don't like immigrants, then there's probably somebody else out there saying, well, if they don't like the immigrants, they probably don't like me, as well. And so my point was, is that our party has got to be compassionate and broad-minded
............

Q In the past, when you've been asked to address bad poll numbers or your own popularity, you've said that history will judge that you did the right thing, that you thought you did the right thing. ...

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, hard things don't happen overnight, Jake. And when the history of Iraq is written, historians will analyze, for example, the decision on the surge. The situation was -- looked like it was going fine and then violence for a period of time began to throw -- throw the progress of Iraq into doubt. And rather than accepting the status quo and saying, oh, it's not worth it or the politics makes it difficult or, you know, the party may end up being -- you know, not doing well in the elections because of the violence in Iraq, I decided to do something about it -- and sent 30,000 troops in as opposed to withdrawing.
And so that part of history is certain, and the situation did change. Now the question is, in the long run, will this democracy survive? And that's going to be the challenge for future Presidents.
In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession. In the meantime there were 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. And I defended tax cuts when I campaigned, I helped implement tax cuts when I was President, and I will defend them after my presidency as the right course of action. And there's a fundamental philosophical debate about tax cuts. Who best can spend your money, the government or you? And I have always sided with the people on that issue.
..........

Q Well, a couple years ago, Charles Krauthammer, columnist and Harvard-trained psychiatrist, coined a term, "Bush derangement syndrome," to talk about your critics who disagreed with you most passionately -- not just your policies, but seemed to take an animosity towards you. I'm just wondering, as you look back, why you think you engendered such passionate criticism, animosity, and do you have any message specifically to those -- to that particular part of the spectrum of your critics?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, most people I see, you know, when I'm moving around the country, for example, they're not angry. And they're not hostile people. And they -- we never meet people who disagree, that's just not true. I've met a lot of people who don't agree with the decisions I make. But they have been civil in their discourse.
And so, I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it's just a very few people in the country. I don't know why they get angry. I don't know why they get hostile. It's not the first time, however, in history that people have expressed themselves in sometimes undignified ways. I've been reading, you know, a lot about Abraham Lincoln during my presidency, and there was some pretty harsh discord when it came to the 16th President, just like there's been harsh discord for the 43rd President.
.......

Q And I'm not trying to play "gotcha," but I wonder, when you look back over the long arc of your presidency, do you think, in retrospect, that you have made any mistakes? And if so, what is the single biggest mistake that you may have made?


President: ........I've thought long and hard about Katrina -- you know, could I have done something differently, like land Air Force One either in New Orleans or Baton Rouge. The problem with that and -- is that law enforcement would have been pulled away from the mission. And then your questions, I suspect, would have been, how could you possibly have flown Air Force One into Baton Rouge, and police officers that were needed to expedite traffic out of New Orleans were taken off the task to look after you?

.........

Q What more needs to be done (In New Orleans)?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, more people need to get in their houses. More people need to have their own home there. But the systems are in place to continue the reconstruction of New Orleans.
People said, well, the federal response was slow. Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed. I remember going to see those helicopter drivers, Coast Guard drivers (pilots?), to thank them for their courageous efforts to rescue people off roofs. Thirty thousand people were pulled off roofs right after the storm moved through. It's a pretty quick response.
Could things have been done better? Absolutely. Absolutely. But when I hear people say, the federal response was slow, then what are they going to say to those chopper drivers, or the 30,000 that got pulled off the roofs?

........

Q One of the major objectives that the incoming administration has talked frequently about is restoring America's moral standing in the world. ....

THE PRESIDENT: I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite, but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is a country that provides such great hope.
You go to Africa, you ask Africans about America's generosity and compassion; go to India, and ask about, you know, America's -- their view of America. Go to China and ask. Now, no question parts of Europe have said that we shouldn't have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are a few countries.

....

Interview of the President and Former President Bush by Brit Hume, Fox News Cabinet RoomOval Office
White House News
January 7, 200910:32 A.M. EST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090111-1.html

Q Now, the enhanced interrogation techniques, as some call them -- torture, as others call them-- are being argued over to this hour. Some are saying you never get any good information by rough stuff, and others have said -- more than once -- that if we hadn't used these techniques we wouldn't have had vital information and attacks could have been or would have been carried out on this country. Your view of that.

THE PRESIDENT: My view is that the techniques were necessary and are necessary to be used on a rare occasion to get information necessary to protect the American people. One such person who gave us information was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was the mastermind of the September the 11th, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on our soil.
And I'm in the Oval Office and I am told that we have captured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the professionals believe he has information necessary to secure the country. So I ask what tools are available for us to find information from him, and they gave me a list of tools. And I said, are these tools deemed to be legal. And so we got legal opinions before any decision was made. And I think when people study the history of this particular episode they'll find out we gained good information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in order to protect our country.

Q Well, how good and how important? And what's the --

THE PRESIDENT: We believe that the information we gained helped save lives on American soil.

######

If America does not prosecute this man, others will. Think about a former American President who can't travel outside of America for fear of arrest.

The Super Rich Must Help Us Save Them

I actually have people who know me that are among the super rich. Trick is, they don't read this blog. The other trick is, some of them hate my guts. So this bit of wisdom will be dust on the wind, but I'll through it up anyway. If by chance you know a really rich person send this to them. It might work you know.

Half of all the Wealth in American resides in the hands and control of 300,000 people. That is less than one tenth of one percent of the population of the country. That's right 0.001 of the American people own half (50%) of the wealth.

Now how they got it and why is not in question here. Most got it because we gave it to them.

The question is how can we help them keep it?
What the hell, you say.
Well if they lose it, you and I won't get it.
It will go to China, the Persian Gulf States, or evaporate.
If they keep it, they will have it to use, to invest it, and will have it for the U.S. to tax, and for them to give.

So it is in our best interest they they retain the bulk of their treasure.
It is in their best interest that they help us, help them to do so.

The ship is sinking.
Shall we all go down?
There are not enough life boats even for the 1/10th of 1 percent to survive.

You guys with the money, help us patch the hole.
Government will take too long.
You can work almost instantly.

Save yourselves. Save us. Save yourselves.

You probably have already lost 10% to 40% of your wealth. Let us help you save most of what is left.
Invest in the other 99.9% of your neighbors and fellow citizens. Fix things. Buy up mortgages and hold them payment free for a time. Lend money to start ups and small businesses that are sound but are on the brink. Increase the pay of your employees so that they can buy on the economy. Lend money to your employees at ridiculous low rates and long term payback. Help people get or keep and maintain transportation.

You already know what you can do.
This list is longer than I can imagine.
For your own sake, you own survival, do it, and do it now.

We can get back to the cultural and class wars later. Right now we are all in one class, the sinking one.

Help us!
Help us, save you!

What Is It About Those Shoe Trees?

No No, not that kind of shoe tree.




This kind of shoe tree.



So here we are driving down U.S. Highway 50 East of Reno, Nevada (claims to be the loneliest road in America, nope not by a long shot) and there seems to be something growing on a cottonwood tree up the road. There are dang few tree out there. More people in fact than trees. So, what was this.



A shoe tree. Why? What? Huh!.

Ok, there are hundreds of pairs of shoes tied together by their laces and hung in the tree.

But...why?

And the tree on Highway 50 wasn't the only one. We ran across this one at Ravendale, California. Checking the web, we find that these trees are growing all over the place. So far I've found references to shoe trees in the UK, Australia, and the Moon.

So what is the deal?

Come on, clue me in. Naw, not the B.S. stuff. All I want is a true why. Oh yes, and when will the movie come out.