BuzzFlash Mailbag for December 19, 2008

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Subject: Those Palins, its always something.

Bristol's baby is due tomorrow and her future mother-in-law was arrested on drug charges.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28313509/?GT1=43001

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: O What Fools These Mortals Be

Obama played us like a violin, Fooled us over and over again. Talked about the peoples' bread, That is how we were misled.

His promises were everywhere, Just like hot empty air. He talked of change and yes we can. He fooled woman, child, and man.

He is a charlatan, Who mesmerizes, with yes we can. All the time he knows deep down, Change will never come to town.

He has exponents of the status quo, Fill his cabinet row on row. And thinks we find it strange, That there will be no change.

Obana fooled the working class, Gave power to the ruling class. Obama fooled the middle class, Their dream will never come to pass.

How can he look in the looking glass? At such a liar and such an ass? How can he ever be? Respected by our history?

Obama is smart as a whip, He can lie without a slip. He can ruin and betray, The workers' hopes without delay.

He knows how to get our vote, With empty promises and hope. He also knows how to sell us out, When the power brokers come about.

Obama, Obama, he's the one, He just another politician. A person who deals in hope and lies, It's so terrible it terrifies.

Hope is really not a lie, But more like black mud in your eye. It is just a campaign tool, To mislead and charm and fool.

Obama led us off the cliff, What he said was mostly myth. Over our eyes he pulled the wool, With soaring rhetoric and tons of bull.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: The Torture Report

Here's a comment I had posted on the NYTimes website on their editorial "The Torture Report."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18thu1.html

The rejection of the Geneva Conventions, officially sanctioned torture, the abuse of prisoners, the rendition of suspects to third countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Morocco for torture, even the imprisonment and abuse of Muslim immigrants in the U.S. in 2001, and the lies the government told us and itself about what it was doing in our name are the sorriest and most appalling crimes of the Bush administration.

Documentaries everyone should see - "Taxi to the Dark Side" and "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib." There are at least a dozen books on rendition and on torture and abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay. There is no excuse for citizen ignorance.

The U.S. executed Japanese military for having water boarded U.S. soldiers during WW II.

The torture has not made us safer. On the contrary it may have put us at greater risk by making us violent and untrustworthy. We have trashed our reputation.

The Obama administration must immediately restore our government's commitment to the Geneva Conventions, denounce and discontinue torture, and then figure out how to hold Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the sad lot at the top accountable for their crimes. "The fish stinks from the head."

Comment #16, even an "Editor's Selection"

Other commenters said they didn't think Obama would do anything about holding Bush et al accountable. Can this be true?

The history of torture is a different category of problem from other pressing problems from the economy to health care to the environment to foreign policy.

Torture is a moral issue. As a nation we have sinned, "mortal sin" the Catholics call it. Speaking as an agnostic, I think we have lost our souls. If the incoming Obama administration treats this as another sort of political problem from which we should just move on I, for one, will be disillusioned. We need public acknowledgment and some form of punishment.

Colleen Clark
Cambridge MA

Subject: Rick Warren

Obama's choices are clearly indicating that he is going to play the same role as other Democratic leaders we have helped to put in power, that being nothing more than an appeaser to the GOP. Unfortunately, in my opinion, we've been had.

Bob

Subject: The reason for the upswing in recruiter suicides

Actually it's so simple that even Gomer Pyle could figure it out.

Cpl. Joe Jones is an Army recruiter in Houston, for instance. Sam Smith, a young man, visits him, and Joe recruits him. Joe is under pressure from his superiors to bring in a quota each month. He works long hours, and paints a rosy picture of the opportunities the military can bring young Sam. Let's say Joe is honest, and all the benefits are real and true.

Sam is inducted and now is in the tender care of Lt. Belial. Belial has no interest in putting Sam anywhere but in the front lines, irregardless of what was promised, or written down.

Sam is sent to Iraq and dies in action.

Lt. Belial may be in Washington, Dallas or anywhere. But he's not in Houston.

Cpl. Joe Jones is. So are Sam Smith's parents.

Sam's parents, friends, and loved ones all express their grief and anger on...no, not Lt. Belial. He's not in Houston. Joe Jones is.

Joe also recruited Fred France. Fred is on his third or fourth deployment. He can't come home. Jack Jersey keeps getting stop lossed. Mick Marvel was disabled, and can't get help or benefits. They're all from Houston. They all have families. They all know where to find Joe Jones, who goes to work everyday in Houston.

So Lt. Belial sleeps the sleep of the unconcerned each night. He has no one to answer to. While Cpl. Jones.....has a conscience.

Mike Curtis
Greenbrier Ark

Subject: Rick Warren/inauguration

Your position on Warren's selection to lead prayer at the Obama inauguration is polarizing (and quite shrill). You are encouraging people to take a for or against position on an issue that is much more complex and nuanced than you are acknowledging.

Minorities, women, gays, straights, rights, lefts, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, all live in the United States of America. This is a pluralistic society which means no one group should dominate the political spectrum.

I think it is quite courageous of Obama to reach out to the religious right. Whether or not you agree with them, does not change the fact they are part of the fabric of this country and that reality should not be ignored. Perhaps progressives should be progressive and help support bridges to open and honest dialogue with people they do indeed disagree with. I believe that this is what Obama is trying to do. I invite you to check out the link below on which is one person's point of view on why Prop 8 passed.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Harvey Milk-Steven Jonas

Steve, You ask...WHERE IS THE SPIRIT OF HARVEY MILK "NOW"? Next month on the 25th of January at the Gerber Hart Library, my exhibit WHEN THEN WAS...NOW! OPENS. IRONICALLY, IT WILL FEATURE A NEVER PUBLISHED PHOTO OF HARVEY. IT IS SIMILAR TO MY WELL KNOWN IMAGE OF HARVEY...and is the following frame - VISIT www.thecastro.net/street/memoriespage/pritikin/scene05.html

... except the back of the sign is showing and it says 'NOW".

Jerry Pritikin
Chicago, Il

Subject: Big Three Loan Details

Finally, the Bushkin decides to do something to help thousands of Americans keep their jobs by loaning two of the three auto companies loans.

My big burning question is this: A condition of the loan is the giving up of more by the members of United Auto Workers -- in addition to what they have already given up over the years.

Where are the give backs by white collar workers? Why weren't the same conditions forced upon the financial institutions and Wall Street bigwigs?

It is even more clear now that this a conspiracy by Bush and the southern states and their Senators to bust the UAW.

America was the best when it had a big manufacturing base and other people were buying goods from us. I recall an article stating that prior to Reagan, 25% of our economy was manufacturing based. Over the past decades, since Reagan and other Republican presidents, that has now slipped to 12% of our economical base.

Bush is determined to completely destroy what little is left of this once, great country -- as Robert Redford said in a recent interview, Bush may be a lame duck but he can still quack (or is a quack, or both).

Why is the everyday American supposed to keep losing, but the bigwigs who think we should keep losing don't have to give up anything? This is especially true for our hypocritical "public servants" who are supposed to represent us.

They are among the worst offenders and they should all be put on trial for white collar crimes. When Gitmo is finally cleansed of its enemy combatants, I suggest we make it a prison for domestic combatants, to include Presidents and members of their Administrations, and those representatives who are intent on destroying the America we grew up believing in and loving.

Lisa Johnson
Tacoma, WA

Subject: Obama, Warren, and much inaugural ado

He's disarming the opposition by dividing them with this clearly outreached hand across the aisle to the obviously diseased. Consequently, symbolism doesn't necessarily give any real power--and that includes faith-based anything.

Will Wyche

Subject: Imagine LBJ having Jerry Falwell do the Invocation.

Dear Barack,

You should prefer the company of any one of the six million gays and lesbians, (without whose votes you would not be President Elect), to a rich and powerful man who preaches hate. To have any one of them deliver the invocation would make a more powerful statement then the cowardly one you have chosen.

Just how inclusive is your statement, "This is our time," really? For all the talk about turning the page on the policies of the past, you make it clear that gays and lesbians are still second class citizens. They will fight for their rights. Will you?

Larry Allen
Oakland, CA

Subject: Strange, Deep Throat and Shallow Mind die the same day.

How strange, the guy who brought down Nixon and the one who brought down Clinton die on the same day, except Clinton refused to leave quietly. Of course, what Nixon did was impeachable and what Clinton did wasn't. Karen

Mark Felt, FBI official who became 'Deep Throat,' dead at 95

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ ci_11267900

Weyrich, Conservative Leader, Dies

http://www.nytimes. com/aponline/ 2008/12/18/ washington/ AP-Obit-Weyrich. html?_r=1&hp

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: iran

what's really going on? remember iran, that axis of evil?

layla anwar is the queen of blogging on the middle east.

http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Crimes and the democratic congress

Our democratic congress is not going to call for the prosecution of Bush and Cheney because it would prove that many Senate and House members were enablers and actually complicit in the criminal acts the Bush Administration committed. Their response to the American people's call for justice is going to be a "commission" for each of the crimes committed and with no special prosecutors. These commissions will undoubtedly decide that the crimes committed were not actual crimes but simply "BAD POLICIES THAT HAD GOOD INTENTIONS"......This is the road the beltway boys and girls are going to lead us down for the next two years or so. Also it's beginning to look like Cheney is right and the new President and Congress just might covet and enjoy the new powers the republicans usurped from the American people.

lawton
Springdale

[BuzzFlash Note: On Olbermann Thursday, Keith and John Dean argued that a commission would move slowly and thus probably allow an 8-year statute of limitations run out so that nobody could be prosecuted.]

Subject: Rick Warren

After reading Thom Hartmann's article about three cups of tea for Rick Warren I had to fix myself a strong cup of coffee. It helps dispel the foul taste in my mouth and it ain't from the tea. It's from the soon-to-be President's complete lack of sensitivity toward the last remaining scapegoats in America -- the LGBT community. If this is his idea of "reaching out" then we're in for a sad awakening.

The right-wing religious nuts are NOT going to change. They are NOT going to support gays, they are NOT going to work to encourage the passage of legislation giving equal rights to all. They are NOT going to! I have never once seen any indication they will, and I've been around almost as long as Shirley in St. Louis (love that woman).

Frankly, I see it as perfectly insensitive of Obama to appoint a bigot to lead this country in prayer especially right after Proposition Hate was passed in CA -- with not a little help from said bigot. He's (Obama) only succeeded in stirring up a hornet's nest of resentment stemming from a serious injury having been dealt to millions of Americans, who, by the way, probably did as much or more to get him elected as anyone. I thought he was smarter than that. Hurting an entire class of people to placate a bunch of bigots is beyond the pale.

On a brighter note this is a wake-up call for me. I now see our "savior" as just another cynical politician covering his future butt. I sure sobered up in a hurry with this huge slap in the face.

However, this too will pass. We gays are more resilient than you can possibly imagine. It's the strength we gain from being hated and excluded. You see, when people hate you for no logical reason at all you tend to venture "inward" in order to survive. You discover your inner resources. You learn how to survive and thrive despite all adversity.

In closing I still wish Obama well and can only hope he surprises me and the rest of my lesbian, gay, bi and transgender brothers and sisters with some serious support of our civil rights. But I am not holding my breath.

Talk is cheap Mr. President-Elect!

Steve Moore
Camptonville, CA

Subject: Off with their heads!

Since the Senate made public its committee's conclusion last week that Bush and The Usual Suspects are directly responsible for implementing the use of Gestapo-caliber interrogation techniques on "detainees," I have been in a frenzy of contacting everyone I can think of to tell their representatives that Bush issuing an across-the-board pardon for his gang of jackbooted thugs is absolutely unacceptable! So far, only Sen. Durbin has had the spine to proclaim as much.

The gang's penchant for torture is yet another demonstration of its having, from Day One, reacted to terrorism by converting to its gospel.

Moreover, President-elect Obama should be deluged with similar messages of zero-tolerance for a failure to demand accountability for the genocide of hundreds of thousands. These people have dragged the country's honor through the muck and mire of their own drunk-with-power world view. It's high time that all of us got our good names back, dammit! I am urging everyone who's polite enough to listen that we must all convey the message to Mr. Obama that complacency in this matter would be tantamount to complicity.

ellie remore
monroe, ny

Subject: madoff's victims

Hi, Buzz!

So Bernie Madoff has made off with a lot of people's money, has he?

I wonder if anyone is saying about his victims what EVERYONE was saying (everyone in the MSM, that is) about the victims of predatory sub-prime mortgage lenders? To wit:

"It's clear to me that the people who lost money to Madoff don't deserve any sympathy. They made irresponsible investments and now they have to pay the price."

I don't watch the MSM news, so I don't know whether anyone is saying this. I would be surprised if they were, however, since after all, Madoff operates on Wall Street rather than Anytown, USA. Apparently only ordinary people are required to be responsible when it comes to money.

Having said that, I must also state that I hope Madoff gets the book thrown at him. The fact that people fall for such schemes doesn't make what he did okay.

Jane Hawes
Edmond, OK (still a red-state Democrat)

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