BuzzFlash Mailbag for January 19, 2009

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Subject: DAVID MICHAEL GREEN

PLEASE READ

The Bushies Stole Us Blind ... So, How'd You Like Your Beer?  (alternet.org)

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: HBO cut Robinson's Prayer from the broadcast

The HBO broadcast of the We Are One inaguration celebration cut the prayer by Gene Robinson out of the broadcast.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/01/why-was-rev-gen.html

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: On The Eve Of A New Presidency May This Be The Last Ever Roll Call Of Martyrs From The Killing Fields Of Afghanistan And Iraq Or Anywhere Else

"Justin L. Bauer, staff sergeant, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Daniel B. Bennett, lance corporal, Marine Corps."

"Present and accounted for."

"Keith E. Essary, specialist, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Joseph M. Hernandez, specialist, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Sean P. McCune, private, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Brian M. Mescall, major, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Jason R. Parsons, corporal, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"Marquis R. Porter, sergeant, Marine Corps."

"Present and accounted for."

"Joshua L. Rath, sergeant, Army."

"Present and accounted for."

"And for those who ask just what was it that these eight Americans died for, they died that there be no war no more, nowhere, never, not even one."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Time Is Running Out On Israel

"Why?"

"Gaza's looking more and more like the Warsaw Ghetto."

"Anything else?"

"Along with last week's shutdown of the Israeli and Jewish consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco by Jewish anti-Zionists, there's the January 4th Rasmussen Report that Jewish support for Israel is on the decline."

"Which means?"

"Zionists won't be able to intimidate people into supporting Israel for fear that, if they don't, they'll be branded as either anti-Semites or self-hating Jews."

"And the Obama administration?"

"It'll listen to the people."

"Based on?"

"Yes we can."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: No further attacks

Bush administration officials tell us Bush kept us safe because there were no further attacks since 9/11/01. But when you get right down to it, there was no need for further attacks. According to Bush's own words, "they hate us for our freedoms". But ignoring the warning of Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty or security", Americans stood by while this administration put the Constitution through the paper shredder. Wiretaps without court order, mere dissent being regarded as treason, library records demanded by FBI and library staff forbidden to inform patron. And Americans relinquished their freedoms because they were terrified, and said terror was expertly exploited by Bush et al.

If anyone has earned the right to stand under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, it is Osama Bin Laden

Dennis McCann
New Orleans LA

Subject: In Defense of Public Schools

Our sad departing president, among the most incurious and anti-intellectual national leaders in US history, last night said farewell and hammered home yet again his central message to the American people. "Be afaid! Yes, be very afraid!" Fear mongering kept George W. Bush in power for eight excruciatingly long years but it remains tragic how far this country fell from FDR-style leadership and, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." In fact Bush brought us full circle. We're going to have Hoovervilles again and the Greatest Depression. In his final days in office Bush hung on desperately to one delusion of grandeur. And what a grand delusion it was! Heaven help us, in his mind, and maybe in his mother's "beautiful mind", he was the education president. No question, the Bush Administration has directed the public schools along a new path. They're going to this place right behind all those Americans enjoying their new homes in Bush's "ownership society" and right behind the flagships of the global economy like Lehman Brothers, AIG, and General Motors. The NCLB-era of educational policy in the US is the evil spawn of the globalization of our economy. That process is at the very foundation of the business model for schools, charters, vouchers, data driven instruction, merit pay, standardized testing, and most perversely of all, paying students to consume the corporate version of knowledge. It was the reason the Business Roundtable, Bill Gates, and the Walton and Bush families were the driving forces behind these absurd and perverse educational policies. The CEO's wanted a profit making private school system in their race with China and India to lowest possible wage for workers. In their new economy there would be Wal-Mart and plenty of security guard jobs or the military for the kids that used to go to public schools. These Milton Friedman-inspired Reagan revolutionaries will mark the Bush years as the zenith of their power. This era spit up characters like Rod Paige, Margaret Spellings, Armstrong Williams, Michael Bloomberg, Jack Welch, Jeb Bush, Ruby K. Payne, and more ominously for the future, Arne Duncan. It was certainly the time the attack on public education appeared ready to bear fruit. They had public school system wreckers like Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein in place, kids were dropping out in droves, and teachers were in full flight. But just as they were breaking out that "Mission Accomplished" banner from the White House basement, just then their rationale for being, their precious global economy, crashed! In recent days they have had to do $326 billion CPR on Citigroup (still the bank will be broken up and the pieces sold off in three months), scrambled to rescue the Big Three, and printed billions in new money. Madoff has made off with about $50 billion and he's just one of many ponzi schemers. Their pride and joy is on fire. It was supposed to be immutable. It was eternal! Now that attitude's all gone. There's only panic on Wall Street and investor flights to safety. Treasuries and negative returns are hot now. The financiers who are not killing themselves or at least faking their deaths have the fingers on both hands crossed for President Obama. Any talk of NCLB are prayers said over a corpse. Soon it will be every private school and charter school investor for himself. Private school students are being moved to the public schools by their debt ridden parents in significant numbers already. And from his Dallas retirement home (or his land in Paraguay if he should have to leave the country suddenly) George Bush will watch the last vestige of his legacy, including new U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan if he holds to the old world, go up in smoke.

Paul A. Moore
Public School Teacher

Subject: A Salute to Heroes

On January 15, 2009, just five days before the inauguration of this country’s first black president, a US Airways plane guided by the steady hands of its pilot and copilot, made an emergency landing on the restless waters of the Hudson River in New York City. In a way, the successful landing and the successful election of the President-elect, reflect the courage and steadiness of purpose that so exemplifies great moments and great heroes in our history. Whether piloting a plane with one hundred and fifty five souls aboard or piloting a country with millions of souls aboard, it is essential the commander in charge have both the intellect and commitment to conquer the challenges that confront them. It was the calm, professional demeanor and unwillingness to give up that allowed pilot “Sully” Sullenberger and his copilot Jeffrey Skiles to save the lives of a diverse group of strangers sharing a common challenge. It was that same professional and calm demeanor and an unwillingness to give up which propelled Barack Obama and Joe Biden into the highest office of our land.

Like the passengers of flight 1549, we travel with our new President and Vice President on the ship of state. The United States of America was and is a nation of diverse people coming together to confront common challenges. The people on flight 1549 were a united group of strangers who, like ourselves, were committed to living through the worst of times on a cold winter’s day so that they could awake once more to a warm sun and a bright future. It is up to each of us, strangers all, to help our President and Vice President succeed where failure is not an option. It is up to us to honor the heroism of the survivors of that fateful flight and to take away a lasting sense that this nation can and will live to see brighter days.

George Gerber

Subject: irony

Hi, Buzz!!

It's Sunday as I write, and tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. I note that it's also Robert E. Lee's birthday.

Ironic.

Especially in light of the fact that Tuesday is Inauguration Day, and we're swearing in a black man as President.

God bless the United States of America!

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

Subject: Lincoln Memorial Bash

Will the rest of us, who do not have HBO get to see it?

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

[BuzzFlash Note: NPR had full coverage and HBO will rebroadcast it today (Monday). You might be able to see it on HBO.com.]

Subject: BuzzFlash as a Heretic

BuzzFlash,

Your promotion of the DVD The God Who Wasn't There is straight from the 700 Club playbook. How kind of you to give a person permission to still believe. I understand your frustration with the Religious Right, but because some people print counterfeit money, do we get rid of money? People have opposed Christianity for over 2000 years, but wait BuzzFlash has the answer (LOL). You should practice what you preach, stick to politics. I can put up with your infatuation with Obama, obviously he is your god. Apparently you don't realize he is the same politician, only a new package. In the age of money politics this clown comes out of know where, yeah right. You don't believe in God, but you do believe in modern fairy tales. The Religious Right put their head in the sand with Bush, you're doing the same with Obama, of course all in the name of enlightment. Danny

Danny Woodall

[BuzzFlash Note: When do you take a break and celebrate?]

Subject: up new york!

Hi, Buzz!!

Thanks for the video of the emergency landing on the Hudson River. What an event, and what a display of courage by everyone involved!

Rachel Maddow said it best: When something bad happens, "New Yorkers run toward the danger." When that plane went down in the river, New Yorkers did it again, from the plane's crew to the ferry operators and passengers, to the EMTs who made sure everyone got the care they needed. Everyone did everything right, everything that was needed, without hesitation or thought of personal risk.

Once again, I take my hat off to New York City; her people will not be defeated!

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

Subject: Obama Election and Inauguration

I am originally from Atlanta and presently live in Henry County, Georgia, which lies to the southeast of downtown Atlanta. Henry County was at one time the fastest growing county in the U.S. and has never fallen further than sixth fastest in the past ten years.

My fifteen-year old son, who, like myself, is staunchly anti-Bush, has informed of a few things recently that I found disturbing:

1-The day after the most recent election he stated that many kids absent that day from school. I commented that it must be because they stayed up late to watch the election results. He said that was not the case . . . He said the students parents kept them home because they feared "riots" at the local schools since Obama won the election. My son's high school is approximately 60/40 racial make-up. I am white as is, of course, my son.

2-On Inauguration Day, the school administration has made it mandatory that the school video system be tuned to the inaugural events in all classrooms. My son tells me many of the parents of white students have called the school and school board to complain. Many of them plan to keep their children out of school that day. Why would they not want their high school children to witness the swearing in of a new president? If the winner had been McCain, would they complain?

Since the election, I have found that many people I thought I knew better are ignorant, fearful people. Bush may have an approval rating of 22% nationally, but here in Henry County, it is closer to 90%.

Christopher
Stockbridge, GA

Subject: Do they breed blond bimbos for fun and profit?

During the Clinton years it was Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Barbara Olsen. All too old for stringy blond hair and in Coulter's case hems and necklines that nearly meet. Barbara was on the plane that hit the Pentagon and that is why I don't buy the conspiracy theories about a missle. No one could shut Barbara up for 8 years.

Enter Kellyanne Conway, Republican strategist/ blond bimbo. She was Phi Beta at Trinity U, but you can't tell it from her answers. I have no idea how Samantha B from the Daily Show was able to do this without laughing out-loud. I have included the link to the segment, but my favorite part was after Samantha pointed out how Dubya hadn't kept many of his 2000 promises.

"Kellyanne: The policies of the Republican Party are less a problem than the image. The country is at it’s essence a small “c” conservative country."

From where I live that "c" is not only a "C", the thing is surrounded in exclamation points and prayer candles. I don't care how they package the GOP it will still stink like a week-old catfish in burlap.

"Samantha B(narrating): While that’s an utterly meaningless expression Conway has a meaningful solution."

"Kellyanne: Republicans need for people to even stop and notice the product and not say ick and keep walking."

See above: You will smell this product before you round the corner and will likely toss your cookies before you can see it.

"Samantha B: So it’s not the economy or the war, it’s the packaging."

After the way they wrapped the war in red, white and blue and tied it with a bow of fear the size of Manhattan, if the gift is from the GOP sink it in a tub of water or it will explode.

"Kellyanne: The packaging of the Republican Party currently screams to the average consumer: 'don’t touch this, stand back.'"

Truer words were never before spoken by a GOP blond bimbo. They can package the entire GOP in thousand dollar bills and it will still stink.

"Samantha B: It’s like the Republican Party is a bleep sandwich. How do you get Americans to eat the sandwich?"

You are going to love this answer and she shrugs and grins so cute.

Kellyanne: You dip it in chocolate and you say it has no calories.

They did that exact same thing with the war and those WMD and it took 7 damn years for America to wake up and smell that chocolate covered cow paddy and she thinks they can do it again? Is she actually saying that the GOP can cover it in lies and half truths, say it's God's will, again, and the USA will swallow it with a chocolate shake?

If they do, just give me a tent and I'll live in the outback.

The rest of this piece gets a bit silly, but the Kellyanne crap is worth the time.

http://vodpod.com/watch/1292852-samantha-b-rebranding-gop

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: Tale of two landings...

There were two crash landings Thursday. One was the impossibly-safe descent of a U.S. Airways Jet into the Hudson River. The other was the final speech of George W. Bush.

In one, Captain Chesley Sullenberger took a plane destined to crash into pieces, killing everyone onboard and maneuvered it to safety.

On the other, Captain George W. Bush took a thriving, healthy country, destined to be one of the world's greatest and crashed it into an abyss.

Captain Sullenberger is everything George W. Bush has wanted to be in life and never could -- heroic, intelligent, and capable.

Bush has tried everything to be that guy -- donned flight suits, talked tough (from the safety of his oval office), and sent others to war. And yet the harder he tries, the more true greatness eludes him.

What perfect timing... after his monotonous speech Thursday, Bush had no choice than to slink off and do what the rest of the country was doing --watching the real hero. No doubt, its a recurring nightmare in this little man's life and so richly deserved.

Laurie
CT

Subject: Dubya going out like he came in.

I was listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me the funny news show on NPR. The MC was saying that Dubya was to the English Language what the iceberg was to the Titanic.

He used a few quotes, like, "I know how hard it is to put food on your family." and "If you teach a child to read, him or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

He said Dubya was going out just like he came in. In his last press conference, while talking about the problems of his successor he said, "I'm telling you there is an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans again, there just is, that's the reality of the world and I wish him the very best."

He wishes that enemy the very best.

Karen Webb
Moore, Ok

Subject: Send Bush a farewell

Dear Folks,

If anyone wishes to send President George W. Bush a fond (cough, cough) farewell, here is the email address one uses, gwbfarewell@gmail.com. You will get an auto-response back from Karl Rove…grin. Make them good… I sent this email address my column, Goodbye and good riddance to President George W. Bush and the true Bush legacy. Best, Mary!

Mary

Subject: Markmyword and Eric Holder 1/16 /09

You are placing too much faith in Mr. Holder. According to Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Mr. Holder is leaning toward non prosecution of Bush and Cheney.

Mr. Holder according to the Professor is making the case for not prosecuting by decriminalizing policy.

"POLICY[IN THIS CASE BUSH POLICY]IS NOT CRIMINAL."

Water boarding is criminal but policy is not. It's a reach but an excuse Holder is pursuing. Professor Turley believes this is the path Eric Holder has chosen to go down in his efforts to allow Bush and Cheney to walk free of criminal charges.

When did the American people give Attorney Generals the power to interpret our nation's laws and only prosecute criminals as they see fit? Is that not under the auspices of our courts? This action if allowed to stand will set precedents that will eventually lead America into a fascist state. As if we are not there already?

lawton watson
Springdale AR

Subject: Pulling the TARP over America's Dead Body

Hi Buzz & Friends,

Check this out from today's NYT:

"Two weeks after closing its purchase of Merrill Lynch at the urging of federal regulators, the government cemented a deal at midnight Thursday to supply Bank of America with a fresh $20 billion capital injection and absorb as much as $98.2 billion in losses on toxic assets, according to people involved in the transaction." Thursday as in last night.

That's $120B on on top of the $341B already spent (the numbers are actually in the trillions, but who can even conceive of that much debt). So, if math is still fashionable at all: 350-120=230. That's just for one bank and they're still broke after all that much taxpayer money. So we're down to 230 billion and it's only Friday. How much will be left by Tuesday? Zero is my guess. It took 3 months to lose the first 350B and 3 days to lose the second. And we haven't even taken into account the biggest bleeding bank of all, CitiGroup. Only the NYT has got the guts to even mention the subject of nationalization, the very thing that was inevitable from the beginning:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/business/16banking.html?th&emc=th

President Obama has just two choices; either strong arm these banks or strong arm the public. I'm praying that he'll do the former. Because BofA made the wrong decision in buying Merrill, they'll likely have to go bust as well or somehow back out of the deal they made with Paulson. I hope they'll be able to wiggle out of it and remain at least somewhat intact. A.P. Giannini is probably rolling over in his grave - for the second time. The reference is to the episode chronicled in the excellent book: Breaking the Bank.

No matter how much blood is spilt on Wall Street - we have to let these TB2F entities go bust. They're already bust, but it's being carefully kept a big secret. The treasury simply does not have enough money - or credit - to bail them out. It won't be the first time we've had to nationalize the banks and whether people like it or not that's what we're going to have to do this time. Call it socialism, communism or even satanism - it's what has to be done. It's either that or put U.S. Army tanks on the streets of our cities. I don't know how many nature shows you've seen, but big dead carcasses don't just lie about in the open.

The most shameful thing of all is that the Obama team seems to be walking away from prosecuting the perps. Bare is mind that no one has been jailed over this huge fiasco. The day that some bankers and bushies are taken away in handcuffs will mark the day that America starts on the road to recovery. Don't listen to congress - especially no the leadership - they're the biggest liars that could possibly be imagined. They helped to engineer this whole thing.

I hope Obama has some steel in his backbone. The talk we're hearing now is not encouraging. "There's not doubt that we had to stabilize the banking system" and "it might have been much worse". How could it have been worse? He is still talking as if the TARP2 funds are still there - but they're nearly half gone within a day of them being made available.

I want to enjoy the inauguration as much as anyone - it is an historic occasion. But what's happening around us in these last few days in the bushes is just to important to be diverted from it for even an instant. My guess is that the remaining 230 billion will be gone by Tuesday when the window of opportunity will finally slam closed on these perps.

Tim Mooring
San Francisco

Subject: Warren did not compare himself to Hitler

Warren did not compare himself to Hitler - he compared Jesus to Hitler.

Maezeppa
Los Angeles

Subject: The Green Revolution/Propping up Perps into Perpetuity

Hi Buzz & Friends,

Congress has got a lot of spunk - you have to hand it to them. My favorite comment so far has been Senator Barbara Boxer's: "The PE needs this in his pocket ...". It is to laugh - or cry depending on what's in your pocket. There's a cyclical process at work that's sucking the nation into a very deep depressio: The economy goes down. The perps are "suffering". The perps get bailed. And repeat.

How long can this go on? At $350B a whack whack not very. BofA has gotten $25B to help it "absorb" Merrill-Lynch - like a boa constrictor eating a big boar pig. Notice that they get their money right now. The stimulus bill for something other than a bank will have to wait, the one that was supposed to be on his desk on 1/20, until sometiem in February. Congress will have grown "wary" of stimulus packages by then and Americans will get nothing but a whirly-gig for their head.

Obama is beginning to piss me off. He comes on TV this morning talking about how many jobs have been lost. Do you think it's an accident that Obama chose a wind energy company as the setting to defend his bank bailout? This is the kind of wind energy that we're looking for?

We won't be getting the $700B back and Americans won't even remember it by mid-February. The people that drove America into the dirt are doing there utmost to bury us in it. And we're helping. Have you ever seen MSM talking heads laughing and giggling so much? They just love this stuff. I'm glad the plane crashed (and that no one was hurt) into the Hudson, because otherwise it would have had to be another little missing white girl in Georgia or Mississippi. Whatever it takes to keep Americans distracted from what's actually happening.

We need to get this inauguration over so that Barack Believers can come down out of the clouds and realize that nothing has changed. We were getting screwed before, we're getting screwed now and tomorrow there'll be a basketball court in the White House. That will be about as much infrastructure as the country can afford. Even if there is a stimulus package for someone other than the banks it will be in the form of another $500 check. Stampedes at Wal-Mart stores is set to surpass heart attacks and cancer as the leading cause of death in America.

I've been to change.gov and it's just the sort of bit bucket for ideas that I expected to be. There's nobody at home there so don't even waste your time. They could be creating jobs right now by making that site into something other than the farce that it is. Stick with Buzz people unless you want to talk about ET & Mary Jane - if that's your bent then change.gov is the place for you.

Does anyone honestly believe that zero jobs created is the best that we can do. What about that wind energy plant - couldn't they create a couple of jobs if they were to get some funding? There's lots more just like them around the country - all ready, anxious and highly motivated to get this country moving forward. But what about the poor banks? What would they get out of it. They need that money in their pocket - otherwise we're going to be in a world of hurt. Meanwhile job cuts are ballooning up every day and there's not a loan in sight and there's not going to be. In this economy - are you kidding?

Obama will get all the money he wants as long as it's for the banks. His lofty speech about "yes we can" is completely gone. The new line is "No we can't". Even with the bank stimulus it could take years for the economy to get better. That's something you can believe in. That $350B could have created a lot of jobs. Instead it's created a lot of wealth for the top .0001% of Americans.

The Green Revolution has turned out to be something for fat cat bankers only.

Tim Mooring
San Francisco

Subject: Inauguration Bound

So I'm getting on a bus this evening (1/16) headed for Washington D.C., staying at a friend of a friend's for the weekend to be part of, and embedded in, what should be an unprecedented and historic event, the Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. I'm gonna try to "live blog" from DC at the Squid's Ink via the old iPhone. We'll see how that goes. I've never done it before.

I'm not sure whether I'm more excited, nervous, or quite simply in disbelief that this is actually happening and that I'll be there for it. I am sure that I couldn't stop saying "bush's FAREWELL ADDRESS" last night. I still want him held accountable, but at least he is Out of Our White House for good!

If you're watching the Inauguration (or the Opening ceremony/concert Sunday), look for the guy yelling GObama!! and flashing a peace sign. Can you believe that it actually happened? And that it's finally here??

To Progress!

Dave

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