BAM! Just Like That!: Why is this man smiling??

On the left you can see Tom DeLay.
As lyrics penned by Ray Davies of the Kinks might state it, "He's a well respected man about town, doing the best things so conservatively". A "have" as the term goes.
Mr. DeLay is under indictment for alleged fraud and swindle on a national, political level. His honor, integrity and trustworthiness to the American people as a whole are all under question.

On the right we have Dwayne Thomas.
Arrested this fall in St. Paul, Minneapolis for allegedly threatening his girlfriend.
While true, this was a boorish thing to do, it really had no repercussions on the average tax paying citizen and besides Dwayne was not elected as a matter of trust like Tom was. Dwayne is a "have not".

Dwayne's mug shot is typical of those we see daily on the network news and in the press. A large man with an intimidating gaze photographed while someone insisted as a matter of process that he not smile at the camera. His being black just adds to the fear factor allure that attracts and compells Joe and Jane Average to refrain from questioning authority and thankfully going along with the program in place by local and federal law enforcement because they feel they are being protected from people like Dwayne.
It also helps the network news retain good ratings.
Joe and Jane still haven't come to realize that they are more in need of protection from glad handing people like Tom.
Even less do they understand that if Dwayne or anyone of any or no color what so ever, were so inclined as to do Joe or Jane harm, the system which Tom is a part of wouldn't arrive until that damage was already done making their effectiveness in this arena pretty much a moot point.
On the other hand, the odds of the system that allowed Tom to (allegedly) pilfer and profit while hiding behind his position of power, to protect Joe and Jane are equally moot since Tom is the system created to protect Joe and Jane. And both Tom and that system allowed, if not contributed to just that happening (allegedly) in spite of itself.

Ah, but then there's Tom's mug shot. It's the epitome of smugness and a far cry of an exception to the rule as to what law enforcement would have ever let Dwayne get away with during his fifteen infamous minutes in the sun.
Dwayne's picture like so many other of society's minor offenders, menacing, somewhat disheveled and feral, captured for posterity and the typical prurient interest of an item on the evening news, intentinally portrays a good reason to lock your doors and windows before bed.
Yet with the explicit grace of law enforcement, Tom is granted to smile out at us with confidence, a joi de vie and a complete lack of any remorse.
Much like a game show host who smilingly expresses regret at our loss, he absolves himself of all involvement or guilt as if offering a home version of the game as consolation for our family enjoyment.
Then he quickly introduces this weeks next contestant.
But it's us... the American people... all over again.
And for Tom, as his picture would seem to imply, it's all just a game show.

Seasons Greetings

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and the wrong.....because sometime in your life you will have been all of these."
Merry Christmas, Everyone!

BAM! Just Like That: Fool me once...(more)...

"Now, by the way, anytime you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order.
Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.
It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."
Speech given by President George W. Bush
April 20, 2004

Bush Defends Secret Spying in the U.S.
By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Dec 18, 2005 — Facing angry criticism and challenges to his authority in Congress, President Bush on Saturday unapologetically defended his administration's right to conduct secret post-Sept. 11 spying in the United States as "critical to saving American lives".
Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has eavesdropped on the international phone calls and e-mails of people inside the United States without court-approved warrants.
December 18, 2005

And so, even while assuring the American people in 2004 that things were otherwise, he was knowingly and actively (had been since 2001) authorizing the NSA to eavesdrop at will on anyone without the required court approval to do so.
A blatant, deliberate lie and deception.
Aside from obvious dishonesty, a case could well be made for the abuse of power and willfully misleading the American people.
Strangely, on this, as well as so many other conflicting Iraq invasion related issues in the last three years, the American people and their representatives remain silent.
Paradoxically, Clinton, who lied about his own personal affairs…an isolated incident having no effect on the nation or on his official duties as President, was facing impeachment and removal from office.
What's wrong with this picture??
And what the hell is wrong with us?

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: All I want for Christmas...

1. I wish that the 800 million people who are under fed and under nourished in the world can find some decent food or move to some place where they can grow it for themselves on a regular basis. I hear there are lots of places with good soil on this planet (its called "Earth" fer chrissake!) instead of repeatedly killing seed in sun baked, nutrient depleted crap dirt!
2. I wish the 3 million displaced people of Casmir and Pakistan, due to earthquakes can find shelter for the winter. (Fortunately many already have industry and employment. Call for computer support sometime. Who answers the phone? Uh-huh.)
3. I wish Tracy Chapman would stumble upon what polyphonic melodies and chord progressions are before ClearChannel radio bombards us with another of her latest "tunes" every 15 minutes on network radio. I know 3 year olds in sandboxes that can compose with more complexity and color!
4. Speaking of radio, I wish NPR would finally come up with enough ch-ching to really give network radio a run for its money. Then perhaps admit that with operating figures at multi-millions of dollars each year that they too, truly are network radio and get off my back for pledge drives seemingly every month ending in the letters L, E, Y, T and/or R.
5. I wish that George Bush and the current administration could have at least a fleeting understanding of the concepts of truth and accountability and then, realizing they'll never get beyond the theoretical aspects of these ethics, leave office to someone…anyone else. I don't care if it's one of the Gambinos!
6. I wish that Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie would develop some actual talent or die from the lack of oxygen in the entertainment vacuum that they've helped create. No. No. That's cruel and unrealistic. Um…dying would be more likely achievable, would suffice nicely and would make a lot of peoples lives simpler.
7. I wish Time Magazine would stop spending a year looking for its "Person of the Year" and then ultimately pick multiple people and call them "Persons of the Year". It hurts their credibility by appearing indecisive and really decreases my chances to be chosen for this coveted honor.
8. I wish, just once, someone would witness both the Boogie Man and Osama bin Laden in the same place at the same time so we could know for sure that they really are two separate entities.
9. I wish Will Farrell would never be cast as the lead in another movie. Ok, well maybe Anchor Man II if it ever gets made and only with those other guys in it… but that's about as far as I'll go.
10. And finally, now that victory in the war on terror is well within reach and we have been assured for years that a free Iraq will eradicate global terrorism completely, I wish Dennis Miller would put his brief Monday Night Football color commentary career faux pas and fear of being personally attacked behind him, return to his liberal, "question authority" roots and regain his original sense of humor. (Actually, Dennis "that's just my opinion...I could be wrong. Let's have pie!!")

BAM! Just like that! "Can you hear me now?"

This is where the home truth lives!
President Bush defended his authorization of eavesdropping on private American citizens this weekend and on Saturday, 85% of those who answered the ABC online poll ("unscientific and strictly for entertainment purposes" of course!) think that that's a good thing. "Groovy" wasn't the wording used but I got all tingly when I read it. So I figure that may have been the overall implication. Although "hunky-dory" also came to mind.
When a person in the seat of power (of any country) decides that his/her particular opinion on any given issue justifies over riding existing constitutional statutes protecting citizen's rights and those people find it in any way acceptable; that country is truly heading down the garden path and into a heap o' trouble, Hoss.
It doesn't help at all that fear was the catalyst in that reasoning process.
It still smells bad.
History points to at least one European Chancellor of the late 30's that got away with this sort of arrogant, self deluded omnipotence condoned due to the ignorance or the need for law and order of that citizenry and well, the rest is some sorry, sorry history indeed.
Let's just hope that sometime between now and 2008, this guy doesn't decide that in the interest of our national security he should stay in office for another term or so, huh?
Sure that would be extreme. But extremes are met all the time.
Don't worry folks. It can't happen here.
Really??
I'm sure there was a Heinz or a Helga in the past who took comfort in that belief…for a little while, at any rate.

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: The sin of embellishment

According to a small human interest piece in the news today, someone (whomever the powers may be,) has the awesome responsibility to intercept and peruse the hundreds and hundreds of unanswered letters addressed to Santa at this time each year.
No. I'm not about to bludgeon Bush or the Patriot Act in this piece! Promise.
Taking things a step further, this entity has gone to the trouble of compiling the top choices made by the little ones in their lists of favors they would like Santa to deliver to them on Christmas eve. (Ok, Ok. It's probably some guy in a marketing firm somewhere.)
Topping the list were electronic gadgets of one sort or another, followed by assorted other toys of the non battery/electric using variety.
The thing that caught my eye was that some of the data put together was centered on the all and powerful "who was naughty, who was nice" question.
In each and every case, 100% of the letters mentioning behavior of any kind all unequivocally made reference in the affirmative. Yes, all of them, each boy and every girl, assured Santa that they had been good all year.
It occurs to me, that this very innocent omission is probably the very first experience in creative resume writing that these kids or many of us ever have in life.
After adulthood with all those years of this sort of prerequisite behind us it just gets better and better.

BAM! Just like that! Reluctant accountability...Freedom of the vote...Un-Vikings-like behavior...and feel the burn.

* Bush has taken responsibility for the intel failures that led to our invading Iraq. Small consolation now that everyone knows it and there's no possible way of it ever finding its way under the rug in history.
Too little. Too late. Very timely accountability, however. Bravo. And thanks a bunch. In itself, it's not such a bad gesture, provided one can ignore that the intel was bad all along and the President still went full steam ahead and invaded another country based on that and this administration's obvious reliance on and embellishment of those flaws.
A ship's Captain, making a gross misjudgement based on bad information would lose his command. It seems however that a Captain of State does not. Go figure.
Bush did far less for bolstering the impact of his (apology?) acceptance of responsibility when he pretty much insisted that he (somehow) did the right thing none the less by removing Saddam's regime in Iraq. On what grounds could he possibly be making that assessment? On the use of bad intel which he now accepts responsibility for, conveniently after the 12 year agenda that Perl, Rove And Wolfwitz dreamed up during his Daddy's presidency was finally set in motion with no chance of being brought up short?? Is this man basically telling us that he made his decisions and that they were the proper ones to make, based on all the wrong reasons and justifications? How can a mere mortal do something like that.
We can only thank God this wasn't a matter of issuing a nuclear first strike under that same set of circumstances and coincidences. Or he could very well have been making his recent speech to but a handful of surviving American citizens who would be as unimpressed as I am while they were hunkering down with rad fever for a long cold and lethal nuclear winter! Duh, thanks, GW! But for the grace, Baby!

* Iraq elections are over now. Pundits say it may be a couple weeks before the tallies are in. I haven't heard much on just who will be amassing these figures. I'm probably better off not knowing. An imposed election being judged by virtually hand picked officials by the occupation is just the beginning of this Outer Limits episode.
Beyond that word has it that there was a field of candidates that amounted to about a thousand people! How in the world a country that is as ill prepared in democracy and infrastructure as Iraq is, is going to manage coming to an agreement on who will lead or represent them is beyond me.
In America we have a limited field of candidates and supposedly the most advanced polling system in use globally, and look what happened in 2000 in a simple balloting process with just two candidates? I have to wonder just how more muted the voice of the people would be had we an invading occupier doing their best to oh, so impartially manage the process and lead us by the hand to our own self determination.
Am I cynical? Often, but not always. Yet in this situation? Yeah. I reek of it.

* Four members of the Minnesota Vikings were charged today for their involvement in a "sex party" aboard a privately chartered yacht in October. What? Illegal use of hands? Personal foul? Unsportsman-like conduct? Sounds a whole lot like consensual adult fun and games to me. No one was kidnapped, raped or forced to do anything against their will. Old Leif Erickson and the original Norse Vikings must be laughing in their graves! Now those guys knew about how to throw parties! Of course then it was called something else, and rightly so. All without so much as a slap on the wrist.
But that's how we like things these days. You can go out and publicly knock someone's block off every Sunday, to the television viewing pleasure of millions... A virtual re-enactment of the gladiators in the coliseum, but God forbid you get caught making a booty call and somebody's moral sensibilities will be shaken to the core. It's that same twist in our national collective that makes gun and weapons conventions acceptable while adult sex toy conventions held in the very same convention centers, nation wide, give cause to righteous indignation in so many God fearing Americans.

* Scientists are still sounding the clarion in hopes of getting some of the industrial nations (sounds like "us" to me) to wise up to global warming issues. Of course most of us have seen enough science fiction and horror movies from Jaws to the Day after tomorrow to know that "the man" isn't going to loosen his grip on the profit margins long enough to fix a problem until his own face is crumbling to dust from ultraviolet radiation exposure. Just ignore it…and we'll all go away!

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: Psycho Santas and going on about it.

From the Associated Press (AP) Story/DAVID B. CARUSO Photo/KATHY WILLENS
Murderous Santa Display Outside Manhattan Mansion Draws Stares
NEW YORK Dec 13, 2005 — It's usually easy to tell where a person stands in the culture wars, but whose side is someone on when his Christmas decor is a blood-spattered Santa Claus holding a severed head?

Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll's head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets.

No one answered the family's door to explain on Tuesday, but Krupnik told the New York Post it was a statement about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

"Christmas has religious origins," he said. "It's in the Bible. Santa is not in the Bible. He's not a religious symbol."

The family is far from the only one making an editorial comment this year on how Americans celebrate Christmas…

And that's exactly the problem folks!
It isn't so much that someone has depicted Santa as a character out of some B movie like The North Pole Chainsaw Massacre, it's that everyone feels compelled to make a comment, write an editorial, express themselves over every little issue that catches their attention.
Isn't that why there are so many people who are driven to blog and convey every blessed thing that occurs to their tiny, little minds? To publish every arcane opinion and blossoming scrap of thought that runs through their sorry and troubled cerebrum just on that slim chance that someone will hear their mewling and in some way validate their isolated, pathetic existence...??
Um-m-m, wait a minute, here. Hold on, now...
Isn't that exactly what I'm...
...Uh, never mind, Ok?

BAM! Just Like That!: The "price" of Democracy?

I heard an announcer on the news today, (public radio yet!) who while making mention of Mr. Bush's speech in Philadelphia went on to couch his words about the number of Iraqi lives lost since the "incurrance began". For some reason the words he chose to use were, "...the price the Iraqis have paid for democracy" as the implicit cause and reason for these 30,000 (plus or minus) lost Iraqi civilian lives.

How absurd and twisted are we ever going to let this get?!

I can't for the life of me recall when exactly the people of Iraq put out the invitation for us or anyone to come and invade their country so that they could experience democracy.
Nor do I remember the people of Iraq making any international plea for national salvation through a democracy with an expressed willingness to "pay the price" for it by accepting a military invasion that would demand such a sacrifice with bombing and artillery and the whole "shock and awe" democratic package delivery system, which was dreamed up solely by the current leadership of these United States under less than forthcoming qualifications.

If in fact the Iraqi people had collectively done so and did in fact come to these terms of their own volition, then it would stand to reason that they were already capable of performing in a democratic manner and (without the need of an invasion) already experiencing somewhat of a democracy in action.
But this was hardly the case, which makes this latest seemingly small Orwellian piece of Newspeak almost a blatant paradox to reality that is too glaring to go unnoticed.

The initial push to rush to war by our own country was not about delivering democracy.
Delivering democracy was justification number umpteen when several other reasons and excuses had fallen as flat as a day old, open beer that had been left on a radiator. One by one the list of justifications did not stand up to the light of any and all evidence to keep them floating. 9/11, terrorist connections, nuclear abilities, readiness to strike America? All tried, retried and then retired. And through it all, after months of cajoling the American people and the world, at no time, was it ever announced that we would be staging an invasion and occupation halfway around the world because the people of Iraq requested it of us because they had a thirst and/or hunger for a western democracy to the point that they were willing to pay any price for that democracy!

As things stand, the hybrid democracy Iraq is on the brink of being force fed, is such a long cry from what the people of our own country have made sacrifice for that many of us would hardly consider it democracy at all. Many here and abroad are already calling Iraq's democracy a theocracy, cast from much the same mold of that being exercised in Iran.
And how's that Iran thing working out for everybody, by the way???

If in fact the people of Iraq had asked and were prepared independently to make the sacrifices of paying the price for democracy, by contrast they must surely be facing an extreme case of disappointment.
But they never did that. Now they simply want to do what the occupiers demand of them. And hopefully, now after 30,000 of their own are dead these armies will go away again.
On the other hand, the more than 2000 American troops that were taken from our nation in sacrifice to the Gods of democracy seem to be all the more offerings made for something far less than what we all know that intended democracy was meant to be.