Scrap NASA

I believe that in a severe fuel crisis, the first two things we can do without are NASCAR and NASA. NASCAR is inherently pointless, as well as being an enormous waste of fuel, but I still haven't figured out what was the point of the moon landing. Still, I understand congratulations are in order, we just landed a bush-hog on Mars. Of course a radio glitch held up Mission Control's orders to start up the robotic arm, which will ultimately scoop up a load of red dust that will be analyzed and tested and found to be Mars dirt, much like Moon Rocks.

I appreciate the breakthroughs in communications and technology that the space program has given us. Thanks guys, for the cell phones. And cable television is groovy, but we've had man-made Earth satellites buzzing around since 1957. These public relations based manned missions to the space station have offered great experiments in weightless mice with cancer and entertaining space walks, but now they can't even fix the toilet, giving new meaning to the phrase, "That shit don't fly." The space race is over when we have to float on over to the Russian Soyuz laboratory to ask to use the crapper.

All that phantasmagorical ruminating about our destiny being beyond the stars has caused us to fry up over a dozen astronauts in high gimmick looksies. And other than Tang and "A-OK," what has it gained us? Our multi-trillion dollar Space Patrol is a machismo remnant of the JFK era that made our country feel good once upon a time when we could afford it. That time has passed, and we could use the jet fuel to avoid paying $15.00 for a suitcase to ride in the cargo hold of one of our clueless airlines. And what is it the Phoenix Mars Lander is looking for? Ice. Someone should tell them there's a new thing out, it's called a 7/11.

I know; If there is ice, perhaps there were primitive lifeforms on the planet millenia ago, but is this meaningful in our understanding of our human beginnings? Instead of Ray Bradbury, our country's scientists should have read more Plato and his commentaries on Atlantis. Myths and legends have surrounded the sunken continent since before the printed word, indicating that an advanced civilization existed in the time before the Great Flood that gave birth to all the societies we know today. Had we spent the resources exploring the mysteries of our own oceans' depths, we may well have advanced knowledge in medicines and increased our understanding of the origins of the species. I'll repeat; our rockets have been pointed in the wrong direction.

We have had a cultural fixation with outer-space since Orson Welles and the flying-saucer craze of the Fifties. A cottage industry of movies, music, TV, and fiction have all grown around it. I think we can pretty well conclude that, despite all the testimony of anal probing, nobody's watching us. Let NASA keep sending us the pretty pictures of deep space and the birth of galaxies, but enough with the Flying Wallenda stunt flights. I don't care what Cheese Whiz looks like in space, but I'm pretty sure that's what is stopping up the commode. Can you imagine what a plumber is going to charge for a house call to the space station? Now that's what I call government waste.

Bush Commits Sedition

Sedition: Any action in speech or writing promoting discontent or rebellion; An attempt to impair the well-being of a state to which one owes allegiance. (Merriam-Webster)

What ever happened to "politics ends at the waters' edge?" After more than sixty years of bipartisan agreement, President Chucklehead not only launched a domestic partisan political attack from a foreign platform, he did it in Jerusalem and invoked the fucking Nazis! This proves that even a lame-duck idiot can still be dangerous, like venom from a dying viper. And Joyboy proved again that, in his dimwitted capacity, he is still entirely capable of launching another unilateral act of war against Iran before he leaves office, the public be damned.

It's superfluous to point out how despicable this act was, done to frighten American Jewish voters away from Barack Obama with malice aforethought. But Hitler? This idiot bastard should be the last person to mention appeasers of Hitler since his grandfather, Sen. Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that had intimate dealings and profited from the financiers of the Nazis. Do a Google search for Prescott Bush and Hitler and be amazed for yourself. The senior Bush was such a war profiteer, one former U.S. Nazi war crimes prosecutor argued, "The late Senator's actions should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy,"(The Guardian UK:9/04), and his company's assets were finally seized by the U.S. Government in 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy Act.

Wouldn't Bush think twice before comparing Barack Obama, or whatever other phantom Democrat's name someone whispered in his ear, to appeasers of the Nazis? His grandfather was worse than an appeaser; he was a collaborator. A civil suit was filed in Germany in 2004 by former Auschwitz inmates against the Bush family for amassing a portion of their fortune with slave labor. But Bush the Lesser was nonetheless welcomed like a conquering hero in the Israeli Knesset, praised for his wisdom and courage in not spending a day of his wretched term trying to broker peace in the region, and enabling the right-wing Israeli government to use the tools of the military to achieve their political ends with impunity. Basically, Bush was being honored for doing nothing, and the shaky, conservative Likud party will accept support from the President, even if it's driven by visions of an Apocalypse where an angry God demands the Jews' conversion or death. Bush's speech was supposed to be about honoring Israel's 60th anniversary, but the press was alerted that he planned to say something to "raise eyebrows." Bush raised only further contempt for himself and this country. His only defenders were the lunatic media fringe, John McCain, and his personal handler, Joe Leiberman, the Senator from Israel.

Bush's international outrage was made worse when his smug references to Neville Chamberland and Nazi tanks were reaffirmed to the press at home, this time in the Rose Garden. You see, this human failure actually believes that because it appears he will escape impeachment, he is going to get away clean with his reign of horror. But if this Republic was founded in a government of laws, and not of men, its' continued existence as a genuine democracy demands that the Bush regime be brought to account. Otherwise, who are we? The Nixon resignation proved that no man, even the president, is above the law. Only Bush won't have a sympathetic successor to grant him and his henchmen a pardon for their legal and moral transgressions.

That's why I suggest keeping Guantanamo Bay open. A facility that large will be necessary to house all the members of the Bush Regime who are guilty of crimes against this nation and others. That goes for the Iraq Study Group, Rumsfeld's Pentagon, The Neocon signers of the Project For a New American Century, Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, and the faith-based Justice Department. Also, the small group, including Cheney and Condi Rice, who discussed and approved waterboarding and other torture in closed meetings in the White House should be aware that the U.S. Government executed a Japanese military officer at the end of WWII for waterboarding an American soldier who died. The Nuremberg trials determined that the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation was a crime against humanity, punishable by hanging. The slaughter of Iraqi civilians by Blackwater merceneries, and the rape of their own women employees by American contractors from KBR have yet to be fully investigated, nor has the obscene war profiteering of Halliburton or their no-bid contracts. But they will be, and soon.

Bush and Cheney have repeatedly violated the Constitution under a war hysteria power grab, but like George H.W. Bush said, "This will not stand." They have broken international law to the extent that there is already a warning that Bush officials travelling in foreign lands may be subject to arrest for war crimes. An unsubstantiated rumor began last year when a South American newspaper stated that the Bush family, represented by Jenna on a UNICEF tour, arranged the purchase of a 75,000 acre plot of land in Paraguay. It's hard to believe, just because no one could imagine Jenna handling a real estate deal of that magnitude, but it's intriguing to imagine a South American newspaper's desire to report about the Bush family's need for a potential refuge somewhere without an extradition agreement with the U.S. Meanwhile, the only "appeasers" still around that I know about, are the spineless members of the U.S. Congress that gave this reckless, careless, sociopath the power to make war. Sam Cooke may have sung "A Change Is Gonna' Come," but it was his protege, Bobby Womack, who sang;

"You run to the rocks/To hide your face,
The rocks they cry/ No hiding place."
"What You Gonna Do (When You're Love Is Gone)"

Rednecks: The Other White Meat

That was quite a resounding win Hillary Clinton achieved in the West Virginia primary yesterday. My understanding is that her margin of victory increased because her staff spread the rumor that Obama had fathered two black children. I once spent a week in Parkersburg, West Virginia and it was the longest decade of my life. It was akin to visiting a creepy Appalachian theme park where you can observe people ravaged by poverty in coal country in their natural habitat. Not to suggest that all West Virginians descend from generations of mining families that were forced to put hard work before education, there's just a bunch of them there. Which shouldn't diminish Hillary's huge win, or the need for the Obama campaign to recognize a problem with rural whites, but the troubling rhetoric that dominated the primary should concern all Democrats looking toward the general election.

Hillary entered West Virginia comparing herself to JFK and his 1960 upset win over Hubert Humphrey that helped him secure the Democratic nomination. Kennedy's major challenge in W.VA that year was the controversy surrounding his faith. In W.VA, in particular, it was speculated by his opponents that were Kennedy elected, he would owe his allegiance to the Pope in Rome, rather than the Constitution of the United States. Kennedy replied that if the allegiance he swore to the Constitution was false, he would never have come to West Virginia. After his nomination was secured, JFK said, "Contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who also happens to be a Catholic." Hillary, in turn, was in pure divide and conquer mode, playing up the fact that her lesser educated, white supporters are Obama's Achilles heel.

The 1960 battle in West Virginia, though a victory for Kennedy, was bitter and divisive to the extent that JFK was forced to make additional and extended comments regarding his religion. He said, "Whatever issue may come before me as president, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling, or any other subject, I will make my decisions in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest." Kennedy added, "If the time should ever come...when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same. In contrast, Hillary said, in a bizarre interview with USA Today last week, that support for Obama among "working..hard working Americans...white Americans..is weakening again," and how, "the whites in both states who have not completed college are supporting me." If this a valid point upon which to bolster a faltering campaign, then "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

The educated women over sixty who have attached themselves, cult-like, to the old guard sisterhood, have not yet realized that the argument over Hillary Clinton is not one of gender, or race, or age, or experience. It's about principle. Is it comforting to be attached to a demographic of lesser educated, rural, white men? Would you vote for a man who co-sponsored an amendment to the Constitution to ban flag burning, but voted in favor of the war and enabled the rogue Bush regime to shred the Constitution? There are many things I do not understand, and this is one of them. Maybe I need to be educated by some kind woman as to why electing a female president is more important than JFK's stated "national interests."

We interrupt this post to announce that with current trends holding, the BAH can now project the next President of the United States will be Barack Obama, and the next American Idol will be David Archuleta, thus ending the George Bush/Taylor Hicks mentality that has infected our country like NASCAR. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

I'm all for Hillary staying in the race as long as her money holds out. She will win more states before its over, but the mathematics are not kind to her. Her remaining hope is that the Obama campaign has a secret so dark that they will implode upon revelation. Wait a second, I have been getting email claiming that Obama is a secret Muslim with a grandiose plan to undermine our cherished U.S. of A., or else a closet Black Panther who has pledged allegiance to Africa. You say you've been getting them, too? What's more likely to happen in the next few weeks is that Hillary will continue her machete wielding campaign until either she, or Bubba, makes another unforgivable remark that further divides the party. It's either that, or the Clintons are hoping against hope that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright has an evil twin. Meanwhile, my new bumpersticker slogan is, "No More Drama, Vote Obama."

Rep.Cohen's Uncivil War

Dear Friends, The time has come to defend what was rightfully won in the last Congressional election, and put an end to the Ford family's stranglehold on Memphis politics. It was a great day for representative democracy when Steve Cohen won the District 9 race over a Ford brother, cousin, and Jr.'s protege Nikki Tinker to fill the unexpired term of Harold Ford, Jr., but that was two years ago. We always knew that when re-election time came, it had the potential of becoming very ugly, very fast. But who could have imagined that Cohen would be targeted by a local group of "ministers," as well as the Ford family, from his first day in office? Memphians remember Cohen's courage in accepting an invitation to speak before these "ministers," only to be humiliated and attacked in public. And who can forget the awkward and embarrassing spectacle the Ford family caused during former President Clinton's visit to Memphis in 2006? The following is the text of a letter written to MoveOn.org on behalf of the Cohen campaign. Please use the link to visit Cohen's website and to volunteer or donate. We must fight for our incremental gains in the political arena, and Steve Cohen is a warrior deserving of re-election. Thank you, Randy
http://www.cohenforcongress.com

May 2, 2008


Adam G., Eli, Karin, Daniel, Patrick S., Ilyse, Justin, Peter, Laura, Lenore, Tanya, Nita, & Anne and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team

Dear Friends,

I am writing as a MoveOn.org Member and a volunteer supporter of the re-election campaign of Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, where he won his seat the old-fashioned way, he earned it. In an historical political year, fraught with racial and gender overtones, Rep. Cohen is under attack by an unusual group of people; a cabal of long standing Democratic family political machine operatives, in league with the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, a group of right-wing preachers who lament the loss of a traditionally African-American seat in Congress to a white man, and a Jewish one at that.

That is not an opinion. Here are their words: “He’s not black and he can’t represent me, that’s just the bottom line,” Rev. Robert Poindexter, Mt. Moriah Baptist Church; or the open letter sent to Cohen from Rev. LaSimba Gray, of New Sardis Baptist Church, where he protested, of all things, Cohen’s support for the same federal hate crimes legislation that was backed by the very organization Gray represents in Memphis, Operation Rainbow/ PUSH, and demanded that Cohen protect their “Christian Values” to preach against homosexuality from the pulpit. A former and future contender for the seat, Jake Ford, brother of former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., has publicly declared that Cohen’s intention in Congress is, “Not to get money for black people, but only for Jews and Israel.”

Cohen won election to Ford, Jr.’s old seat by defeating Ford’s protégé, Nikki Tinker, an attorney, and Joe Ford, Jr., his cousin, in the Democratic Primary. Then, in a desperate move to hold the seat, the Ford family ran Jake Ford, a high-school dropout with an arrest record in both Memphis and Washington, as a “Democratic Independent.” This maneuver cost Cohen the endorsement of Harold Ford, Jr., although Cohen unreservedly endorsed his candidacy for Senator. Imagine the dream team of Ford campaigning with Cohen in west Tennessee, but as a result of unintended consequences, Ford’s refusal to support Cohen only angered local Democrats, which may well have contributed to his loss for the Senate. Although the national media fell in love with Harold, Jr., many local Democrats, like me, viewed him as a Joe Lieberman acolyte.

Now, Steve Cohen again faces Nikki Tinker in the Democratic Primary over his re-election. Ms. Tinker is a well financed, attractive, and intelligent woman. Her problem as a candidate is that she is supported by the same Ministerial Association that has been attempting character assassination on Rep. Cohen for two years, and her major financial backer is her boss, Phillip Trenary, President of Pinnacle Airlines, who was a major contributor to the campaigns of Bob Corker and George W. Bush, and other Republican causes. Ms. Tinker’s law degree speaks to her scholastic ability, but her legal work is, and has been, on behalf of the management of Pinnacle Airlines and to the detriment of labor. The help Tinker now promises the workingman have been prefaced by years of working on the wrong side of the table.

In contrast, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton, and former NAACP National Secretary Maxine Smith have all endorsed Steve Cohen, as has his Congressional mentor, Rep. John Conyers. Marion Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund has given Cohen their highest rankings, as did the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and the Genocide Intervention Network, which works on behalf of the humanitarian crises in Darfur. Cohen is a vocal advocate for our military’s prompt withdrawal from Iraq and publicly defended MoveOn.org during the Petraeus ad controversy. He has endorsed Barack Obama, while himself being endorsed by Bill Clinton, who was quoted as saying “Steve has done a fantastic job.”

We are in danger of this honorable man going down to defeat at the hands of conservatives masquerading as Democrats with a heavily financed campaign of smear. He will be attacked by ministers of the gospel for being “pro-gay,” for his support of the hate crimes bill, and pro-Israel because of his religion. In this historic election, when the nation will be concerned about our ability to transcend racism, in the 9th District there will be racism and sexism of a different sort; directed at an able public servant, because he is white, and because he is a Jew. Unlike the situation with Harold Ford, Jr. and the slavish media attention he received, and still receives, this race needs to be brought into national focus to illustrate how the Ford family will use their power and influence to defeat a true Congressional Liberal, and replace him with a conservative, “Blue-Dog,” surrogate. As a Democrat concerned about fairness and our progressive values, I implore you to make news with the situation about Congressman Cohen’s struggle for re-election in Memphis against devious forces, and let others know what is being attempted in the party’s name. Should this good man be punished for doing a “fantastic” job?


Thank you most cordially for your attention,



Randolph J. Haspel