OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

Every generation the wide world of corporate sports produces an athlete with the iron resolve and moral urgency to step off their pedestal and join the fight for social justice.

Today we may just have a figure to join their ranks in the NBA’s Etan Thomas.

This past weekend, Etan made a play for pantheon status. Etan took it to that Ali level, by delivering a blistering poetical speech as part of the weekend’s anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC.

Here is the transcript. Read and pass it along – it has the power to topple tyrants.

“Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally.I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.
In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.
I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison.
I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.
I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.
Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.
Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.
Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.
I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope.
When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.
They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful.Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.
Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.”

America Is Not a Free Country

by Fred Reed
What about smoking? Why is it the government’s business? If I want to let people smoke in my bar, it’s my affair. People who don’t like it can, once again, go somewhere else. I don’t say this truculently. Customers have every right not to patronize establishments that they find disagreeable. If they don’t like the smoke, or the music, or the food, or my ugly mug, that thing in front with the hinges on it is available. A "door," we call it.
I don’t go to places I don’t like, and don’t expect anyone else to. Why is any of this of concern to the government? To any government? Why must we be eternally diapered by tiresome prisses in power?

Today, what the government ought to do, it does badly, and what it ought not do at all, it does too well – such as snoop, control, meddle, and impose the ways of the unwashed on everyone. And it’s going to get worse. Much worse.

Do you believe him?

Pure Evil


Bush on vacation at work ?
Bush lies !
http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-06%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=bush+lies&btnG=Search

http://www.bushlies.com/

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm

http://bush-lies.blogspot.com/

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20021125/alterman

http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1182/article11417.asp

No Pump Left Behind

September 1,2005
As I post this every station in town
has raised their price today to $3.35
per gallon.Thank you mister Bush
and your Arab buddies.
MUTTBOB

No Pump Left Behind: "NPLB*
Proclaimed a HUGE Success!
*NPLB = No Pump Left Behind
Volume III, Number 5, May, 2005


The BUSH administration announced with
pride today the results of its program to
produce skyrocketing gas prices at every
gas pump across the land."

"Unlike the principals and teachers of this nation
who have been unable to lift the scores of all
children so that all read above average, we have
had 100 per cent success."

"According to our data, every American family
can now count on paying inflated gas prices no
matter what station they visit and no matter what
pump they select."

"Several years ago folks doubted that we could
achieve such sweeping change in the life of
citizens, but we have proven them wrong."

Recent studies have challenged whether the
educational program has delivered on its promises,
but no one has expressed any doubts regarding
the gas price elevation strategies of this administration.

The President was a bit smug when asked
about his gasoline price achievements. It
became clear that the country could trust
him to maintain the policies that had led
to such high prices.

Jamie McKenzie

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

As I'm posting this I am watching an interview
with Ted Kopel and the head of FEMA,Mike
Brown,who says that he just found out about
the 5 thousand people in the New Orleans
convention center.The mayor and the press
say that the number is 15 to 25 thousand.Five
days after the storm Bush says that help is on
the way.Meanwhile people are dying.
MUTTBOB

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
"THE STORY OF THE HURRICANE
COWBOY WHO FIDDLED WHILE
NEW ORLEANS DROWNED
How Bush Spent His Summer Vacation"

by Amanda Lang, PhD
http://www.opednews.com/
Why did Bush vacation – cut wood, clear brush,
bike, and read -- for days while the world watched
Katrina develop then slam as a category 4
hurricane into the Gulf Coast? Just as he did
on September 11, 2001, he froze. They don’t
have cable or telephones in Crawford? The
unfolding catastrophe has Bush leadership
skills, or lack thereof, written all over it. He
treats his own citizens with the same contempt
and callousness as he does the Iraqi civilians –
as “collateral damage.” If a category 4 hurricane
is not a “bomb” dropping on American soil, what
is? Bush remained on vacation one whole day
after Katrina hit, WAITING FOR WHAT? The
federal government was ‘missing in action’ and
has failed its citizens abysmally. And Congress...
where the hell are they? They rushed back to
Washington over night for one woman’s feeding
tube, but can’t seem to find the way back for a
destructive hurricane that most likely killed
thousands. Are these citizens too poor or not
expounding the right religion to garner the
attention the Trade Tower victims received?
They all sat and watched this train wreck, now
they are screwing up the rescue and salvage,
probably busy searching for the ‘scapegoat’
du jour. Do the Bush administration and
Congress want to create a situation where
they could declare martial law? Looks like it.
New Orleans has become a war zone. Martial
law declared. Since when is a policy of "you loot,
we shoot" appropriate for people just trying to
survive until help arrives? THEY ARE DYING.
So are they ‘looters’ or ‘survivors’ (like the TV
show “Survivor” Americans loves to love)? So
what if in addition to food, water, diapers, and
medical supplies, they take some jeans? They’ve
been wearing oil, chemical and sewer-soaked
clothes for days. They’re wading through floating,
decaying dead bodies. New Orleans is and will
be uninhabitable for three to six months at least,
so the merchandise is already a write-off. Think
about it? Would you want this merchandise?
Let good come from it while it can.
The ‘survivors’ have obtained weapons and are
using them. Escaped prisoners riot and hold
hostages. People go ‘feral’ displaying ‘pack’
and/or ‘mob’ behaviors when threatened and
their lives are in 'great peril.' Unfortunately, in
America you can find a gun anywhere in virtually
any caliber, so chaos reigns. A "loot-shoot"
policy only exacerbates the problem. Relief
workers received orders to divert efforts from
‘saving people’ to ‘crime fighting’. Why choose
‘property’ over ‘life’? The policy lacks common
sense, compassion, or understanding of the
survival instinct. CNN has images of people
dead and dying on camera. Their reporters are
watching people – children and elderly – die
before their eyes. The sick, injured, dehydrated,
starving, and scared feel abandoned. In the hot,
stinking Superdome, where 25,000 refugees
await evacuation, fires and fighting are breaking
out. Fear, anger, and hopelessness will push
conditions to a boil, and more people than
necessary will die – mostly the innocent
victims of this horrible disaster.
Do we need to request U.N Aid and Peace
Keeping Forces? It appears we lack the
expertise and leadership to prevent or deal
with a major national crisis. Why aren't these
convoys and helicopters dropping in water,
food, and medicine to these trapped individuals?
Yes, conditions are deteriorating, but our
National Guard soldiers fly helicopters through
Iraq every day taking gunfire for a far less
legitimate cause. Is the relief necessary beyond
the Bush administration's capabilities? We do
not posses the numbers of National Guard
soldiers and relief workers necessary to get
this situation under control. Just like Iraq –
not enough bodies on the ground to do the job.
Bush cut funding to New Orleans hurricane
preparations by $72.1 million and gave eight
jets to Pakistan – FREE – valued at $36 million
each = $288 million. Get the picture. ‘Survivors’
of this crisis sure could use that $288 million
and the $5.6 billion per month [this breaks down
to almost $186 million a day] or $672 BILLION
PER YEAR the Neocons are throwing at Iraq,
plus the billions in pork given to corporations
this year alone.
Even worse, image you’re a National Guard
soldier in Iraq that has family, friends, and
property in ‘harm’s way, but are stuck policing
the streets of Iraq. The irony of the situation is
macabre. You were sent to fight an urban guerilla
war based on a 'buffet' of evolving lies and
rationales -- perhaps on your second or third
tour -- and your family is back home dealing
with this mess alone -- homeless, injured,
starving, drowning, or dying -- and you are not
there and you don't have a clue what their
condition is because no one else does. Tragic
irony. They face an uncertain future and still
may die themselves on a street or road in Iraq.
In the news, they hear of over-the-top CEO
salaries, while Florida hotels evict refugee
families so fans can attend a football game.
How would you feel to discover your loved
ones where not evacuated, even though it was
known a category 4 or 5 hurricane was
approaching? Or even worse, they still stuck
in the disaster area because at your pay scale,
they just couldn’t afford to leave.
A reckoning time is here. The ‘Hurricane Cowboy’
has a lot to answer for, as do the ‘knuckled-headed’
Neocons and the ‘do-nothing’ Congress. This
tragedy should have been prevented. Hundreds
of thousands of Americans lives completely
destroyed and while Bush fiddled with a guitar,
went on a two-day speaking jaunt/fund-raiser to
California and Arizona, and ‘read’ a speech,
ironically to a group of sailors and WWII veterans:
"This morning, our hearts and prayers are with
our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast," Bush
said. "We know that many are anxious to return
to their homes. It's not possible at this moment."
His heart and prayers may have been there,
but his ass sure wasn’t.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
"President Bush Knows the True
Reasons He Started A War in Iraq,
But He's Not Going to Tell"
by Jason Leopold
http://www.opednews.com
Every year, right around the anniversary of 9/11
the Bush administration spins the public about the
reasons 1,864 American soldiers have died
fighting for a lie in Iraq. And every year, it’s just
as crucial that the media tell the public the truth
about the reasons the war was started. So here
goes. The disinformation campaign the White
House launched last weekend should leave no
doubt that the war in Iraq was hatched well
before 9/11 and is part of a broader strategy
to remake the entire Middle East into a so-called
Pax Americana, a blueprint drafted by hardcore
neoconservatives years ago that called for
overthrowing Middle East dictators and installing
U.S. approved governments in the region. It’s
entirely likely that the administration will attempt
to sell Congress and the public another war in the
near future, the next likely target being Iran. How
else should we interpret the following statement
Bush made in Utah Monday, during a speech
he made to Veterans of Foreign Wars?“The third
part of our strategy in the war on terror is to
spread the hope of freedom across the broader
Middle East,” Bush said. As public support for
the Iraq war erodes, President Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney have taken their propaganda
campaign on the road, once again linking the war
in Iraq to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in hopes that
the administration can dramatically change
perception of the military conflict in Iraq, even
though a half-dozen federal investigations have
concluded that Iraq played no role in 9/11.In
the book “The Price of Loyalty,” Bush’s former
Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill said that the
Iraq war was planned just days after the president
was sworn into office. “From the very beginning,
there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was
a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill
said, adding that going after Saddam Hussein was
a priority 10 days after the Bush’s inauguration
and eight months before Sept. 11.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

http://www.internetweekly.org/iwr/parody_bush_antichrist.html

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
The RightWing Cesspool Overflows.
A Pattern Begins to Emerge:
The Dark Innards of The Political &
Religous Right
It's Ugly, almost Demonic, and people are talking about the
AntiChrist- a deceiver who preys upon the faithful- as do Bush
and other leaders of the Christian Far Right
by Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com

Like the green vomit and rotating head of demonically
possessed Linda Blair, in The Exorcist, the disgusting
demons of the far right are finally showing their true selves.

It seems that wherever you look, you can see the ugly
demons that truly drive and lead George Bush's right
wing administration and followers. The Cesspool is
overflowing, and the ugly creatures that truly drive the
right wing's policy are showing their horrific faces on
talk radio, in response to Mother Cindy Sheehan, in
response to the real democracy that is emerging in
South American politics, in torture policies at Abu Ghraib,
in the compromises for the Iraqi constitution.

There's a new batch of Abu Ghraib pictures so bad,
so shameful they will justifiably inflame the fury of the
Arab and Islamic world. The pictures have been
shown to members of congress and they were
shocked. Truthout.org reports the following comments.

"It was disgusting," said Texas Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchinson. 'There were new ones that we hadn't
seen before, and they're bad. I mean there's no
doubt about that.' Bad enough to show to Congress
apparently, but not the American people.
The NewsHour's Ray Suarez said the images
reportedly depict 'assault, coerced sexual activity,
rape, even dead bodies.' Some may have originated
outside of Abu Ghraib. Rep. Jane Harman said she
saw videos of a prisoner banging his head against a
wall and a group of men masturbating. "Some of the
videos are more disturbing than the still photos that
you've seen," added Sen. Bill Nelson.

Just as Pat Robertson has recently shown himself
to be a totally out of control psycho,
calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez,
these banned images show how out of control,
how disgustingly perverted and sick the leadership
chain has allowed itself to become. There is plenty
of proof that these horrifically sadistic, pathetic acts
of torture and degradation have occurred not only
under the watch of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gonzalez and
Bush, but with their awareness and intentional support.
We know that the republican led congress has made
efforts to protect the perpetrators, perhaps even to
enable them to continue their unconscionable acts.

Capitol Hill Blue reported, in a recent article,
Is Bush Out of Control?

“Buy beleaguered, overworked
White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid
tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter
staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings
suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia

.”We have news commentators sliming, Plaming, and brutally,
cruelly attacking Mother Cindy Sheehan, whose son
was killed in a war started based on lies.