John Edwards Brings Populist Message Back to Ohio

BY FRANK J. RANELLI


Democratic Presidential candidate, John Edwards, brought his message of returning power to the people into Columbus, Ohio Friday evening. Speaking to a lively and engaged crowd of about 800 people, Edwards laid out his distinct vision for America. Under his popular grassroots theme of, "Small Change for Big Change", Edwards energized an already eager for change crowd, stumping for about 25 minutes, at the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local #189 union hall, near Ohio State campus.

In a continuing effort to reach out to a broader swath of working-class Americans, the negligible $15.00 entrance fee -- which the Edward's camp has incorporate since June -- is part and parcel to his proletarian message. The "Small Change for Big Change" fundraisers are also a deliberate campaign tactic to distinguish Edwards from his chief rivals, Senators Obama and Clinton, whose benefit dinner entrance fees top out at $2300 per plate.

His first visit to the Buckeye State since July, the ex-senator from North Carolina excoriated President Bush by proclaiming, "I don't believe George Bush has injured our reputation in the world, I think he's destroyed it!" Adding, "It's time for the president of the United States to be patriotic about something other than war!"

Continuously withering Bush's policies, Edwards harshly attacked the current administration's failures to embrace the global climate crisis. To a rousing applause, Edwards announced, "It's time for the president to say, 'We're in this together. If we're going to fight global warming, if we're going to preserve this planet, we've got to be willing to sacrifice.'"

The former senator then outlined his own initiatives and policies to combat global warming. Somberly reminding the gathering at the union hall that America produced 25-percent of the world's pollution, Edwards promised to reduce carbon emissions by least 80 percent by 2050 and necessitate all vehicles to get 40 miles per gallon as soon as possible.

Adding some fresh editorial to his address, in a savvy, jujitsu-like political move, John Edwards openly called-out the Republicans in Congress who voted to condemn the liberal advocacy group Moveon.org. Edwards provocatively asked, if the same Republicans who voted to denounce Moveon's critical ad of General Petraeus, where also willing to "step up to the mic" and censure Rush Limbaugh's incendiary remark that service members who support U.S. withdrawal are "phony soldiers."

Edwards then suggested, to the enthusiastic and progressive assembly, "not to hold their collective breath," though. However, to a thunderous ovation of approval, Edwards said, "In my America, dissent is not unpatriotic, dissent is patriotic."

Finally, touching on healthcare, Edwards rhetorically and cynically asked why front-runner, Hillary Clinton, had taken so long to introduce a healthcare plan for America, which merely and largely mimicked his own.

Bringing the supporters to a raucous, speech-pausing cheer, Edwards, if elected President, promised this declaration to Congress: "If you don't pass universal health care by July 2009, then you lose your health care, because there's no excuse for politicians in Washington to have health care when Americans don't have health care."

Before signing autographs and shaking hands with an on-rushing crowd, Edwards promised to pay for his mandatory healthcare plan, which he estimates will cost $100 billion, by rescinding Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy.

After the rally, one member of the audience told a local TV news reporter, "I love John's populist message. I think it's time for America to have a President who stands for 90-percent of us, not just one-percent of us."

Terrorism Awareness Project: The 21st Century’s "Red Scare" Movement

A radical faction of the right is attempting to reconstitute McCarthyism in the 21st century by spreading exaggerated falsehoods to college campuses, eschewing accuracy and espousing hysteria about Islam and the honest threat of terrorism. Their aim is simple: Envelope the next generation of young minds under the umbrella of constant panic and indoctrinate them with deceptive and ignorant fear.

::::

The last bastion of Bush proffers has once again trotted out a long ago debunked, inaccurate and xenophobic phrase, “islamo-fascists”, once glibly coined by Donald Rumsfeld. Calling their cause, Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a radical right alarmist group called the Terrorism Awareness Project, wants to use old fashion fear and propaganda to persuade college students into this histrionic idea: that amorphous, rogue cells of terrorists operating in the Middle East are, “the greatest danger Americans have ever confronted.”

Now consider these alternatives to so-called “islamo-fascists.” Hitler killed all total 12 million Jews, dissenters and infirmed people, amassed a state-sponsored, mechanical-backed army of millions that wreaked havoc on numerous continents for 12 years. Stalin held the world’s collective stage hostage under a repressive regime replete with thousands of nuclear missiles that came within minutes of incendiary obliteration of the Earth, as we know it.

When in view of the heinous atrocities of Hitler and Stalin, the demagoguery and utter mendacity of the Terrorism Awareness Project should immediately be dismissed. Yet, over two million misinformed and deluded people have visited their site just this year alone. Adding to the sensational theatrics this fringe group is trying to propagate across college campuses are wild assertions such as “the academic left has mobilized to create sympathy for the enemy” and “the nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest ever - Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses.”

Claiming to have organized speaking engagements at over 200 campuses, through the David Horowitz Freedom Center, the Terrorism Awareness Project has lined up a premier delicatessen of right-winged demagogue polemicists. The astounding list is as distinguished as is the disingenuous message they tout. Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Melanie Morgan and Rick Santorum are but a few of the invited partisan hacks and hypocrites who plan to extol the virtues of the Terrorism Awareness Project and proclaim terrorism is a greater threat to America than global warming is to the world at large.

Incredulously, this group of firebrand, paranoid propagandists tenaciously tries again to tie Saddam Hussein with the attacks on September 11, 2001. They also falsely claim Iraq was a “second base of terror” long before American forces destabilized that country and provided the catalyst of chaos under which a new and minority faction of unconnected Al Qaeda groups formed.

Flagrant and desperate, the entire website is filled with intimidating and goading terms as well as foreboding phrases. “Islamo-facism”, “apologists for radical Islam” and “anti-Americans who are part of today’s academic environment”, litters the site and sends any rational mind reeling. The inanity and outright obtuse mindset of these shrinking-violets, who found the Cold War ostensibly a minor infraction, can only be realized by visiting the website of the Terrorism Awareness Project. Only then, after a thorough examination, can the full effects of the use of scare tactics and the unnecessary consternation be realized.

Reminding the reader beforehand, that the attacks on 9/11 occurred during the Bush administration - and that same President smugly dismissed a daily presidential briefing entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike” - do we find instead the old saw that “Clinton did it” amongst the many other apocryphal allegations.

To make the point that the endeavor of this organization is reckless and insipid, certainly a platitude, might seem wasted to the other 219 million Americans who have already rejected the Bush doctrine of fear. Furthermore, only 27% of Americans now - Bush’s unshakeable and dutiful base - find the initiative of democracy through a climate of unwarranted fear anything less than odious. However, exposure is the best sanitizer and it ensures that imprudent groups, such as the Terrorism Awareness Project, are brought under the spotlight for scrutiny and proper dismissal as anxiety-ridden, provocative hacks.

To be clear, everyone lucid person should be offended by blatant suggestions that academics are undesirables or that the vast majority of Americans somehow just “don’t understand” the enormity of the specious adversary we face. Reasoned Americans do not endorse or express sympathy to any deed of extremism or group of fanatics, including the Terrorism Awareness Project.

Quite simply, the time has come for all Americans to choose reason, restraint and modesty, over the present zeitgeist of aggression and extreme nationalism, shrouded in obedience through panic and fear, brought upon us by the Bush regime.


----------
Sources: Terrorism Awareness Project. Also see: Defining Fascism, Then and Now

Quote ofthe Day!

Frank J. Ranelli

"Any cult that develops occultism, morphs into fundamentalism and Manichean-thinking, which imposes draconian measures that the end always justifies the means, should be immediately repudiated. This holds true of zealot religions, hardcore dogma, and radical ideologists that spans the spectrum of David Duke to Pat Robertson, from abortion clinic bombers to hardliner creationists that reject empirical science."

Dystopian and Dysfunctional, Senate “Expresses the Sense” that Critical Thought Must Be Censured

FRANK J. RANELLI


While Republicans can openly and with applause deny soldiers equal rest at home for equal days in hell, the Democrats, gutless and apprehensive, are once again lulled into interpreting “supporting the troops” means suppressing dissent and kowtowing to Bush’s brood of enablers.

::::


Bush sycophant, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, through his absurd Senate Amendment 2934, took out his zealous militarism and ire on Moveon.org for the group’s questioning of the neutrality of General Petraeus’ report last week on Iraq through a newspaper ad.

The amendment states “To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.” It passed by a vote of 72 to 25, with 22 Democrats joining bloodstained hands in this shameful exercise that makes a mockery of democracy.

The same Senate that can't assemble enough compassion to restore Habeas Corpus, or provide weary troops with enough rest and time to spend with their families, implausibly found the time to condemn and deride a popular anti-war message that a clear 72-percent of Americans now find agreeable.

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd voted against this revile bill, yet Joe Biden and Barack Obama abstained from voting. Further, not one Republican broke ranks or voted against Cornyn’s jingoistic rant, while the Democrats fractured and scattered to three different corners.

What the Senate did today, in a sickening, sad salvo, was abandon all philosophies of independent thought and ridiculed any encroachment of skepticism. Foolishly, and quite transparently, the Senate vainly attempted to hide that General Petraeus’ report was little more than a political stunt by the White House. Petraeus’ day on Capitol Hill was also an inane exploit to whip up, yet again, false patriotism for a failed and now perfectly hideous war of agressision and occupation of a foreign land.

Senate Amendment 2934 is analogous to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which aimed to smother disapproval of John Adam’s Quasi-War with France. Cornyn’s act of blind loyalty is far more seditious than any newspaper ad that brings into question an unconvincing and dubious speech by a military general turn partisan hack for a flailing Bush administration.

Visions of Ray Bradbury’s character Guy Montag, the anti-intellectual fireman, who is the central protagonist in Bradbury’s enduring book Fahrenheit 451, should instantly comes to the reader’s mind. As should Faber, Fahrenheit 451’s ex-English professor who knows the wrong in his world but is too fearful to act. Montag, through chance fate with a little girl, begins to understand that mindlessness and totalitarian governments are the true shackles of ignorant oppression, not books, contemplation or vagaries about human life.

Unfortunately, Montag’s courage to finally speak the truth is a lesson Democrats can’t seem to grasp. In the meantime, Cornyn’s uncritical loyalty demonstrates his authoritarianism is uncompromising and bitterly immovable to the end.

Perhaps the suggestive narrative Bradbury finally hints at, that Montag’s world suffers a total collapse and must be rebuilt from scratch, is a direction America must move in before we all awaken to the detrimental elements of elective tyranny that disgracefully shrouds all of us now.

Quote of the Day!

Frank J. Ranelli

“Privatization” is nothing more a clever, euphemistic term used to extol the virtues of welfare for the rich."

The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act.

Restore America's dignity and moral standing. Watch the video of Senator Chris Dodd talking about the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act and then become a citizen co-sponsor of this vital piece of legislation right now!


Watch it!



Now visit: http://restore-habeas.org/ to become a citizen co-sponsor and help restore our place in the world, and better secure our nation.

Quote of the Day!

Frank J. Ranelli

"Surrendering to fear mongering, demagoguery, and draconian laws - that oppresses us instead of liberating us - is the very definition of tyranny. It is the apex of public apathy and the nadir of cowardice of nation’s citizenry."

Michael B. Mukasey as AG Appointee: Are all the wrong questions being raised?

By Frank J. Ranelli

Former federal judge, Michael B. Mukasey, is President Bush’s decisive choice to head the Justice Department following Alberto Gonzales’ resignation and departure. While ideological conjecture churns around his nomination, many may be already asking the wrong questions and ignoring the obvious specter that it simply may not matter who is Gonzales’ successor.

::::

As speculated by Salon.com columnist, Glenn Greenwald, and now confirmed by the Associated Press late Sunday evening, Michael B. Mukasey will be Bush’s official nominee to replace the embroiled and now resigned Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General for the United States. While persuasively not a member of President Bush’s tight, inner circle of confidents and cronies, he is ideological an unyielding conservative. He is also a staunch supporter of Republican presidential nominee, Rudolph Giuliani, serving on his presidential advisory board.

Mr. Mukasey is a former practicing attorney for the New York law firm of, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, and an Assistant United States Attorney in the federal prosecutor's office in New York City, where he litigated along side Rudolph Giuliani. Later, in 1987, Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve as a federal judge in Manhattan, where he served for 18 years. Finally, he was Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York from 2000 to 2006, retiring officially on September 9, 2006, where upon he then returned to private practice.


Judge Mukasey is scarcely a household name, yet has played an important, if not contentious and often-enigmatic role, in Bush’s execution of his claimed war on terror. Mukasey presided over the initial trial phase of Jose Padilla in 2003, ruling that as a U.S. citizen and alleged terrorist, Padilla could be held as an “enemy combatant”, but was entitled to see his lawyers.

Although Mukasey ruled Padilla should be granted access to an attorney, he also curiously opined that the President had the right, under Article II of the Constitution, to hold Padilla indefinitely without charges of a crime being levied against him. Mukasey’s decision, that Padilla could be held in perpetuity without charges, was later reversed on appeal. Reluctantly, the Bush administration did ultimately indict Padilla with a crime and transferred him to a civilian court to be tried, where he was later found guilty of conspiracy charges.


The former Chief Judge Mukasey’s dubious and inscrutable logic aside in Padilla’s case; he is seen by many insiders as an independent, fair-minded guardian of the rule of law. Some believe he will refrain from being another political sycophant to Bush and will check his conservative credentials at the Justice Department’s door if confirmed. He has even been endorsed by Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Yet, he has apparently also received the backing of neoconservative and war hawk, Bill Kristol, editor of, the Weekly Standard, an ardent holdout for Bush’s failing and unpopular policy in Iraq.

In addition, obscuring a clear assessment of Judge Mukasey is the fact many liberals believe he is “too cozy with the Patriot Act”, yet several conservatives are lining up to voice opposition to his appointment, in favor of the far more partisan Ted Olson.


Glenn Greenwald’s op-ed piece, Michael Mukasey's role in the Jose Padilla case, does an outstanding job of laying out the tempest of nuanced inconsistencies that have already begun to swirl around Mukasey’s record of judicial rulings. However, Mr. Mukasey’s perceived irreverence or deference to the Bush administration may not be the focal point of suspicion that needs to be raised.


Whether Mukasey is too political right or not enough, too indecisive or contradictory, or simply a “man who follows the law” and, “doesn't run rough-shod over defendants' rights”, may prove a moot point if confirmed. A litany of superb questions to ask Mukasey are already being formulated, but they may ultimately prove more semantics than seminal.

We only need to look to former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, to conclude Mukasey’s eventual fate. If Mukasey proves to be a genuine steward of the law, rather than an apparatus for the Bush administration to exploit, he may quickly learn the meaning of “serves at the pleasure of the President” and “wanting to spend more time with his family.” On the other hand, like Gates, if Mukasey disapproves of Bush’s odious politics and policies in confidence, but lacks the courage to voice his concerns publicly, he will be merely marginalized and brushed aside.


In the final analysis, justice may never be served so long as we have a President who believes the rule of law does not apply to him. A President who believes he is above the law or chooses to distort the law to fit his own agenda. In Bush’s mind, judicial fairness, impartiality and integrity are obstructions to a personal grand design, instead of the bedrock of dignified principles a nation should always stand behind and never willingly compromise.

Pelosi's Gavel Proves to Wield Little Power to End Conflict in Iraq

Amid disingenuous half-truths, an obvious penchant to submit to Bush’s resolve to indefinitely stay in Iraq, and now cobbled together excuses instead of results, Nancy Pelosi has shown little true grit to exercise Congress’ ability to end the bloodbath in Iraq.

::::

Yesterday, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, condemned Bush’s failed occupation in Iraq as “a path to 10 more years of war in Iraq.” Claiming, “The American people long ago rejected the President’s plan to stay in Iraq,” Pelosi additionally called General Petraeus’ report “endless war” and a “status quo” sales pitch for a permanent footprint in Iraq.

The newly dubbed “Bush-Petraeus plan” is neither innovative or a new strategy to wind down an unfounded and once wholly avoidable war of aggression. This continued shell game to run out the clock on Bush’s tragic presidency only brings troop levels in Iraq back down to the pre-surge level of 130,000 troops by April of next year. The proverbial goal post has once again been moved another six months down the battlefield.

After 54 months of hostilities, No WMD’s, nine shifting rationales to stay in Iraq, and a tragic story of hubris and obstinacy, Bush has escorted our country in a vicious, and now complete, deadly circle. We have arrived empty-handed at where we began, with an ill-advised pre-emptive war, based on flimsy and manipulated intelligence, minus nearly 3,800 American soldiers and half a trillion dollars futilely spent.

Sobering facts in hand, Americans in near unanimity, voted for Democrats in 2006 to take the reigns of power in Congress and end Bush’s misbegotten adventure in the Middle East. Since then, using only paper tiger arguments and toothless legislation, the Democratically-led Congress has accomplished little more than symbolic gestures in an attempt to please a vastly emergent anti-war base that handed them an historic election victory just ten months ago.

Equally content to merely watch the sand in Bush’s hourglass run out, Pelosi has turned to a dangerous political game of “blame Bush” and hollow rhetoric. The Speaker’s website, The Gavel, crafts spurious allegations that it is Bush’s veto pen, and a lack of a super-majority in the Senate, that is the reason Congress is unable to fulfill their election promise to America. This is the penultimate, intolerable excuse for being unable to deliver a mandate to President Bush to cease hostilities in Iraq.

However, the definitive, insufferable failure on Speaker Pelosi’s part is her statement that the Bush-Petraeus plan is “an insult to the intelligence of the American people.” To the contrary, Bush has bullied, lied, and been outright indifferent to the demands of the American people. It is Pelosi’s dissembling, amid a tempest of empty vitriol indicting Bush for Congress’ failures, which is the damning insult to our intelligence.

Nancy Pelosi’s invective to America’s wisdom began when she took impeachment “off the table” and ended when she commenced funding Bush’s illegitimate war. America is no longer only insulted by Pelosi’s inactions, but increasingly angry and restive.

In truth, it is not Bush’s veto pen or the lack of votes in Congress causing a deadly, failed foreign policy to drag on into its fifth year. It is Speaker Pelosi’s acquiescence and incompetence that is the centerpiece of culpability and the reason why we are still expending blood and dollars in Iraq.

As Speaker of the House, Pelosi ultimately determines what legislation is, or is not, brought to the floor in the House. As such, she has no constitutional directive that demands she allocate any further funding for Iraq. No legislation is requisite. No vote is necessary. All that is bluntly needed is for Pelosi to say “no” to Bush, and “You have the money to bring the troops home.”

Sadly, Nancy Pelosi, America’s first female Speaker of the House, has chosen the path of least resistance. She has failed to heed the clarion call of America to put a stop to virtually five years of circular madness. In the end, it is Pelosi’s continual capitulation to political pressure and propaganda from a deeply unpopular President, which will render the gravest consequences of all to America for years to come.

The REAL Rudy: Flip-flopper or just plain flop?

Watch it!

Rudy Giuliani is seen in this video being asked, "In 30 seconds, what is a defining mistake of your life and why?"

He made a joke about how he couldn't possibly list all his mistakes in 30 seconds. Giuliani is no joke, though. He is very serious about becoming America's next BIG mistake - another Republican President!

The "Green Zone Fog" seems to only effect republicans

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), gets called out for his outright lies by Wolf Blitzer of CNN:

Watch it!

Quote of the Day!

Frank J Ranelli

"Man has created many gods that befitted him and then destroyed those same gods; casting these once inerrant deities onto the scrap heap of history when “God” no longer proved useful or sustainable."