Ranelli Rants

Quote of the Day!

2012-01-21T12:56:00.002-05:00

“It is the skillful quill of the pointed pen, and not the might of the blunted sword, that can quell even the most ardent of insurrections of inequities.” —Frank J. Ranelli

NO JUSTICE FOR JON: Florida Judge Kills the Rule of Law on Broken Back of Dead Motorcyclist

2011-07-18T05:45:00.027-04:00

Today, America officially died as the last bastion of justice for the wrongfully deceased and their families. Any hint of optimism we may have had left, which was not much, must now be eradicated from our conscience. Abjection is the new standard of jurisprudence in America.

First, we had O.J. Simpson’s baffling acquittal led by his rhyming lineup of “dream team” lawyers. Then, Casey Anthony's “trial of the century” circus act grants her a staggering verdict of innocence juggled and dropped on our fragile psyche by the incompetent State of Florida. Now, add another name and face to the list of late victims stripped of their due justice: Jon Michael Green.

On May 3, 2010, Jon Michael Green, age 23, lost his life[1] tragically to a distracted, careless, and negligent driver in Southeast Florida. Jon was traveling eastbound on his 2007 Kawasaki motorcycle in Pembroke Pines, Florida, when a driver named Fran Folic failed to account for Jon in the opposite lane, failed to yield the right of way, and turned left directly into his path, ejecting him from the motorbike instantly. Jon first struck the pavement more than fifty feet away from the initial point of impact, tumbled uncontrollably several more times before finally coming to rest against a sewer drain catch basin.

He was unconscious, unresponsive, bleeding profusely, and suffering from a litany of internal and external ghastly injuries. And yes, Jon was wearing a helmet. Jon died less than 48-hours later in a level-one trauma unit from massive and catastrophic injuries.

Unfortunately, Jon didn’t just die from his body-shattering injuries, his family had to withdraw life support and watch him helplessly suffocate to death in torment. Why? A team of neurosurgeons and trauma specialists unanimously agreed Jon’s injuries were so substantial, so complete and irreversible, that he was a “locked-in” quadriplegic[2] with a fractured and crushed spine, unable to breathe on his own, unable to move at all, not even flutter his eyelids—his condition was beyond grave; it was hopeless.

Jon’s mind, however, was alert, horrifyingly intact in fact, and keenly aware of his own imminent death. Jon’s only means by which to communicate his mental lucidity: a nurse holding open his eyelids manually while doctors assessed his mental status through a series of simple, “look left for ‘no’ or right for ‘yes’ questions and answers. Jon’s binary acknowledgments through his left or right eye movements showed they where consistently and appropriately proper. He was trapped silently and impotently inside his own completely broken, hemorrhaging, and dying body. The only compassionate decision afforded to his family was to free Jon’s tortured mind from a flaccid body through death.

Then, on July 15, 2011, more than a year later, after numerous delays, baseless continuances, and farcical defense shenanigans, in a small, quiet courthouse minus any media attention in Hollywood, Florida, the accused, Fran Folic, was implausibly exonerated of Jon’s death. After nearly five hours of tense courtroom testimony, Judge Arlene Joy Simon acquitted Fran Folic of failing to yield the right of way and, as a result, blameless for Jon’s fatal injuries. The grounds for such an incongruent decision? No Intent.

A driver of an automobile may now presumably drive carelessly and negligently—according to the dishonorable, perhaps venal, and certainly malfeasant Judge Arlene Joy Simon—so long as their resulting actions (in this case, a tragic and fatal motorcycle crash), do not show deliberate “intent.” Judge Simon shockingly opined, since punishing the driver of the SUV, Fran Folic, would not bring back the dead, she pronounced, against logic and overwhelming and indisputable evidence, the accused was “not guilty.” In the eyes of the State of Florida, and in the homunculus mind of Judge Simon, Fran Folic was not guilty because she and her own two living children had suffered too much angst while waiting for trial. Pity the living. Punish the dead.

Yes, you read that correctly, a driver can turn left while failing to yield the right of way to oncoming traffic, cause a fatality, and still be acquitted because "the defendant did not intend harm” and “it will not bring your son back." The ignoble Judge Simon uttered this obtuse and obscene verdict from the bench to the decedent’s mother, Susan R. Green, with virtually no deliberation and only moments after closing arguments. Justice, and this justice of the court, is not only blind, deaf to reason, but also callous and cruel.

Judge Arlene Joy Simon ruled unconscionably, since the defendant did not willfully intend to strike the motorcyclist when turning left and failing to yield to oncoming traffic, she therefore could not find her blameworthy. Still worse, Judge Simon disregarded the corroborating testimony of a near dozen eyewitnesses and the investigating police detective, evidence, pictures, reports, measurements, calculations, and charts of the crash scene inexorably showing Ms. Folic at fault. Moreover, the judge misconstrued, painfully mangled, and even ignored outright Florida’s traffic statutes and existing laws.

Parenthetically, while testimony and evidence from a related civil trial are inadmissible in a criminal proceeding in Florida, the defendant, through her liability insurance carrier Allstate, determined Ms. Folic to be the “at-fault driver” and settled the wrongful death claim out of court for an undisclosed amount. Further, Ms. Folic was cited by the Pembroke Pines Police Department, after a four-month homicide investigation, with two moving traffic violations, “failure to yield the right of way through a highway crossing section,” and, “failure to yield the right of way when turning left.” The deceased, Jon Green, was not posthumously cited nor did the police traffic investigation or the homicide investigation uncover any wrongdoing on Mr. Green’s behalf.

In other words, it was a mockery, a sham; a kangaroo court proceeding in a banana republic presided over by a prejudiced judge. It was a sick joke; a grave transgression perpetrated on the Green family and a courtroom debacle that disgraces the memory of a young, blameless motorcyclist who lost his life at the hands of negligent SUV driver. Or, as one bewildered but astute courtroom observer asked in disbelief, “How is it that you're ‘allowed’ legally to fail to yield to traffic? It makes no sense at all!”

As a result of this contemptible edict by a legally illiterate judge in Broward County, Florida, a person need not heed traffic laws any longer, as there are no consequences to one’s neglectful actions, even when they fail their duty of care to another motorist when operating an automobile. Consequently, going forward, according to the vacant Judge, Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court, the punishment of lawfully wrong actions is vitiated when there is no intent. Egregious and negligent accidents and crashes, however, are permissible.

So, people of Florida and America too, listen up, drive as inattentively as you like with total disregard for public safety, just be confident you didn’t “intend” to speed, or “intend” to run over pedestrians, or “intend” to crash into motorcyclists, etc. Spin the steering wheel in any direction you prefer, spin your wheels as hastily as you desire, mash the accelerator at will—hell, blindfold yourself as you enter the vehicle, but know, no matter the outcome—even death, it’s the intent, or lack thereof, that really matters. Neglect, it seems, even when it results in paralysis and death, is now officially sanctioned by Florida and their deplorable Judge, Arlene Joy Simon.

I once said modestly, “I navigate the avenues of life best when I traffic in words.” However, this time, I have no words expressive enough to traverse this travesty of injustice.

Author’s Note: A blog in honor of the memory of Jon Michael Green, entitled, NO JUSTICE FOR JON, has been set up by the Green Family so people may voice their outrage publicly over Judge Arlene Joy Simon’s egregiously wrongheaded not guilty verdict and, “to broadcasting the injustice of the malfeasant ruling by the dishonorable Judge Arlene Joy Simon of Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit court.” Membership is not required to leave a comment (simply chose “anonymous” in the comment box section), but please also consider joining this worthy, cost-free cause to help put an end to non sequitur decisions by activist judges who chose to legislate from the bench, rather than uphold and follow the letter of the law.

_____________________
References and notes:
[1] http://www.vindy.com/news/tributes/2010/may/07/jon-michael-gree/guestbook/

[2] “Tetraplegia,” or quadriplegia, is a devastating state of illness or injury that leaves the victim with no motor or sensory function and a complete loss or near total impairment in controlling bowel and bladder, independent limb movement, sexual function, digestion, breathing, including cranial muscle paralysis, and other autonomic functions. A “locked in” quadriplegic usually retains some or most of their mental faculties, typically aware of their grave state, but unable to move or communicate with the outside world in any fashion.

On the Immorality of Christianity

2010-08-24T04:39:00.006-04:00

The languid success of logic and facts to dislodge believers from their mistaken beliefs, calls for a new course in the claim for morality’s mantle; religion fails humanity on ethics.

There appears to be no amount of reason or facts that will extricate believers from their cognitive biases, or the nucleus of their intractable, mistaken, and teleological beliefs. Non-theists, in my humble, yet scholarly opinion, need to set aside the Pathos and Logos based arguments. Instead, nonbelievers must begin to advocate on the ethical grounds, that, revealed religion is an antagonist to humanity's progress and ultimately, its survival. It usurps our innate nature of goodness, and transgresses on our naturally earned ethics.

Further, consider, the believer must first successfully defend the idea of providence, which they cannot, and then, the veracity of such a notion, which has been an abysmal failure for the faithful. The devotees of Christ, fortified only with ancient apocryphal and worrisome scripture—putting it mildly, cannot attempt to mount a defense that religion offers us a moral mapping of the mind. In fact, instead, I would argue on the offensive—on the immorality of Christianity.

Chiefly, a person of Christian religious belief needs quite a bit of instilling indoctrination, in fact utter brainwashing, to convince one's self that they, for merely being born, are worthy of “Hell” because an alleged ancient ancestor ate of a forbidden fruit—the idea of “original sin.” Christianity edifies, and thereby institutionalizes, the fallacious concept of salvation through willful subjugation and degradation of our native decency. (This is why, mistakenly, “Christ followers” feel they need a "Savior.”)

Yet, it takes brutish masochism and sheer madness to accept the outrageously wicked and ghoulish notion of vicarious redemption through prostrating exaltation, and then evangelizing for two millennia the murder of an Antiquity's age, itinerant and eccentric preacher. That a bloody, torturous human sacrifice—the ostensible crucifixion at Calvary, found at the center of Christianity—can cleanse away your responsibilities and actions in life. (Actually, there is scant evidence, of any type, for a historical Jesus and zero evidence for a divine Jesus. The dubious and anonymous, not eponymous, four Gospels found in the New Testament, are rife with contradictions and written, at their earliest, decades after a historical Jesus would have lived, if he did at all.)

Moreover, the notion of a human oblation, as a means of vicarious redemption—scapegoating, to a perceived, totalitarian deity is antithetical to human morality; it is the essence of immorality as it is incompatible with human sovereignty, self-respect, and even life itself. Therefore, Christianity is not only silent on true morality—reciprocity, altruism, liberty and life, it is a purveyor of a litany of insidious ideas, spanning infanticide to homophobia, the endorsement of slavery—treating neighboring conquered states as farm equipment—to perpetuating misogyny and the bridge to righteous murder.

Religion and the Christian belief in particular, is tyranny of the mind, when properly understood, can only be construed, at best, as immoral. Wretchedly, it fetters the believer to fear of punishment even after death. Still worse, Christianity compels its ardent activists to love and worship an ethereal, celestial tyrant in life, learning only of his insidious plan through esoteric, immutable texts. Indeed, a cursory stroll through any number of passages in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, naming only a few books of biblical spite, reveals an unmatched wickedness commanded by Abraham's god.

Conversely, morality is innate. Evolution is conclusive on this fact. It is a far better "selector" to the survival of the species—humans, than divinely inspired murder, mayhem, genocide and human enslavement. Christianity, on the other hand, commands compulsory fear, obligatory love, the subjugation of women, and the willful suspension of progressive reasoning via a theology of abject despair.

Consequently, rational ethics, not revealed religion, satisfyingly obliterates the maladaptive and unethical irrationality believers use to justify their god and even their sect of faith. It is through a systematic breakdown of the illogical fallacies religionists use to prop up their dysfunctional immorality—addictive dependence on a non-existent deity—where we find a conduit conducive to modern, civilized morality, secular and scientific ethics.

And so, humankind, despite a vile, prolonged era of religious perversion of our intrinsic virtue, remains moral. We have earned it through millions of years of evolution. While religion stands regrettably as a dark, sinister reminder of the true depravity dogma breeds and passes on to its true believers.

— About the Author —

Frank J. Ranelli is an independent scholar of comparative and contemplative religions, skeptic and critic, author and contrarian essayist. Frank has studied extensively Abrahamic-based religions since 2001, with an emphasis on Metaphysics and Philosophy. His erudite and iconoclastic style of provocative writing has been extensively published, and debated widely, in a variety of news outlets and across the Internet since 2006.

Why Palin is a Danger to Us All

2008-10-07T06:45:00.002-04:00

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

If we are to succeed as a nation, we all must be in utter agreement about who Sarah Palin is as a person; she is stunningly uninformed and breathtakingly overconfident. Orwellian with an outward, Machiavellian patina is an aptly just description of Palin.

However, her unconcealed, overt certitude is potentially the biggest problem of all. She has mastered the art of flowery platitudes and sneering contempt. All of which, to the low-information, Neanderthal voters we are all unfortunately witnessing first hand from the right wing political spectrum, combined with her tacky, sophomoric charm, actually makes her very attractive, in a very spine-chilling kind of way. She uses blatantly appealing demagoguery to create eerie exultations among a fringe fraction and faction of Americans – the visceral, not cerebral coterie that follows her with frightening credulity.

It is this set of events and actions that concerns me the most. She is a glib, authoritarian person who has a Manichean mindset – a dualist – one who only sees the world as good or evil; no nuance, nothing abstract or ever vague. Moreover, after judiciously studying authoritarian personalities for over two years, I can tell you they are loose with facts but stridently persuasive. They are charming, disarming, almost irresistible, yet completely morally bankrupt and amoral. They are hostile toward intellectuals, takes pleasure in deriding academia and immense pride in their willful ignorance.

The problem here is they are masters at using base intellect, not intelligence, to plead to people's pathos. (Many grisly dictators of the past were all "gifted" experts at this tactic.) In essence, they are scheming, devious and capable of anything in order to subvert the will of other people in order to achieve their objectives. And their objectives are not inline or in step with a progressive, balanced America – they are wholly recalcitrant reactionaries.

Here, with Palin, we see the pathology and pattern of someone infatuated and fixated on one's identity to the exclusion of others – an inborn need for social dominance (often overlooked as merely being "spirited"), personal ambition bereft of circumspection, outrageously aggrandized bragging, arrogant immodesty, and total insensitivity.

It is these sophistry skills and nefarious guile that disturbs me greatly. All of these traits are markers identified in one of only two groups of maladaptive, narcissistic personalities – authoritarians and sociopaths.

Do I make these indictments lightly, no, but it has become increasingly clear that Sarah Palin's confrontational convictions are more than a benign personality tick; it is a deeper insight into how she would govern a nation in every respect: Unflinchingly autocratic.

Stop her, we must!

Palin Delivers during VP Debate (And We All Saw It.)

2008-10-03T07:46:00.002-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Part II of my contrarians view as to why and how Sarah Palin was able to delivery for the McCain camp and reinvigorated the base once again.

:: ::

In a recent article, “Why Palin Will Win the VP Debate”, I made the case that she would win, not on acumen, but on style. I argued that “glib stagecraft” and clever ploys of derision would win out the night. I was harangued for suggesting that the appearance of ineptitude, during recent interviews with the conventional press, was deceiving and hid a crafty doggedness for debating people she opposed. I surmised her entire persona is one of calculated disarmament that veiled a skillful debater. It appears, at least in part, I may have been right.

I wish I could take comfort in the fact that I may have been prescient in my prediction about how she would debate, but I am only more and deeply concerned. Truly, I wish I had been wrong, but I have studied authoritarian people, like Sarah Palin, for more than two years now and it takes very little effort to identify one after even a cursory glance, let alone a comprehensive analysis, once you know what to look for and how to diagnose the glaring signs.

To be clear, Joe Biden did everything right, virtually mistake free, in order to stay about the ground fire salvos Palin was carefully dispatching to pillory him. Biden offered strong, cogent answers and showed a sparkling command of superiority on the issues. It was not a foreboding performance by Palin that mortally wound Obama, but it did stop the McCain hemorrhaging. Nevertheless, Biden still took on a lot of shrapnel from the beguiling ideologue, and darling of the right, Governor Sarah Palin.

In fact, Palin did exactly what she has been trained to do – deliver an uncritical, contemptuous attack of belligerent mockery. Authoritarian people do not think; they act. And they act on instinct and emotion alone. They are always loose with facts but stridently persuasive. They are charming, disarming, almost irresistible, yet completely ethically bankrupt and amoral. She did not understand a single obfuscating, sometimes-mangled answer she gave during the debate, but it did not matter. The base of the party, Joe Six-Pack, loved it.

The problem here is they (authoritarians) are masters at using base intellect, not intelligence, to appeal to people’s pathos. (Many barbaric dictators through out history have used this same tactic with stunning and ghastly success.) In essence, they are scheming, devious and capable of anything in order to subvert the will of other people in order to achieve their own objectives.

Scientific studies have conclusively proven that hardliner conservatives suffer a “cognitive dissonance”; they grapple with nuance, struggle with vagaries, and reject abstract thinking. They are visceral, not cerebral. They are ill-suited for and not capable of collegial deliberation. Further, most are highly intolerant people when someone does not share their narrow paradigm window view of the world.

Last night’s put-on was a recital for Palin – it was not a debate. It was absent any lucidity, clearly forced, though a highly successful presentation of chides, condescension and hollow talking points. Palin was even rude and impertinent toward the moderator and Joe Biden, but this is standard operating procedure for an authoritarian person. Assuredly, it was much to the sheer jubilation of the conservative, irascible base.

Have you ever watched Bill O’Reilly shout down a guest, ridicule him or her, or use a sneering outrage of indignation to intimidate the person being ostensibly interviewed? Last night you saw a subdued version of Bill O’Reilly in a skirt with lipstick. The visage changes, but the persona and intrinsic need to dominate by fear is omnipresent. Someone must always be blamed (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) and they (authoritarians) are never at fault – compromise, tolerance, and humility are not an option.

The purpose is to play always to basal fears, ignorance, and prejudices; it is never to sensibly discuss or achieve anything other than to eliminate a perceived threat (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) – it is Orwellian in every way and driven by pure appeals to the audience's emotions.

Palin’s folksy, down home hokum and charm is a veneer than acts as subterfuge to hide a venal, vindictive, and brutal outlook towards anyone who disagrees with her recalcitrant and reactionary –certainly radical and fringe – ideology. She lives in a binary world – one of good and evil only. You can easily speculate on your own as to which side anyone that is antithetical to her belief system (liberals, gays, intellectuals, minorities, etc.) falls in this clash of Manichean thinking.

One critical point and it’s worth noting. Sarah Palin is a “compartmental thinker.” She cannot see her duplicitous judgments and incompatible positions, her intense hypocrisy and nonsensical answers, nor can she be facilitated to understand her flawed, uncritical, fealty allegiance. Loyalty to people in positions of power she admires is unchallenged, even when they are as egregious and heinous as those committed by someone the likes of George Bush.

Hence, Sarah Palin makes resolute statements (such as expanding the powers of the vice president beyond its constitutional bounds) that have no relationship to reality, laws, or facts. These types of detached proclamations are to reinforce her distorted belief of the world through a prism of unquestioned and dangerous beliefs. She is an actor acting on behalf of what she deems is a higher echelon from a higher authority. This is not an accident; it is a dare to defy her and a maneuver that covers up a deep, beseeching cry for legitimacy from a person desperately foundering in a sea of irrelevance and mediocrity. The more you press her, the more deluded she will become and act out, sometimes viciously, if necessary.

As Dr. Robert Altermyer suggested (the world’s leading expert on authoritarians), when asked how to deal with an authoritarian person, his reply was stark, “You don’t, and you can’t.” You can only mitigate their influence in society by ensuring they do not obtain positions of power or influence. No amount of rational though can persuade them, as they are quite literally, wholly irrational and mentally unbalanced.

Thomas Paine once said, "It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government." After tonight, it is clear that every patriot's duty is to prevent Sarah Palin from becoming the next Vice President of the United States.

Why Palin Will Win the VP Debate

2008-10-01T10:19:00.002-04:00

Palin’s recent gaffes are actually calculated moves to disarm Biden.

BY FRANK J. RANELLI
Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Sarah Palin’s recent abysmal interviews are a canard. She is not the vapid, seemingly naïve and inexperienced candidate we have been led to believe. The bar of expectation has been deliberately lowered so low that once in front of the debate lectern, she will stun Biden with her slick, pat answers, leaving him flustered and trampled by the hockey mom turned-governor from Alaska.

Sound far-fetched or ridiculous? It’s not. Allow me to explain why.Sarah Palin is sandbagging. She is intentionally appearing inept, and at times, outright vacuous and bungling. But she is downplaying and misrepresenting her political skill, guile and debating ability in order to deceive the Obama camp. This was an outright calculated, premeditated ploy in order to lull Sen. Joe Biden into a false sense of security. All of Palin’s botched interviews were done with wily aforethought – they were red herrings and glib stagecraft to hustle Biden.

Forget the static currently being transmitted by conservative lackeys feigning consternation over the Palin pick. I have recently watched several video clips from her debates, when she ran for Governor of Alaska in 2006, and she is far more adroit, astute, and shrewd during these debates than recent interviews suggest. In fact, she is a cunning, clever, and crafty woman who knows how to disarm people with her charm and then coldly go in for the kill shot.

Vice-presidential debates rarely change the true trajectory or final outcome of presidential elections. If that were the case, Lloyd Bentsen’s legendary 1988 slap down admonishment of Dan Quayle’s ill-advised confessed comparison to John Kennedy would have catapulted Michael Dukakis directly into the Oval Office.

However, everyone loves an underdog and this one just happens to be a scheming Pit Bull wearing lipstick from Wasilla. A Palin blistering perform this Thursday night may not be a game-changer in the end for the McCain-Palin camp, but it will stem, at least temporarily, the rising tide and polls currently tacking quite nicely for Obama and Biden. She may or may not know any other Supreme Court cases beyond Roe v. Wade, or a definitive understanding of the Bush Doctrine, but in the end, it may simply not matter.

My Prediction:

The real Sarah Palin shows up and upstages the elder statesmen Joe Biden, facts, figures, and policy positions be damned.

Religion’s Fruitless Journey

2008-09-30T01:23:00.006-04:00

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Written Monday, September 29, 2008

All religions, by their very nature, are illogical, fruitless journeys for the weak of mind. Faith is a deceptive and disingenuous path that is a stark dichotomy of danger and delusion. I see faith as a poor attempt to bridge the unknown—a lazy one, barren and hostile toward science and reason, intellect and progression. It requires no evidence, or even credibility, but merely faith itself—which is simply an irrational endeavor into self-delusion out of an innate need, perhaps to assuage one’s own internal doubts about life. I find these ideas personally astonishing and crippling—I see them as a hollow crutch for people who have doubts, fears, and struggle with mortality. Denial of man’s own mortality is the sole purpose he clings to an Iron Age creed and a nonexistent supernatural deity. Ignorance plays a part, but it is more about temporal rejection and acceptance of our own fate and fears. Blindly obedient faith—the uncritical view that fantasy trumps fact—is the indisputable and unpardonable transgression of humanity; it is the wedge that divides our universal commonality into a chasm of intolerable intolerance. Accordingly, proclaiming piousness and quoting apocryphal scripture does not give one the privilege to make a statement of fact sans sufficient and irrefutable evidence, of which, in regards to religion or God, there simply is none.

Bush’s Great Bailout is Merely Fear Du Jour

2008-09-29T04:04:00.009-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Bush’s bail out of Wall Street is a leap into Robber Baron-style tyranny. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright. Rewarding bad behavior on Wall Street, by theft of money obtained through taxpayers on Main Street, is more than perverse it is an insidious act of vile turpitude.

:: ::

Unfortunately, President Bush has once again fiendishly wielded fear as a bludgeon to subjugate and savagely browbeat Congress into handing him a blank check – a $700 billion blank check. In the fall of 2003, it was for the now unmitigated debacle in Iraq. Today, it is a diabolic attempt to seal the deal of The Treasury Department’s proposed bail out, which is a naked and obscene nod toward the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

As Americans, we have a diseased nation. It is sick with avarice and struck down by false flag fears. Today’s “fear du jour” is the transparent canard presented by President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson – that our economy will collapse if we, as a nation, do not act with enormous haste and waste billions of taxpayer’s dollars – immediately. This “me first” malignancy has infected everything over the past eight years from science and religion, to common sense and dignity, and now, fiscal restraint and legislative prudence. It is akin to a malignant cancer that grows exponentially until it kills off the host – society itself.

The revised bill Congress is crafting is simple another product built on a propagandist platform put forth by another breathtaking power grab by Bush – this time to aid Wall Street after it has plundered America; it is a distinction without a difference. This plan is not a $700 billion bail out for Wall Street, and it does little, if anything, for Main Street. It is an outright heist borne of an ostensible, yet untrue, exigent initiative that is purely a measure to exploit a coerced, stressed Congress and to extort American’s of our money and our future.

This is a dangerous, plenary power grab by the Executive Branch and would simply be legislative-approved despotism if passed in any form or fashion of its current incarnation. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright, regardless of how it is larded up or whittled down. True patriotism and real reform must begin with each of us understanding we must help one another for the greater good of the nation. It is not bailing out irresponsible and reckless, colossal-sized corporate institutions that have insatiability fed at the trough of unregulated greed and avarice over the last eight years of Bush imperatives. Rewarding shocking and irresponsible behavior – to the tune of $700 billion – is a formula that emboldens, not condemns, more of the same financial plunder and excessive negligence.

We have seen this act before when America was wrongfully handcuffed into Bush’s war of choice in Iraq – a now six-year old, trillion-dollar abyss. The last time Congress rushed recklessly headlong into a dire demand from this administration, we were saddled with the Iraq war and false claims of total annihilation by a Third World, tin pot dictator who was thoroughly contained and never an imminent threat. This time, however, the smoking gun is purported to be an economic disintegration of America’s financial market, and the foreboding smoking gun will come in the form of another Great Depression.

The same eerie similarities between Bush’s run up to the Iraq war in 2003 – and the alleged 2008 meltdown on Wall Street are uncanny – the evidence is thin and the lies are obvious. The mushroom cloud never appeared, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and Saddam was never in cahoots with Al Qaeda. In fact, the fuzzy logic behind this proposed blatant money grab for the rich can be summed up by what a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com last Tuesday: “It’s not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number.”

As evidence of the preposterous notion behind this ruse has caught the attention of many, the Washington Post reported on Friday, almost 200 academic economists "have signed a petition organized by a University of Chicago professor objecting to the plan on the grounds that it could create perverse incentives.”

Moreover, clarion calls from many notable experts are sounding the alarm and asking Congress to reject this bailout bill. To wit, NYU's Nouriel Roubini, the prophetic thinker who forecasted this meltdown, says “The Treasury plan (even in its current version agreed with Congress) is very poorly conceived and does not contain many of the key elements of a sound and efficient and fair rescue plan.” Harvard's Ken Rogoff, a Former Federal Rerserve and IMF official, insists that the prospect of this bailout is, unto itself, taking a manageable problem and making it into “a more intense crisis.”

It took us years to get this deep into our now-financial abyss; hence, we must be vigilant and exercise sound judgment in getting out. This is not a time for rapid-fire, extemporaneous reactions to a boiling-over pot that has been slowly simmering unwatched and headed toward disaster for years.

This cannot stand or America will certainly fall into the hands of further greed for a few, while the continuing diminishment of the prospect for a better future ahead for most will suffer dire, if not deadly, consequences. Therefore, we are all equally under attack and must not stand alone, but together in unanimity against Bush’s socialism for the rich at the expense of the American taxpayer.

It’s time we, as a nation, put people over profits and bail out the real victims – homeowners and families – and not the wealthy moguls on Wall Street.

Paulson's Plenary Proposal Must be Rejected!

2008-09-23T01:32:00.003-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

This is not the time for petty partisanship, nor is the time for rushed decisions. The Treasury Department’s proposed bail out is an obscene nod toward the largest transfer of wealth in human history; it is also a leap into Robber Baron-style tyranny. Rewarding bad behavior on Wall Street, by theft of money obtained through taxpayers on Main Street, is more than perverse it is an insidious act of vile turpitude.

I refer you to these extreme portions of Treasury Department’s proposed bail out:

SEC. 2. PURCHASES OF MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS

"(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation”

SEC. 8. REVIEW

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

NO ONE in our government should be allowed this much power with this little oversight.

This is a dangerous power grab by the Executive Branch and simply legislative-approved despotism. Congress must reject this absolutist, radical proposal outright. True patriotism and real humanity must begin with each of us helping one another for the greater good of the nation. It is not bailing out irresponsible and reckless, colossal-sized corporate institutions that have insatiability fed at the trough of unregulated greed and avarice.

Rewarding shocking and irresponsible behavior is a formula that emboldens, not condemns, more of the same financial plunder and excessive negligence.

I implore every American to reject this dangerous, plenary proposal – to slow the legislative process down – and to invoke prudence, not haste, during this economic crisis. It took us years to get this deep into our now-financial abyss; hence, we must be vigilant and exercise sound judgment getting out.

This is not a time for rapid-fire, extemporaneous reactions to a boiling-over pot that has been slowly simmering toward disaster for years.

It’s time we, as a people and a nation, put people, and our nation, over the profits of Wall Street moguls and plutocrats. This enormous theft of taxpayer’s dollars is an unparalleled sinister crime, with real victims – homeowners and working-class families.

Why America Will Falter

2008-09-18T04:38:00.002-04:00

A Ranelli Rumination
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Thursday, September 18, 2008

My own conclusions are rather nihilistic, but history and historians support this theory (See Kevin Phillip’s; American Theocracy). All governments historically – from the ancient Roman Empire to the modern American hegemonic State – always end up expanding until they collapse. This is ubiquitously brought about by over-reaching imperialism, jingoism, exploitation of religion and economic overreach. It is further precipitated by hyperinflation, uncontrollable debt and deficits, combined with reckless leveraging and borrowing. Inevitably, and thusly, leading to an economic crisis and collapse, causing an entropic decay and demise of the nation state. It is akin to a malignant cancer that grows exponentially until it kills off the host – society itself.

Quote of the Day!

2008-09-18T04:38:00.001-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“Privatized profits, socialized losses—it’s the Republican way; socialism for the rich.” – Frank J. Ranelli, Wednesday, September 18, 2008

Quote of the Day!

2008-09-17T17:33:00.001-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“Unfortunately, they (Republicans) fiendishly wield religion as a bludgeon to subjugate or silence dissent while they eviscerate any force or form of an egalitarian society that puts people first. Ergo, the unmitigated debacle we now have in Washington that is as dysfunctional as it is diabolic. Democrats are inept and weak, while Republicans are corrupt and nefarious.” – Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away

2008-09-13T19:30:00.002-04:00

Palin, radical right, radically anti-American!

Watch it!

Palin Cheered On the Alaskan Independence Party. Six months ago, Palin “told members of the Alaskan Independence Party” — who advocate for a vote on secession from the union — to “keep up the good work” and “wished the party luck on what she called its ‘inspiring convention.’” Palin and her husband attended the party’s convention in 2000, and “for all but two months from 1995 to 2002, the governor’s husband was registered as an Alaskan Independence Party member.” George Clark, the vice chair of the party, claims that Palin was a member of the party “before she got the job as a mayor of a small town.”

Why Palin is Fair Game

2008-09-05T03:21:00.006-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

:: ::

In principle, I have always agreed with the basic tenets of society’s plea for civility and decorum in politics toward the kids of candidates. However, while the children, as individuals should be held harmless – as they are just merely adolescents – the larger narrative about Sarah Palin is germane and should be out front in the public sphere to debate.

I was at the Dublin, Ohio Obama rally on August 30, 2008, a mere 10 feet away from Obama while he spoke and reiterated what is at stake is the very core principles of this nation. Prior to Obama speaking, I circulated in the midst of the VIP section and spoke to a litany of women. They not only panned Palin, they felt betrayed and insulted; that McCain’s attitude was one of ungainly sexism whereas women are interchangeable parts – that one is just as good as the next.

The near ubiquitous “drip, drip, drip” that spills over daily into another scandal, another tabloidesque story, is evidence either Sarah Palin was an exercise in extremely poor judgment by John McCain or Palin is a pure gimmick –a gambit to court and woo Hillary Clinton supporters.

The overarching viewpoint is the judgment – or lack thereof – of Palin, her duplicitous actions and double standard, faux Christian values, the exploitation of her infant (and now unwed pregnant daughter) for political expediency; her own failed abstinence only teachings – that clearly does not work, even amongst her own children – and the sum total of her (Palin’s) actions that definitively leads one to conclude she is inept, unwise, reckless, and is unfit to be a heartbeat away from governing this nation as President.

It’s not about the children, but it is about her inability to govern and make sound, rational choices – that she believes in Creationism and not science. These flaws need to be exposed and she – as a candidate – needs to be eviscerated for her utter lack of credibility, inexperience, lack of common sense and the extreme fringe values she holds.

As one reader of the local newspaper in Wasilla summed her up in a comment to a reporter, “she is a kook.”

Palin may have set ablaze the benighted crowd of sheeple evangelists into a gesticulating frenzy of jubilation, but she is dangerous to this nation, dangerous to a progressive America, and cannot be allowed to become the next VP of this nation, or be a hairs breath away from the presidency.

Everything from “Troopergate” to “Babygate” is in play when she accepted the nomination as McCain’s VP. Palin could have declined the invitation, but she did not. She could have shielded her family from public scrutiny and spared them the overt embarrassment of her hypocritical stances and statements, but she opted to stand in the national spotlight and allow her disastrous, failed conservative values to be illuminated.

And for that reason alone, America has the right and the civic responsibility to vet this woman, leave no stone unturned, for in politics, as it has been said, is a contact sport.

Quote of the Day!

2008-09-05T02:05:00.001-04:00

FRANK J. RANELLI

“When compared to Greek and Roman mythology, the contemporaneous tripartite Abrahamic-based religions are no less bizarre; they are only the ephemerally accepted folklore of yore – the zeitgeist of our time.” –Frank J. Ranelli, Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Quote of the Day!

2008-08-26T15:30:00.001-04:00

FRANK J. RANELLI

“America, the nation that once put a man on the moon, is now a craven crowd of xenophobes and bigots – hostile toward intellectuals, takes pleasure in deriding academia and pride in its willful ignorance.” – Frank J. Ranelli, Sunday, August 26, 2008

Deities, Dinosaurs, and the Dangers of Religious Dogma

2008-08-25T01:07:00.005-04:00

Monday, August 25, 2008
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Curriculum of the ‘Accelerated Christian Academy’ in Mosta instructs kids dinosaurs were used to build ancient pyramids in Egypt.

According to at least one Evangelist pastor, Vince Fenech, of the fully licensed, State-approved Creationist institution, believes and teaches children—ages 4 through 18—that dinosaurs helped build the pyramids. Citing a yet, undiscovered Biblical reference in the Book of Job, Fenech violently strains credulity and incredulously asserts to reporter Raphael Vassallo, of the MaltaToday newspaper, that the Earth was “created in 4004 BC”, and the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of Jurassic-period dinosaurs to erect the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Pastor Vince Fenech is of course, a Creationist and fervent espouser of a bevy of ideas that not only contests his sanity, but also baselessly suspends science in the name of God; chiefly that the Apollo 11 moon landing proves “the universe is still young!”

Whether astonished, flummoxed, or simply searching for a good guffaw worthy of a side stitch, click here to read more about Fenech’s problematic canon and piously perverse views on sex and abortion.

Just who is Chet Edwards?

2008-08-22T19:18:00.003-04:00

Friday, August 22, 2008
BY FRANK J. RANELLI

The Obama Democratic Veepstakes is approaching a frenetic and feverish pitch. Is it Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or even Hillary Clinton? Surprisingly, and perhaps to the dismay of many progressives, liberals, and democratic voters the answer may be a resounding, “No.”

The name Chet Edwards outside of Texas, the halls of Congress, or the inside of Nancy Pelosi’s rolodex, is a name unfamiliar to most Americans. So, just who is Chet Edwards? Quietly, yet not completely unnoticed by many politicos and pundits, he is widely considered to be one of Obama’s finalists on his list of candidates for the coveted VP slot.

Chet Edwards currently serves the 17th Congressional district of Texas as a moderate democrat. He is a prolific legislator, with little national exposure, yet has distinguished himself as a centrist with a rather curious and capricious voting record.

A telegenic man—with a visage analogous to a televangelist—is also fashionable with Speaker Pelosi. On August 3, 2008, she extolled his “extraordinary credentials” and stated “I hope he will be the nominee” to ABC's "This Week".

While Edwards is largely an unknown nationally, he is a productive, if not hectic, lawmaker. In addition, he is the chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee and sits on a bevy of other committees and subcommittees in the House.

Filtering Edwards through a democratic prism may prove to be dificult and even a harder sell to hardline progressives as a running mate for Obama. The website OnTheIssues has amassed an extensive, if not exhaustive list of how Edwards has voted— and where he stands—on more than 24 issues, ranging from abortion to the economy.

A close examination of his enigmatic stance on a wide range of policies reveals Edwards voted in favor of the invasion of the Iraq War, gave the nod to telcom immunity, registered an “aye” for the Bankruptcy Reform bill, which now requires partial debt repayment and even stands with John McCain and George Bush on drilling in AWNR.

Unfortunately, his conservative chops do not end there, but include a record of anathema toward the gay and lesbian community by casting his lot with Republicans on the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 – a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. Among prominent liberal and progressive bloggers, he is considered a “Bush Dog Democrat,” an epithet clearly denouncing him as anything but a “Progressive Democrat.”

Sadly, Chet Edwards has too often curried favors for the political right, racking up a congressional record that paints his voting sheet more red than blue. His overt penchant for gun rights and arms makers, aversion to raising CAFE standards and endorsement of forest thinning projects certainly will be met with strident condemnation from gun control and environmental groups.

Save for a few breadcrumbs meant to throw off “low information” voters from his true political stripes—chiefly his vow to keep social security out of the hands of Wall Street—Chet Edwards is another Repulican-lite masquerading as a Democrat.

The Obama campaign in recent days has confirmed Edwards was contacted—and possibly vetted—but has said little else as to his status or standing with Obama as a potential running mate in 2008. Nevertheless, he appears to be in strong contention, helped along by the behest of Nancy Pelosi, as the Democratic Party’s Vice Presidential candidate to oppose Republican John McCain on November 4.

While Obama’s pick for VP still remains steep in mystery, Edwards’s sudden emergence into the national spotlight as a high probability candidate for Vice President portends another likely losing centrist ticket for the Democrats. As John Kerry firmly demonstrated in 2004, a center-right campaign for the Democratic Party is a certain death knell.

What we do know is that whether any given voter stands for or against Republicans, it is certain when the people are given the choice between a genuine conservative or a fake liberal, America always chooses the authentic contestant, if only for not trying to fool the public – issues, policies and object national needs be damned.

Quote of the Day!

2008-08-15T13:53:00.001-04:00

“Politics, people, and policy have far more nuance, vagaries, require a deeper understanding, and a higher level of acumen than a 30-second sound byte, a fallacious bumper sticker slogan, or a propagandist cartoon in order to understand them.” – Frank J. Ranelli, August 15, 2008

Quote of the Day!

2008-08-09T00:15:00.000-04:00

"Denial of man’s own mortality is the soul purpose he clings to religion and an omniscient, esoteric God. Ignorance plays a part, but it is more about temporal denial and acceptance of our own fate and fears." - Frank J. Ranelli, August 6, 2008

John McCain Quietly Draws on Social Security While Calling the Program Publicly a “Disgrace”

2008-08-01T03:47:00.003-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

A recent revelation that John McCain personally derives full benefits from the long-standing and popular Social Security program stands in stark contrast to his recent remarks in Denver, Colorado.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, on July 7, 2008, during a town hall meeting in Denver, told the small gathering, “Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."

The remarks were roundly panned by analysts and Democrats, pointing out that since its inception, Social Security was designed and has always worked effectively in its current format. Whereby current wage earners pay into the system routinely – and in doing so – supply the payroll needed to fund the benefit program for retirees. Democratic Party backer, Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees added, “Social Security has always been pay as you go, with today's workers paying for today's retirees.”

McCain has a vociferous and protracted record of advocating for the privatization of Social Security and cutting benefits for retirees, the disabled, and their dependents, stretching as far back as 1983.

More than 42 million Americans are on Social Security – chiefly, the elderly, widows and widowers, and young children whose parents unexpectedly died – allowing them to live independently and out of poverty.

However, In spite of John McCain’s yearly salary as a U.S. Senator of $169,300, and a reported total income in 2007 of $405,409, public records show that McCain, in fact, personally draws from Social Security. Although McCain and his wife keep separate finances, Cindy McCain, an heiress and direct benefactor of a family beer fortune, maintains an expansive largesse estimated at potentially $100 million.

Incongruently, and in complete conflict with his public views and withering remarks, John McCain received, according to public records, $23,157 in Social Security benefits in 2007 – a welfare benefit that averages nearly $2,000.00 per month.

The advocacy group, Alliance for Retired Americans, has launched a campaign to educate its members and the general voter population to attract attention to McCain’s duplicitous, anti-Social Security views. Bemused and angered by McCain’s comments and double standard stance, Director Edward F. Coyle, in a conference call with “leaders of labor and other progressive groups” stated, “Social Security has kept millions out of poverty, and is one our nation’s greatest success stories.”

Additionally, since Senator McCain has pronounced Social Security an, “absolute disgrace”, while personally and hypocritically drawing out of the fund, the Alliance for Retired Americans has asked that the Arizona Republican “return his Social Security checks.”

Considering the near unanimous condemnation of McCain’s acerbic commentary toward Social Security, while surreptitiously collecting benefits, it is unlikely this will prove to be a success story for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

New Orleans: If Only it was Just Billions

2008-07-29T13:04:00.006-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

The Bush Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost the U.S. $2.4 trillion, but some fiscal conservatives and anti-tax crusaders are still fixated on derailing the billions of dollars requisite to restore a city lost to Bush’s incompetence and hubris – the city of New Orleans.

:: ::

An old, annoying, yet benign, viral e-mail is being treated to a sinister makeover and finding its way into e-mail boxes across America. The e-mail, in its original form, was disseminated ostensibly to ask the reader to posit the vastness of a $1 billion. While ruminating on this idea, the letter goes on to show how politicians cavalierly bandy about such a hefty sum in conversation whilst doing the nation’s business.

Regrettably and inexcusably, the latest revision of this message is laced with lies, race-baiting, and Jim Crow-style bigotry. Its aim is to subtly, but inextricably blame the catastrophic and unprecedented damage of hurricane Katrina, unleashed on the good people of New Orleans, as not only a product of their presumed slothfulness but as a giant welfare windfall waiting to happen for all whom reside there.

The entirely contemptible dispatch contorts and outright fabricates enormous leaps of illogic, Karl Rove-style mathematics, and draws utterly absurd and downright ridiculous conclusions. Playing the Ronald Reagan “welfare queen” card, the e-mail incredulously claims each of the roughly 240,000 city-dwellers of New Orleans will receive a largesse check of $516,528. This insane conclusion—and rather acrobatic and illusionist arithmetic—is misleadingly derived from the aggregate total proposed in and by Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act of 2005.

Naturally, using even the basest of common sense, any prudent read of the bill neither promises nor suggests anything so outlandish. Rather, it is a wide-ranging laundry list of needed ameliorations to restore a litany of essential services, from education, to housing, to small business and veterans’ needs in order to rebuild the disaster torn area. Money rightly requested to reconstruct a fallen city—struck down by a devastating tragedy—rather than Bush’s senseless misuse of trillions of dollars to wage war in order to lay waste to an entire country.

Now, let’s talk trillions.

The United States is spending about $8,000 every month per man, woman and child in this country to pursue criminal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that estimates the wars will cost about $2.4 trillion over the next decade. These are unnecessary wars of naked aggression, which were, manifested using false pretenses by the Bush administration, and perpetrated using more than 935 lies uttered by Bush and his senior cabinet during his time as President thus far.

More than one-fourth of the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan—$705 billion—will go to paying interest on the wars' overhead, which are being funded with borrowed dollars chiefly from China. Outside analysts, such as Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, largely agree with the CBO’s findings and judgment.

The usury alone, which stands at a staggering $705 billion, is more than three times the amount proposed to revive and restore New Orleans. And it is more than 40 times the original figure given to fight both theatres of war in the Middle East initially by the Bush administration.

Further, It was only five years ago when Lawrence Lindsey, then-head of the White House's National Economic Council, estimated that the "upper bound" of the cost of going to war with Iraq would be between $100 billion and $200 billion.

Therefore and understandably, most people have difficulty comprehending the scale of $2.4 trillion. To grasp a number that vast in size, one should think of it in these terms: 1-billion seconds equals about 32 years, while 1-trillion seconds equals nearly 300 centuries.

So, if dollars were time, Bush’s war would go on for more than 700 centuries, the equivalent to 72,000 years of combat, death, and violence. To date, after five-plus years of war, we have lost 4,121 soldiers—many of whom where still in their teens or early twenties— at a rate of virtually two per day killed in a senseless act of barbaric hostility.

If the U.S. was at war for 72,000 years, at the current rate of casualties, over the next 700 centuries, George Bush will be directly or indirectly responsible for the pointless deaths of more than 56.4 million young men and women.

The current population of the United Kingdom is 60 million. The present population of Italy is also around 60 million inhabitants. The state of California, according to a 2006 U.S. census, estimates the current populace to reside at around 36 million.

Now, imagine a war that would take the lives of every single individual who lives in Italy or the U.K. A combat mission that is so immense and long-lasting that it would kill off the state of California nearly twice over again.

The above comparisons and analogies might strike a certain cord of hyperbole, but so does the idiotic notion that the people of New Orleans have won a massive welfare lottery as victims vis-à-vis of an enormous natural disaster, yet the proposed government relief is somehow a reprehensible response to people and a city truly in need.

The immeasurable, oppressive expenditure of Bush’s wars is a growing and substantial danger to the future financial security of our nation that now measures into the trillions of dollars. They are also acts of unconscionable bloodshed conjured up by sadistic war profiteers through ginned-up intelligence in order to line the coffers of corporate welfare recipients; beneficiaries of obscene private profits and grotesque public losses—both in blood and treasure.

Iraq is Bush's madness and Bush's infamy, but we are the ones who will pay for it, and the next 2,400 generations of Americans that will follow us. Then again, when former White House Press Secretary, the late Tony Snow, was asked on the grisly anniversary that marked the 2,000th soldier killed in Iraq, in October of 2005, he coldly replied, “It’s just a number.”

Quote of the Day!

2008-07-22T03:41:00.001-04:00

FRANK J. RANELLI

“You can’t militarily occupy a nation while trying to negotiate its peoples’ freedom.” -Frank J. Ranelli, July 22, 2008

Warmonger McCain gets it wrong…again!

2008-07-21T16:45:00.005-04:00

John McCain’s latest effort to extol the false virtues war:

"When you win wars, troops come home,” John McCain, July 21, 2008

Actually,

“When you wage war, people die.” Frank J. Ranelli, 7/21/2008

:: ::

Just another, “War is Peace”, Orwellian quote from John McCain.

Quote of the Day!

2008-07-19T17:15:00.001-04:00

FRANK J RANELLI

"The only master and mistress justice now serves within our ostensible government is the duopoly power of the two political party juggernauts. Impartial justice and the egalitarian rule of law have been handed their hats and shown the door." - Frank J. Ranelli July 19, 2008

Why Conservatives Can’t Govern

2008-06-21T00:02:00.003-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

June 21, 2008

The straightforward, yet wholly emblematic and exemplary truth about conservatives – how they view government and how they govern – can be discerned from the utter underpinnings of what conservative values [sic] denote. In essence, one cannot stand in opposition to a government of the people and then set about being good stewards of the government when placed in positions within the very government they oppose. If one possesses a grand antipathy for government then it is antithetical to believe that the same people who are hostile to its (government) very existence could – or will – be competent at governing in any way conceivable.

Put another way, a person or group of people who deem government as the problem therefore becomes (or creates) the problem and not the solution. When conservatives adjoin with the exact entity (government) that powers the will of the people – with which they have such anathema for and have pronounced it as the ills of what ails us – we as a citizenry and a nation are irreparably harmed.

To be curt or pithy, Republicans are the “party of me” and Democrats are the “party of we.” Henceforth, We the People, hereby demand our government be returned to its rightful owners, “the People of these United States”, and not a group of despotic plutocrats who are fueled by hatred and run on narcissistic greed.

Quote of the Day!

2008-04-10T15:11:00.001-04:00

FRANK J. RANELLI

“Fear and hate are powerful elixirs, but truth and facts are always the cure.”

Rice on Torture: This is your baby, go do it!

2008-04-10T15:07:00.002-04:00

Condoleezza Rice orders war crimes...

Watch it!

Cafferty File: High Time We Impeach Bush & Cheney!

2008-04-10T01:38:00.001-04:00

Watch it!

Quinnipiac: Clinton lead in Pennsylvania slipping away

2008-04-08T14:20:00.004-04:00

FRANK J RANELLI

Hillary Clinton needs a large, double digit win in Pennsylvania to maintain any appearance of legitimacy in winning the Democratic nomination – anything less will be seen as a fatal blow to her quest for the presidency. Sadly, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows Hillary’s lead down to only six points and falling as Obama picks up women and white voters.

The Clinton’s pursuit to match the quasi-dynastic presidency of the Bush’s may very well end in Pennsylvania; the same state that hosted the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to draft a new form of government that forbade monarchies and eschewed nobility.

Quote of the Day!

2008-03-31T23:54:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"John McCain embodied the worst of Hoover economics conflated with the hubris of George Bush's failed American imperialism."

Obama Speech: 'A More Perfect Union'

2008-03-18T18:55:00.004-04:00

Barack Obama speaks in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center, on matters not just of race and recent remarks but of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future.

"The world as it is; is not the world as it has to be." -Barack Obama

Orwellian Watch

2008-03-14T13:46:00.002-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"It's a very, very serious matter when we do the public's business in secret." -- Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.)

"War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength."

Secrecy is public?

Quote of the Day!

2008-03-13T19:39:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“War is and always will be the darkness that lurks in and around humanity as the grim reaper of our own mortality as a species.”

Religious Orwellian Watch

2008-03-12T13:40:00.004-04:00

"God’s hatred is one of His holy attributes." - Rev. Fred Phelps, of the virulently homophobic and savagely hateful Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas.

Quote of the Day!

2008-03-12T13:17:00.001-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"Americans want fresh, visionary leaders who inspire us to believe in America again, not wrap us up in constant intrigue and incessant fear that is is counterproductive to the serious issues we face and must triumph over as a nation if we are to survive as a vibrant and productive society."

Quote of the Day!

2008-03-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“Religion is, in all its forms, intellectual slavery. When one frees their mind of baseless guilt, gullibility and gods, they find a renewed vigor and clarity that unshackles the psyche to pursue truth over piety”

Quote of the Day!

2008-02-29T12:22:00.001-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“Unfortunately, most people around our nation are still unaware of the massive subterranean usurpations against liberty and democracy that have been unknowingly mined beneath their very feet by the Bush administration.”

The absence of proof as God

2008-02-28T11:05:00.004-05:00

A RUMINATION BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Religion is still the greatest threat to humankind’s own extinction. It is gravely disturbing that the ABSENCE OF PROOF is the clarion call for a large swath of sanctimonious supporters who believe a dubious figure of ancient canonical lore will magically appear, and soon, as a redeemer for the devoted few.

However, it is refreshing that an emergence of sanity – through a renaissance of rational-thinkers – has risen up in opposition to the religious, reactionary throng of certitude in mysticism as authenticity.

So many of us are duped into denial and deluded by proselytizers who indoctrinate us from life’s true reality. Therefore, I find it to be a prescient sign of the 21st century’s ‘movement realism’ that has begun to wholesale reject religion and the foolish optimism of mystic liberating deities.

Finally, a small but bonafided subset of critical and independent-minded thinkers have emerged to confront once-sacred canon as dubious and not beyond reproach. Thusly, the time has come to dispel the myths, lies, and duplicity of religion.

It is time for that “true reality” to be revealed – that god simply does not exist.

Quote of the Day!

2008-02-28T11:03:00.001-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"Fascism drowns out all dissent through an unyielding demand to glorify the nation and militarism, juxtaposing allegiance to the state and devotion to divinity as requisite and one in the same. Thusly, deifying the 'homeland' and subjugating the civil liberties of the individual. This is, in a microcosm, the Bush doctrine."

George Bush’s Approval Rating Plummets to Just 19%

2008-02-20T19:53:00.001-05:00

Clearly voicing their discontent for George W. Bush, Americans are now reaching historic levels of undisputed antipathy for America’s 43rd President. A new poll has Bush breaking a new nadir in presidential approval ratings, beating out Harry Truman’s 22% for the lowest support among Americans in the nation’s history.

:: ::

The latest American Research Group polling of how George W. Bush is conducting himself as President, in the eyes of the America people, is an historic, if not an abysmal low, at just 19% overall. An astounding 77% of those surveyed disapprove of Bush’s job performance. A full 79% of those sampled from February 16-19, were critical of how the President was handling the retreating economy.

Until Bush dipped below the 20% mark in this latest poll by the American Research Group, it was Harry S. Truman, in a Gallup Poll taken in February 1952, who previously held the worst presidential approval rating at just 22%.

Further demonstrating the dour mood of the country, 78% of Americans, more than three-fourths of the nation, believe the economy was getting worse and 47% are confident the country is in a full-blown recession.

The near unanimity among registered voters was that Bush was not getting the job done as president. Merely 18% found him to be successful in his duties and 78% gave him a failing mark. In addition, an astonishing and historically all-time low number of registered voters, just 15%, found Bush favorable in his ability to deal with the economic woes the country is currently facing.

Even amid registered Republican voters, Bush still failed to break through to a majority of supporters with only 45% of Republicans in favor of Bush’s job performance.

Independent voters matched the sour mood of the country as a whole with only 17% finding Bush to be satisfactory in his job achievements and 75% expressed displeasure for America’s 43rd President.

Democrats, who have been sharply acrid toward Bush for some time, showed their disdain for his perceived and mounting failures, voiced their undisputed discontent for Bush with 99% finding him unsatisfactory in his job.

Interestingly, among the disparate few who found favor with Bush’s abilities, only 1% believed the economy would approve with Bush in the White House. A certain sign that even Bush’s most ardent supporters believe he is incapable of restoring the economy from its current somber state.

Finally, of the 77% of Americans who disfavor Bush’s job as president, a full 85% stated that the national economy was bad, very bad, or even “terrible.”

The only optimism shown by those polled, indicated by a margin of 42%, feel the national economy will improve a year from now – when Bush will be out of office.

Coupled together with the Federal Reserve’s latest forecast that suggests the economy may weaken further still, with even higher inflation and unemployment rates, it appears unlikely that Bush, with less than a year in office left, will stand any chance of stirring any hope of buoyancy before the next president takes office in January of 2009.

Turning their back on the Constitution

2008-02-15T15:11:00.004-05:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Everyone take a good look at every one of these gutless, republican sycophants who, instead of representing the American people and the rule of law, staged a petulant, puerile walkout. Why? Because Pelosi and crew finally decided to stand up to their furor and act like a co-equal branch of government.

They have violated their oath to "support and defend the Constitution" and do not deserve to represent the American people. Come November, each and every on of these seditious Bush enablers should be voted out of office!

McCain Votes Against Banning Waterboarding, but Claims it is “Illegal”

2008-02-14T07:35:00.003-05:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Senator John McCain, the erstwhile prisoner of war, whose previous vehement opposition to torture stemmed from years of torment at the hands of the North Vietnamese, has voted against banning waterboarding while claiming it is illegal.

:: ::

As reported in the New York Times today, the Senate passed a measure by a vote of 51-45 to ban waterboarding and other “harsh interrogation methods.” The legislation had already cleared the House in December that would “limit all American interrogators to techniques permitted in the Army Field Manual on Interrogation.”

President Bush, threatening to veto the bill, drew harsh criticism from Democrats Charles Schumer and Senate Leader Harry Reid. In a salvo to prod Bush into signing the bill, Schumer exclaimed, “If the president vetoes intelligence authorization, he will be voting in favor of waterboarding.” While Reid proclaimed, “We are taking an important step toward restoring our moral leadership in the world. It is now up to the president to show his own moral leadership and sign this bill into law.”

However, self-proclaimed maverick and presumptive Republican nominee for President, John McCain, took a mercurial stance. McCain who was a prisoner of war during Vietnam for five years, and who was tortured while in captivity, voted against the banning of waterboarding.

McCain, claiming his support and vote for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which gives the President the ability to approve harsh interrogations methods not in the Army Field Manual, provides proof his record is consistent with his views and voting record on torture.

Nonetheless, McCain seemed to contradict himself, telling one reporter, “Waterboarding is illegal and should be banned” and “the agency (the C.I.A.) must adhere to existing federal law and international treaties.”

The “Straight Talk Express” may be posing tough on terror, in an effort to shore up a shaky relationship with hard-line conservatives, but obvious prevarications, such as this, will do little to convince likely voters McCain is anything but an opportunistic politician who claims, when asked about potential political motives, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Hillary Must Be the 'Right' Women President, not Just a Woman President

2008-02-13T07:43:00.005-05:00

By Frank J. Ranelli

Barack Obama has registered ten straight caucus and primary victories, taking the inevitability out of Hillary Clinton’s campaign to win the White House. Many older female voters are now dismayed at the likely prospect of never seeing a woman president in their lifetime. But, is it Clinton’s gender or her politics that has sparked Obama’s incendiary ascent to front-runner status?

:: ::

As Sheldon Drobny, co-founder of Nova M radio and Air America Radio, points out in his article, Hillary Is Not Losing: Bill And The DLC Are, it is not necessarily or wholly Hillary, per se, that is causing the hemorrhage of support for her. It is her “DLC message”, using the infamous “triangulation strategy” of her husband and former president, Bill Clinton, during his campaigns of the1990’s. This simply does not resonate with today’s informed 21st century voters. The Al From centrist position and water carrier candidates of the “republican-lite” affiliation, which as one reader dubbed them, “easy-listening candidates”, seem dated if not totally anachronistic to the present political landscape.

Hillary Clinton and the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, represent an antiquated paradigm of politics. Americans want fresh, visionary leaders who inspire us to believe again, not wrap us up in constant intrigue and incessant fear that is is counterproductive to the issues of gravitas we face and must triumph over as a nation if we are to survive as a vibrant and productive society.

As Mr. Drobny poignantly illustrates, much of Hillary’s imminent demise is due to the faulty and fatal centrist campaign strategy she adopted. Yes, Senator Clinton has been maligned unjustly and unrelentingly by ignorant, partisan, and bigoted people who hate her merely for the purpose of hating her. She has also been the victim of baseless machinations over the past 15 years by limitless amoral Republicans and the target of mainstream media misogyny.

However, and I am speaking on a personal level now, at least in the primaries, I cannot in good conscience vote for Hillary Clinton. I have reviewed her positions on the issues and carefully vetted them each assiduously. Prima facie, there is substantive merit to argue she is a progressive and worthy candidate for the presidency. But, Hillary’s vote for the AUMF in 2002 – and subsequent refusal to admit she was utterly wrong – which was only made worse by her dissembling excuse during the last debate, is her very mortal Achilles heal.

Hillary’s contemptible announcement that "lobbyists are people too" reveals just exactly who she curries favors to – corporations over constituents. Not so coincidentally, her semi-cozy relationship with Rupert Murdoch of News Corp and Mark Penn, her chief strategist, who has ties to the odious mercenary firm Blackwater, does little to dispel the tepidness of many would-be Hillary voters.

Americans want a woman president, but she must be the right president. I find myself empathetic toward the plight that many women voters feel who may never see a female president in their lifetime. Nonetheless, we, as Americans, simply cannot vote for Hillary on the matter of gender identity alone, nor can we vote for her on sheer principle because she is simply female to settle a score.

Great leaders can be of virtually any persuasion, but that presumed greatness must be demonstrated by way of sound judgment. Hillary’s Iraq war vote – and it was a vote for war – was a profound mistake that I simple cannot overlook. And I do not buy into her endless practice of obfuscation as to why she voted for a wretched bill with inevitable and hopelessly tragic consequences.

Where I do agree, and I believe this is the seminal issue at hand, is that a McCain presidency must be absolutely avoided. Failure to prevent john McCain from becoming the 44th President of the U.S. is a pledge to delve this country into endless and more wars, ceaseless bloodshed and the abolishment of the middle class. A McCain presidency also guarantees more needless tax cuts for the wealthiest among us, while ensuring ending poverty and providing healthcare for all Americans will be banished from government discourse.

This was the message that John Edwards brought to the debate and into the limelight, making it a touchstone of the new Democratic message: Populism is back. It is a torch that for now is best carried and burns brightest within Obama, not Clinton. For it is not an issue of gender or race, during this 2008 race to the White House, but a matter of clarity in judgment, and the company she keeps, that renders Hillary unfit to be America’s first female President.

Pelosi and Reid Ratchet up their Campaign of Capitulation

2008-02-09T19:43:00.000-05:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine gets it right:

"Elected to end the war, Democrats have surrendered to Bush on Iraq and betrayed the peace movement for their own political ends...Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have completed one of the most awesome political collapses since Neville Chamberlain. At long last, the Democratic leaders of Congress have publicly surrendered on the Iraq War, just one year after being swept into power with a firm mandate to end it."

The really tragic thing about the Democratic surrender on Iraq is that it's now all but guaranteed that the war will be off the table during the presidentialcampaign. Once again — it happened in 2002, 2004 and 2006 — the Democrats have essentially decided to rely on the voters to give them credit for being anti-war, despite the fact that, for all the noise they've made to the contrary, in the end they've done nothing but vote for war and cough up every dime they've been asked to give, every step of the way.

Adding,

The Democrats have systematically taken over the anti-war movement, packing the nation's leading group with party consultants more interested in attacking the GOP than ending the war.

Their is no question that political hacks Pelosi and Reid have traded American lives for perceived political expediency. Beyond that grisly detail, the sad double irony here is that not only have the lives of Americans been needlessly ended by a warmongering President, but they may very well have been doubly wasted in a fruitless effort by a pair of narcissistic partisan sycophants who traded American blood and lives for a McCain presidency - guaranteed to mire us in a "100 years of war."

Quote of the Day!

2008-02-09T04:28:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"If being liberal means critical thinking and informed dissent, instead of blind obedience and ignorant nationalism, then I am all for it!"

Quote of the Day!

2008-02-06T00:18:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"The answer to fear is defiance."

Quote of the Day!

2008-01-28T19:48:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“We are all atheists; some of us are merely in denial and deluded.”

Romney cheats and uses earpiece during debate!

2008-01-25T14:13:00.001-05:00

Just like George W. Bush did during the debates in 2004 against John Kerry, Mitt Romney uses an earpiece to cheat during a republican primary debate in Boca Raton, Florida.

Listen for yourself:

The great irony is the question centered around Ronald Reagan -- who Romney has been fiercely idolating lately -- raised taxes to secure Social Security, while Romney pledges not to raise taxes. So much for Mitt "I want to be just like Reagan" Romney.

Independent Study Finds Bush "Unequivocally" Lied U.S. into War with Iraq

2008-01-23T17:07:00.000-05:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

In perhaps the most complete and damning evidence yet that President Bush deceived a nation into a baseless war, a nonprofit collaboration of two independent organizations has concluded that President Bush used at least 532 misleading and deceptively false statements to justify military action against Iraq.

:: ::

A nonprofit collaboration of two independent, non-governmental organizations has concluded that President Bush used at least 532 misleading and deceptively false statements to justify military action against Iraq. In all, the Bush administration as a whole used a mind-numbing 935 false statements to goad America into war with Iraq. Calling their findings "an orchestrated deception on the path to war," the partnership report may very well be the first fully comprehensive investigation that incontrovertibly proves the Bush administration lied this nation into an unfounded war.

The Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism determined, through a collective study and breakdown of Bush administration speeches, press briefings and interviews, that Bush and other top officials "led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information."

According to the report, Bush alone lied more than 259 times, including 232 false statements "about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq" and "28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida." Quoting Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida." Furthermore, the shared study noted, "the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Among the seven top officials cited, Colin Powell was the most egregious in the dispersal of dissembling and mendacious language regarding the requisite call for war against Iraq. Powell is attributed to having made 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in a two-year period beginning on September 11, 2001 and through the commencement of military action in Iraq on March 18, 2003.

As a microcosm example of at least 935 lies cataloged by the exhaustive study, Vice President Dick Cheney declared on August 26, 2002 that "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." Bush's patently false proclamation, made on May 29, 2003, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction," has now been completed discredited. Of course, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found and George Bush, on NBC's Meet the Press in 2004 conceded, "No weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq."

In a never-ending stream of fuzzy rationales to justify war, beginning as early as November of 2001, the Bush administration began making disingenuous statements attempting to tie Saddam to the attackers of 9/11. Quoting Bush, "They're both risks, they're both dangerous. The difference, of course, is that Al Qaeda likes to hijack governments. Saddam Hussein is a dictator of a government. Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert." However, in stark contrast, the 9/11 Commission Report was unable to establish any "evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with Al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States."

The comprehensive study also touches on and illuminates the vast failures of the mainstream media; mainly their failure to offer critical scrutiny, while chiefly operating as Bush's surrogate and disseminator in the misleading rhetoric of the dire need to take the country to war. During that critical, seminal juncture in the run up to the war, the media "creating an almost impenetrable din" that forced out nearly all dissenting views, the report revealed.

In what may be the first true, categorical "War Report Card" that separates fact from fiction, fine tunes mass distortion into utter clarity, the Center for Public Integrity makes a compelling case that "Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

_______

To learn more and read the full report, visit on the web:

Center For Public Integrity: http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx

Quote of the Day!

2008-01-15T17:55:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“Embrace life, accept mortality, and reject religion.”

Does Chris Matthews have a problem with women?

2008-01-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

BY FRANK J RANELLI

Is Chris Matthews of MSNBC waging a hostile, chauvinist's agenda against Hillary Clinton and women? His abject track record against women says, "Yes." It's time to end the misogyny of Matthews.

:: ::

Does Chris Matthews have a problem with women? It appears so. Prominently highlighted across the blogosphere, Matthews has repeatedly utilized his show on MSNBC to resort to a one-man machination crusade against Hillary Clinton. For years, Matthews has used loosely implied sexist epithets, such as referring to Senator Clinton as “Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched," to defame and disparage her.

Matthews has a lengthy and sordid history of tenuous reproach toward the Clintons; principally aimed at Hillary. Moreover, most Americans are fed up with polemic pundits and are openly outraged by Chris Matthews' demonization of Hillary Clinton. This public ire is because Mr. Matthews has a blatant problem with women in general, and especially strong-minded, independent women.

Matthews’ immense antipathy for Hillary is likely best punctuated by comments he made, published in the Philadelphia Inquirer magazine in 2001, when he thusly pronounced to a colleague, “I hate her. I hate her. All that she stands for.” However, the bona fide nadir of Matthews’ aversion to Hillary is his insane intimation that “she may be a front-runner [because] her husband messed around.”

Chris Matthews' "never-ending naked sexism[1]" is definitely grounds for MSNBC to fire him. His constant diatribes of only thinly-veiled misogynistic views is a vast hindrance to an otherwise credible news organization that needs to outshine Fox News, not emulate it. This has little to do with support for or against Hillary, but for firmly putting an end to the open and sad sexism that is still pervasive on-air and in the mainstream media.

Hillary may or may not be your “cup of tea”, but if she is to be defeated as a candidate for the presidency, then it must be on her failure to galvanize liberals and attract independents; her being out-of-step with voters on the issues, not the ranting of an imprudent, chauvinistic male talking head on television.

Sadly, Matthews distaste for women – and those chiefly in positions of power – doesn’t stop at the baseless condemnations of Hillary. Chris Matthews has also called into question Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, dogmatically describing her as “scary.” Further yet, he has astonishingly wondered aloud if she (Pelosi) would "castrate" House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

NBC fired Don Imus for a singular, similar remark and now it's time to expunge Chris Matthews from MSNBC for his biased, protracted rage against woman, Hillary Clinton and his machismo sexism. It's time to end the misogyny of Chris Matthews and other such purveyors of a hostile “white men only” bourgeoisie embargo on women in our government and in places of power.

__________________________________________
Sources: Media Matters; MSNBC's Chris Matthews problem

[1] Bob Fertik; Chris Matthews Should Debate Hillary

Quote of the Day!

2008-01-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

Placing "God" at the front of the table as the cure to "immorality" is akin to placing Poseidon in charge of the Hurricane center to watch over and warn us of threats from the sea. Both are steep in questionable judgment and deep in foolish dogma.

Somber Ship of State

2007-12-12T08:03:00.000-05:00

A RUMINATION BY FRANK J. RANELLI

The rise of the Authoritarians and Neoconservatives – and their manifest drive to create oligarchies for business and a plutocratic society – should generate immense concern and desire for a seminal change, but will it ever?

As a progressive research writer and author of four years now, I find a vast majority of Americans apathetic, dejected and complacent, rather than galvanized and poised to affect desperately needed change. Among other causes, “distracted consumerism” may be, in my judgment, a core cause.

When O.J. Simpson’s latest arrest garners the lion’s share of media coverage, while the restoration of a keystone of democracy, habeas corpus, receives only a cursory glance, I find myself disturbed and worried that Americans have truly lost our way and our roots as an egalitarian society governed by the rule of law.

As contemporaries of it, are we too myopic to see we are living through another gilded age and only history, long after this era has ended, will correctly narrate the events of the first part of the 21st century?

Richard Dawkins and the New Wave of Reason

2007-12-04T02:44:00.000-05:00

Watch it!

Quote of the Day!

2007-12-01T20:57:00.000-05:00

Frank J. Ranelli

“To demand silence in the face of wholesale incompetence is more than a subversion of freedom and liberty; it is tantamount to the betrayal of true democracy.”

Rescue the Constitution

2007-11-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

Watch It!

Quote of the Day!

2007-11-26T15:03:00.001-05:00

Frank J Ranelli

“Mindlessness and totalitarian governments are the true shackles of man’s ignorant oppression, not books, contemplation or vagaries about human life.”

Enough Impugning of My Patriotism!

2007-11-21T02:21:00.000-05:00

FRANK J. RANELLI
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

I become totally incensed when someone impugns my patriotism or calls me un-American simply because I disagree -- as do presently the vast majority of other Americans -- with this President and his policies. I am tired of the Orwellian and jingoistic rally cries from the obsequious radical right, just as much as I am weary of the “win the next election at all costs” from the Nancy Pelosi parade of political incompetence.

We, as a nation, are more divided and have less tolerance as a society for dissent, or even open discussion, than any time in my existence. The dangers at home in this nation, conflagrated by false-flag fears and sometimes-inane demagoguery, are far greater perils than amorphous Islamic terrorists are.

We have, and have had, terrorist organizations right here in the United States for many, many years. The KKK and Neo-Nazi groups, just as abortion clinic bombers, all represent forms of terrorism. In my view, we cannot barricade our way into elected despotism, out of unfounded fear, in order to be fooled into a sense of utter safety and still be a free nation. Freedom is not slavery to our tenuous emotions or submission to unmitigated and unchecked authority.

As a final point, it would all be mere loquacious fodder (and maybe humorous) if not for the fact that human beings, whether America or not, or senselessly dying. Victory can only be defined now by admitting we were either flatly wrong, or executed things after Sept. 11, 2001, as a whole nation with gross incompetence and are guilty of foolish and deadly arrogance. Acting out in fear, sans rational thought and consideration, is always lethal and foolhardy.

Either we can start to be intellectually honest as a nation, and admit that George W. Bush has been a dreadful President for everyone - and the polls clearly show this is the mood of the public - or we can continue these obtuse machinations and obfuscations of the honest truth. The simple, undeniable truth is that the Bush presidency is a failed presidency with horrendous, grisly costs to our country and the world at large.

America, in the interest of the rule of law and the common welfare of this nation, must unite and stand up to this imperial President and do the right thing: We forced him to resign. It’s not only the prudent things to do; it’s the patriotic thing to do.

Quote of the Day!

2007-11-21T02:05:00.000-05:00

Frank J Ranelli

“If you engage those you disagree with, try a little diplomacy, and seek to understand before you ask to be understood; you may find that a ‘paradigm of paranoia’ - that everyone whom disagrees with you - is in fact not some rogue terrorist, an enemy comforter or an embarrassment to America, but merely just another American who does not see the world so black and white. Perhaps it is time for a little humility and toning down of zealous American pride, which as history has shown, in the end, always leads to hubris and eventual ruin.” – Frank J. Ranelli

Bruce Fein on Impeachment: Bush Usurping Powers with Impunity

2007-11-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day!

2007-10-29T23:42:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"Hope is the crucial message that America must begin to hear and believe in again. For hope is the mortal enemy of fear; and fear cannot succeed in the solidarity of inspired hope."

Bush one point away from tying worst-ever approval rating for a president

2007-10-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

76-percent of Americans now believe President Bush to be irrelevant and deem we should “throw the bums out" this next election cycle!

According to the latest Reuters/Zogby poll, President Bush’s approval rating now stands at a near historic low of 24-percent. Only Richard Nixon – shortly before he resigned in disgrace over Watergate in August of 1974 – had a more dismal approval rating of 23-percent.

Furthermore, 66-percent of this nation thinks we are heading in the wrong direction as a country and say the mood of the nation is “bleak.”

The survey of 991 adults included a strong indication of just how dismayed Americans are with the current government. Would-be-voters described their attitude towards Bush and Congress as simply “throw the bums out” and that Bush is now entirely “irrelevant.”

America’s acrid taste for its government was further illustrated by marks given on the Bush administration’s foreign policy stance, of which, only 18-percent approve of and gave it high marks. Adding, “Americans are giving up on this government."

Longtime pollster John Zogby summed up American’s soured outlook for their government by stating, "They tell us (Zogby) they want action on health care, education, the war and immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it."

Bush administration was either incompetent or is guilty of malfeasance

2007-10-15T13:46:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

George Bush has been likely caught in another lie, another cover up, and another scandal. One that may debunk his entire justifications for violating FISA, or worse yet, show that the 9/11 attacks were not prevented due to gross incompetence!

Bush simply can't have it both ways.

Impeachment, not immunity, or blank war checks,without aggressive congressional checks and balances, is more warranted than ever now. As first reported on Daily Kos, and summarized by Bob Fertik on Democrats.com, the Bush administration has been pursuing dragnet data mining operations well in advance of September 11, 2001. Of course, once again, Bush has been mendacious and totally erroneous about when the illegal warrantless wiretapping began and for what purpose.

Quoting Mr. Fertik,

“This week Joseph Nacchio, the former CEO of Qwest, revealed the Bush Administration started muscling telephone companies to wiretap American citizens without a warrant on Feb. 27, 2001. When Qwest refused, they were cut out of government contracts and Nacchio was prosecuted for insider trading.

So we now know Bush began violating FISA and the 4th Amendment just 1 month after stealing the White House. And since the 9/11 attack was 7 months later, Bush has lied about 9/11 being the justification for warrantless wiretapping for the past two years.”

Therefore, Bush either lied about the program’s intended purpose or the program failed to prevent the 9/11 attacks! At this point, Joseph Nacchio’s revelation strongly suggests that the Bush administration was either grossly incompetent on September 11, 2001, which negates any and all claims that the warrantless wiretapping has, or continues to, prevent any terrorists attacks at all. Otherwise, it has been involved in a Watergate-like abuse of power for nefarious reasons over the past six-plus years.

Impeachment, not future elections, is the only way to halt this runaway exploitation of claimed plenary power by President Bush.

Quote of the Day!

2007-10-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

"When we as a nation presumably allow war and degenerate crimes against humanity to be prioritized and sanctioned over the health or our posterity, then we as a nation have not only lost our footing, but have slipped beneath the very foundation of what this nation once emblemized."

Al Gore Awarded Nobel Peace Prize!

2007-10-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

PRESS RELEASE

THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR 2007

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
Former Vice President Al Gore Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today, along with a United Nations panel that monitors climate change, for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to control it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as "the single individual who has done the most" to convince world governments and leaders that climate change is real, is caused by human activity, and poses a grave threat.
By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control.
-Oslo, 12 October 2007

Time Magazine reports:

"An overwhelming majority of Americans - 90% of Democrats, 80% of independents, 60% of Republicans - now say they favor "immediate action" to confront the climate crisis." (That's an average of 84-percent of Americans who now believe global warming is real, anthropogenic in cause and requires our "immediate attention.")

The White House Response:

"Bush has no plans to call Gore."

Bush and the modern GOP: Same party, same problems

2007-10-08T12:37:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

A number of articles recently portray President Bush as someone who strayed from the path of true conservatism. On the contrary, he’s the very model of a modern movement conservative. Cutting taxes while waging wars, fiscal irresponsibility, general incompetence, disenfranchising minority groups, and disdain for the rule of law. Paul Krugman shows - citing contemporary history examples - that the GOP is the “same old party.”

Krugman, of the NY Times, compares numerous similarities within the GOP - that he terms the “modern movement conservative” - over the last fifty years and how Bush is only the latest heir to this odious and democracy destabilizing form of political governing.

Read Paul Krugman's full expose´ detailing why we should not be shocked by the Bush administration’s authoritarianism and why naïve republican voters may need to ask, “My God, what have we done?”

The Fading of America: Failing our children, funding a president's war

2007-10-04T12:50:00.000-04:00

By FRANK J. RANELLI

George W. Bush, just days after heretically eulogizing Monday as "Child Health Day", turned around silently and glibly vetoed a bill to aid millions of children through subsidized healthcare. The insincerity is more than real; it is now potentially lethal to millions of vulnerable children.

Part V of the "American Democracy in Crisis" series.

Is anyone else feeling the intense hypocrisy, the thick, cold heartlessness of denying the cries of powerless and defenseless children? George W. Bush, just days after heretically eulogizing Monday, October 1, 2007, as "Child Health Day", turned around quietly and glibly vetoed a bill to aid millions of low-income children through subsidized healthcare. No cameras or media were present for this brutal act of callous cruelty that was carried out like a stealthy thief under the cover of night. The insincerity is more than real; it is now potentially lethal to millions of vulnerable children and their struggling families.

The nauseating duplicity does not sufficiently affix what has been perpetrated by Bush in vetoing this bill. The outright gall to offer empty, rank rhetoric and then fiendishly denying healthcare for millions of low-income children falls beyond deceit and lands on the edge of treachery.

This "President in perfidy" is a lifeless sociopath who posses the audacity to veto a bill -- one in support of expanding an essential program to aid millions of children -- yet will look Congress dead in the eye and demand $190 billion more to fund endless aggression, death, mayhem and global hegemony. All of this madness is at the cost of the American taxpayer's wallet to fund continually senseless war, and the cost of so many children losing their healthcare is the loss of our collective conscience to demand morally what is principled and right.

Reciting dismal polls, writing scathing articles, acts of civil disobedience, demonstrations for redresses, outrage, disgust, contempt, disdain, and letters to Congress are simply no longer enough. America, as a unified whole, must set forth and take swift action to end the reign of a tyrannical presidency gone dreadfully awry.

When we as a nation presumably allow war and degenerate crimes against humanity to be prioritized and sanctioned over the health or our posterity, then we as a nation have not only lost our footing, but have slipped beneath the very foundation of what this nation once emblemized. No longer are we the nation that claims to ask the world, "Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free." We have become the nation of the "coalition of cowards" and the "coterie of complicit" that finds rejecting over 4 million children access to healthcare as "politics as usual." All it takes, as it has been said, for evil to take root, is for good and decent men and woman to stand by and do nothing. Right now, at this very moment, we are doing just that -- nothing.

We are a nation of 303 million people now. Yet, somehow, we have allowed 536 diminutive-minded, self-centered, grotesquely egotistic individuals to commandeer our values, our principles, and now our nerve to stand and fight for the wellbeing of helpless kids. We huddle in angst; we sigh in antipathy, and then quietly permit 535 subversive members of our very own Congress -- and one demonic, inhumane megalomaniacal maniac -- to brush our booming voices aside with the single, sickening sweep of a pen.

Saying, "enough!" is simply no longer enough. Massive malfeasance must be fought with radical new measures to combat and strike at the heart of the malignancy that has inflicted the entire body of our democracy now. If we as a nation are to exist beyond the ephemeral moment in time, then the time has arisen to take a stand, and to stand against the Bush doctrine and its merciless machinery of cold-blooded coronation of a tyrant!

At the behest of all that is sane, reasoned, and vital to fight for the survival of our sovereign nation and its future, we must demand, be forever resolute, and ensure that George W. Bush is forced to resign immediately. Forget the idea of impeachment. Anything short of George Bush immediately resigning will codify into law and write his reprehensible deeds into the historical annuls of precedence for all future Presidents to prey upon.

If we are to survive as a nation, and to resemble again anything close to that which the founders of this country envisioned, then we must accept America is in grave peril. And this time the casualties are not only unwitting soldiers unjustly caught in a deadly game of Risk, but that which we cherish and have fought for the most for over 200 years in existence. Children, above all, are the hopes, dreams, and future of our nation. If we cannot muster a modicum of decency, without bitter, partisan divisiveness, then hope will certainly fade for countless children, as it will fade for America, too.

Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Message to Universities, “Be Patriotic, or Else!”

2007-10-02T01:48:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter brazenly attacks the world of academia, insistent on legislating an Orwellian doctrine and desires to return McCarthyism and blind nationalism to governing by censoring the thoughts of the American people.

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), a textbook authoritarian and uncritical sycophant for the Bush administration, has been consistently aiding rabid Republicans in reaching new party nadirs. Now we can add xenophobic, blind nationalist, and adversary to dissent to his growing and disturbing resume of Orwellian penchants.

Hunter has torn a page out of Orwell’s, 1984, and Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, and pasted them neatly and expediently together. The Congressman has introduced legislation, H.R. 3675, with the expressed stated purpose to, “prohibit Federal grants to or contracts with Columbia University.” Mr. Hunter believes quite vehemently, by virtue of his pending bill, that by cutting off all federal funding to Columbia University will, “restore patriotism to university campuses.”

The motivation behind this brazen act of McCarthyism is self-evident. Congressman Duncan Hunter disagrees with Columbia University’s invitation that allowed the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to speak to its students. The implications behind such an anti-democratic proposed law -- that we should deny disparate views from being heard, by way of banning unfettered access to those a few may disagree with -- are preposterous and lethal to independent thought. Such a bill is also purely antithetical to the very foundations of the free and open society we rightly enjoy.

Moreover, Hunter’s overt attempt at stemming dissent, using euphemistic vernacular such as “restore patriotism” more than tidily falls under the umbrella of fascist ideologies that aim to suppress academia and critical-thought. Independent judgment, as evident by Mr. Hunter’s proposed edict, is independent of, and irreconcilable with, a person or establishment’s patriotism. Hunter’s delusional and quite obtuse observation is that one’s love of their country must include the love of their government and its current policies.

This is more than repudiation by Congressman Hunter of the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; this is an assault on all dissension by proxy of right-wing, American chauvinism. Hunter’s deceptive and veiled syntax -- which feebly attempts to hide the insidious nature of such a proposal -- fails to prevent the obvious conclusion that this is an effort at unadulterated censorship via threats of cutting off subsidy to schools.

The paranoia in Hunter’s bill is palpable. The Orwellian overtones are conspicuous. There is more than a minor allusion to Bradbury’s book-burning society that believes ignorance and compliance are compulsory to stability. Nuances are to be shunned, vagaries are shirked, and violators of American reverence are to be punished.

Hunter’s perverse veneration -- that by law only people and ideas by which the U.S. government consents is acceptable -- is a twisted, conflated effort of draconian law and totalitarian governing. Using dissembling language that cloaks the true intent, Hunter ineptly tries to define “patriotism” as utter loyalty to a Big Brother government.

Wholly advocating derailment of enlightenment through diverse educational experiences, the Congressman from California, in an act of sad irony, invokes the USA Patriot Act to make his case for denying universities federal funding. Under Section 3(a) of his Restore Patriotism to University Campuses Act, Hunter draws together in a loose, but covert fashion that by allowing Ahmadinejad to speak to college students is, “Permitting State Terrorist Access to Campuses.”

This type of legislative, theatrical dogma plays on the “giving aid and comfort to the enemy” Bush theme. One could logically conclude that Hunter’s next legislative act includes a draft to name all those present during Ahmadinejad’s speech are to be labeled as “enemy combatants.”

This is more than a disingenuous and dangerous attempt to monopolize the truth and to sequester informed debate. Hunter’s unscrupulous act of accusing anyone who does not agree with the Congressman as disloyal is blatant censorship. The bill Hunter is proposing more than smacks of the “Red Scare”, Joe McCarthy era. Instead, Hunter has reawakened McCarthyism and has simply replaced the fear of Communism with Terrorism as the scapegoat enemy of consternation.

In Duncan Hunter’s illusionary view, touchstones of American democracy, such as freedom of speech, the right to assemble, and even liberty itself, must take a back seat to unwavering obedience to the state and marshal in hyper-nationalism. Anyone who dares to fall out of line, ceases to goose-step, or questions Big Brother are undesirable seditious contemptibles, who must suffer the wrath of an autocratic and unforgiving government.

Fortunately, the House referred this loathsome bill to the Committee on Education and Labor, where it will likely die an ignoble death. Mr. Hunter has every right to his opinion, and every American has the right to dissent from that opinion. However, Congressman Hunter, in his single quest for a complacent and Orwellian society, would be wise to ponder the notion that no entity or person has a patent on patriotism.

Correspondent Lindsay D. Riggs contributed to this article.

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Source: H.R. 3675: To prohibit Federal grants to or contracts with Columbia University, http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-3675

John Edwards Brings Populist Message Back to Ohio

2007-09-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-26T13:14:00.000-04:00

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.

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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.

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

Quote ofthe Day!

2007-09-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-20T18:20:00.000-04:00

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.

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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!

2007-09-19T03:23:00.000-04:00

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.

2007-09-18T03:42:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-09-18T03:00:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-09-17T16:49:00.000-04:00

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.

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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

2007-09-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

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.

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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?

2007-09-04T14:58:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-03T00:25:00.000-04:00

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

Watch it!

Quote of the Day!

2007-09-03T00:18:00.000-04:00

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."

Chertoff to be Latest Bush Recess Appointment?

2007-08-28T03:31:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J RANELLI

Claiming “exigent circumstances”, Bush is likely to recess appoint Michael Chertoff as Attorney General, breaking a deal with Senate leader Harry Reid.

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Michael Chertoff, the co-author of the USA PATRIOT ACT and the man behind the massive failure of FEMA during hurricane Katrina, could be recess appointed without the consent of the 110th Senate.

Shortly before the Senate broke for recess in August, Bush and Senate leader Harry Reid struck a bargain concerning Bush’s dubious recess appointing practices. Reid promised not to block some of Bush’s judicial nominees during the next session, and in return, Bush would not install any recess appointees to vacant positions while Congress was in recess. That may all change now with the resignation of current AG Alberto Gonzales.

President Bush, it has strongly been suggested, is going to claim "exigent circumstances", breaking his deal with Reid not to recess appoint anyone, and install Michael Chertoff as Attorney General, sans any vetting by the Senate.

Given Bush’s long record of disdain for the law, and even basic statesman-like decorum, this is not out of the realm of possibility. Bush has long claimed that as Commander-in-Chief he has additional powers not expressly granted by the Constitution. He may likely transmit that his suspect assertion of being a “unitary executive” affords him the right to break his deal with Reid, especially during a time of war.

Finally, with the new FISA provisions about to take effect over warrantless wiretapping, which requires an Attorney General to oversee the new Protect America Act of 2007, Bush may feel more than justified in moving immediately to recess appoint Michael Chertoff to the post of Attorney General.

Even though Gonzales’ resignation does not officially take effect until September 17, 2007, after Congress returns from recess, Bush could see to it that Gonzales’ resignation takes effective immediately in order to facilitate the end-around on Reid and the installation of Chertoff.

Reid would have been wise to heed the advice of the old adage “caveat emptor”, "let the buyer beware", as the Attorney General, does “serve at the pleasure of the President.” The pleasure of this president, as has been the case for over six years now, is to break treaties, deals, and good-faith agreements whenever it suits his expedient political agenda or thwarts his Democratic rivals.

Quote of the Day!

2007-08-23T18:28:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

"It is a matter of reason and rationale for agnostics and atheists to challenge and confront 'moderates of faith' with the uncomfortable notion that God may indeed not exist and 'ostensible moderation' may be the bedrock from which religious extremism is forged."

Senator Voinovich, are you watching?

2007-08-22T02:05:00.000-04:00

Watch it!

Former Ohio AG Jim Petro Likely to be Replacement for Deborah Pryce in OH-15

2007-08-17T14:16:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J RANELLI

In the wake of the current Republican D.C. mass exodus, that now includes Ohio’s own favorite Bush toady, Deborah Pryce; it appears that former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro (R) will try his sorry hand at yet another republican political run. This time, for Pryce’s soon to be vacated and soiled congressional seat.

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Republican Jim Petro, the former Attorney General for Ohio appears to be the heir-apparent candidate to replace the sycophantic Deborah Pryce as the Republican Party’s candidate for Ohio’s 15th District. Petro is infamous for successfully arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court for the State of Ohio’s right to uphold the banning of late-term abortions in 2005. He then lost the Republican nomination race for Governor to ultra corrupt, then-Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. The Columbus Dispatch is now reporting that he is the most likely person to follow Pryce.

Given Petro’s observable penchant as a typical republican, he too spuriously claims republicans want a smaller and less intrusive government. He then proceeds to climb into a woman’s womb to stake an American Flag and plant a Bible, which would only signify “more of the same shenanigans” to be expected if Petro were elected to Congress.

Petro, in 2006 was unable to beat out the mega-crooked, preacher turned politician, Kenneth Blackwell – of Ohio voter suppression fame – for the Governor’s nomination to the Republican Party. This clearly illuminates how far-right and out-of-touch Petro is; he could not even muster enough support to supplant Blackwell as the Republican Governor nominee.

When Kenneth Blackwell is seen as the lesser of two evils for republican voters, just exactly how bad are you? Keep in mind that Ted Strickland (D) obliterated Blackwell in the general election for Ohio’s Governorship last year. A poll at the Columbus Dispatch might just clue us in on the answer. The poll entitled, “Would you prefer Jim Petro or Mary Jo Kilroy to replace Rep. Deborah Pryce in Congress?” shows Mary Jo Kilroy a clear winner by 18 percent over Jim Petro. While the poll is far from scientific, it does provide a glimpse as to how unpopular and untrustworthy Petro is to Ohioans.

Consider these facts: Petro, after leaving his post as Ohio’s Attorney General, failed to garner enough support for the Republican Party Nominee in 2006 for the Governor’s post, and now can’t even gather enough republican backing to represent a solitary congressional district!

The very last thing needed in Ohio’s 15th district is another republican representative in Congress. America and Ohioans have overwhelmingly had enough of obsequious, warmongering, goose-stepping, and genuflecting Bush toadies in the people’s House of Government. Pryce has voted in total synchronicity with the Republican Party and George W. Bush virtually every time. Pryce has always been about choosing her party over the people. Jim Petro would assuredly commit to the same acts of blind deference just as Pryce has done for Bush since 2001. Ronald Reagan previously demonstrated and said that government is the problem, and then Republicans go about proving just that.

Deborah, Ohio and America will not miss you; you will gleefully be added to the virtual graveyard of botched political conservative ground crawlers, right next to Dennis Hastert, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, et al. The only grave markers you might find in the midst of our virtual necropolis from the Bush Era conservative failures would be annotated as such: Do not exhume, dangerous to democracy!

Jim Petro, it appears, already has one foot in the political grave.

________

Correspondent Lindsay D. Riggs contributed to this article.

Announcing, Vantage Point Radio - the Aggressive and Progressive Internet Talk Radio Show!

2007-08-15T18:58:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2007

Join and listen in every Friday as host Frank J Ranelli teams up with Nick Sabatino weekly to provide a critical and progressive analysis of politics, war, and religion in the 21st century.

Each and every Friday Nick Sabatino, a hard-hitting and rapid-fire political science major presses Frank J. Ranelli, an erudite political writer and researcher, to peer back through the looking glass with a discerning and progressive eye at the perilous politics, radical religiosity and pre-emptive wars of the new millennium enacted by the odious policies of obsequious Republicans and the neoconservative Bush Administration.

Every Friday, Nick and Frank will take head-on, discuss and debunk the latest right-wing spin, expose the propaganda of the nefarious Republican agenda and lay bare the truths about the inane beliefs in deities, dogma, and the status quo.

Tune in, take the next revolutionary step in blogging – live Blog Talk Radio – and listen in as Nick and Frank look beyond the artificial grandeurs of elective war, unmask blind nationalism and fake patriots, and map out a better America with a uniquely fresh and progressive outlook!

Listeners are encouraged to call in to Vantage Point Radio at, 646-716-9082 and join in the discussion with Nick and Frank. You can find show scheduling, future planned topics, invited guests and even download archives of past shows for free! Vantage Point Radio can be found at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vantagepoint .

Please Join Nick and Frank this Friday, August 17, 2007, for their inaugural show, where they will cover the Weekly Progressive Review, a re-cap and analysis of the past week’s events, in and out of the political arena, as well as the feature topic: Is Conservatism a mental disorder? Science may hold the answer!

Silence is complicity and the time has come for Progressive Americans to have a voice!

For a sneak-peak preview, click play on the embedded media player below and hear a 15-minute sample of Vantage Point Radio - the Aggressive and Progressive Internet Talk Radio Show!

The Duplicity of Dick

2007-08-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

Dick Cheney in 1994. Appears Dick did not heed his own advice.

Watch it!

A Real Call-up to Duty?

2007-08-11T16:43:00.000-04:00

Every wish the Bush twins or the Romney boys could get drafted? Do you want to see the rest of the warmongering crowd, military service dodgers who brought you the debacle in Iraq forced to enlist (or at least their children or families)? Do you feel like the “burden of a ruinous war” should be shared by all?

Lucky for the bellicose and combative among us who crave infinte war, cheer it on, and advocate Global American Militarism, there is hope.

Yes, those who desire war the most may actually get their chance to participate on the front lines and in the hot sands of the Iraq quagmire.

In the video below, General David Petraeus states Iraq will be “a nine or ten year endeavor.” While Bush’s new War Czar, General Douglas Lute, on August 10, 2007, intimates at the return of a draft to promote and promulgate more, endless war.

Will the raucous and vociferously hawkish among us finally “step in line” or will calls for conscription send them running for college deferments and medical waivers?

Watch it!

A Message for the ‘Dirty 41’ who voted FOR the Bush changes to FISA

2007-08-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J RANELLI

America is headed on a fast track of elective tyranny, fostered by a cowering and once-again trembling legislative branch. The seemingly uninterrupted, expansive powers that Congress continually acquiesces to President Bush have downgraded Congress to being merely a Ceremonial Branch of our government.

James Madison, acutely aware of the dangers of any form of authoritarianism stated, “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial in the same hands, whether of one a few or many, or whether hereditary, self-appointed or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

Remember, the very despotic powers that you, as a member of Congress continue to grant freely to President Bush, may someday in turn be used to usurp your very own liberties or rights to live in a free and sovereign society.

History has taught us, as recently as the Bush Administration’s egregious behavior, disdain for Congress and the rule of law, that once power is wholly consolidated, those who aided in the establishment of a totalitarian government by achieving unconstrained authority may themselves become enemies of, or victims of, the very police-like state they helped create.

Please, think about what you are doing to all of us, including yourself and you family next time you decide to mistakenly vote to give President Bush more unconstitutional and despotic powers!

A Prescient Thought to Ponder, Especially for Republicans

2007-08-06T17:15:00.000-04:00

By Frank J. Ranelli

A Bush proclivity for secrecy, a reputation for arrogance and power grabs, and openly flouting the rule of law has one conservative Republican asking, “Do we candidly desire reaping what we have sown over the past six-plus years?”

::::

A short article entitled, More Bush-Congress court fights likely, is an interesting and contemplative piece highlighting the aggressiveness and smugness – including outright hubris – of the Bush Administration’s transgression of, and secretive standards by, a belligerent and confrontational President, that far exceeds Nixon’s pugnacious approach, has operated under since January 20, 2001.

Contained within this brief but telling essay, by Associated Press writer Charles Babington, is a keen and perceptive quote from Bruce Fein, the former associate deputy attorney general throughout the Reagan administration.

"The Bush administration is close to reducing Congress to wallpaper, when it comes to oversight, if Congress does not respond" more forcefully, he said. Republicans, he added, may come to regret the precedents that Bush is asserting. "I tell my Republican friends that Hillary Clinton will be the president some day," Fein said. "They just don't get it."

Fein, a strong conservative and constitutional lawyer, also recently spoke to Bill Moyers on PBS about Bush’s power grabs and over-reaching, calling for his (Bush’s) impeachment, critically reminded Moyers and us all why the Founders fittingly feared an unchecked executive by stating, “Men are not angels. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition to avert abuses or tyranny. The Constitution embraced a separation of powers to keep the legislative, executive, and judicial branches in equilibrium.” That “equilibrium”, or symmetry and balance, has been vilely attacked and to a great extent neutralized under the Bush Administration. Abuse indeed, has been bountiful.

Of course, Fein is reminding the Republicans, and their supporters, of the old axiom that quips, “Be careful of what you wish for; for someday you may actual receive it”. Moreover, by abdicating and bequeathing many of Congress’ co-equal capacities under the Constitution to Bush, that this continued genuflecting to an egocentric, deeply unpopular President may likely be returned in kind, in the very near future. And the Republicans may find the fruits of their disgracefully obsequious labor to be a very fetid orchard crop of ill-advised deference once an exchange of power ensues.

Power only has as much clout and muscle, by that which it is given by those who bow or consent to it. In addition, power, no matter how seemingly omniscient and enduring is only immortal for an exceedingly limited time. No matter how consolidated, power habitually and frequently changes hands. When it does, the invertebrates that acquiesced and yielded to a flawed fallacy of permanent supremacy – and helped bring it about – always tend to have a rude and unpleasant revelation.

Recipients of power through overturn then tend to use the very monopoly of authority that the previous preponderance of blind ambition errantly and extemporaneously built, by relegating the erstwhile primacy to the minority, and therefore the retributive target of, the new pre-eminence. History is replete with examples of terrible and devastating consequences of such precarious power plays and shifts for omnipotence rule.

What Bruce Fein is suggesting, in fact pleading for, is for Congress to act as a whole and synchronous body of our Government, in the interest of our Nation, and not continue this sycophantic behavior to a supercilious Executive bent on an imperial presidency. To prolong doing so begets the very question Fein posited in his very quote above for all Republicans (and perhaps the rest of us) to deliberate, “Do you genuinely desire the near unmitigated and proto-despotic powers Bush has defacto claimed in the hands of President Hillary Clinton?”

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich Eviscerates Bush, Calls War on Terror “Phony”

2007-08-03T22:26:00.000-04:00

BY FRANK J. RANELLI
Friday, August 03, 2007

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The contentious and conservative, erstwhile Speaker of the House bemoans how Bush has helped America become a country that is “no longer serious”, harshly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of terrorist groups, calling the war on terror “phony”, and claims hyper-partisanship is a “stupid way to run a country”.

In an extraordinary and stinging repudiation of Bush’s phantom war – the so-called “War on Terror” – former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, justifiably pronounced Bush’s apparent and failing exercise of nation building in Iraq as a “phony” war.

Quoting Gingrich, who was attending and speaking at the National Conservative Student Conference in Herndon, Virginia on Thursday, “the Bush administration is waging a ‘phony war’ on terrorism”, and “there is no evidence that we are winning this war”.

Gingrich, the architect of the Republican Revolution in 1994, which swept Republicans into Congressional power for thirteen years, before the historic, mid-term election of 2006 thrust Democrats back into control, is no ally of the left. However, Gingrich, due do his deep conservative roots, makes his admonishment of Bush’s failing foreign policy and flawed, mock war especially cutting and acerbic.

Signifying just how out of touch Bush’s energy policies are with Americans, and especially his own political party, the former Speaker declared, the U.S. needs a “national energy strategy aimed at weaning the country from its reliance on imported oil and some of the regimes that petro-dollars support”.

In his strongest chastising and chiding of the Bush years, Gingrich, referred to the autocracy years from 2001-2007, when the Republicans controlled both branches of Congress and the White House, as a time where “I don't think you can look and say that was a great success”.

Further illuminating on Bush’s crippling and abortive war of futility in Iraq, Gingrich lamented on how America “took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany” and “beat all three in less than four [years]”, yet somberly, Gingrich staidly pointed out that “we're about to enter the seventh year of this ‘phony war’...and we're losing”.

Whilst Newt Gingrich is an antithetical ideologue of a progressive America, who once shut down the government for 28 days during the Clinton years, he has managed a small, token gift to the left; he has properly proffered the best analogy for what Bush’s seven-year ‘war on terror’ is: “Phony”.

Quote of the Day!

2007-07-28T03:44:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

“It is wrong and unfair to compare George W. Bush to Nazi Germany Leader, Adolph Hitler. Hitler was a great orator.”

Quote of the Day!

2007-07-26T02:11:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

"Whether it is Islam, Christianity, Communism or imaginary alien invasions, human beings can always be brought to rally about a conflict-ridden cause with the simple tools of a symbolic flag and a book of faith."

Democracy Interrupted

2007-07-25T07:36:00.000-04:00

By FRANK J. RANELLI

Why we as a nation, have been titrated, which is the gradual increasing of dosage, pressure, and propaganda, till the desired effect – an inured and compliant society – have willingly bequeathed away our autonomy of self-government, embraced the genesis of tyranny, and begin our seemingly inexorable march towards dictatorship.

Part IV of the "American Democracy in Crisis" series.

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If the past is prologue, then the present may be prescient. Each day, many of us awaken to a queasy feeling of unrest, knowing that the rule of law is under assault. The Constitution is in jeopardy and our unassailable rights to an egalitarian society are quickly being abolished. Television, newspapers, blogs, and a litany of books are reminiscent in our collective conscience that America has been browbeaten into trading peace for war, liberties for securities, sovereignty for safety, and blood for oil.

Our reputation on the world’s stage is indelibly stained by pernicious acts of imperialism, hegemony, blind patriotism, and outright incompetence by Washington’s power brokers and their agents of avarice. Yet, beyond dystopian polls and sparse demonstrations, Americans seem unwilling to accept and are extraordinarily unaware, that tyranny is taking root here in America.

We have ran the gamut of – and sadly sanctioned – some of the most unconceivable and heinous measures in American history. The Military Commissions Act, The Patriot Act, The Domestic Wiretapping Program, ignored the Geneva Conventions, revoked habeas corpus and engaged in torture. We removed our selves from the world’s courts, attacked and now occupy a country that never posed a grave or imminent danger to our own nation and then failed to adequately care for the pointlessly wounded soldiers, evident by the Walter Reed Hospital debacle.

The Justice Department enacted by law and created in1870, to make certain fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans was carried out under the law, has been purely politicized. It has been altered and grotesquely mutated into a blanket of immunity for loyalty and allegiance to an autocratic president that has throttled our nation to the point of snuffing out all legitimacy of our national system of jurisprudence.

Alberto Gonzales, the empty suite at the head of the Department of Justice, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2005, not only repeated lies with impunity, but also obediently abdicates his sworn duty. He obsequiously yielded to Bush’s wild assertions of executive privilege and steadfastly refused to pursue Congress’ mandated contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton. Justice, by these lawless actions, is not being served, but is abruptly being handed its hat.

The commutation of I. Scooter Libby, an obstructionist of the law and felon, reminds us that justice is no longer in service in the interest of integrity and impartiality. Justice is now enslaved to the bidding of the Bush Administration and serves only to provide shelter and safe haven for loyal soldiers within a rogue, Mafioso-style executive branch.

Pre-emptive war planning operatives, such as John Yoo, David Addington, Paul Wolfowitz, the infamous “Torture Memo”, the radical “Unitary Executive Theory”, unconstitutional signing statements, the shocking Abu Ghraib torture pictures, The Project for a New America Century’s outlandish, 1998 white paper entitled, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, all signify we are on an inexorable march towards dictatorship.

It should now be brutally apparent and undoubtedly understood by all that the Bush Administration is not merely above the law; it is the law. Our seven-year autocracy has now morphed into full despotism. Bush and his actors of austerity, beyond all doubt, are desperados who are unrestrained and unfettered, severing all ties with restraint and decency, decorum and sound judgment. The nascent Nixon enterprising years of imperialism and lawlessness are feeble by contrast.

We have rhetoric from armchair members of Congress who assert, “This administration has weakened America in a way that is frightful[1]”, and then refuse to breathe life into the comatose corpse of a once proud and functioning democracy by taking impeachment, the people’s remedy for the infringement of our independence, “off the table.” Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrats are quite content to allow Bush to self-destruct, in full view of the nation, while the U.S wreaks havoc in the Middle-East, in order to create what they falsely believe will be a landslide election weighted heavily for the Democrats by Bush's massive blunders and political collapse.

Thirty plus years after Nixon's failed coup d'état, George W. Bush has taken the idea of a tyrannical, presidential despot, at the helm of the Executive Branch, to dizzying heights and abject lows in America in the 21st century. Bush has now fully entrenched himself – in a twisted, extravagant, bravado-ridden version of Richard Nixon – by stonewalling every action Congress takes, as a totalitarian ruler, more bellicose and bombastic than his previous six years of pompous swagger and reckless governing.

The juxtaposition of these two loggerheads – an ineffectual Congress and an imperial President – leads to the will of the people being usurped, subjugated, and silenced. The People no longer have a voice in this government, for it is no longer our government as much as it is no longer a democracy. What America has become is an autocracy operated by lobbyists, mega-corporations, the military-industrial complex, and the whores in Washington that these power brokers, in a very fascist way, have bought politicians’ loyalty, acquiescence, and obedience. Contrary to the revisionist history so may of us are indoctrinated with, and unswervingly clutch to without reason or true examination of the facts, is our nation is run by an oligarchy.

Our will as a nation is not being done for a very simple reason. We, as a nation, have been titrated – the gradual increasing of dosages, pressure, and propaganda – till the desired effect, an inured and complicit society, have willingly bequeathed away our autonomy of self-government. We have bestowed our birthright to despotic rulers who do not find fear in – or seek shelter from – the near unanimous disapproval of the people they suppress and subdue[2]. They seek not the consent of the people for they seek only allegiance and adherence to their own reprehensible, egocentric, and depraved pursuits for power, money, and authoritarian control. Never in America's past has an assault on the truth and freedom been waged so viciously nor have the American people been so reprehensibly divided and utterly deceived by men we never truly elected in the first place.

What is prescient about the present is the deafening silence in which we fail to speak out, take action, or demand accountability. George Bush and Dick Cheney are the epitome of, the embodiment of, the exact personification of, what the founders feared in an autocratic oppressor, the rise of a despot to the presidency, and how that despot would come to exist. The framers of the Constitution gave us all the tools we need, without the shedding of blood, to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people remained intact and attempts at tyranny or oppression were rejected and ultimately beaten back.

We have to begin to change the framing of peoples’ mind first, and then explain the actions that need to be taken. No matter what or how somber the facts are, if the framing, the paradigm within which people operate is not changed, then no transformation will take place.

The only proper instrument for accountability and transformation – when a president becomes despotic in his actions – is impeachment, trial, and removal for failure to respect and honor the Constitution and faithfully execute the laws of the land. Impeachment is a just and necessary remedy and we must immediately diverge away from the idea that it takes away from other work Congress should and can be doing. When you have a president who openly flouts and disobeys the law, intentionally attempts to erase the separation of powers of our tripartite government and assume dictatorial powers, no legitimate work, which will stand as the rule of law for all men, can be realized.

Here is the straightforward reason why impeachment is a mandate to return to a working democracy: No matter what legislation Congress passes, Bush will veto it, ignore it, or add a dubious “signing statement”, making unilateral claims he may disregard it or claim the bill is "unconstitutional", plainly bypassing the judicial process of the Supreme Court, as well. As many historians have appropriately point out, not even King George III of England had or assumed these kinds of authoritarian powers.

The fabric of democracy is feeling the strain and we must unburden our country, through impeachment, from a despotic president and a dangerous vice-president who uses fear and subjugation to rule by and not the rule of law to govern our nation by. There can and must be far more significant consequences for all of these abuses of power and executive anarchy, or the actions of Bush and Cheney will simply become historical precedence for future abuses by future presidents, whether a republican or a democrat.

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[1] Senator Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin, on Meet the Press, July 22, 2007
[2] 71% of Americans Disapprove of the Way Bush is Handling His Job; July 23, 2007, American Research Group

Censuring Bush Is Not Enough!

2007-07-24T02:18:00.000-04:00

An open letter to Senator Russell D. Feingold, of Wisconsin, highlightling the ineptitude of censuring the president and why impeachment is the proper instrument for accountability.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The Honorable Russell D. Feingold
United States Senate
506 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4904
DC Phone: 202-224-5323
DC Fax: 202-224-2725

Dear Senator Feingold,

With all due respect and support for restoring the rule of law, if these transgressions (listed below) are not impeachable, what usurpations do rise to the level of a High Crime? Is impeachment optional in the face of such blatant and incontrovertible evidence, or does not the Constitution stipulate Congress must act?

Bush/Cheney Offenses:

- The assertion that Iraq was linked to al-Qaeda;
- The claim that Iraq harbored weapons of mass destruction that threatened the U.S.;
- The knowingly false declaration in the 2003 State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Niger;
- Insufficient war planning;
- The failure to protect troops and preserve the military;
- Fiscal mismanagement of the war.
- The implementation of the illegal, domestic wiretapping program and for misleading the American people regarding the legality of the warrantless program;
- The use of military commissions;
- Redefining torture;
- The politicization of the U.S. Attorney scandal;
- The refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas.

The only proper instrument for accountability -- when a president becomes despotic in his actions -- is impeachment, trial, and removal for failure to respect and honor the Constitution and faithfully execute the laws of the land.

Impeachment is a just and necessary remedy and I disagree that it takes away from other work Congress should and can be doing. When you have a president who openly flouts and disobeys the law, intentionally attempts to erase the separation of powers of our tripartite government and assume dictatorial powers, no work, as has been the case so far, except for the minimum wage bill, will be accomplished!

Here's the simple reason why: No matter what legislation Congress passes, Bush will veto it, ignore it, or add a dubious “signing statement”, making unilateral claims he may ignore it or claim the bill is "unconstitutional", plainly bypassing the judicial process of the Supreme Court, as well. As many historians have appropriately point out, not even King George III of England had or assumed these kinds of tyrannical powers.

I fully understand that impeachment starts in the House of Representatives, but it is also your solemn duty, as much as it there's, to ensure the Constitution is respected and the laws of the land rule our country, not an imperial president who ignores them or invalidates them.

Censuring Bush and Cheney is a start, but there must be far more significant consequences for these abuses of power, or the actions of Bush and Cheney will simply become historical precedence for future abuses by future presidents, Republican or Democratic.

The fabric of democracy is feeling the strain and we must unburden our country from a despotic president and a dangerous vice-president who uses fear and subjugation to rule by and not the rule of law to govern our nation.

Frank J. Ranelli

Quote of the Day!

2007-07-24T02:08:00.000-04:00

Frank j Ranelli

"The commutation of I. Scooter Libby reminds us than justice is no longer in service in the interest of integrity and impartiality; but justice has been altered and grotesquely mutated into a blanket of immunity for loyalty and allegiance to a criminal regime that has throttled our nation to the point of snuffing out all legitimacy."

Bush Approval Rating Plunges To a measly 25 Percent

2007-07-23T14:18:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

Virtually three-fourths of the country, 71%, disaprove of the way President Bush is handling his job as president and a mere 25% approve of his unbearable job performance. Adding to Bush's ineptitude, 73% of Americans do not agree with how he has handled the economy, just 23% (Bush's base) actually approve of his fiscal implementation.

Heckuva job Bushie!

Read the full poll at:
The American Research Group

Quote of the Day!

2007-07-22T02:17:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

"Thirty plus years after Nixon's failed coup d'état, George W. Bush has taken the idea of a tyrannical despot at the helm of the Executive Branch to dizzying heights and abject lows in America in the 21st century."

Quote of the Day!

2007-07-21T02:04:00.000-04:00

Frank J Ranelli

"There is nothing patriotic or American about those that allege to spread democracy and freedom throughout the world, when they so vehemently crush its very existence on the same soil from which true liberty first took root."

America, Are You Angry Yet?

2007-07-21T01:15:00.000-04:00

Frank J. Ranelli

If you aren't angry, you will be after watching this montage of clips brilliantly illuminating the utter lies, mendacity, and contempt for the truth the Bush/Cheney Administration has carried out since September 11, 2001. All of this was done in YOUR name and all of it with YOUR permission.

Why is this in your name and with your permission? The answers is because your elected Congress has failed to impeach Bush and Cheney. They our both the epitome of, the embodiment of, the exact personification of what the founders feared in an autocratic oppressor, the rise of despot to the presidency, and how that despot would come to exist!

We have a remedy for removing and preventing tyranny, it's called impeachment, and the founders were wise to head the past and provide 'The People' with a remedy for such grievous usurpations of our sovereignty as a free people.

If you do not wish to live and listen to “the Orwellian lies” any longer then watch this video, stand up and do something!

Start by telling, no demanding, the House Judiciary Committee and Speaker Pelosi hold Impeachment hearings on H.Res. 333!

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” -- Abraham Lincoln

Watch it!