Posts from — March 2008

The game of Chess has much to teach us this primary season, though too few of us have any time for such contemplative pursuits these days, what with the impending hand-off of Bush’s War to the next Lord or Lady, and the myriad messes that lay strewn across the chessboard of our lives. And so many have again grown somnolent and disgusted with the ugly and brutal gambits some politicians press and play, bless and pray.

The endgame comes apace and we are left to face the ravaged queen displaced; the horse eye never quite diminished as She wanders ’round the corner.

And he wants you to be a prisoner of war, too.

Potential “Prisoner of War President” John McCain intends to flog Bush’s War for fifty or a hundred years or more. . . (well, not him personally; he’ll be lucky to live through one full term no matter how long his mother keeps puttering around the rest home). But his supposedly nuanced stance of maintaining a peaceful U.S. “presence” in Iraq, as he suggests by comparing our occupation of Iraq with our troops in South Korea, Germany, or ( your country here ), is nothing less than transparent stupidity.

Don’t think so? Take a moment to try and imagine how you would behave if say, China had declared Bush the hand puppet of the Great Satan and called in our debt, and when we refused to pay, they invaded our sovereign nation, the United States of America. As big a Dick as most of us think Cheney is, and what a debacle his puppet-presidency with Chimpy most certainly is, do you think for one minute you and your neighbors would tolerate a Chinese military occupation ANYWHERE in our country??

That’s right— the red white and blue shit would hit the fan! We wouldn’t rest until every last one of them was either dead or forced out of our country! No matter if it took ten, twenty, or even five hundred years!

Here’s the flash: The Iraqis— regardless of how we try to mollify them with money or democratic pie in the sky— aren’t going to rest until every last American soldier is out of THEIR country. Get it?

And while we’re entertaining nightmare scenarios, imagine if through yet another slick hack of the vote it’s McCain-Huckleberry (sorry you heard it here first) in a Deibold landslide. Suddenly we have the Huckleberry in there rewriting the Constitution with a Sharpie to be more in-line with the Bible— except for that “love your enemies” nonsense.

Meanwhile, Herrrrreeees “Five Planes Trashed in His After-Burner Hey-Days” Johnniee! lands on a U.S. carrier in the Straits of Hormuz-z-z-z, where he takes an action-figure role in another preemptive Shock and Aweful attack on a so-called sovereign nation by dropping a personally delivered bunker-buster on Amenidijadda-rama ding-dong, or, perhaps a near-by radical madrassa, or even a hapless wedding party. Just one more evil nation of sub-human heathens unfortunate enough to be located directly over part of our strategic oil reserves.

Recall a few months ago Florida Republicans told the poll-tergeisters they felt the economy (read: their wallets), was the number one issue for pulling that lever or touching that screen for . . . why yes: the aged Prisoner of War hero-candidate, John McCain. He’s the straight-talker, remember, the one who humbly keeps reminding us he’s not “real sharp” on the “It’s the economy, stupid!” thing.

Devlin Barret writes at the Huffington Post that “McCain launched his first television ad of the general election campaign Friday, [March 28th], portraying himself as a courageous leader with the knowledge and experience to keep the country safe as a wartime commander in chief. ‘The American president Americans have been waiting for,’ the ad says, juxtaposing footage of the Arizona senator with clips of him as a prisoner of war in Vietnam three decades ago.”

Yessiree, five and a half years as a prisoner of war is perfect training for a wartime commander in chief. Observe:

Meanwhile, Bush’s War had slipped to number four on the Republican hit parade, even though they are saying, “Of course we still support the troops! (Our yellow ribbon-thingies are still on the Sequoia, aren’t they, hon?) But we want a president who will make the Bush tax-cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans permanent; in addition to continuing to spread our American empire through permanent military bases in sovereign nations around the world.”

John McCain is still a prisoner of war— a prisoner of the idea of war as a workable solution for international disagreements. And as long as we continue electing leaders who remain prisoners of the antiquated and disastrously ineffective notion that a modern war can be “won,” we are doomed to a path of increasingly devastating wars that can easily become racially suicidal.

Civilization is never really jeopardized until able leadership begins to vanish. When a nation elects B-movie actors and dry-drunk cowboys to the highest office in the land, we’re jeopardizing our civilization, people. The number of men or women who can provide the wise leadership we so desperately need has never exceeded one per cent of our population. That doesn’t make it easier for one of them to make it to the presidency. But if we’re still too ignorant to elect such a person this time, and every time from here on out— well pucker up, my monkeys, cause you can kiss your ass good bye.

For weeks on end, Senator John McCain, the valiant warrior/hero of our last interminable war, has borne the torturous brunt of the MSM’s obsession with his plans for continuing the Iraq War indefinitely, our worsening economic catastrophuck, and his recent spate of “senior moments,” which they insinuate reveals his funda-mental inability to understand the dynamics of the Middle East.

The senior senator from Arizona recently returned from Iraq and Israel, where, on a day that saw at least sixty-one Iraqis relinquish the freedoms of their new-found democracy for cozy coffins, also witnessed McCain being mercilessly harangued by a press core that trained observers thought more closely resembled the Spanish Inquisition than a bunch of talking point pussies. (See Video)

John McCain suffers a brutal grilling by agents of the MSM.

Just how long the seventy-one year old McCain will be subjected to the “comfy chair” of media intimidation is anyone’s guess. There is wide-spread speculation that such harsh interrogation techniques by the press are a direct result of the government’s own relaxed attitude towards increasingly harsh and inhumane interrogation of anyone it suspects of, well, anything.

Yesterday, in response to the explosion of violence in Basra that has necessitated an influx of 15,000 Iraqi and American troops, the Pentagon claimed the situation was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”

The Suits in the Pentagon might want to check with the Brass on that, or at least the retired members who are free to speak out. That would include U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, the vice chief of staff at the time the Iraq war was launched who last summer complained that Britain had never deployed enough troops to provide basic security for the region. (Something required of an occupier under international law, for you hopelessly romantic law and order types).

They might have also listened to the international community, such as the Brussels based think tank, The International Crisis Group, who last June issued a report that said:

“Relentless attacks against British forces in effect had driven them off the streets into [an] increasingly secluded compound. Basra’s residents and militiamen view this not as an orderly withdrawal but rather as an ignominious defeat.”

The Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil has nothing on the Bush Administration when it comes to spin.

UPDATE: 3/29/08: Prof Cole provides the latest box score on Son of Surge. Money quote:

“The Times of Baghdad reports in Arabic that clashes continued on Friday between Iraqi government forces and the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and the provinces of the middle Euphrates and the south, causing hundreds of casualties, including among women, children and the elderly. The fighting also did damage to Iraq’s infrastructure, as well as to oil facilities and pipelines, damage that might run into the billions of dollars”

From Nico Pitney, a mosaic of photos of Americans fallen in Iraq.

McCain says US succeeding in Iraq [Catastrophuck]

LIZ SIDOTI  HufPo

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — Fresh off his eighth Iraq visit, Sen. John McCain declared Monday that “we are succeeding” and said he wouldn’t change course _ even as the U.S. death toll rose to 4,000 and the war entered its sixth year.

To underscore his view of the stakes in Iraq, the certain Republican presidential nominee twice referenced a recent audio tape from Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader urged followers to join the al-Qaida fight in Iraq and called the country “the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”

“For the first time, I have seen Osama bin Laden and General (David) Petraeus in agreement, and, that is, a central battleground in the battle against al-Qaida is in Iraq today. And that’s what bin Laden was saying and that’s what General Petraeus is saying and that’s what I’m saying, my friends,” McCain said.

“And my Democrat opponents who want to pull out of Iraq refuse to understand what’s being said and what’s happening— and that is the central battleground is Iraq in this struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” he added. McCain also said Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were naive and “dead wrong” to want to withdraw troops.

“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground,” the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.

[Read more →]

The fetish word of authority is a fear-inspiring doctrine,
the most terrible of all tyrants which enslave men.
A doctrinal fetish will lead people to betray themselves
into the clutches of bigotry, fanaticism, superstition,
intolerance, and the most atrocious of barbarous cruelties.
—The Urantia Papers

IT’S A QUAINT BUT POPULAR NOTION for some Americans to say they hate the idea of religion in politics. Let religion be a word that identifies what you love the most. What really matters then, is not the idea of religion in politics, but the depth— the sincerity— at which it is held.

That said, real religion hasn’t been the hallmark of any previous Christian president.

Every politician in the presidential race is someone whom adheres, at some depth— at some level of sincerity— to the ideas and ideals of religion; the Christian religion. Since the actual depth of their religious beliefs and ideals remains essentially unknown to us, Americans have an obligation to wonder just how much they each might entertain a fetishistic belief in an inerrant Bible, (with the exception of Obama, who declares he does not), and accept the beliefs and predictions of many of the various stripes of Christianity in a coming Armageddon, will dictate the nature of our “foreign policy as these predictions impact our nation’s security.

The debate over national security needs to recognize that the ideal nominee would be adhering to policies and doing things which would do for the nations of the world, just what they do for the citizens of our country: unite us. Do we have a presidential candidate with the necessary vision to construct a foreign policy that makes sense in the 21st century? Which nominee will continue to undermine our relationships with other nations, making them for or against us, either partners in our wars, or the targets of our wars.

“Many. . . are even now packing their roller luggage for the Rapture, systematically pouring their liquid toiletries into 3 oz. containers for the long flight to Paradise.”

The nations of the world today are run by men who haves many ideas, but their ideals suck. In America, we have political parties and elected leaders who tolerate the plight of our poorest and neediest citizens, ignore the plight of our eldest citizens, cultivate racial and religious hatred of other citizens, whether of our nation or the other nations of the world, and pursue a policy of self-appointed world policing— but only where it suits our political interest— sometimes bothering with half-assed coalitions of nations, sometimes using the outdated constitution of the United Nations as an excuse to pursue a unilateral policy of hegemony over nations it considers our enemies. Surprise! These nations are predominantly Muslim nations, and the first thing to be demonized about them is their damnable non-Christian religion.

Do you reasonably suppose then, the separation of church and state is somehow impervious to the religious beliefs of these various Christians? And that our policy towards other nations can continue to be one of, our sovereignty is more sovereign than your sovereignty, and we’ll kick your ass for a hundred, or a thousand years, your choice— until you see the wisdom of living according to our deepest values. Those being Christian values, as more or less defined by the sect of the current president’s choice.

Remember that our current president has been called by God to carry out the values of the Methodist tradition of Christianity, as is VP Cheney, which has led us into a dangerous and chaotic world ‘o terror, the solution of which remains unresolved, but is only a few hundred years of war away. “So?”

Modern respect for wisdom and truth is a relatively recent escape from the fetish-making tendency of humans, up to slightly higher levels of thinking and reasoning. But not everyone has been loosed from the self-imposed doctrinal shackles of their respective inerrant religious tomes and it’s associated dogma. Consequently there are still plenty of adherents for the Christian Armageddon fetish of the end of the world, many of whom are even now packing their roller luggage for the Rapture, systematically pouring their liquid toiletries into 3 oz. containers for the long flight to Paradise.

Is there a way to free these enslaved religionists from their own self-imposed, fear-inspiring doctrines? Yes, we should bother— because they’re not going anywhere. The increasingly dangerous ramifications of such an incoherent, fantasy interpretation of reality holds real harm for all of us, when our president embraces such nonsense, as Bush has, and as a President McCain almost certainly will be pressured to by those religious leaders who delivered their flocks to the polls.

Take for example, the confused and backward theology of just one sect of Christianity, the one who recently endorsed our warpimp hero John McCain, who solicited and is “. . .proud to have pastor John Hagee’s support.” Think of Reverend Hagee and his 18,000 member Christian militia as the gross equivalent of a warlord of Afghanistan or an Iraqi Muqtada al-Sadr and his “paramilitary force.” A force bought and paid for to the tune of $330 million for “Oops, we-destroyed-your-city reconstruction fees,” and another 1.7 million for weapons, by the American Government.

Hagee interprets the Bible to predict Russia and the Islamic states will invade Israel and be destroyed by God. Pause to consider that Haggee believes God will physically show up to take care of this bit of Divine nation building, or un-building. . . and his minions here on earth have been given this tasty but bloody bit of Divine vengeance to carry out, using the services of the United States military more or less exclusively. One wonders when and to whom God will speak the order to “Bring’m on!”— war on his own least favorite and beloved creatures.

Like so many pieces of Christian apocrapha, there’s a miniscule kernel of truth involved, just enough to sink a dull #666 hook deep into the pasty white lobes of the willfully ignurnt. In this instance, the little kernel is the promise of Jesus to sometime return to this world, associated with his remarks regarding the destruction of Jerusalem.

Makes sense that the Son of God, having previously been treated with such warmth and respect by the natives, would want to return post-haste for a cordial sit-down to go over the few remaining problem areas of our planetary theology by abandoning all those not towing the Christian party line, and putting the chosen few on the jumbo-rapture-jetliner to Pearly Gate International. (Yeah I know that’s like kicking a puppy. But I digress.)

What if, say, during the second century after Christ, a Jew by the name of Selta attached to the court of the Emperor Caligula, wrote an apocalyptic about the Messiah that was subsequently copied into the Matthew Gospel and subsequently added (in part) to the Mark and Luke records. (It was in these writings of Selta that the parable of the ten virgins appeared.) Would it still be the inspired, inerrant word ‘o God?

But that’s all moot to the monkeys who take a two thousand year old document and place it on a pedestal of infallibility. If the part about the world being flat hadn’t been edited out of the Bible, Hagee and the rest of the sheeple would all belong to the FLAT EARTH SOCIETY OF CHRIST.

If he’ll be coming back, and I do believe he will— he’ll be coming back when he chooses— not when it’s convenient for apocalyptic-believing politicians to herd a flock of sheep with suffrage into a slaughter pen of stupidity, only to assemble on the rapture tarmac to. . . remain there.

Anyone who hasn’t noticed the rabid up-tick in the perceived toxic ties between the presidential candidates and their religious affiliations gets a sincere “get well soon,” because you have to be in some kind of coma. The only one who appears to have escaped the holy vetting is Mrs Clinton, which may speak more to the fact she has no real religious associations outside of the little prayer circle she attends in the Senate.

But look. As Clinton thrashes wildly in dead air preparatory to plunging to her political death, Obama and now McCain are getting the religious scrubbing of a lifetime because they’re going to be the nominees. The reasons the electorate is finally paying attention to their religious ties however, run a lot deeper than Fixed Noise’s manufactured crisis ‘o video loops of Jeramiah Wright, or the totally whacktard theologies of the neocon nutballs associated with McCain.

Like it or not human beings are hard-wired to long for something higher, deeper, and more profound than material reality; a higher universe reality— the world of spirit. Religion is a personal and real reality for most of humanity. But when institutionalized religion becomes sanctioned by the state, tacitly or overtly, we’re all in danger of policies being directed by the personal interpretations of the religion-specific values held by a small number of people. Remember: the last time we tried mixing government with religion, we wound up burning people at the stake.

The recent erosion of the fragile wall between church and state produced by policies and attitudes of the Cheney-Bush debacle, which either directly or indirectly facilitate the bizarre theories of a coming apocalypse, are unfortunately only one of several afflictions currently threatening our liberty.

Here’s a check-list of a dozen things, in no particular order, that lovers of freedom and liberty should monitor as frequently as they would a weather station— with constant vigilance. . . followed by examples of how they are threatening our liberty right now, every day.

Usurpation of unwarranted power by either the executive or legislative branches. Signing statements— what, 157 at last count?

Machinations of ignorant and superstitious agitators. Rush Limbaugh; Anne Coulter; Shaun Hannity; Bill O’Reilly; Glen Beck. . .

Retardation of scientific progress. Stem Cell Research; Terri Schiavo. . .

Stalemate of the dominance of mediocrity. “Stay the course” Bush; health care crisis; no energy policy; no higher moral vision. . .

Domination by vicious minorities. Swift boat morons; Fox News. . .

Control by ambitious and clever would-be dictators. George Bush ala Dick Cheney. . .

Disastrous disruption of panics. Global War on Terror; Gasoline prices; subprime lending crisis. . .

Exploitation by the unscrupulous. Haliburton, KBR, all other war profiteers. . .

Failure of social and economic fairness. Toleration of poverty; no higher education for the poor; ridiculous minimum wage; no health care; no working immigration policy; unfair taxation. . .

Union of church and state. Neocons and Bush on a mission from God; “In God we trust” on our money; paid Christian ministers in the House and Senate. Every elected senator or Congressman knows how to pray, and they certainly can pray on the record if they want to. But there’s no place for paid or voluntary professional clergy of any religion to be in our House and Senate, leading our elected representatives in prayer or worship.

Loss of personal liberty. Habeas Corpus; NSA spying; Fear mongering government regulations.

And now, because I follow Jesus,

let’s close with a short prayer, shall we?

God how the dead men
Grin by the wall.
Watching the fun
Of the Victory Ball.

—Alfred Noyes

John and Cindy McCain, (who was not actually there but sent a clone), looking appropriately Hasidic at the Western Wall

Michael D. Shear, WaPo wrote:

JERUSALEM — What was supposed to be a somber visit by Sen. John McCain to the Western Wall this morning was marred by an unruly mob of Israeli photographers, police and tourists who threw punches at each other as they engulfed the Republican presidential candidate.

McCain was not hurt, but appeared rattled by the spasm of violence as he began a second day of meetings with high-level Israeli officials as part of a congressional trip to the Middle East and Europe.

The crush of people surrounded McCain (Ariz.) after he and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) briefly touched the towering wall at the base of the Temple Mount, where the Second Temple stood until its destruction nearly two thousand years ago. The senators placed notes in the cracks between the ancient stones, a common tradition. McCain declined through a spokesman to reveal what his note said.

We’re not going to tell you how we obtained the text of that note, suffice it to say that many Jews still consider the placing of such prayers to be desecration of the holy. McCain produced the note from his left suit coat pocket, and with a series of awkward looking jabs, he finally forced the note into a tiny crevice of the ancient wall.

Surprisingly, the note was not penned in McCain’s jerky scrawl, but appeared to be a first draft, printed off the computer in crisp, orderly, 18 point justified type. The note:

My Dear Western Wall Friends    Friend,

As you know, I’m the Republican nominee for president of the United States, and unlike my opponents Hillary Clinton, a woman, or Barack Hussein Obama, a black man, I’m ready from day one to lead the fight for what ever, for ever. But today I need your help, dear friend. (I feel like I’m talking to a wall , ha ha!) Some of my good Jewish friends say you are more than just a frakin’ stone wall venerated by a superstitious people. If this is so, I’d like you to know— not just how important it is to me that I’m the next president— but also the staggeringly huge sum of money I need to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, more importantly, to wage new wars against Syria and Iran, and probably North Korea.

Oh, remember that great song, Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran! Well it isn’t just a great song my friend, it’s my ticket to another historic war presidency! (Nothing changes an enemy’s behavior like bombs, my friend, and lots of them; remember I’ve personally dropped my share of bombs on evil men, women, and children, and I’d like to think you’re the kind of wall that would want to support my willingness to continue this important attack against the ever present threats to our national security.)

So my friend, I’m going to need to recruit some seriously enormous amounts of young cannon fodder, in order to wage more wars in the global fight against terrorism, in order to keep my country safe from our many enemies who hate our freedom, the radical Islamist extremist terrorists, the Iranians, the North Koreans, the Syrians, and our future enemies, the Chinese commies, the Russian commies, and, well, you know, anybody that won’t see things our way.

If you could grant me this grotesque amount of blood and capital, my friend, I will ensure that the war against a world full of terrorists is fought intelligently, with endless patience and resolve, using all the toxic instruments of national power and death I can get my hands on. And I will lead this fight with the understanding that to impinge more than we already have on the rights of our own citizens, or to further restrict the freedoms for which our nation stands will be done only as necessary, because to do so is to give terrorists the victory they seek.

In closing my prayer, let me say that John McCain believes that just as America must be prepared to meet and prevail against any adversary on every field of battle, we must also engage and prevail against them on the battleground of ideas. So if you have any great ideas, please pass them along to my advisers. In so doing, we can and must deprive terrorists of the converts they seek and teach the doctrine of hatred and despair.

Your old friend in the White House,

John McCain

PARAG KHANNA writes in “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony“. . .

It is 2016, and the Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Barack Obama administration is nearing the end of its second term. America has pulled out of Iraq but has about 20,000 troops in the independent state of Kurdistan, as well as warships anchored at Bahrain and an Air Force presence in Qatar. Afghanistan is stable; Iran is nuclear. China has absorbed Taiwan and is steadily increasing its naval presence around the Pacific Rim and, from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. The European Union has expanded to well over 30 members and has secure oil and gas flows from North Africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea, as well as substantial nuclear energy. America’s standing in the world remains in steady decline.

Why? Weren’t we supposed to reconnect with the United Nations and reaffirm to the world that America can, and should, lead it to collective security and prosperity? Indeed, improvements to America’s image may or may not occur, but either way, they mean little.

And that is so because, not only did we not “reconnect with the United Nations,” but we remain clueless about the growing urgency of establishing the working rudiments of a genuine federation of all nations, bringing about a global government.

The cruel irony is, the nation of independent states who surrendered their sovereignty to a federal government and thereby created the strongest, freest nation on planet earth, has shown neither the moral insight or leadership ability to engineer the same workable model on a global scale. Instead, we have a moronic cowboy who takes democracy to other nations through war and occupation, killing a million or so of the natives in the process.

Condoleezza Rice has said America has no “permanent enemies,” but it has no permanent friends either. Many saw the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as the symbols of a global American imperialism; in fact, they were signs of imperial overstretch. Every expenditure has weakened America’s armed forces, and each assertion of power has awakened resistance in the form of terrorist networks, insurgent groups and “asymmetric” weapons like suicide bombers. America’s unipolar moment has inspired diplomatic and financial counter-movements to block American bullying and construct an alternate world order. That new global order has arrived, and there is precious little Clinton or McCain or Obama could do to resist its growth.

Yep; the hegemony wielded by Imperial America has done just as much to grow an “alternate world order” than anything Europe or China has done. Nor does it serve America’s interests to do anything to inhibit their growth. Perhaps when we find the collective wisdom to use the power jointly in an effort to insure peace throughout the world, we can begin solving the grievances smaller nations have concerning their place in the “alternate world order.”

The Geopolitical Marketplace

At best, America’s unipolar moment lasted through the 1990s, but that was also a decade adrift. The post-cold-war “peace dividend” was never converted into a global liberal order under American leadership. So now, rather than bestriding the globe, we are competing — and losing — in a geopolitical marketplace alongside the world’s other superpowers: the European Union and China. This is geopolitics in the 21st century: the new Big Three.

And we will continue to lose. . . unless we recognize we all sink or swim together. Each passing year brings new urgency to solve the increasingly complex problems our interdependent world brings; and these problems will persist as long as we continue to cling to the illusive notions of unlimited national sovereignty.

The growth of political power must continue to encompass larger and larger segments of the total of mankind, until the stage is set for the final consummation of political growth— the government of all mankind, by all mankind, and for all mankind.

Urantia [earth] will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the brotherhood of men—mankind government. Internationalism—Leagues of Nations—can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide confederations of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three, four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of these world powers will withdraw from the League and declare war.

You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the great military governments of earth.

As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases, so do both opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of supernational power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty of all mankind.

Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world’s land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail but not until then. —The Urantia Book

The New York Times is reporting that Bear Stearns has agreed to be bought out by JP Morgan Chase.

Alan Greenspan writes in the Financial Times that this current financial crisis is likely the worst since WWII.

Wall Street is LAYING AWAKE WITH HORSE EYE waiting for what might come next.

And that dick in the White House says: “As we take decisive action—though, don’t furget I’m the Decider—we will keep this in mind: When yur steerin’ a car in a rough patch, one of the worst things you can do is over-correct. There’s other worse things you kin do, but over-correctin’ is pritty bad.”

“That often results in losin’ control— and believe me, I know all about losin’ control— and you can, ya know, end up with the car in a ditch,” Bush said. “Steerin’ through a rough patch requires a steady hand on the wheel, and yur eyes up on the horizon thing, out there. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”

Alrighty then. Let’s recap: Car in the ditch= worst financial crisis since WWII.

Wire me you worthless U.S. Currency today, before your neighborhood bank locks its doors for good. The peace of mind you’ll receive, knowing you unloaded that useless paper before it’s totally worthless, will be worth it’s weight in gold.

Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political sagacity is ultimately suicidal –destructive of all those enduring qualities which insure planetarygroup survival. - The Urantia Book

Try as I might, I just can’t put those first four words into a sentence that has George W. Bush as the subject.

Walter Stroebel, one of the very few MSM reporters who dared to question the Bush Administration’s bogus pre war intel, offers a retrospective of what five years in Iraq has rot wrought for the US in the terms of its international image and power.

Well, there is that. But there is also the horrendous cost of Bush’s insane war on the Iraqis, not to mention the ruinous cost in blood and treasure to the American people. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more devastating critiques in the days ahead.

Ever since 9/11, Bush has been bin Laden’s bitch, doing more to grow the ranks of anti-American militants than anything bin Laden could have ever accomplished on his own.

Then again, that may have been the plan all along. What’s a military-industrioil-complex without a really bad guy to justify the transference of trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to a few greedy corporations, anyway?

From that perspective, its Mission Accomplished.

A smiling Barack Obama shows off his choice for veep to a captivated Chicago crowd, Friday.

CHICAGO— In a stunning and solemn signal to Republicans and more importantly rogue nations around the globe, Barack Obama announced his choice for the vice-presidential slot on the Democratic ticket early today. GORT, spelled with all caps, stands for “Galactic Order Robot Tool,” and is only one iteration of an entire race of “robot enforcers” with absolute power to deal with any outbreak of violence within their sphere of influence.

A Clinton campaign spokesperson immediately denounced the Obama selection, saying the only reason GORT had obtained the number two slot was because he was a “Robot, a robot with absolute power. If he were a white man, or a black man, be would not be in that position. People are just taken with the idea of a robot with absolute power.” At that point, the spokesperson turned and ran.

Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We Can!

GORT, who does not speak as we humans would understand, stood stoically silent during the entire event, while Senator Obama explained, “He may be my silent partner, but I can assure you, in an Obama administration, his actions will speak many times louder than his words ever would anyway.”

While obviously keeping the mood upbeat and cordial, Obama’s remarks did appear to warn the leaders of all nations and the people of earth that they can either abandon warfare outright and completely, and join our nation in a vibrant and prosperous future of international and intergalactic peace – or “. . .be destroyed.” As that sobering reality sunk in, he concluded with, “The decision rests with you. Can you do it?”

“Yes we can!!” was, as always, the thunderous reply.