Birth of a Nation's Leader

Now that President Obama has been forced to take extraordinary and unprecedented steps to attempt to quell the distracting and ridiculous rumors that he was not born in Hawaii, the smear goes on.  According to White House Communications Director, Dan Pfeiffer's statement, "The President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting."

Done!

Right?

Not so much... apparently.

Now, it seems, there are not only those who believe that this document is a fake.  Really!?  But there are the "Schoolers".  Those poor benighted individuals who have turned their attention to questioning Obama's ability to get into the schools he did. And to do so well there.

Now it may just be the Hair-Do of Hair-Do's, Donald Trump who is leading the charge in trying to drum up this new way of calling the President "Black", but the media, who Obama criticized recently for giving air time to the "Birther" debate, who will decide whether this one has legs.

Gladly, it doesn't seem to have progressed much beyond, ironically, progressive radio, and late night comedians.  In fact CBS's veteran Washington correspondent, Bob Schieffer, finally used a network chair to call it what it is.  Racism.  Real racism.  The belief that inherent inferiority is imbued by one's race, specifically not being white.

Thank you Mr. Schieffer.





(For more videos of a slightly more sublime nature, check out NewMexicoVideo.com)

Sales & Marketing Person Wanted - No Experience Needed!

Being in the job market currently, I am increasingly frustrated by corporate America's complete misunderstanding of what it is I do. I have lived with the fact that I can't explain my job to my parents or friends outside of the industries I have worked in over the last twenty years... but!

Even at my last job, with a twenty year old organization, and where I had specifically raised the question at the interview, the mystery of "marketing" was a consistent thorn in everybody's side. Is it sales, marketing, promotions, business development..? Apparently, all the above. But is it?

According to Merriam Webster, the term "marketing" has been in use since at least 1591. But even their definition is a little noncommittal.

Definition of MARKETING
1
a : the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market b : the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service
2
: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer

There's that "selling" word again. In the case of the first definition above I believe they are referring to an activity which, in various parts of this country, and in several time periods, was an accepatable description. People referred to a trip to the grocery store as "doing the marketing". Presumably a reference to a long disappeared "market".

As my sage ex-business partner recently pointed out, commenting on the same frustration, people who advertise for Sales and Marketing professionals deserve neither.

One really doesn't want a Sales Professional involved in Marketing and vice versa. No wonder western economies are tanking.

This current job posting, listed under "marketing", says it all.

"I need a marketing person to help build my agency. You would need to be able to make cold calls, and speak with prospective clients about bringing their insurance needs to our office."

No... you really don't!! What you need is a Sales Person.

Good sales professionals are amazing, and I have worked with many. They can open doors, speak to just about anyone, know the scientific techniques of closing, dealing with objections, empathy, the 1000 - 100 -10 -1 rule, etc. Visited a car lot recently?

A good marketing professional can tell you where your prospective clients are, what "speaks to them", what your brand should say about your business and how it should be personified in your marketing materials and your "public face", and how to connect with people who are looking for that experience etc, etc. But don't ask them to make cold calls... please.

To liken it to drama... which it often is, the author or playwright is the product, the words, situation and characters, the Marketing Department is the Director, interpreting the piece to match public sensibilities and break new ground, the sales people are the actors, out there bringing the promise to life and ... well... selling it!! When the leading actor gets sick, the Director who goes on in their place does so at their peril.

Why did this come to pass? In England I always had a feeling that admitting you were in "sales" was something that had been the object of so much negative attention that the profession, for such it is, was ashamed of themselves. Decades of portrayals of sales people as oily types with cookie cutter "rep" cars, and persistent, "leave me alone" attitudes in sit-coms and other popular culture vehicles, had denigrated the job so much that many started to look for other ways to describe their vocation.

I worked in an agency and that sector had long borrowed the American lexicon to describe our roles. I was an "Account Executive". Not, as the name might imply, a senior management position, but actually the entry level "sales" slot. I knew I was in sales. I was judged by my numbers and incentivised by performance. And soon everyone was ditching their "sales" monikers for more glamorous business cards. Soon the guy next door at the Hi-Fi store wasn't a salesman... no, no... he was a "Customer Consultant".

When I moved to the US in the early '90's I caught the back end of a culture that valued Sales Professionals. People weren't ashamed to say they were in sales and making money was a good thing. But gradually the Sales take-over of the "Marketing" identity began. At the multi-national hotel chain which was my first client over here, the Marketing Department concerned themselves with pricing and demand and impact studies. They didn't have anything to do with brochures and flyers and signs and advertising. That was the job of the Marketing "Communications" Department.

But now everyone is a "Marketer". I moved into a prosperous sub-division and on meeting our neighbors found that the woman opposite us, who owned a t-shirt and trinket business. The type that will print your company logo on a 3c key chain and sell it you for $2.50, described her business as a Marketing Agency! I should have known then.

I am proud of my profession. But doubt whether it will last as a discreet discipline for much longer. I seem to have chosen unwisely across the board. When I trained as a graphic artist in the '80's I did it just before Apple launched their first Macintosh on an unsuspecting world. Cut and Paste meant just that. I had a scalpel and some glue... and scars on my thumbs to prove how vital a good metal ruler was. Now any 4 year old with a laptop is a "designer". Just like any idiot with a 4 megapixel cellphone camera is a photo-journalist and any spotty teenager with Guitar Hero on their X-Box is Jimmy Page. But are they? Is it just the Luddite in me, railing against the machines? I am now an expert in computer design, even though that's not my chosen profession any more... just how I make money sometimes. But even I know there is no substitute for a creative mind. Sometimes I have, and sometimes I don't. Having a MacBook Pro with Adobe CS5 can't make up for lack of design skills.

Being a Marketer, and knowing the "the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.." and "moving goods from producer to consumer", it seems that perhaps the 'good' that I can't move to market is myself. Perhaps because the world has passed me by, or maybe because the market for marketers just isn't there anymore.

__________________________

And... never to let an opportunity go by. Check out my latest venture, online travel TV at www.newmexicovideo.com. Its all about SEO baby!!

NewMexicoVideo.com

Our Current Site Online

Been a long time, been long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, time

What the heck have I been doing. I usually have so much to say, but for the lat year it seems... nothing. I have been playing in non-profit land. Both in reality, working for a couple of non-profits, and in virtuality, trying to get NewMexicoVideo.com off the ground and actually making some profit.

What is it? Its the brainchild of my friend Cathleen Kane, a local excellent video producer. An online TV station featuring short video from hotels, restaurants, events, etc. We have had the web site up for over a year and a half, have just optimized to play on iPad, and NOW... we need to make sales and get some paying content up there.

Its a great and timely idea, just need to beat the streets now.

Anyone up for some commission sales work?

Y2K or not Y2K

Reprinted from November 1999.

I am no more of a worrier than the next person. The new millennium, Y2K, call it what you will - the Canadians call it "yuttica", I hear, has given me little pause. Other than deciding against major elective surgery, or flying across SouthEast Asia on a 32-year-old Russian jet, or testing out my credit card in an East European ATM, I have not taken any precautions against the "bug". Nor did I plan to.

I had pretty much the same vague curiosity as many of my fellows as to what exactly would happen around 12.01 on January 1, 2000. The overriding body of opinion suggests that, while there might have been a few hiccups in a few computer systems in a few organisations in a few countries, all would be well and life, business and cable television would go on as usual.

Then, one rainy Saturday morning, just a few months before the great date, I was stuck in a 5 mile-an-hour crawl in a blinding rainstorm on SR85 in North Georgia, when my eye was caught by a neon orange sign: "Y2K Survival Show", it beckoned. Sniffing a chance to escape the rain and the traffic and perhaps purchase a sexy gismo to preserve my computer's health, I pulled over. It cost $4 to get in, and a great deal of determination to get out. For this was no bug-busting software fare; no cutting-edge expo offering must-have devices to keep your white-goods working. No over-excited geeks, oh no. This was Doomsville - with a freezedried ID. Spread out before me were stalls selling dried grits; Idaho Instant Mash; vacuum-packed collard greens - and guns. Lots of guns.

"Hey guys, the real millennium's not til January 2001," I joshed. No one joshed back, so I stuck my head down and pretended to weigh up the relative nutritional merits of dried carrots against powdered yellow squash. A very large lady told me to "start cookin" and savin' now" - and directed me to the 17 models of home vacuum-packing kits in the next aisle. If only it were that simple to manage Armageddon. With the collapse of western society as we know it, the chances of an uninterrupted electricity supply for re-heating those grits seemed slim. The merchants decoded my musings and gathered round with their camping stoves and gas bottles like a bunch of mad-eyed scout leaders. I slipped aside to where wind-up radios would let us few survivors listen to the devastated remnants of the media - at last, a cheery thought. Anarchy and lawlessness would naturally accompany society's technological breakdown. The need for self-defense would be paramount.

Although there are over 250,000 handguns in private ownership in the US - one for nearly every man, woman and child with a social security number - you can always use another one. I picked up a 'piece' for the first time in my life. Instantly, I was surrounded. "What you really need ma'am is a 9mm Glock 17 with +P, hollow-point anti-personnel rounds."

"Just what I was thinking," I ad-libbed.

"Exactly," said Captain Conspiracy, waddling closer in his NRA T-shirt and denims. (Like most of the vendors, he appeared to have left nothing to chance and had eaten his Y2K rations in advance.) My mind was soon racing with hexagonal barrel dimensions, ten-round clips and double action triggers. The growing circle of middle-aged men around me discussed the quaintly termed "Take-Down" rating of each gun presented. Feeling like a bit-part player in "Deliverance" I tried to pull the action back on the SIG P230 I had been handed. My sweaty fingers slipped and I failed on the first two attempts. Gripping the slide more firmly, I assumed the position I had seen in so many detective movies and held the gun upwards and tugged. The action slid back and forward, extracting on its way a triangular flap of skin from the soft tissue between my thumb and finger. The sight of blood raised not a flicker.

"Give her the Kel-Tec, Bob."

A shiny new hunk of metal was thrust into my bleeding hand as I stood wondering whether my tetanus shots were up to date. The action was easier to pull back but I had lost interest and was scanning the horizon for anyone selling emergency medical kits. I replaced the gun on the counter, smiled at my tutors, begged some antibiotic cream from a helpful stallholder and headed for the door.

"The South is going to rise again," someone called after me. If all those dried rations get eaten I wouldn't be at all surprised.

The ease of acquisition of deadly weapons is a debate I had not taken much interest in up to now. I now knew that I could be walking back to my car with a "personal safety tool" as long as the phoned-in background check and my credit limit were good. I also knew that I could be toting a full size Nazi flag or an SS skull lapel pin for nothing more than 10 dollars and a lapse in good taste.

Millennium meltdown, I saw, was indeed a frightening prospect. Imagine a world on January 1 peopled only by gun-toting, white-supremacist, grits-eaters with a gift for forward planning. That 9mm Glock is sounding better all the time.

If you have any comments or feedback please let me know by dropping me a quick E-Mail.

copyright 1999, 2000 Kim Ribbans. All rights reserved 1999 Guardian and Observer News Service, London UK.
No part of this publication in whole or extract may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author
This article may not be reproduced or distributed without permission from Guardian and Observer News Service, London UK

How Did It Come To This?

With only 12 days to go before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States I wonder how I could have left it so long to comment on this wondrous moment in world history!

Now, I am not one of those who expect the fate, image, progress or condition of the United States, its people or indeed, the rest of the world, to turn around immediately at 12.01pm on January 20th. It is a hard burden the new President takes on and a hard row to hoe - as they say - before any of that turn around comes about.

But my thoughts are often turned back to a time around three years ago when Barack's name was first mentioned as a potential candidate. One of my best friends, a surrogate brother really, and I were sitting in our favorite watering hole and discussing politics - our favorite subject. He had voted for Clinton twice, for Bush twice and was a proud Southern boy. Smart but traditional. In fact a Democrat's perfect target swing voters and someone they would have to win over to take the White House in 2008.

"This country will never elect a black man called Barack Obama" He said emphatically.

At the time I have to admit, I was with him. But I was never a big Hillary fan - not a hater, just not a fan of her as President - but it is a testament to this country that they WOULD elect a black man, and a black man called Barack Obama at that.

Once again I am really proud of my adopted country. Once again I can look to my fellow countrymen back in England and say.. "... there, how do you like them apples!"

I like 'em a lot!!

A Perfect Storm?

As Hurricane Gustav makes its way across the Gulf Coast, and the GOP scrambles to reconstitute its National Convention, I can only imagine the colors John McCain's pallor must have gone through since the revelation of the pregnancy of VP pick's daughter Bristol Palin.

But, since the announcement came on Labor Day Monday, McCain and his team must be sighing a small sigh of relief that they, and the party's glitterati can use Gustav's arrival as a way of ducking the otherwise inevitable spotlight on this new example of judgment by the would be Chief Executive.

All reports claim that McCain and his staff were aware of the pregnancy before making the VP announcement. Given the exhausting vetting process one hopes the candidate must have gone through, the campaign must have been aware of the situation. Which once again speaks to McCain's underestimation of the American voter. Not only does he seems to believe that, as The Daily Show put it, "Vagina-Americans" would vote en masses for a female candidate, but that the erstwhile base of the Republican Party would ignore its Veep candidate's daughter's teenage pregnancy. Will they?

But what if they weren't aware of this news? What if the McCain camp learned about it after the announcement Friday morning. An announcement so perfectly timed to deflate the post convention bounce Obama and the Dems were hoping for.

In political news lore, Friday is traditionally "Take out the Trash Day" A day when news that the progenitors want ignored is traditionally put out on the feeding tables of the press. Nobody reads the Saturday newspapers after all. Well in 2008 and in this election season Friday August 30th was not "Take out the Trash Day".

It was the day that McCain would roll out his pick. To be greeted by mildly inappropriate pictures of the candidate's admittedly shapely legs - as Drudge did (left) Under the headline from The Times (London) of "Conservatives Find Their Dream Girl".

But did their dream turn quickly into a nightmare as the old shibboleth of the conservative right, "teenage pregnancy" reared its head?

What would have been the mood, the pallor, the strategy in the McCain camp? They had lost their trash Friday, not just lost it but embraced it themselves with the news. They were facing the entire world's press corp on Monday as the GOP gathered in the Twin Cities. They needed a diversion.

I watched slightly bemused as the stories unfolded over Saturday and Sunday about the Republicans plans for the convention in the light of Gustav's path to the Gulf. But even as the reports showed that, mighty though the storm would be it was not on the scale of Katrina, the Republicans seemed to rush to contingency plan after contingency plan. McCain dissed Bush by saying that they wouldn't be making the same mistakes as in the post Katrina aftermath; Bush and Cheney canceled appearances; and finally on Sunday the convention was scaled down to 'business only".

Then I woke to Monday's levy wall to levy wall coverage of wet streets and full levies. Seemed like the networks weren't going to make the same mistakes either. It was only when I turned to The Guardian that I saw Bristol Palin's plight. It was also only after I started to read further into the news articles that I discovered that apparently Left-Wing bloggers were spreading the rumor that candidate Palin's fourth, six month old, child was actually the progeny of her daughter.

Of course Sarah Palin had to scotch those rumors. It was not true! And to prove it here's Bristol, 5 months pregnant,marrying the hapless lad and having the child in December. So There!

A perfect storm? Maybe not. But if McCain couldn't leak the news of his running mates pregnancy issue, at least he got the chance to throw the baby out with the stormwater.

Is it Me..?

OK... a change from the bad politics of governments and nations to the politics of relationships.

When did "I'm totally ignoring you... nananananana" become a legitimate or even vaguely simian way of ending a relationship between two "mature" adults, however burgeoning.

So I met this guy, on the internet yes, but a nice guy. We date a few times. Not just date, but great dates. Stuff like a museum on Sunday morning followed by brunch at the museum cafe. Dinner at a great hole in the wall (literally) restaurant followed by a moonlit walk in Santa Fe Plaza... much smooching and hand-holding. A dinner at his place, followed by hot tubs under the starlit, mountain scraped skies... that sort of thing... you know?

Then...

Nothing!

A few cursory replies to some emails and pleasantries then... nothing, no replies, phone return calls...

Nothing!

I mean...

Nothing!

WTF!

Is that even human!?

OK he's just not that into me, I get it ... and he's not exactly George Clooney but really. When did men get to be such cowards.... am I wrong am I naive??

Is it me..?

Oh So Many Things!

As an old fashioned Democratic Socialist, I am both heartened and slightly thrilled by events in Moscow and Europe over the last few days. America, with its withering tolerance of intellectualism, even in the best of times, would find it difficult to understand the significance of Garry Kasparov's arrest yesterday.

Russian premier Vladimir Putin was yesterday confronted with a genuine popular revolt. About 2,000 opposition demonstrators gathered in Pushkin Square, defying an official ban on their meeting and threats of arrest. It was the largest-ever anti-Putin rally in the Russian capital.

The man who was supposed to lead it, Garry Kasparov - Russia's former world chess champion - was detained as soon as he emerged from his taxi. Driven off to a Moscow court in a police van, he emerged defiant, during a break in proceedings, to tell about a dozen supporters that in its response to the protest 'the régime showed its true colours'. He was later fined 1,000 roubles - the equivalent of about £20 - and freed.

Guardian, April 15, 2007

And then there's Paul Wolfowitz. One of the architects of the Iraq invasion and a pillar of the Project for the New American Century is at the middle of yet another scandal. Wolfowitz's job as president of the World Bank was hanging by a thread this weekend after a concerted effort by European ministers to shame him into resigning. Governor Bush, whose support of the World Bank president echoes his shameless promotion of favored cronies in Washington, is in stark contrast to the sentiment expressed around the world as Wolfowitz came under pressure to resign from the Washington-based organization.

Whither Iraq? Bush's Search for Mini-Me Fails as Violence Kills Iraqi Parlimentarians

"Three retired generals approached by the White House about a new high-profile post overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and reporting directly to the president have rejected the proposed post, leaving the administration struggling to find anyone of stature willing to take it on."

The Guardian - April 12, 2007

Not only has Governor Bush's "Executive Search" for a quasi-Commander-in-Chief seem to be stalled but the audacity of the attacks in Iraq seem to be growing as the much vaunted "Surge" enters its second month.

One has to ask the obvious question.

"If Bush is not the Commander-in-Chief, who is?"

Much was made in Bush's first 21 months about his Hands-Off, I'm on Vacation, attitude towards running the most powerful country in the world. Then, as he is fond of saying "911 changed everything".

Now it seems that Bush has even grown weary of striding around in a flight suit, "I'm the Decider" persona and is seeking a real man to take over what is arguably and constitutionally his most important role as Chief Executive; running the military at the executive level in a time of conflict.

Washington must be gnashing his wooden teeth and spinning in his grave.

At the same time, the only tangible outcome of the invasion of Iraq, the democratically elected parliament, suffered its greatest blow after a suicide bomber executed the most brazen attack yet on the country's new democratic institutions, detonating a bomb that killed at least eight people including three MPs, inside the much heralded Green Zone.

And yet, while Bush postures about the Congress' passing of the Emergency War Funding Act, by saying that it will mean that more soldiers will serve longer and have less time between deployments, it transpires that this situation is one that will come to pass regardless, because of the Army's estimates of needed troop levels to make any difference in Baghdad, or indeed Iraq, in this latest "surge" of folly.

He Said. He Said...

Once again, while the Democrats pat themselves on the back for uncovering the lie in the recent White House change of direction on the Iraq occupation policy, they continue to miss the point about what it means to be the loyal opposition; mislead and confuse the American people and squander an opportunity to put forward a coherent alternative to the Neo-Con American hegomony agenda.

George Bush insisted to George Stephanopoulos on his "This Week" show on October 22, that the policy of his government had never been one of "Stay the Course". Of course to the pundits in the media and to the American people this came as a jarring shock to the system who had come to expect these three words at almost every public offering of the President and his close advisors.

The liberal Democratic ThinkTank-ocracy were quick to put together the damning show and tell of video and audio clips highlighting the countless times that Bush had used those exact words to public audiences. The Center for American Progress and ThinkProgress.org announced that they had found the Commander in Chief using the phrase at least thirty times since 2003.

But once again... aren't they missing the point? As Laura Flanders and many other pointed out over the weekend, this President, in the run up to the election has been all but grounded by the GOP from appearing in public and somehow srewing up Republican candidates chances of election next week. Although Bush has managed to raise over $100M in campaign contributions all this has been in private fundraisers, not in public rallies.

Well the point is that Bush has long been, for a President, camera shy, and his public utterances over the last six or so years have been few and far between. The fact that he has been caught on tape using the phrase "Stay the Course" thirty or more times is meaningless as a weapon without context.

In his second term, Bush has given around 38 major speeches or addresses on the subject of the "War on Terror". The statistics then are that in almost 80% of the time, Bush announced that the strategy of this administration was to "Stay the Course". He has used the phrase at least once a month since the invasion of Iraq and in almost every speech he gave. For him to say that "We have never been stay the course..." not only flies in the face of evidence, it assumes an ignorance and naivety on the part of the American people and the world that would be stunning if it were not so bald faced and shocking.

Silence is Golden

Hamas Today, Usama Tomorrow
In the long history of struggle for nationhood no-one should be more acutely aware of the virtually seamless transitions from terrorist to freedom fighter to activist to statesman, than "my fellow Americans". But of course as everyone knows a terrible lag in zeitgeist is a hallmark of western foreign policy and more sharply its media.

From Washington to Mandela, Ghandi or Begin, the pages of history are (g)littered with one-time boogie men who became leaders of a popular movement and thence players on a national or world stage.

The electoral victory of Hamas is ironically a victory for America and, yes, Israel. With elections overseen by the US and a movement all but created by Israel as a foil to Arafat's PLO in the 60's and 70's, the elevation of Hamas from movement to government will, I suggest, be seen in the light of future historians as a victory for free democratic expression.

Of course the press, and the US press particularly, seems to have been blindsided once again by Hamas' poll win. Aside from the more considered commentators (on the left and right), the headlines and punch lines of today’s throw-away press are either concerned with nomenclature or immediate gratification. As if they were watching the bully in the playground getting away with kicking around the little kid, while all the while waiting for the victim's big brother to arrive fists flailing, the press is holding its gleeful breath - probably in vain - for America, and more pointedly its "leader" to say something, anything, of weight.

It took almost 24 hours for anything like a considered response. And even that wasn't too considered. With a stumbling, embarrassing comment by 'W' on the day of the victory followed by posturing and threats the day after, the US, once again, strode out on the world stage like a gunfighter in a cringingly cheesy B movie western starring Lash LaRue.

The US and Israel will talk to Hamas if it can hang on to popular power, eventually. The alternative is too grim to contemplate. The political reality of the Palestinian's vote for Hamas is a pure reflection of the loss of patience with Muslim leaders who have tried to pander to the Zionist influence of US foreign policy by awkwardly espousing Islam-Lite, in order to get their feet under the negotiating table. The current situation in Pakistan, where Musharraf's perception as a client state(sman) of the US, is another flashpoint in an ever increasingly complex region. One can only hope that the State Dept. won't be as blind-sided when that country's popular opinions ultimately boil over into the fire of extremism.

And what of the forgotten leaders of "yesteryear"? Usama Bin Laden's recent audio tape offering talks on one hand and terrible vengeance on the other has been lost in the news cycle it seems. With stunningly shrewd foresight, it demanded what the US government was contemplating already - withdrawal from Iraq - thus putting a pullback in play and making the reality of that move a lose-lose situation. If the US starts to withdraw its troops for political expediency leading up to the November 2006 mid term elections al Qaeda will claim victory. If it doggedly "stays the course" in Iraq we will continue to be the target for, and epicenter of, Muslim extremism and violence.

Bin Laden, it doesn't need repeating here, is a clever man and plays politics better than Carl Rove. Just like Rove doesn't really want to ban gay marriage or outlaw reproductive rights, and Bin Laden doesn't really want a western hands-off in the Middle East. The issues play too well with the base. And what is al Qaeda's literal translation into English? "The Base"

Hamas' victory this week highlights that the base is activated, better informed than most Western constituents, who are more concerned with Brad and, whoever Brad is with at the moment, or with celebrity Big Brother, and all too sharply illustrates that democracy is only the answer if the question is one that WE are asking.

Time to take a stand

It seems that we have almost become immured to the blatant chicanery of this regime. To parade the circuit court in front of the Senate Hearings and endorse this man who has, almost consistently voiced minority opinion and pro-business and anti-individual rulings is not only unprecedented, but stunning in its chutzpah. As long as we keep letting them get away with it they will keep subverting our rights, our system and the constitution that the country is built on.

The Democratic caucus has to stand on the principles defined by the Bill of Rights and push for a filibuster. To be afraid of being seen to be on the losing side of the issue is no excuse for doing what is right. Sadly, and carefully as a foreigner, I have to say that the current situation almost highlights the inconsistencies and faults in our political system that the framers, it seems, did not envision 230 years ago.

As, little by little, small chips are taken out of the structure of our country we risk leaving to our children a system that is beyond redemption and irretrievably broken. No-one can complain about one party being in control of the three branches of government, but the perfect storm of; a disinterested, distracted and uninformed populace; a regime willing to push the envelope by small degree towards – yes – totalitarianism; a congress not willing to do its job of oversight; and a fourth estate more concerned with ratings than its constitutional duty, leads me to sadly conclude that we need to "...hang together, or most assuredly we will hang separately".

A Great Shame

Governor Bush once again squandered an opportunity to lay out a clear plan for Iraq today.

Speaking at Annapolis Naval Base, Bush once again delivered a 'stump' speech filled with the empty platitudes that have been his stock in trade since being appointed to the presidency by the Supreme Court in 2000.

Bush urged "all American's to read" the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" posted on the White House web site.

Just a brief browsing of this document shows how far removed the Bush regime is from the ability to come clean with the American people and the world.

Laying out what they claim as, what is for most Americans, the most important element, "Victory in Iraq Defined" the Bush regime contradicts itself and known facts within the first three pages.

Claiming that victory can be defined in stages, they set out the following criteria:

• Short term, Iraq is making steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions, and standing up security forces.
• Medium term, Iraq is in the lead defeating terrorists and providing its own security, with a fully constitutional government in place, and on its way to achieving its economic potential.
• Longer term, Iraq is peaceful, united, stable, and secure, well integrated into the international community, and a full partner in the global war on terrorism.

They also claim that;

"Our strategy is working: Much has been accomplished in Iraq, including the removal of Saddam’s tyranny, negotiation of an interim constitution, restoration of full sovereignty, holding of free national elections, formation of an elected government, drafting of a permanent constitution, ratification of that constitution, introduction of a sound currency, gradual restoration of neglected infrastructure, the ongoing training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, and the increasing capability of those forces to take on the terrorists and secure their nation."

Even given the fact that no-one, the military, Rumsfeld, Cheney or Bush can get their story straight on exactly how many troops have been trained to date 700 or 7,000, the article below citing awful human rights abuses within the "elected government" that has been created under this strategy to date, belies all of this shameful attempt to polish the turd.

Shame on you, and shame on us to let this stand.

Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader

In a report in The Observer, Britain's leading Sunday newspaper, "...human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein."

This came from an interview with the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime, Ayad Allawi.

While I don't expect this to be the lead on the major, "Liberal" media outlets, I am surprised that even the progressive outlets, Air America among them, gave little space to this one more shocking indictment of the waste of precious life and treasure that is being perpetrated upon the American, British and Iraqi people.

For the latest casualty figures click here

Full Story

The Christian Rite

I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world.

Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia.

While the marginalized right wing continue to hijack the faith of my childhood and the spiritual foundation of my secular adulthood, Gov. Bush baits the cage with his support of Alito as his nominee for the US Supreme Court. Having flaunted constitutional mores by disastrously nominating another Texan Harriett Miers, on top of the prohibited nomination of Texan Richard Cheney as his VP.

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(The 12th amendment states that the electoral college must not vote on candidates for President and Vice President if they are from the same state. Cheney, a long time Texan resident, set up an "official residence" in Wyoming just days before he was nominated to the ticket. A nomination by the way, that came after an exhaustive search committee chaired by one R. Cheney failed to find a more suitable candidate)

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Bush is now flaunting separation rules by tacitly offering a religious acid test as proof of fitness to govern for this strangely (and worryingly) activist New Jersey Appeals Court judge.

A Tale of Two Cities

It is interesting, to say the least, to see the contrast between the recent, apparently principled, resignation of the pugnacious David Blunkett – Britain’s Work and Pensions Secretary – and the dogged grip that Cheney, Rumsfeldt et al exert on power.

Mr Blunkett’s offence? His failure to consult a watchdog about several extra-parliamentary jobs. These included owning around ₤15,000 ($8,000) in stock of DNA Bioscience. (Guardian Story)

Donald Rumsfeld, on the other hand, holds a stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures, in Gilead, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that’s now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Gilead, it turns out, receives a royalty equaling about 10% of sales of Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche.

Dick Cheney, as is well known, is a major stock holder of Haliburton. Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, and Cheney’s options—worth $241,498 a year ago—are now valued at more than $8 million.

The company has been criticized by auditors for its handling of a no-bid contact in Iraq. Auditors found the firm marked up meal prices for troops and inflated gas prices in a deal with a Kuwaiti supplier. The company also built the American prison at Guantanamo Bay and received no-bid contracts for rebuilding after Hurrican Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

CNN Rumsfeld Story

Cheney’s guilty secret