Lee Iacocca, Speaking *MY* Mind

Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it's death throes? He is now 82 years old and has a new book. Here are some excerpts:

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course.'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned 'Titanic.' I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq , the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pom poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the 'America' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest 'C' is Crisis ! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C's of leadership - crisis being the first.)

Leadership is forged in times of crisis. Leaders are made - not born. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11 , 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes.

A Hell of a Mess! So here's where we stand.

We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.

We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy.

Our schools are in trouble!

Our borders are like sieves.

The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask, ' Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.

Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again.

Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time. Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more importantly, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress:
'We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.'

What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on the News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope; I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America 's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the 'Great Depression', 'World War II', the 'Korean War,' the 'Kennedy Assassination,' the 'Vietnam War,' the 1970's oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I've learned one thing it's this:
'You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book.'

It's a call to 'Action' for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had 'enough.'

Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It's our country, folks and it's our future.

OUR FUTURE IS AT STAKE!

Lee Iacocca, Speaking *MY* Mind

McBush: we'll stay the course for 10,000 Years

There are other candidates who would be worse to have in the Oval Office, than John McCain...like, say, Hitler.....Stalin.....Ghengis Khan, Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper...

McBush: we'll stay the course for 10,000 Years

The First Idiot & His Right-Hand Dick

The First Idiot is once again revising the reasons for going to war. Now, it seems it is about Osama Bin Laden again and the economy. Funny, in an interview with Anne Curry on February 18th, Bush said, "I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses and the economy’s adjusting."

At any given time in the past, Idiot-extraordinaire Dubya said the war was about oh-so-many things--according to what his pea-brain thought would fly. How stupid does he think we are? I can recall when he first announced this war, it was called Operation Iraqi Liberation...until someone with two brain cells to rub together pointed out that the abbreviation for that was OIL. It was changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A recent graduate of the University of Illinois, Devon Largio, did a study of rationals offered by the Bush administration and its cronies for the war. The study only covered a time span between September 2001 and October 2002. "Largio examines the public statements of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, Sens. Joseph Lieberman and John McCain, Richard Perle (then chairman of the Defense Policy Review Board), Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz." The table for this study can be found here.

This is the text list:

1. To prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
2. For regime change
3. To further the war on terror
4. Because of Iraq's violations of U.N. resolutions.
5. Because of Saddam Hussein's evil dictatorship and actions
6. Because of a lack of weapons inspections in Iraq
7. To liberate Iraq
8. Because of Iraq's links to al Queda
9. Because Iraq was an imminent threat
10. To disarm Iraq
11. To conclude the Gulf War of 1991
12. Because Hussein was a threat to the region
13. For the safety of the world
14. To support the United Nations.
15. Because the US could (easy victory).
16. To preserve peace around the world
17. Because Iraq was a unique threat
18. To transform the region
19. As a warning to other terrorist nations
20. Because Hussein hates the U.S. and will act against it
21. Because history calls the US into action.

And this does not, apparently, cover ALL of the statements made in this regard.

A few days ago, Bush added "the economy" and "because the surge is succeeding" to that list. Once again, Dubya-Dumb-Dumb is under the false illusion that the American people are as stupid as he is, and that you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear. He even had the gall to say that troops would start coming home now. He failed to point out that they were the extras sent for the surge, and the other ones will still be there.

And then there's that other Dick: the Vice President, Dick Cheney. When Cheney said, "On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success," White House correspondent Martha Raddatz responded, "Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting."

And Cheney's Dickish response was, "So?"

Raddatz pushed on: "So? You don’t care what the American people think?"

"No." Big Dick answered. "I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."

This, when we know that there has been no fluctuation in public opinion. Any changes in public opinion have been steadily and increasingly AGAINST the war. But DICK doesn't care what the people think--though ironically, he thinks he can speak for us like he did in February when he said "The American people will not support a policy of retreat." Could there be any clearer indication of public service being a cloak for self-service?

On the 5th anniversary of the "Shock and Awe" (the beginning of the war), Cheney was fishing off a yacht belonging to the Sultan of Oman. It's obvious why he doesn't care what people think and wants the war to continue. He's benefiting from it.

I say try Bush and Cheney (among others) for High Treason and War Crimes, and hang them by the neck until dead.

And just in case someone monitors this and sees it as a death threat, I am NOT offering my services, nor soliciting the services of anyone else. I am instead exercising my right to free speech. We do still have that right in America don't we?

Mark Twain once said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it."

That's what I'm doing.

The First Idiot & His Right-Hand Dick

Charity Begins At Home

According to an article from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego,

A new large-scale, multidisciplinary ocean exploration program would increase the pace of discovery of new species, ecosystems, energy sources, seafloor features, pharmaceutical products, and artifacts, as well as improve understanding of the role oceans play in climate change, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies' National Research Council. Such a program should be run by a nonfederal organization and should encourage international participation, added the committee that wrote the report.

At least seventy percent of our planet is covered with water, yet only 2% of our oceans have been explored. I am dumbfounded by the lack of foresight and common sense in both the political sphere and in the scientific community. Who is responsible for dictating what we research? Lauren Mueller, of the Daily Utah Chronicle, said of NASA:

After a $500 million budget cut in 2007 ended in the threat of job losses and program cuts, the space agency requested $17.6 billion for 2009. The budget, which is sure to be reworked by the congressional powers that be, would be a 2.9 percent increase over the fiscal year of 2008, according to Wired magazine.

...With the support of unlikely climate enthusiast President Bush, the budget provides for six new Earth-monitoring satellites...Of course, the president then proposed across-the-board cuts in renewable energy and energy efficiency, so I guess we're back to square one politically.

The space program, then, will cost $17 billion, and while the exploration of space is fascinating, I feel that life on THIS planet should be the object of our allegiance; especially when there's still so much to be repaired, and so much to learn and benefit from in the depths of our oceans. We have every reason to believe that Earth seas will provide many things of value, not the least of which is the medicinal breakthroughs we so urgently need, and perhaps more bluntly, learning about Inner Space could lead us to useful solutions for Climate Change, which threatens profound global upset, if not annihilation.

This is another illustration of what I believe to be a lack of understanding about where our priorities should reside. I am a firm believer in the adage that Charity begins at home. Our government's tendency to be overly concerned about the well -being and the activities of other countries, has led to the decline of well-being in America. What sense does it make for our government to spend $275 million per day to "free Iraq", not to mention the cost of lives-close to 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died and more than 60,000 more wounded, and over 700,000 Iraqis have been killed while there are another 4 million refugees-all in the name of "bringing" a supposed democracy, freedom, and general well-being to another country, when citizens of America are ignored, starving, homeless, unable to get healthcare, and being taxed into poverty? Before we sink billions of tax dollars and other funds into building another nation, I believe we should build this one.

And what have we to show? A huge and unnecessary death toll in a war that lasted longer than any of the numbskull politicos presumed, and is without merit. Indeed, if America wishes to make this world a better place, it could start by paying attention to climate change, and taking steps to prevent the inevitable catastrophe that looms on that horizon. On a global scale, the money going to the idiocy of war can instead be spent developing things like alternative clean energy sources, providing healthcare for every citizen, education and educational opportunity, and that inimitable research of our oceans, among other things.

I'll say it again: Charity begins at home.

Charity Begins At Home

Dubya Dubya Dubya Dot Con

There was this protest sign i saw that read: "Would someone please give Bush a Blowjob so We Can Impeach him?" I can think of no more succinct way of illustrating the absurdity of the situation.

Tell me again, why was Clinton impeached for trying to cover up details in his sexual Indiscretions, while Dubya remains in office following a long list of truly High Crimes? The first of which was literally RIGGING an election. Isn't it great when your friends own the voting machines? Isn't it great when the general public don't think much of the fact that NONE of the exit polls matched the results? or that more Republicans voted in districts than there were registered Republicans? or that thousands didn't get their vote counted, or that thousands were wrongfully prevented from voting by falsifying voting records? (there is documented proof of this one). Isn't it also just ducky when those who make the final decision about who becomes president, just happen to be the Hopeful Candidate's BROTHER and friend/Associate? The list goes on, but let's skip ahead....

...to 911. Never mind that this attack was no surprise. And we knew who was responsible. Bin Laden. But somehow we went from Bad Bin Laden to Saddam Subterfuge. "Oh, we know this guy did it, but we don't want to go after him for our own reasons, so let's just pick someone else and then fashion a blame shroud we can put around him. The American People won't know any better. They're stupid."

This is the same Bin Laden family that served as underwriters for Bush's failed businesses before he was elected to any office. So what was the real reason for the invasion of Iraq? Oh I don't know, could it be, um. . .OIL???

Don't forget that when the invasion was announced, it was christened, "Operation Iraqi Liberation." What's that stand for, Class? Right. O.I.L. That little Moniker was summarily changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom when someone realized that there were some American people who were smart enough to think their way out of a wet paper bag. Remember the speech Bush gave, warning the Iraqi people: "Don't burn any oil wells"? Well, we now know there were no WMD's, and therefore the reason for the invasion is moot. Yet, we're still there somehow, and Dubya has the blood of thousands on his greedy little hands. Meanwhile, his story is different. The reason we are there changes as often as Dubya changes his socks, because it's not about being there for the right reason, it's about OIL. Many of those soldiers died because they didn't have the gear they needed to protect them, and the Bush Administration was not forthcoming. The soldier's families often paid for something as simple as armored vests. Meanwhile, Dubya lines the pockets of friends and relatives who are profiting from the war itself.

And when the folks on the Gulf Coast were suffering from the worst natural disaster in memory, Bush made an obligatory appearance while FEMA continued to be AWOL, and then headed over to Pakistan, who'd suffered a bit of an earthquake, and summarily gave them a billion dollars in assistance. You remember Pakistan. . . the Prime Suspect in harboring Bin Laden. Can you say "Dubya Dubya Dubya Dot Con?"

Now, I see that Dubya is headed for Iran and probably Korea. It has the potential for being the end of life as we know it. . .I can envision germ and biological and chemical warfare, perpetrated on our own soil. At the very least, we will be ensconced in still another unfounded, unnecessary and unending war because Dubya now thinks of himself as the World Police, and he wants to continue to posture and throw his weight around. Why shouldn't he? He's got the People fooled well enough to have avoided impeachment or rumors of impeachment. How did we allow our government to become this corrupt? How did the Democratic Party manage to lose its collective testicles?

Make no mistake. The Axis of Evil is Washington, Texas and Florida. The very definition of WAR CRIMES is embodied in the Oval Office (or Awful Office, as I now want to call it). Pretty soon, some other country will have to FREE US. They will have to invade our cities, kick in our doors, put the muzzle of an M-16 to our heads, burn our homes, rape our children and wives, torture us, and plunder our lives. But it will be for our own good. We will need their help to free us from this evil dictator, this minion of the Devil, this Pretender to the Throne who enslaves and punishes his own people. Oh, I hope it's someone nice, like Switzerland.

_________
Good Vs. Evil: Bush's Theology of War
Strategy for Security or Blueprint for Empire
Shocking and Awful: Resistance at Home
Bush Commission: Session II Introduction - Jan 20-22, 2006
Uncovered: The War on Iraq
Netflix carries lots of great documentaries about this subject too, like:
Weapons of Mass Deception
Bush's Brain
Uncovered: the War on Iraq
Bush Family Fortunes (A particularly informative documentary).
The Cost of War
One-Third of Iraq War Spending Goes to Bush's Campaign Donors
http://www.freespeech.org
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/kept_promises.html

Dubya Dubya Dubya Dot Con