the united american party

Bush and A Nobel Peace Prize

Is it possible? Could Bush be a runner up for a Nobel Peace prize by 2007? According to Arnold Beichman at the Washington Times GWB just might have what it takes to seize this prestigous award.

A New Banner and A Story

The background for the new banner is a photo of ground zero taken from my office window on September 21, 2001. For ten days I stared out that window and tried to remember what was there. Two massive columns covered in glass and steel. A skin of sorts that protected many from the wind, rain and snow. It was a place that some called home (because they always seemed to be there), some called work (because they didn't want to be there) and others, like myself, came to refer to it as an obstruction of our view. It split the view of the bay beyond. It sometimes blocked the sun and other times made you squint because the sun would bounce off of the massive steel frame. At night they looked like two huge giants wrapped in ribbons of yellow filtered light. Some nights the towers were lit up like Christmas trees from people staying late (usually a sign that the market was good) and other nights just a few lights flickered on and off as the janitors and maids made their way around the sixteen acres cleaning up after a messy work day.

But what was I looking at now? I was looking at smoke billowing skyward like it was coming from a toy locomotive circling a Christmas tree, yet, there was no tree. Search lights replaced work lights casting an eerie silver lining around each of the smoke clouds as they climbed ever higher into the night sky filling a void that was once The World Trade Center. These lights did not represent signs of life and they smelled. My windows shut, I could smell the stench of everything that was innocent now smoldering in a heep of evil.

And through all of this I could see a building that I never knew existed before, blocked from view by the towers only ten days earlier. This building was alien to me. It was black in color and ever so cold. It had no lights. It had no life. It just stood there empty of all feeling and warmth. It came to remind me of a tombstone of sorts, all that was missing was an epitaph. In the ten days following September 11, 2001 I had come to hate this building just for the simple fact that I could see it. Staring at it day in and day out I just kept wishing I could have my obstructed view back.

But, on the day that I took this picture my feelings for this inanimate object changed. I was no longer looking at a tombstone of sorts. Instead of staring at this building and envisioning an epitaph etched into its front I saw a message of hope, a sign of life, a clear sign that recovery was on the move. What did I see? I saw a flag, the American flag, in all its splendor raised high for everyone to see.

I had seen the flag before, the workers had hung it on the World Financial Center just days after September 11, 2001. Although it looked good where it was it could not always be seen when looking downtown. But someone had the idea to move it, like a curator at a museum looking for the best place to hang a piece of artwork, someone felt it needed to be where everyone could see it.

This flag changed the way everything looked outside my office window. The smoke didn't seem so think anymore because the colors seemed to radiate through the smoke no matter how thick or black that smoke got. The search lights had warmth to them for some reason, always shining on this message of hope. Their sole purpose was no longer to help the rescue crews but to keep a message of hope lit for all to see.

I no longer looked out my office window and wondered what used to be there but rather what will be there. That building and that flag reminded me that all was not lost and no matter how dark our days might get there is always darkness before the dawn. From what I learned this flag was later shipped to Afghanistan where it was raised over the Bagram Air Base as we delivered our response to the events of September 11, 2001.

Now whenever I feel like this country is going to crumble to the ground like the towers did I just look at this picture and remember that we have been there many times before and at the end of the day we seem to all come together under one banner for a common cause.

One country, one people, one flag, a united American.

Pentagon Officials Release Strategy to Avoid the Draft

Washington D.C. (Daily Times) - In a statement released late today Pentagon officials stated that they are going to institute a new strategy in the war on terror to try and avoid a draft that seems almost inevitable. Their plan calls for a swift three prong attack into the heart of Africa (see official photo above), this move, if successful will give the Pentagon 3 extra armies per turn. Pentagon officials said they should be able to accomplish this mission as long as everyone understands it is being done in the name of freedom loving nations everywhere. The Pentagon also stated that if they do actually take over the continent it will surely give them enough cards to trade in for an additional 7 bonus armies.

There were concerns that this might leave the military over stretched but the Pentagon spokesperson said this is not the case because after trading in the new cards the Pentagon will still have a horse and a wild card left over. This leaves them in a perfect position to invade Spain for the extra card they would need to then trade in for 8 extra armies on their next turn.

These three moves will give the Pentagon a combined total troop increase of 18 armies. One Pentagon official was quoted as saying "This will be a great day for school children everywhere, if we succeed, we will not have to reinstate the draft or resort to using a little unknown provision in the No Child Left Behind Act".

In other related events, Secretary of State Rice was at the United Nations today arguing the right for the United States to use the big ship to move troops from the Australian continent to the African continent but the U.N. Security Council is standing firm by their decision not to let the U.S. use this little known made up rule. The council stated that it just wouldn't be fair if other nations do not have access to the ship.

Whats Been Goin' On?

Contributed by Jersey McJones

Well...  hmmm...  let's see... There was the latest poll of greatest Presidents, as usual American education was put on display as the lousiest in the Free World.  Reagan?  I mean, REAGAN???  Ahead of WASHINGTON???  TR????  FDR??? ANDREW JACKSON EVEN???  Hell, Taft was a better laizze faire puppet than Reagan was!   The polls proved one thing, though, "Do you remember the bills you have to pay, or even yesterday?" was Bowie's greatest contribution to American critique.

Eminent domain has been back on the block in CT, Hawaii, NY, and a couple other places.  The CT case in front of the SCOTUS today.  I have an idea about that - instead of fair market value, they should have to give homeowners a cut in future developement profits.  How's that for an "Ownership Society"?  The ACLU, the NAACP, and even a couple of conservative groups have stepped in on the side of the homeowners in this fight.  It should get interesting.

Malcolm X was remembered this weekend.  It's been 40 years since he died.  Time flys, huh?  His life points up the change from militant nationalism to culturally referenced self-determination in the Civil Rights movement.  It's arguable what all this added up to in the end.  His famous quote, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us!" seems more timely and broadly applicable today more than in quite a long time in American history.

Hockey's demise came as no surprise to most, but the real story there has been conspicuously missing from the scene:  a little socialism is not only not always a bad thing, and sometimes it is vital to a happy and healthy society.  Football, and to a lesser extent Basketball, are perfect examples of socialistically structure cultural institutions.  Like PBS.  Thanks to a fair balance of free agency, salary caps, and profit sharing, football is now more popular than ever.  And it's popular everywhere, not just in the few big cities so dominant in American life.  Yes, it can cost money (take Basketball this year - the big city teams are losing and so the whole league is losing some money - this year...), but in the end, like I've said for years, NOT EVERYTHING PROFITABLE HAS VALUE AND NOT EVERYTHING VALUABLE IS PROFITABLE.  Dummy overzealous capitalists miss that point.  That all said, I blame the players in the case of Hockey (I suspect the Russian mob has a hand in this desire of these erstwhile poor foreign nationals demanding these insane salaries).  So I'm fair.  ;)

Margeret Spellings, the creator of "No Child Left Behind" has stepped up as Education Secretary.  So we can certainly expect American education to continue to sink in the mud.  The real problem with education is that it is locally controlled and the parents are too involved.  GET THE FUCKIN PARENTS OUT OF THE SCHOOLS!  This stupid federal testing does nothing to improve education.  If anything, it threatens the lousy 6% of federal moneys the schools get now, mostly for lunch & breakfast programs and brick & mortar issues.  The federal government can only hurt with this and not help.  Pointless and stupid.  As for Spellings, a slob of the lowest order, she's been a Bush pilot fish for years.

Then there's the Syria/Lebanon thing.  This could get hot.  If the US gets involved, we could have yet another war.  One more war, and we're sunk.  One more war and gas prices will explode forever, and that's just for starters.  Our debt will explode too, and China and India, and the rest of the world may just start cutting their losses on the dollar, leading to a depression that makes the 1930's look like the 1950s.  The good news is - Syria looks like they'll do the right thing in the end here.  We shall see...

Chalabi backed off the Iraqi presidency.  That's good.  He's a slob if there ever was one.  Good news for the war.

That enough for ya'?

Blogs are a "one man circle jerk"

“A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” he said, noting that it can sometimes fall as low as being a “one man circle jerk.” “There is a pressure to feel well informed without ever confronting an opinion that confronts your prejudices,” he said of blog readers.

Bill Keller, Executive Editor of The New York Times

This is the most recent comment from Mr. Keller from giving a speech as the key note speaker at a benefit dinner last Friday night. I'm surprised that such a comment would be made by him a day after his company announced the purchase of About.com. Basically, the NYT is paying $820,000.00 for each of the 500 weblogs that make up About.com. I guess the NYT thinks a "one man circle jerk" (or a multitude of them) is a good investment.

As far as the comment, “A blog is still a view of the world through a pinhole,” is concerned I think you need to wake up and smell the coffee. Because of blogs, people are not tied to the editorial and opinionated pieces of the MSM anymore. This is a good thing considering the MSM has not been reporting fair and unbiased news for sometime now. The MSM are more interested in appeasing their corporate owners and prime time sponsors then they are in reporting unbiased news stories. The media's "view of the world" might not be seen through a pinhole but it is definitely blurred by the efforts to increase shareholder return on investments so that they can strengthen their political agenda's.

One way to possibly fix this is to adopt the same rules set out by the government to regulate the accounting industry. After the fall of Enron the U.S. government ruled that it was a conflict of interest to have accounting firms and consulting firms under one roof and ruled that they needed to separate. Maybe the MSM and its parent corporations should think of doing the same thing, big corporate conglomerates owning media outlets is a huge conflict of interest.

Lets face it Mr. Keller, blogs are not going away anytime soon. So, you can either, keep calling them names, or, you can make the MSM honest again. Either way your opinion and the opinion of the MSM just don't matter as much anymore. Maybe, if my suggestion doesn't work you could start your own blog site.

Dining In the Buff (NYC Style)

A report from Reuters about nude dining in NYC.

"It's exciting to be in a restaurant nude," said George Keyes, 65, a retired junior high school English teacher.

Thank the invisible guy in the sky that the Parent Television Council only gets offended by stuff they see on TV.

Apparently the Christian "Fundies" have a problem with women too!

From AndrewSullivan.com;

DERBYSHIRE AWARD NOMINEE: "For those of us who believe we should train our daughters according to Titus 2, 1 Peter 3, and other Biblical passages, my answer is "Yes, it is not good." I propose that sports greatly hinders the development of godly, Biblical, feminine character. Parents today expend extraordinary amounts of time and energy taking their daughters from one sports event to another, week after week, even to the point where it exhausts the family and family resources. The fruits we see are that today's Christian women are often ill- prepared to be Biblically obedient wives and mothers. This brings to mind a couple of questions: "Why do we spend so much time preparing our daughters to play sports?" and "What does it prepare them for in the future?" My answer is that sports prepare women to be more like men. Instead of spending all that time preparing our daughters as the Bible directs, we are training them to be like men so they can better compete with men in traditionally masculine roles - i.e., compete with them in the workforce, in politics, in the military, and in sports." - Scott Jonas, in Jesus-Is-Savior.com, outlining fundamentalist opposition to women in sports. No one should be under any illusions that gays are not the only targets of some Christian fundamentalists. The freedom of women to live lives as they see fit is also anathema to these activists.

Could this be a clue to our exit strategy for Iraq?

US Senator Says Afghan Bases Should Be Permanent

KABUL (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators pledged long-term support for Afghanistan on Tuesday and influential Republican John McCain said he saw the need for permanent joint military bases in the country (read more........).

Well, atleast it was a bipartisan decision.

The Far Left and the Far Right Have More In Common Then They Think

Your all blithering idiots! Sorry I had to be that blunt but I spent the morning cruising from blog to blog and seemed to keep stumbling upon these sites that just, quite simply, had nothing to say. It seems like they spend all their time and energy spinning hate and disgust for the other side. Instead of spending time trying to come up with one constructive thought about whats going on in the world they regurgitate what they just read on their favorite editorial site and then proceed to bash the opposite side for not seeing it their way.

I find it hard to believe that someone could actually believe their side is 100% right. Instead of bashing the other side maybe, and sit down when you read this, you might spend your time actually thinking of ways to better the political party you so staunchly protect, hold your leaders accountable for the promises they make and break, both parties have them.

No side is worse then the other because collectively they wouldn't be able to come up with one original thought to better themselves or mankind. Rather, they seem quite content with being pigeon holed in their own private hells.

Well, for any of you that this post might address I leave you with one thing to read, HAS FREETHOUGHT A CONSTRUCTIVE SIDE?, courtesy of the one blog, No Religion Now, that actually got me to think today and delivered me to writing this post.

The Pied Piper

"Of course people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for the lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
--Hemann Goring at the Nuremberg Trials

"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,"

"Our country is still the target of terrorists who want to kill many, and intimidate us all -- and we will stay on the offensive against them, until the fight is won."
-- George W. Bush 2005 State of the Union Address

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."
-- Dick Cheney as quoted from a newspaper interview

"I'm absolutely convinced that the threat we face now, the idea of a terrorist in the middle of one of our cities with a nuclear weapon, is very real and that we have to use extraordinary measures to deal with it."
-- Dick Cheney

"If we're going to stop the terrorists before they strike, we must ensure that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise."
-- George W. Bush

"denounce the pacifists for the lack of patriotism"

"While young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief."
--Zell Miller

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies."
- Attorney General John Ashcroft, 12/6/2001

"[Democrats] need to be very cautious not to seek political advantage by making incendiary suggestions."
- Vice President Dick Cheney, 5/17/2002

"Those comments may not undermine the President as he leads us into war, and they may not give comfort to our adversaries, but they come mighty close."
- Dennis Hastert, 3/18/02

"This destructive rhetoric does nothing more than demoralize our troops and second-guess our commander in chief."
- Tom Delay, 3/20/03

I forgot what is the National Threat Level set at right now?