obamas secretly prepare for new world order

Think about it. An organic garden to feed the first family, some bees to produce honey, a hen house, and a rabbit hutch in the east garden—it can only mean one thing. Michelle Obama has been stockpiling the means to make her family self-sufficient. And given the mood of the right, she'd better hurry before they storm the castle.

Couple the First Lady's penchant for home cooking with Biggie O's penchant to always be surrounded by a cadre of weapon-toting, highly trained killers (who have ready access to a few thousand rounds of ammo) and you can see this family is set to maintain residency in the big white house indefinitely.

Revelation! During the coming apocalypse, the President will have the entire US military at his command.

If this liberal, healthy-eating-habit, forced agenda isn't stopped soon, America's ready access to Twinkies, incentive payments for high-fructose corn syrup production, and $1.99 whole roasted chickens could be threatened. The next thing you know, these Marxists will expect that all American children deserve a decent education and their parents a living-wage job. Beware! Univeral health care and tax increases will surely follow.

tsa announces new travel restrictions

In the wake of the thwarted Christmas Day terrorist plot on Northwest Airlines flight 253, TSA has announced new restrictions for air travel. While somewhat vague as to the specificity of the restrictions, passengers will no longer be allowed to carry explosive devices on board international flights arriving in the US.

michael jackson was murdered!

Priorities please. The US needs to enact real health care reform and the public plan is the least expensive option. We already have the private option; that's the problem.

duff lite solutions

I think it's great that the President sat down and had a beer with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley. Really. Nothing but good should come from this. Maybe they'll even learn a little something about beer in the process. The President will be drinking a Bud Lite - which either makes him a pantywaist watching his carbs, an uniformed beer drinker, or a member of the wine and cheese set. Dude! I'm a member of, among other drinking clubs, the wine and cheese set, but I know enough to not drink skunky, watered-down beer. Drink a real beer, not some beer that takes 15 minutes to make.

Wouldn't Amber Wavers American Ale from Washington's own Capitol City Brewing be more appropriate for the White House than one brewed by a Belgian Company? The Belgians make some of the best beers in the world but Anheiser-Busch products aren't one of them. Or better yet, how about one of the Wild Dogs from the largest brewery in Maryland, Flying Dog.

Biggie O may be well read but he probably hasn't read this post about lite beer. Beer, good hand-crafted beer, is good for you, especially if taken in moderation. Lite beer, if taken in moderation or even in excess, is never a good idea.

are you sure you want a lite?

dem bones

I'm imagining that the Dems aren't going 2 be able 2 resist the temptation 2 go after CHeney's pacemakr. I say let him go 2 hell n peace. Health care reform n an energy policy 4 the future are the prize. Eyes on it!

sent via mobile device

not religious enough

That seems to be the problem. No one meets anyone else's expectations. For the conservative part of the Republican Party, you are not sufficiently pious enough if you are pro-choice. Even Sam Brownback, who's about as conservative as it gets, was recently taken to task for voting to approve Katherine Sebilius as the new Health and Human Services. It's not enough that Brownback is from the same state as Sebilius and as a likely gubernatorial candidate in 2010, he just might need the votes of a few moderates to get elected. No. According to the far right rodeo clowns, because Sebilius was pro-choice and Brownback voted for her, he must have sold out his principles. The 'yur either 'wid me or 'agin me approach to the world. I've never been a fan of Brownback, but I don't see how it is possible to be pro-life for fetuses and pro-death for everyone else out of the womb. Abortion? NO! Death penalty? OK! Torture? OK! Saturation bombing? You bet. Napalm? Sometimes. If you're a Republican.

On the other hand. The Democrats often show similar wishy-washy religious views. When Bush was in office, his brand of religion was labelled as scary by the left. (I'm not saying it wasn't) but Bill Clinton's brand of religion was upheld as being well "full of grace". Until that we found out he wasted and then he was just a hypocrite like the rest of us.

Same for Barack Obama. He's either a pious compassionate Christian or a devout Muslin depending upon your point of view. People love big hats. But what they love even more are Big Hats in Church. That is until they don't. Or until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is unearthed God-damming America in front of - God forbid! BLACK PEOPLE IN BIG HATS WHO VOTE-and then everyone was down on the big hats AND the Sunday-go-to-meeting brand of churcy black folk that suggests that some forms of social injustice should not be tolerated in the present day America-Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. That must mean they're a Muslim or they like big hats.

All said though, you do not have permission to shoot people--no matter your religion! Hats you can wear.


Note: I wrote most of this post over a month ago and then set it aside for other interests. It seemed appropos to revisit it again, especially in light of Sunday's shooting of one man in church by another man who felt the first man wasn't churchy enough. Now before you go saying, "hey wait a minute, that fellow was crazy!, you should realize that both sides have been using this same rhetoric to describe the other.

both sides now

We're guessing that the shooting of Dr. George Tiller will do little to bring activists, many polarized by 30 plus years of intolerance, to the table in order to respectively dialogue on abortion issues - but you never know. The alleged shooter, a wacko, felon from Merriam, Kansas fits the profile of an anti-abortion zealot with end-of-the-world leanings. You know the type, believing that if they shoot someone then the world's salvation will arise; funny how infrequently they think to shoot themselves first. Oh, if only that were part of the indoctrination! How easy life would be.

Republican rodeo clowns, right after they say prayers for the families and shed a few fake tears, will likely use any reaction by the left to drive a wedge through the easily fractured Democrats. Obama should quickly address the nation about the need to have conversations designed to bring solutions to the table rather than loaded weapons.

this is the way we've always done it

Sadly, the tradition of racism lives on.

the black and white prom

One question that immediately comes to mind is which one do you attend if you're brown?

Maybe they could invite the President to the commencement ceremonies and then all the white students could sit on one side of the room and all the black students could sit on the other side of the room. The President could be in half-face, one side white, the other black so that he could rotate back and forth, revealing his black side to the white students and his white side to the black students. Or vice-versa if they want to just keep doing things the way they've always been done. Funny thing about the picture though; it's hard to tell which side of the face you're viewing.

Oh yeah. Right. It's the Presidential side.

the difference a president makes

The country made a huge leap forward today, one that the Bush Administration had worked valiantly for years to impede, and one this President hurdled in less than 4 months. The improvement?--greatly improving the mileage requirements of vehicles sold in America. American automakers, who after watching their companies fail, may finally be getting it, will have to improve the average mileage of all vehicles to 35.5 mpg by 2016. That's up almost 10 mpg from today and represents a significant improvement in energy policy. Automakers will complain that they can't make money on these small cars but the last time I looked, they weren't making money on big ones either. Time to rethink the business strategy and we now have the leverage to make it happen.

Now the next step. The largest US consumer of petroleum products is the military. They consume about 21 billion gallons per day (CIA, 2005). We are making wars so that the military can fuel its vehicles in order to fight those wars. Time to stop. How about an all electric assault vehicle? Leave it to the Swiss! I'm not sure it makes sense but how much of the military does?

You can read a lot more about issues related to US military consumption of oil at the Energy Bulletin. Some interesting facts. No one seems to know exactly how oil the military consumes primarily because the actual numbers go unreported. (Only Cheney knows for sure). Also, vehicle fuel accounts for about 3/4's of the military's consumption yet most energy reduction programs brought forth by the Department of Defense are targeted at buildings.

I guess some day we'll learn or we'll start a war trying.

duped again by the forces of evil

Note to Dems: Just Say No to Torture.

While most of us are hoping to move beyond the first 100 days and want to look to this administration to lead us into an era of significant, meaningful change that works on problems such as clean water, livable cities, health-care reform, and PEACE the Democratically controlled Congress continues to wade knee deep in the Potomac muck. Aided and abetted by an unholy trinity of Dick and Karl (history will prove they are the same person), Sean, and Rush, the Dems continue to fall for the sucker punch of negativity known as--the conservative pundit.

When will the Dems learn they are being played by the Repubs? Look closely behind the curtain and you'll see the FatBoys with the Little Things smirking with the realization that they've duped the country again into arguing about conservative issues so that progressive changes won't be addressed. We spend an inordinate amount of time and energy debating issues that won't be solved by sparring matches of the empty body politic that are televised on FOX and CNN and endlessly replayed on MSNBC and drive-time radio.

The only way to really answer the torture question is to have a war-crimes trial and neither party wants this since they are both culpable. As long as the country is mired in these who-knew-what-when debates we can't move forward with more compelling issues such as why do we continue to spend the bulk of our tax dollars on the military while our country's health care system, jobs, and infrastructure goes to hell-in-a-handbasket?

Get a grip folks. Let's solve the problems that to keep our neighborhoods livable. Cheney doesn't have much time left; he's a mope and a dope. Forget him.

Remember. It's the ECONOMY stupid!

summer program threatens to replace teenagers with pesticides

Warrior Ant Press has obtained information from a Crop Life Ambassdor that exposes an evil plan whereby some members of Congress hope to replace twittering teenagers with pesticides. However, First Lady Michelle Obama has been working quietly behind the scenes on a summer program that may save a few teenagers from 'replacement'. The program has been labeled elistist by some but other critics have gone even further, calling the program, which hires troubled youth to pull weeds from the organic White House kitchen garden, a new form of slavery.

free tickets to white house gala

Follow the link @ 7:45 EDST pm tonight for free access to a White House gala featuring among others, James Earl Jones, Michael Chabon, and Esperanza Spalding.
Biggie O's live poetry jam
.

who's the stupid vice-president now?

Joe Biden's ridiculously uninformed comments about the swine flu epidemic, are further proof (like a Cheney/Hannity interview) that there are absolutely no intellectual qualifications required in order to become Vice-President of the United States.

privatizing the imagination

Artists played a largely unheralded role in Obama's victory. But they had been tugging the national unconscious forward for decades, from the multiculturalist avant-gardes of the 1970s and '80s to the hip-hop rebels of the '90s and 2000s, plying a fearless, sometimes even unruly kind of polyculturalism. By the final months of the election season, these artists had secured Obama as the waking image of change.

Every moment of major social change requires a collective leap of imagination. Political transformation must be accompanied not just by spontaneous and organized expressions of unrest and risk but by an explosion of mass creativity. Little wonder that two of the most maligned jobs during the forty years after Richard Nixon's 1968 election sealed the backlash of the "silent majority" were community organizer and artist.

Obama was both. So why haven't community organizers and artists been offered a greater role in the national recovery?--Jeff Chang writes in the May 4, 2009 edition of The Nation

I won't pretend to speak for community organizers. Or artists for that matter. But I will say this. Many artists are engaged, enthralled, even moved by the opportunity to effect change. However the Office of the Presidency is a centrist collective that defines America around an abstract, advertisable notion of America. Change has permitted us to color these advertisements with a broad swatch of diversity but as a whole it's the family value meal that graces our tables.

Interestingly enough, the number of Americans who claim to be full-time artists is nearly equivalent to those who claim to be farmers (about 2 million). Real farmers, those with a isolationist view of their lifestyle and a second job in order to maintain it, have more in common with most artists than the typical farmer depicted on television. Seed corn hats, cotton print dresses, and children who respect their elders cross all demographics. People who fail to understand that are the only ones surprised to learn that courts in Iowa have upheld same-sex marriage. That said, the farmer, or at least his corporate surrogate with the K-street lobbyist, is still given a place in the national dialogue. This while the collective conscious seems to believe that artists take pride in selling their drawings on the street corner to keep themselves in cigarette and beer money.

All this could change with in a hurry with a President, or First Lady, who had the temerity to befriend artists, invite them to the White House, and give them a stage to talk about their work, what it means to them, and to America.

Everyone has to eat. That's frequently the rationale for why farmers are so important, which is true, but sadder still when when what's for dinner is so often pre-fab food. Since pre-fab America is still tottering on verge of bankruptcy let's just go ahead and bury it for good.

I propose a weekly dinner at the White House. Or a luncheon. Call it Farmers who Lunch and the Artists who Cook for them. Every week the White House kitchen is turned over to artists who then, in cooperation with small, independent farmers who grow food that isn't livestock feed, cook a meal together and following that, sit down at the table, the big kitchen table in America's White House, and discuss the matters of importance to America. The First Family, White House staff, and a rotating group of Congress are invited to join them, to listen, and to learn.

the creativity stimulus

Images:
Minnie Black, luffa sponge man.
Shawn and Clarissa Langley Family of the Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy Farm.

portugese water torture dog

Another sign of the differences between the Bush and Obama Adminstration. Bush was a cat person; Obama a dog lover. Also, the Bush Administration was fond of water-boarding as a form of torture and the Obama Administration announced today that the latest addition, after Katherine Sebilius, to join the team is Bo, a Portugese Water Torture Dog.

For those of you who may not know, the Portugese Water Torture Dog is a working breed. Although originally a seafaring breed, with the economic downturn and loss of many pleasure craft due to the expensive of maintaining them, many Portugese Water Torture Dog have been forced to take on second jobs to assist their owners with the cost of maintaining their elegant lifestyles. One of the most popular jobs, given the affable nature, stamina, and water skills of the breed, has to been to work as magician assistants - which is the reason for the recent name change by the American Kennel Club.

The most famous Portugese Water Torture Dog was Houdini the Hairy Black and White, who perfected the trick for which the breed is named. In this trick. the dog's owner is first shackled, and the submerged upside down, in a large glass tank. The dog then has six minutes (less if the owner is not in near perfect shape) to free his master from the tank. If successful, it's typical for the owner to reward the animal with a fancy dog treat.

obamas dopey response

President Obama, who still thinks we can win a war in Afghanistan fighting terrorists, looks like a dope with his cookie-cutter response against legalizing marijauana.

bracket buster

Many conservative news pundits, who began slinging crap and labels like 'socialist' even before the new administration took office, seem to be disappointed in every thing the administration does these days. Sadly, if you listen to many of them, they seem to be saying the same things that liberals were saying about the Bush administration just a few short months ago. The administration is lying. The administration's plan for solving the war can't and won't work. We'll be mired in the Middle East for decades. There isn't enough money to do the needed tasks.

Last evenings White House news conference proved that it's generally a slow transition from running for office to governance. Running for office, especially if one can cast themselves as an outsider, is often no more difficult than separating oneself from the competition and making the vague promises that voters want and need to hear. If you make anything more than vague promises during an election cycle, you're wasting time and likely unelectable. Governance, however, is much more difficult, if only because more folks are involved in the decision-making process. The new budget process illustrates this quite well.

The Obama administration can offer a road to balanced budgets all it wants, but ultimately Congress has to pass it. And the Congressional process, with its reliance on K street lobbyists and endless re-election financing is still ripe for pillaging the American dream. Everyone hates pork, unless it happens to be in their own district, and then it is a needed infrastructure enhancement.



There a saying in recovery, 'you didn't get in this mess overnight, so don't expect to get out of it overnight.' And it works on many levels. Personal and/or family relationships and/or hardships. The point being is don't expect this administration to solve our problems in the first 100 days. Hell, they'll be lucky if during the first few months of this administration they correctly identify the root cause of our problems and some reasonable approaches on how to solve them.

war is over

John Stewart and Computer G analyze the end of Iraq War, formerly known as "Mission Accomplished". The answer might surprise you.

mac claire mc

claire mccaskill: the lizzle jizzle sizzle of the senate

Ok ok. Mom's upset that I was rude at Pres speech re:tweets.For the record I tweeted bfor,at very begining,& after speech.I wanted to listen
7:12 AM Feb 26th from TinyTwitter

Classified briefing on Afghanstn and Pakstn. Serious challenges.
8:39 AM Feb 25th from TinyTwitter

Great speech. Right tone.Right message of bold action and budget restraint. My favorite line: "We are not quitters."
7:28 PM Feb 24th from TinyTwitter

Pres just hailed the Recov Act. Sen Spector was a lonely Republican when he stood to applaud.
6:25 PM Feb 24th from TinyTwitter

Quite an ovation.The warm greeting between Pres Obama & Sec Clinton makes me proud of our democracy. What a difference a year makes.
6:20 PM Feb 24th from TinyTwitter

Now Supreme Ct. I did big wooohoo for Justice Ginsberg. She looks good.
6:04 PM Feb 24th from TinyTwitter

my new facebook friend, president barack obama

People can complain all they want about things not being that different under President Obama, and I share part of their fear. But it's early yet, really early, and there's a whole lot of stuff that needs doing. But after all, let's face facts, he's the President, not all 535 members of Congress and if we really want change, most of those folks need to go because they spend too much time raising money and listening to lobbyists.

But I do know this. Obama is the first President to send me emails. Funny thing. It's not surprising to be getting an email from the Prez. The hundreds of emails I got during the campaign may have something to do with my lack of surprise and sure, the new ones are going out by the million so I'm not that special. And some could argue that he's just trying to control the story and that's part of the motive behind the e-blast, but I say, hey, it's 2009, shouldn't the President communicate with the American public using the same tools they use to communicate with each other?

Seems a no-brainer. Nice to have a President with a brain.

excerts below:
------------------------------

m.o.i.
Last night, I addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time.

To confront the serious economic challenges our nation faces, I called for a new era of responsibility and cooperation. We need to look beyond short term political calculations and make vital investments in health care, energy, and education that will make America stronger and more prosperous well into the future.

...a few highlights from my address...

Central to this plan will be a renewed commitment to honesty and transparency in government. Restoring our country's economic health will only happen when ordinary citizens are given the opportunity to hold their representatives fully accountable for the decisions they make.

I look forward to continuing to work with you as we bring about the change you made possible.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama