Wednesday, January 30, 2008

A Voice From The Mountain.....



Oakhurst resident Alan Cheah speaks out today in the Fresno Bee about the duplicitous nature of Bush's tax cuts...

01/29/08 18:39:24

Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts! In good times, when Bill Clinton left a $230 billion annual surplus, George W. Bush saw fit to cut taxes, mostly for those who didn't need it. In bad times, the looming recession in 2003, he cut taxes again.

Since then, he and Republican leaders sought to make tax cuts permanent. In the face of an economic meltdown triggered by the subprime lending fiasco, the solution again is a tax cut favoring big and medium businesses, while Democrats want the bulk of it to go to the middle class and poor. All this has contributed to a rise in the debt from $5.7 trillion in 2001 to $9.2 trillion today.

Have all the tax cuts since 2001 made you solvent? Have they changed your financial situation structurally or just provide a fleeting moment of relief? Why are Republicans such tax-cut opportunists -- because a few hundred dollars easily buys your vote, while tens of thousands are being funneled to their rich donor class of individuals and corporations?

If you buy the argument that they deserve more because they pay more, read "Perfectly Legal" and "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. You will be enraged.

Alan Cheah

Oakhurst

I think one other reason for the fixation on tax cuts by the Republicans is that it feeds into their traditional concept of smaller government. However, with their huge budget deficits under Bush, I would say that if the Republicans of the early 1970's were a glass of milk, then today's group is that thin coating in the glass once you have finished drinking it!! Bush is actually the perfect leader for a party that has lost its way as badly as today's Republicans.

Monday, January 28, 2008

State of the Union Preview


Through my extensive Washington contacts, I was able to snag a preview of Bush's speech for tonite.....

"Folks, it's been a real blast raping and pillaging this great country and taking away your civil liberties for eight years. Sure was fun landin' on the aircraft carrier. Sucks about Katrina. Oh, and those 935 lies my administration told before we invaded Iraq? Weren't lies at all...I's jus' jokin'. I'm a joker, see? Bringin' a little levitization to the folks. And Terri Schiavo: I'd do it all over agin' for ya, darlin'. Now git out there and spend those rebate checks when they arrive in June or August or whenever. Make sure you send a thank-you card to China, since their lenderization is makin' possible your spenderosity. HehHehHeh..."

Sunday, January 27, 2008

At Least One Town is Ready to Take Action


BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.

Kurt Daims, 54, of Brattleboro, the organizer of the petition drive, said Friday the debate to get the issue on the ballot was a good one.
"It is an advisory thing," said Daims, a retired prototype machinist and stay-at-home dad of three daughters.

So far, Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001.

Daims said the most grievous crime committed by Bush and Cheney was perjury — lying to Congress and U.S. citizens about the basis of a war in Iraq.

He said the latest count showed a total of 600,000 people have died in the war.

Daims also said he believed Bush and Cheney were also guilty of espionage for spying on American people and obstruction of justice, for the politically generated firings of U.S. attorneys.

He said the idea is spreading: Activists in Louisville, Ky., are spearheading a similar drive, and he said activists were also working in Montague, Mass., a Berkshires town.

The article asked the town attorney to "draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities."

The article goes on to say the indictments would be the "law of the town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police ... arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro, if they are not duly impeached ..."

Daims had no compunction in comparing Bush and Cheney with one of the most notorious people in history.

"If Hitler were still alive and walked through Brattleboro, I think the local police would arrest him for war crimes," Daims said.

Conservtives Leading the Way Once Again....


Hypocrisy typically is not far off when people like this masquerade as arbiters of what is "safe" for the rest of us to see....

A Utah retailer of family-friendly tapes and DVDs - Hollywood films with the "dirty parts" cut out of them - has been arrested for trading sex with two 14-year-old girls.

Orem police say Flix Club owner Daniel Dean Thompson, 31, and Issac Lifferth, 24, were booked into the Utah County jail on charges of sexual abuse and unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old.

CBS Station KUTV in Salt Lake City reports that the shocking discovery came when a mother found a $20 bill in her daughter’s room last week and questioned her about where the money came from.

The girl confessed that she and a friend had been paid for sexual favors by an older male.

Lifferth was additionally charged with patronizing a prostitute and was also in possession of a prescription drug medication without a prescription.

Thompson's Flix Club was one of several Utah-based video outlets that traded in edited versions of R- and PG-13-rated films, catering to clientele who wanted to watch hit movies without nudity, sex, language or graphic violence.

Such video editing operations came under the gun of Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America.

In a case brought by the DGA, a federal judge ruled in 2006 that editing out material (such as Kate Winslet's bare breasts in "Titanic") violated copyright laws. The decision was against a Utah company called Clean Flicks.

Thompson, who was a franchise operator for Clean Flicks, opened Flix Club last year, similarly trading in edited videos but claiming that such editing was for "educational use."

I suppose he will blame his behavior on poor Kate Winslet at his trial!!