The Cornerstone of Our Country is at Risk of Destruction

By Iron Bard

Special to the Jolly Rogers

The time no longer draws nigh... the time is upon us. The future of our Country teeters on the fulcrum of freedom.

We've been going to Tea Parties, Townhalls, and Council meetings. We've been writing on our blogs and venting our frustrations in blasts of 140 characters or less. We've been calling, writing, faxing our Congress; talking to neighbors, friends, and family. We've been protesting outside media outlets, local, State, and Federal offices. We've been begging for our elected leaders to hear us. And now, one of those leaders has not only heard us but has answered us by opening the door to the House and inviting us to enter. If we don't accept her invitation and cross that threshold we deserve exactly what we will get: an ObamaNation.

Few members of Congress have taken our pleas seriously. We have been called tea baggers, astroturfers, radicals, and extremists. If loving my Country and the freedom she stands for means I am all of those of things then so be it. I wear those epithets proudly.

Our Country is being usurped and unless we take our stand now, she could be irretrievably abducted. Michele Bachmann is right. Speaker Pelosi's Health Care bill is the crown jewel of socialism. Progressives, aka Repressives, have always known that to take over a people it has to be done in the dark of night while they lay sleeping. For too long Americans have slumbered in their freedom. We became an apathetic people not wishing to see the light that was being snuffed out of our Constitution. Pelosi's Health Care bill has little to do with actual health and everything to do with socialism and the corruption it is founded on. And this coming week, our freedom will slip out of our grasp and onto the floor of the House of Representatives if we let it.

We can stop this. But it will take more than phone calls, letter, and faxes. We have to show up on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday, November 5, 2009 and storm thru the hallways of our elected officials. We have to knock them from their self-erected thrones and show them we say what we mean and mean what we say. Unless we heed Rep. Bachmann's call to action then the freedom's we grew up with, the freedoms our fathers, grandfathers, and Founding Fathers fought hard to attain for us will be gone. And unless we heed her call, we deserve what we get.

The time is now. If we put this off because of our responsibilities at home, then we will lose the liberty to attend to those responsibilities. We will no longer be working to provide for our families. We will no longer be striving for our own goals. We will no longer be free to follow the path of self-determination. If we don't heed the call, everything from here on out we will be doing for our government; not our Country... our government- and all the connotations that surround a socialized institution.

This is it. This is our moment in time. This is that point in history for which we will be judged by our children, grandchildren, and all who follow. We can turn this bloodless revolution around and save our country.

I will be joining Rep. Bachmann on the Capitol steps and I will march thru the hallways of Congress. I will also be taking copies of the five pledges for each member of Congress to sign. For those who refuse to sign, I will publish their names and their comments.

I will not let this country's cornerstone - The Constitution - be destroyed by corrupt men and women whose only goal is greed and power over the very people who put them in office. If you don't stand up now, while standing up is still possible, when will you?

Lost optimism

I can’t find my youthful optimism.

I have searched everywhere for the damned thing, but like a new wallet, it is proving nearly impossible to locate.

At first I thought I might have left it at the liberal bookstore which I visit, and not only because I love to irritate them with my concealed carry and my vest with all the military patches, but also because they have a great antiquarian section. It’s also on the other side of town, so I can usually feel like I went on a trip somewhere exotic. I call it liberal because for the longest time, they had every Obama doodad known to man – except for Beck’s dashboard Obama, which was a bummer.

In recent times, however, the liberal bookstore has taken a bit of a turn. They still have some fine old books there, but the cast of the rest of the store is turning decidedly conservative, with pocket copies of the Constitution, Thomas Paine and other lofty texts slowly edging out the creepy Sunstein stuff and other even less-mentionables.

But alas, my youthful optimism wasn’t there, hiding amongst dusty copies of “Dreams of my Father,” “Meet President Obama,” or “Obama: The Historic Journey.” Nor was it anywhere in the bookstore – even snuggling up to the collection of Lord Byron’s best, which was about as far away from Obama’s stuff as you could get.

My youthful optimism wasn’t at the hardware store – much as you might expect, because far too many household repairs and swamp-cooler problems have landed me there, staring up and down the endless aisles looking for some obscure part or another. Nor was the damned thing out in my ’73 Stingray. Now that I’ve finally decided to sell it, my optimism is avoiding it like the boat dear Charon pilots across the River Styx. Figures. They’re both probably made out of fiberglass.

And my television buddy, Beck didn’t have it either – he’s too busy scribbling arcane things on chalkboards, forecasting the end of capitalism, civilization, coitus, cabbages or some such thing beginning with the letter “C.”

I checked the shop out behind my house, but amongst the knife making equipment and steel bits, were only wood shavings and tiny pieces of turquoise and mammoth tusk – all too quiet to drop the dime on the squirrely, scampering optimism. In a brief flash of insight, I asked the English Bulldog, but he just stared up at me with bleary red eyes, face melting into the carpet. Apparently his optimism has gone missing as well.

So now I was looking for two of the damned things, and there was no use asking the parrot. As a refugee from the Amazon, he’s just really cranky. And I checked all the usual places as well – the movie store, the refrigerator, the weight stack – nope, nope and nope.

The junk-food vendors up and down the street are out of the question, because the White House has all those staked out. Can’t go check the smoke shop, because all the real Kooks now probably believe the tobacco has been micro-chipped or laced with swine-flu or bubonic plague or something – and who knows? They might be right. Can’t ask at the gun store, either, because the men-in-black might come around asking questions and inform on me at “Black Helicopter Headquarters.”

The priests won’t be able to find these little optimisms, because they’re too busy warning us about Hell or actually setting up a nice toasty place to move into down there, themselves, when they’re done messing things up on Earth. Can’t find the damned optimism in the sports arenas or inside a bottle – and despite the push to legalize marijuana, I doubt my optimism (or the bulldog’s) would find a comfortable home in a joint.

For a short while I thought maybe the Czars might have a location on the things, after all, they are allegedly managing everything else. But no – they’re not really doing anything but eating out at fancy restaurants and occupying posh offices, so no dice there either. I’d ask Obama himself, but he can’t answer any questions without a teleprompter, so it would be a fairly one-sided conversation – and his buddies Rahm and Gibbs Blob would just lie. Can’t say for sure, but I think if I asked Biden, he’d say something like “Well, if you ask me, ‘Joe, where is my Optimism, I’m going to tell you You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking.’"

No, to be honest, I’m not sure where my youthful optimism has gone – and the bulldog has just gone to sleep and given up on the whole affair.

Where does it go for any of us? What hidden corner? What lofty peak? What stony, inaccessible wilderness trail?

Perhaps it goes nowhere. Perhaps it is like a sand-castle, worn away on the beach of time by unending tides. Yet always the sand remains, to be reconstituted. And always the picture of the castle of optimism lives there in the seashore of our dreams – just out of sight in our mind’s eye.

Waiting for us to build it again. Waiting for us to believe.

God, I hope so.

RAT WATCH

Here’s a new item on the Jolly Rogers – and yes you can participate. I write that now, up front, because when you know what this is, you’ll be so excited, you just won’t be able to stand it.

Yep. It’s finally here… The Jolly Rogers – Rat Watch.

Why can we do this? Why not? There’s so many rodents showing up in the news lately, it’s hard to keep track of them all. And since they run like roaches when the lights are switched on, we here, in the Jolly newsroom have developed a special light based on LRPS (Long Range Personnel Sensor), infra-red technology and the CIA’s former Remote Viewing program.

This allows us to spot the rats at a safe distance. We were originally considering asking Obama to task a Satellite for this purpose, but then he hasn’t answered any of our recent questions, so we figured we’d be out of luck on that one. But if you happen to be at a Latino dance with him, or wandering around some golf course, or trying to help him find his way out of a maze of solar panels or a dark theater in the White House, you can ask him for us.

Rat Watch. Yeah baby.

Today’s nomination – and number one fat rat, is Congressman Alan Grayson, who allegedly represents the 8^th District of Florida. I say allegedly because his recent comments calling an advisor to the Federal Reserve Chairman a “K-Street Whore,” kind of sets him apart in a very distinct kind of “scumbag” category. The comment was made on the Alex Jones radio show. Although he has apologized for this, the guy (who’s website is congressmanwithguts.com), dodges questions by the press, saying that they would need to “make an appointment.” He’ll never make an appointment to talk about this. Nothing will happen.

Why? He’s hiding in his office and he’s just one big, fat rat.

Congressman Alan Grayson – Rat number one.

Oh there’s just so many to choose from. I will be running Rat Watch in the column at right. So, if you have a nominee, send an email to Blackstarfish@cableone.net. We will review your nominee and reasoning for the nomination, then sling their big butt up onto our specialized Fat Rat scale.

Like Monty Python said, if they “weigh the same as a duck,” they’re made of wood, and therefore,

They’re a rat.

Ok. That’s not the conclusion Monty Python came up with, but I’m going to roll with it.

World to end. Sorry.

The Aztek calendar suggests that the last day for mankind is Dec. 24, 2011. There's a little time left, though, and the Mayan calendar gives you an extra year - until Dec. 21, 2012...just enough time to see if Obama will be reelected, I think. There will be a galactic alignment in 2012, also, which we should be able to see if the Aztecs had it wrong. Of course, if it's a biblical ending, we're really in for it - you know; all the trumpeting and pale horses, seals being broken, and dead people coming back to life, walking around, getting judged, etc. On the other hand, if it's a cool scientific ending, half the globe will be fried by a gamma ray burst and everyone else will go out slowly over the next week or two (better buy some sunblock with an spf of 1 million). Then again, we could be hit by an asteroid - we should call up Bruce Willis now and get him ready. Anyway, this handy clock is set to remind you how long you have. Everyone dies, sorry.
Dress warm

*****

Oh, by the way - here's a good end of the world movie - not for the kiddies, though. Definitely adults only. Just in case you need a run-through in preparation, or some ideas for how to spend your last hours, etc. - "Last Night" starring Jessica Booker and Genevieve Bujold. I saw it accidentally one night - late - real late... while the other channels were playing paid advertisements for weight-loss and house-cleaning products.

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Never.

You never leave a man behind.

The last of the 21,000 troops Obama ordered into Afghanistan were still arriving there when General Stanley McChrystal asked Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for 40,000 more. That was in late September.

The request came after McChrystal sent Defense Secretary Robert Gates a war assessment, Aug. 30^th, in which he said more troops and a new strategy are needed. Within days, more British, French and American fatalities picked up – their deaths marked by one terrible thing.

It was the day our top U.S. commander in the region called for back-up and the response was – nothing.

I’ll write it again – in case you missed it. “You never leave a man behind.”

Since the end of August, 94 U.S. troops have died in Operation Enduring Freedom., the war against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. But, that is only the part of the cost in human life. In the same timeframe 136 people in our allies’ military forces, have also died. Who is with our boys and girls over there? The list is actually a long one. It includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. They’ve all lost at least one person, and the UK and Canada have lost hundreds since the operation started.

But our forces have been hit the hardest with 906 out of 1,492 total deaths.

So what does that mean in the scope of things? Consider this in the simplest terms. This is the war Obama said we took our eye off of – the one he said we need to win. This is the war, which was begun following the terrorist attacks on New York in an attempt to destroy Al Quaida’s ability to project terror projects around the globe.

That is the job we undertook. That is the mission we handed to our commanders and troops. But when we use the word “troops,” we don’t have to consider the real toll. Think about what you are doing right now. Maybe you have a coffee in your hand, reading this article, television blaring in the background with erectile dysfunction advertisements, or deep, soothing voices imploring you to save the planet and go “green.”

Meanwhile President Obama is pictured in brief flickers, striding amongst rows of solar panels and later, in front of the tele-prompters, saying, “We are finally getting Afghan policy right.” Just a week ago he was pictured at a Latino dance and more recently playing basketball and golfing. As if the current situation is somehow anywhere near “right.”

And know this. At this very moment, while you sit there with your coffee and your laptop, and the propaganda machines churn out the global warming ads and congressmen stroll through climate-controlled corridors, someone is in a dirty alleyway far away, their mouth tasting of dust, their skin sunburned and chafed. They are focusing on the moment, but always wondering at the back of their mind, if a shot they never even heard, will send a bullet punching through their body and leave them gasping and possibly laying in the dirt, dying. Their death will happen a world away from the sunlit streets they walked when they were children just five or ten years ago – maybe less. Today will be their last – marked not by what they left behind – but instead by all the things they will never do again.

They will never smile or laugh at a joke. They will never hug the child whose very birth they missed. They will never stand in the aisle at the grocery store, go to the bank or buy that dream car or motorcycle they always wanted. They will never again sit in their living room with loved ones on the holidays. They will never be able to talk to their wife or their husband ever again – or if they aren’t married, they will never get the chance to experience the thrill of love and courtship and marriage.

They will die in that alley, a long way away from you. They will die and you never even knew their name. You never spoke to them. You never even knew anything about them. And they never even got that backup they needed so badly - the backup their commander called for desperately. And maybe while you put your coffee down, you should think about that. Maybe someone should ask President Obama to set his incessant campaigning aside for just a moment and think about that – think about it long enough to actually make a damned decision.

Because, you never leave a man behind.

Obama does something good - VA gets advance funding

Some people recognize my handwriting. Some can actually recognize the way I put sentences together.

Some would say I am a mouthpiece for the right. And in that, they would be correct, but not in the way they might think.

I am an old-school print reporter. That’s what I am at the bottom of it all. The first time I smelled the ink of that old offset press in Alamogordo, NM, I was in love with the whole thing. I loved being responsible for the weekend press-check – standing there at midnight and looking over the first batch to make sure there were no egregious errors.

And then the part that I loved – telling the press-men to run it. The building would vibrate as the sound of the massive web rig picked up speed. Catchers would scoop papers and inserters and all the rest of the crew in the back would bind them up and parcel them up and in an hour, it would be all over.

The story was delivered.

And if it was one of my stories, you could expect a couple things. First, it would be done right, it would cut deep but be respectful, it would provide every angle available – and some which could only be explored because the source knew you and trusted you.

I am a mouthpiece for the right – the “right” story, the “right” reasons, the “right” morality and the right people. I have always tried to do as little damage as possible – unless they deserved it. My only bias, near as I can locate, is a penchant for good rum, a little enjoyment found in riding a nice Harley, and a love for 70s model Stingrays.

But I wouldn’t trade for any of the above as payment to do some kind of lap-dog gig for anyone. I’m not sure of my genetic background (yet. I’m working on that), but I am sure that for some odd reason, I feel the need to spit in the general direction of some of these mincing, whimpering show dogs and glorified hairdo’s that read us the evening news off of teleprompters. They disgust me.

And the whole White House / press activities of late make me want to spit. We as a nation deserve better than this. We deserve real leaders and real reporters. Time will show whether we get either thing. But for now, it’s all very sad.

At least, it was until Thursday.

You see, the worst part of reporting is that you have to provide a complete story. Hatchet jobs and cut-n-paste plagiarism have become the norm in the new world of social networking and blogging, which I sadly find myself a part of. But that doesn’t mean you can’t actually provide the real story and do some real work – some real witing. That doesn’t mean the story, which may be out-of-line with your normal fare on your beat, is any less important or deserves any less play.

And so we come to this story – the one I have been waiting so long to write:

This is the point finally, where President Barack Obama actually did something fine and good. There was no hidden motives, no backtracking, no “dithering,” no glossy meaningless teleprompter words. There was nothing to gain politically – not really – and it was a moment which meant a lot to a certain section of the population.

Noticing that the Department of Veterans Affairs, who take care of wounded servicemen and women, is providing care without a Congress-approved budget, he signed into law a measure designed to keep funding for veterans steady – even in the midst of budget negotiations which are sure to become more heated as time goes on.

For the average Joe or Jane out there, this means nothing. But if either Joe or Jane wore the country’s uniform and served in her military and became disabled, the simple action means a lot. Congress has been late in passing a funding package in 20 of the last 23 years. Financial uncertainty has always meant programs could simply be reduced or eliminated and hiring replacement doctors might be put off indefinitely.

Those of us who need the VA to survive (they’ve saved my life at least once - and I will be under their care now for the rest of my life), know the ebb and flow of the tides of care and the way the system’s leadership operates and constantly works to change things for the benefit of the veteran. Most of the 23 million American veterans understand the long lines, slow pharmacy, odd bureaucratic policies and the occasional scheduling issue. But 23 million is a lot of folks to handle, because not only does the veteran generally qualify for health care, but their family members may, in some cases, as well.

Late budgets, which are always behind the curve for the VA, due to Washington’s in-fighting cause “rationing of care.” That can mean psychologists simply are not on hand – or hold meetings with group sessions as opposed to individually with a patient. It can also mean some departments remain low-staffed and so appointments – even important diagnostic tests - take weeks or months to happen.

I have been a patient in the VA system since 1994 and it has been a long, hard slog. But then I was diagnosed with a saddle pulmonary embolism, which is generally fatal within two weeks for most folks. The knowledgeable doctors at the Albuquerque VA and their care of me, is one of the only reasons I am typing this now. It is their work that allowed me to get another shot at my time here on Earth, and I am always grateful for that. But even with top-notch staff and capabilities like these, they are always stretched thin, and they never know how much money they will have to operate their programs next year.

Obama reportedly called this situation “inexcusable and unacceptable.” Then he pulled out a pen and signed the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act into being.

The moment didn’t come easy. Nearly 20 years of constant pressure from veterans’ groups finally produced this result. The bill passed Congress with nearly unanimous support.

I suppose I could hunt down the names of those who did not support it, but why? We have here a single moment – one perfect, clear moment when the administration has done something really good. The only funding bill that did pass on time this year was the one that pays Congressmen their salaries. This new law will at least ensure that next year, vets will get their paychecks at the same time as the nation’s elite.

What a refreshing change of pace. I have just had the opportunity to write something positive.

Keep ‘em coming.

Who can save us all

The world has known darkness and light but it has also known the grey. It is the eternal fog, which is neither right nor wrong. This is the place that seems safe. Neither light nor dark penetrate it easily. But it is also the place where every evil act and every good act can be perpetrated in secrecy.

It is the place of indecision, the place of deception, the home of those who would live only by halves. This place, where the lost and lifeless shuffle mindlessly and the sad husks of creatures once human, wail and moan, is also the place where the purposeful lose their focus and intention.

Where is the future for any of us if we refuse to accept our responsibility for the world around us? Some would claim that responsibility means we need to save the planet from global warming or from a failing economy, or from the lack of medical care or from national identity. Some would claim the opposite – we need to save the world from those who would stand in the way of such things. Others would say we should just stop fighting, bring the troops home and live and let live. “Why,” they ask, “can’t we all just get along?”

Wouldn’t the world be a beautiful place if we could achieve all the things that everyone wanted: silence the stupid or evil, but give everyone a voice; jobs for people involved in current energy concerns while eliminating use of fossil fuels and the embracing of alternative energy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could shut down nuclear power plants, but at the same time, keep the unlimited energy they provide. It would be wonderful to have sanctuaries for polar bears, but at the same time prevent the bloom in the bear population so that we don’t end up as snacks for bears. Couldn’t we celebrate if we could defend the population, but keep inviolate their rights and if we could teach our young safely and efficiently without turning our schools into prisons or political training grounds?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a world where we could sleep peacefully and wake to perform great and honest and pure deeds? Wouldn’t it be great if every individual could understand the motivations and meanings of others and come to agreement free of strife and free of judgment? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world where all our leaders were sage and fair and concerned, honest and consistent? Wouldn’t it be great to trust them?

But there is always the grey. Inside it we fight, inside it, we experience brief moments of clarity when the sun shines bright, and other times when the grey gives way to the deepest, most perfect horror and grief.

But it is choices, which deepen the fog, drop us into the darker pits, or raise us above it all. Who knows the way? Who can make the choices, which will save us or condemn us? Do we turn to Presidents or priests? Do we seek God in the mist? How many sunrises and sunsets need to pass, in which we allow others to decide what is clarity and what is not? How much longer should we give power to those who seek to harm us and steal from us, even our most precious things – our children and their children and their futures?

Because, I know a secret - I know the person who can save us. That person is neither dead or prophetic nor especially popular. You won’t find them in religious texts or carved into monuments or the walls of ancient undiscovered ruins. They are not wealthy or powerful or pillars of anything. They are, however, brilliant, strong, compassionate, brave and honest and their wisdom can outshine the greatest philosopher. They are the only one who can save us all and they unfortunately can only see that truth in brief flickers. They actually don’t even really know they have the answer.

That person – the one who can save us all - is you.

Returning to Iraq

I usually don't do this, but in this case, the article needs to be seen. This is a great program.

Wounded veterans return to Iraq

The hobby that helps me decompress

Want a custom knife like this? I have been making them for a long time, and really can create some beauties. Email me if you like 'em or want 'em. My other knives and custom handbags and boxes are shown on the separate blog, dsadventuregear.blogspot.com.

Live the adventure.

-dave

PATRIOT or enabler (part 1)

How did we get here – and where is “here” exactly?

I am sure there are a lot of people who would dispute what I am about to write, vehemently, but understand while I believe we, as a country, had a need to defend ourselves - and by that course, let slip the real dogs of war – the whole PATRIOT Act thing still made me a bit nervous when it was passed.

That is because, while such powers can always be handed off to government, it is rare, if ever, that governments set them down once they are beyond the immediate threat, which called for them.

Consider Germany’s Reichstag. In 1933, that governing body passed the “Enabling Act,” which followed closely after the Fire Decree (which dissolved civil liberties) and allowed the German Chancellor at the time, plenary powers – that means a power which is granted in absolute terms, with no review or limitations upon its’ use. Such an action also removes the right of all other groups to exercise that power. The new German law was titled “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation.”

The Enabling Act was set to deactivate in April 1937. It did not. Instead, it gave the cabinet legislative power – complete political power – thus departing from the constitution. However, it is true that the debate over the passing of the act continued right up to the day of the vote, March 23, 1933. Intimidation by troops surrounding the meeting and missing government members, which might have opposed the legislation, ensured its’ passage.

The USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law October 26, 2001, and the full acronym means, Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. The powers it provided the government included the ability of law enforcement to search telephone, e-mail, communications, medical, financial and other records without limitation; it allowed for foreign intelligence work in the U.S.; gave the Secretary of the Treasury authority to regulate financial transactions and expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, opening the application of these broad powers up to use within its’ borders and against its’ citizens.

The act’s real strength comes with its’ non-specific nature. Indefinite detentions, searches conducted without home or business owner’s permission or knowledge, use of FBI to search telephone, email and financial records without a court order and other access.

It’s important to note, that without these capabilities, our nation remained in danger from terrorists exploiting these holes in our security, but most of the provisions were to deactivate in December 2005. Instead, supporters pushed to make the provisions permanent. A final bill, basically ensuring these powers would be permanent, became law in 2006.

It is subsequently legal for the U.S. Government to monitor its citizens and there are very few restrictions on that.

But the passage of the PATRIOT act is not really the issue. What is at issue, is the act, as it is combined with greater government control, and other grids deeply entrenched in our government system and crossing over into massive unions and Industrial and educational system concerns.

When Barack Obama ran for the office of President, he repeatedly promised “change we could believe in.” But in fact, while many of the powers adopted under the Bush administration remain in full force and have not been rescinded, they are instead, being added to, by a complex web of Czars. These officials are mostly not vetted by anyone, but have broad, undefined authorities, unlimited funding and no way to keep track of it. The funds in question have been shunted through bank bail-outs and stimulus packages, all applied for and granted under the banner of “emergencies,” and other actions, appointments and legislation – some which are still in the process of being passed. These include the much talked about, Universal Health Care, the multi-face attack on free speech via government propaganda and press outlets willing to become lap-dogs to the White House. But they also include less obvious power grabs which are being accomplished through something as old as mankind itself – the good-‘ol-boy network.

Now you might see the Czars as an extension of that kind of network, and they are, but here on the Jolly Rogers we have identified in previous articles a number of interesting connections. These included connections between Marxist and Communist get-togethers in New York, various Harvard professors and the SEIU. But they also extended through a vast network of educators spanning all grade-levels as well as organizations nearly racially exclusive, operated for the purpose of creating “new leaders,” and artists and writers who have been uncovered in bald-faced indoctrination jobs within our public school system.

But it all gets better when you add in people like Bob Bauer.

And Bob Bauer is the subject of the next story on The Jolly Rogers. See that second part, below.

We need Palin back (part 2)

Where is Palin when you need her?

I suspect if she were President, we wouldn’t be in the ridiculous Socialist mess we are in. And we wouldn’t be employing people like Bob Bauer.

Bob Bauer is married to White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, the individual named by the administration to handle the “War Against Fox News,” and has been the top lawyer for the Democratic National Committee and personal lawyer and chief campaign counsel to President Obama. Now Bauer is slated to become White House Counsel.

Who is Bauer? In addition to being the alleged source of Obama’s decision to forgo general election spending limits, he was chief counsel to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. Bauer was also counsel to Bill Bradley’s failed run for the presidency and is the current chairman of the Political Law Group at the Washington Firm of Perkins Coie LLP.

And of course Perkins Coie is known for the pro bono defense of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, aka Saqr al-Jedawi, Osama Bin Laden’s former chauffeur and good buddy of Nasser Al-Bahri who was linked to the bombing of the American Destroyer U.S.S. Cole. The case, which the law group brought to the Supreme Court: Salim Ahmed Hamdan versus Donald H. Rumsfeld, et al. With charges dropped as unconstitutional, Hamdan was held as an enemy combatant and brought up on new charges July 21, 2008. He was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment, but had already served five. He was cleared of terrorism and conspiracy charges and transferred to Yemen where he was released January 8, 2009.

That isn’t the end of the strange coincidences involving Bauer and Perkins Coie. This law group hasn’t only been involved in backing folks like Hamdan (which set the course for the whole question of Guantanamo Bay detainees, the War on Terror and military commissions versus civil trials, etc.), but they’ve been involved in American politics – deeply.

Perkins Coie is the group responsible for boosting the intensity of one of the most persistent ethics attacks against former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

In an e-mail dated July 14, 2009 Kim Chatman, filed an ethics complaint against Sarah Palin, making the allegation that the governor established a trust fund for the purpose of soliciting donations from members of the public. The original report on this complaint was published in the Anchorage Daily News. Chatman was a co-plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Palin and filed a complaint regarding Palin’s use of per-diem monies. In all, Chatman leveled

The Alaska Personnel Board asked Perkins Coie to review the complaint. Their nine- page report to the Alaska Personnel Board found essentially nothing, but combined with the pressure of 17 other complaints against the Governor and former candidate for Vice President, may have contributed to her finally leaving office. This complaint was number 13 in that long list.

Perkins Coie has offices in Anchorage, Beijing, Bellevue, Boise, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Madison, Melo Park, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai and of course, Washington, D.C.

But it’s the firm’s experience that makes it most interesting. Listed on its’ website are the areas which it excels at. These include Industry, clean-tech, communications, e-commerce, electronic financial services, energy, energy commercial transactions and project finance, energy litigation, energy project permitting and development, energy regulations and policy, forest products, franchising and distribution, hotels and leisure, interactive entertainment, life sciences, mining, renewable energy, retail and consumer products, semiconductor, senior housing and winery and vineyard.

So, knowing that, we can understand why there is an office in Anchorage, Alaska, and we could understand in a basic sense why the Personnel Board may have asked that firm to review the complaint and offer their opinion – after all, they have a big office there in Anchorage. But isn’t it strange coincidence that the very firm they ask to offer a review is so deeply involved in alternative energy concerns, and has made such a big mark by going up against Donald Rumsfeld, allowing a scumbag like Hamdan to walk – and in that single stroke, producing the firestorm of legal problems that Guantanamo creates. One might just have to wonder who is benefiting from this? More lawyers? And who benefits from the quick passage of Health Care Reform without addressing tort reform?

More lawyers.

And who benefits from taking Sarah Palin out of the game – people like Bauer and people like Obama – more lawyers. Why Perkins Coie? What do they have to gain? Well, they’re not just lovers of Guantanamo detainees. Perrkins Coie is connected to Boeing, Google, Nintendo, Microsoft, Craigslist, AT&T, Western Urban Water Coalition, Dragonslayers (wildfire mitigators) and something called America Votes.

America Votes claims to be the largest grassroots voter mobilization effort in the country. Its’ website has the following on the home page: “America Votes is the centerpiece of a permanent progressive campaign infrastructure nationally and in the states. America Votes and our coalition partners, coordinate independent electoral activity, share innovative strategies and resources, maximize electoral impact and build lasting capacity.

If you’re unsure what that really means, you can get a better explanation from the column on the right of the page. The organization, which is connected to Perkins Coie, is designed to improve “progressives’ ability to succeed in the long term.” The site explains that this effort “is directly linked to the work we do today to build the infrastructure in the states.”

The question I have is “what is the real infrastructure being built and how much of this really has the specific aims of destroying the country regardless of who gets in the way?” And the more obvious this becomes – the more of this structure is uncovered, the faster everything will change. And it won’t be Obama’s “change.” All that will be finished.

Because I think they counted Sarah Palin out too early. She’ll be coming back swinging along with an enraged public.

And so will we all. So say we all.

We're coming for you - every last one.

Robert Bauer /Bin Laden/Palin connection more to come

Breaking: full details to come on SOCN and Jolly Rogers

As Glenn Beck reported on Fox yesterday Robert F. Bauer, Anita Dunn’s husband, has been offered the position of Chief White House Counsel. What hasn’t been reported is that the firm, of which he is a partner; Perkins-Coie, not only is defending Osama Bin Laden’s driver but is also responsible for the reviewing and writing recommendations for the ethics complaints filed against Sarah Palin’s Alaska Defense Fund. .

More details and analysis are forthcoming

Internet / society's death may be linked

The internet may soon be damaged beyond repair - or maybe it's us.

If the government gets its way, the equivalent of a “public health care option” will be forced upon us all who live part of our lives in the ether. The realities of that action can’t be adequately gauged.

But I’ve often wondered about the internet. I see it much as I do nuclear science, which has given us clean energy and incredible advances in medicine, but has also given us the incredible threat of the ultimate bomb. We live in the shadows of all these things and I can’t help but wonder what would be better – to know the secrets of the stars themselves, or to stare up at them in wonder as any forest creature and craft our own complicated legends – our own new way of understanding God?

In the case of the net, we face an unprecedented access to communication, information and, of course the opposite of both of those – a new kind of attack and a more refined version of disinformation, lies so insidious they worm their way inside where they can no longer be discerned as separate from our own beliefs.. But where is the wisdom, and where is the enlightenment such fantastic knowledge should provide?

We witness the first major use of a tool like this in politics and a relatively unknown candidate – Obama, is elected. We witness the use of it by a dissatisfied population in Iran, and major unrest is broadcast across the world in real-time. That country could have thrown off the yoke of oppression, which has been settled on them with religious fervor, but for a little more outside support, a little more organization and a little more preparation. Now, their government has found ways to put a stranglehold on such technology.

These are recent experiences, which most people today should be able to relate to.

But what about the future?

The use of the internet to organize massive protests against the government’s impending policies hasn’t gone un-noticed by the Chicago-style administration recently being called more corrupt than that of Nixon’s time. Of course, they used the social networking of the internet and the free access to the very living-rooms, bedrooms and basements of regular citizens, to their benefit in the election, so they know its’ power and must seek to control it, or it will be their undoing as well. The net was used effectively to harry Governor Sarah Palin until she had no choice but to take a path more difficult to follow. I believe she will be back from an unexpected direction when the clock strikes the right hour.

But our stuttering officials fail to understand another truth of the information age – there are no limits. Where there are limits artificially imposed, there will be many who will seek to find ways around them. And a jilted, dissatisfied public means that those developing “work-arounds,” to government cyber-controls, won’t simply be basement schmucks. But may be former government-trained and blooded individuals with cutting-edge capabilities – or even some grandmother with a home to herself and nothing but time on her hands to re-educate herself on the infitinite access even government-monitored systems provide.

Oddly, info-tech follows the same model as a narcotic. People are altered by its’ introduction – a recent study confirms that brain activity is actually affected by use of the net and can even be seen as being addictive. Also similar to a new narcotic, the net has no rules applied to it; until the government sees a way to profit by instituting control. And as soon as “control” becomes the word on the streets, the narcotic goes underground where it finds a whole new brand of people willing to learn to use and deal in its’ wares.

And there could be no more suitable environment than this one, to bring that kind of legislation into being. Budget-starved and not opposed to cannibalizing the public to get the revenue it is so hungry for, the zombies shuffling through our White House and Congress will gladly latch onto anything which will quell the rising tide of dissent and potentially generate more power, money and control for the elite. The internet sits like a fat, ripe bucket of slop. Perfect for zombies or swine – and our government officials are today, resembling either thing - in deeds and noises and movement.

So what will the world look like tomorrow? My simple opinion hardly meets the requirements for even the weakest prognostication, but I would offer this piece of science fiction for your horror, no doubt. All of what I am about to tell you will come to pass if certain unknowable outcomes for certain knowable items and situations, take the worst possible course.

So here it is. It's bad, but it's also a wide extrapolation with all kinds of conspiracy theories thrown in. So if you are weak in spirit or reading it to your kids, stop now:

We will soon wake every morning to homes with identical televisions – all synced to government approved and controlled stations – much like the PBS channel – or the British BBC – or some of the channels allowed in countries which are primarily Muslim. Nothing from those sets will be believed by most of the public, but the unending state-run media will be designed with subjugation in mind and so subliminal messaging will likely be liberally interwoven in what we are seeing. It will be impossible to avoid the constant saturation of messages coming at us through these sets, the new radios and all the state-run, state-funded and state-influenced printed magazines and newspapers. Drinking water and bottled drinks will be spiked as well with "mood enhancers."

A few free channels, possibly operating on old sets with spotty air-wave vacuum tube technology may be available, but owning or operating them will mean jail-time or worse – a one way trip to the interment camps – if caught. The programming coming through those will be real revolutionary stuff. It will be brief – televised at specific hours and watched in small, stuffy hidden rooms.

A trip to the grocery store will be difficult, because those making the trips will have to weigh the insane cost of fuel against the equally high-priced groceries. They will also need a government chip imbedded and working for the scanner to read. Without that, they'll even have to get their food from the underground. Most likely, they will simply elect to take a couple back-packs to the store on a back-road route, that day, or push a stolen metal cart down the main road, hoping to keep from running into the predators and groups of dumb yobs who have plenty of gas, vehicles and weapons – and whom the police seem to turn a blind eye towards.

Christian holidays may be allowed in the home, but no outside demonstration or decoration of property will be allowed. Also flying flags or putting stickers on windows will be unlawful. Those who do these things, will be cited. “Minority” celebrations will see less resistance, however, and will be welcomed into public and private spaces with greater regularity as long as they do not offend the government, which will be adopting a more complete policy of religious replacement or outright atheism because you cannot have a God if you are trying to put forward a government which embodies supreme authority. Such a government must kill God. Eventually, all religious groups will feel the weight of this kind of legislation. Churches will be converted into government buildings, or razed.

Elections will be held – but their outcome meaningless – just like in third-world countries today. Our leaders will have eliminated term limits, so the elections will be fewer anyway.

Technology will be severely hobbled by the government until the underground begins to adapt new military hardware which is actually currently in field trials to help ground teams communicate with each other. This hardware will allow you to wear headsets or implants which will literally connect you 24-hours a day into the net. WireHeads who assimilate this new technology (in the next 10-years or so) will be able to operate seamlessly within the ether. They will be like a kind of new performing artist and they will give a whole new meaning to “surfing the net.”

The government, fresh out of its surrender in the War on Drugs, will be unable to keep up with the massive policing workload, which will hit when both the WireHead technology and the more common drug world – now long-since legalized – mix in an unprecedented way. The crushing weight of addiction will be inescapable for these immersive experiences and many will die simply while plugged in (victims of starvation or dehydration while inside their sim-world) – others, trying to live in reality and keep their families together will need to be tech-savy as well as government savy and gun savy, just to protect their own family. But you will need a permit to have a child. Those who produce without permit will face forced sterilizations put in place by some old government functionary named Sunstein, years ago.

Business – unless it is within the government, will be nearly non-existent in the legal sense. Instead, to avoid the killing weight of taxes, families will pull tighter together in larger units to include extended families. Several generations will live once again under a single roof. The specialties of all, will be called upon to make life bearable as most goods are purchased in the new black-market, and the education system – which had been responsible for teaching the young - has all but collapsed in most places. Luxuries will be nearly eliminated. It will be luxurious to have just one or two treasured things – carefully hidden - where the regular “break-in crews” cant find them.

Medicine will also go underground as the new addictions threaten even the tenuous social order, which by now is tattered beyond recognition. Doctors will become very important as new and old diseases come into play again. Even a simple infection will be deadly because on the market, the medicine may or may not be available. Universal Health Care, while passed years ago, soon devolved into a frozen piece of government gearing. A visit to any emergency room now means you’re likely to come away with a worse sickness after spending more than a day in lines waiting for care. In this respect, the more remote communities will be luckier because they will have a small chance of getting a traveling family doctor to show up on their doorstep. The rural communities stand a chance in this world, but the cities are devolving even more rapidly, and if they have not yet burned due to human acts or simply the lack of humans to maintain a complex infrastructure, they are the worst places to be on Earth right now. Life and death comes cheap to those who once had a purpose in these grey environs.

In this world, people at the bottom of society have begun selling body-parts and babies to the rich who are only too happy to have them. These items can mean longer lives for the wealthy and powerful – the one thing they still can’t control their own mortality.

The collapsed dollar will have given rise to a plethora of different currencies, but the average Joe or Jane will need to know the denominations for each and the daily exchange rate. They’ll need to be able to trust who they are dealing with, and they’ll need to watch their back, in the now very-dangerous streets. Homes will become more like fortresses and even young children will be trained in the use of dangerous protective equipment.

Emergency services in this world will work only a small percentage of the time – and then only with stiff bribes. What will happen to the unfortunate when they arrive at the hospital, however, will not be pretty. They will lay on blood soaked gurneys for hours with empty IV bags and parched lips and pain. But there won’t be a doctor around until morning and pain killers are in high-demand. If they are lucky, their family members may be able to get to the hospital and smuggle in some street drugs, food, liquid and bandages to keep them alive until they are seen the next day, still lying in the dried blood, half covered and cold in the same hallway where they were discarded the night before.

Still, the internet will be there – shunted through WireHead implants or for the technologically poor, across the government infected dirty laptop, now cobbled together from various parts which are spread across the warped piece of plywood your family uses for a desk.

The net is not the free-zone of ideas or data like your father told you about when he was alive - along with all those other ridiculous things which could never have been real – could they?

Could there really have been a time where people drove nice cars and wore nice clothes wherever they liked and never had to stop to show their papers to a government Youth Brigade officer? Could there really have been a time where you could go into a store and buy all manner of things – wandering for hours and even getting lost and distracted, there were so many fine, clean, safe goods on the shelves?

Could there really have been a time when almost everyone could get a good-paying job if they wanted it – and didn’t have to worry about union violence or the local WireHead gangs, or the bribes needed just to get through the day?

Could there really have been a time when dinner was more than what could be scraped from last-nights cans and the odd, sickly coyote you might be able to bag, limping in the desert on the long walk home? Could there have been a time when you didn’t need to carry a couple weapons wherever you went?

Could there really have been a time when people could say anything without being beaten or dragged off to the camps?

Was there a day when the word, “Freedom ,” didn’t have to be said under your breath? Was there ever a hilltop shining city called America? It sounds impossible - like Heaven (another word you have to be increasingly careful about using).

Your grandfather said he "knew this place" - that he finally recognized the remains of our republic. He gripped your hand as he died in that horrible hospital that morning and, eyes-wide, told you the truth about the country where you live.

"This is Somalia," he said. "We've finally managed to turn it into Somalia."

He died then, and you know you have no choice but to leave his body for the government "harvesters." Odd how quick they are to show up and dismember a body, seal all the usable parts away in cold storage so quickly, yet not a single doctor could be found when you really needed one to save his life. The "Death-details" are also johnny-on-the-spot, delivering consultations aimed at convincing the terminally ill to "donate" while some parts are still "fresh." There's a better chance of avoiding rejection that way, in the recipient, according to the government ads.

You let go of his hand and it falls limply to the side of the gurney. As an afterthought, you pull the worn, inadequate sheet up so that it covers his face - but it only serves to leave his bony, blue tinged feet sticking out instead. Murmurs at the back of your mind tug at your consciousness. The new WireHead plug you had installed is itchy and distracting and it's giving you a headache, but you feel much more placid and relaxed since you had the back-alley job done. It was government-subsidized, so why not?

You stare at the old man's hand before turning away for the last time.

You ask yourself, "Were we ever really alive and were we ever really free?" Inside your head, the imbedded search engine comes up with 967,324 hits.

You try not to focus on any of them.

Vision

Eye exams are funny things.

I had my eyes checked today and when asked by the doc what letters I could see on the board, I had to tell him that what was visible to me was a very big white blob.

It got me thinking about the administration’s spokesman Robert Gibbs – and not just because I see him as a white blob. But look, if you’re going to attack the most successful media concern on the planet, but you can’t carry out assassinations or use smart bombs or Predator Drones without drawing too much attention to yourself, it’s probably a good idea to keep your head.

But the administration hasn’t been doing that – at least not outwardly. This begs the question, “why?”

So here’s my take on it as a former trainee at the Defense Information School.

I have said before that the administration appears from my perspective to be afraid – from Nancy Pelosi’s tears to the marginalizing of massive sections of society, to the duck and cover antics of our Congressmen, they have been telegraphing fear like a castrated midget in a cage fight.

"Gibbs blob" and friends have been conducting themselves like school-children, but like any recess bully, they are a bit too vociferous to suggest real guts. Instead, they are the kind of bullies that hide behind their bluster until they are called out, then they aren’t so tough.

Given that light, the present attack on Fox has an interesting air about it. It smacks of a final escalation or a desperate roll of the dice. Here’s some possible motivations approaching it from a trained PR perspective:

1. * By naming Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, the administration is hopeful one of the two guys will get canned for the obvious bribe of returned access to the goodies – namely White House participation.

2. * By getting even one of these guys canned, the administration can claim victory of a sort and put the fear of God into all the other news reporters in big media. Sort of the same way the nation put the fear of retribution into the hearts of the Czars and Congressmen by using the bug-zapper on everyone’s favorite Communist, Van Jones.

3. * Also by getting even the perception that they contributed to the firing of one of these guys, the administration gets an added benefit. All the followers of that canned host will be up-in-arms and depart Fox en-masse. The results would be catastrophic to Fox.

4. * Failing getting either guy fired – and instead getting more resistance from Fox - the administration can justify harsher treatment of the network and by continuing to demonize them, can justify even removing their people from White House access to events. Which means no immediate news – and that can be the kiss of death in a 24-hour news cycle, because you’re getting scooped all the time.

5. * Continuing to demonize the network can eventually lead to removing their rights piece by piece. They may eventually be able to claim a negative effect on national security by basically calling these broadcasters “rabble-rousers” of a kind. With the powers of the government unchanged since directly following Sept. 11, 2001, this may mean that the government has a wide range of tactics and resources they can bring to bear on “instigators.”

6. * Of course, if Fox folds, the administration wins the lottery. Control of the media – complete control – is necessary to any good dictatorship. You can’t have “Big Brother” if he doesn’t have speech control – and in the end, “thought control.”

7. * Distraction is useful. If you do outrageous things, the majority of the people will engage in that discussion. The result - programs like health care, and other goodies get slipped by without much ado.

8. * Distraction takes our eyes off the indecision, which is placing our troops in greater and greater jeopardy. Basically Obama can continue his vacations and Latin dances and ice-cream runs to New York while our boys and girls give their lives half a world away.

9. * Lastly, attack on a news organization like Fox creates such a storm of poop that eyes come off all international policy, and people simply forget where our soldiers and allies are. Just consider what a Nuclear Iran will do when bracketed by two major U.S. military operations. Set aside Israel for a moment - one nuke dropped in-theater with our troops means a huge loss of American lives and the start of WWIII.

So how do we get a massive force like Fox to fold if we are an aspiring “big brother.” You have to look at tactics these folks have used up until now, ie. Midnight runs pushing policy through while no one is watching, glad-handing scumbags like Acorn, and funding big organizations full with their buddies. Basically, the current administration is good at Chicago mob tactics.

In addition, trillions are being spent and there is no oversight. Where is the money going? I believe a large portion of the money is getting into places where funding these kinds of assaults on civilian organizations is not only possible, but moving forward in full force.

So, if you have all the money in the world, all the police and military power in the world, control of health care (ie. Life and death) of the regular people, control over what people eat and drink and how they live their lives, and lastly, control of the media – what’s the next step? I can’t help but think of my eye exam.

Eye exams are funny because we put so much stock in the things we see – basically our perceptions suggest what the world really is about. Perception makes us look at the world around us and see things as they are – or as our particular type of vision deficiency suggests.

But if you look at history and if you follow the path of other dictators, the next step is eliminating term limits and limiting religion.

Then you are king.