Barack Obama Disappoints

No, I'm not crazy about Mr. Wonderful and I don't care if everyone else has fallen under his spell. No, I don't care if he runs for president or not. He has proven himself to be no better than other Democrats, so I see no reason for the hyperventilation. Anyone promoted by right wing columnist David Brooks is no friend of mine.

My lack of love for Barack Obama is a result of both my cynicism in general and his failure to do what any Democrat ought to do. Support for Ned Lamont in his Connecticut Senate race should be a litmus test for all Democrats and the celebrity of the moment has failed that test.

In August Connecticut Democrats made their feelings clear. They were sick of Joe Lieberman and gave him the back of their hands as soon as they had someone else to vote for. Lieberman felt entitled to hold onto his seat and decided to run as an independent. His biggest supporters are Republicans, so the independent label is a very sick joke.

Obama endorsed Lieberman before the primary and made a public appearance with the rat bastard to make good on his endorsement. He was shrewd enough to support Lamont after the primary but has avoided being seen in public with him. Hillary Clinton has done the same thing. She loaned Lamont her fund raiser and has met with him privately, but it was Lieberman who got Clinton face time and a photo op.

Senator celeb is criss crossing the country raising money for Democrats and promoting his book. Yet he can't seem to find his way to Connecticut and Ned Lamont, the party nominee in that state. Maybe he has a one visit per state rule.

Lieberman may well help the GOP retain Senate control. He may take a job with the Bush administration and let the Republican governor choose a successor. Or he may just switch teams and hand the Senate over to the Republicans.

If that happens Obama lovers must then ask their idol and other Democrats some hard questions. Where were you when Dems needed you?

It isn't really hard to figure out. Obama is playing it safe. Whether he wants to run for president or settle for veep with Hillary, he has to loe the line. If he has to toe the line, why get excited about him? Clintonian triangulation in black face is no cause for celebration.

Forget 9/11

Here we go again with candlelight, bag pipes, poems, and George and Laura. It can only mean one thing. It is September 11th.

I hate the way September 11th is remembered. It is the day of the year when Americans are most encouraged to stay in their bubble of ignorance about the rest of the world and think that their suffering is more significant than anyone else's.

The Americans who died on September 11, 2006 are not more worthy of mourning than the thousands of Iraqis killed by U.S. government terror. If we are going to engage in this display of grief every year, we should at least include memorials to other people.

How many Afghans were killed so that the U.S. could "save" their country? How many Iraqis? Let us acknowledge that governments sponsor terror every time they drop bombs. We should also acknowledge that other families mourn their dead. Iraqi families don't cry more than American families do. Dead is dead. Death by violence is always terrible. We might spend time remembering the Americans killed by random violence.

Are their families ever made whole? How do they spend the anniversaries of their loved one's death? What can we learn about the universality of human suffering if we think of them too?

September 11th should be a day of mourning for the families and friends of those who perished that awful day. It is their thoughts and feelings that count the most. Do they really want to publicly grieve? Anniversaries of deaths are hard enough, how does it feel to be constantly reminded of one's pain? I wish someone would ask them, all of them, and not just the self-appointed few we see most often who are said to represent 3,000 people.

So let us remember the victims of terror, all the victims, all over the world.

Krikey!

Has it been more than a month since I last posted? Yes it has. Let's see, what has transpired? Photos of celebrity spawn fetch millions, Joe Lieberman thinks he has a God given right to his Senate seat, the Katrina anniversary has come and gone with half of New Orleans population still displaced, al-Qaeda has more #2s than a toilet seat, and Katie Couric began receiving her $25 million salary for reading the news. Her debut included showing said photos of celebrity spawn, but that's not all. A man who made a name for himself by getting way too close to wild animals finally died because of his actions. His homeland must have a serious inferiority complex because their government offered a state funeral for a man who died for lack of common sense.

More tomorrow, just wanted you to know I am still here.

CNN Keeps Americans Stupid

I wish the American media could be tried for war crimes. I don't exaggerate. They have wilfully kept Americans in a bubble of ignorance about the rest of the world. Even those of us who are dedicated to speaking truth to the powerful are hamstrung by the need to constantly seek out reliable news sources.

Take CNN, please. In this link you can see that CNN international will take an Israeli government spokesperson to task for its lies about the bombing at Qana which killed dozens of civilians. Americans got an edited version that gave Israel the last word and thus the benefit of the doubt.

Mel Gibson

"What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?"- drunk Mel Gibson to female cop

Mel, Mel, Mel. It is better to be thought an anti-Semite and a lout than to open your mouth and prove it. When I read that Mel Gibson was arrested for DUI in Malibu, California I didn't think twice about it. Drunk celebrity arrests seem to take place every day. Boring!

Well, Gibson's arrest has proven to be far from ordinary. It seems that not only was the actor/director wasted out of his mind, but he blamed Jews for "all the wars in the world." When I first saw a headline about his rantings I thought it must have been April Fools Day.

I wrote about The Passion of the Christ back on March 2, 2004. At the time, the film directed by Gibson was a box office hit and the cause of a controversy that lasted for months. Most of the controversy was the result of Jewish complaints of anti-Semitism in the film.

I thought that Gibson made the Jewish religious leadership greater villains than Pilate, but so it was in the gospels. I also felt that Christians received a bum rap, considered incapable of seeing this film without starting pogroms at the local multiplex.

Christians were as annoying as some of their Jewish brethren, treating Gibson as if he were their church pastor. There was nothing in the movie that Christians didn't know, yet the movie was treated as divine revelation.

Gibson sucked up to the Christian and political right to market his movie. He certainly needed the political muscle because his father's history as a holocaust denier certainly didn't help him.

I was willing to give Gibson fils the benefit of the doubt about his own beliefs. He couldn't very well publicly condemn his own father. Well, I should have followed my own dictum and been cynical about him.

He apologized for his behavior and the comments made during his arrest. He admitted to being an alcoholic.

"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said."
One can only hope.

Bring on Armageddon!

I am not making this up. You are not reading the Onion. You are not reading a transcript from Saturday Night Live. This interchange actually took place on Good Morning America between Robin Roberts and Tim LaHaye.

ROBERTS: As my mom often says, you better get right -- better get right in these times that we're living in.
LaHAYE: Amen.
ROBERTS: You see what's going on: the bombing in Haifa and Israel, and it's so close to the valley of Armageddon. And when you think about that and people see this and think about -- is it indeed Armageddon?
JENKINS: Well, we feel Armageddon comes later.

Too bad. When Armageddon comes we'll be rid of Good Morning America.

George Bush, Sex Harasser

"In other words, he is indeed That Guy, like the best man at the wedding party, the one standing out in the center of the room, casually and cluelessly telling off-color jokes that offend everyone but which he thinks are gul-dang hilarious and, hell, if you're offended then you're just some gul-dang hippie liberal. Haw." Mark Morford

That G8 meeting certainly created a hostile work environment for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. See for yourself.

I feel your pain Angela, Bush creeps me out too. A leader of one of the world's most powerful nations was treated like a secretary working for a moronic, sexist, clueless boss.

The scary thing is that Bush thinks he is just swell, as Mark Morford points out.

Israeli Genocide of Palestinians

The Death March, as the Palestinians call it, along with the massacre at Deir Yassin, represent two of the central traumas that form the Palestinian catastrophe. Countless thousands fled from their villages, many because of "whispering campaigns" by Israeli military intelligence agents, which, following Deir Yassin, were designed to spark Arab fears of another massacre. Tens of thousands more were driven from their homes by force.
The Palestinian Catastrophe, Then and Now

Did you know that the Israelis sent thousands of Arab men, women and children on a death march through the desert? Don't be ashamed, I didn't know about it either. Read the above link and then weep.

Father Michael Jude Fay is Gay

"Jude was always chasing after him."

Today's New York Times has an article about a Catholic priest who was fired from his Connecticut parish for stealing money. Father Michael Jude Fay had highlights in his hair, directed musical productions, and owned property with a male friend.

In other words, he was gay. The New York Times seems to be coy about saying so, however. I copied the article below. (You will have to pay for it if you look it up on the Times site.) Decide for yourself about Fay, and why the Times won't state the obvious.


July 9, 2006
Before the Downfall of a Priest, a Fondness for the Good Life
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
DARIEN, Conn., July 8 — The Rev. Michael Jude Fay had his hair highlighted each spring at a local salon at prices of $85 or more, his hairdresser said. His vacation getaway was an ocean-view condominium in Florida that he owned with a close friend from Philadelphia. And he repeatedly spent thousands of dollars on luggage, jewelry and designer clothes, even though his salary was a modest $28,000 a year.

To many of his parishioners at St. John Roman Catholic Church in Darien, Father Fay's lavish ways came as a shock nearly two months ago when the Diocese of Bridgeport demanded his resignation because of questions about his suitability for the priesthood, his lifestyle and his financial stewardship of the church.

To those parishioners, he was the dutiful son of a New Jersey police officer and an advocate for the poor in wealthy Fairfield County. At times aloof, he was also sensitive in dealing with grief-stricken parishioners and showed flair in producing Broadway-style plays with local talent.
"People loved him," said Richard Manegio, a Darien businessman whose ex-wife relied on Father Fay when she was battling cancer.

But a handful of parishioners, current and former employees and local merchants had nursed suspicions for years about the longtime pastor. In interviews, they — and investigators, lawyers and church officials who came into the case more recently — said Father Fay's taste for the gilded life seemed to have spun out of control in recent years.

"He was the most high-class priest I've ever seen," said Frank Colandro, the owner of a deli across the street from the church, mentioning Father Fay's expensive-looking shoes and watches. And the more Father Fay spent, his critics say, the more autocratic and secretive he became about the church's finances.
Parishioners say there were warning signs about his spending, such as a black-tie bash he threw for himself at the Pierre Hotel, one of the premier hotels in Manhattan, in May 2003 to commemorate his 25th anniversary in the priesthood. But the Bridgeport Diocese did not pressure him to step aside until this year, after private investigators hired by the parish's bookkeeper and associate pastor documented at least $200,000 in questionable spending by Father Fay.

Now, F.B.I. agents are investigating his case, and parish officials have been passing the plate at services with extra pleas for offerings to ease the parish's debt load. The diocese, which violated its own policy by not auditing the parish's finances for more than five years, has said it will not comment on Father Fay until its own investigation is done.

Father Fay has not commented publicly, nor have the two lawyers who have told investigators they represent him. Attempts to obtain a comment from Father Fay were unsuccessful. His 85-year-old mother, Mildred Fay, said in a brief interview, "He's a wonderful person, and he's been wrongly accused."

Even people who thought they knew him well now say Father Fay, 55, has become a riddle to them. "This is a shock," said Ken Bruno, a building inspector in Palisades Park, N.J., whose children were confirmed by Father Fay about eight years ago. "I'm still trying to make sense of it."

Father Fay's story begins in Palisades Park, a tight-knit, working-class town that barely covers one square mile. His father, Martin Terrance Fay, was a co-captain of the football team at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, N.J., just as a new assistant coach, Vince Lombardi, was taking the team to new heights.
Martin Fay served in the Marine Corps during World War II and played minor-league football briefly until an injury sidelined him. Joining the Palisades Park police force in 1946, he ultimately became its chief. And when he died 10 years ago, the borough mourned, according to Frank A. Patti, a mortician who doubled until recently as the town historian. Father Fay "comes from good stock," Mr. Patti said.
Michael James Fay, the third of the Fays' five children, attended the local parish school, was active in Catholic youth organizations and appeared in a school play.

None of Father Fay's siblings responded to requests for interviews. After a stint at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., he earned a degree from St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore in 1977, adopted the middle name Jude and earned a Master of Arts degree in 1986 from Manhattan College, according to school records.
After being ordained in 1978, he worked as parochial vicar at some of Connecticut's most prosperous parishes, including St. Paul in Greenwich and St. Aloysius in New Canaan.

In 1991, he was put in charge of another wealthy parish, St. John, Darien's oldest Roman Catholic church. Parishioners say he urged them to show compassion to the needy, and they obliged by putting $10,000 or more a week into the church's collection baskets.

Parishioners also appreciated the spirited theatrical productions he helped direct at the church, including "Nunsense," "Guys and Dolls" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Starting in 2000, Father Fay's star seemed to rise. Sacred Heart University honored him for community service in 2002, and the Bridgeport Diocese appointed him to a sexual misconduct review board that year.

For all his outward success, it was evident that Father Fay had an appetite for little luxuries, such as the blond highlights his Darien hairdresser said he put in his hair. A small bridal shower he threw for a Sunday school teacher had a three-piece combo and jaw-dropping flower arrangements, a person who attended said.
Parishioners said he spent thousands of dollars sprucing up the church and expanding the house where the priests lived. When one parent questioned the cost of a tapestry, Father Fay cut her off by saying, "What makes you think it wasn't a gift?" said Regina Damanti, a parishioner who heard the exchange.

Investigators say that friends and family of Father Fay seemed to receive special privileges or favors from the parish. For instance, the church paid last fall to fly another priest from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Father Fay owns a condominium, parish records show.

Father Fay also asked the church's caretaker to paint his mother's home in New Jersey and to repair the bungalow he once owned in western Connecticut, on church time, the investigators said.
Ellen Patafio, who was the parish's secretary from November 2004 until she quit in February, said Father Fay "really changed a lot over the time I worked there."

Parishioners would call the office, wanting to discuss their problems with the priest, she said, and "every time Jude would get on the phone, he'd roll his eyes." Over time, she and others said, they noticed that he left more of the pastoral work to his parochial vicar, the Rev. Michael J. Madden.

Father Fay learned he had prostate cancer, but Ms. Patafio and other parishioners said he cited problems from the cancer to avoid duties he disliked. He called it playing his "cancer card," they said.
Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport told a recent gathering of parishioners that he may have given Father Fay latitude because he assumed the priest was in dire health. The severity of Father Fay's cancer problems is not known.

Father Fay did not relinquish his tight control over the church's finances, however, according to accounts provided by Ms. Patafio; the church's bookkeeper, Bethany D'Erario; her lawyer, Mickey Sherman; and the investigators she and Father Madden hired in May to look into possible improprieties at the church.
Father Fay typically kept donations to the church in his desk drawer instead of promptly depositing them in the church's bank account, making it difficult to track how the funds were used, said Vito Colucci Jr., one of the investigators hired by Father Madden.

In recent years, Father Fay also picked the members of the church's lay boards rather than let parishioners cast ballots, as they once did. None of the members of the parish's finance council returned calls seeking comment.

At least one member of the finance council, William Besgen, attended the black-tie event that Father Fay had at the Pierre Hotel in 2003, according to a seating list and Mr. Besgen's lawyer. In the spring of 2005, Father Fay and his friend from Philadelphia, Cliff Fantini, a wedding consultant, jointly bought a $449,100 condo in Fort Lauderdale, property records show. Furnishings and monthly cable bills were charged to the parish, church records show.

The two men are also listed as tenants of a luxury apartment on East 63rd Street in Manhattan, the building's staff said. Mr. Fantini, known professionally as Cliff Martell, also stayed at the rectory for extended periods, Ms. Patafio said. Ms. Patafio said Father Fay showered gifts, meals and trips on Mr. Fantini. "Jude was always chasing after him," she said. Mr. Fantini did not respond to multiple messages left at his home.

In April, the bookkeeper and Father Madden took their concerns to the diocese. Father Fay appeared before the bishop on May 9 to respond to the allegations but left without being relieved of his duties. Frustrated, the bookkeeper and Father Madden asked Mr. Colucci and Wendy Kleinknecht, another investigator, to review records the bookkeeper had copied. On May 17, the investigators took their findings to the Darien police. The bishop asked Father Fay to resign and to leave the premises that same day.

Parishioners say they have not seen him since, although his sister Kathleen showed up recently to retrieve his personal belongings, including a cabinet full of Waterford crystal he left behind.

Alain Delaquérière and Nate Schweber contributed reporting for this article.

Chat Room Terror

First there were terrorists in Miami who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower. OK, they hadn't been to Chicago, they had no explosives, and the only witness against them is a government informant.

Now we have terrorists plotting to blow up either the Holland Tunnel or a PATH train tunnel, no one is sure, but a big deal is being made out of it anyway. The would be terrorists were caught because they hatched their top secret plot in an internet chat room. None of the men had ever met one another, and all were captured abroad.

Here we go again. It is just 4 months before the elections and we are all being scared to help the Republicans stay in power. We haven't had any terror alerts since the last election. What a coincidence. Those terrorists certainly know when to scare us.

Ken Lay Checks Out

Ken Lay died of a heart attack yesterday. Life is hard enough, so don't swindle thousands of people, the state of California, the state of Rhode Island and the state of Connecticut. You may get caught, get convicted and start worrying. Stress is a killer you know.

Bush Homie Commits Rape and Murder

". . . conspired to rape a woman, and instructed SOI1 to monitor the radio while they went to the house . . ."
United States v. Steven D. Green

Steven D. Green is from George Bush's home town, Midland, Texas. He raped an Iraqi teenager and then shot her in the head.

He and his friends saw a young woman they thought was hot and decided to rape her. In the best tradition of thugs everywhere, they got liquored up first. They took off their uniforms and went to the girls home, raped and killed her and killed the rest of her family too. So much for Iraqi freedom and spreading democracy.

Green was arrested last week, but there has been no comment from the "stay the course" crowd or the "Iraqis need to get their act together" group either. Silence isn't golden in this case.

Iraqi PM Maliki hasn't been silent. He has spoken very eloquently against the immunity that the U.S. gave itself for crimes committed in Iraq. Sweet deal for Uncle Sam, hell for Iraq.

So, why do they hate us?

Rush and "Viagra"

Americablog is on the same wavelength with me. Rush's pills labeled viagra probably were not.

Rush Limbaugh: Still an Addict

Viagra? Yeah right. Rush Limbaugh was detained at the Palm Beach International Airport when customs agents confiscated a bottle labeled viagra that did not have his name on it. Instead it had the names of two physicians.

Why would anyone hide having viagra? There is no shame in it, Bob Dole ended that. I will bet money that the pills confiscated were not viagra. Rush is probably popping vicodin, percocet, and/or oxycontin again.

Way back on October 2, 2003, I opined on the irony of Limbaugh causing his own deafness because of vicodin abuse. He knows the expression, "Pay back is a bitch," all too well.

Rachel Corrie Play Comes to New York

The Israeli lobby is powerful, but every now and again someone emerges who just doesn't give a damn.

There will be a New York production of My Name is Rachel Corrie after all. A previous production was scuttled because of well, pressure. Hammerstein productions say they won't be cowed by the controversy, that is to say the pressure. I hope not.

Corrie was crushed to death by a Caterpillar tractor in 2003 while trying to stop the destruction of a Palestinian home. She has been demonized as a terrorist when she was in fact a non-violent activist for peace.

I hope that the show does go on. I would like to see a performance, if only to piss Israel off.

Presbyterian Punk Out

"If we discovered that the boys in the village had jury-rigged a roadblock during the night, we'd grab some nearby civilians and order them to dismantle it. This was partly an act of collective punishment, but there was also a safety factor. If the roadblock was booby-trapped, they'd get hurt instead of us. "
Haim Watzman

Is the pro-Israel lobby powerful? Is the Pope Catholic? I won't even ask about the bathroom habits of bears.

The Israeli lobby is now telling Christian churches what to do. Two years ago the Presbyterian Church USA took a very righteous stance and voted to divest itself of financial interests in corporations that supported the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Yesterday they backed off from that courageous stance. After two years of pressure and guilt whipping they caved. Jewish groups complained that they weren't consulted first. So what, no one consulted me before the occupation. They said that Israel was being singled out. Well, there is no lobbying equivalent to AIPAC for any other country. There is no other country that brazenly and publicly tells the United States when and where to wage war. There is no other country whose lobbyists determine who does or doesn't raise campaign funds.

No, all neo-cons aren't Jews, but they all believe that Israel should be the only military power in the Middle East. They all believe that Iranians should be killed to make sure that Israel remains the only nuclear kid on the block.

The Presbyterians wimped out by saying that relations with Jews were damaged. Well, if Jews insist on equating opposition to Israeli policy with anti-Semitism, then their feelings will always be hurt by those who refuse to toe the line. Too bad for them.

American Christians should not follow the Presbyterian example. We are not Cossacks or brown shirts and we shouldn't be cowed because of unfair accusations of anti-Semitism. The Presbyterians have proved to be a great disappointment to the fight for human rights.

What will they say about the Israeli army using civilians as human shields? What will they say about bull dozed homes? Of course they will say nothing. The namby pamby statement to "invest only in peaceful pursuits" is a cop out. Israel's abuse of human rights is not unique, but its role in American government and civic life is unique, and that makes it reasonable for the Presbyterian church or any other organization to single out its actions.

Bill O'Reilly and Saddam Hussein

"Shoot them on sight. That’s me… President O’Reilly… Curfew in Ramadi, seven o’clock at night. You’re on the street? You’re dead. I shoot you right between the eyes. Ok? That’s how I run that country. Just like Saddam ran it."
Bill O'Reilly, June 19, 2006

“I don't care about the people of Fallujah. You're not going to win their hearts and minds. They're going to kill you to the very end. They've proven that. So let's knock this place down. . . we know what the final solution should be.” —Bill O’Reilly, March 31, 2004

“Because look ... when 2 percent of the population feels that you're doing them a favor, just forget it, you're not going to win. You're not going to win. And I don't have any respect by and large for the Iraqi people at all. I have no respect for them. I think that they're a prehistoric group that is -- yeah, there's excuses. . . . And this teaches us a big lesson, that we cannot intervene in the Muslim world ever again. What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them, just like we did in the Balkans. - Bill O'Reilly, June 17, 2004

O'Reilly ought to be happy. Iraq is being run just the way he wants. American soldiers act like occupiers have throughout history. They shoot people on sight all the time, and yes they are acting just like Saddam. We have bombed the living daylights out of them, so what is his complaint? Not enough dead people, too little infrastructure destroyed? You just can't please some people.

Bill O'Reilly is a sick, freakish man who makes dirty phone calls to young women. Check out the Smoking Gun to relive Bill's juvenile fantasies directed at a colleague. Fox News settled with her to make Bill's phone sex fantasies go away.

But I digress. Back to Iraq. O'Reilly is the honest voice of the war monger. The Democratic party is filled with opportunists and wimps who know the occupation was wrong but wouldn't stand up to fight it. O'Reilly truly believes in brutality and death. He should be condemned for his statements, but the finger in the wind pro-war crowd should not be let off the hook. They support O'Reilly's sick ravings, even if they claim not to.

Tony Snow Proves Cynthia McKinney Right

A few months back Cynthia McKinney was called everything but a child of God. She struck a capital hill cop who grabbed her (armed and dangerous with a cell phone) and was raked over the coals for days on end because of the incident.

Someone should have known that something was amiss when White House press secretary Tony Snow praised her. Snow quoted a "McKinney" statement during a meeting with Bush.

"Cynthia McKinney made the point yesterday in the meeting with the president that the one thing they had gotten from generals there were thorough and honest assessments of what's going on."

There was just one little problem. McKinney wasn't at the meeting.

"I apologize for being an idiot. I misidentified Representative Sheila Jackson Lee as Cynthia McKinney."

Seen one colored woman at the White House, seen 'em all.

Israelis Kill Civilians, Again

When I saw this photo in today's paper I immediately noticed that a child had been killed. For the second time in the past week Israel has killed Palestinian civilians. The first group of dead included seven members of one family. Now they have killed again, claiming to target a missile maker. Hmmm. The goal is to spread terror and let no one forget who has the power to kill.

Take the Pledge

"I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign."
Voters for Peace

Sign the online petition and pass it on.