Who did Jane work for?

theyshootbarbarelladontthey
Listening to talk radio while you drive is a dangerous activity. You might start to think, and forget to dodge an 18 wheeler.
Squeal was on a rant today about Jane Fonda. It it the same story you have heard many times...she gave aid and comfort to the enemy, she is a traitor, she should have been executed.
Sometimes when you hear something too many times, you begin to have doubts about what you heard. A light bulb went off in my head when I heard the Fonda Rant again...what if she was working for the US government when she went to Hanoi?
What was in it for the government? This trip gave our government a discredited leader of the antiwar movement to denounce. When the government was trashing Jane Fonda, they did not have to defend the disastrous policies of that war.
Ms. Fonda has been an icon of right wing hatred ever since, as well as military training. ( Disclosure: I was never in the service, but am repeating what others have said.)
Ms. Fonda made some radio broadcasts from Hanoi. Is it possible that coded messages to our troops were included in these broadcasts?
Why would a women known for her left wing activism do such a thing? Maybe, the FBI had some dirt on her and blackmailed her.
In 1967, Kurt Vonnegut published a book titled "Mother Night". It tells the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr. Mr. Campbell made propaganda broadcasts for Germany in World War II, which were secretly used to pass coded messages to the Allies. He was condemned as a traitor after the war, but never prosecuted .He did not win an Academy Award.


ninetofivegoinghomecatballouongoldenpond
The role of the government in this affair could have taken another role. Perhaps Ms. Fonda was sincere in her actions, but aided by the government. Ms. Fonda was under surveillance in 1972. The government would have known about her plans to go to North Vietnam, and perhaps could have stopped her. But, because her going to Hanoi was to their advantage, the government allowed the trip to take place.
The above is speculation, and could be horribly wrong. The fact that Ms.Fonda has expressed regrets over her trip neither proves nor disproves this.
But clearly, the trip she made to Hanoi had propaganda value to the US government. It has been a Godsend over the years.
During his rant today, Squeal said that US troops died because of Ms. Fonda. By saying this, he can ignore the tens of thousands of troops who died because Richard Nixon wanted to wait until 1973 to sign a peace treaty. He could have made the same deal in 1969. Peace with honor indeed.

what i would do different

oneforthemoneytwofortheshow
There is a remarkable exchange at From The Morning now. Matt has started a series of rants, and he started one about President W today. He asked what we would have done differently.
I answered:

Sigh. I don't know where to begin.
1- I recall a lot of opposition to the war. An activity like this needs 100% approval.
2- We cut taxes before the start of the war. This is unheard of. The budget deficit is out of control. Worse, the entire burden of the war is being borne by the military. No sacrifices have been requested of the general public. Most "conservatives" are more concerned with making the tax hikes permanent that with providing more than lip service support to our brave troops.
3- The law of unintended consequences is kicking in. Iran and Al Queda are more powerful than ever. Nuclear armed Pakistan is on the verge of government collapse. Key ally Turkey is in turmoil. Palestine and Lebanon are in civil war.
4- Sanyana survived way too long on American Idol.
5- Our civil liberties are taking a beating. Torture is accepted in our armed forces.
6- Siouxperson says Politicians seem like scumbags *rolls eyes*
7- The political climate is poisoned with partisan rhetoric. You cannot believe anything you hear anymore.
8- A certain blogger compared a group of bloggers to anal sphincters.

While not all of these are the fault of the president, many of them are. (I am unsure about item 8. At the very least, he should have been honest about the cost and difficulty of the war...which might have affected the support for the adventure.)
And, while the President may have lied, a lot of people believed him.
9- There are indications that an important cause of the 911 attacks was the Saudi Government, and the close ties of the Bush Family with them. Would 911 have happened with Al Gore in office? We will never know.



The next entry was Siouxperson:


chamblee54, will you please tell me a little about the bombing of Iraq that Clinton did on December 16, 1998 and how one of the plans of his administration that he wasn't able to carry out before his term was up was regime change in Iraq? If Bush lied than what did Clinton do and why would Clinton have wanted regime change if Iraq wasn't seen as a threat of some kind? I love when you see the lies of liberals on Fox News and how they gave grand speeches on how they supported the war when Saddam was captured and how important it was that we go to war before the war and when it isn't going well you they all act as if those events never happened. They act like we are all stupid and don't know they talk out of both sides. I hope you never thought it was a good idea to go after Saddam or I guess you would have to call yourself a liar. Sad thing is that with the media being mostly liberal on the major networks you all get away with it.

Bush did not lie. Liberals need to give up on that old rhetoric. If Bush lied than so did every other politician that voted to allow military force. I guess they all lied to us?? The world is better off without Saddam. Al Qaeda and the issues in Palestine and Lebanon have been going on for years without Bush in office. If Clinton was still there I believe things would be much worse since he just sat back and let them attack us without any response.

I am tired of Liberals blaming America for the actions that radical Islam takes on the world with terrorism. I really wish those that think the US is to blame would move to a country that they could agree with rather than constantly slamming the country I love.

Good Grief. This is the sort of rhetorical overkill that makes constructive dialog so difficult.
1-On December 16, 1998, my mother had two days to live. I was not concerned with Bill Clinton covering his ass with a bombing raid on Iraq.
2- I was opposed to the war before the invasion. I never thought it was a good idea.
Saddam was weakened by sanctions, and did not pose a threat to the United States. What he did do was pose a threat to Iran, and served to keep Iran on good behavior. Now that this counterweight is gone, Iran is running wild.
3- Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world.
4- “. Sad thing is that with the media being mostly liberal on the major networks you all get away with it.”
When in doubt, blame the liberals and the media.
On a lighter note, the other day one of the radio whiners I listen to said that Liberals were concerned that conservatives had taken over the media. He was starting a rant about the fairness doctrine, but I did see a bit of irony there, from conservatives endlessly whining about liberal media bias, to a conservative saying that liberals were worried about conservative media domination.
IMO, the terms liberal and conservative are meaningless words used to divide and confuse. Their use should be greatly limited.
5- I am not a purist. If I thought that invading Babylon and torturing captured enemy soldiers would help us maintain our freedom, and then I would be for it.
The thing is, I don’t think it does. The war is hurting us in many ways, and will continue to do so for many years.
6- We have started something we cannot finish. If we leave, it will be bloody chaos. If we stay, there is bloody chaos. To me, that is defeat.
If Mr. Bush wanted regime change, he should have planned for the aftermath. He should have sent enough troops to do the job properly. He should have raised taxes in this country to pay for the war and share its burden among the population.
And on and on. Maybe there were wmd’s at one time in Iraq…when Iraq was gassing the Kurds, Iraq was an ally of the United States. Did we sell them that poison gas?
So, maybe Mr. Bush didn’t technically lie, but he didn’t tell the complete truth either.
It doesn’t much matter now, anyway. We are in Babylon, and may be physically unable to withdraw if we wanted to. We are stuck in a no win situation.
“A prophet is not without honor, save in his own land”.
It does not give me pleasure to say, “ I told you so”. I am very sad at what my country has done, and what is happening to us as a result.
And I give a large share of the Blame to George W. Bush.

it comes to an end

anothertastelessmediacircus
As I write this, the corpse du jour belongs to Jerry Falwell. The media, as they are prone to do, is chattering about this event.
I don't have many good things to say about the man. However, trashing someone who is recently deceased is in bad taste.

A few years ago, a mass murderer was about to be executed. A local radio station had a party to celebrate, and the wife of a co worker baked a cake (decorated with a drawing of a frying egg) to celebrate the man's date with the electric chair. While I have no sympathy for psycho killers, the happiness at this state facilitated homicide left me with an uneasy feeling.
I don’t think any of his victims came back to life after the execution, although some of the families might have felt "closure".
The point is, all human beings are children of G-d, and should be treated with the love and respect that this entitles them to.
(Thank you Kurt Vonnegut)
Two wrongs do not make a right.

One of the radio whiners was asking today who Mr. Falwell hurt. He hurt Jesus.
He made the legacy of Jesus into a political tool, and alienated a lot of people. He created ill will for Jesus.
This whiner also says that liberals are dancing on Mr. Falwell's grave now, and that this is proof of the intolerance of secular leftism. Good Grief. Some people can politicize anything. Of course, the recently departed politicized Jesus.



Hisfirsttimewasinanouthouseonthefarm
One intriguing bit of information to came out today. Larry Flint is claiming to be a friend of Mr. Falwell. I find this interesting, because it is strictly Mr. Flint’s word, spoken after the demise of Mr. Falwell. While it is possible, I have my doubts.
I also sense that Mr. Flint and Mr. Falwell had more in common than in difference.
HT to centurion.
No word on whether Mr. Falwell settled his differences with Tinky Winky.

There is a lot of speculation now as to whether Mr. Falwell is going to heaven or hell. This is one of the more repulsive features of Jesus Worship, this obsession with life after death.
When someone hurts someone in this life, and you cannot get revenge on him, the idea is that
G-d will get revenge for you.
The prospect of another human being baking in hell to does not make me happy.

Spell check suggestions for this feature:
Falwell- falafel, fall, fallible, flannel, flail, flawless, flagella, flaw
tinky- tinny tiny sticky inky dinky
winky-wince windy wink

Responsibility

redthirtyfourseventeengreenhuthuthike
It all started when a girl went to a back room with a former boyfriend. Her current bf stormed out of the house party, and flipped his car when it off the road. Being a star quarterback did not prevent the fatal consequences of this act.
The local radio whiner had a few things to say. Since alcohol was a suspected factor, the question became, "how do we teach teenagers to drink responsibly?"
Now, I am a retired drunk, and have a few opinions on this issue. My wandering mind settled on a related subject...Jesus. To me, Jesus and Alcohol are similar. Both are legal, both have potential for good and ill, and neither works for me. As I avoided speeding gas guzzlers, the thought occurred " How do we teach Teenagers to Worship Jesus Responsibly?" Now, this may be the first time those two concepts have been paired like that...Jesus and Responsibility...but it should not be the last.
A central concept in the world of Jesus Worship is the avoidance of responsibility…”Jesus paid the price for my sins on the cross”. This is not the path I will explore today.
No, today's seminar is about the Worshipping Responsibly. It is about having respect for your neighbors who do not agree with you, and do not want to hear about your "salvation". It is about not creating ill will for Jesus with obnoxious behavior in his name. It is about not dragging Jesus into your personal quarrels, using his name in anger to hurt your neighbor.
It is about Responsibility. Your actions have consequences, and just because you are doing it for Jesus does not eliminate that reality.
There are two big reasons why I am not a Jesus Worshipper. The first one is, I simply don’t agree with the teachings. The Bible is not the word of G-d, Jesus was killed because he was a troublemaker, and The death and reputed resurrection of Jesus has nothing to do with what happens to me after I die.
The Second reason for my allergic reaction to Jesus is the verbal abuse and hateful behavior of Jesus Worshippers. This prevents me from having a cosmetic, social oriented membership in a church, because I cannot pretend to worship a spirit who has caused me such misery.
Responsibility is not valued in the Jesus Worship community. Respect for non believers is seen as a sign of weakness. And, while not all Jesus Worshippers are fanatics, many admire and support the loudmouths who give their faith a bad name.

morally centered

moronicallysplinteredonradio
Usually, I write this on word pad, but today I opened this through the start menu and it came up ms word. This is much better than the version I have at home, and I can write this in comic with a 14 pt letters, which is more fun than the arial nonsense I am used to.
Sooo, I get in a few minutes early, and there is a buggy by the back door with a huge run for me to make. While this is putting off the day when I can work inside full time, for now I have a paycheck, the sky is blue, I don’t have a court date or an illness, so maybe I should just enjoy things.
I get on the freeway, and turn on the radio. Now, talk radio is part of the delivery lifestyle. You like to hear the traffic reports, and the whiners are….well, they are. Like RuPaul said, “Black Hair Is”. Of course, you can’t use a relaxer on Rush Limbaugh.
I can see a problem with this version of word. At home I like to record the spell check suggestions for words, which has a poetic feng shui. Like comparing RuPaul to rural, rupee, repel, Raphael, and Repeal….you can’t make that stuff up. Alas, in this version of word, the spell check suggestions only stay up as long as this window is open, and if you switch to another window they go away. I could write them down with a pencil, but that is too much work.
So, back to am radio . Some caller said “ I have never listened to your show, but it is refreshing to hear someone who is so morally centered”. Thinking I was listening to Squeal, my jaw dropped, until I heard Bill Bennett say “thank you”. That was just about as ridiculous.
Later, Mr. Bennet was a guest on Squeal’s show. Holy synchronicity, Batman. Somebody had a book to plug, and someone else had time to fill on his show Can someone say symbiotic?
Now, Mr. Bennett is not a morally centered man. He writes books about “Virtues” and forgets to mention that he has a seven digit gambling problem. He was also the “drug czar” under George H.W.Bush. This later fact was not mentioned by Squeal, who calls himself a libertarian. As “drug czar”, he facilitated the arrest of millions of Americans for marijuana use, while condoning the use of alcohol. He also spread damaging lies under the guise of drug education, presided over the spread of employment based drug testing, and watched helplessly as cocaine/crack use expanded.
“Morally centered”? You Bet!!
Spell check for this feature:
arial--aril, ariel,aria, arian, aerial, axial, trial, arrival, arils, arid, aries, areola, air
sooo- so sough, soon, soot, sa, su, sogo, solo, sob, sod,sol, son, sot, sop, sow, sox, soy,sos
RuPaul- rappel, repeal, repel, ripple, rural
relaxer-relater
bennet- bonnet, ben net. banned

fort dix six

ak47godirectlytoheavenparadiseawaits
After going to bed early last night, and waking up feeling like fertilzer, it was only a matter of time before the events of the world brought cheer into my life.
The first clue that the world was (dys) functioning as always was a picture of Queen Elizabeth and President Bush. Diana's mother in law was holding her empty purse and looking at W like he was an idiot.
Then, the word started to spread about the dastardly plot to kill "as many soldiers as possible" at Fort Dix. Details were sketchy, as were the plotters. The plan was to invade a military base, full of armed troops with nothing better to do than shoot back. Good thing the military is taking steps to limit soldiers blogging,. this will no doubt give them more time to fight "terrorists" attacking a stateside base.
It gets better. It seems as though the freedom fighters were training in the Pocono Mountains, and made a video of their training sessions. They took it to a store to have a DVD made, and the conversion clerk ratted them out. Let that be a warning to future terrorists.
Say what you will about the 911 crowd, those guys were smart. They pulled off a devastating attack on our country with precise timing and coordination, seeing a weakness and exploiting it fully. The "Fort Dix Six" is a bunch of dummies.
Of course, my favorite radio whiner was all over it. It seems as though some media outlets did not immediatly identify the "Fort Dix Six" as muslims. According to squeal, this is because the msm is commited to electing a democrat president in 2008, and do not want people to be reminded of the threat posed by islamic terrorism. As if killing women and children in Babylon is going to stop foolishness like this.



twoforadollarstandupandhollar
A high point for the afternoon was going into a Hostess thrift store, and hearing "Dancing Queen" by ABBA on the loudspeaker. Life is good.

all the way home

memememememememememememememe
Going to lunch at 1145 does not work. It makes the afternoon last way too long. Of course, there is nothing to be done, except maybe think of a clever name for the stupidvisor at fault.
The Internet is dull today. In Jesus Worshipper circles, the controversy du jour is a preacher in Seattle who made a video about church growth, where he said that young men like to have sex. This is obvious to many of us. Remember, this cult worships the product of virgin birth.

The site I linked to is a notorious bandwidth hog, and makes the computer I use at lunch crash. This can be very embarrassing...for obvious reasons. When I looked at things at home later, I found a doozie of a personality conflict going on in the comments of "All about Me". Just in time for National Prayer day.
Maybe it is time to trash Jesus Worshippers. They love to pray, usually with as many people as possible entertained. If prayer is talking to g-d, and meditation is listening to g-d, what are we to make of people who never stop talking ,but are too busy to listen?
On a partially related front, a former employer of mine was fond of saying "this is not a me company, this is a we company." All about we.



ouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouiouioui
Slate is a place to look on a slow day. Today's blogs presents a view of how bloggers view some of the hot topics of the day, and can be the gateway to some fun reading.
Halfway down the page, there was a link..."The worst presidential TV appearance ever" with a picture of Richard Nixon beside it. The blogs will have to wait.
Alas, the piece is a review of a play, "Frost/Nixon". Now, I saw the real thing...the David Frost interview with Tricky Dick. While it didn't have the emotional subtlety of his appearance on "Laugh In" (Sock it to me), or the pathos of " I am not a crook", the Frost-bite did elicit the admission that " I let the people down", or words to that effect. This is as close to an admission of guilt as we are ever going to get out of that Republican.
The interview also lacked the insight into the human condition supplied by "That Was The Week That Was". Mr. Frost should have quit while he was still funny.
It is tough for someone who was not around in 1974 to appreciate the spectacle of the Nixon Administration. The joy of "wallowing in watergate" is tough to explain. The sight of a popular president brought down by his own stupidity and paranoia was great entertainment.
Would we really have been better off if Hubert Humphrey had been elected in 1968?
While I am posting this, I am eating some take out hamburgers from "Checkers".
It was speculated that the reason for Mr. Nixon's nastiness was sexual incompetence...that he was impotent and frustrated, and working out his issues on asian peasants with napalm. This would tie in with the current flap about the preacher in Seattle, and provide a contrast to the other impeachment of our era. To have gone from Tricky Dick to Slick Willie...such is the path of governance.
There is a scandal in our current presidency, and a lady named Monica is involved. This Monica is taking the fifth amendment, and not saying anything about her role in this guiltfest. It has been observed that this President is being troubled by a young lady named Monica...only this one is keeping her mouth shut.
Spell check:
precher...preacher, prettier, praetor
doozie...dose, dozy
wee wee...peewee, were, woe, weenie, wee, weed, week , weep
sublety...suatability, subtlety, sublet, sublets
watergate...wattage
asian...asia, aswan assign, assail, arian, avial, erosion, basin, assay, assignee, as, ace