Listen Now

If you know anything about me at all; it is simply that I am not very happy with the state of journalism today. Especially broadcast journalism. CBS is still my favored organization even though at one time I worked at NBC news as a runner during the GOP convention in 1964 in San Francisco. I loved those days of NBC when they had a radio network and a TV network basking in the glory of renewed ratings thanks to Huntley and Brinkley and the fact that my lawyer had worked with Frank McGee at WKY-TV in OKC and that one day I knew I would work at WKY which I did, WKY radio in 1980-81-82 period.

The fact is no one did it better in my opinion that CBS news. Murrow was their lead guy but they had others, great reporters of their time, Cronkite, Rather, etc. In those days CBS was still a fairly small operation with Frank Stanton as President bringing that network up from scratch to compete with David Sarnoff and RCA who owned NBC. Looking back on it, and I can still remember hearing Murrow doing a fifteen minute radio newscast nightly on CBS, it was an era where today's resources were science fiction, who would have dreamed I could just turn on my laptop and send a show out live..satellites and video as news happens, were only dreams.

So in one sense today's news is far, far superior to those Murrow days but in the real sense it does not measure up at all. There is something missing these days and that is the healthy skepticism we all had after a great depression, a world war, and obvious over-reaction from government into our private lives. This sentence seems humorous today with the Patriot Act and others that infringe upon our civil liberties and with stories of government threats to journalists. But this is exactly my point about CBS news of old and Edward R. Murrow in particular.

Senator Joe McCarthy was painting everyone with a broad brush and Murrow saw that it was time to stand up against the tyranny of a government gone wild in pursuit of only good news for their side. Senator Joe McCarthy was challenged and CBS paid a price with pulled advertising, after all, fear in those day was a real as today. It was the communist threat then and now it is some sort of twisted relationship between a few thousand Muslin extremists and the world. But Murrow stood up, McCarthy went down as the fraud he was and CBS stood by their man.

Today would CBS stand by their man? Obviously not, look what they did to Dan Rather who was as loyal as one can be to his network, CBS. Will Rather bring out the true facts in the Court Room of Justice? Time will tell. This is a far different world where big bucks from government have filtered into the media checking accounts as a major depositor. Meanwhile I find it encouraging that CBS did take time out to pay homage to their ICON, Mr. Murrow. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/24/murrow/main4041673.shtml

We still link to CBS news often even though we understand they are a mere shell of what they used to be, but so are the others as the new journalism has taken over, FOX with their endless propaganda for the Republicans, CNN trying to not rock the boat and NBC wandering in a path of torn desires, corporate business and journalistic integrity. Thank God for the Internet, at least if you want to take the time, you can find all sides to an issue and we strive every day to do our part. 

Please note we do have a liberal-biased web site as well, www.bushbusiness.com. It started as an outrage to the control of media and thought processes, but quickly morphed into just a parody on those conservative sites and programs. We do hope Mr. Murrow understands, it is all show business these days. Meanwhile rest assured on our conspiracy shows and political shows we will strive to bring the facts just like Jack Webb of old, "just the facts."

Our only plea for understanding is that we are the NEW MEDIA. We offer entertainment, information and lots of stuff in between. We just hope the viewer, the visitor and the listener understand where we are coming from... ah, yes a another phrase of modern America. Rest assured we are coming from a standpoint of truth, we sometimes present it in an entertaining fashion and we don't apologize for that...I mean for God's sake, we are a radio show not a news organization.

Jerry Pippin 4-24-08

Representatives Robert Wexler, Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI),  issued a joint editorial entitled "A Case for Hearings," cites significant allegations made against the Vice President.: Deceptive actions leading up to the Iraq war, the revelation of the identity of a covert agent for political retaliation, and the illegal wiretapping of American citizens are among the charges. It is widely thought by expert observers that if hearings do come into being, fraud and widespread graft would be front and center in evidence presented.   to Read the Op Ed.
  to sign Congressman Wexler's online petition to impeach Bush.
 

A closing thought about Cheney and his men including the President who evidently is under the Vice President's control at all times.  I wonder if they have thought about what life will be for them after they leave office and no longer control the Justice Department. Do they still think they will escape accountability? It is now only a little over a year until we find out how this gross mafia-like grasp of the government control of the leading nation in the world will fare.

Jerry Pippin

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted today (12-13-07) to hold two top aides to President George W. Bush in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate in its probe of fired federal prosecutors. On a largely party-line vote of 11-7, the Democratic-led panel sent contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to the full Senate for consideration.

Nevada will hold its primary on January 19, 2008, not only in advance of February's Super Tuesday but also an election not on a Tuesday. Long time election watchers have wondered why the US does not have elections on weekends when more could vote? This will be interesting to see how turn out is affected by a Saturday vote and ahead of the Super Tuesday landslide or crowing by the media of a winner already.

Personally I have loved the tradition of that Tuesday voting, but logically it appears with today's ability to fix or rig votes mechanically and in reality by making it tougher for certain demographics to vote, this may be our saving grace to get a candidate that is free from the corporate purse strings. We know this can not happen completely until we take away the power of the purse and the "fountain of wealth" that has become the money train for broadcasters since the Reagan years of allowing the "free market" to apply to political races. In other words, until the broadcasters no longer have a cash cow in election commercials, our chances of having free elections and getting someone with an administration that is on the side of the population in general and not just for big business in particular, the American election system is broken. We must demand that it get fixed and this Saturday voting may be a good trend in that direction, we will wait and see how it all works out.

A million dollars a minute. When the President came into office, we had stopped borrowing new money. The Clinton White House had been spending within its means. Oh, yeah, there was that 5.7 trillion in debt inherited from those previous fiscal conservatives, Ronald Reagan and Daddy Bush, but we were not spending more and actually the US Government was in a position to start paying off debt. What happened?

Simply as Mr. Bush said, "Mission Accomplished." The war and anti terrorist money combined with previously spoken for dollars in social programs has made it a bonanza for the financial interests who like to loan money and get lots of interest back. Don't worry about the system being faulty, why do the financial institutions get the interest on the money when they have nothing to do with printing the money? Good question, but it has been a bonanza for decades for banking interests.

Look at the results, six times the debt limit has been raised in the years of the Bush, Jr. debacle. It is about double what it was from the Clinton years and most of this new debt is short term, meaning just as the California home buyers are now facing a crisis because short term mortgages are coming due at much higher rates, the same will happen with Uncle Sam. It appears that interest on this debt will average about 30 grand a person in the US in the next few years.

Hey, the Grand Old Party has been one grand money maker for those who loan money and for those who spend money. Who are these folks making out like bandits? Mostly people who are the beneficial recipients of privatization of the government. Folks like Blackwater, ammunition makers, security interests all; oh well, maybe not the individual personnel who work for these companies but the corporations themselves are reaping in a good portion of that million bucks a minute.

You gotta hand it to those Texas based two faced politicos like Bush and company. They say "terrorism" and smile, why? Because for every terrorist program, they get a wallet that is fatter and fatter. Now the compound interest factor is coming into play; first they got the money under false pretenses like the IRAQ war and now guess what, they get it again because they loaned Uncle Sam the money. A million dollars a minute, now you know why Mr. Bush smirked and said " Mission Accomplished."

Rep Dennis Kucinich has presented H Res 333 (Impeachment of Richard B. Cheney) on the floor of Congress, under a special procedure called Privilege. Bush forces seemed to think the best political tactic would be to allow a debate on the floor of the issue forcing Democrats to either support or vote against Cheney in public.

In a strange move not seen regularly on the house floor, Republican Congress members suddenly changed their vote to against to supporting the debate. House leaders tried to table the motion, but this motion was defeated by 251 votes against tabling the motion to 162 for it. This meant the issue would be debated but House Democrats quickly introduced a bill that would send it to Congressman John Conyers' House Judiciary Committee for further debate.

It is not clear when or if it will up there at all. Conyers until recently was a staunch impeachment advocate but recently has been seen by observers as reversing himself on these issues. Will this tactic work? Will it die in committee? There are 11 Democrats, the majority of that group belonging to the Democratic party. Already it is apparent that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD and the speaker are recipients of enough Bush Business deals to shirk their duty as leaders of the opposition. The resolution said that Cheney, "in violation of his Constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president, had "purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests."

Bush Business editors urge everyone to call Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and other key Democrats to urge them to "wake up and smell the coffee" and remove the cancerous sores on America caused by Cheney/Bush. The number is 1-800-828-0498.

  for columnist Jerry Wilhite's take on the Last Hurrah of Democracy. We urge everyone to contact their Congressman and Rep. Conyers' office to let them know "Cheney must go." Dennis Kucinich deserves your support and with the right kind of public outcry this "shot in the dark" at getting a hearing on removing the most crooked fraudulent Administration in history...will work!

When two oil men took charge of the executive branch in January of 2001, it was apparent from the stolen election results in Florida, the Republicans had a lot riding on the outcome of that election. As you can see by the photo with this article, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah is holding hands with the President, in public. The romance is blatant and the reasons are obvious, this union is a union of convenience, about a trillion dollars worth of convenience in profits. Profits at the expense of the American people who at the time of the election of Bush/Cheney were paying slightly over a dollar for gasoline, now anything under $3.00 is a bargain for the American Motorist.

What does Bush/Cheney and their administration have to do with it? Everything. First of all, do you know a Republican who has voted for a windfall tax on the oil companies?

Supply and demand in the market price? Forget it, there is a conscious policy by oil companies to suppress supply, reap unprecedented profits, and miserably fail, by the way, to reinvest those billions into increased refining capacity and guess what? Big Brother Bush/ Cheney government minions, they aren't going to pass rules to require these corporations to expand their capacity so the market can work. No they are all too busy counting their excess profits.

All of this is the short term, naturally, Iraq will be able to get back in the International market by the end of 2008 as our current agreement with IRAQ stipulates. So mission accomplished, Eight long years of wonder profits for the super rich and be damned with Americans who work hard every day to survive and oh, there is the other thing Mr. Bush has accomplished. The Republicans are going to lose in record numbers even worse than back in the Great Depression and worse than in 1964 with the Johnson Landslide.

Ay, yes, the real plan, stick those damn Democrats with the ruins of eight glorious years for the super rich. Laws? Who cares about Laws, Cheney and Bush already own lots of property in South America.

President Bush wants his cronies to have a very Merry Christmas indeed. This week he asked for an additional $45.9 billion in supplemental war funding to the $150.5 billion he'd already requested, and then turned up the heat on Congress to sign off on the $196.4 billion before heading home for the holidays.

We have a suggestion for Congress on how they can give America a real Christmas present. Simply deny the request and instead give a billion to the troops. Two and a half million on active duty, a million or more who have been called up over the years to serve at great sacrifice at home financially and emotionally, divided up this bounty would make a great Christmas bonus to the troops.

The Troops need a break and someone really supporting them, let them come home, let the killing and maiming stop. What a great Christmas idea, Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward all men. Congress should not allow this Christmas bonus to be distributed by private contractors or the Pentagon, they will simply take more than their share in profits. No, it needs to be a check, directly from the US government to each and every soldier, airman, sailor and Marine.

Stop the Bush Business bonanza of war profiteering ..save $195 billion and support the troops at the same time, let them have a Merry Christmas for the first time since Mr. Bush has been their Commander-in-Chief.

We have watched the Bush allies such as Vice President Cheney and a neo-conservative line up of hardballers take over the Grand Old Party, pushing the Republican mainstream to lunacy in decision making for America. Arianna Huffington, who was at one time married to one of the far right, but saw the light and left the would-be Senator for a career in the new media has coined the phrase and It is a good one, "Midnight in America."

It indeed is very dark in the Republican party. They push torture as if it is as routine as reading one their rights. They push the loss of civil liberties as if it is a routine matter to spy, pry and investigate ordinary Americans because of political differences. They push a war designed not to save the Mid East but to push it further into confusion and all the while condoning thug like behavior of Blackwater and other defense and security contractors in a manner that is anti American in its behavior. The list is far too long to list on this page.

They endorse a condoning of criminal behavior in its own Republican controlled Justice Department allowing billions to be stolen or drained away from the Federal Treasury in the name of privatization. They endorse looking the other way when the question of voting machine fraud is addressed and they push a sort of fanatical "do it my way or hit the highway" creed upon the people they rule as they desperately hold on to the seat of power at any cost.

Yes, Mr. Bush and his men have done the impossible. They have ruined a good political idea of "government closest to home and less government period" - once the stalwart of the Republican Party, to creating an apparatus that pushes for more central control and routinely takes dangerous paths of leadership including a proclaimed low road on the way to World War Three.

Arianna Huffington's complete piece Midnight in America can be found here.

jerry@jerrypippin.com

When I first heard about it, I was disturbed because it seems to me this has been happening more and more. Oh, maybe not as brutal as this treatment of the Florida Student Activist who was tasered by University police before the very eyes of former Presidential Candidate John Kerry. The reaction of Kerry saying it was a "Police Matter" bothered me even more. Here was the head of the Democratic ticket for President last election cycle saying someone who went over his time and was insisting on answers to good questions was somehow justified to be under arrest. What has happened to the Democratic Party?

I am sorry to say this but evidently security in this country has gone wild and we are now paying the price for it. Political speech and activism is now being viewed by the establishment as some sort of act of terrorism in itself. I say this because of the way Kerry reacted and how most of the crowd reacted to this event. No one stood up in outrage. If I had been Kerry I would have demanded they release the man right then and there. Since when is it a crime to protest and ask tough questions of elected officials?

No, Senator Kerry this was not a "police matter." This was a Constitutional matter, a matter of freedom of expression, the backbone of Democracy. Activists are routinely banned from the Capitol for months at a time because they were arrested in civil actions of protest. People are pulled off airplanes and banned from political rallies because of T-shirts and signs that others say are disrespectful or whatever. I am told by some political activist friends of mine that even Hillary Clinton has goons that jerk people around who are too loud in their protests.

I wonder what would have happened to those activists in Chicken suits that used to show up at Papa Bush's rallies because he wouldn't debate Clinton? And this OJ thing, charging him with kidnapping with a weapon is a little much. We are giving the police in this country entirely too much power. This is an epidemic of establishment control and it is likely to grow into something much more serious.

Stop and think of how we are enforcing Democratic rules in Iraq. If they don't agree with us we point guns at them and many times we pull the trigger. It gives a great message about American Democracy, doesn't it?

It looks to me like we are in a crisis mode. I think Mr. Kerry will have to go, along with a huge number of Democrats and almost all of the Republicans that hold office before we get back on the right track. It appears they have all been polluted with corporate money and corporate rules of engagement. The imperial office holder is alive and well, thanks basically to security issues. Have you ever thought this through; I mean if you are doing the people's business and you are an honest broker why in the world do you need all of this security. We have become a nation of cowards, afraid to stand up for principles or maybe we have become a nation whose principles are corrupt and not for the common good. I know many who think that term "common good" is some sort of communist plot and communism has been defeated for two decades-plus and we are spending more money on security than we ever did in the Cold War, against an enemy with no navy, army or air force.

Obviously Security is popular as an issue because it pays so well.

There are two things that bother me about this Senator Craig story. The first thing has to do with the way he is arrested. The city of Minneapolis along with other police departments evidently pay undercover vice squad officers to sit on the toilets for hours in men's rooms waiting for someone to hit on them. This seems unseemly on the face of it and secondly even if Senator Craig were Gay and he might be, why would he hit on a guy in the men's room. Why not in the airport bar, on the airplane, and why don't undercover officers sit in the toilet areas of women's rooms and try to trap gay women? Or do they? People are robbing, killing, threatening mayhem on others every day and we have our cops sitting in the men's room all day?

So what kind of guy would this cop be? Could you hang around in a stall sitting on the toilet watching people tap their feet, God forbid Senator Craig was listening to an ipod while doing his business and tapping his feet to some melody? How does this cop know the pick-up signs of gay men in toilets?

Now from a political standpoint I do think the country will be better off without Craig. Instead of three short of getting an impeachment vote on Cheney and/or Bush we are now only two, maybe. The second thing that bothers me is that part of Senator Craig's defense besides yelling to anyone who will listen that, "I am not gay."

What is the problem here? Well basically how can you expect a law maker to treat everyone fairly in society when obviously they view this fairly common trait among humanity as a curse somewhat like a disease that will infect everyone. The troubling part from Senator Craig in my view point goes directly to "what if he is really gay?" Then why would he run around pushing for laws that are not friendly to his own personal behavior? Why would he run against those who are "gay" with such a vengeance over the years? I know many Republicans and Right Wing Christian Ministers and though I can't prove it; many of them appear to me to be GAY. Unless of course you listen to what they say which is, " I am not Gay."

Think about it, Rove courted the Christian right all his political life and on his departure from Washington he drops a bomb to his most faithful followers, in essence saying, "Hey, I am not a believer, I am agnostic." Do you think Rove is gay? Falwell is gay? I have my own ideas but the point is why bring it up. Well I didn't they did. Senator Craig did, Rove has? Falwell always got around to it.

Now to something that bothers me about discussing this topic at all. Being a "straight" man, I guess that means hitting on every female in sight in some people's eyes but not hitting on men since I am a man, why do I feel it necessary to point out my sexual orientation. It is somewhat like the disclaimer on those financial ads, car commercials and cigarette packages, who cares. Well evidently we all care, regardless of how "with it in today's world "we think we are, this subject gets everyone's emotions going. Maybe someday we will be as concerned about a high government official who pushes death and destruction by using military means to settle issues.

Why is it more of a concern that Cheney and Bush might be homosexual than the obvious fact that they are "serial killers" causing hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide for no good reason, other than maybe some misplaced religious ethic. I am inclined to think it's really because there is a lot of money, honey -  in killing for your country.

jerry@jerrypippin.com

In the 60s when I was in the service, our little attachment of golfers, radio announcers, baseball players and actors had the duty of attending military funerals ..I went to several as the representative of the US Army to the family. It was never pleasant and this military duty has shaped my viewpoint on war more than any other, War is usually not necessary and certainly not in the case of IRAQ. Those who made the decisions for young boys and girls to lose their fathers and mothers needlessly plays havoc with my soul every waking moment.

Can't we wake up as Americans and see we are giving far too much to the military industrial complex? These men who caused these deaths are the true terrorists. Call your congressman and tell him the madness must stop.

Thirty-eight votes for Gonzales in the Senate shows that slightly over a third of that body just like the US itself is Nazi driven whether they realize it or not. Does this mean Attorney General Gonzales will continue to operate above the law and unfettered by normal restraints of the Constitution? Not if we play our hand correctly. Our help now lies in the US House of Representatives where the US Constitution says impeachment of any cabinet officer can be held with a one-vote majority.

The Democrats may have just enough votes to pull off impeachment hearings in the House for a cabinet member, the movement for impeachment of Cheney is showing little or no progress at this point, but shifting the effort to a lesser cabinet position just might fire the shot across the bow to the Cheney/Bush administration.

Urge your representative to support impeachment action against Attorney General Gonzales. What happens when the chief law enforcement officer is the crook, the man who makes his own law? Nothing, unless the system stands up and works and the only way it can now is by action in the House of Representatives. Nine Senators did not vote today, 38 voted against the rule to allow censure of Gonzales. This means simply that if a House hearing on impeachment happens, we would only have to change the minds of 20 per cent of those voting nay or not voting.

Let the administration bask in a moment of glory but then let’s take Mr. Gonzales to court; the only court he does not now own, the court of the House of Representatives. Let the sun shine in and tell the ugly truths of how this Justice Department is not much different than the Mafia itself. Impeach the man who put the black eye on American values, the man who says it is okay to torture and keep in prison persons without charges, the man who attacked the very system of justice that made America great. Impeach Mr. Gonzales now.

jerry@jerrypippin.com

Lots of people have been asking about what happened to our impeachment movement, the push for a county grand jury in my home town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. The answer is simple enough. Impeachment is now a bill up for consideration in the House of Representatives, so we have made a decision to push with all our energy to develop support for this bill. We feel without question that once an investigation starts with Cheney it will spill over to others including the President. Here is my letter to the editor thanking citizens of my home town and county for signing the petition and for all of you have signed our on line petitions, we thank you for your effort to seize the power away from the profiteers of war and help get it back to the people.

Late in the summer last year, we decided to push for a Grand Jury Investigation of the Bush/Cheney Administration. Oklahoma has a clause in its constitution that allows for a citizens empanelment of a grand jury with a certain percentage of a county's registered voters signing the petition. By October we had about 1300 signatures and things seemed to be going our way. The November election had a Democratic Land slide basically because of the anti-Bush movement sweeping the land and mostly this was because of the war in IRAQ. Locally we had a change of the guard in the local District Attorney's office and it appeared that the new administration might actually co operate in the Grand Jury movement to investigate the President and his men.

Many of our supporters were not happy with our decision to wait a few months and see how the landscape in Washington actually looked for impeachment, but we decided to put things on hold. We are now going to abandon our local drive for impeachment in favor of putting all of our energy behind an impeachment bill that is in the House of Representatives sponsored by Dennis J. Kucinich.

I know he wants to impeach the Vice President and that is the gist of his bill, but does any one doubt that if an investigation really got rolling on Vice President Cheney he would not be history as they say in a "New York Minute." Former Federal Prosecutor Elizabeth de Le Vegas told me in a radio interview that she thought the same type of prosecutions could occur against him as in Enron.

It appears that Cheney is pushing the envelope when he says he has no financial interest in Halliburton. He still has 433,000 shares of stock options in that company. I saw a report the other day those stocks are selling for about $33.00 a share, I don't have a calculator handy but that is a lot of money. It is true it is in a charitable trust and he promised to donate the profits to charity. There is one small catch and one large one here that we can not deny. First of all this trust is revocable and secondly Halliburton and its KBR security group has reaped billions, not millions in income due to false pretenses. Remember Cheney was never shy about saying that Iraq had WMDs along with many other statements that led to a military action in which his shares showed marked improvement in value thanks to "no bid" contracts from the government.

So as my grandfather used to say, "You gotta start somewhere." So impeachment is in the House now; let's push for it. I am asking all 1300 plus persons who signed our petition here in Muskogee county to pick up the phone and call Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office at 202-225-0100 and tell her you want an investigation into the financial dealings of the Vice President and to put "impeachment on the table."

I want to thank everyone who took the time to sign the petition for making their wishes known and I do hope you will continue to push for an investigation. The circumstantial evidence is just too strong for us as a law abiding public to ignore. We have our foot in the door now in Congress; let's insist justice be done. An impeachment investigation must take place or our reputations as Americans will forever be in jeopardy.

One of the reasons we think impeachment is the only option to get rid of this group of crooks and hoods who are the Bush/Cheney administration is laid out in this report. The top 25 of the 160 are spread mostly in parts of the government where the "money" is. Several from the department of Air Force, Army, etc. but the thing that jumps out is the number who inhabit Homeland Security and other departments that have had increased spending with little or no over sight from Congress because of the terrorism issues.

The way the Bush/Cheney administration has framed this situation is ingenious and dangerous. If one dares question spending and actions of these agencies charged with checking the increase in terrorism you are immediately branded "a traitor." In fact I have been called that by well meaning people who have been "hood winked" by this tact. Their tactic is how dare you attack these people who are only trying to save your life and your country.

How have the crooks in the Bush/Cheney administration managed this? Mafia tactics, pure and simple. First pay off those who have influence. Fox News is a prime example of payola going amuck and we aren't talking about playing rap records either. How do they do this, they allow the journalists to get government and corporate grants and contracts for projects executed by their families, wives, daughters, etc. Remember it is not smart to "bite the hand that feeds you."

Then there is the pressure put on highly priced executives in news, Tim Russert of NBC being a prime example. For mutual benefit, Russert chose to play loose with the truth so he could keep his contacts and party invitations coming from the highest levels of government. Testimony to this fact exists in the Libby trial which is now wrapping up in D.C. and then there is the example of number 25, take a key person in Public Broadcasting and either give him the opportunity to make money, or perhaps he was appointed so he could make money illegally in return for slanting the coverage of this great so called liberal news source toward the goal of corporate and personal graft in the name of privatization.

Indeed, government is broken and it was done so, slowly and surely, by those who have a mission and that is to steal as much wealth as possible and disarm those who might stop them.

The list can be found here: http://www.citizensforethics.org/filelibrary/FINALREPORTPDF.pdf

With the news overnight of convictions of two people in fraudulent recounts of the Ohio Presidential election in 2004, the passing of famed CIA operative E.Howard Hunt who was involved in the Watergate scandal this week and Tom DeLay's conspiracy charges being considered again as viable, it does bring home the idea that sometimes things never change. The trial of Scooter Libby in its first week is featuring a public spat that has a promise of a mud-slinging cat fight between the two men who act for their leaders, Libby and Karl Rove. As testimony comes rolling out, it will be apparent regardless of what kind of spin we put on it, the crooks are back in charge of government.

A little-noticed story this week is the one involving Tom DeLay. Evidently his dismissed conspiracy count is not going to be dismissed for long or at least that is the hope of the prosecutor. This charge is now in the highest Texas Court and even if DeLay pulls out another miracle with a dismissal of this appeal from the prosecutor, the PR is not good. It is obvious to everyone that while masquerading as a do-good Christian man, he was a do-bad thug.

One thing people in the Republican party need to stop and think about, think before blindly supporting the Bush Crowd and their two bit crooks who are now installed in almost every major office in the Administrative branch of government, is why do these scandals always hit the Republicans.

Am I saying there are no crooks in the Democratic party, no, not really. Many Republicans can say that the press is after them, well, I think that is not the case now. It is true that Nixon frequently was the object of press stories that showed him to be the crook he was. In these latter times, the press is no longer very objective, so maybe someone needs to start naming the press as the crooks they are as well. I have no sympathy for my journalism friends, they have let the power of money and position move their objective brains into a status quo coma.

It is my feeling that many people will be amazed as the politicians are exposed in the Republican party but it is also my feeling that they would never have become the crooks they are without the enabling power of the press. The right thing is to use those conspiracy charges not only against the Mr. DeLay but maybe to a few well placed media people, editors, publishers, broadcasters and columnists. What has happened to the press in America is very, very sad indeed.

So in summary, dirty politics are a way of life at the White House, the previous congress was a den of thieves shaking down everyone for themselves and their corporate partners and now it is confirmed, BUSH did not win in 2004, Ohio was fixed just like Florida was fixed in 2000. Where is the outrage from the press, the public? Until it comes, America will continue to be the home of the crooks and no one is brave...enough to stand up and put a stop to it. Hopefully this will change, this year.

Rich Little, the comedian chosen by the White House Correspondents Association to headline the annual correspondents dinner on April 21, has been told by organizers of the event that “they don’t want a repeat of last year’s performance by Stephen Colbert.” “They don’t want anyone knocking the president. He’s really over the coals right now, and he’s worried about his legacy,” Little said. “I won’t even mention the word ‘Iraq.’”

I have interviewed Little several times, one time he even took time out of his dinner at Batista's restaurant to talk to me on the air at the old KVEG. He is big Bush man, big fan of both Bushes, during my last interview with him he was bragging about how wonderful and sincere President Bush's mother was.

"She just doesn't go for the off color or sarcastic stuff" he told me. I think if you check into his private life, you will find Rich Little has made lots of money with deals that in part were sent his way by the Bush Family.

So this does not surprise me at all, their picking him for the correspondent's dinner. Remember the unintended consequences of all this social whirl in DC over the years that gradually included columnists and reporters has poisoned the well of the oversight duty of a free press. I think when historians look back at what happened in the early 2lst Century, the Press will be blamed more for the fall of the US than any other group. No questions asked, no real questions asked about events surrounding IRAQ, the taking of Civil Liberties, graft that is now rampant in every department of our government, 9/11, torturing of fellow human beings and lots of "hanky panky" in the financial arena of banking and stock market dealings.

Am I optimistic? Yes, I think Mr. Little better pray Mr. Bush is still there by the time this event rolls around, the Impeachment bandwagon is rolling and there really is nothing that any one can do to stop it, especially if you are a neo-con.

Jerry Pippin 1-19-07

Tuesday, October 24 is exactly two weeks before the "off year " election, one that is always dismissed as not important but usually is as important to the nation as any Presidential election. This year it is a bell weather of sorts, all the polls, and most of the pundits say it is going to be a blowout against the status quo and most Republicans will be sent home. Evidence is mounting to the contrary however, not that the Bush factor is suddenly getting new support in the populace, no far from that. The evidence is more sinister to our democracy, 80 percent of the voting machines in American can be tampered and changed by clever computer geeks. It is true; ask anyone in the computer business and they laugh as they tell you how simple a Republican vote can show up as a Democratic vote, even with a paper trail right in front of your eyes with a rigged program and printer.

October 24 is significant for some other reason just as sinister. Most if not all of the talk show hosts in America will be in Washington D.C. at an expense-paid orgy of easy access to the biggest of the big in the Republican party. Hundreds of hours will be spent by these demons of democracy such as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Medved and a cast of supporting players. The man who organized this straight forward move toward a national movement in political hypnotism is one of them, Tony Snow, our Press Secretary for the administration.

Karl Rove and K street PR firms are probably close to an erotic climax in delight over this move. Thousands of hours of radio and TV time slanted by a shameless effort of the powerful to influence these mental midgets of the air waves with booze, money, power, and even contracts to the next of kin for worthless PR jobs handed out at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars form the governmental agencies spearheaded by the traitors of the American Dream, the neo-conservative movement. PAYOLA, refined and moved form Hollywood to Washington where it lives and multiplies by the likes of flacks who give political opinions on Fox and other networks without anyone asking if they have a conflict of interest.

I have been in radio a long time. I rose in the business from a kid who worked weekends at KBIX in high school to ultimately doing a daily show by satellite on 192 stations. I am now on the internet only because this is the only place where I can still get an audience for my mission of "truth and justice for all." The conservative program executives don't like that description of my show, they spin it as a liberal or progressive talk fest. Alas in a universe dedicated to conservatism by the listening audience, truth and justice does some times sound like liberal trash talk so hence, I saw the light and went to where I could find an audience who liked to hear a full description of what really is happening, not by me the pontificator, but by major guests who should and do know because they are the movers and shakers of the world.

I better stop and change course; this is reading like a commercial. Just one final thought, I am far from a liberal political figure, most of my radio shows actually have very little to do with politics. We deal in strange and unusual subjects and in entertainment of today and memories of times gone by with shows on Elvis, Big Bands and the like. At the height of my talk show career, I tried to get on my old radio station KBIX. I was on stations like KLIF in Dallas, KFYI in Phoenix, KOMBI in Kansas City on a regular basis but for me to be heard in my own hometown I had to buy time on Sunday morning and play tapes of shows for the week. I paid two hundred a week out of my own pocket just for the pleasure of letting my neighbors know I was alive and well and working.

This was the state of radio in America when I was in syndication and evidently it is even today. Air America, a liberal talk network with the likes of Al Franken and Randy Rhodes, declared bankruptcy a couple of Thursdays back and on Friday morning all over the country, shocked liberals heard religious programs instead. Why? Well not because religious programs get good ratings, no because radio preachers pay top rates to spread the word of God and their good deeds for humanity and until Air America ran out of money, it was doing the same thing I was doing back in the early 90s, only on a far grander scale, pay to play.

So when you turn on your favorite talk radio host or watch your favorite talk host on cable TV on October 25th, remember you are witnessing first hand how we got to this state of decay in our country. The ministers of truth forgot about that mission in their broadcast careers long ago when they figured out as Willie Sutton once said "Go where the money is," or something close to that... Sutton was talking about robbing banks, these guys, the boys on the dole at Fox ...they are talking about getting the leftovers from those who have robbed Americans of their wealth by using privatization with its built in profits to those who support those who giveth.. Billions transferred from the government to private business before our eyes and we are told "buy some stock in these companies and share the wealth." Meanwhile those on the inside laugh at how easy it all has been.

A word from the inside of talk radio to you the listener. Take those ratings with a grain of salt, few if any in my business are interested in my outmoded, outdated mission of journalism..."the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

October 24, talk show hosts go to Washington; October 25, listen to their false talk and keep reality in mind, they are the silver-tongued snakes luring us to continue to eat of the forbidden fruit of excess and pleasure ...we are all enjoying the music while Rome burns.

Public letter to Virginia activist on his question of conviction of impeachment in regards to retirement benefits.

Dear Larry Bryant:

Your recent letter to Senator George Allen asking about benefits for an impeached removed president from office brings me to the point of what our impeachment investigation is all about here in Oklahoma. Not only do we think they have been guilty of crimes but we think we can prove it with the grand jury investigation and one of the punishments we will be asking the prosecutors to pursue is reimbursement of the costs to the US from their misdeeds. One instance would be the no bid contracts to Halliburton, and the expenses of the IRAQ war which was knowingly started by both men without a decoration of war from Congress. They knowingly did the aggression using the assets of the United States in a war that was started and conducted under false pretenses.

it seems to me that as the damaged citizens of the US we would be entitled to compensation. Perhaps compensation for every citizen but more likely a repayment to the Federal Treasury of all monies expended under false pretenses as set forth by numerous executive orders and speeches made by both men leading up to the war beginning and then continuing to this day.

No doubt they will try for immunity similar to that granted policemen and other law enforcement officials who make errors in judgment; but I would think just the convictions alone would show that there was an intent to defraud and in my opinion the Bush Family and the families others including Cheney, Rumsfeld and even perhaps the secretary of state might actually be libel for reimbursement to the treasury. If the Judge did not rule this way as part of the punishment phase, I would suggest another civil action similar to law suits that go after those who harm ...such as a class action suit on behalf of the United States Tax Payer.

Best Regards,

Jerry Pippin
Co-Chairman of the Grand Jury Impeachment Committee
 P.O. Box 333 Muskogee, Ok. 74402
918-682-2630

In the movies, some of the best scenes are when the characters and the audience know doom is just over the hill. Hearing the Indians on the war path before they arrive in many old forgotten westerns, the dark of the night in a world war two movie when the soldiers can hear the tanks and artillery shells coming closer and closer. Today we saw a scene in Washington D.C, of the coming doom. It came in a roll call vote for House Bill 6166. Hmm, scary how this bill came out of no where with the 666 moniker, isn't it?

This is a defining moment in American politics. It transgresses republican against democrat, liberal against conservative in my mind. It shows who is moral and who is not. It shows who wants to stand up for humanity as a whole, doesn't it?

I have been out and among the people now for several weeks talking politics and moral behavior, law and order and who is a crook and who is not. About a third of those I have talked with, think I am somehow un-American because I challenge the administration and their dirty deeds of lies about war, about terrorists and who is winning. Facts seem be immaterial to most as we talk the issues . Five long years with billions spent and the terrorist threat is believed to be as real as the day after 9/11; yet, for some reason, many are willing to trust an administration that has done nothing to stop the terrorists, in fact, the evidence is everywhere that this inept rotten to the core group of men who rule us have created more problems than they have solved.

Now comes the defining moment and I wish it had not arrived. It is not fun to stand up and say to the "maddening crowd" hold on a minute? What are you doing? But someone must.

Today's vote is a vote that never should have been made. How can these men and women who voted for torture, suspension of rights, and countless other inhumane wrongs in the name of good live with themselves? My own congressman, Dan Boren, has proven to me is not a man fit for office, or any position in life. How can he vote for torture? It is beyond my understanding. From this moment on, I am going to do everything in my power to make sure the likes of Dan Boren never serve any longer than necessary for the public good because he has proven he is not for the public good. He is for Stalinist, Hitler-like treatment of others. He can dress it up anyway he wants, I think the word these days is spin, but the fact is he wants to back the US government in efforts to force men to drink boiling water, pulling fingernails, electric shock to genitals, etc. etc.

I have been accused of playing favorites with Democrats against Republicans, well, there are other Democrats that need to go home or go to jail. Isn't there a law against backing torture and tearing down the Constitution in favor of imprisonment for suspects without proper defense? There are other Democrats who were favorites of mine who have shown their true colors today? That nice Ford boy from Tennessee? Why would he vote for torture? Then there are the Democrats who did not vote at all. How could they miss the defining vote of any human being? How could they not take a stand? Among them one of my favorite liberals, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Houston and Marty Meehan of Massachusetts.

Over on the Republican side, how can every congressman in my beloved state of Oklahoma vote for torture? My hat goes off to a brave Republican who voted against torture today, Jim Leach from Iowa.

I am not sure who is running against Boren in November, but I am going to vote against him even if I have to write in my own name on the ticket. How can anyone vote for these men who cast their lot with the thugs and say "go ahead treat these men to pain, suffering and long term imprisonment. We will worry about their guilt or innocence later, right lets see a little blood, lets hear a few screams, ah, yea, ..." I am sick in my heart and into the depths of my soul tonight. How could American's vote for bodily harm of fellow human beings? What kind of world have we created?

Jerry Pippin
 www.bushbusiness.com

jerry@jerrypippin.com

The People Speak and the Powerful Shake
08/08/06

The bulletin was a relief, I made a huge deep-breath sound, like an Alka Seltzer commercial of old. Breaking: Three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman concedes CT Democratic primary for senate. Lieberman has announced he will run as an Independent.

Just as I had thought, the war and his undying support for the Bush Administration had stuck in the political throat of the electorate. What kind of Democrat is Joe anyway? Does he love the imperial office of the Senate so much that he has to retain his position at any cost or is there more to it than this. I submit to you that we, the populist part of the Democratic party, had been had when somehow this turncoat ended up on the Gore ticket in 2000. You know the political movers and shakers of the Democratic party, the party of the people, knew Lieberman's true stripes. Why did Al Gore, a true man of the people, accept this fellow on the ticket anyway? Questions about this keep me awake at night, when it comes to Gore. A man who I truly believe is a man of the people and I hope most of us realize how different 2006 would have been if Gore had actually won. Well, that is not actually true, all the evidence shows he did win. That is one of lingering questions. Why did Gore give up and allow the coronation of George W. Bush and his Neo-Con court?

Now Lieberman is going to turn his back on the party that supported him for 18 years, even elevated him to a post few men ever dream of achieving: candidate for Vice President of the United States. What kind of man could then behave like a battered wife and cuddle up to those who cheated him out of his place in the sun? I can tell you in five short words, "not much of a man."

So what if he succeeds in splitting the Democratic party vote in November and a Republican gets the seat? I don't think that is likely to happen, but even if it does, could any East Coast Republican be as bad as Joe Lieberman when it comes to protecting the working man and taking the high moral ground we expect from our leaders? I don't think so.

I am cautiously optimistic that the death throes of the neo-conservative movement in the United States will come to pass in November. Fifty seats could swing for the Democrats in "safe" House of Representatives." I expect it to be so, most political pundits do not, but they have missed most of the expectations of the people for years now. The Senate will be closer in numbers and the blank check of Cheney/Bush will no longer be a political chip.

77 percent of the people according to exit polls tonight, said the war was a major issue and well it should be. In the name of greed, power and prejudice, Bush/Cheney (I think the way I referred to this earlier is more appropriate) has caused untold damage of lives, property and hope for peace anywhere. 9/11 is now becoming more of a topic and we are working on evidence, real evidence, from witnesses who will say they helped in fixing 9/11 so it could happen. Voter machine fraud rampant everywhere, looting of the Federal Treasury in the name of privatization, all now well past ideology and into the shady greedy underworld of crime. Most of the administration is populated by two-bit thieves in the night? We will start on the road of trying to prove this ..right here in my little town of Muskogee, Oklahoma.

How, by a county grand jury investigation. We will get the signatures, we will push the prosecutors, we will push the envelope and finally this haze of wrong doing will become apparent to most if not all of us. So help us by signing the grand jury petitions, one on line and the other one which will be only for voters in my little county in the heart of a "red " state, Oklahoma. Somehow I think it is fitting we start the action with a signing kick off on Labor Day; after all isn't this what it is really all about...taking the power back from the elite and giving it to the common man. America needs to cleanse itself of the power brokers and greedy and get back to ideals of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. Only with people power will we be able to survive as the leader of the world, otherwise, I am afraid we are doomed.

So Mr. Lieberman, so long, it hasn't been so good to know you.

jerry@jerrypippin.com

Jerry sent this letter of support to Larry Bryant, whose letters are printed below.

Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 9:01 AM Subject: Fw: CIA v. The "UFO Press"

Mr. Larry W. Bryant, Please be advised that www.jerrypippin.com will gladly entertain joining with you and others from the media in protest including possible legal action if deemed necessary. This is an out rage particularly when the CIA asserts that Roswell is not the public's business. After all, this government seems to forget that they operate on the people's money, so the people have paid for the entitled to see what their hard earned money is buying for their country.

As a side note, if the administration continues to operate in this manner of high secrecy, not allowing the average tax payer to see the fruits of his labor? Then I suggest we only tax the corporations and allow the people to go free. Unfortunately this bunch of highway robbers and black operatives have chosen another route, letting the Corporations off the hook and taxing the middle class into oblivion while saying they are doing the opposite.

Go get them and I am sure other media especially involved in the UFO field will join with me in supporting any Court Action possible. Meanwhile I will contact my congressman, Rep. Dan Boren, though a Democrat, leads the pack in getting energy company money for his campaigns. He learned well from his father who has turned the Oklahoma University Campus is one super advertising mall with big corporate donors with their huge name plates making this famed institution of higher learning look like a buffet of advertising signs.

Jerry Pippin

[LWB Note: Ever since its inception 40 years ago, the U. S. Freedom of Information Act has served as a nuisance to such agencies as the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency. Now, can you imagine this: any federal agency's using taxpayer funds to thwart the spirit and/or letter of this venerable open-access statute aimed at serving the informational needs and interests of the nation's taxpayers (especially since some of those funds were used to generate the records in question)?

Well, fellow FOIAphiles, that's what we now have in the upcoming federal lawsuit of Bryant v. CIA. By his July 19, 2006, letter to me (quoted below), CIA FOIA chief Scott Koch has thrown down the gauntlet -- tossing me back into the FOIA briar patch, where I'm shaking hands with a similar victim, called the National Security Archive. For you see, this public-interest organization housed at the George Washington University in Washington, D. C., has once again filed suit against the CIA FOIA folks because of the Agency's refusal to honor the Archive's requester status as a "representative of the news media." (See a copy of the Archive's June 14, 2006, complaint at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20060614/index.htm

It so happens that I, as a columnist for the newsstand monthly periodical "UFO," share the same requester status as the Archive's. But no, says Koch & Co. I, like the Archive, must get on my knees and justify my existence under some arbitrary and capricious criteria not envisioned by the intent of Congress.

But there's a slight variation on the theme here. I notice that the Archive's complaint neglects to cite the organization's rights under the freedom-of-the-press clause of the First Amendment. Nowhere does that clause's language confine its protection to those who own a printing press, publish literature, and distribute (for example) entertainment media. Hence, individuals like me also enjoy the clause's protective scope in the matter of government-related oversight, editorial criticism, citizen-directed debate, and the eternal ideals of free access/inquiry and public accountability. In particular, the most self-revealing statement expressed by Mr. Koch -- "The July 1947 crash [near Roswell, N.M.] is not a current event, and the UFO press is not the general public" -- plants a red herring right at the feet of judicial determination in, at least, the Court of Public Opinion.

As with the Archive's case, Koch errs in trying to manipulate the definition of "news" to serve his agency's censorial proclivity. Understand this, sir: the term "news" constitutes whatever a publisher/editor/reporter/broadcaster/archivist and his/her readership deem it to be -- NOT what any federal agency might deem it to be. By levying unauthorized records-search fees upon any representative of the news media, you're imposing a de facto, inhibitory licensing fee upon those who'd dare exercise their freedom-of-the-press rights. First Amendment case law rejects that official policy/practice. Note: Koch's singling out the UFO press for disdain and disregard also violates the U. S. constitution's equal-protection-of-the-laws provision.

I therefore encourage all producers, content providers, and consumers of such media as UFO magazine, FATE magazine, the MUFON UFO Journal, the myriad of UFO-related web sites/blogs, and all UFO-oriented book publishers, along with the various UFO-related TV documentarians, to express to the CIA director their objections to this unfair, illegal, and dangerous policy; your doing so via your congressmen might result in an actual response from the Agency.]

larryb@jerrypippin.com

-----------------------------------------------------------

TEXT OF MR. KOCH'S 19 JULY 06 LETTER TO L.W.B.:

Dear Mr. Bryant:

Reference: F-2006-01045

We received your 5 June 2006 letter seeking to change your fee status from "all other" to "news media." As we noted in our 20 May 2006 letter to you, a request must satisfy ALL of the criteria set forth in our published regulations to receive preferential fee treatment as a representative of the news media. The records being requested must:

* concern current events;

* interest the general public;

* enhance the public understanding of the operations or activities of the U. S. Government; and

* be disseminated to a significant element of the public at minimal cost.

You write: "Corso's role as a Pentagon-based intelligence/R&D analyst in helping exploit the advanced technological artifacts retrieved from the July 1974 crash-landing of a 'flying saucer' near Roswell, N. M., reverberates, to this day, in the UFO press." The July 1947 crash is not a current event, and the UFO press is not the general public.

In addition, as you know, you have an outstanding fee balance of $30.00 for request F-2006-01956. Please remit a check or money order made payable to the Treasurer of the United States citing F-2006-01956 to ensure credit to your account.

Before we can process your requests, we must receive your check or money order for $30.00 for request F-2006-01956, and we must receive your commitment to pay fees in the "all other" fee category for F-2006-01045.

Meanwhile, we will hold your request in abeyance for 45 days from the date of this letter. If we do not receive your commitment to pay fees in the "all other" fee category within that time, we will assume that you are no longer interested in pursuing this request, and we will close this case.

Sincerely,

Scott Koch Information and Privacy Coordinator

This is a column written for a few and hopefully read by the many. It concerns our recent efforts to try to get a grand jury to investigate the criminal wrong doings of the President, his Vice President and the others that lead this administration. Larry W. Bryant posted our intentions on the forum at the Ardmore, Oklahoma newspaper. What ensured was not just ripe debate on principles, but vicious personal attacks on Mr. Bryant, my staff, as well as myself. These men ..three in particular..were especially vicious to Jane Swartley one of our producers. Calling her several names that gentlemen should not call ladies even in jest. So I thought I would share my response to Jane about these so called patriots with the world. Here is the letter:

Jane, I am amazed at these three fellows over at Ardmore. I know quite a few thoughtful Republicans with a conscience (they actually exist, I have seen them.) I am not sure where these "good old boys" have their heads. Remember I am a good old boy too. I was born and reared in Muskogee, Oklahoma and I joined the US Army to help defend this country back in the 60s, so I know them. I am surprised in their steadfast defense of Dubya as there is little left to defend. There is little this administration has done among all categories of ostensible GOP values that they can look to with any sort of pride.

Medicare? A great program has been so altered for profits' sake by medical interest that there is little left to be secure in the future. Dubya and the boys are sinking it fast within a sea of red ink. Shrinking the budget? Conservatives can't be happy with what this administration is doing for fiscal responsibility can they? Smaller government? Not with Dubya creating a new multi billion dollar department every month or two. Less intervention in our lives? Well all of us know Big Brother is listening and reading our everyday conversations and activities.

Reduced spending? Dubya has never heard of that one, especially with Dick Cheney and his friends getting huge sums from the middle class tax payers in the name of privatization. Increased respect in the international community? Even the front page of a Norway newspaper this morning reports Bush did his own people harm in a sham terrorist attack in New York and Washington D.C. Responsible international citizen? Ha. Name your topic, Bush has failed. Spectacularly. Intentionally.

So the only thing I wonder about tonight is why do these three down in Ardmore say such lies about me when the only one lying is their leader. I am not anti soldier, I was one. I want to impeach Bush/Cheney because I love this country and I love humanity and these neo-conservative warriors are far from being nice. They can laugh all they want, but we will prove ..history will show..that this administration was the worst..for America ..for the world. Torture, fear mongering, and greed do not make good legs for leadership. We need to stop this trend that is making America anything but the land of the free and I am sure sooner or later, our three friends who scoff and snicker and tell lies about our lives and reasons for living will suddenly accept the truth...THEY HAVE BEEN HAD by the snake oil salesman who sold them false premises for the sole purpose of stealing their money and their freedom.

In closing Jane, thanks for a good fight and I trust you will continue to try to cause thinking men and women to do just that...think. In the end, good will win over evil and don't think for a second that these men and women in our administration who try to say they are religious and moral, are. They are not. Deeds count much more than words and their deeds have been dastardly for sure.

Doug Thompson a reporter for Capital Hill Blues in D.C. on December 5, wrote this in a column - Thompson insists he has two sources who were there and heard the President cursing the Constitution and those who oppose him. We all know he publicly said he was the decider. So in Mr. Bush's mind it seems pretty clear that he is already the dictator of the United States of America and not just a lowly elected official even though it is the highest office the people can bestow in this country, that being President of the United States. Here is how that meeting went according to Thompson and a half year later no one is saying it is not true.

The meeting was with key Republicans from the Hill on his efforts to keep the Patriot Law as is. Bush was forceful and there was no way anyone could misunderstand his words. “I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Three people present for the meeting confirmed the words from the President to Thompson. Now let's fast-forward to Sunday morning, May 21, on "Face The Nation" where Attorney General Alberto Gonzales calmly stated that journalists could be prosecuted for doing stories about government secret activities. He also said that the government will continue to track telephone calls in the US including phone calls made by reporters. Unless you think this is not happening, all we have to do is quote ABC 's Brian Ross, an investigative reporter who says he is "treated like a drug runner or terrorist by the administration" as he attempts to investigate stories. The lead investigative correspondent for the network learned last week he was under surveillance by our government.

As a talk show host and broadcast personality who deals with news events and news personalities, I have had an interesting personal journey the past six years of the Bush Administration.

When Mr. Bush's forces were able to get the Supreme Court to do a political decision and make him President, I was shocked that the Gore people did not do more. In fairness to Al Gore, he has been quoted as saying "In our system, there's no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution." Gore's lawyer, David Boiles, has been quoted as saying not only does Gore think the election was stolen, but so does he.

As a person who was a Gore Supporter and a believer in the rule of the ballot box, I was outraged. So for four years we did everything we could, risking and losing quite a lot of money from advertisers who did not want our anti-administration slant associated with their messages. This was certainly the case from September 11, 2001 forward. The least bit of criticism met with an onslaught of cancellations and threats of cancellations of advertising money even though many told us off the record they agreed with our stance. They just thought it would be bad for business.

When Mr. Bush won the second election in November of 2004 with a far more clever manipulation of the ballots in our opinion, we decided to back off and let others do the heavy lifting. By the Spring of 2006, it was apparent to us that no one controlled by national advertising would do much about the IMPEACHABLE offenses of this President and Vice President. We had hoped an ambitious Attorney General of some state would step forward with an investigation, but none have. It was very clear to us that the Federal system was useless as it was now controlled by this anti-American Neo-Conservative movement. Then Larry W. Bryant contacted me.

Bryant is a well known activist in the political arena and has written several books. His main claim to fame is his ability to give the Pentagon fits over Freedom of Information requests. He is like a mad-dog who never lets go after he takes his first bite. Bryant and some lawyer friends had come up with a different tack to IMPEACH and they contacted me.

Two States, Oklahoma and New Mexico, had an interesting twist in the grand jury statutes. Simply put, five hundred signatures from a county and a local grand jury could be called to investigate the charges of criminal activity of even the President and Vice President. It was too much for me to resist. The call to duty was made and I accepted for better or for worst. I have decided to make the effort to get a local grand jury in a small Oklahoma town to take on the giants of our nation in far away Washington D.C. It is a long shot, not necessarily getting the signatures or even getting a Judge or an appeal if the Judge refuses to empanel the grand jury. The long shot is two-fold, will the local prosecutors take this charge seriously and do a good job investigating or will they bend to the pressures from Big Brother that will surely come?

The impeachable offenses are many. Lies and false pretenses about the war in Iraq. Well over 2500 dead American men and women due to the actions of the administration in creating false reasons for war. False reasons ranging from saying Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attacks, nuclear threats that did not exist, biological weapons that did not exist and on and on.

The 9/11 attacks themselves have many unanswered questions which will show at the very least a huge incompetence on the Bush Administration and at the most some much more sinister. Spying on regular Americans. The huge misuse of public funds by giving billions of dollars to politically connected businesses such as Halliburton to do the people's business . The refusal to reveal government cooperation with energy companies by the Vice President that has resulted in three times higher gasoline prices than in the Clinton years.

Then there is the torture issue. How can Americans stand by while our government conducts animalistic mauling of human beings in the name of security. Pulling fingernails and toenails out with each wrong answer, electric shocks to private parts of men and women, things are being done with official sanction that masters of Sadism would only dream possible. What kind of men and women are these government condoners?

There are many more impeachable offenses and our congress and the Democratic party sit like spineless jelly fish on a bench by the beach in the sunlight as the neo-con movement passes out the tax dollars to political donors from every type of business operation from pharmaceutical, to insurance, to financial services to the big daddy of them all, defense businesses. The objective is clear to anyone who wants to see it. Break the Federal Treasury and dismantle the social fabric of 50 years of legislation that was designed, not to help the wealthy, but the average American family.

The mission is clear, stop the madness and return us to the sanity of an America we have known in decades past. The job has fallen to the meek and least powerful, but we, the people in a tiny place in a red state can undo the actions of the cowboys of fear and loathing, the members of the Bush Administration. How? Simply by using the legal system to go after the "decider" and his fellow warriors of destruction. I am afraid, criminal charges being investigated by a county attorney in a rural area of a small state might be our only hope of restoring decency and moral conviction to the political arena. So our march toward a grand jury investigation of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney has begun.

With the elections in Israel over and obviously a move toward splinter parties being evident there, it has occurred to me that we may be headed in the same direction here. I am a believer in the two party system, but something has happened with the parties losing their ability to define themselves. I am going to attempt to do this now, as I am afraid it is almost too late. What is the term we use, "Get back to basics?"

The overall definition: Republicans believe in a strong government that tends to favor business and financial interest with the understanding that the benefits will trickle down to the population as a whole once the special interests of big business and banking are fulfilled. The former definition of Republicans sounds good but does not work very well in my opinion. The GOP mantra for decades was, " Less government interference in commerce and have government be stronger when it is closer to home." In other words, more of a Republic type of government with each state having strong rules and abilities to control the population rather than a central government in Washington.

The Democratic Party is designed for a stronger central government with Federalism or edicts put forth from the central government to the states and municipalities. The thinking is that we are indeed one nation rather than 50 different states and that certain types of laws should be enforced on a Federal level due to the ability of local and state law enforcement to be compromised by local officials. This is the reason civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws and the like are pushed by Democrats on a Federal level.

Basically all political parties have special interests, the special interests of the Democrats tend to center around social issues and the Republican special interests seem to be centered around big business in general. Now the exception to this has developed into a mix mash of people saying they are Republican or Democrat but not necessarily following the lead of the party. In the Democrat camp it is the influence of the Southern voter and candidates who tend to support states rights whenever possible and in the Republican ranks you have the neo conservative movement that tends to want a strong central government to control their issues.

Now what kind of Democrat am I? I am a liberal in every sense of the word. I favor a bottom-up or strong foundation to government. In other words, the Mr. Smith goes to Washington thing, people taking time out of their lives to make sure the government is not captured by special interests but only for the benefit of the people, with equal justice and economic opportunity. It is interesting that Wall Street tends to support Republican policies, but in actual fact, under Democratic administrations, it has done very well.

Here again, a strong financial house with a good economic foundation. Instead of paying less for labor, I suggest when people are paid a good income, they will spend money more readily and over the long haul the businessman makes more because there is more action in the economy. It is a producing economy, not an investing economy and this populism I think makes good sound financial sense.

Strong social issues can be strong economic issues, equal rights for all means more money for everyone in the long run doesn't it? In the medical field alone, many doctors have realized they are being told by insurance interest as well as government interest what they can charge, etc. Many of them have come to the conclusion that they would be better off and so would the patient if the profit motives are shifted from insurance and third-party payers to a single-party payer system. The point being, a doctor spending a million dollars a year for an expensive office infrastructure complete with accountants and specialists needed not to administer care, but to collect fees, is growing increasingly futile. Perhaps a simple fee arrangement of $200,000 to the doctor instead of some years unexpected fees taking 85 to 90 per cent of his income would be better for him in the long run. On the patient side, it certainly would be better for all expenses to be pooled, saving hundreds of dollars in premiums not yearly but monthly, in some cases.

Why does this not happen? Because both political parties are obligated now to the big business donors due to de-regulation in broadcasting allowing broadcasters to make huge profits from the politicians and from government agencies. The Democrats in previous decades legislated that broadcasters had to give free time to these causes and charge little or nothing to political campaigns and make sure their coverage was balanced by equal-time laws. All of this has been done away with by republican/conservatives believing that the free market would take care of the problem. It hasn't; it has increased the cost of running government by many billions.

So as a liberal or populist Democrat, I believe restraints should be replaced in many areas. Taxes should be shifted back to the ability to pay, using the tax code to cause employers to hire people and pay benefits rather than the opposite which is now encouraged by flat tax ideas. We need to get away from privatizing things that are not compatible to making money.

The cry of the Republican party was, "Run government like a business." Well, guess what, some things are not supposed to make money, police and fire protection, safety concerns, national defense, but under the Republican mantra of running government like business, a chosen few politically connected are making billions and we are getting for return a very poor investment on our tax dollars.

So the difference between being a Republican and Democrat is very simple. A Democrat wants to make business make money the old fashioned way, "Earn it." The Republicans have found an easier way, government-supported tax breaks, actual payments of government to private enterprise at over-inflated rates, and less regulation because after all, that costs money and who wants to spend it for the common good?

The lines between Republican moderates and Democratic moderates is very blurred and most of them do not have control of any of the agenda at this point. A good Democrat is willing to compromise, to give a little here and there, but only for the overall good of the nation. Sometimes special interests have to be stopped and it is always a good thing to stop and examine each issue by one simple standard: who benefits? If the common good of the people are not the winners in a piece of legislation or executive order, then I submit, we do not do anything to harm.

So in summary, haven' t you wondered why Democrats support fair labor laws, environmental issues, voting rights with less red tape on who gets to vote? It is really a very simple thing, Democrats have a tradition of being for the people and just for a precious few at the top. Equality and opportunity sums up what the Democratic party should be recognized for, fairness and always a desire to err on the side of the people against the special interests of the few.

Here in my native Oklahoma it is a cloudy and somewhat dreary day with a cold north wind, some leftover rain but no White Christmas. Soon my family will be gathering around for for round two of eating, joking and gift giving. All my life we always had a big Christmas Eve and that tradition has continued long after the passing of my parents, Virgil and Bertha Lee. Somehow that is the point of this column.

Stewardship...passing of the torch...institutions and life styles living far beyond the mortal lives of each of us. No one in my immediate family is anything but a Democrat, but I did notice as we grew older and our families expanded with various in-laws, some Republicans have crept into the scene. I marveled last night as we gathered around the tree and waited in anticipation for our gifts, who was a Democrat and who was a Republican. As far as I can could tell, my sister's husband's relatives were the only ones that were Republican. Both of them, young ladies in their 20's were well educated and upwardly mobile... they were just delightful in all things but their admiration for George W. Bush, our President. They worshipped him.

One went fifteen hundred miles to see him at some sort of GOP gathering in Washington and she still talked about him as if he were some sort of "matinee idol." When pressed she did admit the economy was bad, but her husband was doing well, too bad about the others. I stayed away from the war, after all it is the season of Good Will and I did not want to bring up a sour subject, one of death and destruction. I would like to say both of these women were just not informed, but that is not the case. They were proud of the fact they listened to "talk radio," Fox News and oh yes, they liked NPR but when pressed all they could name was Terri Gross and her fine interview show about mostly entertainment out of Philadelphia.

The point here is simple in nature, all of my friends are outraged at the needless destruction of Iraq, the taking away of our privacy and civil liberties, the graft in government that rivals the Teapot Dome scandals of the 20's, etc. etc. These two young Republican women, all they could talk about was their "sexy president." When I said I didn't think he was sexy, I thought he looked coked out...they smiled and said something to the effect, "so what, he is still good looking." We even talked about super churches and the Joe Olstein wife problem, she getting kicked off an airplane for bad behavior. They agreed the super churches were for the rich, mostly. The Republican party was for the rich, mostly and that I evidently had very bad taste in men's looks if I didn't see Cowboy George as some sort of bigger than life sex symbol.

I would have argued with them, but in a way, they were right. I mean I still think Bill Clinton is the greatest, but I dare not mention his name to them, it would spoil their Christmas.

Since they got their information from talk radio, I knew there was no answer for them. I had been in talk radio in the midst of the battles for the hearts and minds and the conservatives won. Not because they were right, they won because of the free market. Fifteen percent of the total available audience flocked to talk radio because it was conservative and told them what they wanted to hear regardless of the facts. When you have 40 or 45 stations or more competing for an audience, 15 percent is a strong percentage. So the conservatives won this battle, but have they won the war?

I marvel at this group of citizens who spout out with a twitching expression and eyes flashing, the word "liberal." Their idea of a liberal is far from mine. I remember what JFK said about it almost 50 years ago, "If by a 'Liberal' you mean ..., someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people --civil rights, and their civil liberties ... then I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal.''

So stewardship is really what it is all about these days and I am afraid many of the conservatives agree, the problem as I see it is they want to pass on their life's work and I want to pass on the work of the common good. It should be the same but somehow it has been altered to some other than "goodwill toward men." It is now thought of ..in not so good a term of thinking frame as ...I want to pass on my works and only to those I know and love... the common good means taking away from the rich and giving to the poor and most of these conservatives think of themselves as "rich" even though they probably have less money than many of us "liberals." It is the unintended consequence of the success of the American dream, I guess.

Jack Blanchard, the well known poet and songwriter/performer said it best, "For many this is the first Christmas and for others it is their last." Stewardship after all is what it is all about isn't it? Will our ideas of justice and fairness survive the ages to come? For the first time, the outcome seems to be in doubt.

Casey Clare sent me a joke last night that was funny, but unfortunately rings true. I want to share it with you. It is about five surgeons discussing who are the best patients for surgery.

The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color-coded."

The third surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

The fourth surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would."

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: "You're all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable."

Unfortunately many politicians behave in a manner that makes this joke almost true. We can change this you know, get involved in the political system today. People can change it and make it work. We have the government we voted for...how do you as an individual do it, simply get involved in the political machinery. Find out from the party of your choice, when your next local meeting takes place. Go and observe, introduce yourself and demand quality candidates.

Not for a minute do I believe most Republicans want the graft, corruption and ineptness that plagues our government today. It is simply a case of the neo-conservative faction working with corporate interests that have hijacked this political party. The same goes for Democrats. My experience has been quite simply a puzzled reaction that most Democrats are scratching their heads at some of the comments and votes in congress of their leaders.

We as a people have let the few speak and act for the majority. It can be stopped. Now is the time to do it, not election time a year from now. Get involved, after all who we select to run is just as important as when we vote on the winners and losers. The way it is now, we, the American People, are the losers. We deserve better, so demand it and do your part to improve the system.

Politics does count. It reaches into your pocketbook; your everyday life-styles and overall quality of life is controlled by politicians. Don't you think you need a little more say about how things are done? Well, we had better start using our power or we are endanger of losing it forever.

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Unintended Consequences of a Conservative Philosophy
09/15/05

I have not written a column since the Hurricane Katrina disaster, on purpose. I applaud those that have. Now I would like to write a few opinions about it all. The first lesson from this disaster was a simple one and from listening to President Bush speak tonight on TV, it did not seem his side got the message at all. The message is simple and the events the past two weeks prove it to be very true: PRIVATIZATION does not WORK.

Well I take it back, it works for some folks. Those who can do business with the government, like the company that rented the trucks to FEMA at $600.00 a day and there are over a hundred of them sitting at an Air Force Base in Alabama, never used. They are full of ice and water and supplies. It is working for the trucking company. However privatization is not working very well for the refugees and that is indeed what they are.

Reports from all over the Gulf Coast say razor fence barbed wire double strings are springing up, keeping residents from their property and keeping refugees contained in places of "safety." It looks more like a Prisoner of War Camp to me. We watched with horror the inaction that allowed thousands to die, yes, thousands, don't pay attention to the official death count, it is being deflated. It sure looked like "ethnic cleansing" to me. It appeared like an official effort to get rid of the poor and the minorities from a major resort city. This has developed into a white separatist's dream.

There was the President on TV tonight (September 15th) blue light, blue shirt, pretty background of a landmark in the French Quarter. He was speaking better than he ever has. No stammers, no hesitations, he was a man on a mission. But what really is the mission here?

I think he laid out three major points, but those were not the points I was getting. First of all, he mentioned the fact than he had hired a private company who knew how to respect the dead to recover the remains. Wait a minute, is he talking about the company in Houston, the one that was implicated more than once in the past with body dumping? The President looked so sincere when he mentioned this; but he forgot to mention that Kenyon International was a Bush supporter, friends of the family. They are being paid $118,000 plus per day for two months to do this dirty work of recovering the dead and maybe even hiding the dead. Hey, what are friends for anyway?

The President mentioned minority-owned businesses and small businesses and all I could think of were billions of dollars of contracts going to Halliburton, Bechtel, and the regular suspects. All friends of George, but Hey, what are friends for anyway? He said he was going to rebuild New Orleans and just hours earlier the Corps of Engineers said that 150,000 homes would be coming down by Bull Dozer and plowed under the rich damp delta dirt. Could this new NEW ORLEANS be leaner and whiter? I suspect that is the plan, old Louis Armstrong is probably turning over in his grave as he watches the heritage of New Orleans being transformed into a modern Las Vegas of the South.

Gambling? Who said anything about gambling? Well, it is the unspoken idea floating everywhere in the city just like the debris in the leftover water from a broken levee that was concrete and had just been refurbished. Gambling. What a way to make the city money, pay the bankers back for the rebuilding after they have repossessed the land. What did that smooth-talking southern boy Governor Hailey Barbour say on TV the other night, Mississippi gets 50 million a week from the Casinos?

Then there was the little nice statement from Mr. Bush..with a smile. Something to the effect, we are going to make Federal Lands available for homesteading, if a displaced person can get a mortgage or a grant or help from Habitat for Humanity, we will give them the land. Sounds good until you think about it? Where is this land? Most Federal Land is not close to anything and certainly not residential or business-friendly. Oh, I see, Halliburton and the others, they will do what Del Webb did, transform the desert into lovely places of public housing ...all at a handsome profit for George's friends; but, hey, what are friends for anyway?

What would be there result of making a million people move to Federal Lands, even if they could qualify for loans. It would be simple. New Orleans would be a resort city without the baggage, the concentration of minorities would be spread out around the country and the government would guarantee all of the loans for the bankers, so Hurricane Katrina would become the pin-up queen of government giveaways. Do I have a better idea?

Yes, has anybody heard about the Works Progress Administration in the great depression? It worked then and it will work now, put the 60 billion to work in the Gulf Coast, with the businesses there and the people there getting the money. Let the homeless have the jobs and let them build back their homes, their towns, and yes, even old NEW ORLEANS could shine like new paint in the morning sun. It is very simple, put the money back in the hands of the common man, the one who was damaged. Will they do this? I doubt it..

You see President Bush has never been accused of being the smartest kid on the block. He didn't get it. PRIVATIZATION DOES NOT WORK. Oh, I forgot, for a few at the top, it is working, they are making lots of money from the middle class tax payer, they get the contracts, the money and the tax cuts...you and me, the great American Middle Class, we get the shaft. The poor, dislocated people from the Gulf Coast, they get to start all over ...somewhere else.

jerry@jerrypippin.com

I notice with some satisfaction and also with some disbelief the public and private statements of Right-wingers these days. They seem to be saying things that are blatantly improper and perhaps in some cases, illegal, with impunity. First of all, lets talk about Pat Robertson. His case is so outlandish that it seems to a parody. In fact, many of my right-wing positive thinking religious friends seem to think he really didn't say it and it was made up by the liberal media.

Well, he did call for the assassination of the President of Venezuela. I can't help but think that this is illegal and seems to be some sort of conspiracy to commit murder. I would like to see charges filed against him. I don't think we have an extradition treaty with that country, but at least they should be filed. If I got on the air said let's assassinate someone, you can bet the law and order guys would be after my head. Why not Pat Robertson?

The puzzling thing about this is the fact that he felt safe enough to make this statement. First of all, how can he keep support of the Christian community when he advocates killing? I don't think killing others is a pillar of faith or is it these days? He did make some sort of reference to Muslims and Commies. The latter seems to be the reason for the statement.

Just maybe, Pat was asked to alert his base which is not really all that informed about world events that Venezuela is now on our enemies list. After all, they took the business away from the Bush family interest and CITGO and are going to start giving "our" oil at a handsome price to the Chinese. The ink will dry on that contract later this week. So either Pat owns a lot of CITGO stock or maybe KKKarl Rove called him up and said, " Hey, we are going to take over Venezuela and oust their President, just like Papa Bush did in Panama." I mean all Manuel Noriega did was tell the CIA he was tired of doing their drug work in Central America and that he had found a new source of income: passports sold to the Chinese.

So will we have a take-over of another South American country by the US? Venezuela does supply a lot of oil to us and I can hear Dubya saying to cheering crowds of SUV owners, "taking our oil and giving it to the commies, why, that's a hostile action against the US." Notice he probably won't mention how many of his buddies are losing millions daily because of the nationalization of the oil business in Venezuela.

I read Daily Variety every day, and they had an interesting story today about Right-winger's insensitive remarks on the radio and on TV. Here is the quote: "Is there something in the right-wing water that's causing conservative commentators to cross the boundaries of taste and propriety? Within the past six weeks, Robert Novak stomped off the CNN set; Tucker Carlson praised a police attack on Greenpeace protesters; and Rush Limbaugh trashed a grieving mother."

I have noticed the shrillness from the Right on a personal level. I get lots of emails everyday from conservatives who follow a script that seldom is altered. First they write me about some statement or challenge a fact or two.  I return the favor with an answer with some documentation. They return the next dispatch saying they like me but frankly I am full of it and by the fourth or fifth email they are attacking my intelligence, patriotism and morals. Then finally they get really nasty all the while saying we Liberals are the nasty ones.

There are a couple of conclusions I have drawn and I am not sure which one is valid. First of all, we may be past help in having any sort of dialog with these people who think of compromise and "live and let live" as some sort of flawed idea, or.. and I hope this is the right one.. they are getting louder because they can see their ideas and power slipping away and a yearning to return to the "good old days" when there was a healthy discourse of ideas. Could I be kidding myself because I want to believe the latter rather than the former?

jerry@jerrypippin.com

Is All of This for Real?
08/21/05

It is a bright Sunday morning here in Oklahoma. After an evening of rain storms the new day shines bright as if it has been cleaned by yesterday's storms. I think it is time for a national cleansing and it just might happen. The news this morning is the usual stuff, accidents, murders and oh, yes, a strange announcement from a Salt Lake City TV station that they will not accept the latest commercial featuring Casey Sheehan's mother berating Bush for sending her son off to die in a desert far away on the other wide of the world. I think the TV spokesperson said something like, "It is just not good for our community."

No, they were talking about the commercial, not the fact that President Bush was going to be there on Monday speaking to veterans in defense of his oil war. A couple of things stand out about this. My, how far we have come since I started in broadcasting over four decades ago. Back then, we could not turn down commercials because we didn't like the content. There was a fair doctrine at the FCC. Back then we all understood it was the people's air waves not the owner of the stations airwaves, but that has been replaced, I guess in society in general, with that term the common good almost being a curse word these days to the me-firsters who seem to rule.

The second thing is the strangeness of the comment, "not good for this community." Is the TV station owner saying sending men and women from Salt Lake City off to die in a war that was started under false pretenses is good for the community? I guess it is as long as his children, fathers, daughters, sons don't have to go die. Instead of Other People's Money, it seems to me we are operating on Other People's pain these days. The strange reality continues with a look at the President's schedule...

First of all, that August vacation in Crawford with the woman outside the property line grieving over her lost son and the President seeming to be totally untouched by it all. Just read what he told the newspaper reporters the other day about Cindy Sheehan and her grief:

"I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy," he said when asked about opting to ride his bike instead of meeting with Sheehan. "And part of my being is to be outside exercising." Hold on, don't worry, if you are thinking that our beloved President is too busy watching Dr. Phil and talking to Jerry Falwell to know what really is going on the world around him, he addressed that very subject in that same news conference.

"I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so." The strange thing about this comment is that he thought it would be okay to say it out loud in an atmosphere of dead soldiers, grieving mothers, and the reality that IRAQ under a despot like Saddam was better off than billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis without life.

To add the icing on this cake being baked by the spin masters of the neo conservative masters of the world, there is the news that Mr. Bush will spend Tuesday in Idaho, dirt bike riding. Isn't that dangerous, especially for a man who already ran over a secret service man on a regular pedal bike? The thought has crossed my mind that someone is encouraging him to do these things. Why? Maybe they are sick of George too. What would happen if the President had a fatal dirt-bike accident? Unfortunately not much over the long haul because very few think this President is making the decisions anyway. What is it with father and son? Always trying to push the macho button.

Remember, Daddy Bush in his 80s went parachuting a while back and now sonny Bush is going to prove he can ride those dirt bikes as good as any "good ole boy" anywhere in the country. I have a message for both of the Bush men, you have spent a lifetime manipulating "good ole boys" and zealots of all types, don't you think the world is about to figure out something about you two? When it comes to the good of the populace as a whole, neither of you have much of a legacy. Both of you have killed by ordering combat, killin