Theodore's World

Ted Turner says media has no business showing American Flag

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Why does he live here, why does he want to live in the USA if he thinks this way and all the other things he has said about our counrtry.

Almost fifty years ago, in November of 1959, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” aired an episode entitled “Special Delivery”. It was adapted from Ray Bradbury’s story “Come Into My Cellar”, which also appeared in periodicals under the title “Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!”. I was fourteen when I saw it. It scared the hell out of me.
In this tale, eleven-year old Tommy Fortnum receives a package of mushroom seeds in the mail from an undisclosed source. He’s responded to an advert in a boy’s publication for the seeds. To the bemusement of his parents, Tommy then raises a particularly delicious variety of mushroom in his home cellar. He’s protective of his crop and very secretive. At the same time, Tommy’s father, Hugh, notices subtle changes in his neighbors. They’re different from their usual selves in important ways. They’re belligerent, detached and hostile.
Hugh knows something is wrong and so does the viewer. There’s a connection between the mushrooms and the altered states of the neighbors, but Hugh figures it out much too late. Tommy is distributing the mushrooms. Whoever eats them vanishes, and their bodies become animated shells inhabited by aliens. Hugh tries to warn his neighbors, but they scoff at him. They’re content with the temptations and comforts of a summer’s day while being slowly, peacefully replaced.
The screenplay doesn’t tell us how this story ends. In the last scene, Tommy is shown with a mushroom to his lips, in a darkened cellar, calling to his father, who peers into the darkness from the top of the cellar stairs. Hugh’s final horror and indignity is to be betrayed by his own son. Betrayal is a central theme in this story. It isn’t chiefly, or even mainly, about aliens and conquest. It’s themes are lying, betrayal, weakness, comfortable indifference and the delusion that, if things look the same, they are the same.
It’s also a yarn about the feebleness of our defenses when everything seems stable and permanent, and how easily power and dominance can be exchanged by weakness, by simply doing nothing. Doing nothing, and being seen doing nothing, in a competitive universe, is an invitation to be superseded or colonized by other powers and ideas. Competition goes on all the time; there is no peace, only stasis, and competition for power often has no other motive than perceived weakness in the passive party.
Conservatives are familiar with these themes. We sense a fraud and a threat early in the game. It’s this acute awareness of dishonesty and ubiquitous danger that modern liberals view as the conservative paranoid personality, as the alienated right-winger. This idea stems entirely from the reality that liberalism today is establishment and conformist, risk-averse, and sickeningly repetitive with its tired, shabby and devitalizing theories. We’re diligent, skeptical, anti-ideological and strength matters to us. Not the strength to dominate others, but the strength to avoid being dominated by others. We wouldn’t have eaten the mushrooms, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.
As far as we know, the invading entities in “Special Delivery” never resort to violence or force. Their current circumstances might have weakened them in some way, so they seek habitation elsewhere. We never see their real form. They simply exploit a weaker state of mind in humans, and avail themselves of an opportunity on earth. We know nothing about their ideas, but we know that they will win. And this is where my little screed intersects with politics and government, and the Bush/Kennedy Immigration Bill, which as of Thursday, June 27th, appears to be dead. It’s a continent-sized cave of mushrooms, my friend, and they expected us all to partake. They still do, and the meal will be back in some other form.
We might as why we elect and pay people like Bush and Kennedy, Lindsey Graham and Trent Lott to be stupid and offensive when we get enough of it for free every day. Well, we don’t elect them for those qualities, but that’s what we get. Compensatory arrogance and megalomania grow in sanctimonious buffoons like Graham and Lott and Reid and Pelosi when we place them in public office, because they can’t abide the real existential weakness that elected office beholds. We can dump them back into the common swarm of humanity from whence they came, and this simply cannot stand. They seek office for power, permanence and self-projection, and they need to solidify the fantasy of their immovability by staking their terrain in noticeable ways, like tomcats and coyotes.
If they would just express their bone-deep mediocrity by bloviating and squandering money, we might leave them alone. Give them a trillion dollars and two-thousand microphones, put them behind the chain link fence and walk away. But some times, like now, they sail off through a fogbank into some mental Sargasso Sea. They end up mired and becalmed, yammering to each other from their rotting deck chairs about some Big Idea, like The Great Society or immigration bills, and cursing the rest of us for declaiming their navigation skills and attentions spans.
Their last Big Idea, The Great Society, planted a fetid jungle of despair for millions, and the immigration bill is just as bad in the same grandiose ways. It won’t work, for starters. It’s too complicated and its assumptions too spurious for it work. It’s a replacement for other un-enforced immigration bills, and contains new laws to replace identical but currently ignored old laws, and it has the potential for real mischief. It’s the product of the end state of a political class past its prime; those who compose it are shockingly unaware of how ridiculous they seem to the rest of us. And even though the bill might be dead, they’re plotting revenge strategies as I write.
Forget, for a minute, the multiple idiocies of the bill itself. It has an ethical flaw, too. It’s packed with economic charity of the kind that fills the empty hearts of power-hungry politicians with instant virtue. Bush and others are possessed of a bizarre kind of charity, they need to give away things they do not own. Things like American sovereignty, like rational citizenship standards, like social benefits and sensible wage standards, and even more important, the legitimacy and validity of a government matured over 250 years, held together by dried blood and torn web gear, and legitimized by the “consent of the governed”.
The President and others don’t see America in this way. Their America is an economy without an ethos, a friction-free collection of buyers and sellers who can be manipulated and tuned by immigrant labor supplies, productivity and business interests. When necessary, this cynical vision of America can be ornamented with crap about “family values” not stopping at the border, but the simplified mercenary vision is really all there is. It wouldn’t pass the approval of a hung-over, semi-comatose college freshman in his first Political Science course, but it’s enough for George W. Bush, most of our elected side-show performers, and the fearful big business class of America.
Whatever happens with this great mess we call illegal immigration, it’s likely that something shattering and revolutionary has happened in American politics. For the first time in seventy-five years, not since Herbert Hoover and Smoot-Hawley, has American government seemed so counterfeit, so weak and remote from the interests of lawful immigrant and native-born citizens, and so bent upon forcing its vision of American on Americans who don’t buy it.
It’s a time of great danger. When there’s mass awareness of the political class as truly sinister in its assertion of itself against the people, a struggle will ensue, and there’s no guarantee of victory for us in the long term. We can never forget that “freedom” is a dull and lifeless word until we attach a preposition to it. Freedom from. Freedom to. Freedom for. Freedom against. Freedom with. Action. We need to do something with our freedom, and not just declare ourselves as free. We didn’t eat their mushrooms today, but the political hacks responsible for the meal are still there, perched like gargoyles on our backs. Maybe it’s time for a Conservative Party.

Fairness Doctrine hammered 309-115
The Hill
The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using taxpayer dollars to impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters who feature conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
By a vote of 309-115, lawmakers amended the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill to bar the FCC from requiring broadcasters to balance conservative content with liberal programming such as Air America.

At the end of Thursday’s debate, Democratic House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (Wis.) agreed with Republicans that the government should not regulate conservative radio hosts such as Limbaugh and Hannity……“We ought to let right-wing talk radio go on as they do now,” he said. “Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton…….”

Talk Radio and the Fairness Doctrine

Wild Thing’s comment……..
LOL I thought this was so funny how they put this together and thought you all might get a kick out of it. Turn up the volume.
Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton, . . .
What role did Paris play in today’s Senate Cloture vote? LOL

Mexican president says vote ‘a grave error’
chron.com …for complete article
Mexico City
President Felipe Calderon of Mexico reacted sourly to news of the Senate’s rejection of the proposed immigration law overhaul, calling the senators’ action “a grave error.”
“It’s a grave mistake first because it’s a problem that’s not being confronted, and with this evasive action the U.S. Senate is making it worse,” Calderon told reporters in Mexico City during a joint news conference with President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who is finishing a two-day visit to the Mexican capital.
“Secondly, because to close the door on legal immigration, the only thing the Senate does is open the door to illegal immigration” the Mexican president said, according to an account published by the newspaper Reforma on its Web page.
Calderon repeated his “repudiation and rejection” of plans to build a wall along much of the U.S.-Mexico border.
More than a tenth of Mexico’s 103 million people are estimated to live in the United States, many of them illegally. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, and others from Central America, continue to cross the border every year illegally in search of work.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
The “door to illegal immigration” was already wide open. Now that we’ve been able to prevent Kennedy and Bush from taking it off the hinges, maybe we can push it shut. Straighten out your own damned country, jerk. The president of Mexico has made a “grave error” in dumping his problems on the U.S.
Rush Limbaugh on Illegal Immigration

INDEPENDENCE DAY will have even more of a meaning this year!! Good work everyone. Thank you for all each one of you did!!!!! I love you all so much!!
..this is one of those occasions when the truth “WE THE PEOPLE” are the government is very apparent–there is hope for the old Republic yet……..
Now, to quote Duncan Hunter——–Let’s Build That Fence………..
Conservatives, we did it. We held OUR Congress accountable, against seemingly a unsurmountable invasion backed by those who attempt to control with wealth and greed. Let them know forever more, this is OUR country, OUR government. The only power they have is what we lend them. And today we showed that WE are THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, where freedom exists because we are willing to fight for it.
The political elites were shown that it is harder for them to pull the wool over our eyes than they thought and, maybe, they will now address the problem of border security before they try to force their will us. EVERY American who called their Senator and urged them to vote against this mostrosity deserves a thank you.
I am going to call all the Senators who voted No and Thank them.

FINAL ROLL CALL: 46-53.
RINOS: Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Hagel (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), Lott (R-MS), Lugar (R-IN), Martinez (R-FL),McCain (R-AZ), Snowe (R-ME), and Specter (R-PA).
It should be noted that the following Republicans switched their vote for “Yea” to “Na” from the bill earlier in the week. They include: Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Burr (R-NC), Coleman (R-MN), Collins (R-ME), Craig (R-ID), Domenici (R-NM), Ensign (R-NV), McConnell (R-KY), Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK), Voinovich (R-OH) and Warner (R-VA)
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00235
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —46
Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —53
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Not Voting – 1
Johnson (D-SD)

Tancredo Sends Head of Lettuce to Chertoff
WASHINGTON (CNN)
It’s not every day a presidential hopeful sends Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff a head of lettuce, but that’s what Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, is doing Wednesday to show his disagreement with Chertoff’s recent comments on how failure of passing immigration reform might affect the agricultural industry.
Tancredo says he disagrees with recent comments Chertoff made that suggested if the immigration bill fails, the agricultural industry will suffer.

To prove his point he is sending Chertoff a head of lettuce, a fruit basket, and a card saying, “much, much more where this comes from.”

“The administration has taken hyperbole to a whole new level this time,” Tancredo said in a statement. “They are now trying to convince the public that without amnesty, the American people are going to starve?”

“The agriculture industry and the free market has managed to keep producing through floods, droughts, and $3.00 per gallon gas,” Tancredo added, “I doubt very seriously that a nominal increase in labor costs is going to be the end of lettuce as we know it.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
LOL I love it! Awesome move by Congressman Tancredo! Tancredo has a humorous way of making his points

US Marine Colonel Simcock, the commander of USMC Regimental Combat Team 6 in Iraq, is asking for 6,000 positive emails to his Marines.
That’s one email for each Marine in his RCT command. COL Simcock is concerned about the effect of the negative barrage that those Marines are getting through the electronic media. I’ve attached an excerpt from an interview with him. So far, they’ve only mustered 2,000 emails. That’s a crying shame compared to the amount of crap I get daily in email.
Here’s the address:
RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil
“If you’re reading this email, then you can probably click on the
address, type a few words, and then hit “send” to be all done.
It doesn’t have to be the Gettysburg Address.
Something as simple as “Hello, Marine. We thank you for what you’re doing.
You are in a noble task. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Best wishes &get home soon” is more than sufficient.

Notes from Hot Air

“A travesty. He’s the personification of the bill’s ills: ignorant of and incurious about its weaknesses, confused as to what’s in it and what isn’t (per his comments about Kay Bailey Hutchison’s amendment), and worst of all brimming with arrogance at the nerve of conservative proles to be angry about this issue. This clip ought to push those confidence-in-Congress poll numbers into single digits, assuming they’re not there already.”
“He also appears to have only the vaguest sense of what the Fairness Doctrine is. Rest easy tonight knowing that in these capable hands may rest the fate of the nation’s immigration policy.”

Wild Thing’s comment……….
He hid behind his indignation in an attempt to hide how completely clueless he was about what was in the bill and how it would impact American taxpayers. He also used the “I won’t be intimidated…” line, referring to We, The People Peasants who have been calling and emailing to say there will be a political consequence to his votes.

* Hot Air

JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice twice referred to Hamas as a “resistance movement” during a meeting with reporters from the New York Daily News earlier this month, but the newspaper did not report her remarks.
Rice’s interview is transcribed in full on the State Department website.
Rice’s statements mark the second documented time in recent months she called Hamas a “resistance movement” during unscripted chats with journalists.
Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rocket firings. It’s classified by the State Department as a terror organization. The group’s official charter calls for the murder of Jews and quotes widely from the anti-Semitic creed, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
During the interview June 8 with the editorial board of the Daily News, Rice was asked about the recent history of democratic elections in the Middle East resulting in the rise to power of terror groups, such as Hamas.

Rice told the paper it was “very interesting to see Hamas trying to come to terms with no longer being really a resistance movement, but having to deal with politics.”

Rice then referred to Hamas as a resistance movement a second time during then interview.

“A moderate Palestinian friend of mine said, ‘You know, they (Hamas) used to be the great resistance, running the streets with their faces covered and going after Israel. And now, they look like a bunch of politicians who also can’t make the sewer system work.'”

She went on to reference Hamas’ terror cells, calling them the group’s “military wing,” which regularly carries out terror attacks, including shootings and firing of rockets into Jewish population centers.

“And they’re (Hamas) clearly uncomfortable in that framework, which is part of why I think you see the military wing of Hamas trying to make this again about Israel and the Palestinians, not about the contestation of politics inside the Palestinian territories,” Rice said.

A State Department spokesman could not explain why Rice called Hamas a “resistance movement.” The spokesman confirmed the State Department had not changed its policy of classifying Hamas as a terror organization.

Rice, speaking to reporters in Berlin Jan. 18 about the situation of Palestinians prior to 2000, commented, “You had Hamas, of course, sitting out as a resistance movement, not at all, by the way, involved in the politics at all.”

Rice’s remarks at the time prompted some U.S. Jewish groups to demand an apology to victims of Hamas terror.

Wild Thing’s comment……….
Rice sorry you are NUTS! Step aside and let someone that reads up on what the Hamas has done in this world, their agenda and what they darn sure will do in the future if allowed to do.
This administration has simply fallen apart, there is a total lack of leadership and rational thnking. No wonder Washington is out of control!!!
What a freakin’ mess. Thomas Jefferson is doing backflips in his grave. Jimmah legitimized the Ayatollah and helped to destroy the Shah. This woman is the first SOS to call Israel occupiers and legitimize terrorists who the Ayatollahs directly finance.

Fred Thompson has suggested you are pandering to bloggers who he calls “fringe anti-American elements” who think that 9/11 attacks were an inside job, and that you’re also encouraging our enemies. What’s your response?
Reid: Mr. Thompson should get real and understand what’s going on in our world. It appears he’s very old fashioned and isn’t in tune with the modern wave of communication.

Wild Thing’s comment…………
Rush calls him “Dingy Harry”, but when I see and hear him speak, I think “Church Lady” (Dana Carvey’s character). LOL Watch how much he blinks when being asked the question…………. Reid must be using some new modern communication method of blinking in Morse Code.