Could Rick Perry Become Our Next “Rock Star” President? Part I

Am I the only one who is not surprised that Rick Perry zoomed up to the top of the polls as the GOP nominee for president?  It’s the hair.  The camera loves him.  Billy Bob voter don’t need no more than that.  Throw in a nice smile, a manly voice, and a kick-their-ass swagger when he talks about Washington, D.C. and you got all the ingredients for the next man in cowboy boots to sit in the Oval Office. Overnight it appears that Rick Perry has zoomed to the top in the polls. Even before he announced his intentions to run.  With those early polls putting at the top of the GOP heap, his nomination seems a certainty.  The GOP is running scared to get anybody at all to defeat Barack Obama for a second term.  Is it possible Perry could be our next rock star president? He isn’t the first politician with good hair and a sound delivery on camera to make it to the White House.  Take Ronald Reagan.  He was the all-American boy, the Gipper.  He won our hearts long before on the Silver Screen, then later on television as the Old Ranger.  The familiarity of Reagan’s face to American voters got him elected governor of California.  His face was recognizable in the long list of movies Reagan starred in, e.g., “King’s Row”, “Bedtime for Bonzo”, and “The Knute Rockne Story.”   Then later, on television, Reagan hosted Death Valley Days, the General Electric Theater, and other prime time programs.  Face recognition.  Nothing like it.  You see the face, your lizard brain says “good” and you pull the lever in the voting booth.  No one would ever know that you never did any research on who Reagan was before and after he took office as president of the United States.  You just like the way he carries himself and smiles, right?  But here are a few reminders (milestones) about who the man behind the face and the wink and a smile truly was. Some of Reagan’s legacy.

Just between us voters, oftentimes Billy Bob don’t have time to research the candidate beyond the TV screen.  You are too busy raising children, working hard to put bread on the table, commuting, you know the drill.  So your lizard-brain assessment of a candidate’s qualifications tends to be almost 100% subjective.  No time to research his voting record.  But would you like to have a beer with him?  That’s the ticket.  Got Bush II elected.  Or was that Antonin Scalia (bite my tongue)?  Only got time to watch him on television and see how good he talks on camera.  Issues don’t really matter.  The country’s financial future hit the wall when Reagan convinced American voters that borrowing and spending 3 trillion dollars during peacetime was the right thing to do.  After all, he said, the Evil Empire (Russia) was a real threat to democracy, Christianity, and life as we knew it.  Americans saw the twinkle in his eye on camera and bought into it.  And the ongoing interest on the extra $3 Trillion in debt he plunged us into since he left office in 1988.  Like in 23 years X say 3% X $3,000,000,000,000.00.  Then you compound the interest and it becomes even more double trouble.  Where were the Tea Bagger Police when you really needed them?  And how come they all gone all lock-jawed on talking about the massive borrowing and spending that occurred at the hands of GOP? Guess they caint count or cipher the truth all that well.

Now John Boehner and Paul Ryan never mention Reagan’s borrowing and spending to get us ready for a showdown with Mother Russia.  Isn’t that what led us to the present financial disaster America now faces?  So why don’t these indignant Tea Baggers bust Reagan’s butt for all the trillions he borrowed and spent in PEACE TIME?   Can you say HYPOCRITES?  Can you say $640 toilet seats?  $500 hammers?  Billions of dollars for an aircraft carrier?  Grand Theft Country?  I mean would anybody in their right mind be able to justify having our dear Uncle Sam pay $640 for one toilet seat when you can buy one at Wal-Mart or The Home Depot for $14.95?

Has any conservative, Republican, or Tea Bagger, including Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman, ever brought up the Trillions of dollars borrowed and spent by GOP presidents and their lapdog congresses?  In the interest of the Tea Party’s hard line stance to stop spending, why do they put Social Security on the operating table and never, never, never mention the borrowing and spending on wars and military buildup of planes and ships and maintaining over 5,000 military bases all over the world?  Does being a Tea Bagger mean you naturally got a terminal case of the Arithmetic Dumbass Virus?  Heck, Bush II borrowed and spent $4 Trillion dollars more during his 8-year term in office.  But that’s another story, and to this day nobody seems to care that much.  Certainly not John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Grover Norquist, Sean Hannity, Paul Ryan, or Glenn Beck.  You know, all them fiscally “responsible” people who got working people and poor people government programs in their country club crosshairs?  I don’t know why not, but it would be fun to see them asked the question on “Face the Nation” someday.

Many American voters, though they can’t recall much that Reagan did or did not do as president, think that Reagan made us feel good again as Americans.  Unless you were union.  He literally destroyed unions when he fired the Air-Traffic Controllers who went on strike for more benefits.  He attacked Grenada (Yeehaw).  You hardly ever saw him in an impromptu setting unless he was walking from the helicopter to the White House.  And for the camera he always pointed to his ear to indicate he could not hear the reporter’s questions for all the ‘copter engine noise.  Now that is a real inconvenient truth (sorry Al Gore).  In truth, Reagan had no prepared script to read from, but the camera loved his face each time, his smile, his All-American boy charm, even after he grew old.  And America excused him for being an old dumbass.  And we paid dearly for it.  But hell, he looked good on camera and made us feel good again.  Right?

Then came the Terminator.  Arnold Swartzenegger ran in a special recall election against the governor of California, Gray Davis, and won.  It was swift.  And neat. Arnold came in the front door while Davis barely made it out the servants’ entrance with dirty shirt sleeves hanging out of his bags.  Lordy, how did that happen?  Everybody in California smoking weed or what?  Anyway, it happened.  Arnold Swartzenegger pulled it off.  He was a recognizable face from the movies and television.  The Terminator.  Conan.  Kindergarten Cop.  That’s all it takes to get Billy Bob voter to pull the lever.  How can you argue with results?  Actors with good looks and hair and clever little lines are much more qualified to lead and govern the state of California, right?  Sigh.  But wait. The Terminator gave a stirring speech at the 2004 Republican Convention.  Who could forget the “Don’t be a girlie man” reference to Democrats and John Kerry?  That was at the Republican National Convention of 2004 when delegates wore tasteless Band Aids with Purple Hearts on their cheeks to denote that Kerry’s medals were given to him for little scratches he received while commander of a Swift Boat in the Mekong River Delta.  Kerry volunteered, Bush avoided combat duty thanks to Poppy and Houston businessman Sid Ager.  And Ahnald never served in a war except on a movie set.  But it all effectively crushed Kerry.

So Ahnald got to play a new role as governor of California for years.

Hollywood is everything when it comes to the American voter.  Rick Perry has all the basic characteristics to win.  Like Reagan and Ahnald, the camera loves him.  He has good hair.  And the Billy Bob American voter don’t give a rat's ass no how.  About issues.  Or researching voting records.  Or whether a presidential candidate advocates seceding from the Union, the United States of America.  You know, the country he wants to be the leader of?  Has America gone mad?

So can anyone really tell me why Rick Perry could leap to the top of the polls right after he entered the race as a GOP candidate for president?  Does anyone really know or care about his record on issues?  Why would he leap up to the top of the GOP roster with Bachman and Romney?  Anybody have an opinion on that?  Other than the camera loves him?  And our lizard brains need to embrace illusory heroes that don’t exist or never did?  Did Rick Perry really say that Ben Bernanke should be tried for treason if he kept on printing money?

With Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush’s iron fist on America for a long 16 years combined we saw a borrowing and spending spree that totaled over $7,000,000,000,000.00.  That additional IOU we racked up and added to our National Debt PLUS compounded interest on that DEBT is the chief reason we are beyond bankruptcy as a country in 2011.  Countries like China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia who are holding the bag on that debt are getting nervous.  Obama cannot stop the dam from breaking.  All he knows to do is to tell Bernanke to print more dollars while he rides the fence in hopes that Republicans will be nice to him and favor some of his policies.  But in the process, Obama puts Social Security and Medicare on Boehner’s chopping block just as smooth as you please while saying he will never do it.  Yeah, right.  Reagan and Bush and their TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH have decimated our National Treasury even beyond the borrowing and spending for false wars and protection from bogey man Evil Empires.

But Rick Perry could be the worst of them all when it comes to butchering and killing most all the social programs the working men and women have.  In Part II to follow in 2 weeks we will dissect Rick Perry the man in a little mini-biography in an attempt to show who he really is, and reveal who is behind the mask of Governor Goodhair.

I confess to cutting and pasting a bit when it comes to movies and how you would like them to be characterized.  For instance, remember the Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker fought his father, Darth Vader?  Well when Vader took his black helmet off, in my mind I fantasized that the face I saw was that of Dick Cheney. That would be poetic justice of sorts.  But what’s behind Perry’s mask feels more blood-curdling. I picture Perry as the alien in the movie “Independence Day.”  You remember, the one who the president asked, “What do you want us to do?”  “Die.”  the alien replied.  With the vehemence and bile that lets Perry openly say that Social Security and Medicare is unconstitutional, Perry has to know that many thousands, perhaps millions of people will die if these programs suddenly came to an end.  Does Perry care?  I don’t think so.  And you know that if elected, he’s going after those programs.

Love and Hate in the Religious State (Part II)

In Part I we looked at many probable causes religion came to be such a powerful force in the world.  Even today with all of mankind’s scientific advances and latest technology, religion still has its hand on the power of most all the governments of the world. In the Ronald Reagan era of the early to mid-1980s we saw how religion could actually help elect a Hollywood actor president of the United States.  The Moral Majority, invented by the Reverend Jerry Falwell, grew to be the nemesis of Democrats.  Falwell told his flock and the television world that Democrats were immoral, killed babies, and were pro-gay marriage.  These godless liberals Falwell said needed to be weeded out at the ballot box. Falwell preached on, and many Democrats in congress were toppled for 8 long years in favor of Republicans, Falwell’s chosen party of God, or so he said.  Falwell’s notorious “hit list” of Democrats that needed to be voted out of office nationwide, proved effective.  Most all on his list were toppled from elected seats of government all over America in favor of Republicans.   How Falwell escaped being audited by the IRS for violating his tax-exempt church status as a religious leader, only God knows.  God wanted what Falwell said He wanted, and that was that.  No argument, no discussion, the Almighty had spoken and made His wishes known to Falwell, His messenger. And President Ronald Reagan loved it.  As a result, Falwell’s popularity and television stations and Liberty University in Virginia brought in many millions in tax-free donations to Falwell’s ministry.  That he could tap into the tax-free donations of his parishioners and television viewers to defeat Democrats seems downright dirty and illegal, but as Falwell probably said, “God moves in mysterious ways.”

There were other religious television evangelists of note, and as always, the money, the millions and billions of dollars continued to flow into the pockets of these dubious preachers.  And these self-proclaimed messengers of God just knew that God loved Republicans most, you see, because the bloody Democrats were Pro Choice and the Republicans, Pro Life.

Back when Richard M. Nixon resigned as president of the United States, Billy Graham, famous TV evangelist and world Christian minister, chartered a passenger jetliner and flew to San Clemente, CA to hold Nixon’s hand and comfort the ex-president at his beachside home.  Imagine how much it cost to charter a commercial jet airliner, and please tell me that all the tax-free donations to the Billy Graham ministries were best served in the name of Jesus.  My God didn’t Graham do the math or what?  Chartering a jetliner to comfort an obvious crook would feed a lot of starving people of the world, you think?

Later on, Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, became the head of his father’s ministries.  He awarded himself over $2 million dollars in bonuses and salary.  Coming under fire from the Charlotte Observer newspaper, Graham said he enjoyed the work for Christ so much that he would do it for free if he had to.  One of the Observer’s readers wrote in, saying, “Then do it.  Give up your take of the offerings for Christ and give it to the poor.”  As of this writing, Franklin Graham has not donated his salary and bonuses.  To anybody.

He also dabbles in politics.  Graham supported Donald Trump for president, of all things.

Note:  Graham for Trump

Franklin Graham let Sarah Palin, former candidate for vice president of the United States (and chronic air head) use the Billy Graham Ministries private jet to fly all over America to promote her book.  Was this a special book tour for Jesus?  Blatant abuse of religious entities remaining tax-exempt in all the millions they rake in in the name of Jesus?  Of course.  Would Jesus approve of a company private jet in His name?  Sure thing, Billy and Franklin.  Power corrupts, and religious power corrupts most divinely.

So how are the Grahams and the other television evangelists different from the Spanish Conquistadores who brought religion to the Americas not to save the savages, but to steal their gold?  I mean, private jets?  Chartered jetliners to fly to Nixon’s side?  Jesus.

Take Jim Bakker.  Please.  Remember him?  He sold 3 times the number of time shares to those who bought them in Heritage Village, his religious theme park in South Carolina.  He was indicted and sentenced to federal prison where he served 4 years of a 25 year sentence.  Note: Jim Bakker Scandal

Bakker’s PTL Network (Praise the Lord) ran for years on prime time television. Behind the wide smile there was sex, stealing, fraud, misuse of donations for air-conditioned dog houses and golden bathroom faucets, do you love it?  Oh the sins were most deadly ones during the times of the Bakker Scandal.  Jessica Hahn, a secretary, was involved sexually with Bakker, then married to Tammy Faye, now deceased.  Bakker and another official of the PTL Ministries traded Hahn about without batting an eye.  What would Jesus say about that?

Jerry Falwell, mentioned above, tried and succeeded in taking over Bakker’s PTL Ministries after Bakker went to prison.  Some believed that Falwell sought to continue the word of God in an established Christian-faithed ministry.  But Falwell smelled money.  Years after, both Bakker and his deceased wife, Tammy, said that Falwell was a huckster who misused the PTL Ministries for his own personal gain.  Imagine that.  Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority helped elect Reagan to two terms in the White House and his ministry never paid a dollar in income tax.  Neither did Liberty University that he established years before.

But just when you thought religious charlatans and crooks were down and out, think again.  Today Jim Bakker is out of prison, and broadcasts a very successful television show from Branson, MO.  Millions of dollars flow to him again in the name of Jesus.  His most recent scheme is conceived out of brilliance.  In hard times survival food is doing well as a business in America, but Jim Bakker gives it God’s blessing as well.  So for what Bakker calls a small “love offering” of a few thousand bucks, you get food with a long shelf life, blessed by the Almighty, of course, sent to you to help you survive Armageddon and the destruction of society as we know it.  So he sucks in those who truly believe the world is coming to an end and those Christians who believe Jim Bakker is doing the work of God as a minister.  Gives new meaning to the words “double dipping” doesn’t it?   Note:  Bakker’s Comeback after Prison

Bakker’s “Love Offering” Catalogue:

In 1966 Bakker and his first wife Tammy did a television program for kiddies in Virginia in the early days of the Pat Robertson 700 Club ministries.  Robertson mentored many a crook in exploiting Jesus for big bucks.  Pat Robertson trained not only Bakker, but Ralph Reed who formed another political religious group, the Christian Coalition.  Reed helped elect right wing public servants much in the same way as did the Moral Majority.  Reed, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff (now doing 11 years in prison), were all mixed up in pitting Texas’ only two Indian Reservations against each other in gambling permits.  They all received big bucks for their trouble, but some of them were prosecuted and are scheduled to do time or are presently doing time.  Sound like God-fearin’ Christians to you?  Hmm.

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries of Baton Rouge, LA is still standing after Swaggart was caught and forgiven twice for masturbating in the backseat of a vehicle to a whore who joined him.  He’s still around after being caught twice for jacking off in public?  And his ministry is still alive and raking in the tax-free bucks?  No way, right?  Wrong!

Note:  Swaggart’s two-whore sex saga

Then there’s Oral Roberts and his son, Richard, who flew his daughter to expensive vacations in the Bahamas on (here it comes again) the private Oral Roberts Ministries jet.  This same son remodeled his personal residence 11 times in 15 years, and he fired some key managers of Oral Roberts University because they knew and talked too much about his lavish tastes and misuse of church funds.  Roberts also charged at least 50 students to campaign for a political candidate which is against the tax-exempt code for religious institutions.  His daughters were privy to lavish personal lifestyles from college funds and tax-exempt offerings from faithful Christians.

Note:  Richard Roberts Scandal

Roberts stepped down as president of Oral Roberts University but still receives money from the tax-exempt income of the ministries.

The list is long on how religion takes money from faithful followers.  The Roman Catholic Church is most probably the richest entity on planet earth with billions, maybe trillions in real estate holdings alone.  Funny thing about the faithful Catholics is that after the altar boy scandal of priests sexually abusing them for years, the membership is still the largest of any Christian church.  That priests seem unrepentant for the crimes against children, seems blatantly anti-Christian.  Especially in lieu of being shielded by the higher-ups of the Catholic Church.  The church has paid out many billions of dollars to those victims of these homosexual child-rapings, but then Rome decreed some 7 years ago that each church parish had to stand on its own in paying damages for the outrages committed against innocent children who trusted the Church.  In other words, if the parish ran out of money due to payouts of abuse claims, then the church, the parish had to dissolve because the Church of Rome would not make good the claims from its general funds or immense wealth.  There was even a statute of limitation of 10 years for abuse cases suggested by the Bishops of the Church.

So is religion taken at face value the biggest business in the world?  Probably.  It is more immense than even government, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and Wall Street combined.  And remember, all the money taken in is TAX-FREE.  Makes a difference.  And we haven’t even spoken about other world religions like Islam, Buddhism, or the likes.  So when it comes to saving souls, is that the primary concern and business of religion?  Or is it the bottom line of how much they can take in while professing to bring the Word of the Lord to the masses?  Churches engaging in the political process now is a smoking gun, you think?  You decide.

Love and Hate in the Religious State (Part I)

When Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons heard the first clap of thunder in their primordial backyard, quickly, they invented gods. They needed an explanation for the powerful disruption in a superstitious existence that was full of mystery to them. Such a powerful bolt of thunder must have terrified them. They feared their very destruction. So they jumped instantly into the survival mode and paid homage to these powerful phenomena they could not understand. In desperation they sought to be spared and protected. At least it is a good guess, though none of us know for sure how long it took gods and religion to break the horizon of early man’s consciousness. 

Possibly to quiet their fears, they began living in tribes for protection. Communities mushroomed. There was strength in numbers. Conditions were ripe I would guess for medicine men to dazzle the tribes with magic tricks and such voodoo shell games that made them seem special and in touch with the gods. Medicine men often elevated themselves to positions of priest, and in some cases, gods. And the people, out of fear, went along with it. In addition to being worshiped in return for protecting the tribe, these leaders were rewarded with riches and power. But religion was in its infancy then. Untold riches and TV Evangelists with their own TV satellites and banks in Scotland were yet to come. Religion filled the gaps and explained away the fears of an unsure and tumultuous world. And the medicine men, the soothsayers, the men who could bring something to the table to frighten the clan into following them, appointed themselves to high positions in the clan hierarchy.

Fast forwarding to the Nile Delta before Christ, the Egyptians had many gods, some with animal heads and human bodies. Great cities and civilizations flourished there for thousands of years. The pharaohs were deemed to be gods, and they ruled in complete, unchallenged authority for over 5,000 years. Every human on the planet has seen pictures of the great pyramids and the Sphinx.

Great cities and cultures flourished also in Meso America, too for thousands of years. Many different tribes, e.g., the Toltecs, Olmecs, Itzas, and Incas built great stone cities and pyramids that stand even today, unchallenged by the ravages of time. Many tribes, e.g. the Mayans, created the most accurate calendar of all time. They invented the numeral zero. They were astronomers par excellence.

On the other hand, the Aztecs would tear out the hearts of sacrifice victims to offer to their gods so that it would rain, or maybe it might help them defeat their enemies. They weren’t messing around. Religion to them had to be serious business. But they had great stone cities and pyramids, too. Until the Spanish destroyed them and built Catholic Churches on the same sites.

Funny, but even the Old Testament’s Abraham was asked to sacrifice his own son in a burnt offering to God, just to prove to God that Abraham was a faithful and true servant. Human sacrifice has been a part of man’s unconscious compass for longer than he might admit to.

Religion became the most powerful motivator known to man right after he came down from the trees and began to walk upright. And nothing has changed. The lizard brain was then and is now, alive and well and a part of us.

The fear of what might happen to you if you challenged religion or its priests and doctrine made the individual walk a straight and narrow line of acceptance. Religion controlled the masses completely. Many religious leaders were deities. The Mayan city states of the Yucatan Peninsula in present day Mexico are proof. The leader wore a giant head dress taller than the person himself. Commoners were prohibited to gaze upon his face. He was known as the True Man, god of all. His family held high positions in the Mayan society. None of them worked in the fields. Yet the Mayans willingly supported all of the higher rungs on the social ladder by donating a portion of their own corn they planted and harvested. It seemed to be a win-win situation for the hierarchy and the common peasants of the field.

Many historians contend that the Mayans’ fascination with astronomy and predicting eclipses of the sun and moon were tools of science used to scare the unknowing people into believing that the high priests could control the very light of the moon and sun. Pretty strong evidence for that.

So early on, organized religious institutions found that they could successfully motivate people who followed them to give up part of their earnings. Call it offerings, tithing, or selling protection, organized religion successfully discovered that they could pick the pockets of poor believers who strived to save their crops, their families, and their very souls. Religion became the greatest mover of men the world had ever known. And the coffers and property of the churches grew to enormous proportions. Today the Roman Catholic Church, after 2,000 years of passing the collection plate collectively might possibly have a net worth larger than Exxon, who knows? Certainly, all the organized religions over the world have unimaginable masses of wealth and power. And assured accounts receivables where future earnings are guaranteed by the faithful believers who will be counted on to shell out regularly all the days of their lives, generation after generation.

So much for the historical introduction of how religion might have come to be. Yet as humans we need other questions answered. We are not holding a pat hand when it comes to religion and our beliefs.

Is religion a real and worthwhile entity that serves humankind? Or is it a scourge upon civilization? Does it give to the individual and society or does it take from each? Arguments can be convincing both ways.

First came the Popes and the Crusades. There were several Crusades under different Popes of Rome. French and English kings, from 1096-1272, under the direction of various Popes, tried 9 long Crusades to take back the Holy Land from the Infidels. These noble knights of each Crusade sacked and killed non-Christians in the Holy Land for almost 200 years. During the Fourth Crusade, the huge Christian Church at Constantinople was rumored to be in possession by Infidels. When the knights in shining armor and red crosses on their white tunics came to see for themselves they discovered that the church was occupied by Christian monks. Not Infidels. But after a day to consider the irony, the Crusader knights attacked and sacked the church anyway. Hmmmm. Gold and spoils might have been a larger part of the mercenary quest of the Crusades instead of ridding the Holy Land of Infidels, you think?

Pope Innocent II gave King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, complete authority to purge the country of Jews, Moors, and Protestants. Many were found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake. Their property was confiscated. The Spanish working class believed that the Inquisition targeted rich heretics so that the crown could steal their property. That conversion to Christianity was a ruse to torture thousands of human beings, kill them, and take their possessions. Stealing from Jews, Moors, Protestants, and other branded heretics was not new. Spain unleashed their soldiers upon the New World and brought Friars to convert the savages while taking their gold.

The same Spanish crown directed the Conquistadors to plunder the Aztecs and Incas. Hernan Cortez landed at Vera Cruz, MX and began his trek to Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). Along the 200 mile trek, he accumulated an impressive army of Indian tribes who had axes to grind against the Aztecs. So within the year, the great Aztec empire fell, Montezuma, its chief, had been killed, and many tons of gold had been confiscated from the Aztecs and sent to the Spanish Treasury. The Museum of the Americas in Madrid, Spain, is full of possibly billions of dollars of rare gold artifacts the Conquistadors took from the Aztecs and Incas. There had been two missions: to convert the savage Indians to Christianity and (unofficially) take all the gold possible and send it back to the Crown. Not necessarily in that order. Each Conquistador got a share of gold in the Spanish Treasury credited to his account according to his rank. Was the motive a religious one or one of avarice? 

These are but a few examples in history where religion and God were invoked to allow the smooth and clear-conscience stealing of land and resources to flow. Often I have wondered at the first Thanksgiving where Indians and the Pilgrims sat down to give thanks. I mean, how could the Indians give thanks to the white men who had invaded and taken pieces of their land with many more of the same to come, shoot their game and displace them to reservations? And how could the Indians perceive the white men and women as a blessing when their arrival spelled doom for the Indian way of life as they knew it?

Since the Middle Ages and sacking and looting in the name of religion, man has become very sophisticated in “bringing in the sheaves,” so to speak. Now it is done through political enmeshment with governments, wars started in the name of God, and in response to unholy terrorists whom Allah, they contend, tells them to attack America and to bring down the World Trade Center buildings. And it would be wrong not to include former president George W. Bush who told Russian Premier Putin that God told him to attack Iraq. I’ll swear, even Sarah Palin proclaimed Bush to be about God’s work in Iraq. Stay tuned.

A Short Course on Making a Silk Purse out of a Sow’s Ear

To make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear is an old expression. It means when someone makes something rich and beautiful out of something rank and of little worth, well the creator of the silk purse has accomplished something rare and beautiful out of something rank and even perhaps repugnant. So it goes with the creation of political images of candidates running for public office. The trainer, or campaign manager of a candidate for elected office, has the task of creating the most favorable image of the person possible while the other side is busy trying to destroy that image. This phenomenon involves billions of dollars changing hands between lobbyist groups in DC to get what their clients are willing to pay for to see their man elected.

Karl Rove, perhaps one of the most successful handlers of candidates ever had the dubious task of turning George W. Bush into a two-term president. Under Rove’s shrewd direction of this president with a 92 IQ, Bush managed to come out of it all smelling like a rose and going on a successful book tour and joking about his public service as president on the Oprah Winfrey show. During that presidency, Bush borrowed and spent an additional 4 trillion dollars that got tacked onto the National Debt. This money Bush spent largely on guns, missiles, Homeland Security, and other war corporation-interests. Bush started two wars, one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq, where we still have boots on the ground after almost a decade. In addition, Rove made it palatable to the American voter for Bush to sponsor a 2-trillion dollar tax cut for the richest Americans, Bush’s proclaimed “base.” Karl Rove brilliantly made it okay for the new GOP (Neocons) to spend more money than the big-spending Democrats ever did, and to still blame the Democrats for being tax-and-spend enemies of America. Pretty good trick if you can pull it off. But Rove did. And Americans believed it enough to see Bush elected twice as president.

Karl Rove was first observed by President Nixon. In 1970 Rove had filched some Democratic Party letterhead in an Illinois election and had used the letterhead to discredit the Democratic candidate. It is no surprise that Rove’s mentors at the time were notorious dirty tricksters Lee Atwater and Daniel Segretti of the Nixon Watergate era. Nixon helped Rove get his start and later George Herbert Walker Bush helped Rove to rise even further. Rove became George W. Bush’s handler in the Texas gubernatorial races where George W. Bush won two terms, and later two terms as president of the United States.

Rove achieved success with Bush by keeping him off the microphone as much as possible, but on camera. Rove sold the sizzle, not the steak in promoting Bush as the good old boy who you would want to have a beer with. Not much substance, not much upstairs, but Bush could present a good swagger when he walked. The camera image of a macho president with a good smile is what Rove seized upon and used to sell a sow’s ear to the American public as a silk purse. Forget that he attacked Iraq who never harmed America. Forget that there were no weapons of mass destruction pointed at us. Forget that Scooter Libby lied and was convicted and sentenced by a federal jury only to be commuted by Bush later. Forget all the numerous signing statements Bush affixed to duly passed bills by Congress which destroyed the Constitutional separation of powers of our very government. Forget that Poppy Bush got W. into the Texas Air Guard where he would never see combat while the Viet Nam War raged. Forget that Bush probably went AWOL while in the Texas Air Guard and missed several mandatory drills. Forget all the missing Rove emails that could have meant some jail time for many White House officials, just sit back and relax. And know that George W. Bush is a good American, a Decider, who is just country enough for you to want to have a beer with. Yeehaw. Rove knew the important strings to pull and what to do with the Bush. 

The Gary Hart/Donna Rice scandal was another example of how the illusion becomes the reality. In April of 1987 Gary Hart, former Senator from Colorado, was the front-runner against Poppy Bush for president. Hart was supposed to win not only the Democratic nomination for president but the White House as well. 

Hart was in Florida on a yacht frequently docked in South Florida near Miami. The Monkey Business was an 83-foot motor yacht custom built and owned by the developers of a luxury resort. Famous guests included Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, and others. The very name of the yacht made for tabloid press fodder to taunt Hart about inappropriately being seen during the campaign with young women in Florida.

The boat was used by Senator Gary Hart during his 1987 campaign for president. Hart had challenged the press to provide evidence of his alleged infidelities. Reporters for the Miami Herald, in a bold move, staked out Hart's townhouse near the campaign yacht The Senator was spotted with Miami model Donna Rice sitting on Hart’s lap aboard the yacht. The media released photos of Hart and Rice on the luxurious yacht, and Hart’s shot at the presidency had been destroyed.

It was as good as it gets for Democrats back then. Ray Strother, Hart’s political advisor and an old high school acquaintance of mine, explained it this way: “Gary Hart was one of the finest men ever to run for high office. The opposition had been stalking him for quite some time to get some dirt on him prior to the General Election. They finally got their snapshot of Donna Rice sitting on Hart’s lap on the Monkey Business when the team watching Hart happened to drop their guard for a split second and Rice and the photographer came aboard the yacht. When the press saw Hart alone, that’s all it took, so smile…you’re on Candid Camera.”

“That’s all it took?” I asked. Apparently so. Ray said the other side did some splendid work getting Hart aside to where a photo could be taken with Donna Rice on his lap.

Nothing seems to be more damaging than an affair or an indiscretion when it comes to people in high office. Even though the charge is trumped up and false, the press wants to sell papers so they absolutely do not care about printing the truth. Insinuation seems to sell more copy. Gary Hart was caught (but not with his pants down) with a sweet young thing on his lap. It ruined him. Enough said. 

But is it? Is that all we care about the truth, or the lack of? Must we believe the illusion with all its circumstantial juiciness instead of the truth? Are we truly guilty until proven innocent when it comes to high public office and our elected officials? If the truth had been important to us as voters instead of falsely implied smut, would our lives had been for the better with 8 years with Gary Hart as president? Maybe so. But Poppy Bush would not have ascended to the White House. And it might have been much harder for his boy, George W. to get there as well. Everything is relative in the Universe, perhaps.

So the sultans of slime like Karl Rove, Lee Atwater, Donald Segretti, and the like can use all their dirty tricks in their bag to foil the truth in the eyes of the American voter. Lies spun with big bucks from the rich GOP donors like Houston homebuilder Robert Perry and the Swift boaters to demonize Kerry back in 2004, work wonders when in the hands of the likes of Rove (Rove got $10 million from Perry alone that election year).

Segretti called foiling the Democrats by spin and lies, “Rat Fucking.” The truth gave way to the illusion. The big money made the illusion seem real. And the Illusion not only rat fucked the truth, but made Bush somebody you might want to have a beer with at Billy Bob’s. And Gary Hart into a womanizing married man that he truly was not. The illusion cost him the presidency. And most likely Americans a whole lot more.

So next time we get ready to pull the lever for who we think is an honest candidate who will serve us well, how will be know? How will we be able to perceive the illusions spin money generates when it successfully makes a silk purse out of a sow’s ear?

It’s the Money, Stupid: Believing the Hollywood Illusion

It began with Ronald Reagan. If you could get a trained actor to convince voters that what you saw on television or the Silver Screen was real, you could elect actors to high office. Like governor of California or even president of the United States. You pause a bit at first to reflect on the idea of what makes for a good leader. Could an actor possess the skills and the political acumen to pull off an 8-year term in the White House? Sure thing.

Ronald Reagan, ne the Great Communicator, the Gipper, the Old Ranger from the TV show, Death Valley Days, pulled it off. For 8 years as president of the United States, he convinced most of America that he was on the side of the working man. Yet he was directly responsible for massive cuts to the workforce. He convinced us to believe that a job flipping hamburgers was a manufacturing job of high purpose. At the same time he was busy firing all the Air Traffic controllers who went on strike for more pay and better working conditions. He totally destroyed unions in America, the last effective bargaining tool of the working man that better served the greatest number of Americans, not just the wealthy few.

All the while, Reagan convincingly appeared on camera to explain his positions on policy. He was smooth. He proved that you could convince most all voters of most anything if you said it with the right intonation and subtle facial expressions on camera. I remember the time Reagan needed to explain some of the new little taxes that needed to be levied to clean up the trillions of dollars he racked up over the years with his borrowing and spending spree to defeat the Evil Empire, Russia, and bring it to its knees. There was the question of raising federal taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. But Reagan said that he would be against taxing beer because that was the working man’s drink. Wow. He cared about the working man. He was just as convincing in his delivery as he had been as the Gipper in the movie “Knute Rockney, All American.” Yet under Reagan, the working man’s lot suffered several body blows in Reagan’s tax reform bills and in his philosophy on how the pie should be carved up. The working man lost out and the corporations thrived.

In late 2002, Cheney had summoned the Bush administration's economic team to his office to discuss another round of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Then-Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill pleaded that the government -- already running a $158 billion deficit -- was heading toward a fiscal crisis. But by O'Neill's account of the meeting, Cheney silenced him by invoking his take on Reagan's legacy.

For the first time in history, had Reagan proven truly that “deficits don’t matter?” Those very words were spoken by Dick Cheney in a Cabinet meeting convinced president George W. Bush that it was their time to spend, spend, spend. Did the Republicans have no second thoughts about racking up more debt when their very avowed politics had been “conservative” for over a century? Weren’t they even a little bit red-faced at their massive borrowing and spending? Like the big-spending Democrats they have enjoyed demonizing for over a century? When you borrow, you have a shortfall, and that money you do not have to pay for your spending on weapons, invading and occupying foreign countries, is called a deficit. And when you borrow to keep the government running, you must pay the piper. You must pay the interest on the deficit or the ongoing increases of borrowing to keep on paying for the spending. “Deficits don’t matter.” What a curious notion. Yet I truly believe that Reagan convinced Americans of that very concept because he was, indeed, the Great Communicator that could explain it all in very believable terms so the American people would buy it. No one ever called him on it.

And later, Bush would borrow and spend another 4 Trillion dollars on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a country that had no weapons of mass destruction which was the reason Bush told America it was necessary to attack them. Almost 10 years later, our servicemen still boots on the ground, we wonder why. And if the countless billions of dollars a week we are still borrowing and spending to finance such madness is worth it. And if deficits really don’t matter after all.

So under Reagan’s 8 years as president he was directly responsible for America going into debt 3 Trillion dollars more than when he took office. We as a country did not have the money to run our government, build up the armed forces in peacetime, mind you, so we borrowed it. And to hell with paying the piper at a later time or paying interest on the new debt incurred. America was great, America was back, and God was most assuredly on our side. Reagan convinced us that America was the best. He made us feel good. He seemed like a regular guy you could trust. So America did trust him. Many have said he will go down as one of the greatest American presidents.

Reagan believed in mixing church and state, and relied on religious organizations to elect him and GOP candidates from dog catcher to Senator. Reverend Jerry Falwell organized the Moral Majority which publicized hit lists on candidates NOT to vote for. All Democrats, Reagan and Falwell were in bed together. It meant more votes, and selling God and country to all Americans from the Oval Office was a piece of cake as long as Reagan was on camera reaching out to all Americans. The Christian Coalition, another group mustered their memberships to vote for Reagan and the Republicans because it would be better for our country. Besides, Reagan was opposed to abortion which suited the religious groups just fine. Jefferson and Madison turned over in their graves after Reagan convinced the American people that a separation of church and state was not really all that necessary after all. If you feel good about God you will feel good about letting His hand guide your country. And oh yeah, in the mixing of church and state, it’s probably best if you are Christian (wink, wink). 

It is very likely that Reagan proved one thing for certain, though. That you if you had the right light, audio, color and editing, you had the trappings of unleashing a great communicator upon the land. Put an accomplished, seasoned actor like Reagan behind the president’s desk in the Oval Office, all things are possible. Make-believe becomes reality. Put the right face powder on an already photogenic, well-known face that everyone recognizes instantly, and you are off to the races. It’s show time. But pay no attention to that 14-Trillion dollar debt behind the curtain. Or the 1.6 Trillion dollar deficit that is likely to never go away.

The GOP base, the wealthiest Americans run giant corporations or at least has millions of dollars of stock in these companies. Many of them such as Halliburton have no-bid contracts with our government. That means no other company can bid competitively against them. So if their hammers are sold to us taxpayers at $500 apiece, there is nothing we, nor the Tea Party, can do about it. Funny how the latter, as a group protesting government spending seems to fluff over the giant upcharges we taxpayers are burdened with from these groups like Halliburton and all the other no-bid war corporation cronies of Presidents, Congressmen and Senators. They are cronies because they get special considerations. Like billing the American taxpayer $40 million for food for soldiers in Iraq that never got served up. Or for items like a $500 hammer when the US Army could go out and buy one at Wal Mart for $9.99. Imagine that. Imagine why congressmen don’t cut spending there instead of putting Social Security and Medicare on the operating table of spending cuts. Try to imagine why the Tea Party raises so much hell about excessive government spending while overlooking spending so much for a relatively inexpensive item. Funny thing that, eh? I wonder what the Koch Brothers would say about it.

Money motivates no doubt about it. It makes silk purses out of a sow’s ear every time. Take George W. Bush. Puhlese. Money buys actors who transcend to lofty positions of great communicators. Dudes you would want to have a beer with, just ask Billy Bob. Cheney was probably right. Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. When the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor voter who believes the illusion, it’s true. Deficits don’t really matter. Nor does truth.   And when you are stealing in high places from the government Americans don’t matter either. It’s the money, stupid.

Obama Caves Again

The Republicans are playing him like Nero played the fiddle while Washington (I mean Rome) burned. Did you hear the latest? Obama is playing ball with the Republicans and the Tea Party on reducing benefits to Medicare, Medicaid, you know, the programs that help people and not no-bid crony corporations? It is hard not to try to find the silver lining to our president who promised us change you could believe in. And to try again. And again. Why? Because the alternative in having a heartless “Have More” Neocon in the White House is too dismal to ponder. Let me explain.

Obama and the Democratic Congress in both Houses elected in 2008 were given a mandate by the voters. The voters of America believed in them to make an honest and diligent attempt to right the wrongs of the Bush Administration. Change we could believe in, remember catchy campaign slogan? For instance, we believed Obama and the newly-elected Democratic Congress would change the borrow-and-spend irresponsible policies of the Bush II administration. Obama promised to end the Bush crony-corporation, no-bid contract policies George W. Bush loved so well as the coffers of the military industrial complex filled up with dollars we borrowed from China to pay our bills. Sorry about that, Halliburton, the party’s over. Or so we thought when we went to the ballot box back in 2008. Obama would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the troops home. Just vote for me, he said, and he would see to it. We believed Obama would drive the war corporation, lobbyist rats out of Washington just like St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. 

It didn’t happen. We still have boots on the ground in both countries for reasons long ago lied about and forgotten. Promises broken. And now we see Obama playing footsy with the Republicans by opting to cut benefits to Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs that benefit the citizens of America directly. Get ready, America, for a flattened pocketbook. Neocons don’t like to share with us riff-raff Americans looking for a fair shake from our government. You see, Halliburton needs those tax dollars for themselves more than us Americans need to be able to be on Medicare when we reach the age of 65. Get ready for the real death panels this time, and this time, such killing of the old people will be brought to you by your friendly neighborhood GOP and cheerleader squad, the Tea Party (no snub intended, Koch Bros; I do acknowledge your sponsorship).

It has been a hard two years to watch our hero Obama and his Super Bowl Team of Congressional Democrats elected in 2008 cave to the Republicans, the Tea Party, John Boehner, and (gag me with a spoon) Sarah Palin. For openers, all the Democrats elected to the new majority in both Houses of Congress said right off the bat that “Impeachment is off the table.” Say what? Let them go? No repercussions for wiretapping us without a court order or FISA Court approval? What about all them campaign promises? But, but…..

But I said I would explain why the alternative to Obama and the wimpy Democratic Congress would be far worse than Obama and a wimpier Democratic Congress. But before that, let us remember the promises Obama and all those Democrats made to get elected to office in 2008. As mentioned absolutely nothing had been done about the wiretapping without proper court orders. The grand snoop, the NSA was increased in size and in number of spies to spy on us Americans. Can’t be too careful when terrorists are still lurking about, can we? In fact, Obama caused the Patriot Act, the Bible to spy on all of us in the name of National Security, to be strengthened right after he took office. Probably made George W. Bush so proud he could put on his cowboy boots and take Laura out honky-tonkin’ at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, YEEHAW.

Shucks, Obama even pre-pardoned all the telephone companies that Bush got a hammer lock on to get them to reveal all their records of Americans’ private phone conversations. Obama didn’t see no sense in riling the country up over stuff already passed, regardless of whether any complicity was present when the phone companies conspired to hep Bush torch what was left of the Constitution.

Obama said he would close Guantanamo because torture was not who we are as a country. Didn’t happen, though. Still open for bidness, and military tribunals still hold court on them military combatants who don’t deserve the same kind of law the rest of us Americans get served up to us. Bush destroyed habeas corpus, something Obama promised to restore. Not to be. Habeas Corpus is still MIA and one of the promises broken when the Democrats and Obama were elected back in 2008. But it’s kinda tricky here: habeas corpus was erased from all us Americans, as well as the military combatants. Funny thing.

There are many other Bush II creations, such as the trashing of the Constitution by his cutesy little signing statements affixed to bills passed by both Houses of Congress to be signed into law. That’s right, Bush took to scribbling crap by his presidential signature that negated the legislation of over 800 bills passed in accordance with the provisions in the Constitution that Congress will pass laws……Obama sounded so full of disgust with it when he was running for president; I guess he must have forgot about promising to stop with the signing statements already. Must have slipped his mind.

But Bush II was so much of a spoiled brat president that he, with the stroke of a pen, decided that if he did not like the way a law was written and presented to him for presidential signature, he would change the whole damn law. Take the McCain No Torture Bill that said America will not engage in torture tactics in any way or fashion. Bush attached a signing statement that said that he as president, if he thought it was in the best interest of America and National Security, that he would damn well torture anybody he wanted to. Dictatorship, anybody? Well, guess who continued the practice of affixing signing statements in the Bush tradition of Constitution burning? If you guessed Obama, you get a cigar. Forget that Obama deplored such Bushisms when running for president; he has upheld the Bush tradition in so many ways that some have begun to call him Republican light. Pay no attention to that man behind the screen.

What took the cake and when Obama broke the pick with me was when he came out and favored extending the 2 Trillion dollar Bush tax cuts for the rich for another two years. Damn! Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Reilly must have given each other a high five. Palin probably decided right then and there to run for president. They all knew that would put Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in the crosshairs. The Beast had been properly starved at that point. There would be no going back to fiscal responsibility. And the Tea Baggers could heap lie upon lie about how social programs, not something as paltry as 2 Trillion dollars more in tax cuts for the rich, were the real cause of the National Debt. Dumb now becomes us. The polls are in. Now the world officially knows for certain that America has fallen and hit its head.

But say, does that sound like a president who is looking out for the people? We got big money problems already, and they have taken the scalpels out to start carving up Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, just ask Paul Ryan. So you take out another 2 Trillion dollars just grab it out of the National Treasury coffers set up to pay our bills and whamo! Now you see it; now you don’t. Poof………is it any big mystery why now, Obama has joined the ranks of Neocon Tea baggers like John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Sarah Palin to cut Medicare, Social Security, and other government spending to appease those who would bury working couples and their families by cutting the programs they depend on for bread, medicine, and a decent place to live? It is to me. I don’t know why Obama caved. But he and the Democrats have let a lot of people down. And have let the Neocon alligators swim the moat as they lowered the drawbridge for them to come in and destroy the people in the castle.

Why?

Why doesn’t anybody scream to the heavens that we need to stop all the wars and bring our troops home so that the borrowing and spending on foreign countries can be redirected to saving our own country here at home?

Has anybody ever heard a Republican or a Tea Bagger mention bringing our troops home from foreign countries as a solution to reducing the National Debt and the Deficit? Anybody at all? John Boehner? Sarah Palin? Paul Ryan? 

Why is it that you never hear any of the Tea Baggers, Neocons, and the likes of the borrow-and-spend Republicans talk about cutting spending on the endless wars and occupation of countries overseas? Aren’t those Trillions of dollars real money, too? Could not those dollars be summoned to pay for a big portion of our $14 Trillion dollar National Debt? Say what? War is profitable for those who contribute the most for candidates running for office? So what has that got to do with serving the voters who don’t give a damn about continuing to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan when that policy puts Social Security and Medicare on the operating chopping block and Paul Ryan is the carving surgeon? Say, have we been led to the slaughter unaware?

Must we sacrifice our jobs, our houses, our children, and all that we knew to be America in exchange for millions of square miles of sand, scorpions, and spiders somewhere out there? Must we allow our healthcare for the old (ne Medicare and Medicaid) take hits so that Halliburton can maintain its no-bid contracts to sell the Pentagon $500 hammers? And $40 million of meals to our soldiers in Iraq that they never served up? You got to wonder if the whole American system will fall down and crash onto itself before anybody will stop to even notice. You got to think that we must all be brain-dead to continue to allow this mad massacre of ourselves, our financial system, our dollar, our very country and goodness as a people, and yes, our very families, to go on. While the war complex vampires continue to lust for the bloody dollars that used to help the elderly (MEDICARE) and the children (SCHIPS). And the bloody Congress we elected to act as responsible fiduciaries of the people, have started to surgically cut up programs that help Americans. And Obama caved in to help them. As the Democrats we trusted join the Republicans in the carnage of programs to help the American people instead of Iraqis, Blackwater, and other high-dollar drains on the battered Treasury.

The number of caves and why is depressing. I thought about taking parts from each to write about, but the drill is just too depressing. So here is a short Google list based upon only two words placed in the browser window. You can read them at will to the point of ad nausea. Or not.