The Angry Buddhist

Osama Kicks Bush's Ass Again

2006-08-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

American Public Beaten Down Into Subservient Sheep

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave Shuts Up & Does As It's Told

"Do whatever you have to do to me to keep me safe. I will suffer any indignity, follow any ridiculous rule or request, strip naked at the age of 80, let you touch me wherever you want. What can I do? We have to follow the rules for the good of us all."

But the Angry Buddhist says just remember when you're being herded through lines like brain dead cattle at the airport, being prodded by the snotty dregs of the barrel's bottom who make up the TSA screeners and "helpers" that 8 fucking $ billion dollars a month gets pumped into the Iraq Civil War to help fund the development of more terrorists and the further riches of Dick Shooter Cheney and his ironicly lesbian producing ancient sperm cells.

Thank god big bad Saddam is in jail and on trial as our response to 9-11 instead of catching Osama Bin Laden, fighting the Al Queda in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia where they actually live, train and breed.

Good thing we didn't spend that $8 billion a month on security at our airports or the ports or the border, because then we wouldn't be able to stimulate the economy through the brilliant method of forcing people to throw away the shit they own "motivating" them to spend their dough replacing it all. As if they themselves and their toiletries were suspect.

And of course the TSA gets the head-up-their-asses award for having everyone throw all their liquids and gels - the very things they're afraid of being mixed into explosives - into big communal tubs. I think that was Laura Bush's idea. She's the brains of the outfit, you know.

Why the fuck didn't the airports or airlines ask people if they were flying round trip and offer them the chance to pick their liquid or gel belongings back up on their return? Why weren't they offered the opportunity to ship their belongings anywhere?

I'll tell you why. Because they don't give a shit about you. They've got you by the balls and you'll do what you're told and you'll smile about it. Americans have been turned into timid, gutless sheep who don't dare complain.

America has been brainwashed and duped into a fear-based reality. They have been dissed and pushed around to the point where they just comply, no questions asked. They think they're saving themselves from death by throwing their own belongings away...

Your opinion doesn't matter anymore anyway, so why bother having one? Keep your complaints to yourself or security will whisk you away and you'll find out who is boss in the new America. Dissent is no longer allowed. No joking either. We're all perps until cleared by the metal detectors.

So congratufuckinglations Osama! You've done it again. All you need do now that Bush has made you so powerful, untouchable and invincible is feint and America flinches en masse like a chicken shit, bendover prison bitch.

You don't even need to hurt anyone anymore to achieve a terrorized America full of cowards, none of who dares stand up and say, "Fuck this!"

Well I'm saying, FUCK THIS!

I am still not afraid and I'm pissed. Pissed at all of you who learned your lessons on fighting back from the French in WWII.

Pissed that the country that gave the world the Greatest Generation, people who stood up to the Nazis and Imperial Japan and then responded with fists of fury today offers up the compliance of cowards.

Pissed that I'm the only one who seems to be pissed.

Today's Americans makes me sick and makes me yearn for men and women with some character and fortitude.

Why bother fighting for "freedom" when it's the first thing the average American is quickest to hand over to whoever demands it?

But at least our citizens are really adept on their cell phones and our kids can watch DVDs in the back seat of the Hummer.

Was Dick Hunting For Some OPP?

2006-02-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Was Five Deferment Dick Cheney Getting A Little Side Action Out There on the Hunting Ranch In Texas?

Or as one of our favorite bloggers on Huffington Asks:
Was Cheney Hiding His Lewinsky?

Is This Woman, Pamela Pitzer Willeford, the United States Ambassador to both Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Dick Cheney's special hunting buddy?

Yes she is according to this report the electronic media isn't paying much attention to.

"He is just doing great," said Willeford, who visited Whittington Sunday. "As my husband said, he has a twinkle in his eye...It was scary, but fortunately he is going to be just fine. He is anxious to get on home."

If President Clinton had been out "hunting" with two women who weren't his wife and then shot a guy and covered it up I think someone might mention.

I guess the Angry Buddhist just did.

Die Whittington, Die

2006-02-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

Shooting Victim Deserves To Die -
To Keep America Free From Next Terror Attack!

His injuries now "A distraction from the war on terror."

Cheney tells Fox News, "Whittington served his purpose, he provided the necessary cover while I did some secret stuff that's none of your fucking business. Now it's time for him to take the big dirt nap and stop making this all about him."

Cheney added,
"I'm sick and tired of the media telling us what's news and what isn't. We have an entire government department in charges of manufacturing news and we don't need a bunch of bigtime assholes digging around for fucking facts."

Karl Rove told the Associated Press,
"If Whittington was any kind of real compassionate conservative he'd just pull his own plug in the hospital and make this a non story. He's causing the Vice President all kinds of unnecessary problems during this unprecedented time of frightful fear and super scary stuff about to happen at any minute any where you might be. This is nothing to joke about."

President Bush had this to say,
"None of us could have forseen the day when Dick Cheney would go hunting. But now is not the time to play the blame game. There will be plenty of time to play the blame game after I have given myself a pardon. Damn it! I'm a war time President and we all shared the same bad intelligence - even back in my school and business days."

Keep Laughing About Cheney You Suckers

2006-02-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

This just in from the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

It seems perfectly clear to this Angry Buddhist that Cheney's conservative Republican friend agreed to let Deadeye Dick shoot him in the face in order to get the media all lathered up over the McGuffin shotgun story instead of the real stories of raping and pillaging going on by the hands of the Bush administration.

It's a cowardly way to cover up the truth. That's how you know it's Dick Cheney style... Big Time

Cheney Blames Shooting on Saddam

2006-02-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

White House Laughing Its Ass Off - "We Don't Have To Tell You People Jack Shit."

Hunting Vests for Everyone!
Cheney Shooting Victim Enjoys Minor Heart Attack "Please Sir, I'd like some more birdshot in my aorta."

Cheney Says War Critics To Feel The Sting of His Shotgun Justice. "We've got the wiretaps, we know who you are!"

"I've Killed Before And I'll Kill Again!" Screams Angry Vice President before being hauled away in his pajamas.

Cheney said to be holding hostages, making incoherent demands, according to Fox News.

President Bush Yet To Be Told, "This is on a need to know basis," declares Andrew Card.

Hunting Buddy Criticizes Veep, Gets Face Full of BuckShot

2006-02-13T00:35:00.000-08:00

We all knew it was just a matter of time didn't we?

That this crazy old coot would finally jump the shark and grab a gun...

And then the lies and coverup would begin. It would all be somebody else's fault.

Whether it was booze, or drugs or just the all star hubris the self selected Vice President is famous for, this Lee Harvey Oswald of elected officials apparently also shot a very wascally wabbit.

Cheney's Got A Gun - Music Video

Rumor has it the Vice President flipped when someone brought up Scooter Libby's testimony to the Fitzgerald about the Vice President giving the okay for leaking classified information during "war time." Informed sources indicate to the Angry Buddhist Cheney will be spanked at a special White House ceremony.

Bob Cesca of Huffinton Post reports,

"The above photo shows Vice President Dick Cheney speaking to reporters at the bedside of the man who he "accidentally" shot this weekend while on a hunting trip in Texas (full story).

A spokesman for the vice president identified the shooting victim as Harry Whittington, but sources close to the incident suggest "Harry Whittington" is a Secret Service code name for Cheney's indicted former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby."

Defeating the Sniveling Cowards Who Have Turned America Into A Nation of Bitches

2006-02-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

Playing to people’s fears is as easy as making a baby cry, because you don’t have to deliver anything to keep that fear alive and insidiously eating away at people. All successful dictators and schoolyard bullies employ this tactic.

Playing to people’s hopes is impossible for these kind of motherfuckers because you have to actually deliver on those hopes and that's not within their skill sets or DNA.

You have to actually make something better, improve people's lives, make for a better future to gain the people's continued confidence or loyalty. It’s hard work, damn it. Hard work indeed.

And it is just too goddamn hard for the gang in charge - who I will remind you were headed straight into the one-and-done crapper just nine months after they took office. Many who drank the Kool Aid no longer remember that, since as testing has now proved, the part of their brains that controls self-choice and courage was destroyed (along with their bladder control).

Once we get them all into the re-education camps we'll remind them that up until September 11, 2001 Bush and Company had already proven that the majority of American voters who cast their ballots for Al Gore were right.

Funny how getting caught with their cowboy chaps down, having already fucked up the FBI and American intelligence capabilities, turned out so good for them. And all because they discovered the power of panic.

Until the day they got scared shitless personally that someone was out to kill THEM, and recognizing how strong that emotion was, projected that fear onto every American in every town in every state from the North to the South to the East to the West.

To listen to them not a single citizen in this nation of almost 300 million people was safe. We all had to be ready to be attacked at any second. Damn it man we were at code yellow! No, today it's code Orange! Maybe today's the day we go to Red Alert! God help us all! That's even worse than DefCom 4, isn't it? Worse than mutually assured destruction.

Worse than a ragtag band of dissenters in the 1770s giving the colonial finger to the most powerful government on the face of the planet and telling them they'd fight to the death before they'd bow down to assholes who wanted to curtail their rights and freedom.

The most yellow-bellied, bedwetting cowards to ever hold political office - and I'm including Richard Nixon, LBJ and Joe McCarthy - are George Bush, Dick Cheney and their brotherhood of fellow clucking like chicken, frightened little rabbits who are the best friends and allies Osama Bin Laden could ever have made.

Let me tell you exactly what I would have done as President and what Al Gore would have done as President.

We would have quickly captured Osama Bin Laden and all his key people. We would have put them on public trial and then executed them. At the same time we were doing that we would have sent our special forces and best suited military units to hunt down and kill every single member of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia Yemen and everywhere else they existed.

And we wouldn't call that a war, we wouldn't play make believe costume wearing, "war time President," and we wouldn't insult over two centuries of brave Americans who stood up for our country when their time came by making believe that Al Qaeda was some kind of super enemy who we could not defeat or who we should be scared of.

We would have treated 9-11 seriously and made the people who caused it pay such a terrible price that others would think twice before trying anything like that again.

I know Al Gore was capable of it because he had already proved how intelligent he was and how far ahead of the curve he was on global warming and the need for alternative energy. While dickless wonders made fun of him about the Internet and science, Al Gore was remembering the time he spent in Vietnam wearing a military uniform - something most of his Republican contemporaries were too scared and cowardly to do.

But as you know that's not what pussies George Bush and Dick Cheney - both of whom were too gutless and too scared as young American men to fight against the Communists in Viet Nam when they had the chance - did with 9-11. Nope these pantywaists, along with fellow known chickenhawks Tom Delay, Bill Frist, Denny Hassert, George Allen and every single other Republican holding national office set new standards of shameless cowardice. Instead of standing up to the real enemy, they stood on top of the bodies of the 2977 dead Americans and turned into the enemy themselves.

And almost every single Democrat enabled them and rolled over like a happy dog in a field full of feces. And that made them cowards of the same ilk.

You can excuse Russ Feingold, maybe Senator Byrd, Tom Harkin. Maybe a few others... but you cannot excuse the others who still today are cowered and forever paralyzed by the fear that 9-11 instilled in them.

And what has been the result of all these spineless, submissive, lily-livered punks selling out America’s soul so that they might feel safer in their puddles of power?

1. The media has become completely emasculated with the brief exception of the Katrina coverage, which even these pusillanimous pussies couldn't ignore since it was happening to THEM too and for once they told the truth. A media that allows the rules of embedding is worthless. That's what happens when the media is owned by cowardly corporations like Fox News Corp, Time Warner, GE, Viacom and others known for being the models of the lowest common demoninator.

2. The United States education system is to learning what Ford and GM are to cars. Cowardly, mostly burnt out teachers and professors toe the government and Christian line, too afraid to speak out or offer an informed point of view since they start out with contempt for their dumbed down students from the first day of school. They project their own shame over failed dreams into their daily curriculum and churn out the next generation of clone-like sheep. Tell us some more about Intelligent Design professor...Tell us why you hide in the classroom counting the minutes till your pensions?

3. Cowards have tried to turn the word "environmentalist" into a dirty word to cover up their fear that the truth will come out and they will be torn apart, limb by limb, by angry young people who realize they were raped. How weak and afraid do you have to be to hide from the reality of global warming? Are there any bigger sell-outs on the planet than those who champion the oil industry in the 21st century? How big a simpering weakling do you have to be to sell off our forests and protected lands to those who wish to destroy them forever in the name of profit? America may be addicted to oil, but Bush and Cheney are the junkies stealing from your grandmother to pay for their habit.

4. We now suffer under the worst government ever bought and paid for. John McCain pretends to be brave on the issue of campaign reform, but for all the effectiveness he's had, he might have well have stayed a POW because he is MIA when it comes to real guts on this issue. It's all just coward cover for a man who isn't about to do anything except use the issue to raise more money. McCain talks a lot, but he's just as big a coward on changing the corruption that he himself is part of. McCain has sold out to the people he takes bribes from just like every single member of Congress has. A brave person would stand up and say our system is corrupt and to fix it we have to end all campaign contributions and lobby money. Period. But McCain ain't that guy. He's the guy that let Bush kick his ass and then went back for more because he liked it so much. I say he's nothing but a professional victim. Go ahead and argue with me you cowards, while you continue to raise record amounts.

5. Only punks and cowards would treat the poor, the sick, the hungry, the uneducated, and the homeless the way the United States of America does today. The most shameful cowards of all fear that helping those who are worst off among us somehow lessons their own chances of success. The biggest argument against national healthcare is fear.

6. Only a nation of bitch-slapped prison wives would roll over on the laws, constitution and rights this republic was founded on the way the USA today has. The Supreme Court has been turned into a panel of crooked judges on the the take and today's attorney general represents only the coverup of illegal activities and no longer represents the citizens of the United States. Where did he get his model? The Godfather? The work he's doing has to have Osama Bin Laden dancing a jihad jig. Why blow up anything else in America when it's already being done as an inside job? No terrorist could do a better job destroying the American way of life or our values. The patriot act reads like something only our REAL enemies wish on us.

7. How chickenshit do you have to be to still suck on the tit of the oil industry the way Dick and Bush do? Where are the balls that set us on the same path it took to land a man on the moon in less than 10 years?

8. The biggest disgraces in world history misued the military and turned the people in uniform into their own personal vigilantes. Nothing could be more cowardly than to have refused to have served and then send others in uniform to die for your own political and profit benefit. That is exactly what Bush and Cheney have done and those who support them, knowing what the facts are, are even more lowdown and vile than they.

9. Cowards act in secret, they cover up the facts, they spy on anyone and everyone, they spread lies about those who disagree with them and they use the power of religion to foster even more FUD - Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. FUD is the most effective marketing techinque used in business when a competitor launces a product that is both better than yours and costs less. The art of FUD was perfected by Hitler's SS, but it was turned into a science by Karl Rove. You remember Karl Rove, don't you? He's the little fucker that sold out a CIA agent because he didn't like her husband telling the truth about our phoney war.

10. The actions of the federal government taken during Katrina, the promises made by the President on national TV and the resulting fuck you given to survivors since shows us exactly what is in the hearts, and on the minds of these fearful rats who have gnawed their way into power. Remember that Karl Rove was put in charge of our national response to Katrina. You remember Karl Rove don't you? Even though he's a gay man, he wants you to think Hillary wouldn't be a good President because of her gender... Maybe she doesn't wear enough leather for his taste.

The time has come for brave men and women to stand up to these quaking int their brokeback cowboy boot cowards, pull their designer pants down in public and expose their shortcomings.

The time has come to overthrow these cowards with a revolution of courage, conviction and citizens in the street. I'm talking about getting rid of this cowardly failed President before he turns the Presidental Seal into a Zacky Farms chicken.

You'll have to be brave, and fearless, because most of the Democratic party won't be at your side, they'll be too busy hiding and waiting for someone else to take on these bedwetting bastards. They'll cluck and argue with you all day long about why you shouldn't take a stand.

But we can do it. We've done it before and we have what it takes to do it again.

If we have to push all you cowardly lions who say "it can't be done," because you know YOU don't have the guts inside you to be part of a better way, then we'll be happy to shove you hard and rough enough for you to fall back onto your couches for the next installment of Bill O'Reilly's Manly Tales of Toe Sucking. Go ahead, have yourself another beer.

All you hand-wringing, mealy mouth, fretters are merely the tampons inside the big pussy currently stinking up the White House. Despite the posted warnings you have attempted to flush yourselves through America's moral plumbing.

No wonder the entire system is now clogged, backed up with grease and hair and spewing raw sewage all over the Oval Office.

It's going to take one brave person to clean up that mess.

I'm not afraid of the job... are you?

L.A. to President Bush - Thanks For Nothing

2006-02-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

Those of us here on the West Coast, some of us who can see the Library Tower in downtown Los Angeles on Santa Ana windswept days like today, know what a big fat nothing President Bush's little show this morning was.

Yeah, you saved us from another 9-11. Sure you did. Right. We believe you.

You'd have to be dumb enough and scared enough to be a Republican in today's America to buy this blatant bullshit.

This is not only an old story, it's a highly dubious story.

First off, check out the "mastermind" behind the whole thing....

Yeah, no wonder Bush and his supporters are peeing in their pants. This John Belushi wanna-be is no doubt far scarier than the entire Soviet Union was.

Or Iran with nukes is.

Or North Korea with nukes is.

Or Pakistan with nukes is.

Or China with nukes and a hell of a lot more is.

After all, this scary son of a bitch had shoe bombers at his disposal. Shoe bombers, goddamnit!

Genuine Weapons of Mass Destruction.

And he had some kind of diabolical genius plan to both blow up the airplane with a shoe bomb AND fly it into a building at the same time.

Oh yes, I'm buying that story hook, line and sinker.

I'm supposed to believe that on top of making believe Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove aren't both gay men who bash gays and restrict their legal rights for their own party's political gains?

And I'm supposed to believe that at the same time I buy oil men George Bush and Dick Cheney didn't put the interests of America's oil companies ahead of the best interests of the USA? Those record profits at the same time as record prices are just normal, right?

And while I'm choking on that I'm supposed to believe that giving tax breaks to the richest 1% of America while cutting aid to the poor, old and sick is what Jesus would have done if he got to vote on it?

Sorry. We know better now. The President got elected with lies and has governed based on lies since he lied to the contruction workers at ground zero in New York City
when he told them he was going to bring Bin Laden to justice.

Bin Laden is still free to make videos, but meanwhile all the President's friends and big cash donors have all lined their pockets.

So I'm sorry if this three year old fairy tale that the BAD INTELLIGENCE "experts" like to tell each other at the Clueless Saloon neither scares me nor gives me a woody. That dog don't hunt no more.

But I did get aroused later in the day when I learned that Scooter "I'm Not Gay Too" Libby rolled over like the cheese eating rat he is on his own personal Big Pussy in the White House Sopranos - Big Dick Deferment Cheney.

It's only going to get uglier for Dick and Mr. "I Don't Remember Jack Abramoff" Bush after the big fedora gets on the stand.

The Angry Buddhist is smelling the desperate aroma of flop sweat from the Bush Administration and its apologists. This ham handed, half hearted bluff is being called and whatever political capital chips the President had have been swept into the pile in front of my seat.

Now George can go backstage and talk to the other losers at celebrity poker. Just keep him away from the pretzels.

The Buddhist is Back... And Boy Is He Pissed

2006-02-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings Many Gentle Followers,

I am back from my spontaneous meditation trek of the last two months and having deep thought my way from low in the valley to the heights of the mountain peak, I have now returned renewed, reinvigorated and re-raging with my anger focused like a digital camera employing advanced stabilization technology.

So much has happened. So little has changed.

I have come with solutions and answers for all those so sorely lacking in both.

Today we offer our teaching to the multitudes of morons who say, "Go ahead, tap my phones and record my conversations with my mother. What do I care? I have nothing to hide." The Angry Buddhist asks, "Oh really?"

Allow me to give you a half dozen reasons why you care right now:

1. Someone you don't like, don't agree with and do not trust will someday be running the government. Is it okay if they listen in and record all you don't have to hide? You Republicans cool if Hillary is in charge? How about John Kerry?

2. The one thing Democrats and Republicans all agree on is that BAD INTELLIGENCE lead to our guard being down on 9-11 and lead to us invading Iraq looking for WMDs. The same people responsible for that BAD INTELLIGENCE are the ones in charge of catching Osama Bin Laden and the surveillance that's wiretapping people today. Maybe that's why they can't tell us about any success they've ever had. Funny how when we win it's a big secret, no? Still think you have no worries?

3. Fraudulent use of personal data is what Identity Theft is a all about. How'd you like your family secrets, medical problems, love life details, and angry words used in arguments available for sale or blackmail? Why not? You've got nothing to hide, right? Nothing that could be twisted or used out of context. Right? Right...

4. Never mind your personal information, what about business conversations? Have nothing to hide when you're talking shop? What about if you have government contracts you're bidding on? Okay by you if they listen in to your process? What do you care, right?

5. Spies on the inside have compromised secret government programs over and over again, usually for money. How safe do you think the secrets you don't worry about would be? How much would you pay for some of them?

6. Current trends throughout government are to outsource as much work to the private sector as possible. You still cool when the wiretapping is being supervised by Halliburton? Diebold? TRW?

Today's lesson is that the government has no business wiretapping you without a warrant.

The laws don't change during pre-emptive war time. If that made any sense then any President could just start a pre-emptive war any time he wanted to avoid following the rules.

But the much bigger lesson is that the willingness to give up your civil and privacy rights because of 9-11 is a cowardly response that only aids the terrorists.

Only people too frightened to think like American adults would believe the whole world changed after 9-11 because it makes no other sense.

Only someone who wasn't alive during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 would have thought that our oceans made us safe. Certainly none of us ducking and covering in grade school thought the oceans would stop those commie missiles. But maybe really stupid people believe that. Or people who have been scammed.

Only people who forgot the entire cold war with thermonuclear missiles targeted at every major city on the face of the planet thought that oceans made us safe and that 9-11 change everything.

Oh, and Gumby. He always believed that

I'll tell you what changed on Sept 11, 2001. That's the day that fear started ruling the United States of America and when citizens started acting like gutless cowards, fearing for their lives at every moment and allowing our values, laws and the blood our fathers spilled to save the world for freedom to be ignored.

These revelations did not come to your Angry Buddhist without first reading the breakthrough teachings on The Daily Kos which then lead to the great writings of Glenn Greenwald

Al Gore too had words worth much thought:

"It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same."

My mediation made clear to me that I am not afraid and I will fight terrorists whether they be Al Queda or members of the United States Government.

Stand back cowards, this Angry Buddhist will get the job done where you are too afraid.

Bust A Cap in Stanley Tookie Williams

2005-12-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

Time For Tookie The Terrorist To Die

At this very moment I'm looking at the full page ad in this morning's Los Angeles Times that's headlined, "Don't Silence A Voice For Peace"

What a pantload of pure bullshit. First I laughed my ass off after reading the letter to Governor Schwarzenegger pleading for clemency.

Then I got angry at all the big names lining up as murder accomplices and co-founders of the Crips. A long list of entertainers, politicians and religious professionals all signed the letter claiming that this head gangster "has taken a remarkable journey of redemption."

The Angry Buddhist says, who gives a flying fuck on a rolling doughnut if he has?

He already took a remarkable journey of murder and mayhem and got sentenced to die for his crimes.

What a big surprise that he went the Jesus Saved Me route when his ass was thrown behind bars. I could have written that script for you. Every true coward says he didn't do it while waving the bible at the cameras after he gets caught. Pardon me if I don't genuflect because I'm throwing up.

Having lived in Los Angeles since the rise of the Terrorist Gangs, I'd like to see Stanley Williams die ten times over for the crimes he's done and damage he's caused. Then I'd like to see him become the Devil's #1 bitch in Hell. Then I'd like to see him suffer twice as much as all the people he killed, and all the others who have been terrorized by the Crips and what they wrought.

Tookie has been a much bigger danger to Americans than Saddam ever could hope to be - the war between the Crips and the Bloods is a real war that thousands of people have died in. It wages still but is now country wide with terrorist gang cells in cities all over America and in Latin America.

Here in Los Angeles, there are people who live in the same fear that Iraqis today experience. They know they may be shot and killed for no reason if they leave their house. They know they can't count on the police or even the army to keep them safe if they tell authorities who the criminals are. They have no hope of justice if they are robbed or raped or kidnapped. Gangs hold entire communities hostage and there is no end in sight.

Before Tookie co-created the Crips Terrorist Gang, there were already gangs in L.A., but the level of violence and spread of their control and power went to light speed after the Crips terror cell was born.

Tookies media kit says he "co-found the Crips street gang to protect his family and friends from the many other gangs in South Central Los Angeles."

The Angry Buddhist says he co-founded the Crips to kill people and make money. And Tookie did both. That's what the evidence that convicted him showed. And nothing - not a single iota of new evidence says otherwise.

He robbed people for chump change and then had them kneel on the floor and executed them by blowing their brains out. Now he writes childrens books, so that makes it all okay.

If Tookie was really reformed he would have given police all the details he knew of the inside workings of the Crips, Bloods and other gangs. But he never did. He said he didn't want to snitch. What he really didn't want to do was stop the violence. He could have, but he chose not to.

Tookie chose to punish himself. No one else is to blame.

Now it is karma time.

The world will be a better place with Stanley Tookie Williams dead.

The Military Genius of George Bush

2005-12-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Gather round gentle followers and lend an ear as your Angry Buddhist tells you the exciting tale of military genius, George W. Bush.

Just yesterday he stood proud before the cadets at our nation’s Naval Academy and delivered our National Strategy for Victory in much the same way Dwight D. Eisenhower once delivered the D-Day plans to the Greatest Generation’s best generals.

And just like that other former Texas Governor who went on to become a military genius war President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, our Warrior in the White House chooses to only make his important speeches at military locations surrounded by thousands and thousands of armed troops. Let there be no doubt about who is the Commander in Chief and who he is commanding.

Lyndon Bush Johnson - as he asked to be called during his speech - really got the uniformed throng on its feet cheering with his call to action,

“We got all these folks killed and maimed in Iraq since we started this war for peace. And now if YOU don’t go, and some of you don’t get killed or maimed - then you are just pissing on the graves of those brave heroes and you are wasting all those deaths and injuries!”
Dedicating his policies and their execution to the spirit and standards of LBJ is another stroke of brilliance by Bush.

George is truly a Johnson in every sense of the word.

Clearly his Vietnamization of the Iraq war is bound to be just as effective and victorious as it was in Hanoi.

But Iraq is so much more important than Vietnam was, because Iraq is really World War III as so clearly seen by our Global War on Terror and it’s geographic sweet spot in Iraq.

That’s why we are so right to ignore Iran and Korea and to give the old “talk to the hand” to Osama Bin Laden and whatever the fuck else is going on in Afghanistan. Cut and run was right for Afghanistan, but obviously it is dead wrong for Iraq. And George knows that.

And do not let that coward Jack Murtha try to brainwash you. Nixon never liked him either. Just because Murtha said this morning the army is “broken, worn out,” and went on to say "I admit I made a mistake when I voted for war,” that doesn’t mean any of that is true. He just wants to cut and run - that yellow bellied chicken.

Murtha, 73, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, expressed typical Democratic pessimism about Iraq's stability and said the Iraqis know who the insurgents are, but don't always share that information with U.S. troops. He said a civil war is likely because of ongoing factionalism among Sunni Arabs, and Kurds and Shiites. As IF!

Sounds to me like he doesn’t have the American can-do spirit our President is powered by. "I will settle for nothing less than complete victory," Bush said in the speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. "It's worth the time and it's worth the effort."

You bet your ass it is. We're talking scoreboard here. What is more American than that?

To understand just how brilliant and strategic a military mind Bush has, you have to remember that he and his regime have been planning their war against Iraq for almost a decade now. So they really know what they’re talking about when it comes to the environment and the battlefield.

Bush recalled in his speech yesterday that some Iraqi security forces once ran from battle, and he said their performance "is still uneven in some parts." But he also said improvements have been made in training and Iraqi units are growing more independent and controlling more territory.

Your Angry Buddhist says that’s exactly why this war is so important. In the beginning of the war we had to use “shock and awe” to get the Iraqis attention and make them understand just how much they loved freedom and craved Western style Democracy. But today they are growing more independent and controlling more territory. And that’s not just any territory, that’s Iraq territory. Impressive, no?

Perhaps it is Lyndon Bush Johnson’s ability to bob, weave and escape detection – honed to perfection during his years as a stealth National Guard pilot – that enables the President to see what others are too blind to grok.

Bush said U.S. troops could withdraw as Iraqi forces gain competence, but a deadline would only embolden insurgents. "As we make progress toward victory, Iraqis will take more responsibility for their security, and fewer U.S. forces will be needed to complete the mission. America will not abandon Iraq," he said. No way.

How could we? Not when the Iraqis have shown all the traits and character of our very own founding fathers. Everyone knows that Ahmad Chalabi is the moral and intellectual equivialant of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin rolled into one.

That’s why our 160,000 men and women in the military will stay to bravely face the 10,000 insurgents who are equipped with the best machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and cell phone bombs that can be scrounged and smuggled into a battleground. A battleground where our heroes in uniform are unfairly handicapped by having to use the most advanced and sophisticated weaponry every given to any army in history. Can you say, "reboot?"

Some might say that Americans at home in the USA were safer from terrorist attacks originating from Iraq when Saddam was in power. These propagandists would point out that Saddam’s iron fisted rule included keeping terrorists out of Iraq – especially Islamic militant terrorists and Jihadists. Saddam was a power freak and he worshipped control and cash as his god not Allah. That’s what made it so easy for him to go to war against his dangerous neighbor Iran.

But today, thanks to the vision and execution of the Bush Regime, Iraq is now an Islamic Republic, soon to be formally aligned with nuclear weapon-building Iran as Koran keepers of the faith.

And with that bad boy Saddam in custody, terrorists consider Iraq their safe house and Gymboree.

Of course, George couldn’t have done it without the help of America’s great mercenary military. Those fine men and women who volunteered to join the active armed forces or National Guard. They either joined up because they were gung ho to go kill somebody in reaction to 9-11 or they did it for the money and benefits. Either way, they chose to put on a uniform and pick up a gun for money.

And nobody supports the mission more then they. In fact, nobody supports their Commander in Chief more. They appreciate him and they appreciate that he took the pressure off them to be “the good guys.”

By making torture legal and having Rumsfeld say yesterday that if our troops witness torture first hand they don’t have to try and stop it, they just need to file a report, our troops can show the bad guys who's boss without looking like some rule-following pussies. That’s a lesson Bush learned first hand in college when he was personally in charge of branding new frat boys with a burning hot metal coat hanger.

So lets have a 21 gun salute to our invading army of gung-ho jarheads who honor us all so greatly.

Honoring us so greatly in fact, that our military’s highest ranking ethicist, West Point grad and instructor, Ted Westhusing, blew his brains out when he saw what was happening on the ground.

He just didn’t have what it takes. But we honor his sacrifice. You bet we do. And if we cut and run now, that sacrifice would be for nothing. Hoo ya!

'I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored. Death before being dishonored any more.' -- From a note found near Ted Westhusing’s body

The Poor Must Die

2005-11-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

Bush Declares War on Poverty!

Exclusive interview with the Angry Buddhist reveals bold new plan to enrich America

That's right, gentle readers, your Angry Buddhist has just returned from Crawford, Texas where I once again employed my mastery of the Zen arts to scoop the so called mainstream media and score yet another exclusive interview with the man whose body holds up Karl Rove's brain. The one and only George WMD Bush.

And if you were wondering how he would ever overcome the low poll numbers that resulted from the blowback on Iraq and that whole culture of corruption snafu, then you have once again pre-underestimated the prowess of the powerful. Because the President is going back to basics and tapping into the heart of his base.

Right after we shared some of Laura's homecooked Thanksgiving turkey, George and I retired to the front porch to smoke some fine Cuban cigars.

"Look," he said, blinking away like a white owl, "We have got to do something about the poor in this country. It's just gotten intolerable. We have got to eliminate poverty wherever it exists."

I could sense where he was headed and nodded accordingly. But as usual he was going someplace else.

"And the best way to eliminate poverty is to flat out eliminate the poor. There's nothing more unAmerican than poor people and we have got to get rid of them."

He poured himself a stiff tumbler of bourbon, took a manly swig, and continued.

"Katrina was a great start and we're killing plenty of poor folks in Iraq too. And not just US citizens either. We're actually killing thousands of poor Iraqis every week. And that's not just by accident," he said. "If we don't kill them over there we'll have to kill them over here. You saw what happened with all those boat people after we didn't do the job in Vietnam, didn't you?"

I double checked my digital recorder to make sure I was getting all this verbatim. The red light glowed bright and the President's nose was starting to take on the same radiance.

"Africa's another success story for us. Nothing but poor people from South Africa all the way up to North Africa. And we've got them dropping like flies thanks to our focus on the rights of the domestic unborn. Those Africans ain't even on the radar screen here."

"And of course we have very high high hopes for the bird flu too. We've already gotten way out in front on that one. We can pretty much quarantine any damn place we want to and then send the military in to run things in the kill - - I mean quarantine - - zones. Karl's pitching it as 'Grand Theft Auto' come to life."

I just had to interrupt him - "But Jesus said -"

"I ain't going to stand for no damn Buddhist telling me what my lord and savior Jesus Christ said about nothing. Us evangelical wrote the damn bible for Christ's sake and it says exactly what we want Jesus to have said."

I decided to take my mother's sage pearl of wisdom and just shut up, listen and learn. The President refilled his glass and made his case.

"Our studies prove that the poor cost way too much. And they don't pay nearly enough in taxes. We could have lots more no new taxes if the poor didn't eat up all that government money - which is really YOUR money. The more poor we get rid of, and the less we give to the poor who manage to survive, the more money we have to reward those who worked hard enough to make huge profits that help boost America's bottom line. What could be fairer than that?"

"The poor don't create any new jobs - they only produce kids - POOR kids. And then those kids cost us ever increasing amounts of money. I call this the 'cycle of poverty' and we have got to break that cycle."

"A whole bunch of us put in a lot of work, HARD work, into turning American into an ownership society and the poor don't own a damn thing. They rent everything! Even their fucking televisions. We're not a renter's society! That works directly against the American Dream. That's why I call the poor 'America's Nightmare.'

"The poor give regular people the creeps - they make you feel guilty, or worse yet worried about your own future. 'What if that happens to me?' some people think when they see poor people - especially those homeless ones. That's part of the nightmare I'm talking about. The poor are ugly, smelly, unsanitary and depressing to be around. You ever see the crappy cars they drive or how shitty their houses look? No wonder the real estate values are so low in poor neighborhoods."

"The poor don't donate to any political campaigns - most of them don't even vote. They're simply not part of the American democratic process - except for always asking everyone for a handout and more benefits. The poor just do not know how to play the political game. All they know how to play is the blame game and they've never even won at that."

"I say, get rid of the poor and you also get rid of abortions, drug use, crime, violence, gambling, gangs and all that rap music."

"Let's face it, the poor have outlived their usefulness. Remember, it says in the bible that we're only as great as the worst among us. So just image how great this nation will be when we eliminate the entire category of the poor and the worst among us is actually among the most elite among us!"

The President was now standing and swaying back and forth as he hugged himself and the bottle of bourbon. I could hear him humming "The Yellow Rose of Texas" with increasing volume.

"I have a dream!" he suddenly yelled out. "A dream of a bright, shining city on a hill! A city with no poor, no homeless and no problems! I may not get to that city with you all... Ah, what the fuck, who am I kidding? Sure I will! It's my destiny! I'll get there, and I'll get there in a Hummer made of solid gold! Hey, speaking of gold, who wants pie? We've got mama Barbara's homemade pumpkin pie and Cool Whip!"

Never Mind Your Uterus, Watch Your Wallet

2005-11-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

Here's what the New York Times Said

And here's what the Angry Buddhist has to say...

I am in favor of a woman's right to chose. But abortion isn't an issue that comes up in my life. Especially not since the vascetomy.

But this bastard's boot licking of big business - along with that of John Robert's, the new, oh-so-brilliant Chief Justice (as opposed to Chief InJustice or Chief Freedom) - has me really concerned about how it could effect ME. And that's where the rubber really hits the road ain't it? With spinner rims no less.

Abortion is the red herring, the McGuffin. Republicans want you focused on that so you don't notice them slipping in the guy that will do away with the last of the regulations just before the Bush people turn the whole planet into an uglier, smellier version of Bladerunner.

If the Democrats don't have the balls to Filibuster... why even go any further, gentle readers? You know and I know they don't have those balls. If they didn't have the stones to step up and support John Murtha, they won't have them for this.

The Moron Terror

2005-11-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

Instead of “The War on Terror” why don’t we just soak all the money printed at the US Mint in jet fuel and include a pack of matches with every hundred in currency? Then let’s just launder it all through every known pyromaniac in the FBI data base.

The results would be just as effective, because the value we’re getting for our money in The War on Terror is zero. It’s less than zero, because the War on Terror creates more terrorists than it will ever kill or capture. Isn’t that always the way?

The very idea of a War on Terror is moronic. No wonder so many Americans embrace it.

There have been terrorists and terror since they started recording history. As soon as the first humans had something worth taking - whether it be material possession or peace of mind - other nasty ass humans tried to scare the shit out of them and take away whatever they wanted from them.

Let’s face it, from the dawn of mankind scumbags have tried to ruin things for the rest of us.

Failures like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld try to leverage the fear factor by saying ridiculous crap like “Never before have evil doers wanted to kill all of us and destroy our very way of life.” Oh really? Bullshit. Sure they have. Who the fuck are you kidding?

Answer - nobody.

Wasn’t the entire freaking Cold War about the commies wanting to enslave us all and do away with our religion and our capitalistic society? Yeah, I think it was.

Didn’t they have thousands of nuclear missiles aimed at every one of our cities and military bases? Weren't we just minutes away from having our entire country and perhaps the entire world destroyed? Or was I just dreaming that stuff when I was ducking and covering my ass in school in the 1960s?

Didn’t the nuclear standoff get pretty heated when Reagan was President in the 1980s or was that too long ago to remember? Probably is for guys who were doing line after line of coke back then, right GW?

I’m sorry, but did I miss something about the power and strength of these terrorists we’re at war with today? Are we at that Mutually Assured Destruction level with them yet? No, I didn’t think so. So let’s stop lying and making believe the threat is worse than it is, just so the morons in charge can get away with murder.

9-11 didn’t change anything. Setting off a nuclear bomb in the United States - now that will change things big time. So will another anthrax attack. You remember the last one, don’t you? You know, the one where they never caught nobody?

Gee what other big attack while Bush was President does that remind you of?

Never got caught... Imagine that. Just like the people responsible for 9-11.

The whole damn world knows one thing for sure, don’t we? We all know that Osama Bin Laden is responsible for 9-11. No wonder the President said he was wanted “dead or alive” and that we would “smoke him out and bring him to justice.” What a crock of shit that was.

It’s too bad our world’s greatest military, with their super smart leaders and most advanced and deadly weapons and equipment let Bin Laden get away when they had him trapped at Tora Bora. Then you know what Bush and Cheney decided do right after that?

CUT AND RUN. That's what they call it, isn't it?

That was their strategy in Afghanistan with Bin Laden still on the loose and the country still wide open for war lords. Cut and run out of the country so the opium trade can keep florishing and the Taliban can escape into the mountains.

When you ship the bulk of your troops and their equipment to another country - one where you know for sure no one responsible for 9-11 is - and leave too few troops behind to do the job you promised to do, well that’s just a world class Cut and Run job, ain’t it? Damn right it is.

That’s what cowards do, though isn’t it? First they cut and run when it’s their time to serve - whether it’s cutting and running as far as five deferments will carry your chubby wide ass while the rest of your generation was getting drafted to Vietnam, or being AWOL from the National Guard at the same time and opting out of the war when you were asked if you would serve.

Almost ironic today for the National Guard guys who are serving hitch after hitch in Iraq while they lose their jobs back home and their families just can’t seem to defer those bills. I guess that’s Dan Rather’s fault too, right?

You’re never going to defeat terror. Why not just declare war on evil itself? How about a war against Satan? When does that one start? Maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess if we had already begun that one.

The Moron Terror is the biggest threat we face today, for it is the morons who are destroying our American way of life with every move they make.

Where is Osama?

I think reporters need to ask that question every single day at the White House briefing. I think it needs to be asked every single time the President takes any questions anywhere.

Maybe we should all end every e-mail we send to everyone with "Where's Osama?"

And I think it's time we flood the White House with a post card a day each, from every state in the union. Each one reading simply: “WHERE IS OSAMA?”

That’s one way to turn the tide on the Moron Terror.

We're All Just Extras To Arnold

2005-11-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be a most beautiful day if my fellow Californians follow my lead and vote to help destroy Arnold Schwartenegger's massively unjustified super ego by sending the propositions he has endorsed down in flames. And believe me, even though he'll make believe it doesn't bother him, it's going to piss him off like an old roid rage.

A vote against propositions 73, 74, 75, 76, 77 and 78 is six votes against Arnold. Half a dozen votes against putting more power in the hands of the a muscle bound inadequate thinker. And a man with questionable motives and even more dubious methods.

The election of Arnold Schwarzenegger was a giant step backward for California. His celebrity worshipping appeal brought out the worst in our election process, mixing unfocused anger with the uninformed public's desire to "stick it" to the man, to authority and to the system. Voting for a faded, low-brow, action movie star, who speaks and acts in a cartoon manner appealed to the equally faded, low-brow fans of such movies. What a great way to Punk all those bureaucrats in Sacramento who kept us from winning the lottery or driving by ourselves in the carpool lane.

The irony so clearly lost on these gene pool shallow enders is that they are exactly the kind of nameless, faceless "fans" who Arnold has never given a shit about. Arnold doesn't even see them as real people. He never has.

We're all just extras to Arnold, just background people who don't get a credit at the end of the movie, don't have any profit participation and most disdainfully of all, have zero juice to help Arnold in any way. So Arnold doesn't even see us. And if we boo, or hiss or ask a pointed question designed to embarrass Arnold he could give a flying fuck on a rolling donut. He is programmed to just laugh and smile and encourage you with a line like, "I love your passion, you're fantastic!"

Too bad that act has worn thin as the extras all across the state have found their role just as unsatisfying as the extras in Arnold's movies.

And your Angry Buddhist also says, don't buy into the scam that Arnold is a successful businessman, because he isn't. That's just image building bullshit. There is simply no real evidence of that. Buying up California real estate with movie star millions isn't anything special. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby did it over half a century ago and nobody was crazy enough back then to think either one of them should have been Governor.

How come people are so depressingly stupid today?

Part of it is the scam constantly being perpetrated on them. Like pretending that Arnold's intelligence is impossible to deny when you talk to him. That's just not true. That's just something other celebrity types foist on you to validate their own self worth.

I've talked to Arnold. I'm unimpressed with his intelligence. He sounds like a dumber than average actor if you ask me, and that's sinking pretty low with the insults, ain't it? But that's the truth as only your Angry Buddhist will reveal to you. This is a Nazi sound-alike who has never once uttered a single original, or creative thought. He has charisma - if you're unsophisticated enough to fall for it - but he doesn't have the smarts.

It's not as if Arnold ever wrote anything or ever once had an innovative solution to anything. He can barely do more than repeat cliche rote sentences that become his predictable responses to every question.

The proof is in the pudding. Given the platform and the credibility that goes with the office he blitzed his way into he has kept none of his promises to the people, tried nothing new or different, and became the new record setter in the all the categories he criticized the last guy for.

Given the bully pulpit and insane popularity numbers he chose to repeat ad infinitum, movie lines written by screenwriters that never really applied or related to the subject Arnie was supposed to be talking about. Even worse, his impossible to hide core bully boy personality has burst through like an alien through the chest of an outer space dude whenever the stress got to him. Name calling at the pathetic third grade level would be a step up for Arnie who smiled like a moron while he threw down with the "Girly men" wisdom.

A lot of people are simply impressed by an oppressively aggressive personality if it's backed up by big box office receipts in the movies, television or the music. Those people are shallow and worthy of scorn and shunning.

This time the polls say that jerks are down to about 35% statewide, but don't let that fool you. Jerks in California are at record high numbers.

So are people confused by these dumb ass initiatives on the ballot. So I'll break them down for you as only an really furiously angry Buddhist can.

But before I let her rip, stop what you're doing to pay attention to this.

It's time to give this whole initiative process the big dirt nap. They're a fucking waste of time and the whole system - like every single other aspect of politics today has been so co-opted and bitch-ified by money that we should just shit can the whole idea. We get almost exclusively big business and right wing attempts to find new ways to screw us and this year is no exception. So lets get enough signatures soon for an initiative to ban all future propositions.

But until we do, you can get several swings with the big mallet hammer like the one they use at the carnival using Movie Star Arnold's brightly dyed hairdo as your target to ring that bell and win yourself a stuffed shirt. STEP RIGHT UP!

PROPOSITION 73
Wants to force scared pregnant teenage girls who have such bad relationships with their parents that Mom and Dad have no clue they're going about to become grandparents, to notify those parents if she's going to have an abortion. If those lousy parents don't know their little girl needs to have an abortion, what place is it for the state government to tell them? Republicans always want to force themselves into a woman's uterus through the government at the state, local and federal level. But the Angry Buddhist says Republicans have fucked up everything they've gotten their hands on in the 21st century so they should just shut the hell up for a few decades.

PROPOSITION 74
Makes it harder for teachers to get tenure and makes it easier to fire teachers during their first five years teaching. What a croc of shit this one is. First the Governor screws the schools out of billions promised them then he wants to scapegoat the teachers because they've stood up to his phony acting job and haven't bought into his movie star charisma. It's hard enough to get people to teach in California's pitiful public school system at the crappy pay we give them. But of course it's more important to never have any new taxes than it is for kids to know anything more than how to use cell phones and video games.

PROPOSITION 75
Right now, if you're in a California union and you don't want any of your dues money to go to political campaigns you have to opt out. This initiative if passed would make you have to opt in. It's on the ballot because unions in California support Democrats and they don't like the Governor - mostly because he has tried to screw them and diminish their power every way he can. Must have been the terrible job the Screen Actors Guild did getting him a good wage and benefits as an actor. The real big money fucking up California politics comes from corporations and the friends of America's most evil and creepy cult - The Chamber of Commerce. But nobody talks about shareholders having to opt in to include it. A vote against this one is a vote for the people like firemen, cops and EMS pros who are fighting this untalented actor who keeps pretending to be a hero, but has never done anything heroic in his life.

PROPOSITION 76
This knuckleheaded initiative would let the governor declare "a fiscal emergency" and then slice and dice any program by any amount he chooses. Giving this kind of power to a low life like Arnold is the moral equivalent of giving Ted Sizemore an 8-ball of coke and the key and alarm code to Heidi's house.

If this initiative passes, governor celebrity boy could undo decisions made by voters previously. School funding, health, police and emergency rooms, among other expenditures, would be at big risk from the man who doesn't really give a shit about the health and welfare of anyone but himself.

PROPOSITION 77
This is the one where Arnold wants three retired judges to redraw all the district lines for state Senators and Assembly people. Arnold wants to do that because right now the lines were all written by the Democrats in the time honored gerrymandering manner - which means they're rigged to let the Democrats have the best chance at winning each election. That's just wrong and unfair and I'm against it -- unless it means that Republicans get any advantage or improved chance to get elected. Since Republicans are evil, untrustworthy, selfish, screw-you terrorists, they must be stopped at all costs. Even if it means giving the crooked, but less evil Democrats an unfair advantage. So screw you Republicans! The Angry Buddhist says take ALL the money out of politics. Force them to run only on a small amount of public funding and restrict the campaigning to a three month stretch. THAT's real reform.

PROPOSITION 78
This is the scam initiative bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical Mafia to keep you from voting for Proposition 79 which was put on the ballot by consumers trying to get a break on killer prescription prices. All you have to do is take a look at the who's who list of companies that have made obscene profits shoving overpriced pills down our throats to know you have to vote against it just to protect your own interests. What the drug companies are offering in 78 is an insulting pittance. Worse than that, if they wanted to offer crappy discounts that still guarantee them a fortune what the hell do they need a proposition for? They can roll out that program tomorrow.

PROPOSITION 79
This one is the one the drug companies are scared shitless of. They've been lying about it and fighting it every step of the way. It would mean they'd have to offer some decent discounts for the people who need them most financially. Your Angry Buddhist is voting YES on this one.

PROPOSITION 80
This isn't the perfect solution to the electric energy mess in California but it is a good start to fixing things. This was put on the ballot and is backed by one an activist group the Angry Buddhist greatly admires. Vote yes to piss off the power companies and improve your energy karma.

There isn't a doubt in my mind that none of what Arnold has done has come from his desire to really do some good and help California or Californians.

Out-of-control egos, and movie stars trained in the special rules that exist just for "The King" are the wrong environments for breeding smart, compassionate leaders.

Everyone has met the kind of stuck up, self-centered, attention-demanding, bullies who believe their career success makes them superior to those who haven't been as lucky or as crooked as they were. Everyone has wanted to publicly slap those kind of people down and personally humiliate them. Why? Becasue they have it coming and deserve it.

Tomorrow on election day here in California we get that chance.

Rove Resigns, Mistakes Admitted, Bush Apologizes

2005-11-07T08:58:00.000-08:00

TOMORROW'S NEWS... TODAY!

The call came on The Angry Buddhist's cell phone during halftime at last night's Lakers vs Nuggets game. As it turned out the caller on the line had the biggest Nugget of the night.

It was my phone buddy, Karl. Karl Rove. He had told the President he wouldn't call any more journalists and leak on them. So he called The Angry Buddhist instead.

As you gentle followers all know - I am not a journalist. I am, as widely acknowledged, the 21st century Jiminy Cricket.

So with a good 12 minutes before the 2nd half, I took the call.

Karl got right to the point. "I'm out. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. And with my finish, the end to the attacks on our President during war time. So I guess you could say I'm taking a bullet for the big guy."

"So you're resigning?" I asked.

"No fucking way," said Karl. "We get no polling boost from that. No, the President is firing me, to show how decisive he is and uncorrupt. I've scripted the whole thing. It's brilliant."

"Then he's going to admit to making mistakes -- just like Reagan did! Everyone says he isn't capable of it, but we're going to show them how wrong they are."

"Then - and this is the tipping point to come - George will apologize to America..."

"Come on, Karl," I scoffed. "Bush is actually going to say 'I'm sorry?' I'm not buying it, it goes against everything he believes."

"Of course not," laughed Karl. "He's going to say, 'I apologize.' He's not sorry about shit - except how the liberal left has attacked him and the values America stands for. It's not about what he believes, it's about what he needs to do at this time."

He put me on speaker phone and I could hear Karl galloping around the room and slapping his own ass over the phone as he cackled like Charles Nelson Reilly on the "Ghost and Mrs. Muir."

"We've already done the post-apology polling!" yelled Karl the Horse. "He gets a 9 point boost before the pundits even get to opine!"

"The thing is," Karl said, getting back on the headset, "We have no choice. The American people will send us straight to hell in the '06 midterms and we'll be playing "Hail to the Chief" for Hillary come January 2009 if we don't pull the trigger on this. We need Karl Rove to be the fall guy and for the President to wave the magic "apology wand" and make this all go away."

The Laker scrubs were dribbling back onto the Staples Center floor for their half time warmups and I told Karl that all sounded great to me and to keep me posted about anything else he had in mind to pull off so I could put it here in the blog. I then hit the "end" button and turned the phone off.

After all, who needs some asshole on United States Airforce approved speed, bugging me during the second half?

So just remember where you read this first, because it's in the bag.
Karl is gone.
Mistakes were made.
The President is sorry.

Nothing has changed.

We Got Him On The Run, Now Let's Smoke Him Out!

2005-11-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Hey Guess What?
America Ain't Buying This Sad Clowns Pathetic Act Any More -

Let's roll the latest numbers:

PRESIDENT BUSH'S JOB APPROVAL
Approve
35%
Disapprove
57%

DID SOMEONE IN BUSH ADMIN. LEAK AGENT'S NAME?

Yes
Now
62%
7/2005
52%

No
Now
14%
7/2005
21%

Don't know
Now
24%
7/2005
27%

Those are George WMD's latest numbers straight from our pals at CBS.

Your Angry Buddhist has already previsualized more good news to come and it looks something like this:

You remember that toward the end when Nixon's whole criminal enterprise came crashing down on top of him and his cabal Tricky Dicky walked around the West Wing talking to portraits on the wall.

George Bush doesn't know who the people in the pictures on the wall are at the White House so he does a different kind of monolog more suited to his intellect and prowess.

Dirty Harry Kicks Frist's Pampered Ass

2005-11-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

Angry Buddhist Wakes Up Democrats Who Bitch Slap Happless GOP

Dirty Harry Makes My Day

Just hours after I called for the United States Senate to be blown up yesterday, that's exactly what happened.

After trying every other tactic against Bush and failing in the last five years Harry Reid and the Democrats finally woke up to the reality of the evil bastards they are fighting.

Apparently calling Reid a "barking poodle with no teeth" set him off as evidenced by the photo above, which also shows Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin's reaction to my casting them in washed up thesbian dinner theatre roles.

From the looks on their faces I'd say they're now ready to start filming "Goodfellas."

Now it's time for them to stay in character and keep beating the hell out of the Republicans. And I hope they use a baseball bat because that is our American passtime and it would be so fitting based on the President's love for the game.

Your Angry Buddhist says fuck being nonpartisan. The Republicans have demonstrated they will only wreck havoc on all true Americans hold dear if they are allowed to continue their radical rampage.

There can be no appeasement with terrorists and today's Republican terror party has killed more Americans and done more damage to our nation than any group led by Osama Bin Forgotten.

Bring on the filibuster! Bring on the nuclear option. I've already got my duct tape so I am ready, baby! I want to see Frist cry like a coward again. Then I want to see him run for President with Tom Delay as his Dick... Cheney that is.

Time To Go To The Mattresses

2005-11-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

Rent the apartments, round up the gang from out of town and start boiling the water to cook up some big pots of pasta, because with nomination of Sammy “The Con” Alito from the Jersey/Philly Alito Family it’s time for a fight to the finish. It’s time to snap out of it and either bend over and surrender, or go to the mattresses and kill or be killed.

And if you can’t smell the tomato sauce simmering from here then you’ve had one too many rhinoplasties. This is another stinks-to-high-heaven hit job on behalf of the Republican Regime’s ongoing terror campaign. It is designed to frighten Americans into acquiescence. This is the terrorists' next attempt to steal more of your rights and freedoms.

Bush and his fellow cell members are offering Sammy The Con as his next improvised explosive device under the wheels of justice. You think he’s Taliban when it comes to women’s rights, civil rights and your right to choose? That’s kid stuff compared to what a shameless pimp he is for corporate America.

But Sammy The Con as an IED is also designed for maximum flash bang impact. He is being set off to cause so much noise and attention that the public will be distracted from the quagmire in Iraq, from the Mafia-zation of the White House and from the dismantling of American Democracy and its replacement by the Corporate Monopolcy.

So now it’s put up or shut up time for the professional Democrats in power.

Your Angry Buddhist says don’t get your hopes up. They haven’t shown they have either the courage or the ability to defeat evil – either in their own home or anywhere else in America.

They have failed miserably both in stopping Bush and in voicing a compelling Call to Action against America’s radical religious terrorists and their campaign to destroy everything that is noble or worthy in our country.

Harry Reid is nothing more than a barking poodle with no teeth. Teddy Kennedy? Patrick Lehey? Charles Schumar? John Kerry? Joe Biden? Dick Durbin? They’re like an all star dinner theatre cast of past-their-prime actors who may have the right script, but no longer have the acting chops or charisma to pull it off.

Hillary Clinton? She must have found herself a nice cozy spot in Dick Cheney’s hidden bunker because she is silent and invisible. Hillary is playing the politics of soulless safety. She is staying in the background, keeping her powder dry and saying nothing that she might have to live up to later.

That’s the same worthless stance HRC has taken on Katrina, on the CIA Leak scandal and indictment, on global warming, the price gouging and windfall profits of the oil industry and countless other issues that call for bold, intelligent, courageous and inspiring leadership. But at least she came out against violent video games...

Hillary has been even worse on the Iraq invasion and occupation, strategically staking out her position on the right as a war hawk. Her only problem with Iraq is that we haven’t sent enough troops or spent enough money there yet.

The Angry Buddhist has no use for political animals who are unrelated to anyone outside of business executives, lobbyists, and other professional politicians. What we need now is fighters on behalf of the people. We need warriors who are willing to kill the bad guys. We already know who the real evil doers are.

So bring on the filibuster and let Barbara Boxer lead it because she has more balls, vision and fortitude than every other Senator with the exception of Russ Feingold.

And better yet, come on at us with your nuclear option Senator Frist! Bombs away you lying, thieving, un-American cheater. You’ve got about as much chance of being elected President as Harriet Miers does of being in a MILF video. So by all means get out in front with that and wave your banner so we can see you clearly.

The Angry Buddhist says go ahead and blow up the entire fucking United States Senate because it’s been worth a bucket of warm spit for a long time now. Blow it up, bulldoze the wreckage and lets build something better.

Feds Capture & Indict Radical Terror Cell’s Key Lieutenant

2005-10-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

America’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Now in G-Man’s Crosshairs

America’s war on terror scored a major victory yesterday with the indictment of a key member of the terrorist’s upper echelon command.

Experts say it is now only a matter of time before the entire organization is toppled and its leaders arrested and jailed. Hoods and dog collars are being made ready.

Your Angry Buddhist has learned that the titular leader of the cell that has relentlessly and ruthlessly attacked the USA’s greatest assets, and paralyzed our citizens with the fear and panic that are the hallmarks of terror, is now the target of federal prosecutors who are closing in for the kill.

With the first of the evil terrorist henchmen caught and indicted yesterday in Washington DC, the Angry Buddhist’s inside-the-beltway sources now reveal that this will be just the first domino to fall. Expect the others to fold like a cheap umbrella over the coming weeks and months.

This evil doer was the best friend and right hand man to the #2 leader of the terrorists – apparently #2 in name only, as many believe he runs the entire illegal operation. The indicted terrorist also worked directly for the #1 terrorist leader as one of his most trusted associates.

So, we done hooked us a big fish. Hoo-ya!

Now while others advocate Abu Gharib torture tactics to break the captured terror officer’s sprit and get him to spill his guts about the next attacks his cohorts have in store for our nation, your Angry Buddhist thinks Scooter “I Just Forgot” Libby should be protected by the Geneva Convention. This is war after all and he is definitely an enemy combatant. So I personally would be against hooking up his tiny little balls to electrodes and pumping some AC/DC through them. Some Areosmith maybe, but AC/DC? Never!

While terrorist sympathizers and strident supporters in sleeper cells embedded across America acted relieved and began their campaign to diminish the significance of this blow against their organization, your Angry Buddhist has learned that the exact opposite is true.

Karl Rove escaped indictment only by the hair of his smooth-as-a baby’s-behind chinny-chin-chin yesterday, but his neck is already in the noose and he’s going down like a chubby beret-head on a budget-balancing President.

You just can’t pass the sniff test with the old “I forgot to remember correctly” defense when you’re absofuckinglutely famous for having a mind like an elephant and never forgetting anything, especially a slight or lack of loyalty to the terrorist cause.

Karl lied and obstructed justice too, in order to cover-up the slime and smear job he and his crew were conducting against Joe Wilson, patriotic American who tried to blow the whistle on the terrorist activities. But that next indictment is still just the bit of this off shore well’s drilling platform.

The Angry Buddhist prophesizes that the Libby trial is going to blow the cover of “I’m-the” Dick Cheney, and with it the truth behind his terror cell’s preemptive infiltration of our government and their campaign to destroy America and what it stands for.

Perhaps the most clever and insidious part of their so far successful operation was the cover story of the “outside” terrorist threat that was claimed to be so scary and dangerous that fighting it overrode all other considerations, laws and values.

The successful “9-11 Changed Everything” terror campaign was brilliant in its hypnotic effectiveness and misdirection. A nationwide frenzy of fear and loathing was whipped up over the 2,752 deaths in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon that day.

Under the cover of the hysteria terrorists infiltrated every nook and cranny of the government. And they immediately began their reign of destruction over the economy, over the quality of the air we breath, the water we drink, the roads we travel and the very lives we live.

Little did anyone realize those deaths would pale in comparison with the tens and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi women and children killed and maimed and the over 2000 young American volunteer military men and women killed in a war that 9-11 made convenient.

The sheer brilliance of “We’ve got to fight them over there in order to keep from having to fight them over here” is that it misdirects the public’s attention overseas to the Wag the Dog war, instead of over here where the real shock and awe is taking place.

Because the war is really just a decoy and only a small part of the secret terror plot against the USA.

Having successfully engaged in regime change through force and subterfuge, they strong-armed their way first to the Presidency in 2000 and then the leaderships of Congress and the Senate.

Clearly their clandestine scheme was designed to defile and discredit the American values of honesty, fair play, justice and democracy. They literally wanted to take a giant dump on our shining city on the hill and make it stinking grotesqueries of ugliness for others to look askance at.

In the most twisted bit of irony, these terrorists went about replacing our previous noble American ideals with the very way of life we fought the cold war to prevent.

PHONY COMMUNIST VALUES – you know, where the oligarchy pretends everything’s even-Steven but instead the game is really rigged for the poor suckers at the bottom to do all the work so the big shots at the top can reap all the rewards…

Phony Commie Values - like attacking and invading other countries just because you want to impose your way of life and type of government on them.

Phony Commie Values – like changing the laws to give the government all kinds of Big Brother powers to keep the people in line.

Phony Commie Values – like making sure pesky reporters don’t tell the truth about wars and turn the people against them like in Vietnam.

Phony Commie Values – like trying to take over the Supreme Court with unqualified toady cronies who will just rule the way the party wants them to.

Phony Commie Values – like having no real opposition party and attacking and destroying anyone who tries to act in opposition.

Phony Commie Values – like the kind that get exposed when there’s a natural disaster like Chernobyl or Katrina…

Phony Commie Values – like when on Friday, on a straight party-line vote, the Republican-run US House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new government report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

What a sad legacy to good old Ronald Reagan, that the President who claims to be carrying his torch is really nothing more than a traitorous terror leader masquerading as an American.

But fortunately – like with all evil criminal enterprises, all is not going according to plan.

The terrorists, drunk with power, have become their own worst enemies. The Angry Buddhist says they have jumped the shark and they are now beyond sloppy drunk. They’re at the falling down in the gutter and peeing their own pants stage.

What more could you ask for come the holiday season?

Only in recent months have the terrorists slipped and allowed themselves to be openly identified through corruption and misdeeds so blatant that even their sophisticated marketing and sales machines could not overcome the damage they did. Even their infiltration of the main stream media could not keep the truth bottled up and hidden away.

Thus we see terrorist DeLay exposed, booked and fingerprinted.

And then Frist’s criminal cover is blown and Dr. Moneybags lies and greedy deeds to make himself richer is made public.

Suddenly the people are not drinking the Kool Aid any more and the Potemkin Village is being blown over by the winds of angry change.

And so that brings us back to Osama Bin Libby. Karl Yasser Arafat Rove, the Mullah Cheney and Ayatollah Bush himself.

Now that we know who the real terrorists are it should be real easy to tell the truth from the propaganda designed to fool us.

If you’re ever in doubt just tune into the today’s Tokyo Rose, the American Al Jazeera Network, Fox News. They’re the terrorist’s mouthpiece and they stand for the same goals.

Now all we need are Americans strong and powerful enough in number to directly challenge the terror network, stand up to their attacks and overwhelm them with the same Frank Capra values that defeated fascism in the 1940s.

Redefining The Democrats

2005-10-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

In this Bush era soon to be known as The Blunder Years, the Democrats have been a failure as an opposition party.

First they caved into Republicans and allowed the 2000 election to be stolen from them after Gore beat Bush by over 500,000 votes. Then instead of responding to “Get Over It” with “Crimes and injustice against our democracy are to be prosecuted, not gotten over!” they went home and licked their wounds. Most of them have been as bad as Bush has the on the Iraq war and terrorism. And they rolled over and played dead while hapless John Kerry was slimed and slandered in the last election.

Today, the best the Democrats have been able to offer as a party is righteous indignation, justifiable criticism, and no backbone, no solutions and no clear enunciation of who they are and what they stand for.

They at least recognize it and they recognize that now is the time that America is waiting to hear from them. So Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are accelerating their release of the Democratic party’s new platform and policy agendas.

You can get a sense of where it’s headed by reading the post from our buddy kos over at The Daily Kos.

While it is light years better than what the Republicans offer, it is still not seizing the moment in ways that will hook Americans like a hit TV series and inspire them to rise up and fulfill our true destiny.

So that makes this the perfect time for The Angry Buddhist to step in and make it as clear to you as it is to me about exactly what the Democrats should be saying and believing. Because, gentle followers, I know exactly what the Democrats destiny must be.

And so do you. Frank Capra taught us all everything we need to know about what the good guys stand for and who the bad guys are over 60 years ago.

In films like “Meet John Doe,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” and “You Can’t Take It With You,” Capra showed us what real American values are.

Each of Capra’s heroes fought against the forces of entrenched greed, each showed integrity in the face of temptation and each was helped by the combined goodwill of the ‘little people,” leading to their victory over the powerful and the privileged.

Capra’s traditional American values are easy to explain, they are easy to understand and their appeal is undeniable as George Bailey’s, Longfellow Deeds’ and Jefferson Smith’s.

Using them as my guide, The Angry Buddhist has put them together here in a little piece of future history I call -

The Declaration of Democracy

Above and beyond everything we stand for the common person, the individual. We believe the human dignity of the common person is the strength of our nation. We believe that there is nothing really common about free individuals, who are each unique people worthy of respect and their fair chance at the American dream.

We stand for a one-person-one vote democracy. We stand for the individual against the big machine, the powerful and the moneyed interests.

We believe that each American is truly equal and that everyone from the richest to the poorest must wait their turn fairly. We believe that the same rules apply to one and all.

We believe that government exists to stand up for the little guy and to provide the services, agencies and help that the profit-driven private sector should not. We believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and

We believe every American regardless of where they live has the right to a peaceful, law-abiding neighborhood. We consider gangs and organized crime terrorists and their actions terrorism and we will respond accordingly.

We pledge to protect the people from criminal harm from within and outside of the United States. We believe that the punishment should fit the crime and that justice should be swift and certain when guilt is assured.

We believe that might does not make right. We reject the role of bully and preemptive military attacks. We believe our military must be used to protect our citizens from harm, respond to any attack and rescue any ally under assault.

We will attack no country who does not attack us first. But if attacked by another sovereign nation we will hold their government and their military responsible and we will seek to immediately destroy them.

We believe that America must always do the right thing even when it is not to our advantage. We must tell the truth even when it makes us look bad. We must always be fair, even when others are not fair with us. We must be generous to those in need even though they might not be generous with us. We recognize that it is our destiny to be the good examples for everyone else. Only by living up to this standard can we be as great as we claim to be.

We believe in neighborly goodwill, that we each have a responsibility to contribute to the greater good of our neighbors and our communities. We believe in the selflessness of community and of belonging to something larger than oneself. We believe that these principles apply equally to our next door neighbors and our country’s foreign neighbors.

We seek first and foremost to live in a free, peaceful world of cooperation and friendship. We believe our country has an obligation to work with the other nations of the world to promote liberty, truth and democracy through the example we set and the help we provide.

We believe that terrorism is another form of organized crime and that terrorists should be fought and defeated by the FBI, the CIA, Special Forces squads and international crime agencies like Interpol. We believe in giving these agencies the tools and resources they need to effectively do this job. We believe that these law enforcement agencies are better equipped and trained for this job than the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy.

We believe that our dependence on oil as an energy source is harmful to American’s health physically, economically and militarily. We believe it is in our immediate best interest to commit to an all out national effort to develop oil’s renewable, clean replacement. We believe that the jobs created by this effort and by our future discovery will more than pay for our investment.

We believe it is more important to our nation’s future that every American has healthcare, than it is that insurance companies make healthy profits. No one should be denied healthcare because they cannot afford to pay for it and our Federal and state governments should help those who need it.

We believe that poverty, hunger and homelessness are unacceptable and that our nation cannot achieve its true potential so long as these conditions exist across America. Many homeless belong in medical facilities and we will make the room and the budget money available. Other homeless Americans are down on their luck and just need a break and a job and we will offer them both.

We believe that every American who wants a job and is willing to work hard should have the opportunity for employment at a livable wage. We believe that Americans cannot live adequately or with dignity at the current minimum wage and thus it does not qualify as truly “minimum.” We will raise the minimum wage to a point where people can actually live on it.

We believe that it is better for American companies to employ Americans and make a little less profit than to outsource jobs to foreign countries and make more profit as a result. We will tax companies that do so until it becomes economically illogical for them to do so.

We believe that in order to be truly free your private life should remain private unless you are harming others by your actions. We believe the right to individual privacy and freedom of personal expression are integral to being American.

We believe that success in life is measured by the good you do and the friends you make and not by the amount of money you make or the things you own. We reject materialism and rampant consumerism and consider them bad for our nation’s character and soul.

We believe we have a responsibility to conserve and preserve the wild lands, national parks, forests, and other natural places and pass them on to the next generations in better condition than we received them. We believe there are already too few of these places and that they must remain undeveloped and unspoiled for our children and our children’s children.

We believe that it is a crime to pollute the air, land or water or to change the temperature of the earth. We believe that we have a responsibility to repair any damage our actions have had in these areas and that those who have caused the damage and profited by it should pay for the repairs.

We believe that too much money is spent on political campaigns, that money has too much influence in campaigns and in governing, and that this influence is harmful to America and Americans. We pledge to stop taking any and all political campaign contributions over $100. We don’t want your money, we want your vote and your support.

There you have it. Exactly what the Democrats should both say and do. This is what they should stand for and this is what we should expect from an opposition party that truly lives up to its obligation to offer a real alternative to the Republicans.

Granted your Angry Buddhist has only mused and meditated on this document for a day or so and the contributions and directions of others will improve it. But if this were the platform, Americans would recognize these values as the ones the majority of them believe in deep down inside.

There's a reason "It's A Wonderful Life" is such a revered classic and why most people call "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" their favorite movie about politics. It's because Frank Capra's movies were about the very essence of our best American values and virtures. And those values and virtues can still help to bring out our best if we hold them up and make them available again.

And that, gentle followers, is our lesson for today.

The Angry Buddhist Solves The Iraq Quagmire

2005-10-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Your Angry Buddhist has seen the future and he likes what he sees.

My recent meditation retreat presented me with a high definition vision of that which will be happening beyond today's scene. The clarity was remarkable.

Your Angry Buddhist sees federal indictments of senior White House officials coming very soon.

He sees the discrediting of the Bush doctrine continuing and he sees the country ready for the solution to the Iraq quagmire.

The solution of course is to tell the truth.

The truth is that the war was a mistake. We were wrong to invade Iraq and occupy it.

The solution consists of admitting the mistake, apologizing for the mistake and then correcting the mistake.

How do we correct the mistake?

We remove our troops from Iraq and we repair the damage we caused.

And yes, it is just that simple.

The idea, as offered by the Bush administration, that we can’t just “cut and run” and that we have to “stay the course” makes no sense at all – especially as the rationale offered by the people responsible for making this mistake. The people whose failed judgments and untruths have now been exposed and who have proved they cannot be trusted.

If the police staged a raid on the wrong address would they refuse to leave once they found they were wrong? No they wouldn’t, even if the occupant was someone they didn’t like and wished they had evidence on.

“Staying the course” only makes sense when you are on the right course.

In fact, only those who take America down the wrong path ever urge us to “Stay the course.” When the course is the correct one, Americans need no direction to stay on it.

The Angry Buddhist will tell you exactly what we should do now:
We should tell the world that George Bush used false intelligence to illegally invade Iraq and convince the American people that Iraq was somehow connected to 9-11.

We should tell the world we now all know he was not telling the truth and that we were wrong to invade Iraq and kill so many thousands of their innocent citizens.

We should admit that we are responsible for the insurgency that has arisen and the terrorists that now call Iraq home. We should announce that we understand that it is our presence there that threatens the future of Iraq and its people.

We should announce our agreement with the United Nations to supply a mostly Arab led military force to provide law and order in Iraq in our absence.

Then we should do what we should have done after 9-11 and that is get back on the trail of the terrorist network that attacked us and bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

The failure to admit this mistake and correct it can only lead to more dead Americans, more dead Iraqis and a strengthening of the rationale terrorists use to successfully recruit a growing number of others to hate and attack Americans wherever they may be.

Only the least enlightened and simplest of minds believe that admitting and correcting serious mistakes is a sign of weakness or the wrong course to follow.

All of this lesson made itself apparent to me in a flash this weekend during my retreat. Surely you have read (scroll down) the other lessons I learned and posted in the last two days of this Buddhist’s waterfall of wonderment and wisdom.

I was planning on closing this post with my conclusion that it is the Democrat’s failure to see this solution that has made them accessories to this crime and exposed them as the toothless and irrelevant opposition party that they truly are.

I still stand by that conclusion, WITH THE FOLLOWING BRAND NEW EXCEPTION…

And it just goes to show you that this Angry Buddhist is still learning and still rejoicing in discovering things he did not know or believe before.

Senator Russ Feingold, Democratic Senator from Wisconsin and emerging hero to me and many others, clearly engaged in an Angry Buddhist Mind Meld this weekend and the result was today’s Salon interview that finds exactly the very same solution. You must read this interview.
Thanks to RobertInWisconsin on the www.dailykos.com site for calling my attention to it this morning.

Then marvel, as I do, at the wisdom of The Angry Buddhist in coming to the same conclusion without the resources of the United State Senate or a college education…

The Real Battle For America’s Soul: Primitives Vs. Progressives

2005-10-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

Your Angry Buddhist has spent some serious time meditating on the future of America and I have come back from the mountain top to share the clear vision that made itself apparent to me.

As you grok my revelation, its obvious wisdom and clarity will make undeniable sense to you.

Do not let my brilliance anger or intimidate you. Instead enjoy the cloud parting view that now awaits you.

The struggle, gentle followers, is not between Democrats and Republicans. It is not conservatives verses liberals. It is not about the right against the left.

No, it’s far more basic than that, much closer to the DNA, more genetic if you will.

The truth which revealed itself to me, and now through me to you, is that the battle pits the Primitives verses the Progressives.

Primitives operate on a fear-based paradigm. The believe in violence and war as solutions – especially to war and violence. They are always willing to fight for what is theirs.

Primitives are greedy and rabid consumers. They believe there is no such thing as too much money or too much luxury – for themselves. They worry not about the impact of their lives or luxuries on others and are never reluctant to consider anything they own disposable. Thus, what is theirs encompasses a wide treasure, all of which they are willing to fight for.

Primitives feel very good about themselves and what they’ve earned in life and are strong supporters of property rights. The also tend to be selfish about sharing their property. “To each his own,” they think, “but keep your hands off my stuff.”

Primitives are proudly arrogant, a characteristic they feel a virtue. They take great pride in having never made any mistakes. They anger quickly when their perfection is called into question.

Primitives are exclusive and highly clannish. They are fiercely loyal. They always support the troops so long as another primitive is in charge of the troops.

Primitives value principle over honesty and do not let the facts get in the way of their strong opinions. Simple, inarguable declarations are their answers to many questions.

Primitives practice religious rituals and relationships that assure them they will go to a heaven after death that is only available to them and their like minded clan.

Progressives operate on a hope-based philosophy. Progressives believe in a brighter future, solving problems and righting wrongs. They are always willing to fight for the rights of others - sometimes at their own expense.

Progressives are open-minded and willing to change their minds when new facts come to light or new knowledge is gained. They take pride in learning and growing. They see no shame in admitting mistakes.

Progressives believe in the greater good. They are willing to self sacrifice and delay gratification while others get a chance to catch up. They believe in the long run they will be better off if the worst among us is better off.

Progressives are generous and believe in sharing the wealth. They may not worship Jesus as their holy savior but they believe what he had to say about the poor and the homeless.

Progressives believe in negotiation and compromise as a means of solving problems. But they will not negotiate or compromise their core values. They employ empathy to put themselves in their opponents shoes to try and understand what the other side feels and how they view things.

Progressives admit that they have no idea what happens to people after they die.

Primitives are driven to breed because their instincts tell them they must maintain a massive numbers advantage over the Progressives to survive. They have successfully used that population power – along with violence and war - to stay in power everywhere they exist. Thus the Primitives have always outnumbered the Progressives. Knowing all this now, it is obvious who is who among America’s leaders.

One final irony. Primitives are incapable of recognizing their own primal status. Progressives instantly recognize their description when presented with it.

Drunk With Power

2005-10-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Karl Rove’s plan didn’t work and I can’t help but feel that had something to do with his being distracted and all. You know what I mean. By his work heading up the Katrina relief efforts. Don’t think they’ve hung the
“Mission Accomplished” banner on that one just yet.

So that would explain the one hit wonder thinking that went into the decision to plant a story in the National Enquirer that tried to blame all of the President’s fuck ups on the disease of alcoholism. That bird just wouldn’t fly despite the excellent writing:

BUSH'S BOOZE CRISIS

By JENNIFER LUCE and DON GENTILE

Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal. Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe. Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster. His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."

You've got to give Rove credit for the germ of his idea. There are millions and millions of drunks all across America and most of them have done incredibly stupid things every time they drink. Perhaps you've seen them.

Back in the day, while America's mind was till on vacation they might have bought this whole tactic and Rove's followup campaign where George spends a weekend at the Betty Ford clinic and his post rehab visit to Oprah.

But The Angry Buddhist says that dog won't hunt now because Boy George screwed the pooch.

Which is too bad, since the last 6 years sure have seemed like like one long headbanging hangover. Now the whole country has cottonmouth and there's no water in sight.

Beware The Wounded Beast

2005-10-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

The beast is wounded.

He is staggering, spewing blood, guts and bile as he rampages on violently lashing out in pain and irrational destruction.

This of course is when big game hunters will tell you that the animal is at its most dangerous. Seeing its own imminent death flash before its very eyes, the beast acts with no sense of holding anything back or any lines that it will not cross now.

The beast has taken shot after shot, its hide now pock-marked with the ammunition used against it -

The invasion and occupation of Iraq failing miserably at every level Bam!

Super wealthy Bill Frist getting richer through insider trading Pow!

Sneaky and shifty Tom Delay getting indicted for being the crook hes always been Slam!

The Government on Vacation response to Katrina! - Snap!

Biggest deficit in history but still not big enough to stop tax breaks for Richie Richs club Ka-Boom!

Cronie baloney no bid contracts and record oil company profits Smack!

Architect of entire success and closest long term aid/hatchet man about to be indicted for treasonous crimes Ba-Bang!

Former followers left the ranch, criticizing and freelancing Crash!

Record low poll ratings Smash!

You would think the beast would already be dead after such a potent fusillade, but you would be wrong. The Angry Buddhist says you underestimate the beast at your own peril.

The more evil the beast, the harder it is to kill. The more damage it wrecks on its way down.

That is why the Angry Buddhist says only a fool or a coward would smile in self satisfaction at the beasts burden and remain still and silent.

Now is the time to attack the beast and not just attack, but pour it on until the beast is finished off. Never underestimate the beasts determination to destroy and tear asunder. It is all the beast knows and it is all the beast lives for.

The beast is wounded and he still stalks the countryside.

Beware the wounded beast until the beast lives no more.

The Power of Prayer

2005-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

Even National Prayer Day didn't help Bush's ratings, despite the high hopes of the White House for some serious Power Praying by some of the nation's most god connected religious figures.

Seems like none of the different strategies Karl Rove is throwing out there are working very well now, are they.

Your Angry Buddhist cannot help but ponder the mysteries and mechanics of prayer as practiced by your Christians and your Muslims.

I'm thinking that any god worth his or her salt - be he Jesus or Allah - just isn't going to fall for any of those "If you just let me survive this plane crash dear lord I will turn my life around and give up the drinking and the gambling, the cheating and the criminal activity..." or "Please god, just let me find my keys and I'll donate $100 to the Salvation Army..." or "God, just help me make this putt and I'll donate half the money I'm gonna win from this skin to the church orphans fund..."

Now I will be the first to tell you that I do not believe in a particular god or even any god at all necessarily.

I've thought about it enough so I'm not going to be shocked into wordlessness if there is some sort of supreme being I get to meet after I shuffle off this mortal coil, but likewise if all that remains is the endless big dirt nap, well let's just say I'm not going to be real let down about all the rewards I thought I'd be enjoying in the afterlife.

I'm not worried a single whit about what's going to happen to me when I die. I'm not even curious about it in any way either. I am in the here and now, baby, not the there and then.

Whatever's going to happen has already happened to every fucking person who ever lived on this planet, so I don't think there's any special frightful shit waiting just for me. In fact, I'm certain of it.

Because I live in fear of no punishment, and because I do not need the threat of a hell to keep me honest or fair or loving or generous, I have no need to believe in a supernatural force who will protect me if I follow the rules, punish me if I dont, and who I can pray to when I want or need something.

And for the record, the Angry Buddhist says that if there were a being who always was, always is and always will be - including the time they spent in human form on earth for a short time - I'm having a hard time thinking he or she would have any interest in using their infinite universal superpowers to fufill the role of SantaGod

SantaGod, who sees you when you're sleeping, when you're awake, when you're good and when you're bad and is keeping meticulous score to tally up your chances of getting your heavenly reward.

In fact, if you're going to pray to anyone, you'd be much better off praying to just plain Santa himself since he delivers his rewards annually and you don't have to wait until you're dead-dead-dead to get your payoff gifts.
When your Angry Buddhist ponders it, I'm really quite surprised that our consumer driven captialistic society hasn't already adopted Santa as the true messiah for a most profitable state religion.

He already co-owns Christmas, so he's got that going for him.

And he's a white guy too, which is always a big plus if you're trying to sell something to Americans.

But you know... I can't help but think that somewhere down the line someone is going to blow the lid off the whole "Jesus is a sexy looking young white guy" scam.

And I know that most Christians would leave their religion in droves if they were forced to worship a geographically ethnic correct image of their one and only true god and lord, Jesus Christ.

In actuality, the Angry Buddhist says he looked a lot more like this:

Than this:
Now I know that our Praying President would rather you prayed for the poor then actually paid for the poor, but the poor don't need your prayers. They've been getting prayers and praying themselves non stop since the days of slavery and before.

The Angry Buddhist says you should think about adding up all those endless hours of prayer upon prayer, upon prayer and think about the tangible good that could have happened if the people praying got up off their knees and did something.

If they bought someone some groceries, helped somebody fix up their house, gave somebody a ride somewhere, or shared some of their wealth.

I propose to you that prayers were invented by rich people as something for the poor and sick and unfortunate to do while their miserable suffering lives exist mostly to serve the ruling class. Prayers were pushed hard by guys in ornately decorated robes who stood behind expensive marble altars holding up pure gold cups full of wine. They were pushed to people who wore rags and lived lives worse than the dogs we keep as pets today.

Prayers are no skin off the nose of the rich. Prayers exist in place of responsibility the way I see it. Praying is easy. Praying requires you to do absolutely nothing except ask somebody else to do it. Praying costs you nothing and delivers nothing.

What a brilliant scam foisted by those that gots theres on them thats got nothing but a wishing and a praying.

And how perfect that they got you down on your knees to do it. Yeah, I'm sure that would be real important to a supreme being, wouldn't it?

Bread when you're hungry, water when you're thirsty, a bed when you're tired, a place to live and raise your family. Those are real things that people need. They don't need your prayers. They don't need you passing the buck to your imaginary friend to do something, because that doesn't do jack shit about their real life problems and needs.

Your Angry Buddhist says unclasp those praying hands and extend them out to help somebody. Get those hands dirty, calloused and beat up from doing the HANDS ON work the people you've been praying for really need.

Get up off your knees, stop whispering and talking to yourself. Open your damn eyes and take a deep breath. Splash some cold water on your face if that's what it takes you wake you out of this stupor and into some kind of action mode.

And if you feel the need to join with others raising your voices in unison to the heavens, then for god's sake, open a fucking window, stick your head outside and yell,

"I'm Mad As Hell and I'm Not Going To Take It Any More!"

Then shut the damn window, get outside into the streets and start making a difference.

Don't worry, I'll be praying for you...

Get Up Off Your Knees America, You Don't Have A Prayer

2005-09-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

A wise corporate executive the Angry Buddhist knows has often told the story of his strict Catholic, Italian Amerian mother who used to say to him when he was a kid in Newark, New Jersey, “If you want your prayers answered, sometimes you have to get up off your knees and do something about it.”

And your Angry Buddhist is here today to tell you that it's time to see George Bush's National Prayer Day of last Thursday as just what it was - a tired, cynical, pathetic attempt to call a time out in the blame game in order to call Jesus H. Christ himself off the bench and right into the middle of crunch time.

But any prayers about Katrina and her victims at this point are a total waste of time. Save your breath, your knees and your genuflection. If you want to help the people who need it most, send some money to Habitat for Humanity, or Second Harvest, or the Red Cross.

Sept. 17, 2005 | WASHINGTON -- There must be such a thing as divine mercy because the God who sends plagues of locusts and zaps people into pillars of salt would have surely struck down George W. Bush at the pulpit Friday morning. The administration's multipronged strategy to repair the damage wrought to cherished areas of the president's reputation was on full display at the National Prayer Service, which Bush called to remember victims of the hurricane. Bused-in evacuees from New Orleans? Check. Promotion of faith-based organizations? Check. Shifting blame to others? Check. This time, however, after weeks of laying blame at the doorsteps of Louisiana state officials and the mayor of New Orleans and even some of the victims themselves, Bush chose a bigger target: He blamed God.

Don't expect the goverment as run by George Bush to be able to effectively manage or execute a single fucking element of the recovery coming up. All that money he talked about lit up like a 9-11 memorial there in New Orleans' Jackson Square was just bullshit. If you have any poker instincts worth a shit about people you could read all his facial tics and bizzare body language mannerisms as exactly what they were - his "tells" Just like a hack card player, Bush's dimwitted facial expresions betrays any scrap of thought that passes through his brain.

That's been more than enough to fool just enough people... up till now...

Rove is in now in charge of the recovery... but it isn't working - look at these numbers from today's Rausmussen poll. They made the Angry Buddhist's heart sing and zing today on his birthday:

Bush Katrina Ratings Fall After Speech

September 18, 2005--Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush has done a good or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 41% give the President poor marks for handling the crisis, that's up 37% before the speech.

Hey - Maybe it's the Angry Buddhist's prayers that are actually getting answered.

Nah, too many people currently in power would have sponatenously combusted by now if that were true.

Opportunivores In Action

2005-09-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today's Washington Post details the Opportunivore way of thinking as they dig their claws into the corpse to feed:

Against calls to trim spending elsewhere to accommodate the emergency, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) did little to close those floodgates when he suggested this week that the Republican-controlled Congress had already trimmed all the fat from federal spending. "My answer to those that want to offset the spending is 'Sure, bring me the offsets,' " he said. "I will be glad to do it, but no one is able to come up with any yet."

Against this tide, conservative think tanks are taking up DeLay's challenge. But their suggested spending cuts may only underscore Congress's flagging resolve.

To reach $62 billion in savings, Cato Institute analysts Chris Edwards and Stephen Slivinski have proposed cutting NASA in half, slashing energy research and subsidies just as Congress is gearing up to increase them in the face of soaring gasoline prices, cutting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' budget by $4.6 billion after its levees failed to protect New Orleans, and eliminating $4.2 billion in homeland security grants while lawmakers are debating the nation's lack of preparedness.

Remember these plans when you hear the President try to boost his numbers by throwing money at this problem.

Beware The Opportunivores

2005-09-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

When your Angry Buddhist was on his annual trek for deeper wisdom far in the backcountry of Yosemite's High Sierras not that many years ago, the noble and learned National Park Ranger taught our humble group about the Opportunivores of the wild.

They were the animals who based their existence and survival by feasting on the carcasses of others. They took every advantage of illness, weakness or injury as their means of doing business.

In the big "Lion King" circle of life one comes to understand that these Opportunivores are necessary in an evolutionary recycling kind of way. Not exactly a "Hakuna Matada" kind of moment, but it's called wild life for a reason now, ain't it?

The thing about the Opportunivores of the wild is that they don't just dine on the dead. They will happily eat out of garbage cans. They'll break into your car if they smell food. They'll steal your backpack, they'll swoop down and swipe your sandwich or bag of chips off the picnic table if you turn your back.

The trained outdoorsmen knows to be on their guard with their food, not to leave any in the car, or untended or to turn one's back on one's Doritos.

But human beings, no matter how poor and unfortunate their circumstances, no matter how alien they may seem to you in your lofty, lucky sperm club fantasy life, are not animals. And if we are going to pretend that we live in some semblance of an advanced civilization then the shocking reality of what we've all seen on TV for the last two weeks must serve as a defining moment for change.

But we by no means live in a civilized society. In fact, we live in a very primitive society ruled by fear, superstition and above all greed.

That's why instead of this being a defining moment of change, this is instead feeding time for the Opportunivores. And let me tell you baby, they are licking their chops.

As I've previously mentioned, Halliburton has already scored a no bid contract. So too now has Bechtel and Fluor Group. The Angry Buddhist can easily visualized their razor sharp talons tainted with first blood and hungry for much more.

Former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh is already generating cash flow off Katrina before the body count is even close to complete. Animal instinct will have "Heck Of A Job Brownie" at that feeding hole soon enough as well. He can smell dinner from where he's sitting.

Billions of bucks are now available to try and repair... the President's image and ratings, and all the usual suspects are salivating over the prospect of the body in the backcounty.

$62 billion rush approved for the Opportunavores to feast on with no oversight in sight.

But they wouldn't be living up to their full Opportunavore potential if while getting fat and happy off this death and destruction they weren't at the same time getting to screw the workers they hire to do the actual work they'll be profiting off of.

That's where Bush's executive order allowing companies to pay their workers below the legal prevailing wage rears its Opportunivore head. This way they get to screw both working folks and unions in one slick move.

Bush suspended the 74 year old Davis-Bacon Act that requires that companies or agencies employing workers with federal monies pay at least the prevailing wage in any given area. The wage is to be based on the amount "determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the city, town, village or other civil subdivision"

But as Brendan Coyne writes in his excellent, "Bush Suspends Prevailing Wage Laws for Katrina Clean Up":

The order, which drew outrage from labor leaders, follows letters urging the action from Republican representatives and an anti-tax group.

Last week, Americans for Tax Reform, an organization founded by long-time Republican activists Grover Norquist, sent Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao a letter asking that she suspend the Davis-Bacon Act in order to free taxpayers from paying too much for the disaster clean up and management. Wednesday, Representatives Tom Feeney (R-Florida), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado), sent Bush a similar letter, stating that the Act drives costs up and "effectively discriminates against non-union contractors."

You've got to love Grover Norquist, one of the world's most dedicated Opportunivores, while others are pointing fingers, Grover is chewing the fingers off those who work with their hands.

Just as you have to love Bush's leadership...of the oil industry as he moved swiftly and decisively early in the disaster to immediately suspend air pollution regulations.

The price of gasoline has increased 50% in just the last year and amazingly, the oil Opportunivores have had their greatest profits in history.

Yet when the recent energy bill passed it gave all these same companies incredible tax breaks. And while an advanced civilized society in the 21st century would be giving out tax breaks only for clean burning, renewable forms of energy, the primitive Opportunivores scarf down fresh pork when no corpse meat is around. Just look at the recent transportation bill and how many obscene payoffs were part of it.

And back in the disaster zone....
The rich white people who have always owned and run New Orleans are classic Southern Opportunivores who see Katrina as divine intervention - having cleaned out the black ghettos better than any wet dream they ever had, either killing the poor black folks they despised or scattering them to every state in the country... probably never to return, never to vote against Republicans again.

The rich white folk live in a different world that even hurricanes, storm surges and epic flooding do not fuck with. Their families have been Opportunivores going back to the slave trade days.

For them disasters are mostly inconveniences that can be remedied by throwing money at them.

Thus the rich who run New Orleans drink their cocktails on the balconies of their unscathed mansions protected by their private army of Israeli security guards. They helicopter in and out at will and suffer no communications breakdowns as they plan the future of the new New Orleans, the one whose carcasses have been all been picked clean and eliminated by the Opportunivores.

No, gentle followers, your Angry Buddhist does not engage in hyperbole with these tales for far too man know they are true and none other than the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, September 8 ran the inside scoop in their front page story, "Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future" (click on this blog's headline to read the story)

The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening.

By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline.

Despite the disaster that has overwhelmed New Orleans, the city's monied, mostly white elite is hanging on and maneuvering to play a role in the recovery when the floodwaters of Katrina are gone. "New Orleans is ready to be rebuilt. Let's start right here," says Mr. O'Dwyer, standing in his expansive kitchen, next to a counter covered with a jumble of weaponry and electric wires.

Of course that is just New Orleans and the few, relatively small time Opportunivores preying on that beleagured city. Sure, they managed to get all the poor, black Democrats out of town to never vote in local elections again, but that's petty stuff compared to what the really big beasts lay in wait to do.

The far larger, far more dangerous Opportunivores who rip at the very flesh of America's body whenever it is down and weakened.

Like, on 9-11 when America was injured and hurt and confused. That's pretty much an Opportunivore's fantasy come true and they came out of the woodwork to give the government the kind of abusive powers and unlimited access they only previously fantasized about.

Opportunivores begat Homeland Security and the many laws passed that came straight out Orwell's 1984.

Meanwhile Opportunivores scammed money intended for victims and profiteered with other money meant to make us safer and prevent future disasters. Just as they are doing with the Katrina money.

But what are we to do with the Opportunivores who try to steal our personal rights and freedoms? Who try to drill or mine or otherwise extract the natural resources that to enrich themselves from our National Parks and the protected lands we set aside for future generations?

How are we to stop these Opportunivores whose animal instincts drive them to injure, maim, kill and destroy? To provide less and less care and support for the poorest and least able among us?

Or what of the Opportunivores who while our backs are turned and most aren't watching have put forth a plan where the President would have the option of using nuclear weapons to PREEMPT a terror attack.

One thing is for certain, in Washington DC and in every state of America, the Opportunivores are not exclusively Republicans. Most, if not all, Democrats are Opportunivores too. How could they possibly raise all those millions and millions of dollars to get elected without being the most evolved Opportunivores of all?

Your Angry Buddhist says you should now watch for Bush in his speech this Thursday to use his "I take responsibility" ploy to actually try and take even more of an Opportunivore's advantage in all the areas that mean most to him.

Your Angry Buddhist advises... Patience, peace and understanding on your part only emboldens and encourages Opportunivores to do more of what they do best.

There is only one way to defeat Opportunivores.

They must be overwhelmed by a relentless offense attack launched by seemingly endless numbers of fearless enemies who will not rest until they drive the oppressors from their environment.

Bush Joins In Blame Game, Points Finger...

2005-09-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

at himself!

Yes, that's right, gentle followers, thanks to the pressure your Angry Buddhist has brought and the power of all of us chanting our mantra,
"Go Fuck Yourself, Dick Cheney, ummmmmm"
President Bush today - after declaring yesterday that he can do more than two things at once - is both doing the hard work of hurricane recovery photo op posing AND assessing the situation and deciding that:

"To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

The question the Angry Buddhist wants the answer to is - Does this apply across the board?
How's about Iraq?

How's about bringing Osama to justice?

How's about the budget deficit?

How's about the environment?

How's about education?

How's about Homeland Security?

What about the people living in poverty in America?

What about making the richest 1% of America the focus of most of your time, energy and decisions?

What about using Jesus Christ as a phony mask you use to cover up your actions which generally oppose every single one of his teachings?

What about turning our energy policy over to your cronies and benefactors in the oil industry?

The answer is - No Fucking Way.

There's only one reason why for the first time in his entire adult life, George WMD Bush accepted responsibility for anything - because his numbers are in the shitter and Karl Rove told him to do it.

He'd say anything at this point to stop the bleeding, but it won't matter because the President isn't just bleeding, he's got himself a flesh eating virus and you can expect him to get more and more desperate as his time and popularity run out.

But don't watch his organ grinders monkey act for the cameras, watch what's going on behind the scenes. Follow the money. Follow the fuck ups. Follow the actions of cronies in all the departments of our government where they have been embedded.

This blatant and completely disingenuous political play won't fool anyone above the simpleton level, which means about 1/2 of America.

Meanwhile, enjoy the latest rich, privileged white guy currently being questioned in advance of his lifetime achievement reward of Supreme Court judgeship.

Imagine how much hope for the future that gives any of our fellow Americans who aren't rich, aren't privileged and aren't white. Does anything about this whitey-white lawyer married to another lawyer give you a good feeling about what's coming down the road in the Supreme Court.

You want to talk about judgment? What the fuck is this 50 year old dude doing with two little kids? Most people his age with children are watching them graduate from high school or enter their next year of college.

A guy like this with a 4 year old and a 6 year old, who has an all encompassing career that envelopes his entire life, married to another very high profile lawyer CANNOT spend the amount of time with his kids to make sure they grow up right.

Someone else is raising this rich, privileged white guy's kids. Some nanny.

So I publicly question his family values. I can't help but think those lilly white kids who are dressed like some kind of ads for blue blood boarding school fashions are merely career accessories. I think it's all about the photo op where you get to see the kids. People that really care about being parents have their kids when they have the time and energy for them, and have at least one parent with enough available time to actually be part of their children's lives.

But not ruling class creeps like John Roberts or George Bush. And I believe we've already seen the lethal damage bad genes and bad parenting can bring with the current President as the case study.

We're getting close to Karl Rove goes to jail time, aren't we? Who will take responsibility for that? You know, by pardoning him. The Angry Buddhist says those papers are already on file and ready to be signed by Mr. Hard Work himself.

President Fuck Up

2005-09-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

If only Bush could have embedded the reporters this time.

See? Those are the kind of details that slip through the cracks when you and all the other members of The Culture of Death are on vacation and you leave Andy Card in charge of everything at the White House.

What you get is finger pointing.

And damn if it ain't all the fingers of those killed needlessly by Katrina doing the pointing. It's the bony finger of corpses that bugs Bush and his buddies so much.

They are pointing at the fuck up who has been a failure in every single initiative since he's taken office. Every single one that is... except the ones that looted the treasury and stole from the old, sick, poor and disaffected to give more benefits to the the richest, most well off, best taken care of Americans.

That's exactly what the Communists used to do. But at least the commies gave their people health care.

It's exactly what Saddam was doing before he became an underwear model. But at least he was willing to execute members of his staff who didn't get their jobs done, and he never took really long vacations.

Those guys knew how to keep the press in line and telling the stories as prewritten. But President Fuck Up was at the ranch.

Even that wouldn't have mattered if Bush's Ministry of Allowed Information had been able to keep the press surrounded by guys on the payroll packing military weapons.

You know, like in Iraq, the war with the invisible dead guys.

No photos allowed if you've died for our country, or got your foot blown off, or are bleeding and in pain. No photos allowed of all the dead "collateral" people.

But even with all the command and control the military still complains we're not getting enough of the good news about Iraq.

When you control the cameras, you control the story in the Republic of American Idol.

That's the real reason the public turned against the Vietnam war. The photos, the video, the film just didn't match the bullshit LBJ and Nixon were grinding out.

And now 58% of Americans know that President Fuck Up deserves the blame.

Or maybe it's 60%

Because what Fuck Up's followers call "finger pointing" is what every major corporation and successful organization calls "accountability" "responsibility" and "taking ownership."

Only failures, fuck ups and grifters worry about getting blamed. Only the least skilled and worst performers accept no criticism. Only the egomanical and the unaccomplished cannot name their own mistakes.

The greater the success a person or business is, the more you hear them say things like, "I learned more from my mistakes than from anything else."

So maybe he can learn from this mistake of having the media and the press get on the scene days before he could get soldiers with guns in their hands on location to stop them. Because it's the reporters on the ground in the last week who have pulled "The Cloak of Likeability" off President Fuck Up merely by aiming their cameras at the results of his efforts.

It was so obvious and easy to report that even noted right wingers like Shepard Smith on Fox and Joe Scarbourough on MSNBC found it impossible to stick to the Republican talking points script.

President Fuck Up is living up to his name now by desperately flailing away at the oh-so-yesterday act that may have fooled half the country into voting for him before John Kerry personally committed an act of terrorism that would destroy our county, but will not work now because we have seen too much and we have seen it on television.

Blaming the local and state people will not work.

Telling lies to newspapers and cable news will not work. The truth is already documented and the Internet now makes it too easy to share it.

Like this local flood victim who gave the Vice President a message from The Angry Buddhist just today when Dick Grim Reaper Cheney emerged from his underground bunker long enough to longingly breathe deep his favorite fragrance - dead Democrats and black people.

"Go Fuck Yourself, Dick Cheney!"
The Angry Buddhist expects to see this instantly popular spirit of America catch phrase on t-shirts within 24 hours.
Right now you can click on the CNN Dick photo right above to see the video of "Go Fuck Yourself, Dick Cheney!" Pass it on to your friends and family.

Imagine how much sooner we would be hearing "Go Fuck Yourself, Dick Cheney!" from men, women, and children all over the U.S.A. if the media had the same access to the invasion and occupancy of Iraq and they had to New Orleans.

Imagine what Laura Bush's public image would be if the media had footage of the time she ran a stop sign and killed her former college boyfriend. Why you might even have heard of that story.

Imagine if the media had footage of George Bush serving his country during the Vietnam war... Yeah, you will have to imagine that, because President Fuck up has never put his life on the line for his country.

But you don't have to imagine what President Fuck Up and his pals, "Brownie" "Stretch" "Speedo" and "Earl" knew on the Sunday before the Hurricane hit New Orleans about what the consequences would be. You don't have to imagine because my pal Brian Williams from NBC posted the blackberry message he got that day on his blog.

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
 1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005  ...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...  HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.  MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER.  AT LEAST HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED...ALL WINDOWS WILL BE BLOWN OUT.  THE VAST MAJORITY...OF TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED.  POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

See? When you have shit like that, even Karl Rove on double super secret probation can't call Bob Novak to leak an attack on somebody else to shift the focus.

The ratings are just too damn good, and even though President Fuck Up has made plenty of money for Fox, MSNBC and even CNN (which has acted like his bitch since 2000) will throw his ass on the scrapheap of history if the enticing and nonstop drama of Katrina proves to be the biggest reality hit of them all. Who the hell cares about the new fall season when you got the show nobody wants to turn away from. You want to talk about buying power? The public has already ponied up hundreds of millions right out of their own pockets for this hit.

What's been most entertaining for The Angry Buddhist is watching the difference between the people on the scenes and the oh-so-attractive news "readers" who are the anchors on CNN and MSNBC. They're still stuck in a time warp and playing to the audience who voted for Bush.

But that demographic has lost a huge chunk of its base and as soon as the producers and account executives have the chance they're going to overhaul those shows and write a new script with a whole new cast that plays to today's audience.

So President Fuck Up has fallen out of favor. But that doesn't mean the impact of his failures will not live on long after his show is cancelled and he moves into the house on The Surreal World.

Feel free to comment on what you think President Fuck Up's Top Five failures have been.

Blowjob From Katrina is Bush's Monica

2005-09-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

Your Angry Buddhist delighted in John Stewart's return this evening and his classic line that Katrina is George Bush's Monica Lewinsky. "Stewart is brilliant," the Buddhist thought, momentarily forgetting his anger.

In preparing this blog entry I Goggled the words: "monica/katrina/bush" and lo and behold found this headline from two days ago:

Katrina may be Bush's Monica

from The Australian News of yesterday when John Stewart was still, you should pardon the expression, on vacation.

Click on this blog entry title to read the piece in the Aussy paper.

Oy, Oy, Oy! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief

(Add to your site)

Hurricane Katrina destroyed thousands of lives.

Together, the liberal blogosphere is raising money for the Red Cross fund for food, water, shelter, and transportation out of the Hurricane Zone.

Please donate now.

Shameless Republican Looters Must Be Shot

2005-09-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

The party responsible for over 1,800 dead American soldiers who they sent to die in their war for profit. The war to turn Iraq into a home for terrorists and an Islamic Republic, wants you to know that a bunch of dead and homeless black people will not stop their plans to make the rich richer and to reshape America in their image.

The Democrats have already proven to be too weak and ineffectual to be the oppostion party this country needs.

"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says he does not think a special commission is needed to examine what went wrong with rescue and relief operations, modeled on the panel that investigated failures before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid disagrees. "We are going to have an independent commission to study what went wrong. People may not do it today or think it's a good idea today, but mark my word. It is going to happen," he said.

Senator Reid and Congressman DeLay were among congressional leaders meeting with President Bush Tuesday.

But Mr. DeLay was adamant Republicans will not allow their key policy priorities to fall victim to what they see as attempts by opposition Democrats to use the hurricane response controversy to weaken President Bush.
That means no price controls to deal with rising gasoline prices, no reduction in gas taxes, no taxes aimed at oil companies that might be benefiting from high prices, and no rollback of income tax cuts approved by the Republican-controlled Congress."

Adolf Hitler & Heinrich Himmler To Investigate Killing of Jews

2005-09-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Our nation's head Dick showing how dry his boots are despite the flood.

The two "men" most responsible for all the death and destruction in the Gulf Coast will now be rating themselves on their success.

George WMD Bush, The Destroyer, has announced that he and his puppet master Dick Cheney will be heading up the investigation of the response.

Karl Rove himself will write the report.

According to the BBC:

"How the different levels of government had reacted to Katrina would be examined, Mr Bush said, but he refused to "play the blame game".
"We got to solve problems - there will be ample time to figure out what went right and what went wrong," he said in Washington.

The Angry Buddhist will tell you today, that they already wrote the report of how great they were. And they're not to blame for nothin'.

Gee, I wonder how many Americans and Iraqi people were killed and maimed in the last week while nobody was watching or paying attention?

I wonder what "family values" mean to people who party on when babies are drowning?

I wonder what kind of party Osama Bin Laden has been holding?

I wonder how much richer the people in the oil industry got in the last week?

I wonder how many women Arnold groped while no one was looking last week? Was it equal to the amounts of kickbacks and bribes he took in the form of "contributions?"

I wonder how much of the above you yourself will be brave enough to bring up and say out loud to everyone you interact with today?

Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief

"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed thousands of lives. Together, we're raising $1 million for the Red Cross and prove that the liberal blogosphere can help our fellow citizens.

Please donate now.

It's Time To Step On Their Throats

2005-09-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

The Democrats need to have a talk with Lakers coach Phil Jackson about how to treat an opponent you've got reeling.

Phil will tell them what he taught Michael Jordan back in the Chicago Bull championship days.

"Step on their throats."

When you've got the bad guy down, don't back off and let him catch his breath, pull himself to his feet and get back in the game. When you've got him down, step on his throat. Keep him down and choke off his breath and biggest artery. Literally go for the jugular.

And that's exactly what Democrats and all those who oppose the stain on our national character that is George W Bush, must do. The beast is finally down and wounded. This is no time to let up, now is time to pour it on. With no mercy. Using nothing but one truth after another fired like a lethal fusillade of reality bullets.

The president and every single person under his command has been guilty of nothing short of malfeasance. "Inept" is far too benign a word to use to describe what is really criminal behavior and standards. Go ahead and look up "malfeasance" in the dictionary. You know The Angry Buddhist did. You'll find out it's defined as: "Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official."

See, there are real specific words to describe what we've been seeing and we should use them over and over again.

WHAT IF IT WERE CLINTON?

If John Kerry had been elected instead of having been smeared and character assassinated by still not out of the closet Karl Rove... Or Al Gore had not had his votes stolen from him and the winner of the 2000 election was the one who got to take office. What kind of vicious and ugly things would the Republicans be saying now? Would they be beating the Democrats bloody and battered if they had simply done exactly the same thing Bush and his gang of destruction have done?

Would they not only be politicizing the hell out of this but using it to raise money and whip up religious fanatics as well?

You know damn well they would. Karl Rove would be masterminding whisper campaigns, direct mail hit pieces, and using every other Lee Atwater scorched earth tactic to make sure EVERYONE know who was to blame here and remembered it on election day.

Here's a very creative take on what Rush himself would be saying:
CLICK HERE AND READ ME.

And if you think that the Democrats should rise above that kind of behavior, that they should operate at a higher standard and set a better example then I'm sure you also enjoy rug burns, reality shows and retrieving the soap at the SuperDome refuge center.

Time to get real people, time to learn the lesson that getting punched in the face repeatedly by a bully is supposed to teach you. It's time to set these mother fuckers on fire and then hose them down with gasoline.

Are you feeling me yet?

GASOLINE FREE OF CHARGE - BUSH BUDDIES BIGGEST LOOTERS OF ALL

It's not like you have to look hard for the necessary flammables. Just pick up a newspaper. This was on the very last page of today's L.A. Times this morning. Not everyone has the patience your Angry Buddhist does to get that far:

IN BRIEF/WASHINGTON, D.C.

Halliburton Subsidiary to Do Gulf Coast Work
From Times Wire Reports

A Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has come under fire for its reconstruction work in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs at naval facilities on the Gulf Coast that were battered by Hurricane Katrina. The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root of Arlington, Va., was awarded the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters. KBR will do work at Naval Air Station Pascagoula, Naval Station Gulfport and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and elsewhere.

Do you love it? The bodies are still floating and bloating but Cheney's pals already got their half billion worth of work. These are the very same jarheads ripping us off in Iraq who profit most when people suffer most.

9-11, 9-11, 9-11, 9-11!

9-11 is next Sunday. 9-11, the best thing that ever happened to George Bush in his entire life. The seminal opportunity he seized like a rat grabs his cheese. He rode the deaths of all those people in New York like a camel jockey, whipping up a frenzy to ram an unrelated, greed based agenda down the throats of people before they could stop crying or catch their breath.

Where the fuck is Osama Bin Laden? Didn't President Bush get on a bullhorn and promise people at ground zero that he would bring the people who destroyed the twin towers to justice?

What kind of Rainman would you have to be next Sunday, 4 years later, if you felt one iota safer, more protected or better cared for by those you elect and entrust with our life and death responsibilities.

MRS. BUTTERWORTH FUCKS UP TOO

I admit it. I always thought Barbara Bush, the President's mommy, was either a nasty drag queen or the role model for the Angela Lansberry character in the Manchurian Candidate. It always seemed clear that she was one of those rich people who believe they are some kind of royalty and better than other people. I think the media gave her a free pass for years and so you haven't had the chance to see her true Cruella De Ville self.

But yesterday she showed us a glimpse of the kind of bloodlines that yield a George W from one's loins. She toured the Astrodome in Houston and let some refugees kiss her pearls.

Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston." Then she added: "What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Read it here.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I THINK JOHN ROBERTS IS A DANGEROUS DICK...

The Angry Buddhist would first like to help remind you of just what a no class cretin William Rehnquist was. He was an evil, hateful bastard and he did far more harm than any good in his miserable excuse for a life. We should all be dancing a jig now that he's taking the big dirt nap. America will be better off with this pompous putz dead... so long as one of his brothers in evil doesn't take his place.

A pathetic creep for many decades, Rehnquist began his "career" as a GOP operative by harassing black voters during the 1964 presidential election. Remember� He left a lengthy paper trail of his pro-segregation ideology as an assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration -- attempting to limit and disrupt the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education.

Having thus proved himself "reliable," Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court by Republican superstar, Richard Nixon. And reliable he has been -- so reliable, in fact, that he was appointed chief justice by an admiring Ronald Reagan (himself no stranger to playing the "Welfare Queen" race card as your Angry Buddhist has reminded you). Rehnquist's consistent "states rights" judgments (including his grossly inconsistent vote in Bush v. Gore) on the Supreme Court prove just how predictably "reliable" he has been. Could this man be trusted to interpret the law fairly? No he could not. He proved it every day he sat on the court. As a person he was a total shit.

Bush has nominated John Roberts, because he's counting on this new creep following in the footsteps of his judicial idol, Rehnquist, who he clerked for and worshipped. If he wasn't sure he had the right henchman, he wouldn't have nominated him as his #1 choice.

He doesn't believe in equal rights. He's a racist and he wants government to screw people not help people. There's no way he should get to serve on the Supremes, let alone be the head don.

Need more convincing that he was truly a harmful scumbag? Read these:

http://www.salon.com/books/int/2001/10/02/dean/

http://www.commondreams.org/views/121300-101.htm

Then speak up and speak out. Put on you big hiking boots for some thoat stepping, baby!

ANYONE SEEN THE DEMOCRATS BALLS?

If ever there was a time for a Democrat to step up, make a name for themselves, and run with the flag, it was about five days ago. I haven't even heard anything out of Barbara Boxer or Diane Fienstein yet. What the hell have they been waiting for? Where the fuck is the leadership? Even Howard Dean is playing way too nice.

They are so timid, and so beat, and so spooked they don't even know when there is blood in the water or what to do about it. We need more than just an intellectual argument. The Democrats could take all the charisma of everyone they have in national office, stuff that into the navel of a nanoflea and still have room for George Bush's integrity.

It's time for somebody to raise their voice and keep it at a loud level. Sure, Senator Mary Landrieu said she'd like to punch Bush in the face on Sunday doing helicopteror tour with George Stephinaphulus on ABC, but she also cried like a baby. Who could blame her?

The Mayor of New Orleans talked some talk a couple of times, but he doesn't seem to have the legs to go the distance. Besides, he's black which means half the white people in America won't listen to anything he has to say.

If John Edwards were really the voice of the Southern Common Man he would have seized this moment and been down there with a big boat evacuating people.

If John Kerry had an ounce of imagination he'd get himself a vintage Swift Boat, gather his fellow boatmates and motor down the New Orleans waterways to rescue people like he did in Vietnam when he was a hero and George Bush was on the down low in Alabama. And by the low down I mean the down Oprah style.

Just who the hell is the Democrat's version of Lee Atwater or Karl Rove? Does it take an Angry Buddhist to tell them how to fight a street fight? I will if I have to.

PRAISING NIGGERS AND HO'S OKAY - BAD MOUTHING BUSH CENSORED

Current rap flavor of the month, Kayne West, appeared as one of the segment hosts of the big hurricane relief telethon the NBC owned networks did a couple of days ago. West had this to say:

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

George Bush doesn't care about black people!"

But you'd have to have watched the live feed on the West Cost to hear the rant the way it was laid down. Because here on the West Coast NBC edited out the lines they found objectionable - most pointedly the line about Bush. That goddamn liberal media gets us every time, don't it? No criticism of the President is allowed.

Ain't freedom a wonderful thing? Won't it be great to actually have some freedom?

THE PERFECT STORM?

See? It's HARD WORK telling it like it is. It's not easy. You've got to miss sleep and work really, really hard. But it's worth it and we've got to keep doing it because the timing has never been better.

First we've got the Confederacy of Dunces response to the hurricane aftermath. (For the illuminati among you enjoy the geographically correct literay reference.)

Right alongside that we've got the George Bush Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation of "Iraq - Because I Said So" That's what helped his approval numbers to finally go south before the hurricane ever hit the Gulf Coast.

You've just got to love the numbers today...

Just 28% of Americans give say that the federal government has done a good or an excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina. Another 25% say the government has done a fair job while 45% say poor.
Interest in the story is extraordinarily high. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Americans say they are closely following news stories about the tragedy, including 59% who are following it "very closely."

Your Angry Buddhist says now is the time to take advantage of both those low rating numbers and those high interest levels in the story.

Because next week when the 9-11 anniversary rolls around and America cynically wonders how much better off we are now, those Bush numbers can sink even further.

GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?

And then get what's coming the week after that? It will be the report from the Special Proscecutor, Fitzgerald on just how many traitorous rats are running round the Bush White House maze?

Who will be indicted? Do we get to see Karl Rove on a perp walk? Scooter Libby? Anyone else? The President is the man responsible. When do we get to see HIM in handcuffs?

September is going to be a very bad month for Bush, conservatives and the Republican party.

But you've got to do YOUR part. You've got to kick them when they're down and get your friends to do likewise. You've got to step on their throat and choke off their airflow. Don't feel bad about it, they've already been brain dead for years.

The Zen Master would approve.

Rehnquist Arrives In Hell, Mission Accomplished

2005-09-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

September 4. 2005 - Hades, (Associated Press) Legendary Evil Doer, William Rehnquist, arrived in Hell today to a heroes welcome, fresh off his life on earth where he did Satan's work for over 70 years. The Devil welcomed him with open arms and a brand new Gilbert and Sullivan inspired costume to wear...

Added Sept 6:
Don't just take The Angry Buddhist's word on it, here's what Prof. Alan Dershowitz had to say about this former festering boil of judge:

"So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values."

Click on the top headline to read the whole beautiful obit.

No New Taxes Damn It!

2005-09-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

*Followers! Did you know that every headline is a link? Wonder of wonders...

Credit to The Daily Kos for this one, via their community member highacidity

Allow The Angry Buddhist to put things in perspective for you as only I really can.

The situation in New Orleans and the Gulf states has occurred because the Republicans of this country have been successful over the last several years in harnessing the unstoppable power of greed. They have fucked America right up the ass like she was a prison bee-atch from the day they stole the 2000 election using the very same tactics that got Hitler into power in pre-world war II Germany. And yes I mean to say Adolph Hitler, another evil bastard who strong armed his way into power with lies and ruthless tactics.

Is that unambiguous enough for you? Yeah I thought it might be. Guess I didn't succumb to all that "get over it" bullshit the liars and thieves were spouting as their cover over the last six years.

The worst of the worst have been running the show for those same six years now and they have succeeded in slashing and cutting the best parts of our government, the parts that actually represent the very family values of their own main man, Mr. Jesus Christ his holy self. You know, the parts that help the less fortunate and focus on being loving and generous. It makes sense to me, since they have always seemed more like agents of Satan doing the devil's work on earth.

These anti-Robin Hoods who have taken from the poor to give to the rich have left a trail of destruction across America that makes Katrina's storm path look like a rainbow with an Irish midget pointing to a pot of gold at the end.

Massive budget cuts to every significant public works project, to homeless shelters and low cost housing, to food banks, to education, to alternative energy, to the poor, the sick, the lonely and the desperate. That's the legacy of these greedy Bush leaguers. He came to plunder and destroy and that's what he has been doing.

And every second of the time that was happening, the rich were getting just filthy richer and richer and richer. Unthinkable amounts of money and benefits are showered on the rich for working no harder or better than you or I. No amount of conspicuous consumption has been considered in bad taste by these so called conservatives who spend so liberally. And no amount of additional tax breaks, pork barrel payouts and just plain graft, kickbacks and shakedown money is considered too much or too obscene. They still don't feel like they got theirs yet. They still want more.

And today, while they still spend more time holding hollow press conferences in which they thank all the people who have been the most guilty for the hell that the Gulf States have become, their party's most important priority is to give more tax breaks to the very stinking wealthiest of our country.

"Senate Finance Committee members were informed this morning that Sen. Bill Frist will move forward with a vote to permanently repeal the estate tax next week, likely on Tuesday, ThinkProgress has learned.

One stands in awe of Sen. Frist's timing. Permanently repealing the estate tax would be a major blow to the nation's charities. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has "found that the estate tax encourages wealthy individuals to donate considerably more to charity , since estate tax liability is reduced through donations made both during life and at death." If there were no estate tax in 2000, for example, "charitable donations would have been between $13 billion to $25 billion lower than they actually were."

Read about it in Think Progress, a great blog. Click on this line.

Let me paint with more colors for you... The economy flat out sucks. Only those at the very top are doing better and better. The other 85% of America is making less money at their new downsized crappy Mcjobs with no benefits while they pay twice as much for gasoline. They're in debt to their ass and as soon as interest rates go up and their adjustable mortgages adjust they'll be up shit's creek.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been poured down the rathole of Iraq, our troops have been used as Bush's human shields, and all to pump even more of our nation's wealth into the Swiss bank accounts of meat puppets like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and the corporate interests that are their primary interests.

Meanwhile our nations roads deteriorate and are choked with traffic, with no public transportation projects in sight.

The border with Mexico is in a near state of anarchy with nutcases looking to keep out the wetbacks without whom our country does not operate. But no benefits of any kind for them right? Because that might raise taxes!

Car companies have been allowed to make believe that mileage per gallon isn't worth anything and that the crap their products pump into the streets and the air we breathe is supposed to be some kind of antioxident for us.

The financial services industry in this nation have been turned into the data Mafia where they invented the circumstances that allowed identity theft to run rampant and then set up their own protection racket where you can pay them monthly not to send all your most personal info to a criminal. They pour hundreds of millions into campaign contributions and then equal amounts into lobbying against any toughening of the rules that protect your privacy. After all their business is selling and renting all your private information.

And every fucking one of these issues are the way they are because of the Republicans in power and all their simple-minded, greedy, cold hearted, hypoChrists who support them and helped them screw all the rest of us.

And yes, it really is just that black and white.

All these bastards have cared about and repeated every chance they've had has been "No New Taxes."

While the schools crumble, while sick people can't afford doctors, while our nation gets ripped apart and ripped off, while no thought is given to the future generations and their needs or the future greatness of our country. No New Taxes.

They have literally destroyed the American ideal that we are all in this together. That we all pay taxes for new roads, new schools, clean water, public services and all the rest. And that those of us who are members of he lucky sperm club, who are blessed enough to be doing well, have an obligation to give something back, to reach out a helping hand to those less fortunate, less lucky than us.

They killed that idea because they never believed it in the first place. The are the Deservatives, and they never ever feel like they're getting enough. The only people they ever want to help are people who can do something for THEM.

Your Angry Buddhist has been a millionaire for many years now and the philosophy I have always held about paying a millionaire's tax rate was the one my accountant gave me the first year I made the BIG MONEY and had to pony up at the bend over rate. He said, "You wouldn't have to pay that much if you didn't make so much."

That's the way it's supposed to be. The more you make, the more you should expect to pay in taxes and proudly so. But Republicans believe that once you reach a certain level of income you shouldn't have to pay your fair share. That just like with the rich guy's deal on Social Security that anything over $90,000 should be tax free.

That's because they really do not give a shit about anyone but themselves. They do not want to pay their fair share. The only "injustice" they get passionately angry about is when they think they're giving our United States Government too much money which will only go to those low lifes on welfare - like all those goddamn orphans that put such a drain on the federal budget - or god forbid foodstamps - since legendary greedy phony bastard himself, Ronald Reagan, taught us all about those Negroes who drive their big Cadillacs down to the welfare office to get their check and then use their food stamps to buy booze and cigarettes. Remember? I sure do. And you can bet your ass that most Republicans you know still feel that is the truth. That's the way those people think.

The Angry Buddhist says people that feel that way and have the "No New Taxes" mantra are anything BUT Christians and they should be given zero respect for their ethics, morals and standards.

Let me take it a step further - not only are they NOT Christians, they are not really Americans. I don't care what their passports say.

This isn't the "I've Got Mine So Too Damn Bad For You If You Ain't States of America" this is the UNITED States of America. That means individuals making some self sacrifices for the united effort and common good.

But today's rich and greedy reject anything that is common. They have no problem stepping right over the homeless people who sleep on the streets of the cities they work in.

And don't forget - those homeless people are all there, and it became acceptable, because when Ronald Reagan was President he cut the budgets of shelters and mental institutions where those people used to be. I was there in 1980 when streets that never had people living on them suddenly were housing poor men, women and children. Decent people screamed, but the rich just partied the nights away.

The Democrats are hapless fools who have not protected us from these flesh ripping Republican wolverine and they don't have a single leader worth looking up to. The only single way they ever look good is by comparison to the GOP.

But compared to the Republicans of my lifetimes they are clearly less evil, more caring, less blood thirsty and quite frankly better Americans than anyone who would back and vote for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, George Bush II and any Republican in the House, Senate or state level.

Republicans have turned this country into the worst possible America, but they haven't gotten to the point of no return. Sometimes people do wake out of their comas, and some time enough is enough to the point where people snap out of it and find their voice and their balls again.

If the Angry Buddhist has his way, the heat will stay on and get more and more turned up each day.

Because I believe in karma, I know that the day is coming, when those who put themselves first shall be last. When it is the likes of George Bush and Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, and Pat Robertson and the entire team of Fox News and all the rest of America's true terrorists, the bulk of the Republican party, who are the people up to their necks in disease ridden water, with no food, no money, no transportation and no hope.

Payback may be a bitch, but The Angry Buddhist has always liked watching a bitch in action.

Terrorism Starts At Home

2005-09-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

If you really want to fear for your life and worry that the future may hold dire and deadly consequences, then you don't need to go all the way to the middle east for the source. You don't need any scary Al Qaeda secret cells or suicide bombers.

All you need is one of the Bush Administration superstars to show you how completely and mind-numbingly clueless they are about the issues they're in charge of that your life and your family's life may depend on.

In case you don't know, the ass clown in charge of FEMA, the Federal Emergency management Agency, is Mike Brown, and he was all over television today - CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC - you name it.

And everywhere he appeared he stuck his foot deeper and deeper into his mouth. He literally deep throated his own loafer.

Basically he blamed the people who are now suffering in New Orleans for not evacuating and causing their own problems. Here's what he said:

"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN. I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he smuggly told them. "Now, I don't want to second guess why they did that. My job now is to get relief to them."

He was so blind to reality that it was painful to watch. He was so blatantly ignorant that even the reporters woke up to grill him. He said all these things right after live coverage of dead people littering the streets, shots of starving, dehydrated senior citizens and babies who looked half dead.

But I'm glad he came out of the closest, because the truth is he is saying exactly what the President thinks. And he's responding exactly the way Bush wants him too. That's why Bush plucked his worthless ass out of industry and put him in charge of an agency he has already proved he can't run.

Now try and imagine this man being in charge when there's a dirty bomb set off in L.A. harbor, or there's a chemical or biological attack anywhere in the United States. Where shall we stack those dead bodies?

On MSNBC today he actually said he only learned earlier today that there were people at the Convention Center and that he was surprised they were there.

He also said this:

"Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans -- virtually a city that has been destroyed -- that things are going relatively well," Brown said.

Frankly if that doesn't scare the shit out of you then you've seen too many Wes Craven movies.

New Orleans is literally in chaos. Only heartless politicians would ever claim otherwise.

There's a fool proof, time tested and 100% accurate way to tell which politicians are guilty in situations like this. They are the ones who, when asked who is responsible say, "now is not the time for finger pointing or fixing blame, there will be plenty of time for that later."

We should have learned with both 9-11 and Iraq that the time to ask questions and hold people responsible is immediately, while the actions they are guilty of are happening for all to see. Not after the fact when the fix is in, the spin has been spun and the propaganda and coverups have done their jobs.

Here's another thing Mike Brown of FEMA said today on CNN:

"Now is not the time to be blaming," Brown said. "Now is the time to recognize that whether they chose to evacuate or chose not to evacuate, we have to help them."

I'll tell you what now is the time for. Now is the time to get this cast of in-over-their-heads, not up to the jobs, not smart enough for the task, inept types out of the jobs they have proven they cannot do based on the results.

That list starts today with Brown from FEMA, it easily includes the new head of Homeland Security - HOW'S THAT FOR AN OXYMORON THESE DAYS? - Michael Chertoff. It obviously includes Donald "Your kids died for Iraq's new Islamic Republic" Rumsfeld, and of course Mr. "Bring It On, Mission Accomplished" himself, the incredibly shrinking Bush.

If the thought of this collection of fuck ups being in charge for two more years of terror doesn't horrify you then that's because you've already given up all hope, duck taped yourself into your house and kissed your ass goodbye.

Chicken Hawks Come Home To Roost In New Orleans

2005-09-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

NEW ORLEANS (AP)- New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. 'This is a desperate SOS," mayor Ray Nagin said.

The shit has hit the fans, my followers, and George Bush is covered head to toe in it. The completely bungled and inept response to the disaster in the gulf coast states cannot be spun even by the master spinners that got Bush elected, got us attacked on 9-11, got us into a war for profit in Iraq and got this country split in two and headed downhill since election day 2000.

This time, people are finally pissed. All you have to do is turn on the TV to see the unvarnished truth and reality. You won't see any police, any troops, any National Guard. Even the media is finally telling it like it is.

Here's what Jack Cafferty said a couple of hours ago on CNN:

"I'm 62. I remember the riots in Watts, I remember the earthquake in San Francisco, I remember a lot of things. I have never, ever, seen anything as bungled and as poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in the Superdome. What is going on? This is Thursday! This storm happened 5 days ago. This is a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching. This is the government that the taxpayers are paying for, and it's fallen right flat on its face as far as I can see, in the way it's handled this thing."

How could this have happened? That's an easy question to answer. It's because we have a con artist acting as President who has none of the skill set or honest humanity required to rise to this ocassion. Up till now, plenty have bought the bullshit, but the Matrix has now been forever exposed, this emperor not only has no clothes, he has no balls or brains either.

People are dying right and left of lethal neglect from New Orleans across the Mississipi coast and the Alabama coast. The primary reason why they are is our head-up-his-ass, mind still on vacation President.

He and fellow destructionists don't give a flying fuck on a rolling donut for ANY of the people you are seeing die right before your eyes on TV. Why? Because they are mostly black and poor.

If these were Bush people - rich white people - we would have already parachuted tens of thousands of troops into the area to save them.

It these were white people who worked in New York City, he'd be standing atop the rubble waving a flag and playing patriot. Guess the people we see living on freeways, walking among the destruction, packed like rats in the so-called "Super" Dome or the convention center just didn't trade enough stock and bonds.

And because they're not part of those phony crowds you see at Bush events drooling over themselves to get the chance to cheer him, because they do not donate money to the Bush/Cheney Republicans, because they are just mininum wage people, most of whom don't even own a car, well then they can just rot in the dark with no food, no water, no medical help.

Make no mistake about it - these people are being treated far worse than animals. Animals are treated like royalty in this country. These people are being treated as if they were completely disposable.

That's what this bullshit "compassionate conservatism" has wrought. There's the result of your "Christian" "Born Again" President. Safe and dry in his cushy surroundings. Just like he was during the Vietnam war.

It's been 4 days now and the man responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in Iraq - for no good reason at all, with not a single good thing resulting - is now bringing his act home for the American people. Only this time the KoolAide didn't take and the critics are letting him have it:

A GREAT BLOG ENTRY FROM THE DAILYKOS

You might say the Angry Buddhist is being unfair, that I'm rudely harsh on Bush, that he doesn't deserve this kind of reaction. But the Angry Buddhist would have to say that YOU have your head up YOUR ass if you're ignorant enough to think that.

This is the same Bush league President who cut funding for the poor, for hurricane prep in New Orleans, for environmental controls in the area.

The same inept President whose administration reduced funding for upkeep and maintenance on the flood control systems in the Gulf. Everyone knows that the system in N.O. was not capable of handling anything over a category 3 hurricane.

The same unaccomplished man who has the bulk of our National Guard fighting his own personal war against an enemy who doesn't live in the place he bombed and invaded.

The same dumb ass coward who will have vital help arriving in New Orleans and on the gulf in five or six days. Too little, too late, too lame.

Do not just take my word for it gentle readers, listen to what the New Hampshire Union Leader, the most conservative newspaper in the most conservative state in America, has to say:

AS THE EXTENT of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before.

Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.

This empty suit of a President, who the dumbest half of America has worshipped up till now couldn't plan a fart after eating a can of beans. The reason the response is so fucked up is because, as he and his people admit, they just did not foresee the worst case scenario.

Maybe that's because he and his people ARE in fact, the worst case scenario.

Doubt it? Then you're just flat out wrong again. Read this:

"The administration and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives pushed this year for the largest ever cut to funding for hurricane protection and flood control in Louisiana, a stance that is likely to draw fresh criticism after the catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina."

"Overall, federal funding for hurricane-control projects in the region has fallen by almost half since 2001, from $147m to just $82m in the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30."

Read the rest of this story in that highly liberal publication, The Fiancial Times.

Need more convincing? No problem:

"'I'm not saying it wouldn't still be flooded, but I do feel that if it had been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have,' said Michael Parker, a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps' budget." - from the Chicago Tribune, noted by Josh Marshall.

Get used to this state of things in the United States, my friends, because there will be plenty more to come.

The same thing you've seen happen to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, is what Bush and his destroyers are doing to our National Parks and the great public lands that your kids won't miss anyway because they'll all be too fixated on their Gameboy screens and cell phones.

It's the same thing Bush and company are doing to air quality, to water quality, to endangered species, to ethics, to honesty, to character and integrity and to the fundamental freedoms Americans have enjoyed for generations.

Don't tell me you think I'm going overboard. Not when the evidence mounts every day. Not when the first request Bushy boy responded to was from the oil companies asking for oil from the strategic reserve. Not when one of his first moves was to suspend air pollution rules for refineries - a move he's been dying to make since taking office.

I warned you when he stole the first election. I warned you during the last election and I'm warning you now. This President will continue down his same path of destruction and clueless activity. He and the supporters he cares about will be well taken care of. Everyone else is on their own.

Act accordingly. Act now.

God Scoffs At Bush "Faith"

2005-08-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

Says No Blessing For War Monger, Troops or Any Politicians

The Supreme Being, Mr. Divine Designer himself, took a break from his well earned "working vacation" at his unicorn stud farm in Perfect, Paradise to comment on his relationship with George Bush, his views on Christianity, Islam and Scientology and to forcefully deny he has been taking too much time off.

"Yeah, I've been here on vacation since helping the Mets win the 1969 World Series. But based on my infinite 'always been here, always will be' existence, the last 34 years I've been off ain't nothing more than the blink of a camel's eye. But I'm still getting a bad rap..."

"I took the time off the same year Nixon made his deal with Satan and I washed my hand of all politicians and their parties."

"The Devil got the whole integrated package - candidates, elected officials, PACs - and naturally the cable and network television rights to covering it all. Those are all his people."

"The deal is, I don't bless any of them or what they do. I don't listen to their prayers and I don't ever talk to any of them. It's worked out great for me!"

"I'm surprised people don't realize this since it seems so obvious to me, but hey, I'm God, I understand all of it."

"I threw in all the organized religions in exchange for 60% of all merchandising and licensing income. I get a cut of every car fish, every cross and every burka. It pays for the whole vacation and the new planet I'm intelligently designing on the other side of the universe."

"I'm going to create these people to be smart enough to just use the one commandant I give them without adding 9 of their own. All I gave Moses was a marble post-it that said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." I don't know where all that other crap came from. Who needs to say don't kill or lie or cheat when you've got the one commandment in place? And I never said squat about who you could worship or how."

"Anyone who knows me knows that my ego don't need no worshipping. My self esteem is just fine. I know how all powerful and all knowing I am. Why the hell would I want people to get on their knees and tell me how great and wonderful I am? Talk about embarrassing brown nosing. Give me a break, I'm God, not the leader of North Korea."

"You want to kill each other? Go ahead. What do I care? I gave you all free will and I don't take sides. I'm not the big judge in the sky and I'm not your daddy."

"But when you do kill each other, either individually or in large sized war numbers, don't ever connect my name with it. I don't bless your troops or anyone else's. And the fact that you think I ever would, just shows why I needed this vacation."

"Why that's almost as funny - as putting my name on your money! Ha! That's a good one. I'll say one thing for you folks - you do keep me laughing my ass off!"

Bend Over and Fill 'Er Up!

2005-08-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

Man, oh man, are gas prices high. Who'd a thunk it?

When people voted for former oilmen Bush and Cheney as their President and his puppeteer, they thought these fellas would know how to deal with them Arabs and keep the prices at that sweet spot where SUVs sell like hot cakes and nobody worries about how many fucking miles per gallon they get.

But instead a barrel of oil is over $60 and gas for the Angry Buddhistmobile is now over three bucks a gallon. Luckily I have learned to travel in spirit without having to pack more than my karma. But for many of my followers that truth is not their truth.

And I know all you Bushies thought that when he and Veep Dick put together their Energy commission headed by Kenny Boy Lay of now bankrupt and completely disgraced Enron that they'd use their industry expertise to streamline, reduce redundancies and keep that cheap gas a flowing.

Now forgive me if I digress, but I know Martha Stewart is still being electronically monitored by the long arm of the law, while Ken Lay runs naked and free through the city streets of Houston StinkPot Texas doing meth and dealing crack with reckless abandon. I kid you not. I read it on line.

Today your Buddhist is not only angry at Bush and Cheney for using their public offices to let their pals in the oil industry and their bedsheet wearing Saudi Arabian friends all rape and pillage the public like they were milking cows at the dumber than average dairy cow farm... but he is even more angry with all the suckers and dimwits who voted for Bush and brought all the shit that he has wrought down upon us.

They have no excuses. Bush hasn't done a 180 and changed his stripes. None of what Bush has done should be a surprise to anyone who doesn't live in a Fox News world. Gas prices on their way to doubling while he's in office and all time historic record profits for those who paid to put him office? Where's the plot twist in that story? But to think that there would be an audience gullible and just plain simple minded enough to buy what Bush was selling and not see through it...

Fortunately the Angry Buddhist is not personally effected in any way by the price of gasoline since I transcend such mundane matters. So I look forward to gas making its inevitable journey to $4 and then $5 a gallon. I'm going to really enjoy watching all those folks with Hummers, Escalades, Lincoln Navagators and Ford Extinctions digging deep in their wallets like sheep to help make Bush's friends richer and richer and richer.

Hey, too bad that whole idea about the Iraq war paying for itself through the Iraqi oil industry profits backfired, didn't work and drove the price of oil even higher and the supply contracted. Wait till Iran and Venezula join forces to help cause the next oil crisis. People with ajustable rate loans are going to really dig what that does to interest rates.

But do you think anyone will admit they made a mistake in voting for Bush and either had their head up their ass at the time or just plain got themselves snookered? Fat fucking chance. When it comes to politics the average voter is as likely to admit making a mistake as George WMD Bush is.

And do you think people will get upset enough about the price of gas, or crappy economy for anyone who isn't rich already, or the trashing of the environment, or the incompetent response to 9-11, or the pissing away of the surplus or the shoving of Jesus Christ down the throats of all Amerians in this suddenly Christian branded country?

Nah. You're not going to see any riots or any public displays of anger or people power being exercised over this. Because we live in a nation of sheep where people only get upset and emotional over bullshit, primitive issues like whether or not stem cells are really people or whether god employed intelligent design to make sure gay folks do not get married.

What amuses your Buddhist no end is to see the poll numbers changing and dropping sharply for Bush while at the same time you don't hear anything sounding different in the public arena. All you've got to do is wave an American flag in front of some people and chant some mumbo jumbo about freedom, democracy and "getting those damn terrorists dead or alive!" and you can get self-annointed patriots to dance to whatever choreography you dictate.

They will flat out funky chicken if that's what you want them to do because their buttons are so damn easy and effective to push.

So forget ever seeing gas go back down in price again. But don't worry, you can just put it on your credit card and pay it off over time... at about 24% interest. That way Bush's banker buddies get to cornhole you too and dip their beaks as well.

No I Do Not Support The Troops

2005-08-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

The "war" isn't going well in Iraq. Bush's numbers are dangerously down and Cindy Sheehan, that mom of the dead soldier, is still camped out down the road from Bush's shack in his vacation wonderland, Crawford, Texas.

But you can't tell it from all the yellow ribbons pasted on the back of cars from coast to coast. Everyone wants you to know that they "Support The Troops." It's patriotic don't you know...

I've heard many people say, it's okay not to support the war, and yeah, maybe we did go into Iraq for dubious purposes, but heck, now that we're there you've got to support the troops and admire and respect them since they have such a tough job to do. And they are, after all, putting their lives on the line for the dream of freedom. Iraqi freedom. Oh yeah.

And oh, right. We DO have to fight them over there, before we have to fight them over here.

To which I say, what a total crock of horseshit. Sorry, I'm not one of the sheep who is swallowing that phony tug of the red white and bule heartstrings. Only a fool feels comforted by lies.

When a war is wrong it's wrong. When it was launched on behalf of a lie it's even more wrong. When tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens- many more times than the numbers of innocent people killed on 9-11 - are killed in what our government calls "unfortunate mistakes, collateral damage or the results of insurgants using residential neighborhoods as battle grounds." Then it's worse than wrong it's primitive and evil. You can package it in some other way that makes it more palitible for you, but you're just putting whip cream on dirt.

If you're following the head-up-its-ass logic, the very people our soldiers are risking their lives to bring freedom to, are being killed every day because our people are there. The dictator we invaded their country to overthrow is in a maximum security jail reduced to being the tabloid coverboy in his underpants, but the liberated people are worse off than they were before. Their country is a total mess, it's going to fall to pieces whenever it is that we do leave, and it's already been turned into the world's greatest live fire terrorist training facility. Whose plan was that part of?

And the fact is, the Iraqi people were never calling for either freedom or democracy. And if they had been, then they could have taken their legitimarte place in line behind all the other oppressed citizens of countries with nut case dictators who we once funded and should do something about when we get the chance.

There is nothing but falsehoods, propaganda and herculean spin coming from the White House. And that's at their most open and honest. It's all they know how to do. It worked so well after 9-11 and in the last election it's no wonder they don't change their script. It hasn't failed them yet. But this time it will because they can't fix this with more tax cuts. Sure the war is perfect for profits for their pals, but if they can't sell the "USA All The Way" rally round the flag shit, they won't have the cover to rake in the back door dough that war is famous for.

But while they may understand how gullible and easy to con Americans are, and exactly what buttons to press to make that happen, it's clear they don't have a Homer Simpson's clue what makes the Middle East tick or how to deal with the terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers on 9-11.

We didn't send enough troops to do the job in Afghanistan and we didn't have the balls or the courage to do what had to be done in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the two REAL sources of the terrorists out to kill Americans, not Iraq. No wonder Osama's favorite t-shirt says "Wanted Dead or Alive" and he wears it wherever the fuck he wants to.

The fact that America is cool with that, that Americans don't make any connection to having oil men running the country and having oil cost a new all time high every day tells you all you need to know about how perceptive they are. And how intelligent the citizens are about judging the facts against the fiction being foisted upon them by the real self interest group Bush and company.

So the fact that the average American feels this emotional bond with our boys fighting for freedom overseas doesn't matter a rat's ass to me.

The troops are fighting an unjust war in a country they have no business occupying. They were wrong to invade and do the damage they did and they're wrong to still be there. What part of that is hard for anyone to understand?

If you support the troops, every one of whom volunteered to be in the military or national guard, then you are supporting their use right or wrong. Where do you draw the line? How many excuses are you willing to make? How many times can you stomach looking the other way?

Aren't we supposed to have a higher standard than that? Damn right we are. And if you don't then you're not really the quality patriotic American you think you are.

If a President with a special interest agenda, as this President has with corporate America and his Saudi OPEC oil kings, wants to use our military for reasons that violate our true values and morals, then supporting the troops is wrong and merely empowering a far greater wrong.

It's only when people stop supporting the troops and start supporting the truth that the troops' best interests finally will be served.

If you support the troops knowing what we know now, then you are giving your thumbs up to attacking and going to war with a country:

That had no weapons of mass destruction threatening us.
That had no direct connection with the 9-11 attacks.
That had no need to be occupied or directed on how they should form a new government or write a new constitution.
That in all truth was not worth the death of any one of the American men and women from every state in the union who are now names on that still growing list.

Supporting the troops today means you support being lied to and played for a chump. A patsy. A clueless mark.

You proababy think a Nigerian really is going to put millions of dollars into your bank account if you just give him the number.

We look back at World War II and we wonder why the average German or Japanese citizen didn't see what was really going on and stop believing their governments. Why didn't they do something when they still could?

The reason is that they were brainwashed and spun to support the troops. They supported the troops. Right up until the moment when they buried them.

Supporting the troops today is like pouring a drunk another drink before putting him behind the wheel of a school bus. A school bus with your own kids in it.

Run that up your flag pole and salute it.

Taking The Local

2005-08-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

The bloated corpse that was Tip O'Neill even in life as Speaker of the House is credited with the words of wisdom, "All politics is local." And as this Angry Buddhist has learned along my pissed off path, all anger begins at home.

Which may explain why I wish several of my closest neighbors were suicide bombers who had succeeded.

And by success I mean that they had blown themselves to smithereens, ideally inside their homes while planning their attack, confining the damage to their own property and the carnage to themselves, their families and strongest supporters.

Oh, and of course all their contractors and their vehicles as well.

Nothing is guaranteed to make a Buddhist as angry as terrorism through construction, especially when it's right next door or directly across the street.

To fan the flames of remodeling rage even more white hot, the people who are having the work done will vacate the premises while their evil, almost exclusively male minions do their hell raising bidding. That way the home owners are not inconvenienced or disturbed either by the noise, dirt and traffic or by the death ray glares of their peace and quiet loving neighbors.

Clearly some of the worst human beings on the planet - outside of politics and corporate culture - are drawn like flies to working on homes they do not live in located in neighborhoods they are not in harmony with.

Is it the lure of power tools? Is it the drive to invade and conquer? Why can't they all just swarm in for a week or less and get the job done like the crew of Extreme Makeover? Do you have to have a terminal disease or a TV worthy sob story to get the contractors who don't act like loud, rude, dumbass monkeys? Apparently so, based on what I've seen from my own office window.

I have had the unique opportunity to observe this dangerous subculture on an ongoing daily basis since 2001. 9-11 will be remembered by many in the nation as the day that changed everything.

But it was months before that when this gentle seeker of truth felt the life altering impact of the foreign con artist developers of the property right next door to mine. First lying about their intentions, then demolishing the historic 1920's hacienda with its classic design and craftsmanship. And then erecting a grotesquery of ugliness three times its size with no class or style. Is it any wonder this Buddhist was forced to put a curse on its construction and their entire future?

To this very day in 2005 the house is still not complete, its occupants still enjoying the joy of paying more and more to have nothing but the very finest, the best of the best as they so richly deserve. Sure, it is I who have had to endure the daily noise and nuisances, but sometimes one must be willing to sacrifice so that others may more justly suffer.

Alas I have been able to do nothing about the house across the street and the crew working on replacing their gardens with concrete patios or the new home also being built down the street by the gang who likes to crank up the music and dance for each other's enjoyment on the roof.

They also seem to really enjoy setting their own car alarms off and seeing how long they can take before turning it off. If my current prayers are answered a flaming ball of toxic meteor will hit their worksite dead on from a precise trajectory starting in deep space. If you can dream it, it can be so.

So while the issues of the world at large, our nation and the entire state of California have raced with abandon where ever dark and terrible places they are headed since my last entry 8 months ago, rest assured they have not gone unnoticed or without reaction here in my temple. I have not given up the fight, nor have I mellowed and learned to live with all that displeases me.

So I'm back, I'm even more pissed, and I've got plenty to say about it all. I've just been busy getting to know all my neighbors...

And oh yeah.... I've been out to the desert to see my mentor and share with him my vision for changing politics as we know it in the United States. After his sage advice and much contemplation on my part I am soon to be releasing it to you.

Someday, in the not too distant future, it will have changed America forever for the better and you’ll be able to say, “Hey, I remember reading that first on the Angry Buddhist blog, back when everything was still almost 100% totally fucked up.” Imagine that.

I’d post it now, but I have to go talk to that guy in the big diesel truck that just parked in front of my driveway. Man, that stinks.

Homeless Hurt Santa Clarita Curb Appeal

2004-12-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

I couldn't believe the Mayor of Santa Clarita when I read the article last Saturday:

"It's something all communities wrestle with on an ongoing basis, and we're no exception," he said. "We had a homeless shelter set up for many years, but it has been a challenge in meeting the needs and concerns of the entire community both pro and con on the matter."

I was moved to write the following letter to the editor of the LAT. Although it wasn't printed, it should have been:

Dear Editors,

When Santa Clarita mayor, Bob Kellar (November 27, 2004, Outsourcing of
Homeless Stirs Integrity Debate) talks about meeting the needs of "the entire
community, both pro and con on the matter" I want to know who the "cons" on
this matter are.

Who are the selfish, less caring, look out for #1 people and why should they
be given equal weight in any discussion by a community that claims to stand
for America's ideals and visions?

The people who stand in opposition to providing homeless men, women and
children a winter shelter fail the moral values test by any religion or
society's standard. Why would any town willingly overrule the golden rule on
their behalf?

It's easy to market empty slogans about what a great place Santa Clarita is to
live in and raise your family, but actions speak louder than Chamber of
Commerce platitudes.

A community willing to turn its back on the poor, hungry and homeless within
their own midst and ship them away like so much waste to a landfill, throws
its own soul on the very top of the trash heap. There can be no debate about
our obligation in the richest, most blessed nation on earth to take care of
the worst off among us.

I can't help but view stories like this through the lens of "moral values" ever since that phrase started being used like a bludgeon against liberals. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the real estate professional mayor considers himself a conservative and of high moral values. Just as I wouldn't be surprised - based on the California real estate market - if the mayor enjoyed the most profitable year of his business life.

I learned about the mayor's occupation in an outstanding column in today's LAT by Steve Lopez, one of the Angry Buddhist's favorites. Read it yourself right now (LINK).

What I found unbelievably ironic last Saturday - and frankly, pitifully sad - was the article in that very same California section of that date's paper. "Bringing Serious Bling to Colorado Boulevard," (LINK) the story about how after 100 years of use the costume jewel crown worn by the Rose Queen would now be made of real diamonds, pearls and platinum worth $100,000. The change comes as a celebration of... well nothing. It's a PR and marketing stunt by high end retail jewelry chain.

Events don't get any more conservative than Pasadena's own Rose Bowl parade with its faux royal family and staunch traditions, so I don't get why they're agreeing to this obvious and crass pimping. At what point does the selfish greed and conspicuous consumption get too unacceptable even for the most well off people in the most well of country?

What kind of society argues about whether poor homeless people deserve a warm place to sleep at night but has no problem with spending $100,000 on a jeweled crown for a make believe parade queen? I'll tell you what kind, the kind that says what it means but doesn't really mean what it says.

In a society that had real moral values instead of hypocritical ones, the powers that be in Pasadena would have told the Mikimoto jewel people that the crown they already had was perfect for their event and that they'd much rather the jeweler donated $100,000 to help people are forced to sleep in cardboard boxes - or if they're lucky in their cars.

But we don't live in that kind of society. We live in a society where election after election is held and no one ever talks about their solution to feeding the poor, housing the homeless and the fact that we are all judged by how we treat the worst off among us - not how we reward the best off. The kind where too many people have no problem sending their unfortunate neighbors out of town on a bus rather than feeling any moral responsibility to do onto others as they would like someone to do to them.

Sometimes You Just Have to Say, "What The..."

2004-11-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

In the words of that great philosopher J. Durante, "Did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to go? And still get the feeling that you wanted to stay?"

Your Angry Buddhist has been off these past few days contemplating where we go from here, what routes we take and what snacks we should bring. At the same time I am also asking, is this trip really necessary?

STAND AND FIGHT?

It's true, I've been titillated at the thought of standing and fighting - battling Bush and his deserve-ative cabal tooth and nail, mano a mano down in the muddy, dirty trenches. Knowing how few on the Bush side have ever fought in a war, I like my chances. Sure they're mean and vicious, but they still underestimate our anger. And from my elitist point of view - if they're stupid enough to be conned by the Neocons then I'll make mincemeat out of them.

Like I've said before, there's never been a better opportunity for fresh blood to get in there and make a difference. And the radical religious right is going to overplay their hand like only someone empowered by eternal self righteousness can do. Iraq will not work out well and you can go ahead and script the inaugural address for whichever Ayatollah they elect whenever they do have what passes for elections there.

And since Bush has never had to personally pay for anything out of his own pocket in his whole damn life and has never actually had to do any real work warranting a salary, there's no reason to think he's going to get hit with a lighting bolt of fiscal sanity. That means he'll keep pumping up the deficit and just keep printing up more money when he's got to pay the military. He's not going to be able to fix Social Security. He's not going to do anything about health insurance. He's not going to have any money to do anything for education.

SAME SONG, DIFFERENT ARRANGEMENT

But you know, the fight doesn't stop with Bush and company, it just begins there. Because truth be told - and really, isn't that why I'm here - we've got to stage a mutiny in the Democratic party too. We've got to blow it into smithereens and rebuild it with fresh brains and a new organization. John Kerry is never going to give me or the rest of the progressive people a woody. Neither are any of the other democrats that ran in the primaries. Neither is Hillary.

I do not see a single Democrat anywhere in the country worth getting excited about or who I think can make a real difference.

WHO CARES? MAYBE NOT THIS BUDDHIST

And then I start to think "Why bother?"

I wonder if the United States of America is even worth keeping together. I think maybe not.

I ponder just what I have in common with the born agains who are so confident I'm going to hell for being an unbeliever they'd swear to god about it.

I start to ask myself "What the fuck do I care about what happens to all those stupid selfish bastards all across this country who really believe no new taxes is one of the keys to life? Who are happy to shop at Wal-Mart for rock bottom prices while they watch all the local stores close down and the local emergency ward at the hospital become the doctor's waiting room for all those low wage low benefit Wal-Mart workers." How exuberant their celebrations are when they're able to score that new plasma screen for only $4,000 at Costco! Praise Jesus for high definition 700 Club.

PAST THE POINT OF NO RETURN?

I mean lets ask the hard question - isn't it already hopeless?

Hasn't America already gone too far past the point of no return? Isn't big money, corruption and influence peddling rampant not just at the federal level, not just at the state level, but at the local town, city and village level? At the condo association level, the PTA level, and at the school council level?

Yes it has.

There's never going to be any meaningful election reform and you know it. They may pass some more windowdressing laws, but they're never going to get the money out of politics and if you don't the money out then you don't get the influence out. You're never going to put the lobbiests out of business.

Ralph Nader was pretty much right-on regarding all the key issues and he has never stood a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected President of this country. America's will vote for a former body builder and action movie star as their President before they'd even consider a nerdy, skinny hawk-faced dude who has no celebrity appeal.

GEORGE CARLIN AGREES

Is it any wonder that even George Carlin himself has thrown in the towel and given up on any hope for humanity itself? [LINK]:

"I try not have an emotional stake" in the world, said Carlin, dressed in all-black clothing. "I've turned off the feeling part because I refuse to be voluntarily heartbroken by what we're doing to ourselves and each other. So I'd rather divorce myself from it and wash my hands of it, which isn't very responsible, but that's the way I feel."

George Carlin has made more sense for a longer time than any other American I can think of. When George bails, it's time to look for lifeboat options.

9-11? WHO GIVES A DAMN?

Not Bush and not the Republican party.

While the rest of us were heartened when people from both sides of the aisle made up the 9-11 Commission and worked together to study what happened and then make the recommendations of what needs to change. It seemed remarkably non-political. It seemed like they were working for the good of America.

But that's not the way the morally bankrupt phonies in power saw it.

Bush could have championed the commission's report and campaigned on it. But he did not. He couldn't. He didn't believe in the commission to begin with and he wasn't about to do anything they recommended. (Not like that kind of truth matters to Bush supporters, they never let facts get in the way of their beliefs.)

Yesterday Duncan Hunter, a knuckle-dragging Congressman from El Cajon California, who previously made news when he didn't like the media attention given the Abu Garib prison abuse scandal, made sure the bill wouldn't pass the house. [LINK]

"Congressional officials said that Mr. Bush had telephoned a leading Republican critic of the bill, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, from Air Force One on Friday en route to a economic summit meeting in Chile to urge him to compromise.

They said a similar call was made Saturday morning by Mr. Cheney to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter of California, who has long warned that the creation of a national intelligence director could interfere with the military chain of command as American troops continue to fight in Iraq."

GIVING THE PRESIDENT EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS

Personally I think both phone calls by the President and Vice President were actually to thank the two GOP terrorists for doing what Bush wanted all along. It's complete bullshit to think that Bush couldn't use some of the "political character" he bragged on to make this happen. There's only one reason there was no vote and it is because opposes the 9-11 reforms. He and his pals just don't have the balls to admit it.

But it's true and only suckers will deny it.

Nobody publically gives Bush and his Christian Crusaders the finger and gets away with it. We've all seen what happens to people who dissent from the administration party line.

Nope, this went down the way the President wanted because he never did give a shit about a bunch of dead New Yorkers. New York didn't vote for Bush in 2000 and it's no surprise that he'd say "fuck you" to making changes that would really make them safer. This was never about the 9-11 victims, this was about seizing the moment for political purposes.

And since all the major terrorist targets in this country are in states that voted against Bush in the 2004 election it should be no surprise to anyone that Republicans now turn their back on a bill that would help protect the people in those states from another terrorist attacks.

You can call that cynical or you can review the record. Or at least the record they haven't kept classified.

But it doesn't matter what you think.
And it never will.
Those days are over.

Just ask George Carlin [LINK]:

"While describing himself as left of center and someone who would have preferred to see Sen. John F. Kerry elected, he said it all didn't really matter anyway.

"They" American corporations control events. Oh, yes, "they" would back off slightly, said Carlin, if pushed hard enough as during the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War, but the idea of the people determining events is naïve.

Even the environment is a lost cause at this point, he said. Polluted and destroyed beyond hope. In fact, the human record on Earth should argue against any colonization attempts on other planets like Mars.

"Let's keep this infection local," he said."

I GOT NO FRIEND IN JESUS

There's now a real disconnect for those of us who are NOT born again, those of us who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of god or part of any holy trinity. There's a real problem in America now for those of us who do not believe that only people from certain religions who pledge their allegiance to Jesus in a certain way will be allowed into heaven.

Frankly, there is never any equal footing in talking to people who believe that they have been saved and that you are going to hell. There is no common ground with people like that. There is nothing in our American history or woven into the fabric of this nation that trumps that. We have so much more that divides us than we do that unites us.

It might be different if the majority of those people were Christians in anything but name only. But they're not. There are at least as many evil, ruthless assholes wearing a cross and going to church as there are otherwise. Maybe more.

For The Angry Buddhist, there is zero difference between those who believe that aliens regularly visit our planet and abduct humans for experiments and those who claim to have been born again and firmly believe that they will be whisked straight up to heaven when the rapture comes.

It's time to define "faith" as what it really is - somebody's decision to believe something supernatural that they just have a feeling about but cannot prove. There's no reason to respect faith in Jesus Christ any more than we respect people who believe in leprechauns, fairies or the Chicago Cubs ability to win the world series.

OWN THIS

The real truth of George Bush's "ownership society" is that if you don't own, you ain't shit. That's the kind of Christianity the Jesus Jihad crowd really believe.

Homeless? Who cares? You don't own nothing, you don't count. Hungry? Too damn bad. If you owned some food and a kitchen you wouldn't be such a burden on our faith-based safety net.

Need a ride somewhere? Buy a damn car and help our economy.

And if you don't own nothing in today's America then today's America owns you and you just better do as you're told - boy!

MAYBE IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER

So you can see why I now contemplate whether there's a reason to waste any time trying to change things or if it's time to cut my losses and just resign myself to the fact that we're on the down slope of this civilization and there's nothing left to do but party on and do only what's best for me, mine and those we care about.

You know... just look at it like Republicans do - 100% in my own self interest.

I don't have any kids so why care about what happens to public education? I don't even like kids. Why don't we just put them to work in American factories so we can compete with China and the third world? Public parks, after school programs, the arts? Screw the little tykes they should be in bible study or home schooling anyway.

Social Security? Keep it, I don't care. I won't be counting on government money in my retirement. I hope all the instant gratification types who financed their lifestyles on credit cards all wind up in the poor house with no medical insurance.

The environment? Drill, dig and exploit every acre of it. I've already seen plenty of beauty and I took tons of photos and video. I could care less what happens after I'm gone. Why fight to protect the wilderness for all the generations coming from Christians who are breeding like rabbits as you're reading this?

Abortion? Why the hell should I care? I have a vascetomy. I've been married 23 years. No one I know is getting any abortions. Nobody I know is getting anyone pregnant that doesn't want to be.

You can see where all this leads... Why even bother wasting my time writing this when I could be out playing?

See ya.

Arnold Aims For The Top. Why Not King Arnold?

2004-11-13T23:52:00.000-08:00

The Angry Buddhist is no fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's not just because I met him almost 30 years ago and got to see him in action personally. And it's not just because his bratty, foul mouthed kids bugged the hell out of me one night at a charity event.

I've never cared for him as an actor. He was not my favorite body builder. I know for certain that the stories about his history as a groper are true. Frankly I thought it was ridiculous to consider him qualified to be governor of any state in America, let alone the one with the most people. But hey, that's what makes a Buddhist pissed.

How many idiots in California and across the rest of the country think Arnold made up all the movie lines he uses in his speeches over and over and over again? They believe he named himself "The Terminator" and cleverly said, "I'll be back" when the thought entered his mind.

Arnold is in Japan right now on a trade mission for California. It's been fun reading about his adventures in the L.A. Times:

Meeting with California reporters, Schwarzenegger was asked about the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

He steered the discussion back to his home state.

"I haven't thought about it," he said. "I only think about California. The key thing is I'm here to promote and promote and promote. Market, market, market. This is what I know how to do and I know that it pays off."

Whether it's a piece of crap movie, an inferior chain of restaurants, his own race for govenor or pushing new inititives, Arnold relentlessly promotes, promotes, promotes, markets, markets, markets until he strong arms his way to pay off time.

They say Arnold's more popular than President Bush is over there in Japan. Here in California too.

And in today's Pre-Rapture world nothing has to make any fucking sense any more. It doesn't matter that Arnold just doesn't have the skill set for the job. It doesn't matter that he says one thing and does another. The man is an abuser of power who has always felt above the rules and that has never seemed to matter. The rules are for smaller than life people like you and me. Arnold is bigger than life.

Which is why other people want Arnold to be President of the United States of America. This is what happens when George WMD Bush helps to set the bar at such a new low. And of course this is what happens in this era of the talent-free celebrity.

As it said in Saturday's L.A. Times:

SACRAMENTO — Television ads supporting a constitutional amendment that would allow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other foreign-born citizens to run for president will begin appearing next week on cable stations across California, a newly formed group based in Silicon Valley announced Friday.

The ads feature Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, a mutual fund manager from the Bay Area and major donor to Schwarzenegger's campaign, telling viewers: "You cannot choose the land of your birth. You can choose the land you love."

It was cool to have that article in the very same Times California section as the article about how Arnold doesn't see anything wrong with his staffers taking gifts from businesses and lobbiests trying to curry favor:

TOKYO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said today that he sees no need to tighten his administration's gift policy, nor is he worried that some of his top aides have accepted thousands of dollars worth of meals, basketball playoff tickets and other items from special interests seeking access to his government.

This is the guy that was going to beat the crap out of special interests right? This was the guy who raised more money than Gray Davis but said he didn't need anyone else's money to run. This is the guy that talked about pay as you go and then borrowed money to pay for his budget. This is the guy who was going to convert his Hummer into hydrogen power, but never got around to it. This is the guy whose mantra above all else is "No new taxes." He just didn't tell us about the great free gifts program that brings money into Sacramento without needing to raise anyone's taxes.

Sounds like Arnold's act is already big time enough for Washington, don't you think?

But I'm just not sure President is big enough for Arnold. It has so many restrictions. Like having to deal with Congress. Arnold won't like that at all. That whole checks and balances deal is for girly men. Who or what could possibly dream of checking or balancing Arnold? And term limits won't cut it for Arnold. Hell, he's been playing the damn terminator robot guy for twenty years now.

Nope, the more I think about it, the more I'm certain Arnold would be much happier and much more at home being King. King of the Republic of Kallyfornya with our 5th largest economy on the face of the planet, every possible resource a great country could want and of course Hollywood. Without all those red states we and Arnold could really go wild. And without paying any federal taxes to D.C. we might be able to pay off all those bonds Arnold paid for everything with. Then with the money we make from all the stem cell breakthroughs we can buy Hearst Castle for Arnold and Maria to live in and probably even pay for the giant sized crown we'd have to have made to fit Arnold's head.

You may laugh and say it sounds far fetched, but my friends I have seen it all since I became an adult and moved to Sourthern California. The unimaginable is commonplace here and more wrong something seems the more likely it is to occur. The Buddhist will be pissed... and it won't be the first time.

Iraq Tells Media To Toe The Line - L.A. TIMES

2004-11-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

BAGHDAD — Iraq's media regulator warned news organizations Thursday to stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallouja or face legal action...

First the Baghdad Times then the New York Times.

This edict could not have been more in line with Geroge Bush's media agenda. It's exactly the same policy that Fox News follows. No surprise from a guy who considers newspapers evil spreaders of terrorist propagnada.

And it won't bother folks in the red states or conservatives anywhere in the USA. Because they have no respect or love for freedom of the press.

Exactly what you'd expect from religous zealots whose faith is unquestionable because they never ask any questions about it.

One of the most basic rules of all Christian religions is - NO QUESTIONS. Accept whatever the authority figure tells you and do not show a lack of faith by having a query. The god Christians worship gave them all the answers they need in the bible.

But The Angry Buddhist says that their god has real ego problems and needs to be constantly reassured that he is the one and only true god and that no other gods come before him. His ego requires worshipping with a constant reinforcement of his greatness. It's very important to this god that you know who butters your bread.

Asking questions? Poking around the details of a story? Drilling down for the facts?

The Meaning of Life

2004-11-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

The Angry Buddhist has been preversely juiced by the results of last week's election and even more so by the deluge of analysis on how and why it all happened.

Why am I energized while so many others are at best demoralized and filled with dispair? Is it my furious zen nature?

No, I am amped because the persception is that the Democrats suffered such a stinging and sweeping defeat that everything is up for grabs now - which means it's suddenly within the grasp of The Angry Buddhist who is not afraid to reach for it.

With Moral Values scoring the headlines and holding the news cycle hostage since the electoral bitch slapping, the very souls of Democrats have been called into question along with our spiritual soundness - not to mention our chances in the afterlife - and The Angry Buddhist says it's about damn time we ennunciate our answers so even the most simple minded understand what we're saying.

But I submit to you that here, in the now, the real question is - What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? What is our purpose? How should we be spending our time?

Gay Marriage? Abortion? Those are kid stuff. The Angry Buddhist says, let's get down to the real nitty gritty and talk about what we really stand for and why. Because without that discussion the rest is pretty damn trivial.

This is the golden opportunity - one I don't remember ever having before - and I welcome this wide open chance to help answer those questions or at the very least to ask the questions that haven't been part of the conversation before.

I've been searching for answers, reasons and direction and reading blogs, newspapers, magazines and commentaries from all around the globe. Most of what I hear on CNN, MSNBC and Fox-News is crap and just talking points propaganda with hardly anything resembling legitimate journalism or reporting from any source. But they do serve to dish up the convential wisdom from all the usual suspects.

In the blog world, Chris Bowers writes for the My DD website and he had a great post-election strategy memo about demonizing the religous right the same way the right has so successfuly demonized liberalism:

We destroy conservatism itself by defining it as being a member of the reactionary religious right. We tarnish the notion of being conservative to the entire nation. We trap all conservatism inside the reactionary right-wing ideology of the Christian Coalition with a permanent campaign that seeks to define that ideology as negative to the vast majority of the country that does not hold that ideology (it doesn't). Thus, our amalgamation of minorities will become the mainstream, while their homogenized national plurality becomes fringe.

Beyond his take on strategy Chris does a great job of laying out how much easier it is for the homogenous right to stay unified and connected than it is for the patchwork quilt left, or the "everyone else" as he refers to us.

To me the issue basically comes down to calling them on their own shit. You know where I stand - that the majority of so called conservative christians don't walk the walk and don't live the life they want to dictate for everyone else. Hypo-Christs as I like to think of them. They talk a good game of values but they can't back it up. They wear their self-appointed moral superiority like American flag lapel pins.

Of course that's not going to stop them from demanding the spoils that they believe go with their victory. The infamous Bob Jones III of Bob Jones University, wrote President Bush a letter dictating his demands and direction from the Lord:

In your re-election, God has graciously granted America—though she doesn't deserve it—a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.

But The Angry Buddhist thinks the God Squad is overplaying its hand and underestimating the power of the real god Bush and company worship - corporate money. Don't just take my word for it, check out what Frank Rich has to say in his New York Times Piece for next Sunday, On Moral Values It's Blue In A Landslide":

Mr. Murdoch and his fellow cultural barons - from Sumner Redstone, the Bush-endorsing C.E.O. of Viacom, to Richard Parsons, the Republican C.E.O. of Time Warner, to Jeffrey Immelt, the Bush-contributing C.E.O. of G.E. (NBC Universal) - are about to be rewarded not just with more tax breaks but also with deregulatory goodies increasing their power to market salacious entertainment. It's they, not Susan Sarandon and Bruce Springsteen, who actually set the cultural agenda Gary Bauer and company say they despise.

Rich also makes some great points about who the real liberals and conservatives are.

So no one is happier than me, The Angry Buddhist, that this debate is now scheduled for prime time, because the fact is I've been bemoaning the coarsening of our culture for the last 20 years. While others give lip service to real conservative values, The Angry Buddhist lives them every single day. And it's about time I got the credit and halo for it.

It's not the Angry Buddhist or his children who are playing ultra violent and depraved video games. I've said for decades that they are breeding generations of desensitized killers. X-Box, Playstation, Nintendo? All perfect for teaching conflict resolution through total destruction of your enemies. Tell me, how those games selling in the red states?

I also don't watch the horror films and slasher movies that make death, dismemberment and disgusting acts on human beings their biggest drawing cards. How well do those movies do in the South and the Midwest states?

Rap music and the videos that go with them? I'm too conservative for that. I think they promote a thug and pimp lifestyle. I think they're too loud and too profane. Eminem seems like a foul mouth punk to me.

I think Britney Speers and her ilk are sluts and role models for hookers only. Anyone know if her stuff sells any in the red states?

I think society is generally oversexed throughout the culture. It's so pervasive kids can't escape it from television to magazines to billboards to the Internet. Tits and ass seem just as popular in middle America as they do elsewhere.

I think gambling is a blight on society and a ethically empty way to find entertainment. I think it gives false hope to the poor and elderly while taking their money with ridiculously stacked odds.

I get no joy watching the pain, discomfort or embarrassment of others - the core attractions of TVs highest rated reality shows. I don't watch them - ever. Think they get any kind of ratings in the red states?

South Park? Too offensive and stupidly juvenile for my taste. I'm no fan of bathroom humor or the scatalogical. American Pie/Wedding? Not funny to me. Call me a prude. But do tell me how popular that brand of funny is in Texas or Oklahoma or Nebraska or Wyoming.

I find movies in general less and less entertaining or creative and today's movie going experience is too rude and discourtious for my taste. 2004 is the first year I did not see a movie in the theatre. I did not miss it. Sound conservative or liberal to you? How's the movie attendence in all those morale values states? All those tickets for the "Passion of the Christ" only?

I am not now, nor have I ever been a fan of comedians who use the word "fuck" as a substitute for being funny. How totally uncool of me.

I have been married once, for the last 23 years. But I hear the divorce and infidelity rates in the red states are nothing Jesus would be happy about.

If you ask me the religious right is morally bankrupt and totally vulnerable to the tough questions that they can never answer.

Chris Bower has an excellent take on that too, "Real Conservative Values":

To all of this I say hogwash. George Bush is a self-proclaimed conservative. In this election, 84% of those people who identify as conservatives voted for George Bush, thereby endorsing his policies. I say, and my Catholic upbringing says, that your actions are your beliefs, and there is no difference between the two. Considering this, it is time to face some facts:

Bower deals with the reality of what constitutes conservative values that include record deficits and unprovoked wars among other things. He may not be a Buddhist, but he is indeed angry.

There was a piece in yesterday's Los Angeles Times that asked some of those tough values questions, "Moderates, Liberals Hear Call to Morality Debate" and the most surprising part was that the questions came from so called moderate and liberal Christian religious leaders:

The Rev. Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, said the election had opened a public dialogue on the meaning of values: "Do you mean private piety, or values locked into civil unions, abortion or homosexuality? Or do you mean public values, like eliminating poverty and healing the earth and seeking nonviolence and peaceful collaboration?"

But the person who made the most sense to me, and who I actually found inspirational was Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the magazine Tikkun. In his Op Ed piece from Nov 7 he wrote:

Tens of millions of Americans feel betrayed by a society that seems to place materialism and selfishness above moral values. They know that looking out for No. 1 has become the accepted wisdom of our society, but they want a life that involves more -- a framework of meaning and purpose that would transcend the grasping and narcissism that surrounds them. Many of these voters have found this "politics of meaning" in the right. In the right-wing churches and synagogues, these voters are presented with a coherent world view that speaks to their needs.

I urge you to read the rest of the Rabbi's piece because he is the only one talking about the Meaning of Life and man, does he get it.

Imagine a Democratic Party that could talk of a New Bottom Line, so that American institutions are judged to be efficient and productive not only to the extent that they increase financial performance, but also to the extent that they increase people's capacities to be loving and caring, ethically and ecologically sensitive, and capable of responding to the universe with awe and wonder.

I submit that the whole Moral Values issue is a Trojan Horse, a red herring to cover up the immorality behind the tax cuts for the rich, destructive pork barrel breaks for the corporate kings, and the complete invisibility and deafness towards those living in poverty, and under reigns of terror from gangs and thugs.

The American way of life has become a greedy, poccession gathering treadmill of unfulfilling gestures, statements and poses. Living in fear does not give life meaning whether it be fear of terrorism or fear of hell. Living for the bling-bling gives no meaning to life either.

The Angry Buddhist knows what wise men and women before him have long understood. That the meaning of all of our lives is enhanced through the help, kindness and caring we extend to others. Knowing that I feel that assholes abound and surround us you can imagine how it pains me to admit this.

Millions of Americans live quiet lives of lonliness and desperation and yearn for something along the lines of Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe" and its John Doe clubs. They long for something that transcends all the pettiness, fear and hostility and brings people together in a sense of shared community and brotherhood. Something with the bonding power of 9-11 but without a tragedy to provoke it.

That's what The Angry Buddhist says the Democrats, liberals and progressives need to offer as the alternative to the right and the appeal their platform holds for those seeking the meaning that eludes them inside.

And So It Begins...

2004-11-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Greetings Angry Buddhist followers.

The time has come for the enlightened to share their wisdom.

Thus the Angry Buddhist now invites you to become part of his cybertemple of knowledge and the now.

Isn't South Central L.A. the Fallujah of America? When do the good guys storm in to save the innocent civilians? Or does the new prime minister of Iraq have to give the go ahead?

Just wondering...