It's Thanksgiving so let's talk turkey. There's a big fat,bloated elephant in the room and nobody seems to want to talk about it. The Republican Politboro has bamboozled the American people with a rainbow of reasons for our illegal and dishonorable attack of another sovereign nation .As one rationale was proven false the Bushy spin machine promptly puked out another bogus reason.
Let's see, among the lies, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction yea, even nuclear(pardon,nucular) weapons and was just moments away from producing a mushroom cloud on U.S. soil. After the administration finally, but reluctantly wiped the yellow cake from its lying mouth we were instructed that Saddam was an evil tyrant who had to be removed for the good of the region.One can only assume he had just recently become an evil tyrant. He was certainly a worthy ally in the Reagan years when he was our dog in the brutal war between Iraq and Iran. Isn't it curious when a tyrannical dictator who no longer serves our purposes must be removed for the greater good.
Next our fascist regime trots out that perennial crowd pleaser:"Democracy is on the march!!" To a degree, that's true. Democracy is being marched out of the Republic as fast as the thieving righties can pull the wool over our eyes. They even seek to steal one of our most sacred rights, the right of dissent.
Then there's Dicky-Do's most cherished distortion:Saddam was involved in 9/11 and has strong ties to Bin Laden. Sorry, Darth, but even a large number of your kool-aid drinking supporters are no longer buying that canard. With a favorable rating of only 19% I think Cheney should shut up and slither back to his undisclosed location.
Now here's the truth.We attacked Iraq for its oil reserves. We are building a pipeline from Iraq, through Afghanistan to Uzbekistan. We are building military bases, large military bases on and near the oil fields. This administration is loathe to leave all those billions of dollars. A few thousand dead and several thousand wounded seems to be a trade off they are willing to make.
Why is Cheney so reticent to disclose who were in attendance at his high level enegy summit? He claims executive privilege and we know why. The oil execs met to divvy-up the spoils of war. The only post war planning this administration did was to focus on the distribution of the booty. The welfare of the Iraqi people, and for that matter the welfare of our troops is not a high priority to the neo-cons. Chaos serves their purposes better. It's much easier to steal when the rightful owners are distracted trying to rebuild what was so brutally and illegaly destroyed.
It must be painfully obvious to people of good will that republicans are unsuitable to govern this great nation. Tax cuts in time of war should give you some clue as to who these money-grubbers really are. We must wrest control from them and insure that they do not return to power for a least another 40 years. If the republicans had real concern about the safety of nation and not just the safety of their portfolio, they would have poured much more money into homeland security. They would address the gaping holes in our borders through which thousands of terrorists can transit with impunity. But the truth is ,big business wants cheap labor and since most of their wealth is in off-shore accounts, they care little about assaults on common citizens.
Remember the 2004 Republican convention when the Crown Prince of the Permian Basin saluted his glittering supporters:"Welcome to the haves and the have mores". That all inclusive tent the republicans love to tout is ,sadly, an oxygen tent for a dying Republic. Bush's ownership society is bent on owning everything, including your very soul. There is one family value they have conveniently ignored...He who has the gold pays the bills. Ribet...ribet

Marriage is a purely civil contract. The church has absolutely no power to marry anyone without the imprimatur of the state. All of this nonsense about the sanctity of marriage does little to stem the raging tide of divorce among heterosexuals.The figures are astounding;50% for first-timers and 70% for first time losers.
Marriage is a civil institution designed to maintain social order but also serves as a conduit for the disposition of accumulated personal wealth. "One man-one woman" proponents whine that their marriages would somehow be diminished by same-sex unions. What hubris!! I think we can all agree that heterosexuals have done a bang up job of debasing marriage already. Do you actually believe that love between a man and a woman is any more worthy of the state's blessing than love between two people of the same sex? Forget the church, god, or any religious considerations;Caesar grants permission to marry, not god. Homosexuals, both male and female, do not seek the blessing of Jesus or any diety. They simply want the rights afforded to all citizens by the Constitution, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Heterosexuals do not have a monopoly on human rights.
The argument that same-sex unions would lead to more homosexual children is preposterous. Consider,please,most,if not all existing homosexuals are children of heterosexual marriages. Get a grip!!
Now we see with considerable dismay that Texas has joined the ranks of states supporting a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex unions. These are desperate acts of mean-spirited,selfish people, hardly worthy of ,supposedly, the greatest nation on earth. It is the same narrow-minded persecution minorities have had to endure for millenia. The hallmark of a truly great society is how it treats its minorities. I fail to see any greatness in this matter. Ribet...ribet

No amount of massaging or currying can transform a tired nag into a thoroughbred. Intelligent design,in spite of its lofty nomenclature is still a dead horse. Repackaging an unsavory product does nothing to alter its nature. Science and religion are like oil and water. They can never be homogenous.
Religion is mythology. It is pure subjective spin whose basis is mere postulation. Explaining the nature of the universe and its origin by faith and belief may be suitable for inclusion in comparative religion classes, but to insinuate mythology into a regimen grounded in observation and experimentation is not only ludicrous but highly insulting to the scientific community. Attempts to force schools to teach intelligent design as science is another indication of how this onslaught of religious fervor is further dumbing down our culture. Would Christians accept a Hindu explanation of creation, a Muslim account, a Cree notion of the universe's beginnings, and do you suppose devotees of these varying explanations of creation would insist that their story be included in Biology 101?
Belief makes fine campfire chatter but has no place in a process of empirical thought and examination.Magic has no place in the realm of objectivity. Science concerns itself with what is known and knowable, not what is believed.Belief is frosting on fearcake. One gorges on belief to stave off the inevitable, the fact that one must ultimately examine the inside and outside if one would know the truth. Believing severely limits the scope of possibility. Science can illuminate religion but the process is not reciprocal. The faith of a scientist is based on observation, logic and experimentation not mere willingness to accept because the bible tells him so. You who would believe, ask yourself honestly why you believe in a god. You would no doubt discover that it's because you are afraid not to believe. Let's keep our sciences pure and unadulterated . Ribet...ribet