Jerry
admits
to falling for the internet mumblings about Congress
getting their full salary for life, evidently this is
not the case. We intend at some future date as soon as
we can sort it all out to boil it down to the true
facts. As far as I know I have been the very first one
challenged on the proposition that Congress gets full
salary for life. It has made me realize that we never
should take even a Ph.D. researcher who has been very
high in educational circles for fifty years word, we
should always fact-check; for this I apologize. However
Below is the entire article as first placed on the
Politics page as it is- The point of the article is very
simple, fairness and opportunity, not what people make
or get in retirement. I really don't care what they get
as long as everyone has the opportunity to get similar
benefits.
Jerry Pippin
10-23-11
Why Are
These People
Protesting?
by Jerry
Pippin -
October 12.
2011 (11:30
PM Eastern)I was
listening to
some pundits
who are
business
reporters
mainly but
seem to lean
toward the
conservative
because as
one of them
said, "I am
doing better
than ever, I
am not sure
what these
people
want?" I can
answer that
with
words--"Fairness"
and
"opportunity." We
have come to
a place
where the
top 1
percent have
40 per cent
of the
wealth in
this
country.
Just 25
years ago 33
per cent of
the wealth
was owned by
the top 1
per cent. 25
years ago
was not
really a
very good
time for the
average Joe
when you
compare the
opportunity
of assets of
the country
in the 50s
and 60s.
Let's put it
in a way
that you can
understand
it- years
ago the top
1% owned 33
percent of
national
wealth. 4
fifths of
the
population
of the
United
States has
only 7 per
cent of the
wealth. It
really is
astounding
that several
decades of
watching the
"rich and
famous" has
not boiled
over into
revolution
earlier.
How much
does the
bottom 80%
own? Only
7%.. Now
before you
say the top
1 percent
earned it,
look at the
actual
earnings,
the top 1
percent earn
24 per cent
of the
national
income. In
1976, this
group was
only 9 per
cent of
national
income. The
rich have
done very
well. Do you
really think
this 1
percent is
smarter and
more
talented
than the
other 99
percent? No
they have
bought and
paid their
way to
economic
bliss. Let's
look at our
elected
officials
for a
moment- They
are saying
that we just
can't afford
Social
Security,
Medicare,
health care,
job
training,
education to
be supported
by the
national
treasury.
Maybe we
can't afford
them and
this is why
tens of
thousands
are
supporting
the
protesters
around the
country.
Presidential
salaries- $450,000
for life--
that's
right, they
get to keep
their
salaries and
how many of
us who leave
a job get to
still get
paid for
LIFE?
Congress is
not any
better,
Senate and
House
members
get $174,000
for life,
they don't
have to do
anything and
they get
this money
forever
until their
last breath.
Meanwhile
you and me
retire on
Social
Security and
the average
income is
about $12,000.
Some of
these
conservatives
who push
"market
forces" know
the real
truth, the
market is
only good
for those
who can
afford to be
in it. The
Top half of
all
investment
earnings are
made by the
top 1 per
cent. The
population
is bombarded
everyday
with the
idea that
stocks,
bonds,
mutual funds
are the way
to go, yet
when the
rich made it
possible via
lobbying to
allow
retirement
income to go
to the stock
market, we
have seen
huge losses
in
retirement
monthly
income; yet
the top 1
per cent
seems to
have done
quite well
even in a
huge
downturn.
Being poor
is one thing
but being
poor and in
debt is
another
thing and
that is
exactly
what has
happened,
The Top 1%
of Americans
Have Only 5%
of the
Nation's
Personal
Debt while
the bottom
90 percent
have 73
percent of
all the debt
in this
country. The
top 1
percent own
more of the
wealth since
anytime
before the
Roaring 20s
and actually
more than
even in the
Great
Depression.
I know why
the Wall
Street
Protest
movement is
growing, and
if you read
this and
think about
it, you will
know too.
What will be
the result
of all this?
We will just
have to wait
and see. It
really is up
to you and
me to demand
"fairness"
and
"opportunity.
#5) The Top
1% Are
Taking In
More off the
Nation's
Income Than
at Any Other
Time Since
the 1920s:
Not only are
the
wealthiest
1% of
Americans
taking home
a tremendous
portion of
the national
income, but
their share
of this
income is
greater than
at any other
time since
the Great
Depression,
as the
Center for
Budget and
Policy
Priorities.
###
Jerry
E. Wilhite 1940- 2011
(10:30 Central Time- April 21, 2011)
The loss of a friend and associate is never easy. But
when that friend was a
soul mate
through thick and thin, good times and bad times for 60
plus years, it is especially rough. The call came from
Jeff Mendoza, Jerry's step son. He was especially hard
hit naturally but it struck me that this was the effect
this life had on almost everyone, kin and no so kin,
close and not so close, Wilhite was one of a kind. For
some months now it was sometimes spoken but always
unspoken, we both knew his life was coming to an end.
Serious health problems had ravaged his body but his
sense of humor and fair play, sophistication with a
common touch was always there..even in these last times
we spent together on the phone and on the computer.
He wrote
some funny, some serious but always columns with the
touch of the common man. Jerry had a good life at times,
from humble beginnings here in Muskogee to a life that
allowed him to run with millionaires and live the good
life. He didn't always have it so good, he was like me a
kindred spirit who somehow would fall into a cess pool
but always come out smelling like a rose. He passed away
in Washington State. He loved the west coast and his
widow Helen was a California girl in every way but I
think she was born in Massachusetts. At least his last
few months were spent in a place he seemed to like very
much, it wasn't his beloved California but it was close.
I met Jerry
of all places at
Calvary
Baptist Church. His parents and my parents were
devout Christians and dedicated Baptists. Well at least
his mother was, Jerry worshipped his dad who died at any
early age of a
heart
attack. I assume that is what finally got Jerry
as well. He had been battling
congestive
heart failure, severe
diabetic
symptoms and a few other ailments for years now.
I felt like calling him yesterday but didn't as I was
busy. Too bad I would liked to have had one
last conversation with him on this Earth, he was always
insightful and full of wisdom.
In Junior
High and
High School, we were almost inseparable. We had
the same desires and love for competitive speech,
writing, girls, baseball and neither of us were what
would even be called middle income. We were pretty poor.
That seemed to be one of the driving forces behind his
later success in life. Don't get me wrong, we weren't
wealthy but we were able to figure out how to run with
the best and even though growing up in the 50s was full
of class pitfalls, it never seemed to stop either of
us.
There are so
many things about Wilhite and my life, but lets just say
we were able to survive with a friendship that was much
more than just high school buddies. Jerry Elmer Wilhite,
known by many as JW, but I always knew him as Wilhite
because both of us had the first name, Jerry. Jerry
ended this life far away from the roots of the
Oklahoma
Hills but he always felt fondness for this area
even after he became a man of the world and saw
sophisticated life styles around the world, he was still
a Muskogee guy. We will miss him. Yea, Wilhite was my
buddy til the end.
CLICK HERE
for selections of Jerry Wilhite's columns
The middle has been circled by extremists by Jerry Pippin
02 April, 2011
I want to talk
to you for a minute about what has consumed
Washington D.C. the media and your local civics
classes in high school and college. It is not a new
term. I first heard it in an article by Ted
Twietmeyer written for Jeff Rense dot com in 2004-
But I was aware of it for some time, it is a term
called "circular politics" when the right
becomes the left and the left becomes
the right and I am not talking about the holy
grail of compromise of meeting in the middle. To
give you an idea, many years ago I was doing a local
morning show here in my home town of
Muskogee and Senator Tom Coburn would be on
with me every Monday on his way to
Washington. He was Congressman Coburn at that
time. He was radical and always has been making the
FUNDAMENTALIST in religion seem like he was the
poster boy. But we seemed to have something in
common, many of the Bush ideas he did not really
believe in, however he would somehow find a way to
support these ideas with his vote.
Basically we somehow would
come out wanting certain things to pass and be law
but for 180 degree opposite reasons. Coburn has
positioned himself now to become the compromise
Republican candidate for President, I feel the job
can be his if he wants it. He can bring back into
the fold the loyalty of the right wing Christian
vote, he can get the family value vote, after all he
is a baby doctor, and his track record is amazing to
me. He continues to win popular votes with the
masses yet I do not understand how as many of his
policies are directly in conflict with the
population as a whole. But this commentary is not
about Tom Coburn, he will get the spot light in the
future as the politics of the right jell into
something of an outcome that would make a Hollywood
screenwriter proud.
My commentary deals with the
basics- how the population of 2011 is far far away
from the politics of 1961- 50 years and you would
not recognize America if you had been away on a
starship and just come back home. The out foxing of
the fox in
Chicago started it, when JFK was able to grab
the win and defeat Richard Nixon- it was amplified
when the cabal or a group of interested people from
rich oil conservatives such as H. L. Hunt in Dallas,
a CIA that could see their future was in jeopardy
from the new President, from the organized crime
elements who had hoped to get that cash cow back in
Havana
from that bearded rascal Fidel and the newly formed
cash cow for the members of the military industrial
complex, that race to the moon with the USSR meant
lots of money honey...and they were afraid this new
President was going to desert the good ole boys for
new upstarts such as General Dynamics, after all he
just gave that company a very lucrative deal for a
new fighter jet.
The perfect storm to get rid
of JFK then built fast and we watched a series of
events that began to change the
political structure of America and indeed the
social fabric of America- In the 80s into the 90s
came a new way of thinking for Americans- Let's take
just one thing, one element to make my point..It
started in the 20th Century but by the end of the
first decade of the
21st
Century, the work had worked and psyche of
America has been changed forever:
'Reality' shows like
"Cops" and other so-called 'law enforcement'
programs, are aired to get you to accept uniformed
door-kickers and learn that being slammed on the
ground for a simple traffic infraction is a good
thing. Few people noticed the change from 'peace
officers' to 'law enforcement', with emphasis
on the word 'enforcement.'
Law takes a back seat when
the clubs, mace, green lasers, sticky foam, stun
guns, pry bars, night sticks and battering rams and
other toys come out. The 'law enforcement' officers
get a sudden case of amnesia. Yet we never hear
about the dashboard cameras that suddenly for some
unexpected reason, malfunction at just the right
time.
There is a date that it all
begin to mold, this new America as seen by and
developed by the neo conservative mind-
September 2001- All must be made to believe
that the government is here to protect us from an
artificial threat that they created (for our own
good of course.) This is a good example of social
engineering. Changes to society are done
incrementally by the social engineers to protect
them from public exposure, and the subsequent wrath
which would follow. Problem - reaction - solution,
an effective conditioning method for the masses has
been used for decades. It certainly did not begin in
Sept. 2001. No we had seen how it had worked in
other societies in history, most recently in
Nazi Germany of the 30s, a four-letter word
for the populace to use and believe in.. F E A R..
Fear has been overt and
covert- covert as opposed to outright fear of being
blown up by terrorists, the covert is the economy.
used to his years past, when the economy tanked,
most Americans knew by experience their job would
return and soon they would be back to work. Now we
see a change in the big picture, the big picture is
pretty easy to see, those jobs have gone forever and
if they come back at all they will not be
worker-oriented with good pay, good hours, good
benefits, they will be company oriented with getting
the most out of each employee similar to plantation
owners getting the most out of their slave labor.
This is the real goal behind the efforts to put the
wooden stake into the heart of Unionism- and Fear is
the powers that be's weapons of choice.
The numbers have always been
there, 22 million total watching any newscast from
any source on any given day, gets sky high ratings
for Football, baseball, millions cant wait for their
next beer, millions more have their eye not on what
is happening to them as a society but on that new
pickup truck, and the economy and tight loan
policies make people anxious because they want to be
busy doing a remodeling job on their kitchen,
getting a new car and keeping up with the Jones's
and the like. So the cops are beating the hell out
of someone down the street, so our soldiers are
shooting poor people in some distant country for
just being there , So they are putting those Muslims
in jail without fair trials, just don't bother me
with the details.
The politics of the circle has
replaced right-left political thinking to a
large degree, when you dissect what each side is
saying they are saying many of the same things, yet
we all know that reactionary political thinking can
be dangerous, yes we saw in the last election it
embraced enough to give that group the majority in
the house of representatives and now we see the
results of this, a huge shift to the
power
elite, with more tax breaks, government
contracts and the like for those who have played the
game and for those who didn't bother to vote, we see
that they are are dropping further behind in real
income and influence.
Was this a giant plan as many
believe or just the natural outcome of refinement of
political ideas by giving only the monied interests
the bully pulpit because only they can afford the
tariff to be heard on the air? So as we watch the
politics of this week, next week and next year jell,
I for one will not be surprised at any outcome.
Demons of the dark have come
into the light and glorified by punsters ..hired
whores..who do public relations, polling, punditry
and the like. Is there anyone out there calling for
enough already ... stop the profit taking... stop
the greed...and let's get back to what is really
important and that is the human condition- a better
life for our kids, our future...or has this become
too radical of an idea?
Patriots
- or Believers in a Police State?
By Jerry Pippin
On Valentine's Day, the
Republican-dominated House of Representatives gave a
gift of love, not for the average citizen of America,
but for the security and defense complex that has
made billions for their favorite corporations while
making America a far less place for individual freedom.
The extension of the Patriot Act was voted for December
8th of this year by the House, then the Senate came
along and voted an extension the day after, but only to
May 27th of this year.
My good friend and old broadcast buddy of many
years, Scott "Scooter" Seagraves pretty well
explains what happened to the American
government -
He sent me this:
"I'd like to see a
big sign in front of Cap Hill:
Welcome to
Comcast/FNC/SCOTUS
UNITED HATES OF AMERICA
Motto: "Screw
you, Jack; I've got
mine."
Official song:
"He Who Pays the
Piper Calls the Tune"
The Congressional record is
clear, only 11 Democrats stood up for individual
liberty. Rand Paul, a
Tea Party
favorite also opposed the extension. Makes you wonder
where the other Tea Party types were that day? We simply
put forth this idea- those who want to keep the Patriot
Act do not deserve our support. The proposition is
simple, if America is going to allow the erosion of
"innocent until proven guilty"- "Torture suspects"-
"Incarcerate without
due
process"- These men who vote to do just that need
to be sent home because either they have not thought out
the logical progression of the
police
state or they are truly for a ruling political
class with perks and benefits that you and I will not
ever have. Here is the record and it is not pretty :
11 Democrats and
Rand Paul Voted against the extension, two
Democrats did not vote- Kerry and Pryor. Those who
deserve credit to standing up to oppose government
intrusion and deserve to keep their jobs are:
Baucus (D-MT)
Begich (D-AK)
Brown (D-OH)
Harkin (D-IA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Lee (R-UT)
Merkley (D-OR)
Murray (D-WA)
Paul (R-KY)
Sanders (I-VT)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Here is a list of how they voted in the House as
well- We urge you to make this a central issue
in your support for your local congressman; in
our opinion, there is no reason to have a police
state in America but these votes show that many
believe this is what they want, do you really
want to support these men who do not believe in
individual freedom?
In my opinion
these are the only true Democrats, the rest are
traitors to the creed of the party which was for
the average working man and woman to give them
liberty and freedom for ideas and always to be
against the money and power interest that oppose
the opportunity of the regular citizen to excel
in work and day to day life. Most of our
Democrats have lost their way due to money
influences required to get elected. The real
enemy here is the media as they could donate
time to candidates but have elected rather to
make them pay exceptionally high rates for
simple advertising messages. Shame on the
broadcasters of America and those who think it
is just fine to make lots of money regardless of
the consequences to truth and justice. Let's
change America back to what it was supposed to
be- a beacon of fairness and justice.
House Members Voting against
Extending abusive Patriot act
Powers:
Not
Voting On Extending abusive Patriot act
Powers:
Karen Bass (Democrat-Ca, District 33) —
Not Voting
Shelley Berkley (Democrat-NV, District
1) — From Yea To Not Voting
Dan Burton (Republican-IN, District 5) —
Not Voting
Hansen Clarke (Democrat-MI, District 13)
— Not Voting
John Culberson (Republican-TX, District
7) — Not Voting
Barney Frank (Democrat-Ma, District 4) —
Not Voting
Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-aZ,
District 8 ) — Not Voting
Jane Harman (Democrat-Ca, District 36) —
Not Voting
Henry Johnson (Democrat-Ga, District 4)
— Not Voting
Bobby Rush (Democrat-IL, District 1) —
Not Voting
adam Smith (Democrat-Wa, District 9) —
Not Voting
John Tierney (Democrat-Ma, District 6) —
Not Voting
Lynn Woolsey (Democrat-Ca, District 6) —
Nay
Bill Young (Republican-FL, District 10)
— Not Voting
Labor Day 2010
September 6, 2010
by Jerry Pippin
Labor Day
is an interesting holiday. It ends the summer and it is
supposed to honor the working man and his efforts over
the decades to have good working conditions and a
livable wage. This Labor Day those things to many
unemployed seem like something in a Science Fiction
novel. We have several thoughts about all of this.
First Reality- It is getting harder
and harder to know what is real and what is not. Fact
that comes to mind is the Obama announcement that the
war is over in Iraq.
Yet we still have 50,000 troops, doubled the amount of
actual warriors only hired them from security or private
army companies. Reality is stretched almost every day by
the media, the politicians, the people who sell
advertising.
On one hand we are told since there is
record unemployment that the Obama
Stimulus
did nothing, but then again logic tells us we were
headed and may still get there, for the
Great
Depression- the sequel. Personally I think we
probably gave the wrong people the stimulus money.
Should have use the WPA as a model at least we would
have gotten nice parks and monuments and some new
buildings with the money and more and better roads
maybe?
Democrats are being told they will
lose big-time in November because of the Economy, that Obama spent too much time on health care instead. This
could be true. We can debate that later but the point is
that Obama and the Democrats should have stepped outside
the box and done something really good for the economy
and the common man. Here is what I think should have
been done.
Housing markets are terrible, banking
is over-bloated with bad debts because of con job
financing, car business is better but is pretty bad. Why
is this the case? Simple reason really, efforts to hold
down wages and ship jobs away from our shores, 28 per
cent of the jobs in America went over seas during the
Bush-Cheney years alone, has pretty well put us on a
downward spiral to hell. So what can government do about
it?
Lots, I say. In the first place stop
giving all the stimulus to corporations and
companies. Let's start a government owned and operated
insurance
company and stop trying to be half private, half
government as these things always fail, the US Postal
service,
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the list can go for a
page or two. Let's just opt for a government-financed
insurance program that insures every car buyer and every
house buyer that if the values continue to fall, they
will get a percentage of the loss back. Don't give it to
the real
estate agent, not the banker, just have it there
financed with a fee when you buy a house, a car, any big
ticket item that the value will not fall like a rock. It
needs fine-tuning this idea but let people invest in
bonds ..US
government bonds instead of the stock market.
Oh, the bankers will howl, the
insurance
companies will moan and the free marketers will
groan; but commerce would pick up immediately and
strangely like it came upon us, this crisis would leave.
To make it work it has to be fair, reasonable and
tamper-proof. Everyone taking huge profits for the past
three decades is what got us in the mess so we have to
be careful not to allow this system to be raped. It can
be done, Obama and the Democrats should do it and not
try to work with the Republicans who represent the
people who did this to us,
Wall
Street, Big Banks, Big Insurance, Lazy auto
makers, on and on. It's an idea to think about this Labor
Day, don't you think?
Deepwater
Well Holding but Concern is Growing
by Jerry Pippin
Friday night, 10:00 p.m. CT- 7-17-10)
Government sources revealed to the Jerry Pippin Show
on Friday night, July 16, 2010 that BP is
experimenting with a high-energy weapon at a
Canadian Military facility where they have several
wells. The object is to generate enough heat to fuse
the fissures on the Ocean Floor which now everyone
admits exists but denied for weeks. So is the
danger over? Evidence shows lower pressure than
expected coming out of the well head so the suspect
reason, it is escaping thru the cracks in the Gulf
floor more than a mile under water.
Mark
McCandlish, known to many for his fine work in
investigating and developing technology for the
military has been watching and looking at the facts
as they become available and he says he thinks the
data suggest that, "...oil and gas are
escaping into porous strata of bedrock running
parallel to the seafloor surface. There are some
indications that the material coming up from 35
thousand feet down not only carries a tremendous
volume of poisonous gases, but some degree of
radioactivity as well.
Several sources suggest that the upwelling of the
seafloor is a precursor to a massive fracturing of
the seafloor, forming what might be called an "oil
volcano" and the sudden release of 20
cubic
miles of Methane, Toluene, Benzene and
Methyl Hydrate. These gases are heavier than air
and will kill you where you stand if you inhale any
of it.
If it erupts to the surface fifty miles offshore,
every ship in the area will lose their buoyancy and
go straight to the sea bottom. Thousands will die.
The release of this material, (if it occurs
suddenly) will probably start a tsunami, killing
thousands more around the
Gulf
of Mexico. The plume of gas will then be
pushed along by whatever the
prevailing winds are. The plume will kill
everything in its path: plants, insects, microbes
in the soil, animals and people.
If by some chance the plume is ignited offshore, it
will be the largest Fuel-Air Explosive (FAE)
detonation in history and comparable to a low-yield,
tactical nuclear weapon. The blast wave will
be strongest depending on where the ignition point
is.
If ignited from far offshore, the blast wave will
move inland. Chances are thousands will die in this
scenario too. If the plume remains cohesive and
drifts inland, it could kill millions of people."
We strongly point
out that this is only a theory by Mark and several
others who have been on various radio shows talking
about this possible outcome. It is good news that BP
has stopped the leak and it is holding so far about
half way thru it test period. However there are
signs that even with the stopped leak, the damage is
major. Recent rainfall in the Southwest from
Hurricane Alex is showing a premature dying
of crops and plants where the rain fell and
Hurricane season is far from over. The dispersant
used by BP to break up the oil has been compared to
Agent
Orange from the Vietnam War days. Yet
surveys seem to show people are supporting "off
shore" drilling by a big majority. Where is the
disconnect here? We have a break in the oil pouring
into the sea, but evidence shows the damage may be
far far worse than reported by most major media.
Role Models
are Becoming a Rare Breed
by
Jerry Pippin
Friday, July 23, 2010 - 3:00 p.m. ET-
As a long time
listener to NPR's
Daniel Schorr over the years I was aware.
Aware that the 93-year-old man, still bright and
articulate was having good days and bad days.
Some days his teeth would click and his words
would slur, other days his commentary was
as crisp as the October north winds, coming
across the radio speaker with visions of a
younger Daniel Schorr, as pictured here, back in
the glory days of CBS news for Edward Mr.
Murrow's fine team of reporters telling of the
terror of the night bombings in England, the
march across
Eastern Europe by Hitler and a reminder
that communications have changed but there was
something special about those glory days of
radio-only reports. The sound of the
short-wave signal fading in and out just
added to the mystique of this strange but
terrible threat to the US.
I will be 71 in November.
Daniel Schorr was a
role model for many reasons but one of
the main ones was what I figure I will be doing
until that day I draw my
last breath here on Earth, working on the
radio. Radio has changed, I now do it with
pictures and it's heard around the world on the
Internet, but it is still my first love, radio.
We are not going into all of Mr. Schorr's
achievements but we have linked to an excellent
piece at the end of this article. I suggest you
take time to read it and understand where this
93-year-old voice was "coming from" in those NPR
commentaries. It is something that modern day
journalists seem to have lost: a healthy
disrespect for the official press announcement.
Yes, there always seems to be "more to the
story."
My eternal thanks to NPR for
allowing Schorr to continue until days before
his death. He had a perspective developed in the
cold war as Moscow bureau chief, finally being
expelled out of the country, making Nixon's
enemies list, and standing firm against a
congress who wanted to know his sources. Guts
and a sense of what broadcasting is all about,
in the news arena, telling it like it is,
regardless of the consequences. Schorr once
confessed to his son, he did worry about losing
those jobs, first with CBS and then later
CNN. Why? Because he dared report the
truth and not back down. Officially he was never
fired, Schorr had a sense of awareness that he
should move on and continue to tell the story, a
story that is not always pretty about America
but one of greed, power and corrupt behavior
from the top down and from the bottom up.
We will miss Daniel Schorr
and so will America, whether the brain-dead
population these days realizes it or not. I
pledge to continue in my little way here on the
internet to "keep on keeping on" with the
tradition of Murrow, Schorr and others.
Noon- June 16, 2010-
We have seen this done before; however, to me it is
unsettling even though I figured this would happen. Once
again we in the media and I am a leader in the belief it
should be advertiser supported are seeing the abusive
use of greed and skill combined at the expense of the
public. British Petroleum which has not been a major
advertiser suddenly is a player. On Hitler's Birthday,
April 20, we all known what happened 42 miles off the
shore from Venice, La. An incident that as I write this
has amounted to almost three million barrels of crude
oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from a blow out at
Deepwater Horizon's state-of-the-art drilling rig which
had punched a hole several miles down into the pool of
oil and gas that contained so much pressure per square
inch their lower-priced decision to use a certain blow
out protector became fatal, to men working the right,
the fish and animals around the rig and perhaps to the
human race before it is over.
I mention Hitler's birthday
because he is the symbol of what good advertising
campaigns can do. Most historians agree the controlled
media of Germany in the 30s was probably more
responsible for World War II than any other single thing
Hitler did. For years now we have seen news programs
filled with advertising from Big Pharma, why, because
people who watch news need more medicine? No it is
obvious as a veteran of the media for 50 years, we in
the media can't turn down an easy buck. We laugh and go
to the country club and enjoy our steak and fine wine
using the dollars that in the back of our mind we know
we didn't earn. Simply put we are "bought and paid
for"... When you are making stacks of cash it is pretty
hard to get motivated to go after the guy who is handing
it over to you with a smile.
Now we see it used more
blatantly than ever by British Petroleum. Take a look at
the information from Media Monitors about BP's most
recent buying habits and ask your question, "How did
advertising jump from getting products more business to
spinning deceit and fraudulent visions of the
advertiser?"
Final thought and then soak
up the information below and weigh it against the common
good of mankind. Do you really think these companies are
trying to increase market share or just blatantly
bribing the news coverage they get. All of the problems
or at least almost all of them I place squarely on the
shoulders of media, we have not reported the facts for
years because of market influences. I am not getting any
BP money and probably won't and even if offered would
not accept the buy. This is why I have been an
independent broadcaster on the Internet for ten years,
long ago I decided there must be more to life than
making a buck at the expense of my fellow man.
Media
Monitors has been tracking BP's use of commercials to
spin its message during the
GULF oil spill,
and
radio leads TV
and cable in the number of spots BP has run. Since
APRIL 20th,
5581 BP spots have run on
radio, versus
3288 on TV and 4356 on cable.
Week 1 saw the most action, with the most recent week
picking up the pace again after a fairly light schedule
in MAY.
President
Bill Clinton
and the Right Wing
by Jerry Pippin
(April 22, 2010) I
first became aware of the fact that
Bill Clinton was going to be in
Oklahoma City from an unlikely source,
two mature business women I know ran across me
at the drug store and they were giddy as
teenagers. They were scheduled for a business
meeting in Oklahoma City at the very posh
Skirwin Hotel and they had just found out
President Bill Clinton was going to be in the
same hotel. One of them opened her jacket and
did a little dance and said, "Bill, Billy here I
am baby.."
I tell this
story to make a point. Reading the
conservative-dominated newspaper coverage and
talk shows as well as phony news magazines who
pretend to be news but actually are there for
purposes that Pravda would have been proud to
endorse in reverse, different message, same
techniques, the big lie about Bill Clinton
continues years after his service to his
country. If you listen to these hack jobs, you
would think the country was up in arms over the
sexual encounter revealed about Clinton with a
lady named Monica. I have always felt the
general population was more or less ho-hum about
it all. The point of this column is that there
is reality disconnect here between the general
population, the polls (questionable again) the
press, the non stop yak from the Right.
You have to
hand it to Clinton, he has never feared to go
into the
Lion's Den and this week he went into the
reddest of the red states,
Oklahoma, and he went to the location of
his most single disaster in my opinion when he
was President, that was the OKC bombing. He
handled it well at the time and as you know I
firmly believe as in 9-11 we did not get the
real story. But the conservative press of
America did not give us the real story on Waco
either. Waco was the reason for the OKC bombing?
Perhaps it was one of the reasons. For sure the
government did not do well here, murder of
innocent children in order to save them.
A little
fact-checking does show that Clinton and
Attorney General Janet Reno did one thing that
was very wrong. They took the word of the people
who set up the situation in the first place and
never questioned why it was happening. Remember
Clinton gets the blame here because he was the
President, but he was not the President when it
started. The
first President Bush was still in office.
One might even question observing the tactics of
the Bush clan if this was part of a set up to
show those liberal SOBs..its not a cake walk.
Why would I make such a claim, well ask
Ross Perot and if you catch him at a
candid moment he might tell you why I write such
stuff.
Contrary to
conventional thinking, feelings are still raw
over the OKC bombing incident. Clinton knew that
and chose to address extremist activity. Then
the extremists such as
Glen Beck and
Rush Limbaugh started yelling, not
actually the facts but they never really do get
very factual other than the other day I did hear
Beck admit why he doesn't like Obama: he is
paying 60 per cent of his income in taxes. Of
course he was doing the same with Bush the son,
but as I say these guys never let the facts get
in their way and this time they are saying
Clinton wants to muzzle dissent and he wants to
shut down the tea party. But this is not what
Clinton said at all.
As
Media Matters noted, hate radio host Rush
Limbaugh also, "...responded by unleashing a
torrent of incendiary rhetoric" and blamed
Clinton for the
Oklahoma City bombing. If any of these
pundits had bothered to actually listen to
Clinton's speech before condemning him, they
would have heard him say: "This 'tea party"
movement can be a healthy thing if they're
making us justify every penny of taxes we raised
and every dollar of public money we spend."
They would have also heard Clinton repeatedly
stress the importance of free speech and
maintaining a "raging debate," saying,
"criticism is part of the lifeblood of
democracy. Nobody's right all the time." Clinton
argued that we have "the longest-lasting
democracy in human history" because "there is so
much free speech." But, he added that "a bright
line" must be maintained to prevent encouraging
people from "taking the law into their own hands
in a violent manner."
Clinton's point was that there are "deeply,
deeply troubled" people who might misinterpret
incendiary rhetoric and act violently on it.
"For 99 percent of [right-wing
talk radio listeners], it was just that:
turn on the radio, listen to somebody say
something you agree with, vent your anger, go on
with your life." "99 percent of them will never
do anything they shouldn't do," he said.
Clinton foreshadowed the right wing's response
in his speech. He expressed hope that people
wouldn't "turn everything into politics," but
added, "I guess that's naïve."
Democrats
- There are Traitors in our Midst
by Jerry Pippin
03/21/10
Midnight came and Sunday
is history in more ways than one. After decades of
Democratic Presidential efforts,
President Barack Obama once again made history
tonight. He is the first African American President and now
he has scored a mission impossible even though many of us
think at least parts of it are flawed because of his
insistence on working with Republicans, over 200
GOP ideas are in the house bill, yet not a singled
Republican voted for the bill. Strange? No it's Washington
politics as known today.
For those of us on the
liberal side we are hoping for the best. Medicare for all
would have been better in our opinion, the public option as
it was known, what a great idea to pass regulation and just
use the free market system. It was not to be. Let's see how
this works out and I personally am hoping for the best. Now
to the politics of health care: these Democrats are on the
endangered species as far as I am concerned. Despite the
establishment's wishes to the contrary we are going to be
pushing for Democratic challengers to these seats:
House
Democrats Who Voted Against the Health Care Bill:
The following Democrats voted against the House's effort
to pass the
Senate health care bill: Adler, Altmire,
Arcuri,
Barrow, Berry,
Boren, Boucher, Bright, Chandler, Childers, A.Davis,
L.Davis, C.Edwards, Herseth Sandlin, Holden,
Kissell,
Kratovil,
Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall,
Matheson,
McIntyre, McMahon,
Melancon,
Minnick, Nye, Peterson, Ross, Shuler, Skelton, Space,
Tanner, Taylor, Teague
The
Liberal Press, An Urban Legend by Jerry Pippin
(March 11, 2010) - I
opened my emails and lo and behold there was this joke below. It's
not a new joke and it makes a point that is not true, but it plays
well to the public who have been brain washed for years, actually
decades, about the liberal press. The editorial politics of this web
site is liberal, and there are others, but we are in the minority
and really an exception, not the rule. Read the joke and then my
comments after it, it is truly food for thought.
THE JOKE: A Harley
biker is riding by the zoo in Washington , DC when he
sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage.
Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket
and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the
eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his
Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the
nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the
lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker
brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him
endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event. The
reporter addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this
was the most gallant and brave thing I've seen a man do
in my whole life.' The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it
was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just
saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt
right.' The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this
won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and
tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front
page... So, what do you do for a living and what
political affiliation do you have?' The biker replies,
'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.' The journalist
leaves. The following morning the biker buys the paper
to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and
reads, on the front page: U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN
IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH
AND THE PUNCH LINE:
That pretty much sums up the media's approach to the
news these days.
And my reality check: This is a funny story and I have seen it
before...however it is science fiction, there are few liberals in
journalism. This is a fiction started back in the Barry Goldwater
days and has been used by conservatives for decades, the liberal
press. The press is owned and operated by businessmen and they
sell advertising to businesses, all five of the biggest are strongly
conservative and approach facism in their dogma. How and why people
buy into the idea of the liberal press is beyond me. I have worked
in the media for over 50 years and I don't think I ever had one boss
that voted Democrat or was liberal by any stretch of the
imagination. Now I am liberal but it has taken all of my "charm and
wits" to keep my jobs over the years, newspapers especially do not
like investigations that gore their own, in other words, the
advertisers. They are very reluctant to bite the hand that feeds
them.
From Jane Swartley,
Producer-Jerry Pippin Show:
What you say is true but the joke makes a good
point, I think we agree on that.
Not you, but the
Press in general is disturbingly inaccurate at
times. I remember listening to the OJ trial every
day (Every Single Day) and then in the evening
hearing the main stream press describe the day's
court proceedings and they must have been watching a
different trial. They were simply wrong. And the
evening news is all a lot of people got from that
event.
Jane
Jane, I agree with you on the
OJ trial and much of the coverage, but I think that
makes my point, it is not liberal and when we examine
political stories the obvious is there especially when
it comes to the health care debate. Our web site's
editorial policy is liberal but we still report facts
regardless of our personal beliefs, we always have,
maybe that is how I kept my jobs over the years.
Jerry
Olympic
Epic Opens and in DC...
Obama Reverses Course by Jerry Pippin
02/13/10
Friday night, February 12, most people were watching the
Olympic Grandeur on their TV but they should have been
watching the White House as it publicly admitted it was
going to just do away with another one of the rights of
passage for American Citizens when it said in a terse
announcement that they were considering allowing the
Intelligence community a thumbs up or thumbs down on each
case where someone is arrested. Some will get Miranda rights
but most probably will not? This seems like a story that
should have come out of the Kremlin in the 1950s Stalin area
instead of out of the Obama White House where change was the
mantra and most of us thought that meant a change from the
eight years of Bush-Cheney pseudo dictatorship.
I thought I would never feel this way about OBAMA. His
silly beliefs in the nazi terrorist conspiracy people's
claims about terrorist threats has reached an all time level
of destruction of Constitutional rights. I weep. Why?
Because the basis of this fear of terrorism has reached an
all time level of dumbness. These terrorists have no Army,
No Navy, No Air Force and no National Capital yet our
leaders are allowing us to spend more money than we did to
fight real wars.
Not only is the Patriot Act alive and well but it is
going to be enforced in a much more stringent way than even
Bush and Cheney dared to do. These guys, Eric Holder and
Barack Obama need to stop with the mixed signals, either
they are going to get back to American's rights of passage
and the pursuit of happiness or they are going to be come
more fascist than Bush-Cheney which I personally never
thought could be done. Is it possible that Change in Obama's
eyes is even drifting further away from principles of
justice?
I do hope this is just incompetence of leaders coming
into the DC scene and not recognizing how corrupt the ideas
of Justice for all has become with the powers that be, it
would be very sad indeed if this were an intellectually
reasoned out approach to Justice. If it is the latter, then
the terrorists did indeed win on 9-11 taking away from Lady
Liberty her ideals and hopes and dreams of the American
people for equal opportunity under the law. The terrorists,
who I believe are about 100 black operatives working for a
shadow government intent on looting the American Treasury in
the name of security, defense and for personal gain, did
indeed win a movement that has forever changed America and
sent it on a downward spiral of self defeat.
As we approach a new Spring after a very harsh winter,
let's hope that the sun shines bright and exposes the deep
dark horrible secrets of the ruling class that held forth
for the first decade of the 21st Century.
Bad Week For
Democracy
by Jerry Pippin 01/21/10
Three things happened within a span of 72
hours or less. In today's cyberspace age that is not unusual,
that events seem to be piled upon each other, but this was an
especially bad week and I am hard pressed to put them in the
proper order of which is the most devastating to Lady Liberty
and the American Dream. I guess it would have to be today's
Supreme court ruling laying aside any rights for government to
police spending in election campaigns. This one dovetails with
my number two bad week listing, but more about that in a moment.
Let's talk about the effects of today's 5-4 Supreme Court
decision.
Basically it is saying that corporations
are people and therefore they can be controlled as people can in
the US by the Constitution. Now on the face of that ruling, it
does not seem so bad. But one of the basic problems with
American Business today in my opinion is exactly that premise.
Corporations are treated as a person in the eyes of the law.
Think about this for a moment, we all in business have hidden
behind the corporate shield of protection and on the face of it
that is good but there is the law of unintended consequences.
Simply put, when a corporation breaks the law what does law
enforcement and courts do, they don't jail anyone they simply
fine them and what does the corporation do, it does what it does
naturally, passes those costs on to the consumer so where is the
pressure to stop wrong doing by a corporation? Simply put, there
is none.
Now let's simply go to what is wrong with
American Politics today. It takes money to win an election and
in today's multi media world, it takes big bucks. So what do
politicians do, they naturally rule in favor of those who are
giving them the big bucks to win elections. Everyone knows this
is the problem in American Politics. Do you know any candidate
that is poor? None or damn few for sure are poor or even just
moderately middle income. So what does logic tell you, it tells
you simply that a rich man or woman will rule in favor of their
status and why not?
How did political campaigns get so
expensive? A simple answer everyone knows but it needs to be
repeated. The media no longer has dictates on rates charged to
political candidates. In our business, broadcasting, we sell
what is avails, it means simply that a spot on 60
Minutes is many times more than a spot on the Jerry Pippin
Show. Why? Because of the audience and availability. So
when I first started in broadcasting there was a rule that
politicians got the lowest rate you had charged over the
previous year, but that meant we could put those commercials in
unsold positions and politicians wanted that spot in 60
Minutes, not on some late late or early or mid day show
time. So they did away with that requirement to the cheers of
the media folks, that meant, we could charge whatever we wanted,
what the traffic would bear for a political spot. Politician
program, forget it, we could charge triple or more what we
normally got for an info commercial. Same things applied to
newspapers and magazines and billboards, position or avails was
the way to sell advertising. I do it every day. It creates a
higher price, a bigger value for the slot.
So today's Supreme Court ruling simply
created dreams of dollar signs in the eyes of the media. Smiles
for politicians in key states on key issues involving money such
as health care and for the corporate boys, man what a gift, now
we can just buy anybody we want, no legal restrictions and when
you put a lot of money behind a candidate you are in effect
buying that vote. Now let's dove tail this into set back number
two for today:
Air America shut down. No chapter 11
bankruptcy here, they just simply could not afford to continue
to operate. Why? Its a downturn market for advertising, no one
has been doing any business for sometime and those potential
advertisers for progressive talk shows was pretty slim anyway.
Those guys and gals in front of that microphone were talking
about the evils of privatization in government, that turned off
a huge number of potential clients, they were talking about
Medicare for all instead of payments to health insurance
companies and insurance agents, so that group is not going to
advertise, and on and on. So no wonder these liberals can't make
a station run, who are they going to sell their advertising to?
There is an exception to this previous
paragraph, MSNBC has turned to the left and they are getting
higher ratings than ever and selling some ads to boot, but wait:
Cable TV has not been captured completely by what happened to
talk radio. Simply put, with 50 or more radio stations to choose
from almost anywhere in the country, conservative talk radio
fell into good times. How and why? Simply because 30 per of the
total audience is probably conservative or very conservative,
and if you can get a third of that audience you have 10 per cent
of the listeners and figure it out, if you have 50 stations 2
per cent would be average audience, so you have five times the
audience of the hip-hop guy. MSNBC captured a middle of the road
audience because even though Fox has gained the reputation as
the network of record for conservatives, not everyone in TV
audiences had become polarized, so they jagged to left just in
time.
Now we get to the third reason it was a
bad week for the American Dream of Democracy and that was the
Massachusetts election. Health Care has been the mantra for the
Obama landslide and we have watched him give away the store to
the status quo of for-pay hospitals, insurance companies and the
like. We could feel what was going to happen in Massachusetts.
It was the way politics works. You have a liberal Senator like
Ted Kennedy pushing for universal health care all his life and
he dies. The seat is open and a guy who says he doesn't think
the federal government belongs in health care is elected. Why?
Only 6 per cent of the voters according to a recognized poll
thought health care was a big issue where it runs anywhere from
60 to 80 per cent nationally. It is pretty simple if you think
about it. Massachusetts has mandated universal health care
already, so naturally it wasn't a big deal.
But is a very big deal and once again we
get to why? Because those out-of-touch well today rich
men and women we put in office have gotten the wrong idea.
Instead of doing what is right and giving Medicare to everyone,
it has worked wonderfully well for 40 years, what more of a
lesson in success do you need? Those thunderheads in Washington
think they have to let the status quo let thousands die every
month because they have no medial help win even more
concessions. In fact, Speaker Pelosi today hinted that it may be
over for health care..oh,the other thing they did wrong is they
gave into the Republicans on the name of the issue, it's not
health care, we are talking about insurance and medical reform.
So this is why I say it was a devastating
week for the People, the common man as they say. Why? Well when
corporations and big business can make the laws, force the
enforcers to do it they want, then the common guy has lost the
battle. We are entering into a new business model here in
America. It was tried before, we fought a war against it and now
we are doing it. When corporations and government collude to run
a country, it is called Fascism and we have it. I have always
thought the American dream would overcome all adversity, but now
I am not so sure. The 21st Century is looking like a not so
brave new world after all.
Scrooge
Forces in Broadcasting This Year
12/21/09
(Monday, December 21, 2009)
December 21 is the longest night of the year and it certainly is
for some major broadcast groups. This Monday before Christmas comes
word that Clear Channel credit is being downgraded once again and
creditors are demanding a takeover of that company, Citadel Media
started Monday morning off with a bankruptcy judge in control even
though it is apparent this company was sold a turkey in the form of
ABC radio networks by the Disney Corporation, the management is
continuing an agreement to use leftovers from ABC and ESPN as their
main diet.
As morning light hit Wall Street today another broadcast group,
Next Media also filed for bankruptcy. We have long since bailed out
of the convention terrestrial broadcast business opting for the
Internet; but this implosion of broadcast stocks and properties is
not good for us either. Fortunately the Jerry Pippin efforts are
different from these huge companies, we owe no one anything,
literally. Broadcasters have been living in a dream world of
believing their pumped up stock portfolios were golden only to find
out that the age of using "other people's money" was about to come
to a reality based result...too much debt, too many promises of
riches at the end of the day.
Don't get the idea that things are wonderful on the business
front for advertiser-supported independent broadcasters such as us;
it is not. During the last year of the Bush administration we saw
our revenues dry up almost completely. No one seemed to have any
money or if they did they certainly were not spending it on
advertising. As the first year of the Obama administration comes to
a halt, our year has not been much better.
So on our Christmas wish list is not a big financial deal, not
even a big loan, all we are wishing and hoping for...is simply more
advertisers supporting what we do. Now you listeners and visitors
don't be alarmed. We don't intend to fill up our programming with
ads like some of these shows, we have a plan and we are sticking
with it. Limited commercials for each show, three or four per hour
at the maximum and we are working on a model of sponsorships as well
that will feature even less but more effective advertising.
Our future is bright and our plans include lots of video
production for the coming year as well as more radio programming.
2008 and 2009 saw a reduction in people working on our projects just
at a time when we had more needs than ever; as a result we have been
working long hours and few days off for some time. We intend to keep
this schedule and when business picks up or looks like it is going
to pick up, we will be adding other producers to help us get more
hours out on the net each week. Thanks for your support and a Merry
Christmas to all and to all we hope a good night is a new
program every day.
Oh, by the way, a good present for 2010 would be a cracker-jack
advertising person or an ad agency who understands the advantage of
our marketing ..billboards on the Internet Highway that keep on
giving and giving because everything is there on demand for the
visitor/listener at their convenience to listen and to enjoy.
Lou Dobbs -
Hero, or Just Another Rabble Rouser?
by Jerry Pippin
(11-12-09) A lot of
us inside the broadcast business have been watching with great
interest the evolution of Lou Dobbs, business commentator, to
Lou Dobbs broadcast executive, he was in charge of CNN business
for years, to a sudden departure from the network for a
surprising position at www.space.com. Most of us had never known
Dobbs to be particularly interested in those subjects, but he
did a fine job there and then came back to CNN with a prime-time
early evening show which moved from Lou Dobbs, moderate
Republican, to Lou Dobbs seemingly open to the Obama change in
the ship of state
course to suddenly jumping on and staying with
the issue of being a birther.
Birthers is a term used to describe those who
firmly believe that President Obama is not a natural born
citizen of the US. I have a couple of thoughts about this,
first when we used to report on it in the campaign, the
Obama supporters would come after me tooth and nail, even
though I certainly was not endorsing the idea. Personally I
have not seen any evidence that the President was not born
in Hawaii, but the bigger issue is pretty simple, if he
wasn't, so what? Are you telling me that a land slide
election for a man could be overturned by a technically? Lou
Dobbs and others certainly seemed to be pushing that idea.
There are quite a few issues I don't agree personally
with Dobbs naturally, but by and large, he seemed to be over
the years a rational, fair reporter who did his best to put
forward solid evidence and view points. He seemed to have
lost some of that objectivity on the issue of Obama lately
as well as his fierce attacks on immigration policy. These
issues rang true to many citizens even though I saw two
problems with Dobbs and his unrelenting pursuit of these two
issues.
Problem one: Personally I don't agree with this idea that
we need to keep our borders like a fortress surrounding the
Queen. To me there is something basically wrong with
protecting turf that we had done nothing or little to
control. No man or woman can control where they were born,
what religion their environment wrought upon them or the
color of their skin. Secondly it seems to me that the policy
of America with its open arms to the world has gained much
from these immigrants over our history. But I know many who
disagree with me on this and Dobbs was one of those.
Problem number two was the greater problem and this is
not the first time CNN had made that mistake - nor other
broadcast groups. If you are a news organization should you
really present people in a news show who are pushing ideals
instead of facts? CNN did this once before when Glen Beck
was on their headline news channel. I often wonder how much
real damage Beck did to the CNN name and damage to
journalism in general.
When Dobbs started doing talk radio, a medium I used to
be involved in on a day-to-day basis, I could see this day
coming. Talk Radio's format was a great idea and over the
years I have been a fan and a participant; however, the
nature of changing times changed the animal called talk
radio. AM stations were losing audience because of the
nature of the technical aspects of the medium and suddenly
radio station managers realized that in a 50 station
environment, those days of having 25 or 30 per cent or even
at one I had almost 50 per cent of a local audience, those
days were long gone. An equal share of 50 stations is 2 per
cent of the audience. Consultants and hip managers realized
that the right wing was about 20 per cent of the audience as
a whole, potential audience, I should say. But what if you
had a bunch of talk show hosts who preached to the choir, it
seemed logical you get 10 per cent of the total audience.
So the talk radio genre gradually moved to the right and
audiences sometimes were 13 or even 15 percent of the total
audience and easily the station that had the Rush Limbaugh
types would become number one because of the nature of the
beast; that is modern radio. The Tom Snyders, Larry Kings
and the Jerry Pippin's would lose out. In fact not just with
my shows but I remember the anger and shock of audiences
when stations put Larry King into the mix with the Rush
Limbaughs. I still remember the disbelief of listeners on my
network shows calling from stations that had a steady diet
of diatribes of ideals and none of them very moderate.
I saw the writing on the wall, and mainly concentrated on
entertainment programming for a while from Las Vegas and
then decided to take advantage of the new media (Internet)
and took a six-hour show online from a small station in my
home town, Muskogee on KBIX. Those shows were killers in
many ways, hard work for sure, but some of the hours were
jewels and I have Bryant Ellis, a strong right-wing
conservative, who owned KBIX to thank for leaving me alone
with my show allowing me to pursue different ideas and
recreate some radio styles of old. I was truly a liberal in
a land of reactionaries but somehow it worked. I started
that 10 years ago and I wonder if it would work today. These
days we seem to be much more intolerant of any views other
than our own.
And this gets us back to Lou Dobbs. Problem number 2 was
that his platform was a news network. We all wondered how
long it could last. Lou Dobbs may still end up on Fox, but I
doubt it. Fox is the one news network that seems to delight
in preaching fair and balanced while being the most unfair
and unbalanced news source out there; however here again the
magic of too many signals ends up helping Fox be successful.
The same theory that made conservative talk radio a hit has
worked for cable news and Fox, 20 per cent or more of the
audience wants to hear what they are saying.
Lou Dobbs left in style. I hope you can take time to look
at the video of his swan song on CNN. Will he become a third
party icon like Ross Perot almost 20 years ago? He might. We
wish him luck and despite what I think of him on some
issues, over all I think he is a good man reflecting an
honest heart felt hypothesis of where America should go and
that in its own right is refreshing.
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu says she will vote
"yes."
Christmas Presents
by Jerry Pippin
(November
10, 2009) This
Year Could be the year of the best gift ever, a give of life itself.
However for the millions without
health care insurance in the US, it might be a case of the "Grinch
" who stole Christmas. Senator
Harry Reid said this morning he thought he could get a bill
out on the Senate floor by Thanksgiving and voted up or down by
Christmas. Don't underestimate the difficulty of Reid being able to
do this. President
Bill Clinton was in the halls of Congress today pushing for
passage of the
health care bill under President Obama, something he tried
but couldn't get done in his
Presidency.
What is so difficult about deciding that 4,000 Americans who die
each month should live?
The word that is the answer
is a word of holy worship in a capitalist society, that word is
MONEY. Our present system has evolved from a small part of the
economy just 60 years ago to a large part of the economy now. Let's
put that in layman's terms, today lots of people make
lots of money
in the
health care system with not only treatment, but manufacturing
of medical equipment, drugs, facilities being built, etc. etc. In
other words, making money off the illness and unfortunate accidents
of fellow humans has become big business in America.
Anh "Joseph" Cao, a
congress person from
Louisiana. 39 Democrats voted against it, mostly from the
South and in Red States like my Congressman, Dan Boren, who pretends
to be a Democrat in Oklahoma. He had a good teacher, his father
former Senator David Boren, who voted with the Republicans routinely
as well. This father has taken the Republican ideals and moved them
to the University of
Oklahoma where he has turned it into a shopping mall of
commerce with ads all over the place for products in the guise of
donations.
It is interesting to note that a
Democrat from the same state as Cao is the focus of a lot of
attention, Senator Mary Landrieu, said the public option was popular
because everyone thought they would get free health care and she
said it like it was pornography or hate mail. We spent two
trillions, plus, on the war, take your time and find this country as
a group, what about just taking the war money and giving everyone
health care? Great idea but that is not what the Obama plan is doing
at all. It is not socialized medicine by any stretch of the
imagination. All he is doing is saying let's stop the
manslaughter of neglect, allowing 4,000 to die each month because of
no health care.
I am
inclined go call it what it is. MURDER BY NEGLECT or by a wink
and a nod. Surely America is a better place than this situation we
have now? Those who are making their living off the misery of the
sick and injured, highly paid insurance executives, cooperative
health plan executives, hospital-for-pay executives, maybe they
should find another line of work?"
The best way to put this in
perspective is the vote in the House on
Saturday Night
- Only one Republican voted with the
Democrats,
9-11, Symptoms of Fear
Promoted by Money Interests
by Jerry Pippin
(1:00 p.m. Central time - September 6, 2009)
- Van Jones is a casualty of war. Let no one doubt it. The
health cartel, the security scammers, and the secret budget benefactors have won
a huge battle - but maybe not, the battle is lost but the war might still be
won. Let's see how the health care battle goes, but rest assured these people
think they are winning, the Glen Beck crowd should feel good. Look what is
happening at health care town halls, logic left at the door, and people yelling
about "get government out of my health care" while most of the vocalists are
benefiting from VA, Medicare and other programs that help them but help the "for
profit" health business even more.
The brown shirts have been lifted to high esteem by the
right wing talking traitors of the media. Limbaugh, Beck and other dupes of the
"cons" who steal millions from programs meant to do good, but have been turned
into profit centers for the connected. It is truly dismaying and sickening to
see what is happening right before our eyes. It's as if the Carnival barkers are
now the chosen elite who flex their abilities to motivate millions to protest
programs only designed to help them.
9-11, a number we call for help, turned into a symbol of
fear to the general population and now the health industry is using it as some
sort of bludgeon to our common sense. The sad fact is that the American people
never got the real truth from any of these commissions we have had in this
country and especially the 9-11 Commission who only heard witness testimony from
government employees and no one else..
Why does the media put up with it? I honestly don't know.
We will continue to do 9-11 shows because it is so obvious that
the tall man on the camel 8 years ago didn't have much if
anything to do with 9-11 yet our President buys into the fiction of the attacks.
Don't you think the world's greatest Army could find him in 8 years if he were
really around?
I am a member of the media and I don't put up with it, but
most move on like buzzards at a road kill party. The madness is rampant, no one
is accountable, evidently. We will continue to try to tell the truth as we know
it and try to know it better, but why do I doubt other members of my brethren in
the media are not pursuing truth and justice for all?
Take a look at the names on this list that Jones signed
wanting a Congressional investigation? A wide range of political views. There is
something "rotten in Denmark" is an old term and we want to rephrase it to
"rotten in DC." The politicians give far, far too much credit and fear to right
wing mongrels of journalism, what President Obama needs is a set of balls. A man
can't keep his job in Washington because he had the nerve to ask for a
Congressional Investigation? What have we become in this country when
questioning is akin to being unpatriotic?
Response from Jim Marrs
September 06, 2009 1:07 PM
Howdy Jerry,
As you know Van Jones has just
resigned as Hussein Obama's "Green Czar." Democratic defenders like
Howard Dean defended Mr. Jones on Sunday, saying he was being
penalized for not realizing what the petition was. What petition? A
petition claiming the US Govt. was behind 9/11. Naturally, we can't
have the public thinking in those terms, so Jones had to go and Dean
has to say, "And he [Jones] learned the hard way you ought not to do
that. But I don’t think he really thinks the government had anything
to do with causing 9-11.” And the media downplays that angle.
The key issue today in 9/11 is in
hard scientific proof of an inside job. Like you, I am continually
asked, "Where's the evidence?" The evidence is now available but the
total silence by the corporate mass media is deafening. I refer, of
course, to the discovery of Thermite in debris samples from the WTC.
If I was a news editor and I saw the release stating that the
presence of this controlled-demolition compound was verified in a
peer-reviewed scientific journal, I would immediately write a
headline like this "Military-type Explosive Residue Found in World
Trade Center Debris."
But, instead, the great American
dumbed-down public gets not a word. Jerry, this proves beyond any
shadow of a doubt that the US corporate mass media is under total
control and is not operating in the best interests of the truth or
the public.
Best regards,
Jim
He
Was Like a Member of the Family
by Jerry Pippin
(Walter Cronkite-1916-2009
Midnight Eastern-into Saturday, July 18, 2009 - It has been just
about five hours since Walter Cronkite took his last breath in his
bed in his home in New York. We (the news media) had been told by
his son Chip that the time was drawing near for the passing of the
icon of CBS news. We have written many words in the past about our
love affair with this news organization and its father figure Edward
R. Murrow, but Mr. Cronkite was definitely up there with Murrow. As
in the photo with this tribute, Cronkite was around CBS TV from the
beginning but most don't realize that he didn't start the anchor job
at CBS TV until 1962. And as frequently the case in broadcasting,
executives weren't always thrilled with him as hindsight seems to
indicate; in fact, by the political conventions time in 1964 CBS
executives had already ditched Cronkite as the anchor for coverage.
CBS news was being challenged hard in the
early 60s by NBC. NBC radio had come up with an innovation a few
years earlier that had captured the imagination of news junkies, an
hourly news cast every hour on top of the hour. Some of the top 40
stations had pioneered this concept with news alive at 55, every
hour but the news on the hour caught on with the public and the
networks and soon they were all doing it. Television news had
progressed from the John Cameron Swayzie 15 minute news reel
approach and NBC had come up with Huntley-Brinkley and CBS, used to
being first in the news business was suddenly challenged and
challenged hard.
I had dreams of being in one of those news
departments and NBC had stolen my affection and in 1964 I got a job
as a "gofer" with NBC news when they covered the GOP convention at
the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Huntley-Brinkley stole the show
that year but CBS helped, they took Walter out of the anchor seat
and gave it to Robert Trout, a radio news guy of some note and Roger
Mudd, who was whimsical like Brinkley and Walter was relegated to
doing commentary. It was a flop and CBS saw the error of their ways
and by election night Cronkite was back.
Strangely as pictured in my mind and on this
page, Cronkite came to the forefront with the live coverage of the
JFK assassination. We all remember that day like was yesterday and I
have written about it more than once. No one who was human can ever
forget the pathos of Cronkite on camera alone, pausing after a news
bulletin interrupted "As The World Turns," taking off his glasses
and saying simply into the camera: From Dallas, Texas, the flash
apparently official. "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central
Standard Time, 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes
ago." Cronkite briefly choked up on camera as he took off his
reading glasses to check the time.
One of my claims to fame is the fact that I
worked at a radio station where Walter Cronkite had one of his first
jobs in the times before World War II. He, for a few months, had
worked at WKY radio in Oklahoma City, so did I. Interestingly enough
Frank McGee, one of the NBC news men killing CBS in the ratings back
in 1964 had also worked at WKY.
Forty years almost to the day, Walter Cronkite
was on the air and I watched him with my friend Jerry Wilhite from
our desert apartment near Edwards Air Force Base on a hot July night
in 1969 when man walked on the moon. Walter was like that, he was
the messenger in the turbulent 60s, he is the man credited with
turning the public opinion against the war in Vietnam more for the
reality of TV showing the blood and guts horror of war than anything
else; but it was a turning point. President Lyndon Johnson once said
to the effect when we lost Cronkite's support, we lost middle
America.
The question for many is, was Cronkite the
reason TV changed the world or did the world use TV and Cronkite?
Journalism professors and news consultants will argue this point for
ever I am sure. 92 years of change, probably none of us will live in
a more changing time than he did. Born a decade plus before radio
became the norm, a print journalist with United Press International,
then into reporting from Europe as a war correspondent , then a new
age coming, television, and Walter was there for that as well. If
his health had not gotten the best or the worst of him, I am sure he
would be like me an old warrior pushing the envelope with digital
media. As it was, he did write columns on the internet for the
Huffington Post. One wonders what waltercronkite.com might have
been, if only, his health had lasted.
Cronkite had to retire in 1981 after leading
the news derby over ABC and NBC from 1967 to 1981, it took him five
years to get on top from his first evening broadcast but when he
became the "king of the hill" he remained on top for 14 years, an
eternity in television. That forced retirement speaks volumes too,
it is hard to believe that companies demanded their employees leave
at 65, what a waste of talent and experience, but that is another
story.
The spirit of Cronkite lives on in the hearts
of many newsmen including this one and even though time is taking a
toll on all of us, hope for a younger generation to be inspired to
model themselves after journalists like Walter Cronkite is more than
a hope for a profession, I feel it is the great hope for
civilization.
CLICK HERE for tribute to
Walter Cronkite from CBS news-
Roswell Army Air
Hangar 84 where ET bodies and debris were taken
Roswell
Revelations
by Jerry Pippin 07/13/09 The Jerry Pippin Show and the city of
Roswell have quite a relationship. It is now approaching its seventh
year officially and as all good love affairs go it is growing in
intensity and satisfaction with every passing day. Roswell is a
magic word in broadcasting, our Internet shows go through the roof
in numbers when we do a show from or even just about Roswell. The
reason I figure is a simple one, we have been inundated with Roswell
stories for decades, really from the first on the hot July evening
with the huge Thunderstorms and the mysterious reports of a crash of
a "flying disc."
Then in the early 50s after the 1952 peak of UFO
news in major media outlets, radio, TV and newspaper, (UFOs were
everywhere that year) it died, the government got hold of the story
and clamped it down, then a younger Stanton Friedman met Jesse
Marcel in Louisiana in 1974 and it started all over again.
The story percolated over the years as things
became known about it and there really is no use repeating it here
in this column, you can hear all about it on our Roswell programs at
www.jerrypippin.com always available for free on demand and many
other places as well. Countless shows have been done about it, so
one wonders why we are involved in the production of a new
documentary called "Roswell Revelations." The reason is a simple
one, the disclosure movement in the UFO field is reaching a peak and
evidence and witnesses are beginning to spill their guts before the
funeral director enters the picture. Interestingly enough there is a
funeral director involved from the beginning as most of us know, by
the name of Glen Dennis. I understand Glen is in a retirement
facility in Riodosa, South of Roswell and is not available any more
for interviews. We were lucky enough to talk to him and Walter Haut
before his death. They were intimately involved with the incident as
we all know and they founded the UFO Museum which under the
direction of Walter's daughter has seen a recent renovation inside
and the place looks pretty damn good these days.
There are three new developments and they are
all key along with mounting evidence that there is a nuclear element
to the entire Roswell Story. After all the Roswell Army Air Force
Base was the only base in the country that flew and dropped the
Atomic Bomb, twice. The original A Bomb test was done at nearby
White Sands, New Mexico. We all have heard the stories from Air
Force Personnel and learned that the same thing happened in Russia
in connection with UFOs and Nuclear Weapons. It is pretty clear the
ETs don't like these weapons and have more than once shown that they
can disarm them at will.
The three new developments are evidence that
the memory metal from the UFO is in existence and rumor has it that
Don Schmitt and Tom Carey, authors and researches of Roswell
information, have a piece of it. Secondly there is a witness, an
enlisted man who saw part of the space craft in the bomb bay of a
B-29 at the Roswell Base being flown somewhere and third there is a
high ranking corporate executive with the Skunk Works, the black ops
contractor, who says there were ET bodies and back engineering of
technology. Don Phillips, an engineer with them for years, recently
told George Filer that even though he never saw the ET bodies or the
back-engineering work, he knew and worked with people who did, and
he is convinced Roswell happened.
George Newling who is still alive in Roswell,
was an enlisted man, and he he told Don Burleson, New Mexico State
Director of MUFON, that he saw something that looked like part of a
"flying disc" with strange markings on it, in a B -29 flying out of
Roswell a couple of months or so later.
Then the memory metal story was actually
uncovered by Anthony Bragalia who does excellent detective work.
Evidently a Fellow by the name of Elroy John Center who was a senior
scientist at Battelle Research Group in Columbus, Ohio, for two
decades told several people he had been involved in back-engineering
things from the Roswell UFO Crash. It is known that the company got
a contract from Wright Patterson in 1948 into 1949 to develop an
alloy based on the metal that was very light, but very strong, and
would go back to its original shape with heat.
So as our "Roswell Revelations" documentary
continues in production, we are working closely with the producers,
the father - son team that brought you the Fastwalkers HD
documentary which won several awards, Robert and Anthony Miles, to
do the consummate Roswell documentary and our hopes are to show to
the most skeptical not only that Roswell happened but it has led to
many amazing UFO developments that are mind boggling to say the
least. I personally feel this will be a case where truth is stranger
than fiction. We will continue to reveal developments on our UFO
podcast web site,
www.ufoshoows2go.com
Torture
and the American Life Style
by Jerry Pippin
05/19/09
Something has been eating at me, not just for
a few days but for a long while now. It's our treatment of prisoners
or as they like to call them these days enemy combatants. Tomorrow
(Wednesday, May 20) we have a page that will connect from this
column- It will be much too nice in my opinion but that is the way
of the American story these days, sanitized and removed to a third
party. I want you to take a few minutes and look at the page, it is
not horrible even though it is about something very horrible, but it
is my way of sounding off, standing up and being counted for human
rights.
Human rights not against a protest of some far
away communist country but against our own beloved country. If we
have lost humanity in this so called war against terrorism then what
have we won, if we do indeed win which I feel we have or will. I am
going to write one more paragraph. Read it and think about
it..please.. as a human cry for other humans to behave in a
civilized manner.
"I was taking a break today and used the TV
clicker for the news shows - as I watched a little of this and
little of that, something began to chew at my very existence. There
were beautiful people everywhere, dressed well and well manicured
and their eyes were sparkling with delight, but what they were
saying was not so nice. These well-educated men and women were
saying to push psychological terror on prisoners, to cut them with
sharp objects, to push them into high levels of pain was okay,
because we were just protecting ourselves from the evil doers. How
much more evil could we get than what we were doing to fellow human
beings? "
CLICK HERE to read The
Kings and Queens of Torture. No bad photos, just
pictures of people influenced and admired by millions. Come
back and visit the link and you will understand my outrage
or maybe you won't.
Email
Says Rats are Getting These From Uncle Sam in Stimulus Bill
by Jerry Pippin
I have found it interesting that my inbox is full of good
folk complaining about Stimulus Bill 2, the one Obama will
sign on Tuesday, February 17th in Denver. One of those
emails has a nice little line up of big bills, at the bottom
is a
hundred thousand dollar bill. It says 300 hundred are going to rats in
San Francisco.
In the first place, I wonder if these rats have a name? If
you do the math on 100,000 dollar bill these rats are
getting 30 million, lots of cheese for sure. I think a
little perspective is needed here, first of all I doubt the
figure, but it could be true and I am like most working
people, a little too busy to check out everything that comes
across my computer screen; but lets just say it is being
spent, Remember when we took 8 billion in sacks and passed
it out to people in IRAQ, let me see that would be 933 of
these bills that we gave to rats times 8 which is at least
7,500 of these bills..(I know, the math is not exact but why
should I take the time to be exact, no one else in the media
does, but I am sure you get the idea.) It is important to
remember over half of the money was unaccounted for by the
GAO later.
Oh, yes that money was money we seized from
IRAQ in the first place because Saddam had made the
silly ass mistake of giving it to
Wall Street to hold for him.. and speaking of that..
there is this little item left over from the first bailout
which didn't go to rats, people or road building, it went
straight to the
bank accounts
of people who caused this situation in the first place..
In November,
American International Group (AIG)
announced plans to pay out $503 million in
deferred
compensation to top executives at a time when the
Treasury had already committed $152 billion in taxpayer
funds to prevent the insurance giant from going under.
Wow, that's 5,030 of those bills you said
the rats were getting in
San Francisco;
let's see, the rats on the west coast only got 300 and Wall
Street Insurance guys and gals got 5,030. Why weren't these emailers outraged about that?
Morgan
Stanley, which has received no less than $10
billion in bailout funds, paid out $2 billion in bonuses
this year, according to
The New York Times.
Boy, the rats in San Francisco aren't doing too well are
they? These executives took a profitable company, raided
it, dropped and were rewarded with several sacks of
those hundred thousand dollar bills..the math is getting
a little difficult and you would have to wear a
Longshoreman's union card to lift those sacks they are
so heavy.
Goldman Sachs, another beneficiary of billions in
TARP funds,
reportedly rewarded some employees with
$200,000 cash bonuses. Wow,
they only took 200 of those bills that the rats got,
only two thirds, but hey - they know they have a pretty
good chance of coming back for more and the poor rats in
San Francisco have limited life spans and no pockets to
carry around their money. I say let's save some bucks
and just take care of the rats in San Francisco and let
the snakes in
New York
take care of themselves..after all I haven't looked but
I bet my next
credit
card bill has a higher interest rate.
Jerry
FOLLOW
THE MONEY
by
Jerry Pippin
7:00 p.m. Eastern Time - 2-10-09-
Bank runs in cyberspace are not pretty and they
happen in seconds. Tonight the US is poised to spend
another 800 billion of borrowed money. There are
pros and cons and many of each are solid points to
make; but the underlying story is we are in much
deeper trouble than anyone evidently has realized.
This column will not be about why I think we need to
spend the money, yes, borrow money when I have
screamed in print and on the air about fighting a
war on a trillion or maybe it's two trillion dollars
of borrowed money. What makes this different is a
couple of things, content, in other words where the
money is going and secondly, just as Clear Channel
the mega broadcast group created in the Bush years
of
leverage buyouts of almost everything became
sound business practices, borrowed 1.2 or was that
1.4 billon to stay in business Uncle Sam has to go
hat in hand to people with money to keep us in
business as a nation.
This is not an overstatement,
C-Span watchers saw the high drama The Capital Markets Subcommittee
Chair,
Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), said
matter-of-factly into the camera-
'It would have been the end of our economic system
and our political system as we know it.' He
was talking about that day in November when trillions disappeared
in 'electronic run on the banks -how the
world economy almost collapsed in a matter of
hours. Money Market accounts were gobbled up by
electronic transfer in about two hours.
If
you have time watch the performance by clicking
here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD8viQ_DhS4)
It is high drama because it is real. Within a
couple of hours 550 Billion was sucked out of
existence in the US according to Kanjorski.
reports on a "tremendous draw-down of money
market accounts in the United States, to the
tune of $550
billion dollars."
The mighty
US Treasury opened its window to try to
stop the raid. It was like swatting mosquitoes
on a hot day in Louisiana and they saw it was
useless. Bush came on TV, looking shocked, after
all this was his constituency and they were
feeding like sharks at a ship wreck. A decision
to guaranteed deposits to $250,000 seemed to
slow the tide. In less than two hours the US had
pumped 105 billion back into the system and it
was being devoured like a cancer of nightmare
proportions. They did the only thing left to do,
shut down the system stopping the electronic run
on the banks in seconds.
Reporter Lori Price phrases
it best when she wrote today. "If
they had not done that, their estimation was
that by two o'clock that afternoon,
five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been
drawn out of the
money market system of the United States,
would have collapsed the entire
economy of the United States, and within
24 hours the world economy would have collapsed..."
So now we have part of the
answer to why Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney left
office willingly after all those years of
passing legislation and administratively
preparing for martial law, emergency suspension
of personal liberties, I would venture to say
they understood the dark underbelly of unchecked
free market enterprise, much like the pet
rattle snake, it can turn on you in an instant.
Will President Obama and his
team win this battle or are we in for years of
depression-like economical times? Two things I
have to say, first of all, with today's
technology there is no such thing as "taking
years" as we just explained, a half trillion
went in a couple of hours and secondly no one
seems to know where this money went do they? So
are we playing some sort of electronic monopoly
and no one has the money? And back to the
original question, "Can team Obama pull it out?"
The answer is not known yet; however, a term
from my old Las Vegas days does seem to apply:
the odds are Even Steven at best.
Democracy and Democrats had a Lousy Start Today
by Jerry Pippin
(noon,
01-06-09) It was a lousy morning in DC. The rain was
mixed with specks of sleet and a snow flake here and
there and the wind cut into the marrow of your bones. It
was perhaps a metaphor for what was happening to our
Democracy, now challenged hard for survival after eight
years of non stop assault on her by the neo conservative
movement that has resulted in a depression rivaling the
big one of the 1930s and a strange metamorphosis of US
policy from beacon of freedom to enforcer by war of
changes in leadership in other countries far from our
shores. But perhaps the worse assault has been the
erosion of a major principal of our law, "innocent until
proven guilty."
This change did not come easily or
overnight. It took hard liners who believed in
punishment even if there is doubt to succeed in our
system It came as change usually does like a thief in
the night, stealing our moral outrage by various
incidents of
police brutality in our own country, out cries of
miscarriages of justice when perhaps there was
none and worse by far is the tact the conservative
moment and the media worked in lock step in "frying the
bastards" in print and in reactions. Slowly even the
"good guys" now lack perspective and the best example
was this mooring on the
Capitol
steps in the
freezing
rain and generally lousy weather.
A 71-year-old black man, by all
accounts, a good democrat and a better fighter for
injustice in Illinois was denied a seat at the table of
the
Democratic Party Feast of Change by the Sergeant
of Arms of the Senate and by other administrators.
Roland Burris was being treated with a cold
shoulder by the Democratic Leaders in the Senate. It was
clear he would not be seated but not even allowed into
the halls of the Senate. His crime was that he was
appointed by Governor Rod Blagojevich who is accused but
not convicted of seeking financial favors for the
appointment.
This is the point of outrage for me.
The Governor has not been convicted of anything; yet the
change boys of Obama's Army are willing to find the
Governor guilty when even the US Attorney, a blatant
Republican enforcer,
Patrick Fitzgerald had to ask the court for a
90-day extension on his indictments against the Governor
because he did not yet have enough proof to win a case.
I fear change will not come if our
leaders like
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) are willing to let
Republican Prosecutors determine the outcome of
Democracy without a trial. It appears to me we are at a
point in this country when all you have to do to derail
a good man is investigate him. Look what happened to
Governor Richardson in
New Mexico.
Not even a charge yet, just a note from some unknown
person in the
Grand Jury
system that he is being investigated. Is this the
kind of government we really want in America?
Then there is
Al Franken.
He won, but he is not seated either. Why? Because
of a court challenge. It appears that we have men of
principle not understanding the principals of our
country at all. In other words it is really a sort of
"Alice in Wonderland" look thru the looking glass and
see how things really are in
Washington;
tainted beyond all recognition.
The former Illinois attorney general
said he was "not seeking to have any type of
confrontation" over taking the seat that he was
appointed to by embattled
Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But Burris also said he was
looking at options for taking the seat.
THE
TROUBLE WITH
CONSPIRACIES IS
THEY CAN GET YOU KILLED
by Jerry Pippin
(Just before Midnight, January 1,
2009) We have several
conspiracy programs in various stages of production and
over the years more than one of these brave souls who
comes forward with secret information about certain
subjects that are "cover ups" usually by the Federal
Government dies just as he is telling his story. We have
had two curious incidents this year involving people who
dared to come on our programs and reveal information
that is contrary to the official government story.
Heartbreaking news came to us in December about the
untimely death of Mr. X.
Mr. X was a man we promised to
protect identity and other information about himself
because of fear of reprisals from the Federal Government
or its out sourcing partners. I fear the latter is more
dangerous than the G-men themselves. We met Mr. X and
his new wife out in the Mohave Desert at a motel at
Twenty Nine Palms, California. He recorded his story
about seeing top secret archives as a clerk for a
corporation that worked for
Uncle Sam.
He was a file clerk and he was putting away documents in
order. These documents involved contact with beings from
other worlds. I worked closely with Bill Ryan and Kerry
Cassidy on this story and we have their video report as
well as the program I did with Mr. X here:
http://www.jerrypippin.com/UFO_Files_mr_x.htm
I suggest you go back and listen to
this show or download it to your
ipod
device. It is riveting. At the link above you will be
able to hear the presentation Cassidy and Ryan presented
with a voice recording of Mr. X made in November for the
Crash Retrieval Conference. It is the last thing we will
ever hear from Mr. X. Just a few days before Christmas
he was complaining of severe headaches and pain. His
wife took him to a California hospital and he was dead
at 12:45 p.m. the next afternoon. He leaves a child and
a grieving widow. I remember her being very concerned
about his safety when we made our secret tape for
release on my radio show. I assured her that he would be
safe.
We are currently in pre production
with a program with a medical doctor who was tops in his
field until his research into pain management led him
into the discovery of a new pharmaceutical drug. He was
able to stop addiction in a high percentage of cases to
street drugs, then all of sudden he found himself in hot
water with the
Justice Department. To make a long story short we
are going to lay out a history of official government
officials ranging from
Attorney
Generals down thru the ranks of enforcement
officials with DIA,
FBI, BATF and Judges themselves being tainted
with drug money. In our pre production it is clear that
this show will name names and present evidence and some
of those guilty of being on the "take" will surprise
you. It did me.
Hopefully the good doctor will
survive to tell his story. We are deep inside a 9/11
plot and astounding information is coming our way about
this fraud perpetrated on the American Public by a few
sinister individuals who had the power to shape the news
releases, the prosecutions and the hype out of this dark
day in American History. We have 46 more episodes and we
expect to slowly but surely unearth the facts in a non
refutable way, it is slow, dirty, time consuming work
and once again probably dangerous. However we intend to
make our mark on journalism with this story as well.
Then there is the tale of
Billy Clark- A man who tells me from his high
security prison cell that he is there because he dared
do a show with me and the local Federal Judge made sure
his parole was revoked and Billy returned to the prison
system. I once again urge you to take time to listen to
the in-depth interview and read our work on the *I-40
Bridge Collapse. If you do listen and read and then
ponder, you will probably come up with the same
conclusion I did. Billy knows something that he probably
does not understand is dangerous information. He sits in
his cell in the hell hole prison in
Colorado that is high security and not a good
place to be for anyone. Billy is due out July 23, 2008
and we expect to get him back on the air as there is
something going on with this case that few people would
believe possible.
I am personally convinced that Billy
Clark is one of several victims of MK Ultra
type
programs, where literally black operations finds
losers in society and takes control of their actions
causing them to do the dirty work and they have the
perfect alibi, the man or woman was a loser is society
and he just "flipped out."
Go here
www.jerrypippin.com/I40Bridge.htm
to read and to listen to the Billy
Clark Story.
Conspiracies can be deadly.
Dark
Christmas- Darker New Year 12/04/08
I am sitting here working on a
Christmas
Special and listening to some of the age old
favorites over and over as we edit the program. All I
can say is enjoy it while you can, as far as I can tell
the meltdown of financial protection is continuing and I
hate to be the "Grinch That Stole Christmas," but,
understand, financial depression is now fact not
fiction, we have slipped into the canyon of remorse of
the speculator, who seemed to have believed things would
never come back down.. It s much like they didn't
believe the old proverb "what goes up must come down."
There are several
Bible
verses that come to mind after reading an
interesting web site,
http://www.heartcom.org/BePrepared.htm
and even though I have publicly stated I have questions
about religion despite my fundamentalist upbringing, for
all my doubts, there are many words of wisdom in the
Holy Bible...so I urge everyone on this list to get
prepared, because it is evident to me that as far as
money is concerned, the naked truth is about to arrive
and that truth is that we have watched the top amass the
wealth and allow the rest of us to be lulled into
prosperity with credit cards, rising values that were
not real but only a mirage on the desert of despair.
I am fearful of the future, but we are determined to
continue our mission in life, this web site and our
radio
programs. We have not sold an ad in over a month
now, and December is normally a time of wealth in the
broadcast business. I want to thank every one here and
around the world that comes to our web sites and takes
the time to download or listen to our programs. It has
been a rewarding decade for me. You may have noticed we
have discontinued two of our web sites, the muckraking
Bush Business and the tribute to a huge part of my
professional life, VegasRadioShow.com.
We did this because we like everyone are streamlining
our operations, lean and mean, just like the Army
Posters of the 60s. Spread the word about us, we need
all the help we can get to survive, but unfortunately,
we are not alone.
"Eyes to the Skies" by Jerry Pippin
(11-16
-08) I received this photo today from a visitor
to our web site who had been checking in on our news
headlines page about the Southern California Fires
that have been raging all weekend. He sent us a
photo which you can see on the left side of your
screen. A couple of reasons we put this photo here,
first of all, looks can be deceiving, it is not a
photo from the
Fires
in California at all, but shot about 20
miles East of Dallas last week. It is just a Texas
Sunset but look at those clouds, are they pillars of
fire a tribute to the Gods or what? That brings me
to the second thing about this photo, we are busy
reorganizing and making every effort to make our web
sites easier to navigate and more visitor friendly.
This in itself is no easy task.
November
is all kinds of milestones for me, some good, my
birthday later this month
*www.jerrypippin.com/Bio.htm
and some bad the terrible murder of my mother seven
years ago by intruders into her own home -*www.jerrypippin.com/Crime_Story.htm .
November on the pleasant side is the month where
Internet ratings really kick in, sometimes we get about
double what we do in the summer as for visitor and
listener counts. Another good thing about November is
Thanksgiving is coming up and everyone stops in
America to pause for Thanks or at least that was the
plan, now there seems to be lot of pause for the cause (
Football season) and Christmas is just a few weeks away
and a New Year where resolutions abound for better
behavior for us all.
The
mysterious and the unexplained have been an
important part of success here at the Jerry
Pippin websites- and now we are getting back
to the subject of
photos of clouds. We get lots
of photos of things in the sky and lots of
people see things hidden in the clouds. In
fact when we first started this Internet
Broadcast adventure, ten years ago on
Labor Day 1998 we never dreamed a lot
of success would be tied to the subject of
UFOs. We were basically a personality disc
jockey type who had done several years of
celebrity interviews in
Las Vegas on the radio. Oh, we have
always done UFOs and Ghosts and the
Supernatural. Good for ratings, at one time
I considered my show a true life "X-Files."
Larry Dicken who was an integral part of our
success working on our
web side technical and creative end
for at least 7 of those ten years used to
use that phrase "Keep Your Eyes to the
Skies," when we were doing a weekly
sightings show.
This brings me to two things too.. The
UFO
Sightings show is returning, first with a look
back at all the sightings of 2008, and then around the
first of the year a bi-weekly series, Larry has long
since gone into retirement but I think you will like how
we are going to do the new show..as they say, "stay
tuned"...now to the second thing about "eyes to the sky"
we have always done that :
Dreamed
big. I was lucky that I knew what I wanted to do
from grade school where I used to hold
quiz
shows in the fourth grade for the class at Edison
in Muskogee, long gone physically but a vivid memory in
my life. I lived right across the street and was still
late almost every morning. But the point was I had my
eyes to the clouds literally spending hours laying in my
back yard staring at cloud formations and at night
looking at the stars and dreaming of a world more like
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet than Jerry Pippin,
fourth grader. The point is that those clouds were my
dreams and they lit up my mind like the northern lights
light up
Sarah Palin's back yard.
I have had my share of
dark clouds, but most of the time, I have been
extremely successful in my dreaming. This Internet
venture was a dream and we have hundreds of thousands of
listeners on a regular basis and totals of millions,
something I never dreamed would be possible when I first
started in radio back in high school at KBIX a small
station here in my home town of
Muskogee,
Oklahoma.
Bad
things can happen without dark clouds, the night of
September 11,2001 there was not a cloud in the sky yet
3,000 were dead and the nation was wounded severely.
This is really part sermon about living your dreams, I
am not an older fellow, mature for sure, actually older
than I thought I might live to be, and yet I am still
dreaming like a young man and what makes it worthwhile
is you are along with me on my dream ride across the
clouds of this planet and beyond. I just wanted to thank
you for a great ten years and the next ten years will be
even better for all of us, you, me and everyone who
works with me. This is truly a group effort, larger than
any man or any one idea. So I hope you continue to come
back and watch us age with class and grow taller and
stronger show by show.
Jerry
Remembers Edward R. Murrow on his 100th Birthday
04-25-08
If you know anything about me at all; it is simply that I am not very
happy with the state of journalism today. Especially broadcast journalism.
CBS is still my favored organization even though at one time I worked at NBC
news as a runner during the GOP convention in 1964 in San Francisco. I loved
those days of NBC when they had a radio network and a TV network basking in
the glory of renewed ratings thanks to Huntley and Brinkley and the fact
that my lawyer had worked with Frank McGee at WKY-TV in OKC and that one day
I knew I would work at WKY which I did, WKY radio in 1980-81-82 period.
The fact is no one did it better in my opinion that CBS news. Murrow was
their lead guy but they had others, great reporters of their time, Cronkite,
Rather, etc. In those days CBS was still a fairly small operation with Frank
Stanton as President bringing that network up from scratch to compete with David
Sarnoff and RCA who owned NBC. Looking back on it, and I can still remember
hearing Murrow doing a fifteen minute radio newscast nightly on CBS, it was an
era where today's resources were science fiction, who would have dreamed I could
just turn on my laptop and send a show out live..satellites and video as news
happens, were only dreams.
So in one sense today's news is far, far superior to those Murrow days but in
the real sense it does not measure up at all. There is something missing these
days and that is the healthy skepticism we all had after a great depression, a
world war, and obvious over-reaction from government into our private lives.
This sentence seems humorous today with the Patriot Act and others that infringe
upon our civil liberties and with stories of government threats to journalists.
But this is exactly my point about CBS news of old and Edward R. Murrow in
particular.
Senator Joe McCarthy was painting everyone with a broad brush and Murrow saw
that it was time to stand up against the tyranny of a government gone wild in
pursuit of only good news for their side. Senator Joe McCarthy was challenged
and CBS paid a price with pulled advertising, after all, fear in those day was a
real as today. It was the communist threat then and now it is some sort of
twisted relationship between a few thousand Muslin extremists and the world. But
Murrow stood up, McCarthy went down as the fraud he was and CBS stood by their
man.
Today would CBS stand by their man? Obviously not, look what they did to Dan
Rather who was as loyal as one can be to his network, CBS. Will Rather bring out
the true facts in the Court Room of Justice? Time will tell. This is a far
different world where big bucks from government have filtered into the media
checking accounts as a major depositor. Meanwhile I find it encouraging that CBS
did take time out to pay homage to their ICON, Mr. Murrow. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/24/murrow/main4041673.shtml
We still link to CBS news often even though we understand they are a mere
shell of what they used to be, but so are the others as the new journalism has
taken over, FOX with their endless propaganda for the Republicans, CNN trying to
not rock the boat and NBC wandering in a path of torn desires, corporate
business and journalistic integrity. Thank God for the Internet, at least if you
want to take the time, you can find all sides to an issue and we strive every
day to do our part.
Please note we do have a liberal-biased web site as well,
www.bushbusiness.com. It started as an
outrage to the control of media and thought processes, but quickly morphed into
just a parody on those conservative sites and programs. We do hope Mr. Murrow
understands, it is all show business these days. Meanwhile rest assured on our
conspiracy shows and political shows we will strive to bring the facts just like
Jack Webb of old, "just the facts."
Our only plea for understanding is that we are the NEW MEDIA. We offer
entertainment, information and lots of stuff in between. We just hope the
viewer, the visitor and the listener understand where we are coming from... ah,
yes a another phrase of modern America. Rest assured we are coming from a
standpoint of truth, we sometimes present it in an entertaining fashion and we
don't apologize for that...I mean for God's sake, we are a radio show not a news
organization.
In the last year of the Bush
Business for the US, the consumer is paying undreamed
amounts of money to the energy companies -
Exxon made about $1300 a second, last quarter
business reports $11.7 billion profit;
Chevron made over four billion profit last quarter.
Shell made 8.5 billion in
three months profit. Shell profits rose 60 per cent last
quarter.
So
remember when you fill up at the pump your money is going to
a good cause for Bush and his friends who are raking in huge
amounts of money at the expense of the environment and at
your expense, you are probably paying about three times of
what the market should be for gasoline, but hey, no one in
the government is interested in investigating obvious price
fixing and manipulation of the oil market. Bush Business is
very good indeed while the rest of us are in a recession,
losing jobs and homes at the fastest rate in history other
than the
Great Depression and don't worry Bush wants to break
that record too.
The pundits were shocked, the pollsters were
embarrassed and the race started making sense to me finally. In our
discussions with our election unit consultant, MA, we finally agreed the
tracking polls were outdated, the information was volatile, changing by
the hour. Hillary was attacked by the press, Senator Obama made an error
in judgment in the debate by trying to joke about Hillary being likeable
and it came off mean-spirited but mostly it was the tug of the heart
strings as Hillary the iron-willed maiden of politics acted like a woman
with tears and a soft voice saying she just wanted to win for her
country's sake. At the last minute her initial campaign tactic came to
rescue her, the female vote. 47 per cent of the women voted for Mrs.
Clinton and only 30 per cent of the men.
Some things are remaining constant, Obama can win South Carolina
where 50 per cent of the Democrats are black, or can he? John Edwards
remains a player but not a winner yet, waiting for, as Mrs. Clinton's
husband Bill said today about Obama's claims of not being the
establishment, "give me a break." Anything can happen and probably will
before Super Tuesday on Feb.7th. On the GOP side McCain looks like a
winner now; no Bush tactics to swift boat him ahead, his main opponent
Huckabee is more of a gentleman than Dubya and only the fact that Mayor
Rudy may indeed fade away with nemesis of the establishment Ron Paul
getting as much or more play by the voting public.
It will be an interesting four-plus weeks for sure. Jerry Pippin
10:50 p.m. Central (01-08-08)
2008 Is Here
Could This Be the Year that Ends the Fear?
01/01/08
Evidence
is coming in that the War on Terror is phony baloney. Just a way for
Bush/Cheney and their allies in England to make lots of money off the
middle class and to cement their power grab. Now it appears it might
have been murder. Mrs. Benazir Bhutto told David Frost in an interview
with the BBC that Osama Bin Laden was murdered and the BBC censored that
part of the interview, it ended up out of the final cut, if you want to
see what she said
Click
Here.
Why would the BBC and major corporate media sources in the US not
want anyone to know that the War on Terror is phony? Mrs. Bhutto more
than once told the answer and it seems only Hillary Clinton and John
Edwards heard it in America. Both in Iowa recently said they thought the
crime was done by the military in Pakistan. Why do we say it was murder?
Look at the evidence, real and circumstantial.
First of all why did Mrs. Bhutto return to a country where even she
agreed the odds were they would kill her? If you look at the events you
will see that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered her
return. The black widow of the axis of power, Ms. Rice no doubt was
following the wishes of the neo-cons Bush, Cheney, the puppet Musharraf.
Ah, to have been a fly on the wall in that phone conversation between
Bush and the former general of the Army there.
Bhutto herself has exposed the fraudulent nature of the Bush/Blair
"war on terrorism." If Bin Laden is dead, as has been reported, then
tapes that Osama was supposed to have made are all frauds. The war on
terrorism itself is a callous, calculated fraud perpetrated by a
murderous Bush regime, a murderous Blair regime, a murderous puppet
regime of Musharraf.
I suspect we have watched another murder in public just as the
American people did on November 22, 1963. The question is simply this,
will the sons of those ruthless killers get away with it too? Hillary
Clinton, John Edwards and others know about Bush and Cheney and the
cabal, they are beginning to speak up.. Bush Business has been a killer,
hasn't it?
What Will Life Be Like
for Them when They are no Longer in Control?
12/14/07
The Bush/Cheney machine's hold on major media outlets
was never more apparent than today. Three members of the House
Judiciary Committee decided to release an opinion piece to major
newspapers and other news outlets calling for the Impeachment of
Vice President Dick Cheney and no one printed it. All three
congress members are veterans of Washington and they
made a case for Impeachment Hearings by the
Congress in a detailed out line of crimes.
Representatives
Robert Wexler,
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and
Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), issued a joint editorial entitled "A
Case for Hearings," cites significant allegations made
against the Vice President.: Deceptive actions leading up to the Iraq
war, the revelation of the identity of a covert agent for political
retaliation, and the illegal wiretapping of American citizens are among
the charges. It is widely thought by expert observers that if hearings
do come into being, fraud and widespread graft would be front and center
in evidence presented.
to Read the Op Ed.
to sign Congressman Wexler's online petition to impeach Bush.
A closing thought about Cheney and his men including the President
who evidently is under the Vice President's control at all times.
I
wonder if they have thought about what life will be for them after
they leave office and no longer control the Justice Department. Do
they still think they will escape accountability? It is now only a
little over a year until we find out how this gross mafia-like grasp
of the government control of the leading nation in the world will
fare.
The
Senate Judiciary Committee voted today (12-13-07) to hold two top
aides to
President George W. Bush in contempt of Congress for refusing to
cooperate in its probe of fired federal prosecutors. On a largely party-line
vote of 11-7, the Democratic-led panel sent contempt citations against White
House Chief of Staff
Josh Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff
Karl Rove to the full Senate for consideration.
Comment by Jerry Pippin: "It will be interesting to see if Republican Senators vote for the right of
the Congress to investigate or they vote that their job is insignificant and
the administration does not have to obey Congressional wishes. If they do
not vote for contempt, we suggest we hold those Senators in contempt and
vote them out of office in 2008."
Nevada
will hold its primary on January 19, 2008, not only in advance of February's
Super Tuesday but also an election not on a Tuesday. Long time election watchers
have wondered why the US does not have elections on weekends when more could
vote? This will be interesting to see how turn out is affected by a Saturday
vote and ahead of the Super Tuesday landslide or crowing by the media of a
winner already.
Personally I have loved the tradition of that Tuesday
voting, but logically it appears with today's ability to fix or rig votes
mechanically and in reality by making it tougher for certain demographics to
vote, this may be our saving grace to get a candidate that is free from the
corporate purse strings. We know this can not happen completely until we take
away the power of the purse and the "fountain of wealth" that has become the
money train for broadcasters since the Reagan years of allowing the "free
market" to apply to political races. In other words, until the broadcasters no
longer have a cash cow in election commercials, our chances of having free
elections and getting someone with an administration that is on the side of the
population in general and not just for big business in particular, the American
election system is broken. We must demand that it get fixed and this Saturday
voting may be a good trend in that direction, we will wait and see how it all
works out.
Banker and
Investor Friends Making Huge Profits
on Uncle Sam's Credit Cards
12/03/07
A
million dollars a minute. When the President came into office, we had stopped
borrowing new money. The Clinton White House had been spending within its means.
Oh, yeah, there was that 5.7 trillion in debt inherited from those previous
fiscal conservatives, Ronald Reagan and Daddy Bush, but we were not spending
more and actually the US Government was in a position to start paying off debt.
What happened?
Simply as Mr. Bush said, "Mission Accomplished." The
war and anti terrorist money combined with previously spoken for dollars in
social programs has made it a bonanza for the financial interests who like to
loan money and get lots of interest back. Don't worry about the system being
faulty, why do the financial institutions get the interest on the money when
they have nothing to do with printing the money? Good question, but it has been
a bonanza for decades for banking interests.
Look at the results, six times the debt limit has been
raised in the years of the Bush, Jr. debacle. It is about double what it was
from the Clinton years and most of this new debt is short term, meaning just as
the California home buyers are now facing a crisis because short term mortgages
are coming due at much higher rates, the same will happen with Uncle Sam. It
appears that interest on this debt will average about 30 grand a person in the
US in the next few years.
Hey, the Grand Old Party has been one grand money maker
for those who loan money and for those who spend money. Who are these folks
making out like bandits? Mostly people who are the beneficial recipients of
privatization of the government. Folks like Blackwater, ammunition makers,
security interests all; oh well, maybe not the individual personnel who work for
these companies but the corporations themselves are reaping in a good portion of
that million bucks a minute.
You gotta hand it to those Texas based two faced
politicos like Bush and company. They say "terrorism" and smile, why? Because
for every terrorist program, they get a wallet that is fatter and fatter. Now
the compound interest factor is coming into play; first they got the money under
false pretenses like the IRAQ war and now guess what, they get it again because
they loaned Uncle Sam the money. A million dollars a minute, now you know why
Mr. Bush smirked and said " Mission Accomplished."
IMPEACHMENT POLITICS SHOWS DEMOCRATIC PARTY TRAITORS AT WORK!
11/06/07
Rep Dennis Kucinich has presented H Res 333 (Impeachment of Richard B. Cheney)
on the floor of Congress, under a special procedure called Privilege. Bush
forces seemed to think the best political tactic would be to allow a debate on
the floor of the issue forcing Democrats to either support or vote against
Cheney in public.
In a strange move not seen regularly on the house floor, Republican Congress
members suddenly changed their vote to against to supporting the debate. House
leaders tried to table the motion, but this motion was defeated by 251 votes
against tabling the motion to 162 for it. This meant the issue would be debated
but House Democrats quickly introduced a bill that would send it to Congressman
John Conyers' House Judiciary Committee for further debate.
It is not clear when or if it will up there at all. Conyers until recently
was a staunch impeachment advocate but recently has been seen by observers as
reversing himself on these issues. Will this tactic work? Will it die in
committee? There are 11 Democrats, the majority of that group belonging to the
Democratic party. Already it is apparent that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer,
D-MD and the speaker are recipients of enough Bush Business deals to shirk their
duty as leaders of the opposition. The resolution said that Cheney, "in
violation of his Constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of vice
president, had "purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the
citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the U.S. Armed Forces against
the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests."
Bush Business editors urge everyone to call Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and
other key Democrats to urge them to "wake up and smell the coffee" and remove
the cancerous sores on America caused by Cheney/Bush. The number is
1-800-828-0498.
for columnist Jerry Wilhite's take on the Last Hurrah of Democracy. We urge
everyone to contact their Congressman and Rep. Conyers' office to let them know
"Cheney must go." Dennis Kucinich deserves your support and with the right kind
of public outcry this "shot in the dark" at getting a hearing on removing the
most crooked fraudulent Administration in history...will work!
True Love - Bush Business Succeeds
in Tripling the Price of
Gasoline
10/30/07
When two oil men took charge of the executive branch in January of 2001, it
was apparent from the stolen election results in Florida, the Republicans had a
lot riding on the outcome of that election. As you can see by the photo with
this article, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah is holding hands with the President,
in public. The romance is blatant and the reasons are obvious, this union is a
union of convenience, about a trillion dollars worth of convenience in profits.
Profits at the expense of the American people who at the time of the election of
Bush/Cheney were paying slightly over a dollar for gasoline, now anything under
$3.00 is a bargain for the American Motorist.
What does Bush/Cheney and their administration have to do with it?
Everything. First of all, do you know a Republican who has voted for a windfall
tax on the oil companies?
Supply and demand in the market price? Forget it, there is a conscious policy
by oil companies to suppress supply, reap unprecedented profits, and miserably
fail, by the way, to reinvest those billions into increased refining capacity
and guess what? Big Brother Bush/ Cheney government minions, they aren't going
to pass rules to require these corporations to expand their capacity so the
market can work. No they are all too busy counting their excess profits.
All of this is the short term, naturally, Iraq will be able to get back in
the International market by the end of 2008 as our current agreement with IRAQ
stipulates. So mission accomplished, Eight long years of wonder profits for the
super rich and be damned with Americans who work hard every day to survive and
oh, there is the other thing Mr. Bush has accomplished. The Republicans are
going to lose in record numbers even worse than back in the Great Depression and
worse than in 1964 with the Johnson Landslide.
Ay, yes, the real plan, stick those damn Democrats with the ruins of eight
glorious years for the super rich. Laws? Who cares about Laws, Cheney and Bush
already own lots of property in South America.
It's Time for the Democrats to Stop the FUNDING
10/26/07
President
Bush wants his cronies to have a very Merry Christmas indeed. This week he asked
for an additional $45.9 billion in supplemental war funding to the $150.5
billion he'd already requested, and then turned up the heat on Congress to sign
off on the $196.4 billion before heading home for the holidays.
We have a suggestion for Congress on how they can give America a real
Christmas present. Simply deny the request and instead give a billion to the
troops. Two and a half million on active duty, a million or more who have been
called up over the years to serve at great sacrifice at home financially and
emotionally, divided up this bounty would make a great Christmas bonus to the
troops.
The Troops need a break and someone really supporting them, let them come
home, let the killing and maiming stop. What a great Christmas idea, Peace on
Earth and Goodwill toward all men. Congress should not allow this Christmas
bonus to be distributed by private contractors or the Pentagon, they will simply
take more than their share in profits. No, it needs to be a check, directly from
the US government to each and every soldier, airman, sailor and Marine.
Stop the Bush Business bonanza of war profiteering ..save $195 billion and
support the troops at the same time, let them have a Merry Christmas for the
first time since Mr. Bush has been their Commander-in-Chief.
Bush moves Clock from Morning to Midnight in America
10-23-07
We have watched the Bush allies such as Vice President Cheney and a neo-conservative line up of hardballers take over the Grand Old Party, pushing the
Republican mainstream to lunacy in decision making for America. Arianna
Huffington, who was at one time married to one of the far right, but saw the
light and left the would-be Senator for a career in the new media has coined the
phrase and It is a good one, "Midnight in America."
It indeed is very dark in the Republican party. They push torture as if it is
as routine as reading one their rights. They push the loss of civil liberties as
if it is a routine matter to spy, pry and investigate ordinary Americans because
of political differences. They push a war designed not to save the Mid East but
to push it further into confusion and all the while condoning thug like behavior
of Blackwater and other defense and security contractors in a manner that is
anti American in its behavior. The list is far too long to list on this page.
They endorse a condoning of criminal behavior in its own Republican
controlled Justice Department allowing billions to be stolen or drained away
from the Federal Treasury in the name of privatization. They endorse looking the
other way when the question of voting machine fraud is addressed and they push a
sort of fanatical "do it my way or hit the highway" creed upon the people they
rule as they desperately hold on to the seat of power at any cost.
Yes, Mr. Bush and his men have done the impossible. They have ruined a good
political idea of "government closest to home and less government period" - once
the stalwart of the Republican Party, to creating an apparatus that pushes for
more central control and routinely takes dangerous paths of leadership including
a proclaimed low road on the way to World War Three.
Mission Creep, Freedom of Speech in Peril
09/18/07
When I first heard about it, I was disturbed because it seems to me this has
been happening more and more. Oh, maybe not as brutal as this treatment of the
Florida Student Activist who was tasered by University police before the very
eyes of former Presidential Candidate John Kerry. The reaction of Kerry saying
it was a "Police Matter" bothered me even more. Here was the head of the
Democratic ticket for President last election cycle saying someone who went over
his time and was insisting on answers to good questions was somehow justified to
be under arrest. What has happened to the Democratic Party?
I am sorry to say this but evidently security in this country has gone wild
and we are now paying the price for it. Political speech and activism is now
being viewed by the establishment as some sort of act of terrorism in itself. I
say this because of the way Kerry reacted and how most of the crowd reacted to
this event. No one stood up in outrage. If I had been Kerry I would have
demanded they release the man right then and there. Since when is it a crime to
protest and ask tough questions of elected officials?
No, Senator Kerry this was not a "police matter." This was a Constitutional
matter, a matter of freedom of expression, the backbone of Democracy. Activists
are routinely banned from the Capitol for months at a time because they were
arrested in civil actions of protest. People are pulled off airplanes and banned
from political rallies because of T-shirts and signs that others say are
disrespectful or whatever. I am told by some political activist friends of mine
that even Hillary Clinton has goons that jerk people around who are too loud in
their protests.
I wonder what would have happened to those activists in Chicken suits that
used to show up at Papa Bush's rallies because he wouldn't debate Clinton? And
this OJ thing, charging him with kidnapping with a weapon is a little much. We
are giving the police in this country entirely too much power. This is an
epidemic of establishment control and it is likely to grow into something much
more serious.
Stop and think of how we are enforcing Democratic rules in Iraq. If they
don't agree with us we point guns at them and many times we pull the trigger. It
gives a great message about American Democracy, doesn't it?
It looks to me like we are in a crisis mode. I think Mr. Kerry will have to
go, along with a huge number of Democrats and almost all of the Republicans that
hold office before we get back on the right track. It appears they have all been
polluted with corporate money and corporate rules of engagement. The imperial
office holder is alive and well, thanks basically to security issues. Have you
ever thought this through; I mean if you are doing the people's business and you
are an honest broker why in the world do you need all of this security. We have
become a nation of cowards, afraid to stand up for principles or maybe we have
become a nation whose principles are corrupt and not for the common good. I know
many who think that term "common good" is some sort of communist plot and
communism has been defeated for two decades-plus and we are spending more money
on security than we ever did in the Cold War, against an enemy with no navy,
army or air force.
Obviously Security is popular as an issue because it pays so well.
The Values In Today's Politics Seem
Strange
08/29/07
There are two things that bother me about this Senator Craig story. The first
thing has to do with the way he is arrested. The city of Minneapolis along with
other police departments evidently pay undercover vice squad officers to sit on
the toilets for hours in men's rooms waiting for someone to hit on them. This
seems unseemly on the face of it and secondly even if Senator Craig were Gay and
he might be, why would he hit on a guy in the men's room. Why not in the airport
bar, on the airplane, and why don't undercover officers sit in the toilet areas
of women's rooms and try to trap gay women? Or do they? People are robbing,
killing, threatening mayhem on others every day and we have our cops sitting in
the men's room all
day?
So what kind of guy would this cop be? Could you hang around in a stall
sitting on the toilet watching people tap their feet, God forbid Senator Craig
was listening to an ipod while doing his business and tapping his feet to some
melody? How does this cop know the pick-up signs of gay men in toilets?
Now from a political standpoint I do think the country will be better off
without Craig. Instead of three short of getting an impeachment vote on Cheney
and/or Bush we are now only two, maybe. The second thing that bothers me is that
part of Senator Craig's defense besides yelling to anyone who will listen that,
"I am not gay."
What is the problem here? Well basically how can you expect a law maker to
treat everyone fairly in society when obviously they view this fairly common
trait among humanity as a curse somewhat like a disease that will infect
everyone. The troubling part from Senator Craig in my view point goes directly
to "what if he is really gay?" Then why would he run around pushing for laws
that are not friendly to his own personal behavior? Why would he run against
those who are "gay" with such a vengeance over the years? I know many
Republicans and Right Wing Christian Ministers and though I can't prove it; many
of them appear to me to be GAY. Unless of course you listen to what they say
which is, " I am not Gay."
Think about it, Rove courted the Christian right all his political life and
on his departure from Washington he drops a bomb to his most faithful followers,
in essence saying, "Hey, I am not a believer, I am agnostic." Do you think Rove
is gay? Falwell is gay? I have my own ideas but the point is why bring it up.
Well I didn't they did. Senator Craig did, Rove has? Falwell always got around
to it.
Now to something that bothers me about discussing
this topic at all. Being a "straight" man, I guess that means hitting on every
female in sight in some people's eyes but not hitting on men since I am a man,
why do I feel it necessary to point out my sexual orientation. It is somewhat
like the disclaimer on those financial ads, car commercials and cigarette
packages, who cares. Well evidently we all care, regardless of how "with it in
today's world "we think we are, this subject gets everyone's emotions going.
Maybe someday we will be as concerned about a high government official who
pushes death and destruction by using military means to settle issues.
Why is it more of a concern that Cheney and Bush
might be homosexual than the obvious fact that they are "serial killers" causing
hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide for no good reason, other than maybe
some misplaced religious ethic. I am inclined to think it's really because there
is a lot of money, honey - in killing for your country.
Young
Tears Show the Folly that is Iraq
By Jerry Pippin
07/21/07
In the 60s when I was in the service, our little attachment of golfers, radio
announcers, baseball players and actors had the duty of attending military
funerals ..I went to several as the representative of the US Army to the family.
It was never pleasant and this military duty has shaped my viewpoint on war more
than any other, War is usually not necessary and certainly not in the case of
IRAQ. Those who made the decisions for young boys and girls to lose their
fathers and mothers needlessly plays havoc with my soul every waking moment.
Can't we wake up as Americans and see we are giving far too much to the
military industrial complex? These men who caused these deaths are the true
terrorists. Call your congressman and tell him the madness must stop.
Thirty-eight votes for Gonzales in the Senate shows that slightly over a
third of that body just like the US itself is Nazi driven whether they realize
it or not. Does this mean Attorney General Gonzales will continue to operate
above the law and unfettered by normal restraints of the Constitution? Not if we
play our hand correctly. Our help now lies in the US House of Representatives
where the US Constitution says impeachment of any cabinet officer can be held
with a one-vote majority.
The Democrats may have just enough votes to pull off impeachment hearings in
the House for a cabinet member, the movement for impeachment of Cheney is
showing little or no progress at this point, but shifting the effort to a lesser
cabinet position just might fire the shot across the bow to the Cheney/Bush
administration.
Urge your representative to support impeachment action against Attorney
General Gonzales. What happens when the chief law enforcement officer is the
crook, the man who makes his own law? Nothing, unless the system stands up and
works and the only way it can now is by action in the House of Representatives.
Nine Senators did not vote today, 38 voted against the rule to allow censure of
Gonzales. This means simply that if a House hearing on impeachment happens, we
would only have to change the minds of 20 per cent of those voting nay or not
voting.
Let the administration bask in a moment of glory but then let’s take Mr.
Gonzales to court; the only court he does not now own, the court of the House of
Representatives. Let the sun shine in and tell the ugly truths of how this
Justice Department is not much different than the Mafia itself. Impeach the man
who put the black eye on American values, the man who says it is okay to torture
and keep in prison persons without charges, the man who attacked the very system
of justice that made America great. Impeach Mr. Gonzales now.
Thanks for Everyone's Help on our
Impeachment Petition
05/07/07
Lots of people have been asking about what happened to our impeachment
movement, the push for a county grand jury in my home town of Muskogee,
Oklahoma. The answer is simple enough. Impeachment is now a bill up for
consideration in the House of Representatives, so we have made a decision to
push with all our energy to develop support for this bill. We feel without
question that once an investigation starts with Cheney it will spill over to
others including the President. Here is my letter to the editor thanking
citizens of my home town and county for signing the petition and for all of you
have signed our on line petitions, we thank you for your effort to seize the
power away from the profiteers of war and help get it back to the people.
Letter to Muskogee Phoenix editor, David Gerard, 05/07/07
Late in the summer last year, we decided to push for a Grand Jury
Investigation of the Bush/Cheney Administration. Oklahoma has a clause in its
constitution that allows for a citizens empanelment of a grand jury with a
certain percentage of a county's registered voters signing the petition. By
October we had about 1300 signatures and things seemed to be going our way. The
November election had a Democratic Land slide basically because of the anti-Bush
movement sweeping the land and mostly this was because of the war in IRAQ.
Locally we had a change of the guard in the local District Attorney's office and
it appeared that the new administration might actually co operate in the Grand
Jury movement to investigate the President and his men.
Many of our supporters were not happy with our decision to wait a few months
and see how the landscape in Washington actually looked for impeachment, but we
decided to put things on hold. We are now going to abandon our local drive for
impeachment in favor of putting all of our energy behind an impeachment bill
that is in the House of Representatives sponsored by Dennis J. Kucinich.
I know he wants to impeach the Vice President and that is the gist of his
bill, but does any one doubt that if an investigation really got rolling on Vice
President Cheney he would not be history as they say in a "New York Minute."
Former Federal Prosecutor Elizabeth de Le Vegas told me in a radio interview
that she thought the same type of prosecutions could occur against him as in
Enron.
It appears that Cheney is pushing the envelope when he says he has no
financial interest in Halliburton. He still has 433,000 shares of stock options
in that company. I saw a report the other day those stocks are selling for about
$33.00 a share, I don't have a calculator handy but that is a lot of money. It
is true it is in a charitable trust and he promised to donate the profits to
charity. There is one small catch and one large one here that we can not deny.
First of all this trust is revocable and secondly Halliburton and its KBR
security group has reaped billions, not millions in income due to false
pretenses. Remember Cheney was never shy about saying that Iraq had WMDs along with
many other statements that led to a military action in which his shares showed
marked improvement in value thanks to "no bid" contracts from the government.
So as my grandfather used to say, "You gotta start somewhere." So impeachment
is in the House now; let's push for it. I am asking all 1300 plus persons who
signed our petition here in Muskogee county to pick up the phone and call
Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office at 202-225-0100 and tell her you want an
investigation into the financial dealings of the Vice President and to put
"impeachment on the table."
I want to thank everyone who took the time to sign the petition for making
their wishes known and I do hope you will continue to push for an investigation.
The circumstantial evidence is just too strong for us as a law abiding public to
ignore. We have our foot in the door now in Congress; let's insist justice be
done. An impeachment investigation must take place or our reputations as
Americans will forever be in jeopardy.
The Top 25 Crooks in the Bush/Cheney Administration
02/15/07
One of the reasons we think impeachment is the only option to get rid of this
group of crooks and hoods who are the Bush/Cheney administration is laid out in
this report. The top 25 of the 160 are spread mostly in parts of the government
where the "money" is. Several from the department of Air Force, Army, etc. but
the thing that jumps out is the number who inhabit Homeland Security and other
departments that have had increased spending with little or no over sight from
Congress because of the terrorism issues.
The way the Bush/Cheney administration has framed this situation is ingenious
and dangerous. If one dares question spending and actions of these agencies
charged with checking the increase in terrorism you are immediately branded "a
traitor." In fact I have been called that by well meaning people who have been
"hood winked" by this tact. Their tactic is how dare you attack these people who
are only trying to save your life and your country.
How have the crooks in the Bush/Cheney administration managed this? Mafia
tactics, pure and simple. First pay off those who have influence. Fox News is a
prime example of payola going amuck and we aren't talking about playing rap
records either. How do they do this, they allow the journalists to get
government and corporate grants and contracts for projects executed by their
families, wives, daughters, etc. Remember it is not smart to "bite the hand that
feeds you."
Then there is the pressure put on highly priced executives in news, Tim
Russert of NBC being a prime example. For mutual benefit, Russert chose to play
loose with the truth so he could keep his contacts and party invitations coming
from the highest levels of government. Testimony to this fact exists in the
Libby trial which is now wrapping up in D.C. and then there is the example of
number 25, take a key person in Public Broadcasting and either give him the
opportunity to make money, or perhaps he was appointed so he could make money
illegally in return for slanting the coverage of this great so called liberal
news source toward the goal of corporate and personal graft in the name of
privatization.
Indeed, government is broken and it was done so, slowly and surely, by those
who have a mission and that is to steal as much wealth as possible and disarm
those who might stop them.
E.
Howard Hunt, Tom DeLay and Two Election Fraud Convictions in Ohio
01/25/07
With the news overnight of convictions of two people in fraudulent recounts
of the Ohio Presidential election in 2004, the passing of famed CIA operative
E.Howard Hunt who was involved in the Watergate scandal this week and Tom
DeLay's conspiracy charges being considered again as viable, it does bring home
the idea that sometimes things never change. The trial of Scooter Libby in its
first week is featuring a public spat that has a promise of a mud-slinging cat
fight between the two men who act for their leaders, Libby and Karl Rove. As
testimony comes rolling out, it will be apparent regardless of what kind of spin
we put on it, the crooks are back in charge of government.
A little-noticed story this week is the one involving Tom DeLay. Evidently
his dismissed conspiracy count is not going to be dismissed for long or at least
that is the hope of the prosecutor. This charge is now in the highest Texas
Court and even if DeLay pulls out another miracle with a dismissal of this
appeal from the prosecutor, the PR is not good. It is obvious to everyone that
while masquerading as a do-good Christian man, he was a do-bad thug.
One thing people in the Republican party need to stop and think about, think
before blindly supporting the Bush Crowd and their two bit crooks who are now
installed in almost every major office in the Administrative branch of
government, is why do these scandals always hit the Republicans.
Am I saying there are no crooks in the Democratic party, no, not really. Many
Republicans can say that the press is after them, well, I think that is not the
case now. It is true that Nixon frequently was the object of press stories that
showed him to be the crook he was. In these latter times, the press is no longer
very objective, so maybe someone needs to start naming the press as the crooks
they are as well. I have no sympathy for my journalism friends, they have let
the power of money and position move their objective brains into a status quo
coma.
It is my feeling that many people will be amazed as the politicians are
exposed in the Republican party but it is also my feeling that they would never
have become the crooks they are without the enabling power of the press. The
right thing is to use those conspiracy charges not only against the Mr. DeLay
but maybe to a few well placed media people, editors, publishers, broadcasters
and columnists. What has happened to the press in America is very, very sad
indeed.
So in summary, dirty politics are a way of life at the White House, the
previous congress was a den of thieves shaking down everyone for themselves and
their corporate partners and now it is confirmed, BUSH did not win in 2004, Ohio
was fixed just like Florida was fixed in 2000. Where is the outrage from the
press, the public? Until it comes, America will continue to be the home of the
crooks and no one is brave...enough to stand up and put a stop to it. Hopefully
this will change, this year.
White House
Correspondents Association Dinner
01/19/07
Rich Little, the comedian chosen by the White House Correspondents
Association to headline the annual correspondents dinner on April 21, has been
told by organizers of the event that “they don’t want a repeat of last year’s
performance by Stephen Colbert.” “They don’t want anyone knocking the president.
He’s really over the coals right now, and he’s worried about his legacy,” Little
said. “I won’t even mention the word ‘Iraq.’”
I have interviewed Little several times, one time he even took time out of
his dinner at Batista's restaurant to talk to me on the air at the old KVEG. He
is big Bush man, big fan of both Bushes, during my last interview with him he
was bragging about how wonderful and sincere President Bush's mother was.
"She just doesn't go for the off color or sarcastic stuff" he told me. I
think if you check into his private life, you will find Rich Little has made
lots of money with deals that in part were sent his way by the Bush Family.
So this does not surprise me at all, their picking him for the
correspondent's dinner. Remember the unintended consequences of all this social
whirl in DC over the years that gradually included columnists and reporters has
poisoned the well of the oversight duty of a free press. I think when historians
look back at what happened in the early 2lst Century, the Press will be blamed
more for the fall of the US than any other group. No questions asked, no real
questions asked about events surrounding IRAQ, the taking of Civil Liberties,
graft that is now rampant in every department of our government, 9/11, torturing
of fellow human beings and lots of "hanky panky" in the financial arena of
banking and stock market dealings.
Am I optimistic? Yes, I think Mr. Little better pray Mr. Bush is still there
by the time this event rolls around, the Impeachment bandwagon is rolling and
there really is nothing that any one can do to stop it, especially if you are a
neo-con.
October 24 Another BS Day in Talk Radio History
10/23/06
Tuesday, October 24 is exactly two weeks before the "off year " election, one
that is always dismissed as not important but usually is as important to the
nation as any Presidential election. This year it is a bell weather of sorts,
all the polls, and most of the pundits say it is going to be a blowout against
the status quo and most Republicans will be sent home. Evidence is mounting to
the contrary however, not that the Bush factor is suddenly getting new support
in the populace, no far from that. The evidence is more sinister to our
democracy, 80 percent of the voting machines in American can be tampered and
changed by clever computer geeks. It is true; ask anyone in the computer
business and they laugh as they tell you how simple a Republican vote can show
up as a Democratic vote, even with a paper trail right in front of your eyes
with a rigged program and printer.
October 24 is significant for some other reason just as sinister. Most if not
all of the talk show hosts in America will be in Washington D.C. at an
expense-paid orgy of easy access to the biggest of the big in the Republican
party. Hundreds of hours will be spent by these demons of democracy such as Sean
Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, and Michael
Medved and a cast of supporting players. The man who organized this straight
forward move toward a national movement in political hypnotism is one of them,
Tony Snow, our Press Secretary for the administration.
Karl Rove and K street PR firms are probably close to an erotic climax in
delight over this move. Thousands of hours of radio and TV time slanted by a
shameless effort of the powerful to influence these mental midgets of the air
waves with booze, money, power, and even contracts to the next of kin for
worthless PR jobs handed out at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars
form the governmental agencies spearheaded by the traitors of the American
Dream, the neo-conservative movement. PAYOLA, refined and moved form Hollywood
to Washington where it lives and multiplies by the likes of flacks who give
political opinions on Fox and other networks without anyone asking if they have
a conflict of interest.
I have been in radio a long time. I rose in the business from a kid who
worked weekends at KBIX in high school to ultimately doing a daily show by
satellite on 192 stations. I am now on the internet only because this is the
only place where I can still get an audience for my mission of "truth and
justice for all." The conservative program executives don't like that
description of my show, they spin it as a liberal or progressive talk fest. Alas
in a universe dedicated to conservatism by the listening audience, truth and
justice does some times sound like liberal trash talk so hence, I saw the light
and went to where I could find an audience who liked to hear a full description
of what really is happening, not by me the pontificator, but by major guests who
should and do know because they are the movers and shakers of the world.
I better stop and change course; this is reading like a commercial. Just one
final thought, I am far from a liberal political figure, most of my radio shows
actually have very little to do with politics. We deal in strange and unusual
subjects and in entertainment of today and memories of times gone by with shows
on Elvis, Big Bands and the like. At the height of my talk show career, I tried
to get on my old radio station KBIX. I was on stations like KLIF in Dallas, KFYI
in Phoenix, KOMBI in Kansas City on a regular basis but for me to be heard in my
own hometown I had to buy time on Sunday morning and play tapes of shows for the
week. I paid two hundred a week out of my own pocket just for the pleasure of
letting my neighbors know I was alive and well and working.
This was the state of radio in America when I was in syndication and
evidently it is even today. Air America, a liberal talk network with the likes
of Al Franken and Randy Rhodes, declared bankruptcy a couple of Thursdays back
and on Friday morning all over the country, shocked liberals heard religious
programs instead. Why? Well not because religious programs get good ratings, no
because radio preachers pay top rates to spread the word of God and their good
deeds for humanity and until Air America ran out of money, it was doing the same
thing I was doing back in the early 90s, only on a far grander scale, pay to
play.
So when you turn on your favorite talk radio host or watch your favorite talk
host on cable TV on October 25th, remember you are witnessing first hand how we
got to this state of decay in our country. The ministers of truth forgot about
that mission in their broadcast careers long ago when they figured out as Willie
Sutton once said "Go where the money is," or something close to that... Sutton
was talking about robbing banks, these guys, the boys on the dole at Fox ...they
are talking about getting the leftovers from those who have robbed Americans of
their wealth by using privatization with its built in profits to those who
support those who giveth.. Billions transferred from the government to private
business before our eyes and we are told "buy some stock in these companies and
share the wealth." Meanwhile those on the inside laugh at how easy it all has
been.
A word from the inside of talk radio to you the listener. Take those ratings
with a grain of salt, few if any in my business are interested in my outmoded,
outdated mission of journalism..."the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
October 24, talk show hosts go to Washington; October 25, listen to their
false talk and keep reality in mind, they are the silver-tongued snakes luring
us to continue to eat of the forbidden fruit of excess and pleasure ...we are
all enjoying the music while Rome burns.
Public letter to Virginia activist on his question of conviction of
impeachment in regards to retirement benefits.
Dear Larry Bryant:
Your recent letter to Senator George Allen asking about benefits for an
impeached removed president from office brings me to the point of what our
impeachment investigation is all about here in Oklahoma. Not only do we think
they have been guilty of crimes but we think we can prove it with the grand jury
investigation and one of the punishments we will be asking the prosecutors to
pursue is reimbursement of the costs to the US from their misdeeds. One instance
would be the no bid contracts to Halliburton, and the expenses of the IRAQ war
which was knowingly started by both men without a decoration of war from
Congress. They knowingly did the aggression using the assets of the United
States in a war that was started and conducted under false pretenses.
it seems to me that as the damaged citizens of the US we would be entitled to
compensation. Perhaps compensation for every citizen but more likely a repayment
to the Federal Treasury of all monies expended under false pretenses as set
forth by numerous executive orders and speeches made by both men leading up to
the war beginning and then continuing to this day.
No doubt they will try for immunity similar to that granted policemen and
other law enforcement officials who make errors in judgment; but I would think
just the convictions alone would show that there was an intent to defraud and in
my opinion the Bush Family and the families others including Cheney, Rumsfeld
and even perhaps the secretary of state might actually be libel for
reimbursement to the treasury. If the Judge did not rule this way as part of the
punishment phase, I would suggest another civil action similar to law suits that
go after those who harm ...such as a class action suit on behalf of the United
States Tax Payer.
Best Regards,
Jerry Pippin
Co-Chairman of the Grand Jury Impeachment Committee
P.O. Box 333 Muskogee, Ok. 74402
918-682-2630
I Am Outraged!
09/27/06
In the movies, some of the best scenes are when the characters and the
audience know doom is just over the hill. Hearing the Indians on the war path
before they arrive in many old forgotten westerns, the dark of the night in a
world war two movie when the soldiers can hear the tanks and artillery shells
coming closer and closer. Today we saw a scene in Washington D.C, of the coming
doom. It came in a roll call vote for House Bill 6166. Hmm, scary how this bill
came out of no where with the 666 moniker, isn't it?
This is a defining moment in American politics. It transgresses republican
against democrat, liberal against conservative in my mind. It shows who is moral
and who is not. It shows who wants to stand up for humanity as a whole, doesn't
it?
I have been out and among the people now for several weeks talking politics
and moral behavior, law and order and who is a crook and who is not. About a
third of those I have talked with, think I am somehow un-American because I
challenge the administration and their dirty deeds of lies about war, about
terrorists and who is winning. Facts seem be immaterial to most as we talk the
issues . Five long years with billions spent and the terrorist threat is
believed to be as real as the day after 9/11; yet, for some reason, many are
willing to trust an administration that has done nothing to stop the terrorists,
in fact, the evidence is everywhere that this inept rotten to the core group of
men who rule us have created more problems than they have solved.
Now comes the defining moment and I wish it had not arrived. It is not fun to
stand up and say to the "maddening crowd" hold on a minute? What are you doing?
But someone must.
Today's vote is a vote that never should have been made. How can these men
and women who voted for torture, suspension of rights, and countless other
inhumane wrongs in the name of good live with themselves? My own congressman,
Dan Boren, has proven to me is not a man fit for office, or any position in
life. How can he vote for torture? It is beyond my understanding. From this
moment on, I am going to do everything in my power to make sure the likes of Dan
Boren never serve any longer than necessary for the public good because he has
proven he is not for the public good. He is for Stalinist, Hitler-like treatment
of others. He can dress it up anyway he wants, I think the word these days is
spin, but the fact is he wants to back the US government in efforts to force
men to drink boiling water, pulling fingernails, electric shock to genitals,
etc. etc.
I have been accused of playing favorites with Democrats against Republicans,
well, there are other Democrats that need to go home or go to jail. Isn't there
a law against backing torture and tearing down the Constitution in favor of
imprisonment for suspects without proper defense? There are other Democrats who
were favorites of mine who have shown their true colors today? That nice Ford
boy from Tennessee? Why would he vote for torture? Then there are the Democrats
who did not vote at all. How could they miss the defining vote of any human
being? How could they not take a stand? Among them one of my favorite liberals,
Ms. Jackson-Lee of Houston and Marty Meehan of Massachusetts.
Over on the Republican side, how can every congressman in my beloved state of
Oklahoma vote for torture? My hat goes off to a brave Republican who voted
against torture today, Jim Leach from Iowa.
I am not sure who is running against Boren in November, but I am going to
vote against him even if I have to write in my own name on the ticket. How can
anyone vote for these men who cast their lot with the thugs and say "go ahead
treat these men to pain, suffering and long term imprisonment. We will worry
about their guilt or innocence later, right lets see a little blood, lets hear a
few screams, ah, yea, ..." I am sick in my heart and into the depths of my soul
tonight. How could American's vote for bodily harm of fellow human beings? What
kind of world have we created?
The bulletin was a relief, I made a huge deep-breath sound, like an Alka
Seltzer commercial of old. Breaking: Three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman concedes CT
Democratic primary for senate. Lieberman has announced he will run as an
Independent.
Just as I had thought, the war and his undying support for the Bush
Administration had stuck in the political throat of the electorate. What kind of
Democrat is Joe anyway? Does he love the imperial office of the Senate so much
that he has to retain his position at any cost or is there more to it than this.
I submit to you that we, the populist part of the Democratic party, had been had
when somehow this turncoat ended up on the Gore ticket in 2000. You know the
political movers and shakers of the Democratic party, the party of the people,
knew Lieberman's true stripes. Why did Al Gore, a true man of the people, accept
this fellow on the ticket anyway? Questions about this keep me awake at night,
when it comes to Gore. A man who I truly believe is a man of the people and I
hope most of us realize how different 2006 would have been if Gore had actually
won. Well, that is not actually true, all the evidence shows he did win. That is
one of lingering questions. Why did Gore give up and allow the coronation of
George W. Bush and his Neo-Con court?
Now Lieberman is going to turn his back on the party that supported him for
18 years, even elevated him to a post few men ever dream of achieving: candidate
for Vice President of the United States. What kind of man could then behave like
a battered wife and cuddle up to those who cheated him out of his place in the
sun? I can tell you in five short words, "not much of a man."
So what if he succeeds in splitting the Democratic party vote in November and
a Republican gets the seat? I don't think that is likely to happen, but even if
it does, could any East Coast Republican be as bad as Joe Lieberman when it
comes to protecting the working man and taking the high moral ground we expect
from our leaders? I don't think so.
I am cautiously optimistic that the death throes of the neo-conservative
movement in the United States will come to pass in November. Fifty seats could
swing for the Democrats in "safe" House of Representatives." I expect it to be
so, most political pundits do not, but they have missed most of the expectations
of the people for years now. The Senate will be closer in numbers and the blank
check of Cheney/Bush will no longer be a political chip.
77 percent of the people according to exit polls tonight, said the war was a
major issue and well it should be. In the name of greed, power and prejudice,
Bush/Cheney (I think the way I referred to this earlier is more appropriate) has
caused untold damage of lives, property and hope for peace anywhere. 9/11 is now
becoming more of a topic and we are working on evidence, real evidence, from
witnesses who will say they helped in fixing 9/11 so it could happen. Voter
machine fraud rampant everywhere, looting of the Federal Treasury in the name of
privatization, all now well past ideology and into the shady greedy underworld
of crime. Most of the administration is populated by two-bit thieves in the
night? We will start on the road of trying to prove this ..right here in my
little town of Muskogee, Oklahoma.
How, by a county grand jury investigation. We will get the signatures, we
will push the prosecutors, we will push the envelope and finally this haze of
wrong doing will become apparent to most if not all of us. So help us by signing
the grand jury petitions, one on line and the other one which will be only for
voters in my little county in the heart of a "red " state, Oklahoma. Somehow I
think it is fitting we start the action with a signing kick off on Labor Day;
after all isn't this what it is really all about...taking the power back from
the elite and giving it to the common man. America needs to cleanse itself of
the power brokers and greedy and get back to ideals of Roosevelt, Truman and
Kennedy. Only with people power will we be able to survive as the leader of the
world, otherwise, I am afraid we are doomed.
So Mr. Lieberman, so long, it hasn't been so good to know you.
Jerry sent this letter of support to Larry
Bryant, whose letters are printed below.
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2006 9:01 AM Subject: Fw: CIA v.
The "UFO Press"
Mr. Larry W. Bryant, Please be advised that
www.jerrypippin.com will gladly
entertain joining with you and others from the media in protest including
possible legal action if deemed necessary. This is an out rage particularly when
the CIA asserts that Roswell is not the public's business. After all, this
government seems to forget that they operate on the people's money, so the
people have paid for the entitled to see what their hard earned money is buying
for their country.
As a side note, if the administration continues to operate in this manner of
high secrecy, not allowing the average tax payer to see the fruits of his labor?
Then I suggest we only tax the corporations and allow the people to go free.
Unfortunately this bunch of highway robbers and black operatives have chosen
another route, letting the Corporations off the hook and taxing the middle class
into oblivion while saying they are doing the opposite.
Go get them and I am sure other media especially involved in the UFO field
will join with me in supporting any Court Action possible. Meanwhile I will
contact my congressman, Rep. Dan Boren, though a Democrat, leads the pack in
getting energy company money for his campaigns. He learned well from his father
who has turned the Oklahoma University Campus is one super advertising mall with
big corporate donors with their huge name plates making this famed institution
of higher learning look like a buffet of advertising signs.
[LWB Note: Ever since its inception 40 years ago, the U. S. Freedom
of Information Act has served as a nuisance to such agencies as the U.
S. Central Intelligence Agency. Now, can you imagine this: any federal
agency's using taxpayer funds to thwart the spirit and/or letter of this
venerable open-access statute aimed at serving the informational needs
and interests of the nation's taxpayers (especially since some of those
funds were used to generate the records in question)?
Well, fellow FOIAphiles, that's what we now have in the upcoming federal
lawsuit of Bryant v. CIA. By his July 19, 2006, letter to me (quoted below), CIA
FOIA chief Scott Koch has thrown down the gauntlet -- tossing me back into the
FOIA briar patch, where I'm shaking hands with a similar victim, called the
National Security Archive. For you see, this public-interest organization housed
at the George Washington University in Washington, D. C., has once again filed
suit against the CIA FOIA folks because of the Agency's refusal to honor the
Archive's requester status as a "representative of the news media." (See a copy
of the Archive's June 14, 2006, complaint at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20060614/index.htm
It so happens that I, as a columnist for the newsstand monthly
periodical "UFO," share the same requester status as the Archive's. But
no, says Koch & Co. I, like the Archive, must get on my knees and
justify my existence under some arbitrary and capricious criteria not
envisioned by the intent of Congress.
But there's a slight variation on the theme here. I notice that the Archive's
complaint neglects to cite the organization's rights under the
freedom-of-the-press clause of the First Amendment. Nowhere does that clause's
language confine its protection to those who own a printing press, publish
literature, and distribute (for example) entertainment media. Hence, individuals
like me also enjoy the clause's protective scope in the matter of
government-related oversight, editorial criticism, citizen-directed debate, and
the eternal ideals of free access/inquiry and public accountability. In
particular, the most self-revealing statement expressed by Mr. Koch -- "The July
1947 crash [near Roswell, N.M.] is not a current event, and the UFO press is not
the general public" -- plants a red herring right at the feet of judicial
determination in, at least, the Court of Public Opinion.
As with the Archive's case, Koch errs in trying to manipulate the definition
of "news" to serve his agency's censorial proclivity. Understand this, sir: the
term "news" constitutes whatever a
publisher/editor/reporter/broadcaster/archivist and his/her readership deem it
to be -- NOT what any federal agency might deem it to be. By levying
unauthorized records-search fees upon any representative of the news media,
you're imposing a de facto, inhibitory licensing fee upon those who'd dare
exercise their freedom-of-the-press rights. First Amendment case law rejects
that official policy/practice. Note: Koch's singling out the UFO press for
disdain and disregard also violates the U. S. constitution's
equal-protection-of-the-laws provision.
I therefore encourage all producers, content providers, and consumers of such
media as UFO magazine, FATE magazine, the MUFON UFO Journal, the myriad of
UFO-related web sites/blogs, and all UFO-oriented book publishers, along with
the various UFO-related TV documentarians, to express to the CIA director their
objections to this unfair, illegal, and dangerous policy; your doing so via your
congressmen might result in an actual response from the Agency.]
We received your 5 June 2006 letter seeking to change your fee status from
"all other" to "news media." As we noted in our 20 May 2006 letter to you, a
request must satisfy ALL of the criteria set forth in our published regulations
to receive preferential fee treatment as a representative of the news media. The
records being requested must:
* concern current events;
* interest the general public;
* enhance the public understanding of the operations or activities of the U.
S. Government; and
* be disseminated to a significant element of the public at minimal cost.
You write: "Corso's role as a Pentagon-based intelligence/R&D analyst in
helping exploit the advanced technological artifacts retrieved from the July
1974 crash-landing of a 'flying saucer' near Roswell, N. M., reverberates, to
this day, in the UFO press." The July 1947 crash is not a current event, and the
UFO press is not the general public.
In addition, as you know, you have an outstanding fee balance of $30.00 for
request F-2006-01956. Please remit a check or money order made payable to the
Treasurer of the United States citing F-2006-01956 to ensure credit to your
account.
Before we can process your requests, we must receive your check or money
order for $30.00 for request F-2006-01956, and we must receive your commitment
to pay fees in the "all other" fee category for F-2006-01045.
Meanwhile, we will hold your request in abeyance for 45 days from the date of
this letter. If we do not receive your commitment to pay fees in the "all other"
fee category within that time, we will assume that you are no longer interested
in pursuing this request, and we will close this case.
Sincerely,
Scott Koch Information and Privacy Coordinator
Answer to the Misguided
07/10/06
This is a column written for a few and hopefully read by the many. It
concerns our recent efforts to try to get a grand jury to investigate
the criminal wrong doings of the President, his Vice President and the
others that lead this administration. Larry W. Bryant posted our
intentions on the forum at the Ardmore, Oklahoma newspaper. What ensured
was not just ripe debate on principles, but vicious personal attacks on
Mr. Bryant, my staff, as well as myself. These men ..three in
particular..were especially vicious to Jane Swartley one of our
producers. Calling her several names that gentlemen should not call
ladies even in jest. So I thought I would share my response to Jane
about these so called patriots with the world. Here is the letter:
Jane, I am amazed at these three fellows over at Ardmore. I know quite a few
thoughtful Republicans with a conscience (they actually exist, I have seen
them.) I am not sure where these "good old boys" have their heads. Remember I am
a good old boy too. I was born and reared in Muskogee, Oklahoma and I joined the
US Army to help defend this country back in the 60s, so I know them. I am
surprised in their steadfast defense of Dubya as there is little left to defend.
There is little this administration has done among all categories of ostensible
GOP values that they can look to with any sort of pride.
Medicare? A great program has been so altered for profits' sake by medical
interest that there is little left to be secure in the future. Dubya and the
boys are sinking it fast within a sea of red ink. Shrinking the budget?
Conservatives can't be happy with what this administration is doing for fiscal
responsibility can they? Smaller government? Not with Dubya creating a new multi
billion dollar department every month or two. Less intervention in our lives?
Well all of us know Big Brother is listening and reading our everyday
conversations and activities.
Reduced spending? Dubya has never heard of that one, especially with Dick
Cheney and his friends getting huge sums from the middle class tax payers in the
name of privatization. Increased respect in the international community? Even
the front page of a Norway newspaper this morning reports Bush did his own
people harm in a sham terrorist attack in New York and Washington D.C.
Responsible international citizen? Ha. Name your topic, Bush has failed.
Spectacularly. Intentionally.
So the only thing I wonder about tonight is why do these three down in
Ardmore say such lies about me when the only one lying is their leader. I am not
anti soldier, I was one. I want to impeach Bush/Cheney because I love this
country and I love humanity and these neo-conservative warriors are far from
being nice. They can laugh all they want, but we will prove ..history will
show..that this administration was the worst..for America ..for the world.
Torture, fear mongering, and greed do not make good legs for leadership. We need
to stop this trend that is making America anything but the land of the free and
I am sure sooner or later, our three friends who scoff and snicker and tell lies
about our lives and reasons for living will suddenly accept the truth...THEY
HAVE BEEN HAD by the snake oil salesman who sold them false premises for the
sole purpose of stealing their money and their freedom.
In closing Jane, thanks for a good fight and I trust you will continue to try
to cause thinking men and women to do just that...think. In the end, good will
win over evil and don't think for a second that these men and women in our
administration who try to say they are religious and moral, are. They are not. Deeds count
much more than words and their deeds have been dastardly for sure.
John Q. Public is the Final
Authority in American Government
05/23/06
Doug Thompson a reporter for Capital Hill Blues in D.C. on
December 5, wrote this in a column - Thompson insists he has two sources
who were there and heard the President cursing the Constitution and
those who oppose him. We all know he publicly said he was the decider.
So in Mr. Bush's mind it seems pretty clear that he is already the
dictator of the United States of America and not just a lowly elected
official even though it is the highest office the people can bestow in
this country, that being President of the United States. Here is how
that meeting went according to Thompson and a half year later no one is
saying it is not true.
The meeting was with key Republicans from the Hill on his efforts to keep the
Patriot Law as is. Bush was forceful and there was no way anyone could
misunderstand his words. “I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the
President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that
the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a
goddamned piece of paper!”
Three people present for the meeting confirmed the words from the President
to Thompson. Now let's fast-forward to Sunday morning, May 21, on "Face The
Nation" where Attorney General Alberto Gonzales calmly stated that journalists
could be prosecuted for doing stories about government secret activities. He
also said that the government will continue to track telephone calls in the US
including phone calls made by reporters. Unless you think this is not happening,
all we have to do is quote ABC 's Brian Ross, an investigative reporter who says
he is "treated like a drug runner or terrorist by the administration" as he
attempts to investigate stories. The lead investigative correspondent for the
network learned last week he was under surveillance by our government.
As a talk show host and broadcast personality who deals with news events and
news personalities, I have had an interesting personal journey the past six
years of the Bush Administration.
When Mr. Bush's forces were able to get the Supreme Court to do a political
decision and make him President, I was shocked that the Gore people did not do
more. In fairness to Al Gore, he has been quoted as saying "In our system,
there's no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and
violent revolution." Gore's lawyer, David Boiles, has been quoted as saying not
only does Gore think the election was stolen, but so does he.
As a person who was a Gore Supporter and a believer in the rule of the ballot
box, I was outraged. So for four years we did everything we could, risking and
losing quite a lot of money from advertisers who did not want our
anti-administration slant associated with their messages. This was certainly the
case from September 11, 2001 forward. The least bit of criticism met with an
onslaught of cancellations and threats of cancellations of advertising money
even though many told us off the record they agreed with our stance. They just
thought it would be bad for business.
When Mr. Bush won the second election in November of 2004 with a far more
clever manipulation of the ballots in our opinion, we decided to back off and
let others do the heavy lifting. By the Spring of 2006, it was apparent to us
that no one controlled by national advertising would do much about the
IMPEACHABLE offenses of this President and Vice President. We had hoped an
ambitious Attorney General of some state would step forward with an
investigation, but none have. It was very clear to us that the Federal system
was useless as it was now controlled by this anti-American Neo-Conservative
movement. Then Larry W. Bryant contacted me.
Bryant is a well known activist in the political arena and has written
several books. His main claim to fame is his ability to give the Pentagon fits
over Freedom of Information requests. He is like a mad-dog who never lets go
after he takes his first bite. Bryant and some lawyer friends had come up with a
different tack to IMPEACH and they contacted me.
Two States, Oklahoma and New Mexico, had an interesting twist in the grand
jury statutes. Simply put, five hundred signatures from a county and a local
grand jury could be called to investigate the charges of criminal activity of
even the President and Vice President. It was too much for me to resist. The
call to duty was made and I accepted for better or for worst. I have decided to
make the effort to get a local grand jury in a small Oklahoma town to take on
the giants of our nation in far away Washington D.C. It is a long shot, not
necessarily getting the signatures or even getting a Judge or an appeal if the
Judge refuses to empanel the grand jury. The long shot is two-fold, will the
local prosecutors take this charge seriously and do a good job investigating or
will they bend to the pressures from Big Brother that will surely come?
The impeachable offenses are many. Lies and false pretenses about the war in
Iraq. Well over 2500 dead American men and women due to the actions of the
administration in creating false reasons for war. False reasons ranging from
saying Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attacks, nuclear threats that did
not exist, biological weapons that did not exist and on and on.
The 9/11 attacks themselves have many unanswered questions which will show at
the very least a huge incompetence on the Bush Administration and at the most
some much more sinister. Spying on regular Americans. The huge misuse of public
funds by giving billions of dollars to politically connected businesses such as
Halliburton to do the people's business . The refusal to reveal government
cooperation with energy companies by the Vice President that has resulted in
three times higher gasoline prices than in the Clinton years.
Then there is the torture issue. How can Americans stand by while our
government conducts animalistic mauling of human beings in the name of security.
Pulling fingernails and toenails out with each wrong answer, electric shocks to
private parts of men and women, things are being done with official sanction
that masters of Sadism would only dream possible. What kind of men and women are
these government condoners?
There are many more impeachable offenses and our congress and the Democratic
party sit like spineless jelly fish on a bench by the beach in the sunlight as
the neo-con movement passes out the tax dollars to political donors from every
type of business operation from pharmaceutical, to insurance, to financial
services to the big daddy of them all, defense businesses. The objective is
clear to anyone who wants to see it. Break the Federal Treasury and dismantle
the social fabric of 50 years of legislation that was designed, not to help the
wealthy, but the average American family.
The mission is clear, stop the madness and return us to the sanity of an
America we have known in decades past. The job has fallen to the meek and least
powerful, but we, the people in a tiny place in a red state can undo the actions
of the cowboys of fear and loathing, the members of the Bush Administration.
How? Simply by using the legal system to go after the "decider" and his fellow
warriors of destruction. I am afraid, criminal charges being investigated by a
county attorney in a rural area of a small state might be our only hope of
restoring decency and moral conviction to the political arena. So our march
toward a grand jury investigation of President George W. Bush and Vice President
Richard (Dick) Cheney has begun.
With the elections in Israel over and obviously a move toward
splinter parties being evident there, it has occurred to me that we may
be headed in the same direction here. I am a believer in the two party
system, but something has happened with the parties losing their ability
to define themselves. I am going to attempt to do this now, as I am
afraid it is almost too late. What is the term we use, "Get back to
basics?"
The overall definition: Republicans believe in a strong government
that tends to favor business and financial interest with the
understanding that the benefits will trickle down to the population as a
whole once the special interests of big business and banking are
fulfilled. The former definition of Republicans sounds good but does not
work very well in my opinion. The GOP mantra for decades was, " Less
government interference in commerce and have government be stronger when
it is closer to home." In other words, more of a Republic type of
government with each state having strong rules and abilities to control
the population rather than a central government in Washington.
The Democratic Party is designed for a stronger central government
with Federalism or edicts put forth from the central government to the
states and municipalities. The thinking is that we are indeed one nation
rather than 50 different states and that certain types of laws should be
enforced on a Federal level due to the ability of local and state law
enforcement to be compromised by local officials. This is the reason
civil rights laws, minimum wage laws, environmental laws and the like
are pushed by Democrats on a Federal level.
Basically all political parties have special interests, the special
interests of the Democrats tend to center around social issues and the
Republican special interests seem to be centered around big business in
general. Now the exception to this has developed into a mix mash of
people saying they are Republican or Democrat but not necessarily
following the lead of the party. In the Democrat camp it is the
influence of the Southern voter and candidates who tend to support
states rights whenever possible and in the Republican ranks you have the
neo conservative movement that tends to want a strong central government
to control their issues.
Now what kind of Democrat am I? I am a liberal in every sense of the
word. I favor a bottom-up or strong foundation to government. In other
words, the Mr. Smith goes to Washington thing, people taking time out of
their lives to make sure the government is not captured by special
interests but only for the benefit of the people, with equal justice and
economic opportunity. It is interesting that Wall Street tends to
support Republican policies, but in actual fact, under Democratic
administrations, it has done very well.
Here again, a strong financial house with a good economic foundation.
Instead of paying less for labor, I suggest when people are paid a good
income, they will spend money more readily and over the long haul the
businessman makes more because there is more action in the economy. It
is a producing economy, not an investing economy and this populism I
think makes good sound financial sense.
Strong social issues can be strong economic issues, equal rights for
all means more money for everyone in the long run doesn't it? In the
medical field alone, many doctors have realized they are being told by
insurance interest as well as government interest what they can charge,
etc. Many of them have come to the conclusion that they would be better
off and so would the patient if the profit motives are shifted from
insurance and third-party payers to a single-party payer system. The
point being, a doctor spending a million dollars a year for an expensive
office infrastructure complete with accountants and specialists needed
not to administer care, but to collect fees, is growing increasingly
futile. Perhaps a simple fee arrangement of $200,000 to the doctor
instead of some years unexpected fees taking 85 to 90 per cent of his
income would be better for him in the long run. On the patient side, it
certainly would be better for all expenses to be pooled, saving hundreds
of dollars in premiums not yearly but monthly, in some cases.
Why does this not happen? Because both political parties are
obligated now to the big business donors due to de-regulation in
broadcasting allowing broadcasters to make huge profits from the
politicians and from government agencies. The Democrats in previous
decades legislated that broadcasters had to give free time to these
causes and charge little or nothing to political campaigns and make sure
their coverage was balanced by equal-time laws. All of this has been
done away with by republican/conservatives believing that the free
market would take care of the problem. It hasn't; it has increased the
cost of running government by many billions.
So as a liberal or populist Democrat, I believe restraints should be
replaced in many areas. Taxes should be shifted back to the ability to
pay, using the tax code to cause employers to hire people and pay
benefits rather than the opposite which is now encouraged by flat tax
ideas. We need to get away from privatizing things that are not
compatible to making money.
The cry of the Republican party was, "Run government like a
business." Well, guess what, some things are not supposed to make money,
police and fire protection, safety concerns, national defense, but under
the Republican mantra of running government like business, a chosen few
politically connected are making billions and we are getting for return
a very poor investment on our tax dollars.
So the difference between being a Republican and Democrat is very
simple. A Democrat wants to make business make money the old fashioned
way, "Earn it." The Republicans have found an easier way,
government-supported tax breaks, actual payments of government to
private enterprise at over-inflated rates, and less regulation because
after all, that costs money and who wants to spend it for the common
good?
The lines between Republican moderates and Democratic moderates is
very blurred and most of them do not have control of any of the agenda
at this point. A good Democrat is willing to compromise, to give a
little here and there, but only for the overall good of the nation.
Sometimes special interests have to be stopped and it is always a good
thing to stop and examine each issue by one simple standard: who
benefits? If the common good of the people are not the winners in a
piece of legislation or executive order, then I submit, we do not do
anything to harm.
So in summary, haven' t you wondered why Democrats support fair labor
laws, environmental issues, voting rights with less red tape on who gets
to vote? It is really a very simple thing, Democrats have a tradition of
being for the people and just for a precious few at the top. Equality
and opportunity sums up what the Democratic party should be recognized
for, fairness and always a desire to err on the side of the people
against the special interests of the few.
Here in my native Oklahoma it is a cloudy and somewhat dreary day
with a cold north wind, some leftover rain but no White Christmas. Soon
my family will be gathering around for for round two of eating, joking
and gift giving. All my life we always had a big Christmas Eve and that
tradition has continued long after the passing of my parents, Virgil and
Bertha Lee. Somehow that is the point of this column.
Stewardship...passing of the torch...institutions and life styles living far
beyond the mortal lives of each of us. No one in my immediate family is anything
but a Democrat, but I did notice as we grew older and our families expanded with
various in-laws, some Republicans have crept into the scene. I marveled last
night as we gathered around the tree and waited in anticipation for our gifts,
who was a Democrat and who was a Republican. As far as I can could tell, my
sister's husband's relatives were the only ones that were Republican. Both of
them, young ladies in their 20's were well educated and upwardly mobile... they
were just delightful in all things but their admiration for George W. Bush, our
President. They worshipped him.
One went fifteen hundred miles to see him at some sort of GOP gathering in
Washington and she still talked about him as if he were some sort of "matinee
idol." When pressed she did admit the economy was bad, but her husband was doing
well, too bad about the others. I stayed away from the war, after all it is the
season of Good Will and I did not want to bring up a sour subject, one of death
and destruction. I would like to say both of these women were just not informed,
but that is not the case. They were proud of the fact they listened to "talk
radio," Fox News and oh yes, they liked NPR but when pressed all they could name
was Terri Gross and her fine interview show about mostly entertainment out of
Philadelphia.
The point here is simple in nature, all of my friends are outraged at the
needless destruction of Iraq, the taking away of our privacy and civil
liberties, the graft in government that rivals the Teapot Dome scandals of the
20's, etc. etc. These two young Republican women, all they could talk about was
their "sexy president." When I said I didn't think he was sexy, I thought he
looked coked out...they smiled and said something to the effect, "so what, he is
still good looking." We even talked about super churches and the Joe Olstein
wife problem, she getting kicked off an airplane for bad behavior. They agreed
the super churches were for the rich, mostly. The Republican party was for the
rich, mostly and that I evidently had very bad taste in men's looks if I didn't
see Cowboy George as some sort of bigger than life sex symbol.
I would have argued with them, but in a way, they were right. I mean I still
think Bill Clinton is the greatest, but I dare not mention his name to them, it
would spoil their Christmas.
Since they got their information from talk radio, I knew there was no answer
for them. I had been in talk radio in the midst of the battles for the hearts
and minds and the conservatives won. Not because they were right, they won
because of the free market. Fifteen percent of the total available audience
flocked to talk radio because it was conservative and told them what they wanted
to hear regardless of the facts. When you have 40 or 45 stations or more
competing for an audience, 15 percent is a strong percentage. So the
conservatives won this battle, but have they won the war?
I marvel at this group of citizens who spout out with a twitching expression
and eyes flashing, the word "liberal." Their idea of a liberal is far from mine.
I remember what JFK said about it almost 50 years ago, "If by a 'Liberal' you
mean ..., someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who
cares about the welfare of the people --civil rights, and their civil liberties
... then I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal.''
So stewardship is really what it is all about these days and I am afraid many
of the conservatives agree, the problem as I see it is they want to pass on
their life's work and I want to pass on the work of the common good. It should
be the same but somehow it has been altered to some other than "goodwill toward
men." It is now thought of ..in not so good a term of thinking frame as ...I
want to pass on my works and only to those I know and love... the common good
means taking away from the rich and giving to the poor and most of these
conservatives think of themselves as "rich" even though they probably have less
money than many of us "liberals." It is the unintended consequence of the
success of the American dream, I guess.
Jack Blanchard, the well known poet and songwriter/performer said it best, "For many this is the first Christmas and for others it is their last."
Stewardship after all is what it is all about isn't it? Will our ideas of
justice and fairness survive the ages to come? For the first time, the outcome
seems to be in doubt.
Casey Clare sent me a joke last night that was funny, but
unfortunately rings true. I want to share it with you. It is about five
surgeons discussing who are the best patients for surgery.
The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table
because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."
The second responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything
inside them is color-coded."
The third surgeon says, "No, I really think librarians are the best;
everything inside them is in alphabetical order."
The fourth surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers. Those
guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when
the job takes longer than you said it would."
But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: "You're all wrong.
Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls,
no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable."
Unfortunately many politicians behave in a manner that makes this joke almost
true. We can change this you know, get involved in the political system today.
People can change it and make it work. We have the government we voted for...how
do you as an individual do it, simply get involved in the political machinery.
Find out from the party of your choice, when your next local meeting takes
place. Go and observe, introduce yourself and demand quality candidates.
Not for a minute do I believe most Republicans want the graft, corruption and
ineptness that plagues our government today. It is simply a case of the
neo-conservative faction working with corporate interests that have hijacked
this political party. The same goes for Democrats. My experience has been quite
simply a puzzled reaction that most Democrats are scratching their heads at some
of the comments and votes in congress of their leaders.
We as a people have let the few speak and act for the majority. It can be
stopped. Now is the time to do it, not election time a year from now. Get
involved, after all who we select to run is just as important as when we vote on
the winners and losers. The way it is now, we, the American People, are the
losers. We deserve better, so demand it and do your part to improve the system.
Politics does count. It reaches into your pocketbook; your everyday
life-styles and overall quality of life is controlled by politicians. Don't you
think you need a little more say about how things are done? Well, we had better
start using our power or we are endanger of losing it forever.
Unintended Consequences of
a Conservative Philosophy 09/15/05
I have not written a column since the Hurricane Katrina disaster, on
purpose. I applaud those that have. Now I would like to write a few
opinions about it all. The first lesson from this disaster was a simple
one and from listening to President Bush speak tonight on TV, it did not
seem his side got the message at all. The message is simple and the
events the past two weeks prove it to be very true: PRIVATIZATION does
not WORK.
Well I take it back, it works for some folks. Those who can do business with
the government, like the company that rented the trucks to FEMA at $600.00 a day
and there are over a hundred of them sitting at an Air Force Base in Alabama,
never used. They are full of ice and water and supplies. It is working for the
trucking company. However privatization is not working very well for the
refugees and that is indeed what they are.
Reports from all over the Gulf Coast say razor fence barbed wire double
strings are springing up, keeping residents from their property and keeping
refugees contained in places of "safety." It looks more like a Prisoner of War
Camp to me. We watched with horror the inaction that allowed thousands to die,
yes, thousands, don't pay attention to the official death count, it is being
deflated. It sure looked like "ethnic cleansing" to me. It appeared like an
official effort to get rid of the poor and the minorities from a major resort
city. This has developed into a white separatist's dream.
There was the President on TV tonight (September 15th) blue light, blue
shirt, pretty background of a landmark in the French Quarter. He was speaking
better than he ever has. No stammers, no hesitations, he was a man on a mission.
But what really is the mission here?
I think he laid out three major points, but those were not the points I was
getting. First of all, he mentioned the fact than he had hired a private company
who knew how to respect the dead to recover the remains. Wait a minute, is he
talking about the company in Houston, the one that was implicated more than once
in the past with body dumping? The President looked so sincere when he mentioned
this; but he forgot to mention that Kenyon International was a Bush supporter,
friends of the family. They are being paid $118,000 plus per day for two months
to do this dirty work of recovering the dead and maybe even hiding the dead.
Hey, what are friends for anyway?
The President mentioned minority-owned businesses and small businesses and
all I could think of were billions of dollars of contracts going to Halliburton,
Bechtel, and the regular suspects. All friends of George, but Hey, what are
friends for anyway? He said he was going to rebuild New Orleans and just hours
earlier the Corps of Engineers said that 150,000 homes would be coming down by
Bull Dozer and plowed under the rich damp delta dirt. Could this new NEW ORLEANS
be leaner and whiter? I suspect that is the plan, old Louis Armstrong is
probably turning over in his grave as he watches the heritage of New Orleans
being transformed into a modern Las Vegas of the South.
Gambling? Who said anything about gambling? Well, it is the unspoken idea
floating everywhere in the city just like the debris in the leftover water from
a broken levee that was concrete and had just been refurbished. Gambling. What a
way to make the city money, pay the bankers back for the rebuilding after they
have repossessed the land. What did that smooth-talking southern boy Governor
Hailey Barbour say on TV the other night, Mississippi gets 50 million a week
from the Casinos?
Then there was the little nice statement from Mr. Bush..with a smile.
Something to the effect, we are going to make Federal Lands available for
homesteading, if a displaced person can get a mortgage or a grant or help from
Habitat for Humanity, we will give them the land. Sounds good until you think
about it? Where is this land? Most Federal Land is not close to anything and
certainly not residential or business-friendly. Oh, I see, Halliburton and the
others, they will do what Del Webb did, transform the desert into lovely places
of public housing ...all at a handsome profit for George's friends; but, hey,
what are friends for anyway?
What would be there result of making a million people move to Federal Lands,
even if they could qualify for loans. It would be simple. New Orleans would be a
resort city without the baggage, the concentration of minorities would be spread
out around the country and the government would guarantee all of the loans for
the bankers, so Hurricane Katrina would become the pin-up queen of government
giveaways. Do I have a better idea?
Yes, has anybody heard about the Works Progress Administration in the great
depression? It worked then and it will work now, put the 60 billion to work in
the Gulf Coast, with the businesses there and the people there getting the
money. Let the homeless have the jobs and let them build back their homes, their
towns, and yes, even old NEW ORLEANS could shine like new paint in the morning
sun. It is very simple, put the money back in the hands of the common man, the
one who was damaged. Will they do this? I doubt it..
You see President Bush has never been accused of being the smartest kid on
the block. He didn't get it. PRIVATIZATION DOES NOT WORK. Oh, I forgot, for a
few at the top, it is working, they are making lots of money from the middle
class tax payer, they get the contracts, the money and the tax cuts...you and
me, the great American Middle Class, we get the shaft. The poor, dislocated
people from the Gulf Coast, they get to start all over ...somewhere else.
I
notice with some satisfaction and also with some disbelief the public
and private statements of Right-wingers these days. They seem to be saying
things that are blatantly improper and perhaps in some cases, illegal, with
impunity. First of all, lets talk about Pat Robertson. His case is so outlandish
that it seems to a parody. In fact, many of my right-wing positive thinking
religious friends seem to think he really didn't say it and it was made up by
the liberal media.
Well, he did call for the assassination of the President of Venezuela. I
can't help but think that this is illegal and seems to be some sort of
conspiracy to commit murder. I would like to see charges filed against him. I
don't think we have an extradition treaty with that country, but at least they
should be filed. If I got on the air said let's assassinate someone, you can bet
the law and order guys would be after my head. Why not Pat Robertson?
The puzzling thing about this is the fact that he felt safe enough to make
this statement. First of all, how can he keep support of the Christian community
when he advocates killing? I don't think killing others is a pillar of faith or
is it these days? He did make some sort of reference to Muslims and Commies. The
latter seems to be the reason for the statement.
Just maybe, Pat was asked to alert his base which is not really all that
informed about world events that Venezuela is now on our enemies list. After
all, they took the business away from the Bush family interest and CITGO and are
going to start giving "our" oil at a handsome price to the Chinese. The ink will
dry on that contract later this week. So either Pat owns a lot of CITGO stock or
maybe KKKarl Rove called him up and said, " Hey, we are going to take over
Venezuela and oust their President, just like Papa Bush did in Panama." I mean
all Manuel Noriega did was tell the CIA he was tired of doing their drug work in
Central America and that he had found a new source of income: passports sold to
the Chinese.
So will we have a take-over of another South American country by the US?
Venezuela does supply a lot of oil to us and I can hear Dubya saying to cheering
crowds of SUV owners, "taking our oil and giving it to the commies, why, that's
a hostile action against the US." Notice he probably won't mention how many of
his buddies are losing millions daily because of the nationalization of the oil
business in Venezuela.
I read Daily Variety every day, and they had an interesting story
today about Right-winger's insensitive remarks on the radio and on TV. Here is
the quote: "Is there something in the right-wing water that's causing
conservative commentators to cross the boundaries of taste and propriety? Within
the past six weeks, Robert Novak stomped off the CNN set; Tucker Carlson praised
a police attack on Greenpeace protesters; and Rush Limbaugh trashed a grieving
mother."
I have noticed the shrillness from the Right on a personal level. I get lots
of emails everyday from conservatives who follow a script that seldom is
altered. First they write me about some statement or challenge a fact or two.
I return the favor with an answer with some documentation. They return the next
dispatch saying they like me but frankly I am full of it and by the fourth or
fifth email they are attacking my intelligence, patriotism and morals. Then
finally they get really nasty all the while saying we Liberals are the nasty
ones.
There are a couple of conclusions I have drawn and I am not sure which one is
valid. First of all, we may be past help in having any sort of dialog with these
people who think of compromise and "live and let live" as some sort of flawed
idea, or.. and I hope this is the right one.. they are getting louder because
they can see their ideas and power slipping away and a yearning to return to the
"good old days" when there was a healthy discourse of ideas. Could I be kidding
myself because I want to believe the latter rather than the former?
It is a bright Sunday morning here in Oklahoma. After an evening of rain
storms the new day shines bright as if it has been cleaned by yesterday's
storms. I think it is time for a national cleansing and it just might happen.
The news this morning is the usual stuff, accidents, murders and oh, yes, a
strange announcement from a Salt Lake City TV station that they will not accept
the latest commercial featuring Casey Sheehan's mother berating Bush for sending
her son off to die in a desert far away on the other wide of the world. I think
the TV spokesperson said something like, "It is just not good for our
community."
No, they were talking about the commercial, not the fact that President Bush
was going to be there on Monday speaking to veterans in defense of his oil war.
A couple of things stand out about this. My, how far we have come since I
started in broadcasting over four decades ago. Back then, we could not turn down
commercials because we didn't like the content. There was a fair doctrine at the
FCC. Back then we all understood it was the people's air waves not the owner of
the stations airwaves, but that has been replaced, I guess in society in
general, with that term the common good almost being a curse word these
days to the me-firsters who seem to rule.
The second thing is the strangeness of the comment, "not good for this
community." Is the TV station owner saying sending men and women from Salt Lake
City off to die in a war that was started under false pretenses is good
for the community? I guess it is as long as his children, fathers, daughters,
sons don't have to go die. Instead of Other People's Money, it seems to me we
are operating on Other People's pain these days. The strange reality continues
with a look at the President's schedule...
First of all, that August vacation in Crawford with the woman outside the
property line grieving over her lost son and the President seeming to be totally
untouched by it all. Just read what he told the newspaper reporters the other
day about Cindy Sheehan and her grief:
"I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good,
crisp decisions and to stay healthy," he said when asked about opting to ride
his bike instead of meeting with Sheehan. "And part of my being is to be outside
exercising." Hold on, don't worry, if you are thinking that our beloved
President is too busy watching Dr. Phil and talking to Jerry Falwell to know
what really is going on the world around him, he addressed that very subject in
that same news conference.
"I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful
that I've got a life to live and will do so." The strange thing about this
comment is that he thought it would be okay to say it out loud in an atmosphere
of dead soldiers, grieving mothers, and the reality that IRAQ under a despot
like Saddam was better off than billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis without life.
To add the icing on this cake being baked by the spin masters of the neo
conservative masters of the world, there is the news that Mr. Bush will spend
Tuesday in Idaho, dirt bike riding. Isn't that dangerous, especially for a man
who already ran over a secret service man on a regular pedal bike? The thought
has crossed my mind that someone is encouraging him to do these things. Why?
Maybe they are sick of George too. What would happen if the President had a
fatal dirt-bike accident? Unfortunately not much over the long haul because very
few think this President is making the decisions anyway. What is it with father
and son? Always trying to push the macho button.
Remember, Daddy Bush in his 80s went parachuting a while back and now sonny
Bush
is
going to prove he can ride those dirt bikes as good as any "good ole
boy" anywhere in the country. I have a message for both of the Bush men, you
have spent a lifetime manipulating "good ole boys" and zealots of all types,
don't you think the world is about to figure out something about you two? When
it comes to the good of the populace as a whole, neither of you have much of a
legacy. Both of you have killed by ordering combat, killing hundreds of
thousands of Arabs and allowing millions of African's to die without
intervention in natural disasters. It seems to me that both of you could be
poster boys for the same ideology that infected our world in the 30s and 40s,
Nazism and fascism.
TV is a strange medium. You get to know the people who you watch,
even though you really don't know them. Radio is a little more intimate
in that radio listeners feel intimate with personalities they have grown
to know over the years. Either way, and Peter Jennings was no stranger
to either medium, the news of his death due to cancer this Sunday
evening was still more than just a headline. We have done lots of shows
about Peter Jennings over the years, many of them negative, because of
his touting the official line about the Kennedy Assassination and saying
that Roswell is a myth.
However, Peter was the last of the big three and the first of the big three
to go. He was still officially working when the end came. Cancer had ravaged his
body but he still was making an effort to cover the stories. The other two, Tom
Brokaw and Dan Rather, still do some news stints, but not the daily grind of day
to day news.
Jennings was the consummate TV icon, smooth as silk, yet, no one challenged
his intelligence or his tenacity. My only gripe was he produced an establishment
line, but perhaps he believed the official word, alas, now we will never really
know. It is sobering to think this man was born only one year earlier than
myself, in Canada in 1938. He died at the top of his game, in New York in 2005.
I hate to close this tribute on personal note, but it must be pointed out
because the thoughts haunt me constantly, growing old and dying is not something
any of us are prepared to do, I don't think. However, I imagine, I will pass
from this Earth working at my trade, just like Mr. Jennings. Broadcasting and
news reporting, it gets in your blood and only a few have ever been able to walk
away from it and then die, most like Jennings, pass still plying the trade.
The sobering thought tonight is that the world will go on, without Peter
Jennings, the news will be reported and stories will be told. I guess the same
will be said when it happens to me. Regardless of the critiques from me about
him from time to time, he was a class act. I hope the same can be said of me
when the time comes. God Rest your soul, Peter Jennings and God Help us keep men
and women who want to tell us the news, correctly and straight forward. America
and the world need the truth tellers.
Jerry Pippin 11:59 p.m. August 7, 2005, August 8, 2005
It is close to Midnight and the email with the photos sent to me are very
troubling. Another military funeral, the streets of the small community lined
with the flags, the people like robots waving them as the hearse winds its way
toward the cemetery in the bright sunshine of day. At least 1800 of these scenes
have been enacted according to official government records of August 3rd, 2005.
I have been told that they don't count those who have died from injuries sent
back to Germany or to other military hospitals, so it may well be twice the
number or even more.
When I was in the US Army in the 60s, that was one of my assignments: taking
bodies back for military funerals. The Army wanted good rounded personalities to
do this and they elected me. I attended several, all were sad and I decided very
quickly, all were unfortunately deaths that should have not happened at all. I
am afraid this is even more true today than it was then.
What a shame, the blood of these men wasted...for what? For money for those
who do not fight? For religious reasons which are not valid at all? And the most
saddening thing is the family and friends...what can they do, but wave the flag,
and listen to Taps?
Futility abounds, we must stop this madness somehow.
I only saw the living of the dead. Roberta Scott of our staff, lost her leg
to cancer while very young, she was a beauty contestant, and a college student.
She decided to do her duty and do the USO hospital tours in Vietnam and the far
east.
She would walk into medical wards where soldiers were dying or many times
worse, coming home with half of themselves missing. She would spend her days
seeing the undead. The soldiers who would come back without legs and arms,
napalm burns and no hearing or eye sight. Scarred souls who would never recover
and they came back to a society who really didn't want to look at them, help
them or even recognize their sacrifice.
But really, Roberta nor I had it the roughest. We were the eye witness to the
slaughter of war. Passive observers of the the terrible toll war takes on
everyone.
This is one reason I get sick at my stomach when I see President Bush and his
ilk, all non-veterans of combat, most never serving at all, in front of TV
cameras extolling the need to give our young and our brave to the cause.
What cause? Eight Million dollars an hour is being spent in IRAQ .. figure
out 15 per cent or more going back into the pockets of the corporations who are
contractors in this mess and you can see why, we fight. MONEY...money for
corporate contributors and then there are the unspoken reasons, religious and
race. After all, they are Muslims and Arabs..
America, the melting pot of the world as been turned into a Nazi camp
deciding on which group will be sacrificed next, all in the name of profit,
religion and race.
I say impeachment and imprisonment for these mad men in charge is not enough,
they should be faced with the visions of sadness from those 1800 families who
have lost a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, but all I
see is the smirk and the cowboy-type responses from this President.
Something rotten has happened here; a hundred thousand ministers of God's
word meet and greet, pushing for the favor of this crowd, influencing their
flock. Turning the other cheek has turned into a theory of God's favor for the
white man and the drums of war of beat beneath the Sunday messages from the
pulpit.
How far have we strayed? Is there anyone out there who can rise up and stop
this madness? As the clock approaches midnight this hot, dry August night, my
brain reels with the knowledge that we are on a fast track to hell. Where and
when did it happen, that the men on the white horses were no longer good but
evil and our pursuit of happiness became the pursuit of the almighty buck?
As I lay myself down to sleep, will the dawn come showing a day of hope or
another day of despair? The deep sleep of the dead soldier, the cry in the night
of the widow, and the laughter of the fat cat making millions off a war that was
not needed. It is almost too much for all of us now; but we must pick ourselves
up by the boot straps and be heard. It is not too late, the perfect dream of
humankind, the dream that was America is almost lost to us all.
If there is a God, we know they will pay for their transgressions, but in the
meantime, it is we, the people, the men and women who work hard every day and
strive for a good life; we are being misled and many of us have lost our way.
God have mercy on all of us in these troubled times.
Journalism is on the Ropes and the Public Might be Cheering
07/10/05
A New York Times reporter is in jail this weekend
and probably for several weekends to come for not revealing something that the
prosecutor and the public already knows. When the administration outed CIA agent
Valerie Plame at the risk of death to her, in an effort to get even with her
husband who was telling everyone that the Bush crowd was lying about the nuclear
threat from Iraq, most Washington insiders suspected the source. Odds are that
the special prosecutor knew all along who did it, who broke the law. Now it's
official, the email has been released to the prosecutor and Time has
leaked the story to its competitor Newsweek, strange bed fellows in this
strange tale of the battle against them by us.
The truth is out. The law breaker was that symbol of Christian do gooding
par excellence, Karl Rove. The man who mobilized the Christian community to
vote for the re-election of George Bush... the President who claims to talk to
God and who says God talks back to him.
How can this be? These leaders of the Christian movement in the good old USA
are up to their belt buckles in lying about countless things, including weapons
of mass destruction and looking the other way while their friends and supporters
are getting rich from legalized graft in a war waged on false premises. These
Christian men are fast becoming the hypocrites of the Century. But let's get back
to the problem at hand, the First Amendment and reporters protecting sources.
In a strange twist of modern life, just as in Democratic politics, the women
seem to have the balls, standing up for principle while the men are, at best,
looking the other way and many such as Matthew Cooper in this case, bending to
pressure and making it even more difficult for these types of stories to make it
to the public. Judith Miller is a super hero in my book, sitting in the same
jail as the 20th hijacker, because of a need for the establishment to show those
pesky journalists who is boss and at the same time, chilling the chances of
others coming forward and squealing like a pig on the hogs of government who are
getting rich off the blood of American soldiers. Even worse, this group is
shamelessly getting unbelievable sums of money from the tax payers of America
under the guise of a phony war on terrorism and a phony excuse to invade Muslim
country. It's a win/win situation for them: make lots of money and get the Christian Right a foothold into the middle east, making a holy war for the
faithful and making lots of money for the rest.
But back to this little incident in DC and what it has done to the American
public. What it should have done was to push them to the point of rebellion, but
alas, no one is paying attention. Regardless of how you look at it, the jailing
of Ms. Miller is an attack on the press and the democracy; an attack as deadly
as 9/11 and no one seems to care.
Not only will the fear of being hauled off to jail chill the exuberance of
the investigative journalist, it will cause the whistle-blowing sources to think
twice before spilling the beans, and the unintended consequences are simply too
terrible to contemplate. News channels and all kinds of outlets from the NewYork Times to small weekly newspapers will say to their reporters, " We
really can't run this story, the legal battles will cost us too much in profits
and our stockholders will not stand for it."
Yes, Virginia there is no longer a Santa Claus in the news business. Every
story, every broadcast is expected to make money and making money is hard to do
when you continually go after the establishment. When it comes to
communications, "These are the best of times, these are the worst of times."
Better technology, easier ways to deliver the truth; yet the truth will set
you free in many cases, free of that job because corporate news executives are
just that, corporate first and news second. In today's economy one does not dare
shake the trees too much, and most reporters are paid more than they know they
are worth and so do their corporate bosses; after all, that's how you get
loyalty, you buy it.
Daniel Schorr said it best in this morning's Christian Science Monitor.
"Think for a moment of what the situation would have been if the Nixon
administration had found a way of subpoenaing Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein,
threatening them on pain of jail to identify Deep Throat."
Dan, you know the answer to this hypothesis. Tricky Dick would have done his
deeds to the country and his legacy would have been simply this: The crooks
would have been established 12 years earlier, the election fraud would have been
here earlier and yes, the little guy would be even worse off than he is today.
The chances that Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush will be exposed
for the crooked lying, conniving men they are, are a little less tonight, but
there is still a small light in the window of liberty and only a few reporters
are there holding open the door for all to see. I am an optimist, but not any
more when it comes to the future of America and the common man. These imposters
of patriotism, imposters of religion waging war, not love, around the world have
the upper hand tonight. I could be wrong, but does anyone really think Karl Rove
is going to jail even for a few months like Judith Miller? Unfortunately, I
doubt it.
The Police State Closes In
06/27/05
Many events have taken place since my last column of only a few days ago,
and most of them are not good. The Supreme Court has been making its usual
mish-mash of rulings that impact our daily lives and most of us seem oblivious
to this fact completely. The ruling last week allowing menial governments to
seize land for the common good has many upset over property rights, but the only
new wrinkle here is that a government entity may now take someone's land for
fair market value and resell it immediately to large resort companies. This is
really nothing new...Detroit did the same thing for GM several years ago, the
only difference is, that land was a slum and crime-infested area and now the
government can go after desirable locations such as beach fronts with impunity.
This could be stopped by the ballot box. City
Council people who approve this sort of thing could be voted out of office and
the chilling effect would filter down, stopping this sort of crime against the
little guy in favor of the big guys. Then there is the Supreme Court ruling
about the two reporters' revealing sources. This case involves Time
magazine's Matthew Cooper and The New York Times' Judith Miller.
They are doomed to spend 18 months in jail now unless they squeal on their
sources.
This is a direct assault on the Bill of Rights as
well as having the practical effect of making it harder for reporters to uncover
complicated government cover-ups. Once again the people lose. Another ruling in
favor of the cops is proof positive that civil servants such as policemen
working under the badge of authority are not accountable for their actions. Law
enforcement personnel know that they pretty well have their way with the
population anyway and this is just another laxation of our protections against
undue actions of the police. We really are at the mercy of the officer on the
street. So when conservatives say, "If you aren't doing anything wrong, why
worry?" My experience is that there is plenty to keep us worried.
Another instance of this peeling away of any power
of the people, occurred with Google, of all places. It is something that might
appear small potatoes to many, but it really isn't. It is just another example
of the way the Conservative movement in America has been taken over by a
Nazi-like group on the Right. Unfortunately this group has worked its way into
the decision-making levels of government, corporations and media outlets.
Here is what happened. I received an email from an
associate of mine, a person that I have been talking to about an entertainment
story in San Francisco. She wrote me in part, "I was shocked to see my name and
home address come up when I googled myself, 'katie hickox' at www.google.com."
Now before you get excited and think we are making
something of a privacy issue, this is much more than that. Her name and address
appeared in connection with the list of contributors to Liberal Senator Barbara
Boxer, D-Ca. Boxer is an outspoken critic of the Neo-Conservative movement in
general and the Bush administration in particular. The woman quickly searched
other inquiries. Since her name came up in connection with the political
organization Friends of Barbara Boxer, she decided to enter Friends of
GeorgeBush and other leading Republicans. Guess what? No names, no
addresses.
So apparently someone at Google has been infiltrated
in a big way by the Right Wing Christian movement and the Neo-Conservative
movement as far as top administrative personnel in that organization goes.
I make this statement based on several other situations that I have come across
as a Liberal dealing in the world of the Internet.
The point here is not that Google is doing it, so
much as someone there thinks this is fair play. I am old enough to remember when
the media really was dominated by Liberals and how the Right Wing used to howl
about unfair treatment. It is strange that they have now become the majority in
the media and related industries like Search Engine web sites and these Right
Wing political groups do anything but treat Liberal ideas in a "fair and
balanced" way.
We may have lost the free press in this country, but
it is not only rulings from the conservative element on the Supreme Court that
has done it to us. Corporate and religious interests have far more influence
than most would believe. Take the issue and the PR slogan, " Support Our
Troops." Are we really supporting our men and women in the military by allowing
them to be used as pawns in a war that was declared by false pretenses, (a nice
way of saying lies from our President?) To me, supporting our troops
would mean not putting them in harm's way for reasons that are not valid.
The entire point of this column is simply this:
Beware my friend, of the corporate Nazis and those who would help rob
individual taxpayers by raiding the public treasury in the name of patriotic
deeds. Alas, they are winning . They are taking over our institutions step by
step in the name of reason, while their actions are anything but reasonable.
The question now is one that is direct and chilling
because the answer may be, "No one." Who is going to stop this movement to
destroy America, the land of the free and the home of the brave? It appears no
one is brave enough to stand up and be counted, and soon they will have their
way with us, and then they will turn on their allies of deception, the common
man and woman who think we are talking about values of good against evil. I am
afraid in the end, they will find that those who say they are good, might be the
evil ones after all.
So I close with this question, "Can the government
that wants to have authority over you in every way, wants to take your young and
have them die or injured for life in battles that were needless, to take away
the right and dreams of the everyday person and give their labors to the
richest, are these people in this government, really your friends?" I don't
think so.
Bush Before and After His Re-Election
06/16/05
I have been an observer of national politics since high school and frankly, I
have little in the way of answers to why the electorate in this country vote the
way they do. Many times they vote against their interest and it was obvious to
most that in 2004, they did it again. Now six months later, the people seem to
be figuring it out.
I state this because of a poll released today by the New York Times and CBS
News; once the bastion of liberal press both of these organizations are highly
suspect when it comes to casting a critical eye on Mr. Bush and the corporate
neo-cons. But, hey, you can't say that compared to many other organizations in
the main stream press, they aren't doing some reporting that is bad news for
Bush.
It is true; neither really is focused on the pending impeachment of our
President. The memo affair, the tasteless sheer showing of power by
congressional Republicans would seem to warrant a little more coverage than it's
getting, but I guess we should be saying, "Thank God for small favors."
The small favor is the polling data, it is dismal for Bush. The demographics
of 30 somethings into the 40 somethings has shown the greatest decline since the
election, when it comes to job approval ratings. How does 37 per cent grab you?
That means 2 out of every 3 American's think Mr. Bush is not up for the job.
Then how did he win that election?
I have lots of friends and many on our staff that think there was only one
way to do it, and that was fixed voting machines. I have difficulty taking the
other side of this argument, but this is not what I am writing about today. It
seems like someone has just awakened from a deep sleep and that someone is John
Q. Public.
In this poll, only 39 per cent approve of the economy and I am still looking
for those two out of five and I live in a red state! Nationally only one in four
approve of his social security plans. Just like the war on terrorism, it seems
to me that he has created a problem here when no immediate problem exists. He
does get over the half way mark on terrorism, which is a puzzle to me; but it
just shows you that he has taken FDR's advice and pushed the fear of the idea of
"fear itself."
The trend here is even worse than the problem of approving ratings from the
public before 9/11. He has lost 14 per cent in 30 days in the popularity ratings
of that 30 something crowd. My cynical group working with me is saying be
careful now, "another terrorism attack" is on its way. Here again I have
trouble arguing the point with them, evidence of something "stinking to high
heaven" over the 9/11 attack still turns my stomach.
Then there is the war in IRAQ. John Conyers and a few Democratic Congressman
are showing great courage in setting up the "impeachment" scenario. I think it
is well deserved.
Mr. Bush has blood all over his hands. His friends have robbed the Federal
Treasury of 200 billion plus in money and they have robbed America of thousands
of youth who are now dead or forever handicapped and he did this on a bevy of
lies, half truths and with a smile on his face. Actually impeachment is too good
for his kind, they all are war criminals and maybe some country will start
nabbing them and putting them on trial, just like we did the Nazi's. However,
you know what will happen don't you?
These guys will turn this around and all of a sudden it will be the good old
USA against the world (how dare they try to nab our guys and put them on trial?).
I still have faith in good over evil and I think we can see the signs of a
sleeping public beginning to awaken with questions like, " What is this all about
anyway?"
It's not about protection of the U.S., it is about, and I am sorry to say this,
killing other people of other faiths, right now the Muslims; it is about making
lots of money for the military security complex and it's about taking the money
from the tax payers of America and using money to make government contractors
rich beyond most people's comprehension. Let's start the impeachment
investigation. President Clinton barely escaped with lust on his hands; can Mr.
Bush escape with the blood of thousands on his hands?
I have long marveled at the Christian community ( protestant reactionary's)
and their attitude toward allowing people in coma's to continue to live when
there is little or no hope of a normal life for that person. It seems to be very
contradictory to me. Christian principals call for a belief in a hereafter that
is better than this life, if you are born again, yet they refuse to allow death
when medical science says there is no hope. They cry out for the unborn child
yet easily agree to principals of the death penalty and to wars that are "just."
Tonight late into the evening, the deal was set for President Bush to fly
back to Washington to sign a bill that will once again insert a feeding tube
into a woman who has been in a coma for years. Why, because of a memo that came
from GOP pundits and political consultants that says this is a great way to beef
up their support from the Christian Right. Condi is in China and she is going to
an illegal church service tomorrow ...why? to beef up the support from the
Christian Right.
Rumors abound in Washington that Karl Rowe and others in the white house are
gay. Frequenting K Street gay bars and the Press secretary has been seen in
Austin at a Gay Bar. A known male prostitute has access to the white house late
at night and stories about Dubya when he was a cheer leader abound. Hypocrites,
all...these neo cons pretending to be born again Christians, yet living a life
that is far from the base of the Christian right.
Have they no mercy, no heart? Stopping stem cell research when it promises to
promote wellness and relieve us all from terrible diseases, just because
radicals on the right think it is somehow playing God. They need to think about
God and what it really is. God created man and gave him the intelligence to
develop these things.
As I think this late night about the danger the elderly now face with Social
Security being dismantled, the dismal future of the young thrown to the
corporate wolves who will how even be able to take their homesteads in
bankruptcy usually brought on my corporate American greed, high hospital and
doctor bills, huge fees for prescriptions and credit card offers that snare the
working class into huge debts. What kind of men are these in charge in
Washington, D.C. today. I am afraid I know the answer and the answer is not
pleasant.
We are being led to our own destruction by men and women who think only of
their welfare and the welfare of their class of privilege while the common good
of good and decent people is looked upon as silly liberal thinking. I am afraid
tonight, our wonderful country has fallen to new lows by people using lofty
slogans and emotional hot buttons to manipulate the regular people into sewing
the seeds of their own destruction.
I have always been an optimist, but I see little or no room for optimism this
night. Our only hope is for someone to rise against the corporate mentality that
possesses this great country and a leads a huge wave of populism that will
return the power to the people. Does anyone know anyone who might be able to fit
that need. America cries out for a leader of the people and we see little
evidence of this person riding their white horse to the rescue.
God help us to rid this power of hypocritical manipulation of the Christian
upbringing of most Americans. I am sorry my friend to report, but we have all
been had.
Carl Rove and Jeff Gannon In Bed Together?
2/18/05
The problem with Jeff Gannon is a simple one. It is not the sexual material
that is the most damaging really. Gannon seems to have worked as a male
prostitute alright while doing dirty tricks for the White House boys who were
running on a moral platform calling liberals the real perverts in life. This was
and is hypocrisy at the highest order; however, my problem with Jeff Gannon is
much more serious.
While actively engaged in defeating House Minority Leader Tom Daschle for the
South Dakota for re-election. Gannon routinely traveled from South Dakota to
Washington D.C. to make regular appearances in the White House Press Room asking
questions and seeming knowing much more than main stream big name media
reporters for major newspapers and networks.
This opens the door for many questions, questions that never seemed to have
been asked in public. How did this guy get there? How did he get to stay there?
Why would other reporters allow the Press Secretary to call on his friend, Jeff
Gannon when the going gets tough. Gannon would always change the subject just in
time.
It seems that the buck stops with Karl Rove. The self righteous right wing
Christian designer of the take over of the new-conservative movement at the seat
of Government, the house, the senate and the executive branch plus many members
of the press. Could Gannon have had special permission from Mr. Rowe? It
certainly seems so, circumstantial as the evidence does seem. We have a strong
Christian man, Rowe, working closely with a lying, self deceiving man who thinks
nothing of showing his manhood in its full glory on web pages?
Is there something wrong here. You bet your "sweet bippy" there is, as Rowan
and Martin used to say on Laugh In. The two do not mix, unless someone is not a
genuine ideologue when it comes to family and Christian values. I used to view
Rove as a dangerous manipulator worthy of comparison to famous Nazi image makers
in the 30s and 40s, then I decided that maybe Rove is what he says he is, a
dedicated Christian man doing whatever is necessary to insure a strong
conservative protestant role for government, be damn the constitution.
Now I am not so sure. Could it be that Rove is both? I think the Jeff Gannon
incident proves that may be the case.
The State of the Union - As bad as I think, or as good as
he says?
2/2/05
It was somehow surreal, almost like almost everything we see...events running
out of control or are they? Somehow I could not help but notice the irony of it
all. Three things seemed jump out at me, almost as much as former Vice
Presidential candidate who actually ran against Bush in 2000, kissing Mr. Bush
as he walked by the Senator on the way out. Just as this is Super Bowl weekend,
tonight was the Super Bowl for politics for a very ambitious agenda that I think
is very scary.
First of all, lets talk about Social Security. Not only in the wake of
corporate scandals and big losses of retirement funds in the stock market. The
President said with a straight face that no one over 55 would not be bothered
with this boondoggle for the stock market boys, billions of money pouring into
the market, does anyone think they will be good stewards of those funds. I
don't. I see even more SUPER RICH and SUPER POOR. The unintended consequences of
pitting the young against the old is what is scary.
Think about it. Pensions being reduced or done away with by corporate bean
counters, pensions don't help stock dividends, do they? Health care, no problem,
just don't have any for those old people who are taking the lion's share of this
money. You think this is exaggeration, start reading the propaganda from those
media outlets that serve business. Not a day goes by that a feature or an
article is not there, saying, how can we afford these old people? So what
happens, when those 30 somethings suddenly realize that their benefits will be
cut by almost half?
Is a vision of a country where selective removable of the problem, those old
people who are still getting theirs? It does not take a stretch of imagination
to see violence from the young toward the old, and vice versa, terminally ill
senior citizens with automatic weapons battling back. You may call this over
reaction, but I am not so sure.
Then there was the question of the assault on our intelligence. Did I hear
Mr. Bush say his lovely wife, everyone's idea of a Sunday School teacher, was going
to be in charge of getting rid of motorcycle gangs?
Then there was the war. When parents lose children, they search, cry out for
this to make sense. There he was, Mr. Bush, in his $2500 tailored suit, using
the parents of a dead marine, to somehow get our nation to think that these 1500
soldiers have not died in vain. I took this very personally being a veteran.
Bush was the man who pulled strings to avoid combat and not even do his duty
here in this country during Vietnam. As I watch him smirking, not seeing the
blood on his hands, using religion and patriotism as reasons to continue making
his business friends wealthy with tax payer money; I am sick at my stomach.
Just when it seemed that this country was almost hopeless; but then there was
hope, when Mr. Bush talked about Social Security and his plans to dismantle it.
As we write this column, the Democrats are actually booing (yelling no, no, no).
I don't ever remember seeing this kind of reaction to a State of the Union
speech. I just heard Dan Rather say it reminds him more of the English
Parliament, rather than the American Congress.
Time and History will tell us who is right. Is Mr. Bush the devil I think he
is, or the savior the right wing Christians say he is.
Reality
11/03/04
Every once in awhile a dash of reality hits even the most optimistic of us.
Suffice to say that is what happened with this election. It is simply clear to
me that the electorate is at a far different place than yours truly and many of
my friends and associates are. It is simply evident that regardless of the
exposes, the facts of hanky panky with the federal treasury, the folly of our
foreign policy, in this reporters opinion of others is clearly different from
mine.
Exit polling shows that the majority of those impacted most by the fruits of
the new deal and the great society turned their backs to future generations
hoping for a similar break. It is evident to me that the phrase "for the common
good" has been replaced by "me one." Somehow we have bought the idea that
building a strong economic base at the expense of a few dollars going into
public programs has given way to "it is my money and I am going to hold on to it
if I can."
In the holy bible, Paul makes reference to fighting the good fight and giving
it your all. I feel we did that with the Jerry Pippin Show and if there was a
ever a moment in history where our goals of world cooperation and the belief of
the common good would succeed, it would have been now.
We have a war where thousands have been killed or injured, only those with an
ability to pay have hopes of good medical care and life free from government
intrusions might become a reality. All of that was not bought into by the
majority of the voting public. It did not seem to matter how much corruption,
good old boy money schemes were revealed or unfairness to minorities by the
justice system were exposed; most voters seem not to care. In fact, perhaps this
is the type of society they would rather have.
Therefore I am making a decision based upon business and emotional security.
I can not speak for those who work with me to do this web site, Larry Dicken, a
tireless advocate of the Democratic party, Jerry Wilhite, Don Gard, Casey Clare
and Jim Wallace; all who have put their heart and soul into our beliefs and
goals. I am not sure what they wish to do in the future, if they want to
continue with the political elements of this web site, then I will out of
obligations to them, allow them to do so; but for me. It is over.
My broadcast career and my efforts will return to entertainment. I have done
very well in the past and my income has definitely suffered as a result of my
beliefs over the past four years. Advertisers have balked at sponsoring me
because of my insistence on exposing the NEO-CONSERVATIVE movement for what I
believe it is...a corrupt immoral movement biased for the corporations and greed
in general.
I had the evidence, we pointed it out, we documented it and nobody bought it.
So now I pass the torch to others and I will go back in my remaining years to
doing what I do best, entertaining radio audiences. We will continue our
conspiracy, UFO and paranormal sections because there is an entertainment
element there, but I plan to return to the format that most people know that I
do very well: ... a little music, a little food for thought...an interesting
guest here and there, some fun and my mission will be to bring a moment of
entertainment to a world that I think is going to need it.
I hope you will continue to support me with your visits to my web site. We
have been very successful and have well over five million hits a month, well
over a hundred thousand listeners to our internet radio shows per week. Thanks
for your support and I promise you that I will work very hard each day to
continue to offer entertainment and information in an entertaining way for the
world.
I hope you will check back with us often, I think you will see some very fun
things happening very soon on this web site.
GOOD vs. EVIL
9/1/04
As I write this, it is the morning after the second night of the GOP
Convention in New York City. I am puzzled and somewhat alarmed at the various
pictures we get from there. Puzzled because if you were as a " innocent in
matters political" you would have the impression that the Republican party is
the party for equal rights, compassion and self defense. I find the reverse is
true at least in my perspective.
Alarmed because of the way the Bush crowd seems to be able to master the
masses, making half truths ...the truth.. and actually being blatant with
statements with if you are not with us, "you are against us." Which is a stupid
statement to the max. Just because I may not agree with something you are doing,
does not make me against you, I might think or know I have a better way.
Nowhere have I seen these silly statements come to light more than in the
Oklahoma Senate Campaign. Even though I live in Oklahoma most of the year, other
than a few weeks a year when I broadcast out of Las Vegas, I am very interested
in our state and local political races. I donate a little money, not much, but a
lot of effort, a lot, to keep Democrats in office. Many times this effort is
less than successful in Oklahoma.
Brad Carson is our Congressman in the second district. He is now running for
the Senate Seat vacated by Don Nickels who has been "done in" by the Bush forces
of the GOP and has called it quits. In my opinion, Nickels was not great, but
when you compare him with the brains, tactics and personality of the other US
Senator, Jim Inhoff, he looks pretty good. The Republicans have Dr. Tom Coburn,
also a former second district congressman, running for the vacant seat.
Coburn is the conservative of the political right. To his credit, when he was
Congressman, he never dodged my interviews, which were not always soft balls. To
my astonishment, sometimes he would even be pushing for some of the things I was
trying to get passed. For instance, he came out against Newt Gingrich early and
staying after him.
The problem I have with Coburn is that he wears his Christian right wing
beliefs like a brand new expensive Brooks Brothers suit. He is proud of it. This
is where something he said is correct, but not the way he meant it. In an
interview attached below, Coburn says his struggle with Carson is "Good against
Evil." Well, I think it might be, but just as in many things these days, things
are not what they appear to be
In today's world, over zealous religious types have put the world in great
danger, both from the Christian Right and the Moslem extremist. In this case,
the over zealous have turned good things into bad things. I believe the Bible
speaks of moderation in an approving manner, these religious types are anything
but moderate. So I think in this particular case, Coburn with all of his good
intentions, just might be the worst thing that could happen to Oklahoma. I know
Brad Carson and on many issues he is much more conservative than this writer,
but one thing about Carson, I think he does keep an open mind and is in politics
for the right reason, to help further mankind.
I do think Oklahoma can reverse the GOP trend with Carson taking a victory in
November, but it will not be easy for him. Coburn beat four others in the
Republican primary without a run off. I have some Democrat friends who might
vote for Coburn. Why? I am not sure, Coburn stands for most things these friends
are not wanting to happen. They will be voting against their interest.
I am sure of one thing, Brad Carson is a man who will do what is right and
not do what is wrong and say it is right. I am going to put my support behind
Carson. Take a look at the article from the Tulsa World below and decide for
yourself, which one of these men has a grasp of good and evil. I think it is
Brad Carson, not Tom Coburn.
By Rob Martindale, Tulsa World
August 31, 2004
(EXCERPT)
"If you don't recognize it," Coburn said, "you must. This is a battle for the
culture of America and its future, and I would describe it as the battle of good
versus evil."
Carson responded that the debate between himself and Coburn shows that they
have differences, "but I don't think it is a matter of good versus evil."
"I think there are people who we disagree with. They could be tremendously on
form. They could be foolish as all get out. But I don't think they are evil," he
said. "When you call them evil, you contribute to the polarization that is
tearing this country apart."
Response to
Bush Supporter
8/3/04
Everyday I get several e-mails from Bush supporters who mirror a recent
letter received from a woman who proclaims her Christianity and loyalty to
George W. Bush. By now, I can cite these e-mails almost by rote. They all have a
similar theme and something in common. They all seem to be proud of the fact
that they are not political and are not up to speed on the issues of the day.
This is the cannon fodder for the Republican political machine. They have
mastered the ability to present issues in some half light that appeal to the
uninformed and to the religiously dedicated people of America. There are many
statistics that back up my opinion and I will be happy to discuss them with you.
I have taken the liberty to reply to this woman's e-mail, sentence by
sentence, paragraph by paragraph...word by word. My hope is that many of you
will read this in a dispassionate manner and let your brain over-ride your
heart. These are the common arguments set forth by this woman that seem to
ignore the facts that John Kerry is a war hero, an intellectual and a concerned
citizen. In every sense of the word, he is a patriot who joined the fight in
Vietnam, saw things as they really were, and came home to tell America about his
concerns. What more could any country ask of it's citizens?
She wrote: He says he believes life begins at conception. Yet he voted
against the ban on partial birth abortion, the most barbaric, horrible procedure
conceivable.
My response: The hard and full facts about partial birth abortion is that the
number is is the hundreds...not in the thousands each year. In every case, the
doctor is faced with the potential death of the Mother. It seems to me that
logic and morals would dictate that the doctor would err on the side of the
Mother on each case. After all, her life continuing would allow her to have
another child later. In some cases the family would be left Motherless. While
the death of the fetus is tragic, many times that baby brought to term could be
deformed physically and mentally.
She wrote: John Kerry voted to go to war in Iraq, then he voted against
funding our soldiers on the ground. When confronted with that, he said that he
was not voting against the soldiers, he was voting against the way the war was
being prosecuted. The end result was the same. He voted AGAINST giving them the
things they need to fight the war and protect themselves. That is unconscionable
to me.
My response: Blindly supporting the troops means by continuing to put them in
harms way. Means that you are part of an action that is putting the lives of
Americans in danger un-necessarily. What would have happened if the funding had
not been given? Do you really think that our troops would really be there
without ammunition and protection? Not likely...after all the Military budget is
over $400 Billion, just as the Bush took funds out of Afghanistan and earmarked
them for the Iraq War...well before any funding was passed by Congress...they
would have figured out a way to protect our soldiers. Let’s continue with the
idea that the funding would somehow stop with the John Kerry vote: The funding
would have stopped the $Billion a week going to private contractors. The Bonanza
of War profiteering...which is going on in this country right now...would come
to a screeching halt. Therefore I think this is a reason to vote for John
Kerry...not against him...After all...who is paying for the $Billion a week...it
is the middle class taxpayers. So in essence...the middle and working class of
Americans are asked not only to pay for this venture...which gives unseemly
profits that go to already swollen Corporate bank accounts...then to add insult
to injury ...they are asked to give up their families with deaths and permanent
injuries of their sons and daughters...husbands and wives. So it seems to me,
the Christian thing to do...would not be killing of thousands of innocent
civilians along with the shedding of the precious blood of our young.
She said: He said something in his acceptance speech at the Democratic
Convention that is terribly frightening to me, in his tirade against President
Bush (I will never mislead you into war, meaning the President did); My vice
president will never meet with energy companies behind closed doors and agree to
wreck the environment (like VP Cheney did that), and the one that scared me: My
attorney general will uphold the Constitution (like John Ashcroft is not). That
was a direct swipe at the Patriot Act. My friends, if they repeal the Patriot
Act, you better get ready for suicide bombings at the malls of this country.
Hard times call for hard measures. This is a different world since 9-11. That is
why I fear for our country under John Kerry.
My response: This is the strangest twist of all. This woman is saying
"support the troops", and I wonder what she thinks World War II was fought over?
The Nazis wanted a society where a precious few corporate and government off ice
holders had the right to do whatever they wished....while the general population
had not the right to voice counter opinions. They were considered guilty when
charged rather than innocent with the burden of proof on the state and the
freedom to ....Yes, Worship ...in a large group...was considered subversive. Who
knows...with the Patriot Act...the next Administration ...or maybe this
President....might decide that certain and places of education...are enemies of
the people. Her church might be one of those... So for someone to say..."Take my
rights from me...I don’t deserve them...because a group of terrorists might
misuse them"...is insane. From what I gather....she thinks the government should
have the right to stop anyone in the Mall and start searching them just because
they can. They can’t search everyone...so my question is: "Is this really
keeping us safe?" As far as I understand, this country was founded with one of
the most considerations being freedom from authoritarian edicts, such as: If you
are an Arab...don’t go to the Mall, or try to fly on an airplane. If you are a
Christian, make sure you are attending the right church.
She wrote: The traditional American family is in grave danger under a Kerry
administration. Legalization of gay marriage would most certainly happen. I
believe that would lead to the further destruction of the traditional family and
will lead this country down a road we do not want to go down.
My response: I have no doubt that this woman believes what she writes, but
she is totally misinformed. Marriage is a two tier system. There is the
religious significance and then there are the legal ramifications. Marriage,
almost always, involves a sharing of responsibilities and rights. In every
church wedding, somewhere along the way, the Minister testifies on a document,
that is filed civilly, testifying that there is a blending or union of these
rights. John Kerry and the official line of the Democrat Party is to leave this
unchallenged. The feel that it is the churches right to deny or accept a
marriage. This happens frequently. Many Ministers talk to the couple before he
agrees to marry them in the church...and sometimes he does not agree to marry
them. A good example of this is found in the Catholic faith, where annulments
are sought regularly. Many Catholics are divorced and have remarried...but not
in the Church. So government and religion long ago reached an agreement to
co-exist.
The Democratic Party and John Kerry have long had a history against any type
of prejudice. The Democratic Party is the party that was in power that passed
the equal rights amendments which gave women the same rights as men. The
Democratic Party was the one that passed all the civil rights bills, giving
equal opportunity, as least in law, to every American citizen, regardless of
race or creed. Therefore, the Democratic Party wants to leave Gay marriages up
to individual states and to the churches where these religious services are
performed...and only use the Federal Laws insuring Civil Unions. A Civil Union
is the legal document entitling two people who have chosen to live as one family
unit, the legal and lawful rights given to every household in America.
She wrote: I may be simplistic, but I believe things like the deficit, taxes,
jobs, and the economy will iron themselves out. We have had all those things
under both parties and fixed all those things under both parties.
My response: Let’s talk about the deficit. It is true that both parties have
ran deficits in the past. However, you need to know what a deficit is before you
can really deal with it. The Clinton years were generally consider boom years
because of one reason. There was a surplus of capital...or in plain
language...MONEY.... The deficit was almost non-existent by the end of the
Clinton/Gore years. For this to be important...and it is...you have to consider
what happens when a country runs a deficit. Just as in a household, things are
bought and paid for by a credit card. The debt continues to build, while many
households can pay the debt as it comes due...the fact is that this is money
taken out of the family pocket book and put into the pocket of the bankers and
lenders. When a government runs a deficit as we are running now with the Bush
Administration....a huge amount of the money taken in by taxes is paid back out
to banks and lending institutions. This does two things. It takes away from the
overall spending for education...military....and for social programs such as
Social Security and Medicare. Now what will happen if we don’t reduce the
deficit? There is not an unlimited supply of money...and ultimately countries
such as Japan and China...which loan us huge amounts of money...will no longer
consider us a safe and secure investment...because our ability to pay will be
challenged. So what will we have to do? Either default on the banks here and
abroad...thereby becoming bankrupt and not credit worthy....or the more likely
scenario...if a Republican Administration is in charge (after all they represent
the money interest) it would be to cut the budget...and the only place to cut
would be Social Security, Medicare, highways, infrastructure, and finally, the
Military budget. Stop and think about countries who have faced this
alternative...Military Haves and Civilian Have Nots...Do Russia and Nazi
Germany come to mind?
As far as the economy is concerned, I’m glad that you are doing better today
than you were four years go. You are a rare person. The statistics show that
over $9 million jobs have been lost the last three years. ...and many of these
people have had to take jobs paying less than they did previously. It’s just a
matter of where you are in the economy...and the majority are not in a very good
place at this time. In every measurement since World War II...when the Democrats
were in power...job growth...small business production...and ownership of
stocks, bonds and property...were on the up-swing. So you can argue about the
economy all you wish...but the facts are that the Democratic philosophy of
building a strong base of economic stability for the common man...works for
all...not for just a few at the top.
As far as America being safe from a terrorist attack under the Bush
Administration...then I take it that if an attack were to happen...you would be
willing to say that he did not protect us? Have you thought about all the many
$Billions of dollars that have been spent by Homeland Security to protect us? I
submit to you that the bill over three years has been close to $50 Billion.
There are 300 million Americans living in this country with about half paying
taxes...and a billion is 100 million...so for each $billion dollars the
government spends...each taxpayer pays several dollars...lets give the benefit
of a doubt to the Government...that for each billion spent...the tax liability
for each individual is only $7.00....so $350 per person was spent this year to
pay security guards, buy security equipment, and a profit of !5% or more profit
to civilian contractors. So I submit to you, that a good exercise for you would
be to go to the telephone book....and go to the yellow pages...and look at the
names of the companies that got about $50 of your money last year. You may think
that it was money well spent...but John Kerry thinks it could be better spent if
we cut out the middle man.
As far as the burning of the churches in Iraq...there is lots of evidence
that this was not done by terrorists...and is part of the concerted effort to
scare the hell out of you....just as they do with the terrorists alerts. Four
churches in a Moslem country being destroyed? How many Moslem churches were
burned to the ground last week around the world? This issue is a paper tiger.
How would you feel if the Moslems took over your neighborhood by force and
opened a Mosque on every corner? We really need to stop panning the fires of
religious warfare and get back to what the Bible teaches....and that is Love for
thy fellow man. John Kerry believes that a more civil tone by the United States
will create a brotherhood of men rather than throngs of American haters.
I realize that I am fighting an uphill battle talking to you about these
issues because I am sure you are a devout Christian woman who believes that
George Bush walks among you. Unfortunately, I am afraid that if we had a picture
of our President holding a Police dog at bay and putting a dog collar around a
naked Arab prisoner...you would still think he was a good Christian man and vote
for him anyway. After all, this is really what he is doing, by setting the tone
of behavior in the military. He is our Commander in Chief....He is
responsible...and as Harry Truman said..."The buck stops here."
Most of Wilhite's 6/16/04 column about politicians and presidents is true.
However, I take issue with your (Wilhite) reference to "no good modern
President." I think just the opposite is true.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln quickly come to mind as great
Presidents. I'm not so sure, when you compare the aristocrat philosophy of
Washington and Lincoln taking a stand against the South when in hindsight I am
not sure the War Against the State was worth the price we paid in death and
maiming. After all, a deep division existed 100 years and more after the war was
ended. Was it really worth it turning brother against brother and family against
family?
By contrast there is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. No-one can deny that he
changed the face of the country, and I think for the good. He, like Lincoln,
oversaw a tremendous war. He, like Lincoln, could have probably avoided the war
for another year or so. Most agree that we suckered Japan into a sneak attack,
so that we could wage a war against tyranny. What kind of world would we be
facing today if we had left the axis powers to continue to conquer country by
country around the world. Surely no one believes that in the end the United
States would be facing this aggression.
Taking the war out of the picture, Roosevelt made this country great. He
reorganized the financial and banking systems after a devastating crash of
financial markets. He created a social net that literally saved the common man
from starvation (Social Security). Then there was Harry Truman. Say what you
must of "Give 'em Hell Harry" he stopped Communism in it's tracks. Contrary to
the PR BS from our conservative friends about Ronald Reagan last week; Truman
did more to stop Communism. The Marshall Plan instituted during his
administration lifted our enemies from poverty and despair to productive
citizens of the world. Too bad our present President didn't take this tact to
combat terrorism in the Mid-east.
Other Presidents of the modern era who are heroes include Bill Clinton, who
oversaw the longest period of economic prosperity in American history. His
policies were busy disarming the ability of the terrorists to spread
anti-American hate mongering, because it was plain that his administration could
see the world in a kinder, gentler light.
Then there was Lyndon Johnson. Johnson almost single handedly turned this
country around in the area of civil rights and his war against poverty. Millions
of citizens who are now elderly and non-productive, live a fairly comfortable
life, thanks to Johnson's minimum Social Security Plan. No one was able to
pursue equal rights more successfully than Johnson. It is true that he had the
Vietnam War around his neck, but it is also true that he saw the light and knew
his policy was wrong, and therefore decided to not run for re-election. Too bad
our present President isn't as magnanimous.
Then there is the matter of class. No-one can hold a candle to Jimmy Carter.
A man of the people who was framed by a cabal of bankers, financial investors,
and parts of the Republican Party. Oil prices were out of sight for no reason.
Interest rates were sky high for no reason. Years later we learned the horrible
truth that Ronald Reagan and his men worked with Iran to keep American hostages
until after the election. I wrote no reason earlier in the paragraph, but we
know there was a reason. The reason was simple. Get rid of Carter because he was
for the common man and not the corporations.
Then there was Dick Nixon. Even he did some good things, like opening the
door to China for world trade, thereby defeating the militants that were in
control of the largest nation. It has been proven over and over that the best
way to stop communism or any other dictatorship philosophy is to give financial
power to the people. It's too bad our present President doesn't realize this.
Then there were the Camelot Presidents. The Presidents who bordered on
royalty. First came General Dwight David Eisenhower. Then, in 1960 JFK. Ronald
Reagan, who I felt overall was a bad President, did fit this mold, however. All
three of these men, along with Gerald Ford, who succeeded Nixon, but was never
elected, made this country feel good.
Kennedy was a little more than just sizzle. He solved an attack on America
the right way. When Russia put missiles on Cuban soil, just 90 miles from our
shores, he did not call all the troops together and invade a tiny island nation
to show who was the boss of the West. Instead, he used brinkmanship and
statesmanship in tandem to bring Russia to it's knees. Too bad our present
President didn't use this tactic in the Mideast. So, Wilhite, I hope you
understand why I take exception to your remark that there were no good modern
Presidents.
Disturbing
Events Shape Summer News Cycle
6/1/04
If you have been a listener to my radio shows or a visitor to our web site,www.jerrypippin.com, you know we
try to keep a perspective on today's news and what it really means for you. It
has come to our attention that several things are at play right now that do not
look good for the near future.
First of all, the Federal Reserve is increasing the money supply at the
highest rate in history, this past week, they added $45 billion plus to the
money supply and over the past four weeks they have added $155 billion to the
money supply. The question comes to mind, WHY?
Reports from the Pentagon show that half of the Navy is going to be deployed
to the high seas this month as a planned "military exercise" - destination
undisclosed. We have fourteen battle groups and seven of them will be deployed?
WHY? And, at what cost?
Homeland Security Head Tom Ridge, Attorney General John Ascroft, National
Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and others are warning of a possible terror
attack this summer, WHY?
Rumors persist, and real life action seems to back up these rumors that the
Saudi Arabian Government is about to be over-thrown, could this be the event
that is expected ....to cause the FED to put money into banking system at an
alarming rate? No doubt it could impact the stock market, if the Kingdom fell to
the terrorists.
Then, there is the persistent rumor that the Democratic Convention this
summer in Boston is the target of the next terror attack. This would wipe out
the Democratic Party as we know it today, and the President would no doubt
postpone the up coming election. Reaction to this could cause CHAOS in America,
and impact the stock market and all other economic institutions as well.
Finally, there is the G8 summit coming up this month, the European Union
member states might make moves to drop support of the dollar and the US Stock
Market, this would shake up the currency market around the world as well.
Already, OPEC has announced a currency switch from the dollar to the Euro for
the sale of crude oil, effectively increasing its price on the world market.
The signs are there, we just do not know what they mean as yet. We ask you,
we urge you, to stay informed this summer as it very well could become the most
important summer in the history of America. We will be doing our part with
columns on politics, election coverage, the real story behind the Bush Dynasty
with our Bush Business page and lots of
up to date information on our X-Fire
pages. To check us out often at
www.jerrypippin.com.
High School
Buddies
5/26/04
I grew up in a small town...in fact, I still live here. Most of my high
school classmates stay in touch with me and vice versa. We graduated several
decades ago, but still most of us are fairly close. Tonight, I got an e-mail
from a dear friend and classmate who seemed to indicate to me that it was
alright for American soldiers to torture Arab prisoners.
He had a list that was very long of terrible things that had been done in the
past to Americans by others in foreign lands. All the terrorist activities were
laid out in a way that no rational person could not be emotionally upset by
reading it.
I was in the Army and I know that nobody in my unit would have followed those
orders. And I know that my friend, who was in the Air Force probably wouldn't
have done those things either, but somehow time and pressure of everyday living
in today's world seems to have changed his mind about what's right and what's
wrong. I fired off a diatribe that probably convinced him that he was right and
I was crazy. Frankly, I lost it. I have been stewing in my own juices for weeks
now....puzzling over how a third of our population seems to be willing to accept
inhuman behavior as American. I would have trouble treating a dog the way the
Arab prisoners were treated by us.
Fortunately, I had a chance to discuss this with my childhood friend, Jerry
Wilhite, this evening. I just received an e-mail from Jerry, addressed to our
friend, in which reasoning and intelligence took the place of my anger and
disgust. The letter touched me deeply and I am including it in this column.
Please read it and understand, that when I say that when President Bush closed
his speech with "God Bless America."...I yelled at the TV..."God SAVE America!"
Here is the letter...
----- Original Message -----
From: jerry wilhite
To: jerrypippin@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 10:28 PM
Subject: Charles
Jerry,
I would appreciate your forwarding this to Charles for me. Hopefully he will
read it through before forming an opinion.
Charles, you certainly raise some valid points when it comes to highlighting
mans inhumanity to man. Wartime is not a good time for any soldier. I think far
too many become hardened to the death and destruction all around them. The
American GI is no less susceptible to this than any other.
I know a veteran of WW II, in fact I have his book, who was highly decorated.
He is not at all reluctant, in his book, to detail examples of executing
prisoners because taking them to the back lines would be counter productive.
This was done under orders of officers. I think what he did was wrong.
I think everything you detailed was horribly wrong. But, I don't think things
get better by seeing who can be the most savage.
You left out the dropping of the atomic bombs in WW ll. That wreaked more
havoc than all the events you list together. I concur with that act, but damn
sure regret its necessity.
Many of the acts you detail were carried out by Al Qaeda. We had them on the
run before we were sidetracked. There are now more Al Qaeda than before 9-11.
The mistreatment of the prisoners has been used as a great enlistment tool.
Remember this was done to obtain information. No one really knows if all those
tortured actually had any information of value. It was a procedure that got
horribly out of hand.
I could not do those things to another, but I can't shoot a deer either. It
bothers me that there are too damn many on all sides that have not a shred of
concern over the pain and suffering of others. When you and I grew up, kids that
pulled the wings off butterflies were called bullies. Now they are called a
leader among men.
If the Red Cross is to be believed, and I personally think they are, thirty
per cent or more of the prisoners were innocent of anything. We mistreat them,
they mistreat us. We are more offended by what they do to corpses than they are.
We view death differently. Cultural differences will always be a problem. Look
at the South during days of segregation if you really want examples of
inhumanity.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I would not like to count you as
being capable of performing these types of acts. You would have fooled me all my
life if you could. But, Charles, I have been fooled before, and will be again.
I am not defending any of the acts you detailed. I do know many Muslims who
are as disturbed by these events as you are. They do feel badly about the crimes
done by those of their faith. Their faith is as explicit as ours in condemning
everything we have discussed.
Charles, I just heard on the news that Houston is on alert. We are considered
one of the highest likely locales to suffer terrorist attack this year. Screw
those Arab bastards...just kidding!!
Where did we all go wrong, that is is considered all right to torture others?
What are we teaching the next generation? I always hoped that America would
always place a high value on human life, but fear we are becoming no better than
any other country.
Long ago, someone said, "Do the right thing, because it's the right thing to
do." We need to return to that credo, and cram it down the throats of all who
don't agree. The good people in all the countries you listed are afraid to show
support because they have been let down every time they have. Ideals may well
win in the long run, but terrorists with guns are pretty intimidating when they
are in your living room.
Well, that's all the rambling for now. In proofing this I don't find anything
that should cause you to feel offense. If you do, be assured it was unintended.
Jerry Wilhite
Let's Get Kerry on the Stick
5/25/04
Last week, for instance, it was disclosed that the Bush White House was once
again touting health and education programs that the president has, in fact,
cut. What do you do with people who brag of bringing heart defibrillators to
communities across America when they've actually proposed slashing the
defibrillator program by 82 percent? Apparently, nothing. If Kerry or his war
room had a sharp rejoinder, it wasn't sharp enough to break through the clutter.
Jonathan Alder wrote this in this weeks Newsweek and it goes to the heart of
the problem with the Bush people, they have always gotten away with saying one
thing and doing the opposite. Don't you think it is time our candidate, John
Kerry, woke up to the fact that this needs to be drive home to the voters every
day. Write them and tell them to get touch on DUBYA, he is lying, he is
incompetent and and as my good friend Jerry Wilhite says, " They ( BUSH PEOPLE)
are losers. Contact
www.johnkerry.com and tell them to get on the stick and save America by
campaigning hard, every day.
Justice is not
only Blind but Deaf and Dumb
4/7/04
One of the things that has become apparent to me with over four decades of
investigative reporting is that our criminal justice system is not just
imperfect, but it is broken. Most people would think it is broken in favor of
the criminal; however, I have not seen that as much as many innocent people
being in jail for crimes they did not do. We are covering one such crime on this
website now, the non murder of Ted Binion in Las Vegas with two people in jail
for the so called murder. The reasons behind this particular outrage is not the
usual ineptness of the authorities, but a willful act to protect others from
losing any claims to the Binion fortune. See
www.jerrypippin.com/Ted_Binion.htm.
My friend Jerry Wilhite lives in Houston and this city seems to have more
than its share of criminal cases gone bad. Take the time to read his letter,
below, sent to me this morning, I think he makes some very interesting
observations.
Jerry Pippin
From: jerry wilhite
To: jerrypippin@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 9:44 AM
Subject: Criminals??
Jerry,
Sometimes when I read a newspaper the articles become thought provoking. This
happened today in a somewhat meaningless story of a serial killer due to be
extradited to Michigan from Texas.
As an aside, the article does not say so, but I think Texas plea bargained
for a confession on the thirteen women he murdered, confessed to,. Now they can
send him to Michigan to stand trial for one there, They have no plea bargain.
In a newspaper sidebar it detailed the murders of the thirteen women. Two
were not called homicides, and in another case a man was serving life, though
innocent.
The coroners office was wrong in app. twenty five per cent of these
investigations. If a study were done and that was found to be a national
problem, think of how many murderers are walking around free, with no ongoing
investigation. Furthermore, app. eight per cent of those convicted of homicide
would be wrongfully imprisoned.
Where does the responsibility lie for this? Additionally, does anyone care?
The newspaper made no mention of this as being a bad thing. I just culled the
facts from the details of the murders in the sidebar.
It is frightening to realize the numerous ways ineptitude by government
people can impact average citizens. Another example is the number of people
embarrassed because of the No Fly List. My name is not common, yet I have
encountered five others who share it. If one of them was on the No Fly List I
could be caused to miss a flight and suffer temporary humiliation at the
airport. With my big mouth I could proceed to become one of the wrongfully
prosecuted.
Regards,
Jerry Wilhite
Unseat All
Republicans
3/26/04
Now that the Democratic race has been settled and the dust is clearing, it is
plain to see that Senator John Kerry will have a united party behind him. This
is the way it should be. We have been asked many times by many people, why we
put our support behind Howard Dean early on and why I hedged my bet by backing
General Wesley Clark here in Oklahoma. The answer is simple.
For sometime now the Democratic politicians in DC have been marching to the
right, becoming what is known as the Republican Light wing of the party. We have
felt that the Democratic party belongs to its base, the people and we felt that
both Dean and Clark could get this message out. I think they did, the campaign
is showing a born again candidate who is now almost FDR like in his speeches,
both in delivery and content. This would never have happened with grass roots
organizations like move-on.org and others had not given a populist voice
to the campaign.
The main evil as I see it in politics today is my base, the broadcasting
segment, the owners and the people who make money from advertising. Here is a
lead story from Daily Variety this morning, it tells the story completely; why
money has ruined politics and it is all the broadcasters fault.
POLS ARE VAULTING TO MAJOR AD BUYS
Florida TV stations, cable nets saw biggest windfall. The TV networks must be
loving the presidential race: In March alone, more than $26 million was spent on
political ads paid for by President Bush and the Democratic opposition that
includes Hollywood backing.
Four decades ago when I started in broadcasting, management and sales never
thought about getting lots of money from politics and government. This was one
of those things that federal rules made it not very profitable. There was equal
time clauses on issues and people; lowest rate required for politicians, up to a
third of your commercial inventory was given to public service announcements for
government programs and community needs.
The broadcast lobby over the years has successfully gotten congress to do
away with these provisions and now, the government regularly buys advertising at
expensive rates for the armed services, for public service programs, for social
security and for political ideas.
America to continue to have an informed public must change this attitude of
these third and fourth generation broadcast executives. No longer do they look
upon radio and TV as belonging to the public but with an attitude that this is
my own private money making machine and making money is pretty easy in radio and
TV these days. Not because of a strong economy and the natural market forces,
but because of special interest buying time to push selfish agendas that are
doing in the American Dream.
So we saw an opportunity for true populism to take hold in this campaign, it
didn't; but I submit that half a loaf is better than none. The Kerry wing of the
party is kinder and more friendly to the average American than the Republican
party which has been captured by people who believe fleecing the middle class
tax payer with make lots of money programs like the war in Iraq is the way to
go.
We say it is not, so watch the campaign develop and you will see, the friend
of the average American is not the Bush forces. He must be stopped, America is
not the country it was when Clinton/ Gore were at the helm, and I am not sure
how much more of this wrong headed blatant robbing of the Federal Treasury, you
and I can stand.
So vote for Kerry and the Democratic candidates and get rid of the Tom DeLays
of the world, who will do you in for a few bucks at the drop of a hat.
Jerry Pippin
The Truth Must
Be Told
1/18/04
Many people have asked me over the past two years why I keep plugging along
after losing most of my eye sight. I am legally blind, but I am under going
experimental surgery and I have hopes of regaining my vision fully someday.
There are many personal reasons including "habits are hard to break." after all,
I have been in broadcasting most of my 40 years plus of adult life.
The real reason is evangelistic in a secular sense; I believe the truth must
be told. Everyone at our web site has two over riding principals, one is to
report the truth as it is found, regardless of the impact on any of our beliefs
and secondly, we must continue to offer entertainment to the web site visitor
and listeners. After all, man does not live by bread alone and no human can just
take a diet of facts without some fun along the way.
In the next few weeks, we will be starting a new series of radio shows in
syndication; some of this can not be written about yet, because it is not a done
deal, but we expect all of the details to be worked out in the next few weeks.
We are planning on going back to a live streaming format similar to the
variety based magazine show we did on KBIX that was so popular on the web in
2000-2002 before KBIX was sold.
As the election season is here, be sure no one will cover politics like us.
We poke fun, we will continue to push our ideas, but they will be clearly
labeled as such. Basically, we are pursuers of truth.
We have many sections or facets to our shows, from the way out ( UFOs and
Paranormal) to political commentary to entertainment. We hope you check with us
regularly, in fact, put us on your favorites list, because you haven't seen
anything yet, compared to our plans for 2004.
Below, one of our listeners, visitors to our web site, a fellow by the name
of OKIE BOB found this article. I hope you can take time to read it... it is the
reason we are still working hard every day. Americans are not getting the truth
from our corporate dominated media by and large. The New York Times has been
taken over by a coup, now it is a mouth piece for the present administration,
FOX news continues to leave out anything that might hurt the administration,
Clear Channel stations routinely present only the corporate side of policy. Read
below and I think you will see that Bob sums it up much better than I ever could
have.
Jerry Pippin
6:00 a.m. Sunday, January 18, 2004
By Joel Bleifuss | 10.17.03
The More You Watch …
It’s old news that many Americans are know-nothings when it comes to Iraq.
According to a Washington Post poll in August, 32 percent of Americans believed
it was “very likely” that “Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11
terrorist attacks.” Another poll found that 20 percent of Americans believed
that “Iraq did use chemical or biological weapons in the war.”
Researchers at the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) in
Washington have plumbed the abyss of this ignorance. Their mission: to discover
why “a substantial portion of the public had a number of misperceptions that
were demonstrably false [and that] have played a key role in generating and
maintaining approval for the decision to go to war.”
From June through September, PIPA polled 3,334 people, asking them about
three of “the most egregious misperceptions.”
Evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaeda has been found.
Weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.
World public opinion favored the United States going to war with Iraq.
The study, “Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War,” found that 60
percent of respondents held one or more of the three misperceptions—an ignorance
that played into the Bush administration’s drumbeat for war. PIPA discovered
that “among those with just one of the misperceptions, 53 percent supported the
war—rising to 78 percent for two of the misperceptions and to 86 percent for
those with all three.” Conversely, among those “with none of the three
misperceptions,” 77 percent opposed the war.
So why did so many Americans hold opinions that were false “or were at odds
with the dominant view in the intelligence community?” the PIPA researchers
wondered. Was this ignorance “a function of an individual’s source of news?”
Indeed it was. After asking respondents to name their “primary source of
news,” PIPA discovered that “Fox News watchers were most likely to hold
misperceptions.” Conversely, an “overwhelming majority” of NPR/PBS consumers
“did not have any of the three misconceptions.” (Indeed, 80 percent of Fox News
viewers held one misperception and 45 percent held all three. In contrast, 23
percent of those getting their news from NPR/PBS held one misperception and only
4 percent held all three.)
The researchers point out that it is true that audiences for network news
shows vary as to education and political affiliation. For example, Fox viewers
are more Republican while PBS/NPR consumers are better educated and more
Democratic. (They also found that Republicans and those with lower education are
more likely to hold misperceptions.)
Yet source of news is still a determining factor. Of the Republicans who get
their news from Fox, the average rate for the three key misperceptions was 54
percent, while for Republicans who get their news from PBS/NPR the average rate
is 32 percent. On the Democratic side of things, 48 percent of Democrats who
watch Fox believe that the United States found a direct Iraqi link to al-Qaeda,
while not a single Democrat who relies on PBS/NPR believed any such nonsense.
But “most striking,” say the PIPA researchers, is that among Fox News
viewers, those who watch the “fair and balanced” network the most are the ones
most likely to hold demonstrably unbalanced misperceptions.
Steven Kull, the director of PIPA and the study’s principal investigator,
says, “If people are getting misperceptions, and we can empirically demonstrate
that they are, then the media has a responsibility to offset that and counteract
them. The media hasn’t been diligent enough in taking into account the way that
perceptions and impressions are formed around a quite significant public policy
issue.”
As for Fox, Kull says “research shows that Fox gives more airtime to the
administration’s representatives and that may be one of the key explanations why
Fox viewers have these misperceptions.”
Joel Bleifuss is the editor of In These Times, where he has worked as a
investigative reporter, columnist and editor since 1986. Bleifuss has had more
stories on Project Censored's annual list of the “10 Most Censored Stories” than
any other reporter.
Seeing the
Light
Jerry Wilhite is a life long friend from grade school forward.
He is very good at satire. He was a life long Republican until Dubya showed up.
Now he sees corporate greed for what it is. Here is his latest letter to me, I
know he will not mind sharing it with the world.
Dear Jerry,
I could not help but notice that you seem to have a mild dislike for Geo. W.
Bush, hereafter referred to as OFL...our fearless leader. You have even referred
to the fact that he did not win the presidency, but was appointed.
You really harp upon our involvement in the overthrowing of the Iraqi
government. I find it amusing that we have not been able to capture Saddam, but
you must admit we did achieve our purpose, whatever it was. I know because OFL
stood bravely on a ship at sea and declared this conflict over. OFL immediately
returned to his loved ones...I am sure our troops can't be far behind. It
further confuses me that more Americans have died in Iraq after the war than
before. I don't think that has happened in any of our other conflicts.
Money seems to bother you a lot. Eighty Seven Billion is nothing compared to
what we have already spent liberating Iraq. Incidentally, I am still waiting for
the Iraqi people to throw rose petals at our feet, and welcome us as liberators.
OFL said that would happen.
Other countries will undoubtedly contribute to the cost of rebuilding Iraq.
OFL has asked them to do so. Japan has pledged an insignificant sum next year.
I'm not sure anyone else has responded. This, however, should not be viewed as
failure in our foreign policy by OFL. We can point to so many other indicators
of failure in foreign affairs that this insult is just a drop in the bucket.
Back to the Eighty Seven Billion!! American companies are being paid well to
rebuild Iraq. There was no bidding for the work. It was given to Halliburton, a
company formerly headed by Dick Cheney. Research has indicated that he was not
prepared, other than contacts with the Defense Department, to run that company.
However, there are at least five other examples of retired military, and high
ranking civilians being hired at Millions of dollars per year because of their
ability to secure defense contracts.
Back to catching Saddam...did we ever catch that Bin Laden guy? Can we, with
our high budgets for several intelligence agencies, catch anybody? Well, at
least we can find weapons of mass destruction!! They appear to be
everywhere...except Iraq.
I remember being told that Iraq had weapons that could destroy life as we
knew it...including cockroaches, within forty five minutes. Based upon that we
had no choice but to overthrow that nation. One good thing is that it has
brought us closer to Muslim nations. I can tell because gas prices are still
higher than before the liberation.
Evildoer's, that's what OFL calls the terrorist country of the day. It
changes rapidly, so you have to watch the news carefully. I fear I will lose
track of the evildoers and hate somebody we have forgiven. North Korea, Iran,
Syria, Palestine are known evildoers. Oklahoma, with you spewing your anti-OFL
talk may not be far behind. I don't think you produce enough oil to be ignored,
like Saudi Arabia. You don't export enough to the rest of America, like China,
to be ignored. Wal-Mart doesn't need you!!
You did say one thing, and maybe a few more, that is true. Eighty Seven
Billion dollars is enough to restore all of the money lost due to the corporate
corruption we have recently suffered. Enron, WorldCom and their ilk have stolen
more from American retirees than any other group in history. It doesn't make
sense to restore that money to suffering Americans when we can give it to
Halliburton without supervision or bidding.
Many of our major banks and trading firms are paying Millions of dollars in
fines, none of which will find the way to victimized retirees, for their
admitted corruption. We are so stupid we keep depositing money with those same
guys. Why would they fear reprisal? They will just find new ways to do their
accounting.
Back to hating someone we have forgiven. Good news!! We have forgiven
absolutely no one. We can continue to hate just about everybody!!
I hope this helps clear your confusion regarding OFL. I would hope for
contrition on your part.
You know, when I read this I am appalled at our continuing stupidity. We
really don't punish corporate criminals by taking our trade elsewhere! Those
guys at the top, making millions per year, must really laugh at us!!
Regards,
Jerry Wilhite
The Case for
Dean and the Case for Clark
When this campaign started never did I dream that we Democrats would have
such excellent choices for the Presidency. I bought into the pundits in
Washington who are supposed to know about these things. They all said, the
Democratic field was full of light weights. Then I started watching the debates
and they did not appear to be light weights at all. The only light weight it
appears to me is sitting the White House right now due to an illegal election.
I am at a place where the choices are too good to be true. First lets take
the case of Howard Dean. He is the answer so far to one of the major problems
with America in my opinion and that is the corporate political contributor. So
far Governor Dean has not taken a dime from these merchants of special
interests. He has taken his campaign to the people and in my opinion that is the
only way we are gong to save America, get a truly populist financed campaign.
I like that. I like it because it is the way of the history of the Democratic
party. We, Democrats, have always been for the people, not the corporations and
in dong so, every time a Democrat is in office, the economy does well and the
corporations make money. It seems silly to me that so many of these fat cats are
Republicans since they really do not do that well except for the special
interest few... those who went to Yale, Harvard and networked their way to the
top. I must point out in doing so, the cream of the crop of America never seems
to get placed in positions of authority. This is a major reason why we are doing
wrong headed things in the world today in my opinion.
Money is the secret of control. We all know this unpleasant truth from
personal lives to professional lives, money can make or break you. So finally in
the case of Howard Dean, there is a way to break this circle. Dean has gone to
the people.
I received an email from the Dean folks this morning. In it, Dean states:
“time will tell whether the special interests and the Bush administration
have underestimated me. But I know in my heart that they have underestimated
you.”
Sunday the Dean people did something unprecedented in American politics. By
setting the goal to raise $5 million in ten days and by doing so publicly, they
are putting the future of this country in the people's hands, not the
corporations and special interest.
If the half million Dean supporters on the Internet alone gave a hundred
bucks each, the Dean people will have changed America's politics forever! The
URL for the Dean campaign is:
http://www.deanforamerica.com/contributenow
Then there is General Wesley Clark. Everything I have read and feel about the
man is positive. He is everything that we Democrats would want in a leader. He
has courage that tempered with reason, he has intelligence that is tempered with
compassion and he has never forgotten his roots. Another Arkansas Rhodes
Scholar? It may be exactly what this country needs again.
I am gong to watch Wesley Clark closely. He is a good man and we need good
men in the White House not these lying cheating limited thinkers that we have
now. I urge you to keep tabs on General Clark, he just might be the man for the
future of America.
http://www.draftwesleyclark.com/
We are standing by our endorsement of Governor Dean at this time; however,
those who know me, know that I am a big General Wesley Clark booster and fan, It
may be that we have a split in our staff when it comes to who we want to endorse
for President before this thing is over. All I am saying is that right now, I am
torn between the two. In actuality either will do a fine job and there are
others in the Democratic field that may rise to the top as well.
In my part of the country, Senator John Edwards has special appeal. I still
like Dick Gephardt even though I was bitterly disappointed when he supported the
Bush War. I think he has learned his lesson. Senator John Kerry is one of the
Yale types, but he seems to have his heart in the right place. Many of the
lesser tier of candidates appeal to my liberal soul. Health Care needs to be
fixed and I know in my heart the payer Government system is the best, It works
wherever it is tried.
So in summary, I think we Democrats are very lucky to have such an impressive
field to choose. Do not buy into the hacks in Washington who say they are light
weights. However I must tell you, those who voted for a war in IRAQ that has
upset the entire scheme of things in world politics should have known better and
I am not inclined to vote for these Republican lights, especially the likes of
the Joe Lieberman's. Why Gore chose him as a running mate is beyond me.
America needs a man of the people in the White House and we need to clean out
those in the Senate and Congress who are not for the people; who vote regularly
against your and my interest in favor of huge corporations making huge profits
off the sweat and toil of everyday people.
Lets have a candidate who appeals to the better angels of our spirit rather
than the "me first" intellect of that crowd of empty hats and selfish motives
that controls this present administration.
Jerry Pippin
9:00 AM, Monday, September 21,2003
Executive Orders
One of the good things about doing an Internet
Radio website that deals with issues of the day is the fact that I get lots of
emails. Okie Bob is a very interesting fellow who seems to very informed and he
seems to be a definite liberal just yours truly. An email from him jumped out of
the computer screen at me this morning.
It concerned an executive order signed by George W. Bush on May 22, 2003. I
am going to have to do some investigation, but if this Executive Order actually
exist this t his could very well be the "smoking gun" needed to show the true
reason for the invasion of Iraq." wrote Okie Bob. This order would seem to put
the oil companies doing business in Iraq above the law.
First of all, I guess we need to explore the subject of EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
Executive orders are used by Presidents to surreptitiously make policy. It often
makes an end-run around Congress and frequently escapes the media's attention as
well.
I am going to do an experiment. I am going to contact several white house
reporters and assignment editors of major news organizations and ask them about
Executive Order 13303. I am going to contact the White House Press office as
well. We will see what kind of response I get. It may be that this order does
not exist, but I am inclined to think it does. Hopefully we will find out.
I understand that President Bush has signed a lot of executive orders that
have gone unreported for weeks or months -- most notably, changes to
environmental regulations and restricted access to former presidential papers
and Freedom of Information Act information. It does seem this President views
the press as his enemy rather than his friend even though I think his
administration has been able to play the press like a symphony.
The same day as this order was signed, May 22, the U.N. Security Council
passed Resolution 1438, which provided gas and oil companies in Iraq with
limited immunity until Dec. 21, 2007. Their reason? To protect the flow of oil
revenues into the development fund that will be used to reconstruct Iraq. The
U.N. resolution, however, did not provide immunity from human rights violations
or environmental damage. Nor did it protect any employee or any company after
the oil was produced and extracted in Iraq.
President Bush on the same day issued Executive Order 13303 -- called
"Protecting the Development Fund and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has an
Interest." Unlike the U.N. resolution, the president's order appears to place
U.S. corporations above the law for any activities related to Iraq oil, either
in that country or in the United States.
It also declared a national emergency as the justification for sweeping aside
all federal statues, including the Alien Tort Claims Act, and appears to provide
immunity against contractual disputes, discrimination suits, violations of labor
practices, international treaties, environmental disasters and human rights
violations. Even more, it doesn't limit immunity to the production of oil, but
also protects individuals, companies and corporations involved in selling and
marketing the oil as well.
This order allows any person, company or corporation to do what they want in
IRAQ without fear of prosecution. If, for example, a U.S. oil company engages in
criminal behavior in California, and its assets can be traced back to Iraqi oil,
it could be immune from any kind of prosecution. As you can see, the oil man in
the White House is protecting his pals in the business from almost any
prosecutions. However, it is much more than this, it gives legal immunity for
companies who are helping to reconstruct Iraqi communications, computer or
electrical infrastructure. Maybe this is the reason World Com is not being
pursued for their bankruptcy violations? It is a green light for oil companies
to do business in Iraq, without worrying about legal liability.
Lets be clear about one thing, any legal action taken for any reason against
any American corporation dealing in "Iraqi petroleum products" at any point in
the process -- from well-head to gas-pump to boardroom -- "constitutes an
unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security" of the United States.
In fact, the very possibility that one of Bush's oil pals could be held
accountable for its actions while taking Iraqi oil is so terrifying that he had
to subvert America law in this declared "national emergency" to deal with the
situation. (A "national emergency" that he forgot to mention to anyone in the
public arena.)
Bush declares flatly that any "judicial process" launched against these
protected entities "shall be deemed null and void." And how to guarantee that
his partners and patrons won't be troubled by some rogue nation that still
clings to the outmoded principle of law and order? The Defense Department is
specifically mentioned in this order, I understand, when it comes to making sure
no one will be prosecuted by other countries.
Ostensibly, Order 13303 is aimed at preventing Russia and France from going
to court to enforce their existing oil contracts with Iraq. Legalized thieves,
pitting the US against the world, oh, yes; the rest of the world! So much for
harmony and cooperation and fairness?
So now we know what hundreds of Americans sacrificed their lives and limbs
for...so that Iraq's oil doesn't belong to Saddam anymore; so it can belong to
George Bush, and he can do what he likes with it.
This executive order is a license to kill and steal; where favored corporate
cronies can run wild, unfettered by regulation and glutted by American taxpayer
money that frees them from any financial risk.
Bush sent his old college buddy Thomas Foley to Baghdad last week, the
Financial Times reports, to "advance the privatization" of Iraqi state
enterprises by ensuring that the sell-off of the nation's non-oil assets will be
"open to foreign trade" -- i.e., "United States persons or entities."
At the same time, a rigged bidding process last week forced rivals of Dick
Cheney's paymaster, Halliburton (yes, he still gets fat checks from his old
firm) out of the running for a new multibillion-dollar contract to administer
Iraq's oil fields, The New York Times reports.
Halliburton is protected, however, there is no indemnity, no immunity, for
the American soldiers dying daily in Iraq. Not to mention the innocent Iraqis
killed and injured daily by their US Occupiers. Then there is the question of
Terrorist? Does any one think this blatant power grab by America will go
unanswered over the long haul?
If this executive order is true, as reported, then Ann Coulter's book called
"Treason" will have to rewritten to reflect who really is doing in our country.
I submit to you it is the members of the neo-conservative movement that is
treasonous and not the left wingers of the 40's and 50's that she tries to
tarnish in her misguided book of lies.
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Jerry
admits
to falling for the internet mumblings about Congress
getting their full salary for life, evidently this is
not the case. We intend at some future date as soon as
we can sort it all out to boil it down to the true
facts. As far as I know I have been the very first one
challenged on the proposition that Congress gets full
salary for life. It has made me realize that we never
should take even a Ph.D. researcher who has been very
high in educational circles for fifty years word, we
should always fact-check; for this I apologize. However
Below is the entire article as first placed on the
Politics page as it is- The point of the article is very
simple, fairness and opportunity, not what people make
or get in retirement. I really don't care what they get
as long as everyone has the opportunity to get similar
benefits. ofCopyofPippinWilhite.jpg)
Reality
Politics? Circular Politics? Insane Politics? 
Patriots
- or Believers in a Police State?
Labor Day 2010
The
New Fraud- Buy the Media 
Democrats
- There are Traitors in our Midst
The
Liberal Press, An Urban Legend
Olympic
Epic Opens and in DC...
Bad Week For
Democracy 
Scrooge
Forces in Broadcasting This Year 
He
Was Like a Member of the Family
Torture
and the American Life Style 
Email
Says Rats are Getting These From Uncle Sam in Stimulus Bill 
FOLLOW
THE MONEY 
THE
TROUBLE WITH
(11-16
-08) I received this photo today from a visitor
to our web site who had been checking in on our news
headlines page about the Southern California Fires
that have been raging all weekend. He sent us a
photo which you can see on the left side of your
screen. A couple of reasons we put this photo here,
first of all, looks can be deceiving, it is not a
photo from the
November
is all kinds of milestones for me, some good, my
birthday later this month
The
mysterious and the unexplained have been an
important part of success here at the Jerry
Pippin websites- and now we are getting back
to the subject of
Dreamed
big. I was lucky that I knew what I wanted to do
from grade school where I used to hold
Bad
things can happen without dark clouds, the night of
September 11,2001 there was not a cloud in the sky yet
3,000 were dead and the nation was wounded severely.
This is really part sermon about living your dreams, I
am not an older fellow, mature for sure, actually older
than I thought I might live to be, and yet I am still
dreaming like a young man and what makes it worthwhile
is you are along with me on my dream ride across the
clouds of this planet and beyond. I just wanted to thank
you for a great ten years and the next ten years will be
even better for all of us, you, me and everyone who
works with me. This is truly a group effort, larger than
any man or any one idea. So I hope you continue to come
back and watch us age with class and grow taller and
stronger show by show.
