THANK YOU PEOPLE OF WICHITA, KANSAS

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

Scott Roeder woke up one morning and anointed himself as God for the Day.  As his public relations team tried to suggest, Roeder believed that Dr. George Tiller was a murderer because he was a physician who performed late term abortions) and he had to be stopped.  On May 31, 2009, as Roeder drove to the Church where Dr. Tiller was worshipping, Roeder transformed himself into judge, jury and executioner.  When he arrived, in the name of the unborn children that Dr. Tiller would eventually kill, Roeder became the hand of God and killed Roeder.

Now if he were the true martyr that he tried to make us believe he was, and if he was the man he said he was, Roeder would have put down his gun, folded his arms and waited for the police to come and arrest him. 

But in the end he was nothing more than a murdering coward.  When two of Dr. Tiller’s fellow parishioners tried to apprehend Roeder, he pointed a gun at them and ran off to hide.  Some hero!  Some martyr!

At his trial, he sought to nullify the jury and tried to make the issue at hand not his murder of Dr, Tiller, but the wrong doings done by all those who participated in providing abortions.  People who said they were people of God congregated before the courthouse demanding Roeder’s release.  He was a hero.  He was their John of Arc. 

But in the end, thankfully, the good, no, the very good people of Wichita saw past the carnival and charade and saw the case for what it really was.  It was all about cold blooded, pre-meditated murder.  No extenuating circumstances, no exoneration, no absolution, and no nullification of their sworn duty was considered.  It took just thirty-seven minutes for these good, God-fearing people to uphold their responsibilities.  As children of God and citizens of the Great State of Kansas they found Roeder guilty as he charged.

The Bleacherman stands up and applauds all of you.   Thank God the will of reason can still prevail in a country gone nuts.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

THE AUDACITY OF AN IDIOT

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

Following the President’s State of the Union address, all of the major news channels brought together their minions of experts to discuss the merits of the speech.  Most channels focused on the content and spent very little time addressing the President as an individual.  But not Fox.  No, that would be much too professional and reflect much too much integrity and honesty.  They immediately attacked the President, not the holder of the office, but the man in the suit and tie.

We have come to expect nothing less than hate mongering, hostile, viperous ramblings attacking Obama from the way he walks to the way he eats and everything in between.  On the night of the State of the Union speech, one ding dong analyst referred to the President as being arrogant.  Sarah Palin referred to the President accusing him of lecturing rather than inspiring.  Of course, we all know that any lecture on any subject goes right over the head of the Alaskan ding-a-ling.

And then came the idiot of idiots, the fool of fools, the walking, talking, and cesspool of a person named Glen Beck who dared, dared to call the President of the United States a punk.

A Punk!

Fuck Glen Beck and the ignorance he rides around on.  How dare any American refer to the President as a punk!  Okay, it is one thing to attack and condemn his politics.  And it is even okay, immature and inconsiderate to say the least, to refer to the President as arrogant and uppity because we already know that the Fox Fart Forum are true racists.  But to call the President a punk!

And no one seems to care as we, day in and day out, begin to erode the American institutions that are the infrastructure of our democracy.  Hate is toxic.  And one day the toxicity vomited by the likes of Glen Beck is going to come back and haunt us all as our democracy fades into the past and is replaced by a totalitarian, fascist environment that punishes people for believing that the world can be a beautiful place to live in. 

Well the Bleacherman does care.  I believe that the time has come for Glen Beck, yes the Glen Beck who is nothing more than the offspring of horse manure and a snake, should stand up and be a man.  And apologize.

Oh, I forgot, look who I am asking to stand up and be a man.  Mr. Beck, if you want to see a punk, I suggest you look in the mirror.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO SPEND?

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium….

The current Republican mantra, as articulated last night by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, says that the country cannot afford the spending outlined by President Obama in his State of the Union address.

The Republicans talk about unsustainable levels of debt but forget, conveniently of course, to make mention that they and their spending frenzy contributed to half of our problem.  The Democrats have now become the spend and borrow party while the Republicans are now the no spend and borrow, pray for a miracle party. 

Boys and girls of the stadium, we are in a recession.  Republican economic policies put us there.  But that is history.  The question is how do we get out of it?  How do we create jobs?  The Democrats want to spend money on stimulus packages; the Republicans believe tax breaks are the answer.  Here is the moral of either position:  each adds to the deficit. 

It is easy for Governor McDonnell to stand in front of a home town crowd and speak as the new Messiah on the block.  But he hasn’t governed long enough to do anything yet.  Talk is cheap.  Derogatory and accusatory rhetoric is easy; governing is the hard part of the equation.  Let him speak in a few years and we will see where Virginia is with respect to balanced budgets and adequate services provided to his constituency.

Remember the Governator in California.  Big promises were made then and now the state is in complete financial and fiscal ruin.  Remember the depression.  Herbert Hoover, the Republican President, spent not a penny on trying to turn people’s lives around.  Not a penny.  And the depression continued to grow worse every year.  Roosevelt came to Washington, spent like crazy and with the help of a world war turned our economy around. 

So in fairness to the Republicans, who don’t want to spend money on anything, let them speak and say something other than ‘no.”  Let’s hear a detailed plan for anything.  Not just the baloney currently being spread on white bread, but how about some real substance.  Then and only then can I agree that spending is not the way out of this recession.

….the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

WE THE PEOPLE, WE THE UNGOVERNABLE

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

There was a time not that long ago when the institutions of government meant something.  There was a time when these institution, like, the Office of the President, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the United States, were respected for what they represented. They were the foundations and the infrastructure of our democracy.

There was once a time when the halls of Congress were hallowed ground.  It was a place where Presidents, Senators and Congressmen were first respected for the office and then for the policies they promoted.

But that was all a long time ago.  We now find ourselves living in the era of partisan politics.  It is a time where you are only measured by the party you represent and the political philosophy you promote.  In Congress, talk of respected colleagues has been replaced by childish, sandbox name calling.  Discussions based upon a political polemic have been replaced by repugnant personal attacks on character.  Integrity and truthfulness seem to be lost art forms.  Respect for others is, for many, an anathema.

We now live in a world where partisanship is everything.  We live in a world where media, once a forum for discussion and debate, now seeks to divide the nation and turn ourselves against one another.   

Although the words, “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” was first offered by Abraham Lincoln, eight years earlier, Sam Houston, said in the Senate debate on the Compromise of 1850 that “a nation divided against itself cannot stand.  No truer words have ever been spoken.

And while we chase down bogey-men and terrorists, we need to look inward to find an enemy that stands more of a chance to destroy this nation than any religious fanatic living in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Yemen.  We need to look at ourselves and the men and women who take to the airwaves to vomit their hatred and enthusiastically cheer for us to tear ourselves apart while they cash their weekly paychecks. 

It is so sad that the lie and the distortion have now been elevated to the nobility of being an ideal.  So I guess we can thank the likes of Palin, Beck and Hannity for that.

I think we, as a Nation, need to take pause for a moment.  We need to call time out and look at what we are doing to ourselves.  During the war of 1812, in a letter written by Abigail Adams, she understood the dangers we now face some two hundred years later.  She wrote, ‘a house divided upon itself and upon that foundation do our enemies build their hopes of subduing us.’

Somehow, we have become our own terrorists, we have become our own enemy, and we have become our own worst nightmare.    

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium.

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium

I know that it is quite fashionable among the right wing fringes of the Conservative movement to attack Hollywood and its liberal bias.  Right wing pundits like Glen, Rush and Sean have turned the philosophy of liberalism and progressivism into something equal to or worse than the anti-Christ.

But now is not the time for me to try to argue with the idiots that clown around in the circus.  They will be around a long time with their anger, stupidity and contempt for everything that does not add to their personal bottom lines.

But the Bleacherman is here to thank Hollywood.  Last night I watched the Haiti telethon where these men and women of Hollywood came together, as they always seem to do, and donate their time and talents for those who were victimized by the terrible earthquake that has destroyed so many lives.  Where were some of the big conservatives?  Where was Dennis Miller?  And I am sure Glen, Rush and Sean did not lift a finger to dial in and donate some of their wealth.  I mean, as Rush said, the people in Haiti are not white.  And therefore, why help them?

Thank you Hollywood!  May you be blessed for your generosity and compassion.

  ….the Bleacherman has left the stadium.

MEMO TO LIZ CHENEY

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

Obviously you either did not get or did not bother to read previous memorandums, newspapers, and magazines or take the time to watch cable news outlets.  So let me summarize what has happened in the past few years or so.

1/  Obama and Biden won the 2008 presidential election.  McCain and Palin lost the election.

2/  The reason McCain and Palin lost the election is that they received less popular and more importantly, less electoral votes than did Obama and Biden did.  Hooray for the Constitution.

3/  Many independent political pundits  believed that one of the reasons that McCain and Palin lost the election is that the American constituency was just absolutely tired and fed up with the policies of Bush and Cheney.  The 2008 election was an emphatic repudiation of your father’s policies.  Go ask your friends at Fox News.  They’ll tell you the truth. 

4/  Because your father lied and manipulated the truth to support our invasion of Iraq, then the Bleacherman believes that your father should be held responsible for the deaths of every American soldier who died in Iraq for no other reason than to get your father’s neo-con rocks off.

5/  Maybe, in a very wide stretch of logic , your father can be called a murderer.  He sent our soldiers to die for no real reason. 

6/  Your father complains about President Obama’s dithering over committing more Americans to fight the war in Afghanistan,  but what in the hell did he do to advance the war.  Nothing!  He decided that he would let Bin Laden escape from our grasp and go after some guy in Iraq.  Explain that away.   

6/  You claim that there were no terror attacks on American soil while your father was in office.  Just to provide an update, there were! terrorist attacks on Americans during your father’s watch.  9/11 is the most obvious but what about the anthrax attack, the Muslim who mowed down innocent civilians with his car and Mr. Reid the shoe bomber.  Did you forget about these?  Or did you too spend eight years in an undisclosed bunker? 

7/  If you’re so concerned about the safety of America and Americans, I have one suggestion to make.  Get off of our fat ass and show some courage and join the Army.  Lead us to our salvation.  I mean, we all know that your father is a coward and supports wars as long as he and his family do not have to fight them; so show some class.  Show dignity here.  Be an American.  Get your ass in uniform and show some courage.

8/  And if not, please, say no more.  The world will be a better place if you just keep quiet and return to  some undisclosed location.

9/  And please, take your father with you.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium.

THE MOUTH THAT KEEPS ON ROARING

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

At best, when Dick Cheney opens his mouth, all we get is nothing more than an acid-reflux-induced regurgitation of something that sounds like vomit, smells like vomit and since it is coming from Cheney, it must be vomit. 

Every time I hear this psychopath talk, I am more convinced that for the good of our country and humanity itself, we need to put Cheney into his undisclosed location and lock him in for good. 

Here is a man that never saw an opportunity to go to war that he didn’t like.  Because for him, it was easy.  He had nothing vested.  He was a draft dodger during the Viet Nam war.  He was too scared to actually join the war he supported because then he would be putting himself in danger.  In Iraq, it too was easy for him to make war.  Do you think his children would honor their father and country and join the military?  Hell no?  That would be a very dangerous thing to do.  Cheney’s form of patriotism is to stand on the soap box, cheer for war and wave battle flags and watch as someone else’s children is being marched off to harm’s way.

Cheney’s comfort zone is to dance in the circle with other mongers of war like Palin, Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh.  He makes a perfect clown in their little circus of distortions and deceptions.  He is the ring master himself.

I mean, if you would step back and move to seats higher in the grandstand you can get a better understanding of the insanity of all this.  In the beginning, when God barfed and allowed George Bush to be President, old Dickey boy was there, standing in the shadows waiting for his opportunity to take control of our country. 

Then came 9/11/2001 and the world changed in a heartbeat.  Cheney was whisked away to a location where he could hide his little white ass and not be in the line of fire.  He was a coward.  He still is a coward.  And he will always be a coward.  I mean, didn’t he always seem to be in his undisclosed bunker.  Did he keep a mistress there?  Is he a closet-bunker dope addict or even worse, gay?  Does he keep his lover stashed somewhere in the depths of Washington and when he needs to clear his mind he goes off and fucks his lover.  Hell, he has been fucking all of us in the ass for eight years; you would assume he wanted some action on a one on one basis.

Then, a few months after 9/11, came Richard Reid, the shoe bomber.  This was the second terrorist attack on American soil. 

What?  Not a terrorist attack you say?  Wait a minute.  You say that the recent underwear bomber was a terrorist attack so how can underwear be any more dangerous than smelly shoes.  Hey where is Dana Perino when you need her?  Didn’t she claim on Fox not-really-the-truth- News that during the Bush administration that there was not one terrorist attack on American soil.  Now I’m not great at math but taking 9/11 and the shoe bomber—doesn’t that add up to two?

Okay, I am rambling here….back to my chronology.

Okay, after 9/11 and the shoe bomber, we named AL-Qaeda as bad guy number one and the Bush-Cheney dream team of warriors sent American troops to Afghanistan to kill bad guys.  And our military did a great job.  We pushed the Taliban into Pakistan and cornered Bin Laden himself in the mountains of Tora Bora.  Boy oh boy the head of the snake was within our grasp. 

Then someone in Washington had this huge brain fart and Bin Laden was no more the bad guy we had to get at all costs.  Now it was some guy named Saddam Hussein.   According to Cheney and Crew, Hussein had or was accumulating weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent and catastrophic threat to the United States.  He, according to the War Lords, had become priority number one and Bin Laden, now demoted to just an after-thought, was allowed to crawl his way into Pakistan. 

So policy was now set.  We would focus on Hussein and let both Bin Laden and Chaney retreat to their own respective bunkers at undisclosed locations.  If I was a conspiracy theorist I would think that the two of them were living together.

Bin Laden, because of Cheney, was allowed to live and fight another day.  Al Qaeda was still in business.  So how in the hell does Cheney have the right to say that President Obama is giving aid and comfort to the enemy or was dithering on his deliberations on whether or not to send troops to Afghanistan?  I don’t get it.  How does he, Cheney, defend his own abandonment of the war against terror?

Open your big mouth, Dickey, and tell us why you, yes you, are the one who has proven to be soft on terror.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium. 

GOODWILL TO ALL AND PEACE ON EARTH

The Bleacherman has entered the Stadium…

The words Goodwill to All and Peace on Earth become ubiquitous during the holiday season.  We plaster them on our windows, splash them across fancy Holiday Cards and blast them in music and song from our televisions sets during the plethora of Christmas specials that annoyingly preempt normal programming.  Not that I am a bah-humbug type but given the choice between a Carrie Underwood Christmas special and CSI Miami, well give me the crime solving boys and girls anytime.   No offense Carrie.

Religious leaders of all sects and religions adopt the words Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All thematically to rah-rah their congregants to be better, more caring, more sensitive, more compassionate people.  Unfortunately, members of the Tea Party, sitting in the pews of hypocrisy,  of course nod their heads, toast the holiday and go off and continue their journey to find salvation through assholeism (have no idea how to spell that not really a word-word but what the heck, you get my drift.) 

The sad part of the holiday season is that what should fill us with compassion, sensitivity and an overall sense of righteousness towards our fellow man is lost in all the hype, celebration, gift giving and TV specials.  Goodwill to All and Peace on Earth are words, just words and will remain so until man finally comes to grips with the fact that we are destroying the world with our hypocrisy, disingenuity and hate.  Even the once great American Empire, following in the footsteps of the once great and mighty Roman and British Empires, has started to fall.   Look around.  We are at war with each other. 

For some reason the idiots like Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh and that walking talking brain fart, Glen Beck, believe that there should not be a dialogue between liberals and conservatives.  To those genetic regressions the sole purpose of conservatism is to crush liberalism.  Beck wants his viewers to read the Constitution.  Good idea.  You know, have them read that stuff about elections and rule of law and balance of power and all those things they think they know but have not a fucking clue on what the words mean.  Like Goodwill to Man and Peace on Earth.    

The Bleacherman asks that whatever your religious or political persuasion is; take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday that you are celebrating.  Look beyond the toys, sweaters, IPods and Wii machines, the ornaments, the burning candles, the symbols of the season and think about the real meaning of what you celebrate.  Strive to make the words Goodwill to All and Peace on Earth not just words, but causes that you will strive to make real.  What greater gift can you give you children and loved ones than a world blessed in the serenity and the joys of a world at peace and mankind bound together by common goals and the commitment to that what is good.

To you and all of yours…may the New Year bring the first small steps towards the greatest gift of all.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium.

PEACE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: NEVER

The Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

Several nights ago, as I was lighting the Chanukah candles in front of some friends of mine, I was asked if I ever thought that there would be peace between Palestine and Israel.  I think I startled everyone when I responded with a resounding, emphatic, “NO! NEVER!”

So here I was, surrounded by peace activists, leftists, progressives and an odd assortment of non-political types all wondering why I, a old peacenik myself, would say such a thing.  “It’s just the truth,” I sighed in resignation of a nightmare that has haunted me for years.

So I proceeded to sit everyone down and began a rendition of  life according to the Bleacherman – Chapter 39, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We hear a great deal about the two state solution.  And on paper it sounds all very well and reasonable.  Except that it can never work.  In fact, it can never even be implemented.  There are just too many old non-retractable promises and too many decades of hate and mistrust to simply put away in the freezer in a Tupperware container labeled yesterday.

Let’s make some assumptions here.  First we will start with some relatively simple issues.  So topic one is the land referred to as the West Bank.  Now prior to the six day war (June 1967) this land was controlled by Jordan.  There never was talk about any Palestinian state, no wars of liberation, no insurrections, no buses being blown up or airplanes being hijacked and eventually destroyed in the desert somewhere.  Why?

The answerer is really simple.  The Palestinians were conned.  They were lied to, not by Israel, not by the United Nations, but by their own leadership and the heads of all the major Arab States.

In 1967, the issue was not about Palestinian independence.  The issue was about returning to the homes that they were forced from or voluntarily left when the State of Israel was created in 1948. These displaced Palestinians were forced to live in squalid, putrid, disgusting refugee camps.  It was all part of a greater plan conceived and executed by the great Arab powers.  The displaced Palestinians were being used as pawns in a greater conflict.  Rather than allow them to assimilate and become permanent residents of areas like Gaza, the West Bank, and even Lebanon, they were forced to live a life of shame and embarrassment that only fueled the fires of their hatred against Israel.  The calls for revenge, the calls for war, and the calls for the liberation of their homes –their homeland as they saw it – were as common place as eating a falafel in the afternoon. 

For twenty years these Palestinians were promised that one day Isreael would be destroyed.  One day the Israelis would be forced into the sea.  One day the Palestinians would be allowed to return to their homes.  This promise, this dream that one day they would return home to their homes in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem  is embedded in their culture.  It is their mission statement.  It is referred to as ‘The Law of Return.’

In June 5, 967, first Egypt, then Syria, then Jordan attacked Israel.  The moment had come to fulfill the promise that Arab leadership made to the Palestinians.  But there was one slight miscalculation.  They lost the war.  Israel reoccupied East Jerusalem and went on to take not only the West Bank but all of the Sinai as well.

Prime Minister Begin gave back the Sinai to Egypt.  A peace treaty was signed.  And over the years, Egypt has found ways if not to ignore the Treaty, mitigate it for sure.  But I believe that wars between Israel and Egypt are over.  Forever!  There would be peace between the two countries unless of course, the fundamentalists (Islamic Brotherhood) succeed in taking over control of the government of Egypt and begin to make holy war on Israel.

So the question is, what would happen if Israel was willing to give up its settlements in the West Bank.  And they would return 95% of the West Bank back to the Palestinians.  Prime Minister Barak proposed this a decade ago but Arafat rejected the offer.  It was a 100% or nothing.  But Israel cannot give up control of the borders.  At Jerusalem, the width of Israel (from the city to the Mediterranean Sea) is about 40 miles.  Can you image militants, like those now in Gaza, firing off their missiles from sites embedded in the Great Mosques in Jerusalem?  Sites they consider so holy that Israel would not dare bomb them. 

So Israel, strategically, must control the borders of any Palestinian state.   And the Palestinians will not agree to this.  They will not compromise.  They want to return to pre June 1967 borders.  All I can say:  Fat Chance.  My Cubs will win the World Series before Israel gives up the Wailing Wall.  Even to that farce of a organization referred to as the UN.

Let’s continue to  talk about Jerusalem.  The Palestinians want their half back.  All back.  They want to go back to pre-1967 lines.  They want to control the Western Wall….Judaism’s holiest site.  They promise that they would protect it.  They promise they would give unrestricted access to the Wall.  Just like they promised to do before the 1967 war. 

But what they did was far from what they promised.  The Western Wall was turned into part of a donkey stable.  Access to the wall was never granted.  Grave Stones were pulled from Jewish grave sites and used for a urinal at a local hotel.  Give back the Wall.  It will never happen.

And even if all other issues had somehow been miraculously resolved, can you even imagine a Palestinian Prime Minister telling the Palestinians that the Law of Return was not part of the negotiated peace settlement?  It is as if the Palestinians were being told that they were lied to for sixty years years, played with and manipulated.   How do you think they would respond?  Sixty years forced to live in squalid, disgusting, demeaning conditions and then be told they were nothing more than pawns.  No, there is not a bulletproof vest thick enough to protect a Prime Minister that signs a peace treaty that does not evoke the Law of Return.

So can there be peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis?  No.  Never.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium.  

OF (FALSE) GODS AND (FALSE) IDOLS

The Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

If you never knew who Tiger Woods was, then surely, over the past few days, his name and exploits have become something even more than just a household name. 

And, sadly, through one television show after another, we have been able to sit in the grandstand, eating our popcorn and drinking our sodas and beer,  and watch with a certain morbid amusement the fortunes and misfortunes of Tiger, his wife and a minion of whores who are eager to spread their legs and then rush off with lawyers and agents in hand to convert their fifteen minutes of fame into short term capital gain.

How sad it is to bear witness not so much to the fall of Tiger, but more to the feeding frenzy of thousands who sit in front of their television sets and watch shows whose sole purpose in life is to profit from the trials, tribulations and tragedies of celebrities and others who have achieved notoriety and envy.

My two cents:  It’s disgusting and demeaning.

I guess with celebrity comes fame, fortune and scrutiny from bands of hypocrites who enjoy passing judgment on others.  I condemn these inquisitors with their pious and false morality as being evil, hateful and detestable people.  After all, who are we to judge? 

It seems today that if someone achieves fame and fortune in the public eye, they are not longer just stars.  They seem to have been anointed and elevated to levels equal and reserved for Gods and Idols.  And we as fools who must have nothing better to do but sit in front of our television sets and watch shows like Extra, TMZ, Inside Edition and countless others who throw a couple of good looking Ken and Barbie dolls onto the set and read the words that will, in the end and it is the end game that is always most important, sell the most beer, cars, wine, shaving cream, Viagra and KY lubricated vaginal cream.   

And since I have fallen off the deep end and decided to swim in the cesspool,  I cannot forget the Goddess herself,  Nancy “I am Holier than Thou and Thouest” Grace who finds a kidnapped or killed little blonde haired, white girl and goes off to exploitation heaven and starts proclaiming the guilt of anyone who makes best copy.  No jury, no fair trail, just the bitch Nancy Grace playing God.

I think we have a complex that compels us to serve a Caesar, worship an idol or bow down to a God.  We hate our lives and find solace in living a vicarious world of glitz by cheering on our favorite idols and secretly wishing for their self destruction.   We get high on other people’s misery because as we watch it unfold on TV, we can, for a moment, forget the shit that we endure in our common place, boring, and miserable fucked-up world.

So Hail Caesar.  Praise God.  Love to my idol.  Now, will you fall from your thrones so I can have some fun.

….the Bleacherman has left the stadium.