Let’s be honest: The Republicans would have cheered a lip synch performance by Milli Vanilli on the third night of the National Convention, a crowning of the unknown Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as the vice presidential nominee. Anything short of a tumble into the orchestra pit was destined to be hailed a triumph.
The good news is: Sarah Palin can read a script. She was better than any of the speakers preceding her (primary losers) and vastly superior to John McCain’s preferred candidate in turncoat Senator Joe Lieberman. Unlike the miserable bore Lieberman played for Al Gore in the year 2000, Palin took to the traditional role of attack dog like a gator takes to swamps. She delivers every demeaning, misleading and outright venomous attack with a smile to her admiring family, as they cradle their mystifyingly quiet babies.
The bad news is: She opened herself up to attacks in kind. She throws punches like Sonny Listen but we still don’t know how she takes one. They called her Sarah Barracuda in high school but this ain’t no pick up game with the girls. This is the big leagues.
While we’re being honest, let’s all acknowledge that she’s not all that. We’ve seen Obama and Sarah Palin is no Obama. She did all right for a feisty first address but her vocal quality invites comparisons somewhere between the Church Lady of the old Saturday Night Live and a character from the Coen brothers’ Fargo. Do they really talk like that in Alaska? She has a peculiar facial expression in which she scrunches her nose as if the subject of her discourse is so foul she cannot bear the stench.
Comedians will have a great time as long as she lasts on the national stage. (Bring back Tina Fey!)
Moreover, the biographical sketch we were provided by Republican operatives has already begun to unravel. She collected tons of pork barrel dollars for a community of seven thousand people. How does that wash? She supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it. She has shown a vindictive streak that plays out in her politics. She invokes God in political discourse. She is intolerant of those who do not conform to her notion of God’s plan.
It is becoming clear that the Republican Party tabbed her as an up and comer early on. They sent an operative to take over the local politics of a little Alaskan town. The big money came down the pike and everyone was happy. The operatives shaped her, worked her and helped her formulate policies. They told her to oppose the Bridge to Nowhere. They told her to take a stand against earmarks – even though she made it her business to collect them as mayor and as governor.
I doubt anyone thought she was being trained for this year’s presidential election but here she stands, ready or not. Like a sandlot phenom, she came out hitting. Now we’ll find out if she can hit a curve ball.
Jazz.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Mansel: The Deadliest Convention
McCain makes his way through the bowels of the Straight Talk Express and dodges silk stockings dripping on his suit and buckets of ammo from assault rifles being kicked around on the floor by staffers. It's a new day on the campaign trail with target practice at protesters and an interview with Rush Limbaugh all by 7:00 am.
CNN has forgotten all about the death and destruction of the hurricane and focused solely on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's teenage daughter. If she was from the south there could be the comparisons to Britney Spears but in Alaska it's a different story.
As global warming takes center stage alongside teen pregnancy each bitter slice of ice that falls down into the frigid waters off the coast of Alaska it's like John McCain has fallen into the Deadliest Convention of his life.
- Chris Mansel
CNN has forgotten all about the death and destruction of the hurricane and focused solely on the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's teenage daughter. If she was from the south there could be the comparisons to Britney Spears but in Alaska it's a different story.
As global warming takes center stage alongside teen pregnancy each bitter slice of ice that falls down into the frigid waters off the coast of Alaska it's like John McCain has fallen into the Deadliest Convention of his life.
- Chris Mansel
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Mansel: McCain in Utah
Circling the Democratic Convention center in Denver, Colorado in an unmarked Chevy van is John McCain. With no other people with him, his short little arms making wide turns at intersections, spitting out the window and listening to an audiobook of Mein Kampf read by Tom Selleck, he thinks of ways to combat the enthusiasm that Obama has brought to his campaign. Suddenly the van blows a tire and McCain is on foot. A young man picks him up but the young man does not recognize the older man in the BYOB baseball hat.
McCain ends up at a dormitory in Utah reading the Koran with a mixed up youth who has been hoarding AAA batteries for a bomb to blow all the hair off his snoring roommate. Whenever McCain tries to get up to leave, the young man waves a G.I. Joe at McCain and quotes from the Koran in a low voice.
A quick call to Lieberman could end it all but who will his running mate be?
- Chris Mansel
McCain ends up at a dormitory in Utah reading the Koran with a mixed up youth who has been hoarding AAA batteries for a bomb to blow all the hair off his snoring roommate. Whenever McCain tries to get up to leave, the young man waves a G.I. Joe at McCain and quotes from the Koran in a low voice.
A quick call to Lieberman could end it all but who will his running mate be?
- Chris Mansel
Friday, August 22, 2008
Mansel: McCain's Secret Obit
From the unreleased obituary,
Here lies John McCain, former babysitter to Joe Lieberman, who became senile after losing the vice-presidency in 2008. Lieberman who in a death pact blackmailed McCain into dressing as Richard Nixon and waltzing into the room and announcing like William F. Buckley that each day had begun at least a dozen times. McCain also has to read Mein Kampf to Lieberman while crouched over a portrait of Prescott Bush.
- Chris Mansel
Here lies John McCain, former babysitter to Joe Lieberman, who became senile after losing the vice-presidency in 2008. Lieberman who in a death pact blackmailed McCain into dressing as Richard Nixon and waltzing into the room and announcing like William F. Buckley that each day had begun at least a dozen times. McCain also has to read Mein Kampf to Lieberman while crouched over a portrait of Prescott Bush.
- Chris Mansel
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Mind of Mansel: McCain Top Ten
The John McCain Top 10
1. It is said that McCain has begun refusing meat in order to sharpen his teeth.
2. John McCain never sodomized a rubber chicken dinner he didn't like.
3. When it comes to medication on the campaign trail John McCain sets his sights on pharmaceutical cocaine and human growth hormone.
4. John McCain is banned from Howard Johnson for urinating polling results onto linen napkins.
5. In Chicago recently John McCain appeared in a publicity photo dressed as a cheerleader with a gland condition.
6. John McCain believes a bungled execution is a good execution.
7. McCain thought a guillotine was a new hybrid.
8. Once during a game of billiards John McCain was heard to shout, "Chalk it, like they do in Saigon!"
9. When asked if he would pardon any African-Americans when in office McCain replied why has Obama committed a crime?
10. Lynne Cheney's new book is called, Laura: The Prostrate Years.
- Chris Mansel
1. It is said that McCain has begun refusing meat in order to sharpen his teeth.
2. John McCain never sodomized a rubber chicken dinner he didn't like.
3. When it comes to medication on the campaign trail John McCain sets his sights on pharmaceutical cocaine and human growth hormone.
4. John McCain is banned from Howard Johnson for urinating polling results onto linen napkins.
5. In Chicago recently John McCain appeared in a publicity photo dressed as a cheerleader with a gland condition.
6. John McCain believes a bungled execution is a good execution.
7. McCain thought a guillotine was a new hybrid.
8. Once during a game of billiards John McCain was heard to shout, "Chalk it, like they do in Saigon!"
9. When asked if he would pardon any African-Americans when in office McCain replied why has Obama committed a crime?
10. Lynne Cheney's new book is called, Laura: The Prostrate Years.
- Chris Mansel
Jake's Word re: The Devil Down in Georgia
[Response to Jack Random's "The Devil Down in Georgia" (below).]
Absolutely. This is the best possible circumstance for the neocons. The war against terrorism is difficult to perpetuate endlessly because the public grows tired of fighting a vague, invisible, uncertain enemy. But the majority of the U.S. public remembers the Cold War very well and that makes it easier to sell. It involves certainties. Russia, drunk with new wealth and a new epoch of Czars, has recovered from its experiment with liberal democracy and reasserts itself as a superpower once again. The neocons must be ecstatic. This is the global politics they trained in and understand so well. It is the philosophical heart of the Project for a New American Century. Both the leadership in Moscow and Washington are well aware the game is back on and they settle in for the deep freeze behind mountains of wealth.
Indeed, what could Saakashvili have been thinking? I find it hard to believe he could be so ignorant of history, of the crimes of the Bush administration or the eagerness of Russia to reassert itself. Perhaps he is deeply invested in the military-industrial complex. Perhaps he is willing to sacrifice the safety of his own citizens in order to be part of the new front line - an egomaniacal delusion in which he is a heroic political soldier for democracy.
As usual, the bottom line is the bottom line and the price is paid in human blood. Human sacrifice by any other name is still barbarous and the 21st century barbarians could not be more obvious.
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
THE DEVIL DOWN IN GEORGIA:
Resurrecting the Cold War
By Jack Random
“In the 21st century nations do not invade other nations.”
Senator John McCain, August 13, 2008
It is inconceivable that a major candidate for president of the United States of America should be unaware that the government he wishes to lead began the 21st century with a foreign policy of aggressive war and military domination christened by the invasions of two sovereign nations.
When that candidate is a long-standing political front man for the Neoconservative brain trust that authored the policy (Project for a New American Century), it strains the last fibers of credulity. For a man who considers himself a foreign policy expert, Senator John McCain has taken his place alongside our brash lame duck president as an embarrassment to the nation.
Is he demented? Does he consider our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq incursions, diplomatic overtures or simply humanitarian assistance?
As Vladimir Putin might say: If Iraq is an incursion then Russia’s actions in neighboring Georgia are little more than a firm handshake.
Not to be outdone, our president took a respite between vacations to issue a warning reminiscent of a former era but it played more like a bullied child: If you don’t stop now, I’m not going to be your friend any more!
One of the more fascinating aspects of the American response has been substituting references to Georgia with Iraq and Russia with America. Consider transcriptions of these gems from the mouth of our clueless leader:
“[Iraq’s] sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. [Washington] must live up to its commitment to withdraw its invading forces from all [Iraqi] territory.”
This one does not require transcription:
“Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.”
Are John McCain and little George reading from the same script?
What is most puzzling in this conflict is the behavior of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who triggered the Russian response by taking military action in South Ossetia. The reaction was as predictable as the salivation of Pavlov’s dogs but Saakashvili seems perplexed that America and her allies have not rushed to his government’s defense.
Is the man insane? Did he really think that America, with its forces bogged down in two major occupations, was eager to start another war with Russia on the Russian border?
If he is not a madman then someone made promises they had no intention of honoring.
If Saakashvili has not yet awakened to the fact that he and his nation are sacrificial pawns in this game of international chess, he soon will. His mentor-ally in the United States wasted no time pushing through a missile defense agreement with Poland – a move that every objective observer knows is not directed at Iran or “rogue states” but at Moscow.
Not content with the damage they have already done to America’s standing in the world, the neoconservative horror factory still in charge of our foreign policy (along with their profiteering allies in the military industrial complex) have used the waning days of the Bush White House to put in place the necessary elements for a return to the Cold War – a war that was never cold and cost millions of innocent lives culminating in Vietnam.
Are we safer now, Mr. President?
Pay no attention to the ravings of John McCain. He is not president and his ignorance in critical matters of foreign policy is so profound it numbs the mind. We are not going to war on the Russian border. We will not severe the primary source of Europe’s energy supply. We will not risk a military confrontation between nuclear powers to bolster the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
We are not completely insane.
We will however return to the insanity of an arms race – nuclear and otherwise – pitting us against the Russians with the Chinese content for now to sit this one out.
If the policies of intimidation and confrontation continue, there will be wars with nations such as Georgia and Ukraine serving as our proxies.
There will be blood and there will be blood money for corporate mercenaries and arms dealers.
The devil has come to Georgia but he is not Vladimir Putin. Russia is only acting as we would act if a major foreign power came to our border – as we would have if the Soviets had not backed down when they attempted to plant missiles in Cuba circa 1962.
No. The devil down in Georgia wears the familiar mask of the Neocon. The names behind the mask are Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, Abrams, Kristol, Khalilzad, Bush, Cheney and McCain.
They have bankrupted the nation, morally and economically, but they have profited perversely from the effort. They have never lost hold of the dream that is the world’s nightmare.
They will not stop pushing until we reach the endgame of world domination or mass annihilation or both.
Rest assured, if we allow the Project for a New American Century to move forward, the world will awaken, all but a few of our allies will peel away, and America will stand and fall alone.
Jazz.
[See “John McCain and the Project for a New American Century” by Joseph A. Palermo, The Huffington Post, June 18, 2008.]
Absolutely. This is the best possible circumstance for the neocons. The war against terrorism is difficult to perpetuate endlessly because the public grows tired of fighting a vague, invisible, uncertain enemy. But the majority of the U.S. public remembers the Cold War very well and that makes it easier to sell. It involves certainties. Russia, drunk with new wealth and a new epoch of Czars, has recovered from its experiment with liberal democracy and reasserts itself as a superpower once again. The neocons must be ecstatic. This is the global politics they trained in and understand so well. It is the philosophical heart of the Project for a New American Century. Both the leadership in Moscow and Washington are well aware the game is back on and they settle in for the deep freeze behind mountains of wealth.
Indeed, what could Saakashvili have been thinking? I find it hard to believe he could be so ignorant of history, of the crimes of the Bush administration or the eagerness of Russia to reassert itself. Perhaps he is deeply invested in the military-industrial complex. Perhaps he is willing to sacrifice the safety of his own citizens in order to be part of the new front line - an egomaniacal delusion in which he is a heroic political soldier for democracy.
As usual, the bottom line is the bottom line and the price is paid in human blood. Human sacrifice by any other name is still barbarous and the 21st century barbarians could not be more obvious.
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
THE DEVIL DOWN IN GEORGIA:
Resurrecting the Cold War
By Jack Random
“In the 21st century nations do not invade other nations.”
Senator John McCain, August 13, 2008
It is inconceivable that a major candidate for president of the United States of America should be unaware that the government he wishes to lead began the 21st century with a foreign policy of aggressive war and military domination christened by the invasions of two sovereign nations.
When that candidate is a long-standing political front man for the Neoconservative brain trust that authored the policy (Project for a New American Century), it strains the last fibers of credulity. For a man who considers himself a foreign policy expert, Senator John McCain has taken his place alongside our brash lame duck president as an embarrassment to the nation.
Is he demented? Does he consider our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq incursions, diplomatic overtures or simply humanitarian assistance?
As Vladimir Putin might say: If Iraq is an incursion then Russia’s actions in neighboring Georgia are little more than a firm handshake.
Not to be outdone, our president took a respite between vacations to issue a warning reminiscent of a former era but it played more like a bullied child: If you don’t stop now, I’m not going to be your friend any more!
One of the more fascinating aspects of the American response has been substituting references to Georgia with Iraq and Russia with America. Consider transcriptions of these gems from the mouth of our clueless leader:
“[Iraq’s] sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. [Washington] must live up to its commitment to withdraw its invading forces from all [Iraqi] territory.”
This one does not require transcription:
“Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.”
Are John McCain and little George reading from the same script?
What is most puzzling in this conflict is the behavior of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili who triggered the Russian response by taking military action in South Ossetia. The reaction was as predictable as the salivation of Pavlov’s dogs but Saakashvili seems perplexed that America and her allies have not rushed to his government’s defense.
Is the man insane? Did he really think that America, with its forces bogged down in two major occupations, was eager to start another war with Russia on the Russian border?
If he is not a madman then someone made promises they had no intention of honoring.
If Saakashvili has not yet awakened to the fact that he and his nation are sacrificial pawns in this game of international chess, he soon will. His mentor-ally in the United States wasted no time pushing through a missile defense agreement with Poland – a move that every objective observer knows is not directed at Iran or “rogue states” but at Moscow.
Not content with the damage they have already done to America’s standing in the world, the neoconservative horror factory still in charge of our foreign policy (along with their profiteering allies in the military industrial complex) have used the waning days of the Bush White House to put in place the necessary elements for a return to the Cold War – a war that was never cold and cost millions of innocent lives culminating in Vietnam.
Are we safer now, Mr. President?
Pay no attention to the ravings of John McCain. He is not president and his ignorance in critical matters of foreign policy is so profound it numbs the mind. We are not going to war on the Russian border. We will not severe the primary source of Europe’s energy supply. We will not risk a military confrontation between nuclear powers to bolster the government of Mikheil Saakashvili.
We are not completely insane.
We will however return to the insanity of an arms race – nuclear and otherwise – pitting us against the Russians with the Chinese content for now to sit this one out.
If the policies of intimidation and confrontation continue, there will be wars with nations such as Georgia and Ukraine serving as our proxies.
There will be blood and there will be blood money for corporate mercenaries and arms dealers.
The devil has come to Georgia but he is not Vladimir Putin. Russia is only acting as we would act if a major foreign power came to our border – as we would have if the Soviets had not backed down when they attempted to plant missiles in Cuba circa 1962.
No. The devil down in Georgia wears the familiar mask of the Neocon. The names behind the mask are Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton, Abrams, Kristol, Khalilzad, Bush, Cheney and McCain.
They have bankrupted the nation, morally and economically, but they have profited perversely from the effort. They have never lost hold of the dream that is the world’s nightmare.
They will not stop pushing until we reach the endgame of world domination or mass annihilation or both.
Rest assured, if we allow the Project for a New American Century to move forward, the world will awaken, all but a few of our allies will peel away, and America will stand and fall alone.
Jazz.
[See “John McCain and the Project for a New American Century” by Joseph A. Palermo, The Huffington Post, June 18, 2008.]
Friday, August 15, 2008
Jake's Word: The Case for Impeachment
[In response to "The Case for Impeachment" by Jack Random. Posted 8/15/08 by Newsdaily Canada and Buzzle.com.]
Beautifully, persuasively stated as always. If we only had representatives in government who possessed such talents, and such conviction.
Instead the show business of news goes on. The Edwards affair totally irrelevant yet there it is with more coverage than the war in Georgia, or yet another glaring crime by this ridiculous administration. Does nothing inspire the wrath of the American people anymore? Or are those crumbling towers so fixed in our memory as an inspiration for hatred of the "other" that nothing else makes an impression?
This afternoon I saw John McCain addressing the issue of the war in Georgia. I'm sure you saw it as well. His position was completely predictable of course, but one statement stunned me. He actually said these words, "In the 21st century one nation cannot invade another." The level of doublethink required to make such a statement requires a degree of denial that beggars the term. It made all the more obvious that McCain will continue and possibly intensify the policies of the most criminal administration in U.S. history.
On the other hand, Obama can make that very same statement and not contradict himself. He has opposed the Iraq war all along.
There is also the issue that Iraq has a $70 billion surplus while the U.S. sinks in debt in no small part due to that war. If the Iraqi people and government want the U.S. to leave, if they are financially prospering, what rationale would possibly serve as an excuse to stay?
I do not know what kind of president Barak Obama would be, but one thing is clear, he would not be the same president as John McCain and a continuation of the ongoing criminal enterprise in the nation's highest office. If the citizens of the U.S. cannot see this by now then they are truly living in a state of delusion from which they are unlikely to awake until the U.S. is no more.
Jake Berry
Newsdaily Canada: http://Newsdaily.ca.
Buzzle.com: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-case-for-impeachment-the-crimes-of-george-bush.html
Beautifully, persuasively stated as always. If we only had representatives in government who possessed such talents, and such conviction.
Instead the show business of news goes on. The Edwards affair totally irrelevant yet there it is with more coverage than the war in Georgia, or yet another glaring crime by this ridiculous administration. Does nothing inspire the wrath of the American people anymore? Or are those crumbling towers so fixed in our memory as an inspiration for hatred of the "other" that nothing else makes an impression?
This afternoon I saw John McCain addressing the issue of the war in Georgia. I'm sure you saw it as well. His position was completely predictable of course, but one statement stunned me. He actually said these words, "In the 21st century one nation cannot invade another." The level of doublethink required to make such a statement requires a degree of denial that beggars the term. It made all the more obvious that McCain will continue and possibly intensify the policies of the most criminal administration in U.S. history.
On the other hand, Obama can make that very same statement and not contradict himself. He has opposed the Iraq war all along.
There is also the issue that Iraq has a $70 billion surplus while the U.S. sinks in debt in no small part due to that war. If the Iraqi people and government want the U.S. to leave, if they are financially prospering, what rationale would possibly serve as an excuse to stay?
I do not know what kind of president Barak Obama would be, but one thing is clear, he would not be the same president as John McCain and a continuation of the ongoing criminal enterprise in the nation's highest office. If the citizens of the U.S. cannot see this by now then they are truly living in a state of delusion from which they are unlikely to awake until the U.S. is no more.
Jake Berry
Newsdaily Canada: http://Newsdaily.ca.
Buzzle.com: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-case-for-impeachment-the-crimes-of-george-bush.html
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Mind of Mansel: Overhead
french lanterns swinging, whaling songs
echoing down whiskey bottles too long
betrayal blowed from waves to the skies
the ship disappeared from one's own eyes
set your oars overhead this labyrinth's closed
hell is is coming as the great beast blows
ecstasy came as a hovering cloud of dust
spraying out like a filth over most of us
duck and cover or you'll parch and rust
you must keep up with our bloody lust
hold your hands overhead this wars cold
hell is just the tip of the horned beast coat
the Bastille was covered in ice so they said
the veteran wrote in blood from his head
crawled like a worm to the mailing bin
was arrested for mailing his thoughts in
hold your hands overhead this plea is out
where it ends is left in some grave doubt
Chorus:
Overhead, overhead
faith will linger but its not dead
- Chris Mansel
echoing down whiskey bottles too long
betrayal blowed from waves to the skies
the ship disappeared from one's own eyes
set your oars overhead this labyrinth's closed
hell is is coming as the great beast blows
ecstasy came as a hovering cloud of dust
spraying out like a filth over most of us
duck and cover or you'll parch and rust
you must keep up with our bloody lust
hold your hands overhead this wars cold
hell is just the tip of the horned beast coat
the Bastille was covered in ice so they said
the veteran wrote in blood from his head
crawled like a worm to the mailing bin
was arrested for mailing his thoughts in
hold your hands overhead this plea is out
where it ends is left in some grave doubt
Chorus:
Overhead, overhead
faith will linger but its not dead
- Chris Mansel
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mind of Mansel: McCain's Long Campaign
The Next Best Thing To Being Him
A new documentary is set to hit store shelves in a few days which features a haggard John McCain alongside a thousand mourners in India weeping then popping out a cell phone and saying into the camera, "Bipartisan or not, it's been a long campaign. That's why I depend on Verizon Wireless." The camera cuts to a surging skyline of pouring rain in the distance and off camera you can hear McCain shout, "Mud in my damn shoes, get me out of here!"
- Chris Mansel
A new documentary is set to hit store shelves in a few days which features a haggard John McCain alongside a thousand mourners in India weeping then popping out a cell phone and saying into the camera, "Bipartisan or not, it's been a long campaign. That's why I depend on Verizon Wireless." The camera cuts to a surging skyline of pouring rain in the distance and off camera you can hear McCain shout, "Mud in my damn shoes, get me out of here!"
- Chris Mansel
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Ode to Jesse Helms
"...between the legs hung the entrails; the vitals appeared, with the foul sack that makes excrement of what is swallowed."
Dante: Inferno, Canto XXVIII
Ah, but those words come to mind when reading of the death of Jesse Helms. Bring them forth, the limousines covered in the filth of the day. Riding on the rims, on the side of the highway, escorted by the Hell's Angels, the far right. The Minute Men down from the valley of good shooting, the natural lifers, the recent win for the NRA, let 'em gather and celebrate the death of one of their own.
- Chris Mansel
Dante: Inferno, Canto XXVIII
Ah, but those words come to mind when reading of the death of Jesse Helms. Bring them forth, the limousines covered in the filth of the day. Riding on the rims, on the side of the highway, escorted by the Hell's Angels, the far right. The Minute Men down from the valley of good shooting, the natural lifers, the recent win for the NRA, let 'em gather and celebrate the death of one of their own.
- Chris Mansel
Friday, July 04, 2008
AN ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL: SOLAR ENERGY
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called for an incentive program in which the government pays half the cost of installing solar panels on homes (10 Million Solar Roofs Act of 2008). While useful and a dramatic improvement on the status quo, the proposal still requires the homeowner to make a significant investment at a time when money is tight. An alternative proposal would be to have the government provide solar panels on houses and other structures free of charge by renting the roof space in exchange for energy savings. There is no reason the program cannot be extended to other spaces (such as parking lots) public or private.
Taxpayers would provide the funding and reap the benefits of lower energy costs as well as cleaner air. The government would assume the responsibility of maintenance and improvements as technological advances allow. With the price of oil at an all time high and showing no signs of abating, the substantial initial costs would soon be transformed into a perpetual dividend.
There is no reason such a proposal need wait for the federal government. It can readily be implemented at the state or local level funded by selling bonds with a compelling return. The social benefits and economic return on such an investment is compelling indeed. In fact it is the only kind of investment that makes sense in these trying times.
Jazz.
Taxpayers would provide the funding and reap the benefits of lower energy costs as well as cleaner air. The government would assume the responsibility of maintenance and improvements as technological advances allow. With the price of oil at an all time high and showing no signs of abating, the substantial initial costs would soon be transformed into a perpetual dividend.
There is no reason such a proposal need wait for the federal government. It can readily be implemented at the state or local level funded by selling bonds with a compelling return. The social benefits and economic return on such an investment is compelling indeed. In fact it is the only kind of investment that makes sense in these trying times.
Jazz.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
THE AGE OF RECKONING
We are living in an age where the consequences of past mistakes and excesses are coming to account. We have squandered our resources and attempted to hand the debt to future generations but the bill is due now and we can only pay by suffering foreclosure, homelessness, foregoing medical care, on and on. We have filled our atmosphere with the toxic wastes of the industrial age and now we suffer an endless chain of "natural" catastrophes from drought and fires to hurricanes and tornadoes, on and on. We have globalized the economy without globalizing labor and now we watch the decline of the working class both here and abroad. The decline of the working class is the decline of the consumer which will inevitably drag down the corporate beast responsible for the disaster. We have gone to war for oil and accelerated a rise in the price of gas, the price of food, the price of everything that requires fuel to produce and deliver goods to market. On and on.
We have lived under the delusion that our debts could be passed on but the Age of Reckoning is here. We cannot escape it. We must pay and future generations will pay as well.
We have lived under the delusion that our debts could be passed on but the Age of Reckoning is here. We cannot escape it. We must pay and future generations will pay as well.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Fear and Loathing on McCain's Pierrepoint Express
This campaign is one for the books if that book was soaked in the blood of a child whose first word was gut and last was duck. John McCain is playing catch and release with the truth so bad that the fish are just swimming by the boat, a trail of excrement clogging up the Straight Talk Express exhaust. Every redneck in the country, and some in San Juan it seems are sending in letters to McCain and including racial slurs which McCain greedily answers and some he even includes in press releases.
McCain is searching, through Google and Ancestry.com to find the descendants of Pierrepoint, the famed British hangman because he plans to open an Abu Ghraib in Puerto Rico after he gets elected. He's consulted with Donald Rumsfeld who still holds court in a Denny's in Pennsylvania off the main interstate. The cells will have four foot deep holes at the center to coil the chains which will be iced. Uniforms of the day will be blood mesh and there will be no windows.
McCain is not trying to quell any of the rumors and even trying to add to them as the wire reports come in. It is said he has begun calling reporters at home not unlike Lyndon Johnson used to call editors to try and get everyone to back his message. Just recently he called in Rev. Dobson to commit some of his underage followers to hold signs outside a rally supporting McCain but not in Denver. It's too soon for that.
- Chris Mansel
McCain is searching, through Google and Ancestry.com to find the descendants of Pierrepoint, the famed British hangman because he plans to open an Abu Ghraib in Puerto Rico after he gets elected. He's consulted with Donald Rumsfeld who still holds court in a Denny's in Pennsylvania off the main interstate. The cells will have four foot deep holes at the center to coil the chains which will be iced. Uniforms of the day will be blood mesh and there will be no windows.
McCain is not trying to quell any of the rumors and even trying to add to them as the wire reports come in. It is said he has begun calling reporters at home not unlike Lyndon Johnson used to call editors to try and get everyone to back his message. Just recently he called in Rev. Dobson to commit some of his underage followers to hold signs outside a rally supporting McCain but not in Denver. It's too soon for that.
- Chris Mansel
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Mansel: Fundraising A Centimeter At A Time
Coveted by the undead a John McCain fundraising letter it is said can cure the most unruly sores in the after-life. Just rubbing it onto lesions garnered after a life of cruel acts against animals and mutual fund embezzlement will get you a lesion down from 6 cm to 5 cm almost immediately as reported recently in the Washington Times.
The Reverend Sun Yung Moon has begun a direct mailing program to all of his known aliases to receive as many as he can, stockpiling if you will for the afterlife, so he can anticipate those centimeters now. Worry will get you every time.
- Chris Mansel
The Reverend Sun Yung Moon has begun a direct mailing program to all of his known aliases to receive as many as he can, stockpiling if you will for the afterlife, so he can anticipate those centimeters now. Worry will get you every time.
- Chris Mansel
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Mansel: Divine Comedy on an Iowa Night
"Keep in thy memory what thou hast heard against thyself," the Sage bade me "but now give heed to what is here."
- Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno
Iowa
The skies darkened over Iowa as Air Force One departed. Residents turned to the ghostly mounds of garbage that used to be family heirlooms that were now artifacts of a time gone by. Wading through water the television news crews returned to the safety of Motels in the dry areas surrounding the damaged region and to their respective markets and remarked about the drop in the polls of Senator McCain. A man who has finally been allowed to return to the street where he has lived his whole life puts a gun to his head but stops as a large plane flies overhead. It's nightfall in Iowa again.
- Chris Mansel
- Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno
Iowa
The skies darkened over Iowa as Air Force One departed. Residents turned to the ghostly mounds of garbage that used to be family heirlooms that were now artifacts of a time gone by. Wading through water the television news crews returned to the safety of Motels in the dry areas surrounding the damaged region and to their respective markets and remarked about the drop in the polls of Senator McCain. A man who has finally been allowed to return to the street where he has lived his whole life puts a gun to his head but stops as a large plane flies overhead. It's nightfall in Iowa again.
- Chris Mansel
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Obama's Choice for VP
Hillary Clinton will not be Barack Obama's choice as a running mate.
By my accounting, a wide open field will come down to Jim Webb of Virginia, Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Barbara Boxer of California or Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
All would be principled choices as each candidate opposed the Iraq War from its inception. Boxer and Feingold would suggest a traditional contemporary strategy of vying for the usual swing states -- most critically Florida. The selection of Richardson would make Hispanic voters key -- especially in the western states of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and McCain's own Arizona. Jim Webb would be the most intriguing choice for it would hold the potential of breaking the Republican stranglehold on the south.
If you support Obama, contribute to Libertarian Bill Barr.
Jazz.
By my accounting, a wide open field will come down to Jim Webb of Virginia, Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Barbara Boxer of California or Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
All would be principled choices as each candidate opposed the Iraq War from its inception. Boxer and Feingold would suggest a traditional contemporary strategy of vying for the usual swing states -- most critically Florida. The selection of Richardson would make Hispanic voters key -- especially in the western states of New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and McCain's own Arizona. Jim Webb would be the most intriguing choice for it would hold the potential of breaking the Republican stranglehold on the south.
If you support Obama, contribute to Libertarian Bill Barr.
Jazz.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Mansel: McCain and Fox Security
A close look in a shaving kit of John McCain's these days just might surprise you. Someone on his staff was trying to sell some grainy snapshots of a bag that could be described as a shaving kit in a press club dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas recently but I wasn't buying.
I asked this individual loudly, "What the hell man, hemlock! We all know he drank the blood and not the kool aid, what does he need hemlock for? To chew on like cocoa leaves after a meal?" He shuffled around and turned his back to me and approached the ghost of Sam Donaldson. A Fox news analyst who overheard my statement started kicking me in the shins but I slapped him on the cheek and he collapsed crying, wailing into his cell phone to Fox security. Which after a half hour turned out to be someone who looked alot like William Bennett in a local University sweatshirt who actually, no lie, asked me where the culprit was.
- Chris Mansel
(christophermansel@hotmail.com)
I asked this individual loudly, "What the hell man, hemlock! We all know he drank the blood and not the kool aid, what does he need hemlock for? To chew on like cocoa leaves after a meal?" He shuffled around and turned his back to me and approached the ghost of Sam Donaldson. A Fox news analyst who overheard my statement started kicking me in the shins but I slapped him on the cheek and he collapsed crying, wailing into his cell phone to Fox security. Which after a half hour turned out to be someone who looked alot like William Bennett in a local University sweatshirt who actually, no lie, asked me where the culprit was.
- Chris Mansel
(christophermansel@hotmail.com)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Mansel: Stoned in Colorado
Stoned in Colorado part 1
Today while rummaging through a few press releases from the FBI I ran into Jann Wenner cooing next to an FBI agent about a trip to the White House should Obama win. Now why he would choose a story like this to do such a thing is anybody's guess. He did come out several years ago and the agents do work out but this is not a story about that, hell, there was enough incest in the camp.
Stoned in Colorado part 2
Sentenced in Utah, Warren Jeffs: that must have sent shockwaves through the straight press. You must get a good hotel room there if you know the Demi's or the Bruce's like Jann Wenner. Yes I guess starting US Weekly was a good idea. You can imagine that Rolling Stone might even do a cover and get over their pop image and get back to the days of the serious journalism if they want an invite to the White House. Lord knows Jann has been crawling up the pants leg of several…
I made a visit to Kinko's yesterday to have some random photos enlarged to see if Jann's lips were in fact infected and found an exchange of money taking place. The local magistrate was ordering a spy camera to place in the lapel of his tie so maybe there will be a sting operation or a sex tape. Imagine that, sex tape rocks Utah!
Chris Mansel
(Editor Note: Jann S. Wenner (born January 7, 1946, in New York City) is the co-founder and publisher of the pop music biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.)
Today while rummaging through a few press releases from the FBI I ran into Jann Wenner cooing next to an FBI agent about a trip to the White House should Obama win. Now why he would choose a story like this to do such a thing is anybody's guess. He did come out several years ago and the agents do work out but this is not a story about that, hell, there was enough incest in the camp.
Stoned in Colorado part 2
Sentenced in Utah, Warren Jeffs: that must have sent shockwaves through the straight press. You must get a good hotel room there if you know the Demi's or the Bruce's like Jann Wenner. Yes I guess starting US Weekly was a good idea. You can imagine that Rolling Stone might even do a cover and get over their pop image and get back to the days of the serious journalism if they want an invite to the White House. Lord knows Jann has been crawling up the pants leg of several…
I made a visit to Kinko's yesterday to have some random photos enlarged to see if Jann's lips were in fact infected and found an exchange of money taking place. The local magistrate was ordering a spy camera to place in the lapel of his tie so maybe there will be a sting operation or a sex tape. Imagine that, sex tape rocks Utah!
Chris Mansel
(Editor Note: Jann S. Wenner (born January 7, 1946, in New York City) is the co-founder and publisher of the pop music biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.)
Monday, May 05, 2008
Obama on Trade: In His Own Words
Indiana May 3, 2008:
I happen to believe in free trade. But we do the cause of trade no favors when we pass agreements that are filled with perks for every special interest under the sun and absolutely no protections for American workers. There’s absolutely no reason we should be giving tax breaks to corporations who ship jobs overseas. When I’m President, I will eliminate those tax breaks and give them to companies who create good jobs right here in America. We can also create jobs if we finally get serious about rebuilding our crumbling and decaying national infrastructure.
Ohio Debate 2/26/08:
As President of the United States I intend to make certain that every trade agreement that we sign has the labor standards, environmental standards and the safety standards that are going to protect not just workers but also consumers.
[Note: Many of us must decide who we can trust on the issues that matter most. One of those issues is trade. As citizens it is our responsibility to hold candidates accountable for their promises.]
I happen to believe in free trade. But we do the cause of trade no favors when we pass agreements that are filled with perks for every special interest under the sun and absolutely no protections for American workers. There’s absolutely no reason we should be giving tax breaks to corporations who ship jobs overseas. When I’m President, I will eliminate those tax breaks and give them to companies who create good jobs right here in America. We can also create jobs if we finally get serious about rebuilding our crumbling and decaying national infrastructure.
Ohio Debate 2/26/08:
As President of the United States I intend to make certain that every trade agreement that we sign has the labor standards, environmental standards and the safety standards that are going to protect not just workers but also consumers.
[Note: Many of us must decide who we can trust on the issues that matter most. One of those issues is trade. As citizens it is our responsibility to hold candidates accountable for their promises.]
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Colorado: Midnight Message from the Mind of Mansel
Colorado
Jack this is the one. We have got to get out to Colorado. Planned mutilations are the words circulating through the press core. Clitoridectomies and the tattooing of infants and that's just the F.B.I. I heard from that stringer from the Milwaukee Journal, you remember the guy who is always pulling on his fingers? The guy who flipped out on a Delta flight and started screaming about Santorum eating chili beans on Air Force One while being strawed to a pulpit in Wisconsin by a Iowa super delegate? Yea, him. He said he personally witnessed three F.B.I. crime scene photographers personally trample one another while trying to get to the scene then exposing themselves while urinating and under cutting the press core to Larry Flynt of all people. It stinks Jack.
As you well know the only reason the F.B.I. doesn't take curtain calls is because you don't want to see what they are doing behind the curtain. But anyway, the Washington Post of all trade rags is willing to pay us all expenses to get down there and get the story -- not for their archives but for the front page. They've lost in the campaign but haven't we all. There's a rumor floating around here in Alabama that the whole thing was planned as a Jim Jones like retreat for the Washington Times like fun crowd but I rather doubt it. I mean after all Bangkok hasn't lost its appeal to the Congressional junket to these sick bastards yet.
- Chris Mansel
Colorado Under The Knife's Head
They know nothing of Hoodoo in Colorado and this is their downfall. Just like in Idaho but that's another lysergic tale of of fistfulls of valium and phone calls to Missouri on stolen cards, Verizon fraud and a recreation vehicle that may still be burning outside a McDonalds just out off the interstate rest area.
Imagine Jack, a sacred egg and compressed hand and sexually predatory priests joining forces with the FBI brewing plastic oils and selling them at Cracker Barrels across america next to the VHS tapes of Hee Haw and the blue glass pitchers. A conjuring crossroads has venerated into the Blackhawk helicopter region of the U.S. From now on its enonymus americanus (burning bush) and that corpse from Wisconsin and heads for burials below the fold. Not since the Crescent City was galvinised and the ehads hung from street lamps, the informants carved in the work camps have the police chewed the left arm of libation in such a manner. I tell you Jack incest in the name of religion takes on a whole new name in begot's begot.
Chris Mansel
Jack this is the one. We have got to get out to Colorado. Planned mutilations are the words circulating through the press core. Clitoridectomies and the tattooing of infants and that's just the F.B.I. I heard from that stringer from the Milwaukee Journal, you remember the guy who is always pulling on his fingers? The guy who flipped out on a Delta flight and started screaming about Santorum eating chili beans on Air Force One while being strawed to a pulpit in Wisconsin by a Iowa super delegate? Yea, him. He said he personally witnessed three F.B.I. crime scene photographers personally trample one another while trying to get to the scene then exposing themselves while urinating and under cutting the press core to Larry Flynt of all people. It stinks Jack.
As you well know the only reason the F.B.I. doesn't take curtain calls is because you don't want to see what they are doing behind the curtain. But anyway, the Washington Post of all trade rags is willing to pay us all expenses to get down there and get the story -- not for their archives but for the front page. They've lost in the campaign but haven't we all. There's a rumor floating around here in Alabama that the whole thing was planned as a Jim Jones like retreat for the Washington Times like fun crowd but I rather doubt it. I mean after all Bangkok hasn't lost its appeal to the Congressional junket to these sick bastards yet.
- Chris Mansel
Colorado Under The Knife's Head
They know nothing of Hoodoo in Colorado and this is their downfall. Just like in Idaho but that's another lysergic tale of of fistfulls of valium and phone calls to Missouri on stolen cards, Verizon fraud and a recreation vehicle that may still be burning outside a McDonalds just out off the interstate rest area.
Imagine Jack, a sacred egg and compressed hand and sexually predatory priests joining forces with the FBI brewing plastic oils and selling them at Cracker Barrels across america next to the VHS tapes of Hee Haw and the blue glass pitchers. A conjuring crossroads has venerated into the Blackhawk helicopter region of the U.S. From now on its enonymus americanus (burning bush) and that corpse from Wisconsin and heads for burials below the fold. Not since the Crescent City was galvinised and the ehads hung from street lamps, the informants carved in the work camps have the police chewed the left arm of libation in such a manner. I tell you Jack incest in the name of religion takes on a whole new name in begot's begot.
Chris Mansel
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