A political race or race in politics

A political race or race in politics.

Yes ladies and gents there is still racism in the United States of America. It is more subdued than in the past but it is there so let’s quit pretending that we are all above it.

I believe it is a human condition to be suspicious of people different from us or unfamiliar to our tribe. The more like us strangers are, the more we will accept them and vice versa. I think this is a survival instinct. We as humans have a capacity to reason though and therein lies the difference between us and animals.

As this political campaign gets ugly, Clinton is trying to bully her way into the nomination. Subtly using the logic, unspoken but there that Obama will lose to McCain because the independents will vote for a white woman before a black man.

Obama’s ex-pastor Mr. Wright gave controversial sermons. So did Jesus. He said God Damn America, and given his experience of living in an era of extreme prejudice, I can listen to the sermon and not be upset. As far as his sermon about September 11th 2001 I didn’t hear him saying the U.S. deserved such a vicious attack, what I hear him addressing are the root causes of the attacks nor is he alone in his beliefs.

Reverend Wright’s fire and brimstone style is easily distorted especially when you take it out of context. Wright makes repeated reference to America’s ruling power structure, which I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but the people who make the laws of this country are neither poor nor non-white and have very little in common with the average American.

Condemning Obama though, for his association with Pastor Wright is wrong. Obama has stated that Wright’s comments are not in keeping with his values and that is that. So Hillary get off your high horse before he rolls over on you. You are becoming the bad guy in a rigged wrestling match. As the ref is watching your evil manager Bill climb into the ring, you reach into your bag of tricks and throw sand in our face and try to win the match.

It seems that you realize that you can’t win but are trying to throw the Democratic Party under the bus, so that after four more years of Republican ruination, in 2012 you will be the savior of America and will be elected Queen.

Senator Clinton stop playing the subtle race card and gracefully get out of the race. Begin to help this country by supporting a man who I believe will unite this country. Stop playing politics and become a real patriot and help America recover from the disaster of the Bush / Cheney regime.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Dick “Head” Cheney tells Amerika to F#ck OFF

Dick “Head” Cheney tells Amerika to F#(k OFF

So!!!!!!!!!

Four thousand dead American soldiers, thousands more wounded, thousands more will suffer post traumatic stress for the rest of their lives. Millions of Iraqi’s displaced hundreds of thousands killed, or maimed for life.

The U S Military at its breaking point, the country bankrupt, jobs evacuating this country like rats off a sinking ship, real adversaries becoming stronger and Americas strength is oozing out like blood from a severed artery.

Corporations are making obscene profits and paying its CEO hundreds of times what the average worker makes, from the blood of our troops. International cooperation and opinion of America is at an all time low.

Civil liberties abused or removed from our constitution. We have an administration that meets in secret back rooms and only listens to its corporate pal’s covers its tracks by deleting emails that by law are public records.

Sunday on ABC, white house correspondent Martha Raddatz asked Dick to respond to the statement that “two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting”

Dick said “So”

Let me translate for you.

F**K YOU America!!!!!!

Where is the outrage? For the past 15 months the Democrats have had the power to pull the purse strings and end the occupation of Iraq. We know these guys have committed impeachable offences. Why are these SOB’s still in office and out of jail??

Thomas Jefferson with eloquent simplicity wrote, "A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated and involved citizenry."

So everybody either get informed, educate yourself (because corporate media doesn’t cut it anymore) and get involved. Our democracy depends on it!!!!

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

This week March 23rd Josh Nelms & Mike Chavers will be on WTAN 1340 AM Radio

This week March 23rd Josh Nelms & Mike Chavers will be on WTAN 1340 AM Radio

Mike Chavers will be playing music on WTAN 1340 Live and in person Sunday Night March 23rd 2008 at 11:59pm EST, with the station hosts Jonathan Sands & Jim Mortellaro, featuring Josh Nelms, in the 2nd of a series of live broadcasts by local artists here in the Tampa Bay area. We will be taking Live calls so talk to us.

We have the Likes of Jimmy Griswold, Josh Nelms, Sandy Atkinson, Robin Rothwell, Peter Merrigan and Charlie Morris just to mention a few who will be appearing in future broadcasts.

If any of you songwriters out there are interested in appearing on the Sunday program send me an email.

If your business is in need of a plug, drop me an email and Jon and Jim will get their rate schedule out to you. It’s really inexpensive to advertise on WTAN.

To listen to the show click on the WTAN internet radio link.
http://www.internet-ad.com/wtan1.asx

Jonathan Sands web site
http://radiobullseye.blogspot.com/


Saturday March 22ND 2008

Mike Chavers is playing with Tommy McCoy at Central Station Saturday March 15th 2008 which is located in the last strip mall on 107th St. before the Belmar on Treasure Island. It used to be Nick’s Sea breeze and has a new owner. We start early at 8pm so come on out and hear some new tunes from Tommy’s New CD.

Sunday March 23RD 2008

Mike Chavers is playing with Deje Groove at Coconuts Comedy Club, 2950 Gulf to Bay Blvd, Clearwater, FL 33759 from 7:30 to 11:30. We are featuring Jerry Chase on the drums and vocals, Tommy McCoy on guitar and vocals. This is an open jam so bring your ax and come on down and party with the band.

Josh Nelms and I will be hauling ass to get over to the station after the gig so doesn’t forget to tune in and hear some music and road stories.

Turn off the TV and come on and see some live music.
Bluesfuly yours
Mike Chavers
http://mikechavers.blogspot.com/

Read articles by Mike Chavers and many other writers at OpEd News.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author7762.html

Anniversary of the Worst Foreign Policy Disaster In Our History

Anniversary of the Worst Foreign Policy Disaster In Our History

While the Democrats snipe at each other over similar platforms, and the Republican candidate can’t remember who the enemy is, the anniversary of America’s most disastrous foreign policy mistake fast approaches.

It was this week on March 20th 2003, when the smug and cocky George “Worst president ever” Bush and Dick “Head” Cheney decided against good military advice, to rain bombs on and destroy the infrastructure of Iraq and open a Pandora’s Box of perilous times for this Nation. This was the beginning of a preventative war that was unnecessary and what will serve as Bush’s pathetic legacy.

Saddam Hussein as we now know had no part in the September 11th 2001 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, he possessed no weapons of mass destruction, and he posed no great threat to the security of the United States.

Now what to do have in Iraq? We deposed and executed a brutal despot, but in the process destabilized Iraq. Then we opened the door for al-Qaeda terrorists to establish a foothold in a country where they could not have operated under Saddam. We destabilized the entire region by emboldening Iraq’s most dangerous enemy Iran.

We are now involved in an occupation of Iraq and the majority of the Iraqi people don’t want us there. The majority of Americans at home are calling for an end to this madness and for our troops to return home.

Levels of violence had dropped during the surging of another 30 to 50 thousand troops sent to the Iraq but now that violence is starting to spike up with more suicide bombings in Baghdad this week.

So now that we will have a new administration in less than a year how do we end this quagmire that spills American and Iraqi blood daily and bankrupts this country. So far none of the three remaining candidates has a satisfactory plan to that.

So far Clinton and Obama have spent more time on telling us who voted for the war than how they plan to end it. Ok Hillary you were spineless and rubber stamped the Bush plan, without doing the research and Obama you weren’t able to vote one way or the other because you were not in the senate yet but you did not support the war but did not have the pressure of being bullied to go along by the GOP.

McCain’s plan is more of the same war without regard to how we are going to pay for it, and how to stabilize the region. Just American troops as targets for the roadside bombs and American tax dollars to the war profiteers.

None of the candidates that I can see has a credible plan to proceed? Rigid timeline withdrawals will not help, and a blank check approach to this war is no longer an option either. The candidates need to begin talking about how America will proceed in world affairs after the Bush / Cheney regime is gone.

I want to live in a America that will:

No longer be in the business of preemptive wars and nation building.
No longer be in the business of torture.
No longer be in the business of kidnapping people and sending them to secret prisons.
No longer be in the business of propping up repressive regimes because they allow business to operate in their countries without regard for human rights.
No longer appoint incompetent yes men like FEMA’s “Heck of a job Brownie” or Secretary of Defense Donald Dumbsfield over qualified people who could do the job right.
No longer disregard the basic human rights that are in the Geneva Convention.
No longer disregard the Fourth Amendment and end unsupervised wiretapping of Americans.
No longer propose amendments to the Constitution to limit the rights of Americans on the basis of sexual orientation.
No longer allows a few giant media conglomerates to control the internet or the airwaves.
No longer depend on foreign oil.
No longer put corporate interests above American interests.
No longer run huge war deficits and cut taxes for the wealthiest individuals.

All right Mr. and Mrs. Candidate your turn to respond.
Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

It’s the Economy Stupid.

Now that the news about the occupation of Iraq has almost stopped, the major news channels are devoting most of the time on New York’s naughty governor and the primaries instead of the real issues that are facing this country.

America is quickly becoming a second rate economic power, and the consequences are not going to be pretty to anybody that has to work for a living. The burden that NAFTA and other trade deals that hamstring US Businesses and labor must be reviewed by the next administration that takes power in 2009.

We have issues like “Open Trucking” where Mexican trucks are to be free to roam the USA and compete with the Teamsters. Some say it is just fair competition but that is a bunch of crap. First of all the Mexican truckers are non union drivers who are paid a fraction of what American drivers so how do our businesses compete? The Mexican trucks don’t have to have expensive road safety features like American trucks do. How do our businesses compete?

So if you have to work for a living and don’t make your money as a hedge fund manager the economy is a big issue and NAFTA is a word that means you have been sold out by CEO’s shipping your manufacturing job out of the U.S. to cheap labor nations like Mexico and China.

Now the numbers that Bush / Cheney will give you are "The Census Bureau data show that U.S. export growth was phenomenal in 2006, increasing by 14.5 percent. ... Exports to Europe increased by 15.2 percent and to China by nearly 32 percent. The growth in exports to Japan was a slower 7.5 percent, but it grew. Since 2001, U.S. exports have increased by more than 42 percent."

Now that looks impressive but just like the spin on the build of the intelligence that led to the war in Iraq, the administration conveniently left out the other half of the story.

In 2007 our trade deficit with Mexico grew by 16 percent to $73 Billion, a new record. Mexico ships more cars to America than America ships to the world. Now where did Mexico get the Auto Industry? I think maybe it was Enrique Ford.

If you think that is bad look at the trade deficit with China. It has grown to $256 Billion which happens to be the largest trade deficit ever between two nations.

Since the Bush / Cheney have taken power three million manufacturing jobs have disappeared to countries that have cheap labor. The U.S. trade deficit has doubled, and most alarming is the America is running a trade deficit in the advanced technology sector of more than $67 billion with China.

Bush said “free trade is essential to the creation of high paying quality jobs. “ Yes George but it is exports that create jobs and imports displace them. So sit down and pay attention W. We import over half a trillion dollars more in manufactured goods than we export. The Bush administration has been slaughtering the U.S. manufacturing jobs like the Canadians club baby seals in the artic.

So ok everybody here is your economics 101. What is the correlation between $4.3 trillion in trade deficits under George W and 3 million manufacturing workers, that had a decent living and health care coverage now working at a low paying customer service center or god forbid Wal-Mart. The correlation between trade deficits and the 50 percent fall of the value or the dollar to the euro, or the quadrupling of the price of gold under George and Dick?

None of the candidates has come out with a new plan to deal with the changing of America from an industrial super power to the capital of the world’s fast food empire. I hope McCain and the Neo-Convicts plan on winning the next major conflict by killing our enemies with artery clogging McFries and McShakes.

None of the candidates seem to have the will to do what is necessary to deal with the de-industrialization of America, our dependency on foreign technology, manufactures and the massive loans to pay for our deficit spending. McCain even goes further when he informed autoworkers that their “jobs are not coming back” and that protectionist steps would be bad for America.

McCain thinks the lowest cost of a weapons system is the most important factor. He even supports the winning bid by Airbus a European venture to build the next generation of Air Tankers for our military. Boeing now will miss out on a deal that it says would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company and suppliers in 40 states.

All I can say is we better start protecting our manufacturing jobs because it will be hard to buy tanks and jets from the people you might be fighting in the next conflict. Imagine if we would have had to ask the Japanese for enough tanks, planes, and ships so we could defeat them during WWII.

Bush / Cheney have created an economic disaster that could put this country out of business and if this goes on much longer there won’t be any American companies to protect.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Congress does something right. MAYBE!!!!!

Maybe our phone calls, faxes, and emails helped but whatever did the trick, I believe that congress is beginning to notice that we the people might just be paying attention to what they do up on capital hill.

Last night the Congress passed (H. Res. 895) which will create an independent ethics panel to review ethics complaints against lawmakers. This is an improvement over the current system which is a joke.

The ethics panel will have six members 3 Republicans and 3 Democrats. The problem with the bill is that it won’t have subpoena power and that it will simply forward recommendations to the actual House ethics committee for further action. Critics are calling this bill a paper tiger, while some say it is better than the current system and something is better than nothing.

This Bill had opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike. I wonder what they are hiding from? Recently two House members are under indictment, two others sent to prison, and several others under FBI investigation. Why the heck would the House O Representatives want anybody overseeing their behavior?

What did our Representatives have to say on this issue??

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) said “If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you’ll vote no.”

John Murtha (D-PA) “We have a New York governor in the news right now who shows that you can’t legislate ethics. It always comes down to the individual.”

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) voiced his disdain for this ethics bill when he said “With this proposal we are indicting ourselves, yielding and retreating to those who would tear this House down and denigrate us as crooks and knaves and hustlers.” Abercrombie even tried to derail this legislation by forcing a vote on a motion to adjourn at 8pm which failed and the vote went ahead and passed.

With the performance of the Ethics Committee over the past 10 years considered pathetic, an independent ethics panel is sorely needed. However without subpoena power or the ability to consider complaints filed by anyone other than members or congress, has serious problems and will deserve a close scrutiny.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

This week Mike Chavers will be on WTAN 1340 AM Radio

Mike Chavers will be playing music on WTAN 1340 Sunday Night March 16th 2008 at 11:59pm EST, with the station hosts Jonathan Sands & Jim Mortellaro, featuring Tommy McCoy, in the first of a series of live broadcasts by local artists here in the Tampa Bay area. We will be taking call ins so give us a call.

We will be posting the line up as it becomes available. We have the Likes of Jimmy Griswold, Josh Nelms, Sandy Atkinson, Robin Rothwell, Peter Merrigan and Charlie Morris just to mention a few who will be appearing.

If any of you songwriters out there are interested in appearing on the Sunday program send me an email.

If your business is in need of a plug, drop me an email and Jon and Jim will get their rate schedule out to you. It’s really inexpensive to advertise on WTAN.

Jonathan Sands web site
http://www.radiobullseye.com/

Saturday March 15th 2008

Mike Chavers is playing with Tommy McCoy at Central Station Saturday March 15th 2008 which is located in the last strip mall on 107th St. before the Belmar on Treasure Island. It used to be Nick’s Sea breeze and has a new owner. We start early at 8pm so come on out and hear some new tunes from Tommy’s New CD.

Sunday March 16th 2008

Mike Chavers is playing with Deje Groove at Coconuts Comedy Club, 2950 Gulf to Bay Blvd, Clearwater, FL 33759 from 7:30 to 11:30. We are featuring Jerry Chase on the drums and vocals, Tommy McCoy on guitar and vocals. This is an open jam so bring your ax and come on down and party with the band.

Tommy and I will be hauling ass to get over to the station after the gig so doesn’t forget to tune in and hear some music and road stories.

Turn off the TV and come on and see some live music.

Bluesfuly yours
Mike Chavers

http://mikechavers.blogspot.com/


Read articles by Mike Chavers and many other writers at OpEd News.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author7762.html

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Some lawmakers actually think we are stupid enough to believe that Congress can police itself!!!

Last week I had some real hope that the Congress of the United States of America was finally going to have an independent Ethics panel consisting of six members 3 from the Democrats and 3 from the Republicans. They would review and investigate reports of ethics violations of members of the Congress. There would be a time line so that the investigations could not be buried and forgotten. There would also be transparency and findings would be made public in a timely fashion.

Well it seems that Republicans and Democrats whined and cried so much that a vote on this important issue H. Res. 895 was canceled.

Well ladies and gents what do you think? At this time Congress polices itself. Let us see if the current rules are sufficient.

Under current rules, only a member of Congress can file an ethics complaint against another member. In the most recent scandals of lawmakers breaking the law Randy Duke Cunningham R-CA and Bob Ney R-OH were arrested, convicted and sentenced for bribery. What did the House Ethics Committee do? NOTHING!!!!

When federal agents found $90,000 of cash in Rep. William Jefferson’s D- LA freezer and indicted him on corruption charges, no ethics complaints were filed. Maybe a lot of Lawmakers do their banking from their freezers. The most recent case is of Rick Renzi (R-AZ). He was indicted last week on 35 counts of extortion, money laundering and conspiracy relating to his efforts to get the federal government to buy land from his business partner.

Here is a link to (H. Res. 895) for the 110th Congress.
http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text_hres895.pdf

I advise all you activists out there to write, call, stop by your lawmaker’s office but let them know that the citizens demand accountability. Ask them to support this important legislation or face the consequences at the ballot box.

This is an important step to taking back our government from special interests and it is important to take action.

Call your lawmaker today and demand that they support this legislation. You can find your lawmaker here.
http://www.house.gov/

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.