The Fourth Branch of Government

The Washington Post starting last Friday, apparently, has been running a series of news investigative articles on the subject of Dick Chaney, who apparently has declared himself his own branch of the government. Dick Chaney has announced, "I am not part of the executive branch". This is news for constitutional scollars. Apparently Chaney has claimed this because there was a Presidential directive that all officers of the executive branch submit to an investigation by the "National office of archives". Dick Chaney refused. It is apparently standard procedure to give out information about what money your dept. spends or the officials you receive, or who visits you at your house, etcetra. Dick Chaney's response is to suggest that the national archive office be abolished. It could be argued that Dick Chaney wants to be autonomus. Dick is his own country, the country of Dick. I don't know if the country of Dick is near Chad, named after Chad Harris. But knowing Chaney, Dick has on its own continent unto itself. People have long suspected that Dick Chaney was the tail that wagged the dog. Now its disclosed that Dick Chaney was the one who ordered Roberto Gonsolez to approve all these torture plans at Abo Grave and all the "rendering" stuff. Gonsolez was just a whipping boy for the media according to this article. It's been further speculated that Dick Chaney, like the asshole from El Paso, may be the guy who recomended himself for the job of Vice President when Bush burned to Dick for advice. It's further speculated that perhaps Chaney has some blackmail hold over the President, much as J Edger Hoover was suspected of having some hold over Lyndon Johnson. If so these are profound implications. I think this could just be the time to revive a movement for the impeachment of Dick Chaney. By his own words apparently he is an autonamus entity, a governmental entity unto himself, accountable to no one. And now it seems that President Bush may indeed take his marching orders from Chaney and that it is Dick Chaney who is actually pulling the strings. There have been roomers that the White House quietly wants to sideline Chaney for the rest of the life of this adminestration, but perhaps Dick Chaney will not go quietly. It's speculated by talk show callers that another 9 - 11 emergency is being planned for the people of the United States in order to facilitate the introduction of my draconian measures that further limit the civil rights of the American People. If this is so, I don't know how we could prove it. It's a known fact that Bush 41 was having breakfast in Washington DC with Osama Bin Laden's brother when 9 - 11 struck. Then Bush Sr. was quietly whisked away to Wisconsin or some place not to arouse suspition. At the same time all of the Saudi friends of Bin Laden were quietly allowed to fly back to Saudi Arabia when all other air traffic had already been grounded. Hillary Clinton becomming President is becomming with each passing day a foregone certainty. That is unless something "unforseen" occurs.

America's heartland is a hotbed of bigotry. We know this now after last Sunday's Sixty Minutes program. Of course you know that last Friday the President of Viet Nam paid a friendly visit to Orange Country courting businesses and the like in sort of a diplomatic mission. You know the fever of protest the Vietnamese transplants raised in response to his visit. I've always wondered about these Vietnamese transplants, as well as the Cuban transplants in Florida. Do they look at the past with rose colored glasses? They've forgotten the extreme level of corruption in these former "non comunest" governments. Perhaps things wern't as "Wonderful" as these two groups remember things. Was having the Mafia run Cuba really all that idealistic? But now we have a case where our own Government outed someone. I'm speaking now of Donald Rumsfeld. Of course you know that Donald Rumsfeld still has his office in the Defence Department. The sign on the door is only a formality. People argue that Rumsfeld is still pulling the strings. There was a brave soul who obtained a CD Rom of prisoners of war we thought were Americans being tortured in Iraqi prison camps. On closser inspection it was American officers holding the guns. Abo-grave was thus exposed. One brave Army grunt reported the incident through proper channels. The thing is that his securety was less in danger from the Army establishment but rather the bigoted rednecks back in his home town of Cumberland or wherever. The people in his home town including all his friends and relatives who he grew up with- - want to kill this whistle blowing officer who reported Abo-grave. The Army was concerned about his securety and made "whitness protection" arrangements for his protection. I cant imagine a whole turn "turning" on a guy like that. Larry Elder would like to think he isn't among the bigoted stone throwers but I bet if things were different he'd be One Of Them, calling for this man's life. I guess there is an inherent ugliness to middle America, or red state America that even I did not want to admit existed. Perhaps it would have made good television to get these rednecks on Sixty Minutes and spiew their hatred for all America to see.

Dick Lugar has now come out against this "Surge" in troops. He says it won't work and that there are better things we could do with our military and that these troops should be "re-deployed". Lugar apparently didn't need to wait untill September to make up his mind. For him the hand is already clearly writing on the wall. In my own life Marcus has done a flip-flop and now is apparently for the Iraq War and keeping it going at any cost. When I made what I regard as some rather effecting arguments for termanating the Iraq War, Marcus turned to the croud and accused me of "Fillibustering". That's a highly inacurate description. It seems Bush was informed privately of Lugar's defection so it didn't catch him unawares.

Thom Hartman is continuing his campaign to strip Corporations of "person-hood", a status they have held in this country for over a hundred years. This falls under the catigory of Supreme Court of "Stari-decisis" or settled law. In my senior year in High School I took Business Law and learned that a Corporation was legally considered a person and had much of the legal status a person has. Apparently the argument goes to the distinction that Corporations and Churches are "artificial persons" and since the Constitution doesn't limit the term "persons" to mean "natural persons" it would be discriminitory to single out "artificial persons" as a separate class to be "descriminated against". According to Hartman the original 1886 Supreme Court decision didn't even say corporations had person hood but this was added later. Sometimes the myth takes on its own reality. If we were talking about theology and a certain precept hung on the testimony of an old apostle that they discovered later he never said, we would call all theology eminating from such testimony bogus. But you can't do that with the Supreme Court because many decisions subsequent to 1886 have clearly said Corporations had personhood. In fact as you know many people "Incorporate" themselves so that they pay a lower income tax rate, and if I guess if they get sued they can blaim it on their evil, invisable Twin, the Corporation. I am not at all bothered by corporate "person-hood". They still have all the responsabilities of people and have to account for their actions and pay for their crimes, just like people. Some people talk about the "War Industry" as though corporations and not people ran America. I am not bothered by this. I value freedom for all over some artful turn of a phrase Thom Hartman might come up to try and institute his own brand of "Socialized democracy" in America.

I'd like to talk a little about the book "The Secret". The bottom line is that someday they are going to invent a drug, and may already have, that will give you the FEELINGS that that author talked about of strength, vision, and unstoppability. You can have the FEELINGS but this is only chemistry in your brain and the Scientologist in me recoils at the notion of better living through Chemistry. You know the Jesus Movement may have LSD to thank for its existance. Because the hippies were getting farther and farther out in terms of drugs. In those Time-Life books they talked about LSD while it was still legal and the topic repeatedly turns to "finding God" and Death and Ultimate Reality and all that. There were strains of the hippy movement that grew increasingly spiritual in its effort to be "far out" and naturally talk got around to the topic of Death and the End of the World and the Meaning of Life. Soon there were people who said they had "The answer" and forgot that they were merely among the many people asking questions. You know, if the Secret book were true- - then all you would have to do is give people this new hapiness drug- - and since emotions create reality (a staple of Christian Preachers) then everyone would win the lottery and be rich. But we know mathmatically this can't happen. I would like God to give me what was talked about. The author of The Secret says, "Just think what you'd most like to Be in this life, and make it so". I have my own ideas. And if God trusted me to put my Desires into effect I believe this world would be a better place and I would be a better person with more "God" points. Like a woman who tells her husband, "You can't imagine what I could do for you sexually if you'd just make me happy" I am tempted to tell God "You'll never know how I would react with the Blessings you give others, untill you try it out". But God has made a Covenent with his Own Mortality. Let me explain. God has made a covenent with the one thing that can utterly Destroy him. You see the essence of Life, many people say, is the capacity to Relate to one's Environment and respond to it and interract and learn from it. God is in essence saying to me in saying "No" to me, "and furthermore I sware I'll never change my mind on this. I can't. Don't you see?" Because a world predestined from the "foundation of the universe" means among the things God CANT and CAN NEVER do is change and respond to us and learn something new. But if I am going to be allowed the luxury of "thinking things" my thoughts turn tword a Pandora's Box type situations where Demon spirits are released from some imprisoning Abyss like on Passions today. Some call it "Having the key to the bottomless Pit". These demons become liberated and reek havoc on humanity. I suppose some would say the hippies were demonic and the music was demonic. But if you're going to think in this vein then all the religion to come out of the sixties is also demonic. It's like that Planet on Star Trek where these spirits were imprisoned "on the south pole" and several of them wanted to hijack the Enterprize to take the ship there. What do you think?

You know last Sunday there was a guy giving a sermon about two different acts. One of the acts was filling sacks of dirt, and the other was filling sacks of dirt to save a town from a flood. Even before the punch line was delivered I said to myself “The Christian does the act that’s meaningless”. Doing something for a reason makes a lot more sense than doing something for no reason at all. May I suggest that most of the stuff I did as a Christian was utterly meaningless and the only thing it proved was that others could get me to jump through hoops whenever they wanted. You know when a girl, most likely a virgin, has sex with a guy most often she’s doing it because she feels pressured. He “sold her a line”. Afterwards if it turns out she didn’t enjoy the sex at all and regrets it, he couldn’t care less. That’s kind of how it is with God. I don’t really think God could care if you do all this religious stuff pastors like Jesus of KFI want you to do. It’s not bringing you closer to God. Take Chelsea on Days of our Lives. One might say the reason why she finally had sex was “for the sake of the relationship”. He’d love her more and all that. But Nick didn’t “rock her world”. It was more sex on the basis that she figured she somehow “owed him sex”. God in metaphore makes himself out to be the man and the disciple as the woman, demeaning for men as that is. May I suggest God is a horrible example of what “The ideal man” is like. Most often you should observe what God does and do the opposite. Submission to a man doesn’t mean that you like him more. On the contrary it may well mean you like him LESS than if he’d had enough respect for you not to push you into something you didn’t want. There was an incident with Gary this afternoon that as absurd as it is revealing. It was a hot afternoon on the patio and I wanted to get out of the sun and sit down and relax, so I carried a heavy metal chair over to the side of the wall where there is a few feet of shade to get out of the sun. Before I sit down Gary gives me this line about “You can’t sit there; you’re blocking my view of the men working on the sliding door”. For a moment I submitted to his crap. Then I said to him that line about “Getting your way doesn’t mean I like you more, it means I like you less”. Right at that moment I realized what an absurd statement I had just made and moved my chair against the wall like I’d originally wanted to. Gary is of known of course for being an asshole and constantly insinuating himself into others life in socially obnoxious ways.

There was a major fire in South Lake Tahoe that destroyed a lot of trees and structures where people had their cabins. They said the snow pack table as of May first was only 29% or normal. We hear the same stuff over and over and if I never heard a drought or fire story for the next five months, that would be wonderful. There was another fire in Tahatchapi or something where women were crying saying how they went on their first dates in a certain cabin. Then there was a story about a church in Upland that went on a retreat to Biship and five people were killed in a car crash coming home. It was the usual “Why would God do this?” They also said that three other people were killed along that same stretch of highway. I get the feeling they are really dredging for news stories. Paris Hilton is the big item. Now we know all about the streets that lead up to her home and two away zones instituted. The story about the women murdered who was nine months pregnant and due early next month - - has been receiving massive air-play. In the Phil Specter trial there was a lot of arguing over the minutia of “back splatter” in the death of Lana Clarkson, who contrary to roomer was never married to Lex Luther. I watched some of that on station 4.4 but got very bored pretty fast.

There is something called an Omega Block which is in operation in the weather right now. This has nothing to do with an epidural. It’s the pattern that the isobars on the weather map form that go “up and over”. Basically it’s an explanation for why it’s getting warmer and going to get warmer, rather than the cooling trend that was promised in yesterday’s weather report.

Samantha is undergoing amnio centesis and Marlena wants to rig the tests so that Lucas is the father of her now twins- - and Kate wants Nick to rig the tests so that Elvis is the father. Sammy is right. “All of this lying is pointless”.

The Supreme Court today has issued perhaps its final two decisions of the year. As Junes go, this has been one of the quietest seasons on the Supreme Court I’ve observed in a long time. One decision was saying that schools had the right to limit sudent speech. Apparently there was an offencive sign that read “Bhong Hits for Jesus”. That sign had to be taken down. The Supreme Court says that school authorities are like parents for minors and thus function as parents. Of course I believe it’s legal to search student lockers because the lockers aren’t student property. The other decision is one I am in hearty agreement with but that Thom Hartman didn’t like. This one punched a loophole through Mc Cain – Feingold, a campaign finance bill I never liked to begin with. Now if you’re a member of the Sierra Club or a right to lifer, or any other political action group, you can run TV and media adds right up till election day. To decree otherwise would have infringed on free speech. Rush Limbaugh must like this ruling from things I’ve heard him say in the past. In World Net Daily there was an article about how Hillary and the liberals had plans to reign in Talk Radio once they came to power. We always need to preserve free speech. What Mc Cain – Feingold sought to do was to rig campaigns and make them just another function of government, the way Thom Hartman wants to regulate everything. We still have to remember this is America and not Sweden, or Cuba. I guess the jury is in for Michael Moore’s latest movie on the Health Care Industry. If they were talking about health care in England, France, or Cuba then the rose colored glasses were put on and they could find nothing wrong. But when it came to America they could find nothing right. Let’s get real. The last I heard our Health Care industry still delivers better care than all these European socialized countries, that have their own set of problems that Michael Moore won’t talk about.