What is the US government’s secret agenda in the Balkans? Why is the US government on the side of Muslims intent on severing Kosovo from Serbia? What is being served by creating a new Muslim state closer to Europe?

Larry Norman, the “Father of Christian Rock,” passes away in Salem, Oregon home

Feb. 25th, 2008, Salem, Oregon – Larry Norman, the singer, songwriter, and producer known as the “father of Christian rock music,” died of heart failure on Sunday (Feb. 24) in his Salem, Oregon home. He was 60.

According to Portland news/radio station KXL, Norman’s early social positions caused a stir among many conservative Christians. His views against racism and poverty caused him to receive multiple death threats in the 1970s. A widespread ban on Norman’s music, which is largely still in effect today, existed in Christian stores. This ban was due not only to Norman’s social positions, but his preferred company as well. Said Norman in a separate interview, “The churches weren’t going to accept me looking like a street person with long hair and faded jeans. They did not like the music I was recording. And I had no desire to preach the gospel to the converted.”

“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor“
Rebuilding America’s Defenses, Project for the New American Century, think tank led by conservative notables such as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, James Woolsey, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, James Bolton, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, William Bennett, Dan Quayle, and Jeb Bush

…if the collapse of the Soviet Union and 9/11 bookend a major shift in international politics, then this is a period not just of grave danger, but of enormous opportunity.
Remarks by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on Terrorism and Foreign Policy, April 29, 2002

“History has a funny way of deciding things,” he said. “Sometimes history sends you things, and 9/11 came our way.”
George Bush personal adviser, Karl Rove, 2.20.2008

Consider these statements. These are verbalizations of the thought processes of people who:

A: Operate with a different set of facts than we do and

B: Don’t wait for history to happen.

It’s only once you put 9-11 in the context of our other imperialistic overreaches, from Hawaii to Panama and beyond, that it stops appearing so remarkable. Even if you accept them at their basic premise- that we were attacked by people who hate us, which I surely think we were- even that is a landmark event that should have caused this nation to ask why, instead of cowering and accepting an insipid version of reality that practically challenges the intelligence of the listener, mocking those amongst the sheep who would dare to remark on the emperor’s clothes.

And I firmly believe that the majority of the people in this country know, actually really know, that we allowed it to happen, for what some considered greater ends. But just the saying of that means that you are truly on your own, and most people can’t accept that kind of responsibility, so they hide it, mock it, or ignore it.

We’re currently watching the first season of “Jericho“, which while it is incredibly trite, prime time geewhiz stuff, does raise a lot of interesting topics. It is Kansas, post 9-11, after two dozen American cities have been nuked by forces unknown. The issues they deal with- from Blackwater type mercenaries to hometown vigilantes and such, are rather serious, topical themes to be raising on primetime TV. Makes you wonder how many people the series really discomforts, seeing, as William Burroughs said, the “naked lunch” of what they are eating- which is a form of totalitarianism, only split between two “parties”. Or in the case of Jericho, none at all. Much like the pilot episode of The Lone Gunman, elements of this series relate to some of more shadowy hidden elements of American life, such as the FBI’s investigations into homegrown terror and war between neighbors. Hardly American Idol, no wonder it nearly got canceled. We discover that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is behind it all, or at least some element of it. Again, what do these people know?

Our president is at 19% with nearly a year to go. Gold is selling for nearly $1000 an ounce. It was $350 five years ago. Starbucks- Star-f’n-bucks – lays off 600 people. Stores in New York are taking euros over dollars. What do these people know?

What do I know? I say this. Barack Obama is going to be our next president. He’ll do it despite being branded as “unpatriotic” by CNN and Faux News. And this sounds out there, but I also think he might be our last hope. Not because of him, personally. I agree with most that he is mainly sizzle, no steak. But we already know the steak of Bush, McCain and Clinton. It is awful, and divorces the public entirely from the processes and powers that govern their lives, out of sheer fatigue and hopelessness. Obama offers, to people like my son, a reason and an enthusiasm to be a part of government, to have a say- just like JFK did to my parents before I was born. Voter turnout is up incredibly, all democrat. This nation is screaming for relief from what we’ve endured the last 8 years. If Obama gets into office and attempts half of what his persona exclaims, then this nation might start to heal- and investigate. But if he turns out to be just a smoother version of Bill Clinton, Bush or Jesse Jackson, then there will be almost no one left in this country that believes in America enough to run it.

McCain loan raises FEC questions

WASHINGTON – The government’s top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can’t drop out of the primary election’s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.

By accepting the public money, McCain would be limited to spending about $54 million for the primaries, a ceiling his campaign is near. That would significantly hinder his ability to finance his campaign between now and the Republican National Convention in September.

Busted about your honey, and now you ain’t got no money. Sucks to be you, Straighttalk. He’s the GOP in a nutshell.

This is a sad day for music lovers:

NO DEPRESSION MAGAZINE TO CEASE PUBLISHING AFTER MAY-JUNE ISSUE

No Depression, the bimonthly magazine covering a broad range of American roots music since 1995, will bring to an end its print publication with its 75th issue in May-June 2008. Plans to expand the publication’s website (www.nodepression.net) with
additional content will move forward, though it will in no way replace the print edition.

Back in the early days of the alt-country movement, back when listening to country music was something only rednecks and stoners did, No Depression profiled the early days of country music’s latest rebirth, long before Wilco, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss were household names. They named Texas mojo man Alejandro Escovedo “Artist of the Decade” in 1998, which led to me interviewing him for Pop Culture Press. Declining ad revenues from record labels forced the magazine to close, another victim of the “downloading music don’t hurt nobody” culture. They will be missed.

“Sorry”? WTF? Sorry?

U.S. says sorry to UK on rendition flights

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it had expressed regret to close ally Britain over inaccurate information Washington gave about U.S. planes carrying terrorism suspects that refueled on a British island.

“This was nothing other than an administrative error. People did nothing but act in good faith based on the information that they had,” added McCormack.

Oh, you need a translation? Ok…

“Sorry we almost got caught in yet another lie about our policy of sending little brown people to countries where we’re sure they’ll be tortured, and stopping to fuel up at your place.”

CIA administrative error my ass. At least have fun with lying guys…”Oh, sorry, Alberto Gonzales dog ate our notes…”

Rape case leads to restrictions on U.S. military in Japan

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — The U.S. military imposed tight restrictions on all personnel in Okinawa Wednesday, limiting troops to bases, places of work or off-base housing, amid a furor over the arrest of a Marine on suspicion of rape.

The arrest last week of 38-year-old Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott in the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa has sparked outrage in Japan, which is host to some 50,000 U.S. troops under a security treaty.

US troops are loathed in Japan, as they should be, since they bring rape, pollution and destruction of the local’s way of life, all based on a one-sided SOFA agreement. Read Chalmers Johnson for more.

Paying Insurgents Not to Fight

By Paul Craig Roberts

19/02/08 “ICH” — – It is impossible to keep up with all the Bush regime’s lies. There are simply too many. Among the recent crop, one of the biggest is that the “surge” is working.

The real purpose of the “surge” was to hide another deception. The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack U.S. forces. That’s right, 80,000 members of an “Awakening group,” the “Sons of Iraq,” a newly formed “U.S.-allied security force” consisting of Sunni insurgents, are being paid $10 a day each not to attack U.S. troops. Allegedly, the Sons of Iraq are now at work fighting al-Qaeda.

Ok, couple that with this, and you have trouble:

Anti-US Cleric’s Cease-Fire in Doubt

BAGHDAD — With deadly attacks against U.S. targets increasing around Baghdad, anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the possibility Wednesday that he may not renew a six-month cease-fire widely credited for helping slash violence.

The cease-fire is due to expire Saturday, and there were fears, especially among minority Sunni Arabs, that the re-emergence of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia could return Iraq to where it was just a year ago _ with sectarian death squads prowling the streets of a country on the brink of civil war.

Getting ever closer to an American defeat in the desert. That’s what you get for launching an illegal war of choice against a sovereign nation that never threatened us.

McCain: Reports on lobbyist a ‘smear’

TOLEDO, Ohio – Sen. John McCain, responding to published reports about his relationship with a lobbyist, says he “will not allow a smear campaign” to distract from his presidential campaign.

In late 1999, McCain twice wrote letters to the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Florida-based Paxson Communications — which had paid Iseman as its lobbyist — urging quick consideration of a proposal to buy a television station license in Pittsburgh. At the time, Paxson’s chief executive, Lowell W. “Bud” Paxson, also was a major contributor to McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign.

Did he diddle her? Did he influence peddle? Either way, yet another fine example of GOP integrity and ethics on display. And as an aside, is this why Huckanut keeps lingering around, hoping that this story will derail the Straighttalk Express and its ancient, spineless driver from the nomination?

Evolution To Be Taught As Scientific ‘Theory’ In Florida Because Of Right-Wing Campaign

Today, Florida’s Board of Education voted 4-3 to change standards for teaching science in Florida’s public schools. The Miami Herald reports:

Yet a successful lobbying campaign by a coalition of conservative groups, such as the Christian Coalition of Florida and the Florida Family Policy Council, managed to convince the board to insert the caveat. They said they were “vigorously opposed” to the evolution language because it “clashes with their religious convictions or their personal beliefs that evolution has not been proved.”

Go the story linked and watch some Florida rube dribble out the Larry the Cable Guy version of evolution:

At a public hearing, one Florida Panhandle resident held up two oranges and mockingly said that “after reading all the material” on evolution, he has a “conviction” that one of the oranges “is the first cousin of somebody’s pet cat” and the other, “the parent of somebody’s pet dog.”

And if you really want to get depressed (Yoshi alert…cover your keyboard), go here and read the comments.

Much has been written about the harmful “anti-learning” environment that effects black youth- a culture that has convinced itself that school, education and learning aren’t “cool” (something TTP will examine further when it discusses who will be our next president), but somehow, nobody writes about how a growing number of American adults revel in their stupidity, proud to ignorant of the basic facts of the world in which they live, simply because the word God is used.

Screw that. These people are moronic hillbillies, and we’ve tried to be polite, or just ignore you hoping you’ll shut up and find some other, equally ludicrous angel to stick on a pin, but no, you keep popping up, attempting to dumb down the rest of society because you can’t keep up, and using your faith as a shield to deflect criticism, all the while whining that you’ve been victimized. Shut up. You don’t want your kids to hear that chimps and man share 99.4% common DNA, an easily proven FACT? Then school ‘em at home, so they can go on to embarrass themselves in public long after you’ve gone.

But here’s a little tip. The last time a culture allowed faith and religion to “beat” science, they didn’t fare well. I know its hard to get ya to read a book that doesn’t have Fabio or Pat Robertson on the cover, but this one will give you a pretty clear view of the perils of sustained ignorance.