Connecting the Dots
by Glynn Wilson

Today I am revealing for the first time why I am giving up playing golf for the good of the country. I’m not making this up.

I will not play golf again until George W. Bush moves out of the White House permanently.

Bush gives up golf?

In case you missed one of Bush’s latest lies, check out Mike Allen’s interview with him for Politico.com.

“For the first time,” The Politico reports, “Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families.”

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” Bush said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights, according to the Washington paper.

Bush warns of Iraq disaster

This assertion was not challenged by the reporter or any other national news organization. So let me fill you in based on information from inside sources who have played golf and other sports with Bush.

If you watch the video clip from the link, you will see that Bush’s body language reveals that he is a pathological liar. He is incapable of telling the truth about anything, apparently.

Bush quit playing golf because he was not any good at it and it was taking too much of his time. He took up mountain biking in 2003 and that has been his sport of choice since, that is until he crashed into a Scottish police officer while attending the G8 summit.

Bush bruised in bicycle crash

Now, sources say, Bush mostly mounts the White House treadmill with Condi and they like to take a “hot tub” together while talking about foreign policy and other things, like how the spamming operation is progressing in Paraguay designed to shut down all the liberal bloggers in the world.

And, they like to talk about how they can plant the seeds for John McCain’s victory over Barack Obama for president. Like going before the Israeli Knesset and, without naming Obama, attacking his willingness to open negotiations with Syria and Iran.

In case you were busy playing golf or something this week and missed the story, Bush said, “some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.”

Bush went on to compare a willingness to meet with “terrorists and radicals” to the pre-World War II “appeasement” of Nazi Germany, which makes absolutely no sense at all as a comparison - unless you understand the Karl Rove doctrine of saying the opposite of what you mean to confuse the masses.

Obama Strikes Back at Bush On Diplomacy (Lie)

It’s not even the word Bush should have used if he had any idea what he was talking about. Appeasement means giving up something to get something in politics, like John F. Kennedy did with during the Cuban Missle Crisis - or like Ronald Regan did with the Iranians during the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s.

Of course, Reagan is the one who supposedly established the U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists - all while his envoys negotiated with Iran to sell them arms in their war with Iraq at the time, all to help fund the U.S. war against the alleged Communists in Nicaragua. As you may recall, another George Bush was involved in that transaction - as vice president.

It’s a classic case of misdirection and double speak. But considering Bush has the lowest presidential approval rating since pollsters have been asking the question, it does not appear to be working anymore.

Poll Shows Bush Ratings At All-Time Low

So my giving up golf has nothing to do with the price increase at Roebuck Golf Course and the elimination of the twilight special, or the fact that I am so out of shape from living in the Birmingham suburbs that I can’t walk 18 holes anymore.

I am swearing off golf until Bush is out of the fucking White House. What are you giving up?

Connecting the Dots
by Glynn Wilson

It is almost too nice a spring day outside to be sitting in front of a computer writing a column, but there are a few things I have to say today besides talking about watching the revolutionary garden grow.

The tomatoes, collards, green beans and corn are coming up fine and will help offset the rising food prices this summer in Bush’s recessionary world.

But that’s not all that’s going on in the world, not that you would know it by reading the corporate news media and watching the public relations that passes for news on the local television airwaves.

The state of the economy seems to be affecting the news media as it often does in hard times. It is becoming harder and harder to find real news stories worth reading even in the national papers. Every news organization in the country is still talking about the Reverend Wright today, even as presidential candidate Barack Obama went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” for the full hour this morning and still sounded like the smartest, most reasonable candidate in the race.

While Senator John McCain continued to support Bush’s surge this week and made a strange appearance in Selma, Alabama last week, as if any African-Americans were ever going to vote for him, Hillary Clinton was showing her support for Israel with language much like Bush when she talked about “obliterating” Iran if they ever launch a nuclear attack on the Jewish state.

Of course what the American masses who barely keep up may not realize is that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon and will most likely never obtain one. Dick Cheney and the Israeli military will see to that - if Bush doesn’t send in the U.S. Air Force soon and start World War III.

Obama pointed that out for Tim Russert, who just had to raise the issue - even though he should know better.

Even Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of NBC’s “Nightly News,” pointed out in a blog column the other day that the New York Times circulation is down and said this:

“I must admit that on Sundays it becomes a tough paper to figure out. While (last) week’s paper featured an op-ed piece by Elizabeth Edwards bemoaning the lack of serious, in-depth coverage of the political race, it’s tough to figure out exactly what readers the paper is speaking to, or seeking.”

What Times Is It?

I’ve been wondering that myself, since I check out the Times Website a couple of times a day looking to see if they might be breaking another story on the illegal surveillance program being run by the Bush administration - or something. The paper is credited with breaking a big story on that back in 2005, even though we had been talking about it on the blogs already, but where is the followup?

The Washington Post has done some fairly interesting stories of late, especially Dana Milbank in his “Washington Sketch” column, which by the way is online only and not in the print edition of the newspaper. Here are a couple of examples.

Anniversary of ‘Mission Accomplished’ Draws Laughs

The Incredible Shrinking Presidency of George W. Bush

The fare was so weak today I turned to The Nation magazine, where at least I found this:

Our Lapdog Media

But even that is not as strong as what you can sometimes find here at the little old Locust Fork Journal, when we have the resources and the motivation to go out and find the good stories.

I mean the Birmingham News is focusing all it’s guns on going after another African-American Democrat these days, the poor new mayor of Birmingham, instead of focusing its investigative attentions perhaps on a big story like why Birmingham has some of the most polluted air in the country. Was that story on the front page? Of course not. It’s “bad news,” not PR or manufactured news designed to bash Democrats.

Birmingham in Top Eight Polluted Cities

I mean we know what causes the bad air, mainly Alabama Power’s coal-fired power plants, along with the lack of an automobile inspection program that would help get the old polluting cars and pickup trucks off the roads. But I guess all that Alabama Power advertising money keeps them focused on things like doing the PR for the State Troopers in their “Take Back the Highways” campaign to keep drunks off the road (and everybody else who might like to have a glass of wine or a beer with dinner out at a restaurant).

If the local press had put as much effort into investigating the causes of the bad air and potential solutions as they do drunk driving, we could have already solved the problem.

Here’s a simple suggestion no one in the press or the presidential race has thought about. What if every car on the road and every house in the suburbs had a white roof? That would reflect sun light back into the atmosphere like the glaciers that are now melting due to global warming.

And what if the federal and state governments switched the tax incentives to putting solar cells on houses instead of investing in oil exploration and bio-fuels, which is one of the major factors leading to high food prices.

If you are also disgruntled with the fare in the newspapers or TV news stations and want to help us chase those headlines and investigative reports, please consider making a donation today. You will be glad you did.