Is Gollum a Republican?

Methinks so. Gollum is an evil character in the "Lord of the Rings" saga, who loses his powerful ring, which he calls his "precious." He resorts to lies and treachery to regain his ring from Frodo and Sam Gamgee. Yes, he is a Republican.

Last November the Republicans lost their "precious" to Barrack Obama. It has been three months, since they officially relinquished it. Since that time, they have done nothing but lie and plot in an effort to begin to regain their "precious." As with Gollum, their lies and treachery have, so far, failed miserably.

Like Frodo and Sam Gamgee, the Democrats are onto the Republicans' game. The Democrats are aware of the lies and treachery. They know that they possess the "precious" that the Republicans want so badly, and they are on their guard every minute.

As with Gollum, the Republicans easily telegraph their moves with obvious lies. Michelle Bachman openly lies about re-education camps. Sean Hannity talks of tyranny and absolute power in the same sentence with Obama. Imhoff of Texas says the Pentagon budget has been cut, when in reality it is being increased by some 21 billion dollars. Then there are the "tea parties," which have absolutely no connection to the orginal "tea party." They are being organized to make people believe that their taxes are being raised. Obvious lies.

Gollum's treachery and his evil desire for power eventually sent him into Sauron's fiery furnace. If the Republicans continue their lies and treachery, they too will fall into the fiery furnace in 2010, possibly, to never be seen again. The American voter will only take so much. Apparently, the Republican leadership sees their faithful as completely stupid and unable to see for themselves. Granted many are that way, but even they will eventually tire of the open lies and treachery, that seem to emanate from the mouths of these buffoons.

It will be a long and treacherous journey for the Democrats as it was for Frodo and Sam Gamgee. There will be many perils not the least of which will be the Republican Gollum's, who will continue to lie and plot at every turn. However, like Frodo and Sam, the Democrats should be able to take these Gollum buffoons to the brink and eventually coax them over the edge into the never ending fire of extinction in 2010 and 2012.

Update: 4/10 In a continuation of the sorry and childish vengeful activity, Arizona State asked the President to speak at its commencement, then refused to give him the customary honorary degree. The excuse is that his body of work is not yet impressive enough. Body of work? Exactly what does that represent? Barry Goldwater got one after he had served only one term in the Senate. Then there was Wu Qidi, the vice minister of education of the People's Republic of China, who was given an honorary degree at ASU in May 2006. Even Cesar Chavez, the Mexican-American labor and civil rights activist was bestowed an honorary degree in 1992.

There are many others, most of whom you or I have never heard, on ASU's list of recipients. Erma Bombeck even made it. Erma Bombeck? She was funny and a good columnist, I suppose. But the first black President of the United States? The author of two best selling books, and like Goldwater, a one term senator? Obama is being given the cold shoulder. Was this done on purpose to openly reject the President's accomplishments and to embarrass him? Is there a Republican lurking somewhere?

I'm sure the President will laugh it off and be professional about the rejection. It sure does not speak well for Arizona State University.

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Rick Warren LIes - Must Read Post

Check out this post by Dr. Michael Westmoreland-White, who catches Rev. Rick Warren in a bald faced lie.

Corporate Money Wasted on NASCAR

In 1962 I became a fan of stock car racing after seeing the movie, "Thunder in Carolina" in the old Blair Theater in Blairsville, Ga. I followed the NASCAR series until about three years ago, when it no longer resembled anything close to racing. It had become a Madison Ave. parade of no-name drivers with no personality run by corporate sponsors and a sanctioning body that did everything but sanction. In reality it became more like professional "rasslin" every day, with fake caution flags to change the the race outcome and little consistency in rules enforcement, on the rare occasion that rules were enforced.

The big money world of corporate sponsorship has put this racing series on its downward spiral. Corporate sponsors make the decision about who will drive the car that they sponsor. That means that the driver must appeal to the 20 - 35 year old group, the only group, apparently, that matters today. The driver must be "cute" and speak with a generic accent and he/she must be younger than 25 to begin as a rookie. No driver over that age can break into NASCAR anymore and few drivers from the South can make it unless they work on killing their accent. Cale Yarborough, Bill Elliott, Richard Petty, and Junior Johnson could never make it in today's world. God forbid that someone with Johnson's accent and body would even try to break into racing. Tom Wolfe called Johnson "The Last American Hero" and for stock car racing he probably is just that. A recent legends race at Bristol Speedway demonstrated Johnson's continued popularity.

Corporate sponsorships have begun to dry up over the past three or four years, and the pace has accelerated with the deepening depression. With the big three automakers teetering on the brink of disaster there is concern that they may pull their money from NASCAR. In reality, there is little reason for them to remain. The cars no longer resemble anything driven on the street. Aerodynamics, wind tunnels, and NASCAR's weird "car of tomorrow" concept have taken care of that. The only thing stock about a NASCAR racecar is the engine block. The old adage, "win on Sunday, sell cars on Monday" is long out of date.

I have long felt that advertising in NASCAR and probably across the board is largely a huge waste of corporate money. The result of Madison Avenue's big scam of convincing corporations about the value of advertising. In NASCAR there is a company that goes through the film of every race and computes the amount of time a sponsor's car is on the screen. Then some convoluted formula is used to determine the value of that time. The corporate world swallows the scam and dumps more money down the black hole.

Drivers and owners live "high on the hog" off this corporate money. Some rarely win, but if they have a big mouth and can be a good salesman for the sponsor, they continue to rake in the big bucks. Some drivers continue well past their prime, because they are good salesmen, and they can not give up the big money that continues to roll in.

To make matters even worse our tax money is thrown down this black hole of sponsorship. Several cars sport the logos of the various branches of the military service. Remember, we are talking about millions of dollars here. The Army, Navy, Marines, and National Guard currently or in the very recent past, have all sponsored teams. At twenty million plus per team, we are talking some large bucks over the course of several years. Presumably, they do this to recruit from the NASCAR faithful, who tend to be the most conservative of sports fans. Typically, Republican candidates are the mascots of NASCAR, and at every opportunity are grand marshals or some other such highly visible position at the race. Therefore, patriotism (actually nationalism) is a major theme of NASCAR events.

Prior to the depression more and more seats were vacant at most races. Long time fans had become tired of selective rules enforcement, the lack of actual racing on the track, and the vacant-eyed stares and monotone voices of the generic drivers. Ticket prices were through the roof (the last race I attended almost ten years ago cost me almost $100 for a ticket), and long time tracks, where actual racing was possible, were slowly dropped from the circuit. Others, like Darlington lost their signature races in favor of new west coast tracks. Japanese automakers were allowed to compete a few years ago and began their usual unlimited spending in an attempt to dominate. NASCAR, the fans said, cared little about its heritage and sold itself for the almighty corporate dollar.

Frankly, I hope that corporate money continues to dry up and the series either dies completely to be replaced by something better or it has to re-invent itself, going back to its roots for revitalization. It is owned by a single family, whose patriarchs have passed on and left it to their spoiled kids, who see it as a toy with which to enrich themselves. They are driving it into the ground, carelessly, with no consideration for their fans. They continue to ask corporate America for more and more money.

Finally, the end is getting closer. The deepening depression has forced corporations to re-evaluate their spending. Maybe soon they will see that they have bought a "pig in a poke" and the only thing they are doing is enriching a few at the expense of many.

Why is Omar Khadr Being Held for Murder?

Omar Khadr, a Canadian native and Guantanamo prisoner, is accused of killing U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a grenade during a 2002 battle in Afghanistan when he was 15. Why is this? It took place during a battle at a time that the Bush Regime described as war.

If this person was taking part in a battle on the opposing side, how is he no more than a prisoner of war? How many German soldiers, for instance, were taken prisoner during WW II, who killed American soldiers. Why were they not tried for murder? This makes no sense to me.

War is murder, pure and simple. Soldiers kill each other. American soldiers have killed many Afghans and mercenaries in that country. Could Afghanistan put one of them on trial for murder? Our government usually howls, when a country captures one of our soldiers and threatens to put him on trial for murder. Now we are doing the same thing. I guess it is usual double standard. We are always right and the opposition is always wrong. Thankfully, the president has put a halt to trials at Guantanamo until this entire mess can be sorted out.