St. Francis of Assisi Nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court

This is a guest “satirical” posting from Howard the Steel Worker

NEWS FLASH 06-15-09
It was reported yesterday that St. Francis of Assisi was discovered living in a housing project in the East Bronx.

In light of this, President Obama announced his withdraw of his nomination for Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to be replaced with St. Francis because he has more empathy.

Rush Limbaugh immediately denounce St. Francis declaring that his agenda would be a class war on the rich and he must be a homosexual since his attire looks to be some sort of a dress.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who is famous for sage wisdom statements, proclaimed, “We cannot chance judicial biased decisions from someone who openly admits loving animals a little too much.

Mean while, Catholic Bishops resolve to deny St. Francis communion since he accepted a posting from an administration that has pro-abortion viewpoints.

Anonymous sources suggest that all aforementioned could be brought around to support the nomination if it were found out that he was aliened with the former seminarian priest in the Russian Orthodox Christianity from Georgia, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, who later became known as Joseph Stalin.

Halliburton’s KRB Killed 18 U.S. Solders In Iraq, And Was Awarded $80 Million From The Bush Administration For Doing A Good Job?!?

I would like to start this article by posing the question, “Where is the indignation outrage from Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News when KRB through shoddy electrical workmanship, caused the electrocution death of 18 of our finest U.S. solders serving duty in Iraq.” What….no one has heard this news from these self-righteous blowhards? I guess it is just going to have to be exposed and brought the light of day by me in this blog.

The Department of Defense paid former Halliburton subsidiary KBR more than $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical wiring in Iraq. The award payments were for the very work that resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers, according to Department of Defense documents revealed in a Senate hearing. More than $30 million in bonuses were paid months after the death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth.

Sgt. Maseth (picture show above) was a highly decorated, 24-year-old Green Beret, who was electrocuted while taking a show at a US base in January 2008. His death, the result of improper grounding for a water pump, has been classified by the US Army Criminal Investigations Division (CID) as a “negligent homicide.” Maseth’s death had originally been labeled an accident. Bonuses were paid to KBR in 2007 and 2008, after CID investigators had officially expressed concerns about the quality of KBR’s electrical work.

This information was revealed at a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. According to the committee’s chair, Sen. Byron Dorgan, the rewards KBR received under its LOGCAP contracts were supposed to be for work of the “highest quality” with “no deficiencies” or problems. Dorgan said KBR’s work was “shoddy” and “unprofessional.” Some eighteen US soldiers have died since 2003 as a result of KBR’s “shoddy work," according to Sen. Frank Lautenberg. KBR/Halliburton, of which Dick Cheney was chairman and CEO from 1995 to 2000, has been the single largest corporate beneficiary of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It continues to operate globally on US government contracts.

Charles Smith, the former Army official who managed the contracts under which KBR performed electrical work in Iraq, testified that it was “highly inappropriate” that KBR received these bonuses for what he called “dangerously substandard” work. He said that the Army was well aware of KBR’s “poor performance” since the beginning of the Iraq invasion, and yet continued to reward KBR because the military was “afraid” KBR would cease work. He said there was “a culture that decided KBR was too big to fail and too important to be held to account.” The “perverse incentive is that there was no incentive” for KBR to do quality work because they received bonuses for poor work.

Senator Dorgan said there are “tens of thousands of examples” of unnecessary risks to US soldiers, including deaths that have arisen as a result of KBR’s work. “Why should KBR be getting more contracts now that we know all this information?” asked Sen. Bob Casey. “The Defense Department has not answered these questions.”
James Childs, a master electrician hired by the Army to review electrical work in Iraq during 2008, testified that KBR’s work in Iraq was the “most hazardous, worst quality work” he’d ever seen. He said his investigation found improper wiring in “every” building KBR wired in Iraq (of which there are thousands) and that KBR’s rewiring work in buildings that were previously safely wired resulted in the electrical system becoming unsafe. Childs said that KBR did not do any work “according to code.” He also testified that the same risks exist in Afghanistan, which he recently visited. “While doing inspections in Afghanistan, I found the exact same code violations,” Childs said.

Eric Peters, a master electrician who worked for KBR in Iraq as recently as 2009, said that 50 percent of the KBR-managed buildings he saw were not properly wired. “I worried every day people would be injured or killed as a result of this work,” Peters testified. He estimated that at least half the electricians hired by KBR–many of them cheaper-costing Third Country Nationals (TCNs)–to service the US military in Iraq would not have been hired to work in the United States, saying they were not trained in US or UK electrical standards. TCNs–from places like India, Bangladesh and Bosnia–are estimated to have done some 60 percent of the electrical work for KBR in Iraq. Peters charged that KBR allowed trainees to take notes in to certification tests, making it very easy to be cleared for work.

Peters also charged that KBR “frowned upon” any refusal to sign off on work that Peters deemed incomplete or unsafe. Peters and others who testified said that “all over theater,” meaning everywhere in Iraq, KBR would effectively double-bill US taxpayers by leaving electrical work half-done or incorrectly done and then billing taxpayers again to repair its own shoddy work.

Peters characterized KBR managers as “completely unqualified” and said he is not a “disgruntled former employee” but rather a “disgusted former employee.”

LOCAL MAN GETS NATIONAL RECOGNITION

With the latest news coming out of Washington D.C. of the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, law enforcement authorities are confronting an ugly truth that another right wing, home-grown terrorism problem being fueled by those whom cannot accept the election of President Barack Obama.

Investigators are beginning to piece together the life of James von Brunn, an 88-year-old racist from Easton, Maryland, who has been named by the media as the man who shot security guard Stephen Johns dead at the 14th Street foyer of the Holocaust Museum.

James von Brunn grew up in Missouri and his ex-wife said her ex-husband is an artist, and often painted themes with ducks. She also said she was not aware of any diagnosed mental health issues or other health problems. “He was an elderly man and he always wanted to go out with his boots on like the John Wayne movie, “The Shootist.”

On the Web site www.holywesternempire.org, von Brunn described himself as "an artist and author who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore". He also claimed a background as a Midwesterner who became a PT boat captain with the Navy reserves in World War II and later worked as an ad executive and film producer in New York City, and was a member of Mensa.

Owners of a local art gallery in Easton said that von Brunn brought in some of his artwork but when they declined to exhibit them for sale, he got very verbally violent with the owners. “He was someone we knew that we did not want him to be angry with us.”

My own wife overheard James von Brunn in a store she was shopping in. She did not know what happened to set him off but his comments were, “Where I was born and grew up, “N words” knew what side of the street they needed to be walking on. Those “N words” bowed there heads when they walked by a better white person!”


Before the art gallery incident, James von Brunn had caused a bit of a stir in Easton in 1994 when he brought a video series to Mid-Shore Community Television and was able to have the programs aired on the local access channel. James W. von Brunn may never have faced criminal charges while living in Talbot County, but former Sheriff Thomas G. Duncan once brought him into the office after von Brunn was caught writing white supremacist rhetoric in books at the Talbot County Free Library.

James W. von Brunn also had his own website, holywesternempire.org, which includes disturbing writings about Jews and African-Americans. James W. von Brunn also considers himself a published author because he self financed his own book called, “Kill the Best Gentiles,” which espouses such stock white supremacist views such as the Jews concocted World War II to stab Germany in the back, that the Holocaust didn't happen and that Jews’ control the US banking system and the media. In a recent posting, he wrote that "America is a Third World racial garbage-dump — stupid, ignorant, dead-broke, and terminal." He has also been promoting his opinions that Barack Obama was the product of the Jews’ control of the “World Order” puppet governments.

In 1981, von Brunn served six years in a federal jail for what he called his "Federal Reserve Caper." Angered by high interest rates and the alleged Jewish conspiracy to control the US banking system, he entered the Federal Reserve building in Washington armed with a sawn-off shotgun and a plan to kidnap then Fed chairman Paul Volcker and get him to confess to his "crimes" on national television. The marine who guarded the boardroom was successful in disarming von Brunn and he was arrested, tried and sentenced to 11 years' jail. Now did von Brunn take responsibility for his own actions? Like many of his “like minded” associates, von Brunn blamed those he hated with statements like, "First a biased “N word” jury was selected, and a Jew judge" is what sealed his fate.

Since his release, the Southern Poverty Law Centre in Alabama, which monitors white supremacist and hate groups, said that von Brunn did a lot of writing and painting but was no longer seen at rallies or Ku Klux Klan meetings.

Frances Townsend, the homeland security adviser under George Bush said, "The individual lone wolf is the hardest to anticipate and prevent. I spent more time on foreign terrorists but it surprised me each week the amount of time we would spend on domestic terrorist threats."

On stormfront.org, one of the leading white supremacist websites in the US, Von Brunn is being lauded as a hero. Statements like, "He was trying to set Our Race free, From our mortal enemies … Sieg Heil," wrote Ryan White from Massachusetts.

The director of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, Mark Potok, estimates there are between 100,000 and 200,000 people connected to white supremacist and hate groups in the US. "But it is really hard to estimate … how many are dangerous," he said.
Mr. Potok said computer servers running several sites they monitored had collapsed due to the huge surge in traffic after Mr. Obama was elected.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was heavily criticized a month ago by groups representing returned servicemen and right-wing commentators, after her department released a report that pointed to growing concerns about right-wing hate groups and their potential to attract returning servicemen and women from Iraq with arms training. Gun sales have gone through the roof since Mr. Obama was elected, because of fears he will tighten gun laws.

In conclusion, sadly, there are many von Brunns in the United States. Some even had Presidential influence during the Regan Administration. Todd Blodgett, a former aide in Ronald Reagan's White House who had his own interest in the hate groups, got acquainted with von Brunn. Mr. Blodgett recalled going with Mr. Von Brunn to meetings in Virginia of the American Friends of the British National Party, a now disbanded group that raised funds for the BNP. Mr. Blodgett went onto say, "von Brunn is obsessed with Jewish people, "He had equal contempt for both Jews and blacks, but if he had to pick one group to wipe out, he'd always say it would be Jews."

George Orwell’s 1984 or was it 2004

The book, “Nineteen Eighty Four” is the story of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant bureaucrat assigned the task of perpetuating the regime's propaganda by falsifying records and political literature. The novel is a famous study for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control of the population.

It is the warning to the readers’ of the potential government's increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual.

It puts forth the study of how your neighbors, family members, and friends can come to the point that they will spy, report and turn on you. They were even apathetic because that is how they could be conditioned to do so by the government.

Common everyday terms have come from this book like, “Big Brother,” “News Speak,” and “Orwellian.”

“Big Brother” is now watching us all with the laws that were passed during the George W. Bush administration. This law is called, “The Patriot Act,” that allows the government to open your mail without a warrant, access your internet e-mail transmission and listen in on your phone calls without any reasonable cause or warrant.

“News Speak” now refers to “Collateral Damage” as the sterilized term for what used to be called, “Non-Combatant Civilian Deaths.” This tragedy is caused when innocent people get caught in the cross fire of a fire fight or within a bombing a target. It is a shame when innocent people, especially children, die but it just seems that the “New Speak” is more palatable if we use the term “Collateral Damage,” instead of civilian deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.

"Orwellian" life has subtlety worked its way into observing our everyday life with us knowing and without anyone’s outrage. We now have surveillance on every street corner of many big cities, street light intersections that can award motor vehicle violations, shopping store parking lots, etc. You are now assumed guilty of traffic violations and the person charged is not even allowed to confront their accuser. Our founding fathers wrote this civil right law but those guys were so old fashion and could not understand the way things are today……Or at least this is the way some mindless people think today. They even make statements like, I don’t care is the government is spying on me…..I don’t have anything to be guilty of….and yes, even APATHETIC.

Follow Up Research on Stupid People Posting

I decided to do some follow up research on my posting “Make The Stupid People Shut Up.” The Letter To The President from the 4th grade teacher, as I had suspected, was a lying fake from a God professing Christian.

The following link is the proof that the person in question DID not send it:
[link to www.truthorfiction.com]

The Truth:
This Letter began appearing in email in baskets, commentaries and internet blogs shortly after President Obama's 2009 trip to Europe.

Ms. Kathleen Lyday is a real person, works for Grandview Elementary School in Hillsboro, MO but told TruthorFiction.com that she did not author this letter.

Ms. Lyday said that she is outraged that someone used her name and the phone / fax number of the school where she worked and could have possibly gotten her fired from her position with the school board. "We have not found who actually wrote this only that it was generated on the web site www.godlikeproductions.com"

She went on to say that some person that professes to believe in God would fabricate such a lie.

I also decided to do more research on the author’s outrage that President Obama bowed to King Abdullah when in Saudi Arabia. There are many examples of Presidents following protocol offering gestures of respect to foreign dignitaries. Where was the outrage of this letter’s author when in 2005 the Saudi King visited George W. Bush at the Crawford ranch where he was greeted by former President with a kiss? If President Obama had done this I am sure the God revering Christian would have put the HOMO label on him.

The "Full Quiver" Project

Extreme supporters of the Religious Right are moving farther to the right than ever before, and they want to take the country along with them.

A professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, whose name is Bruce Ware, is pushing their religious right agenda to the extremes. This person finds passages in the Bible to justify that God meant women to be submissive to men. It is within the same passage that states, children should honor their mother and fathers, and slaves should honor their masters etc.

This Southern Baptist Seminary now has some of the other ideas from their fundamentalist positions. This new teaching is being called "The Full Quiver Theology" and is based on Psalm 127: 3-5 which reads, "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."

The seminary's president, Albert Mohler, explained that under-population was a pressing concern. Couples who choose childlessness are guilty of "rebellion against parenthood that represents nothing less than an absolute revolt against God's design." God will decide whether to open or close the womb. Using birth control is an act against God's will. The truly Christian couple will allow God to decide whether each act of sex will result in procreation and sex will be returned to its proper place in a Christian's life. What part of this decision does the Christian woman have? None because she should submit, of course.

When asked about his position, President Mohler explained to the Chicago Tribune, "We are barely replenishing ourselves," he said. "That is going to cause huge social problems in the future."

Now the first alarm that should go off and one should ask themselves, “What did Mohler mean by "we." The world's population is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050. The United States' population is expected to grow to 400 million by 2040. No under-population there.

There is one trend that President Mohler could be referring to is the influx of new Latino immigration and if the trend continues Euro-Americans will cease being the majority race in the United States by about 2050. Over the next half century, America will become a predominately non-white nation.

Is this religious call for “Full Quiver” theology a white-supremacy code language advocating for the increase of white babies?" Is the “huge social problems in the future” going to require the need for the “Full Quiver” of white arrows, “arrows in a soldier's hand,” to defend their religious views?

This really sounds a lot like the Adolf Hitler’s Nazi speech’s warning Germans of the threat from Jews during the 1920’s and the policies and laws that were enacted in the 1930’s.

Of course President Mohler and Professor Ware are backing up their contentions with plenty of Bible verses; which for some people means they are teaching the truth.
The sad part in all of this are the people that are buying into the “Full Quiver” message. They have to be so uneducated, unworldly, and unrefined that they could be convinced to think that Gazpacho was Pinocchio’s father.

Religious Right Rant To President Obama

Today I am going to take a break from the science aspect of this blog and bring in this political piece on the uneducated aspect of the extreme far right that has had too much of a prominent voice within MY Republican Party.

I received this e-mail from a coworker / friend. His viewpoints are more conservative than mine but I appreciate when he does pass this kind of stuff on so that I have a good idea of what kind of crap is being passed around on the “Blowhard” e-mail circuit.

This e-mail starts out below:

This letter you are about to read was written by a 4th grade teacher this past week. She even gave the world her telephone and fax numbers. We are in dire need of more true American citizens who are proud of OUR United States of America. WAKE UP AMERICA . . . please . . . before it is too late!

When I first read this piece, I thought it was written BY a 4th grader. Upon re-reading this letter from the 4th grade teacher, I did so from the viewpoint of the grading aspect of a critical writing paper. This letter to our President, I doubt if it was really sent to him, is more of a rant instead of a well constructed attempt at logical argumentation. The letter goes as such:

April 27, 2009

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Obama: (Proper etiquette is “Dear Mr. President Obama,”)

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. (Poor opening statement) Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate (you are an inadequate) representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally. (In general, a poorly constructed first paragraph and sentence structure.)

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples (people is already plural. This is like saying “bestest”) of any other country on earth.

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. (Now I do not recall at any time during President Obama’s trips of him ever saying, “that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world” quote. I am guessing “we” meaning every citizen of the United States making it a generalized statement negating the argument at this point, “are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world.” Again, I am guessing “their” meaning everyone in the world which again is a generalized statement.) Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples (again people is already plural) of Europe? Are you brain dead? (Note in this paragraph that the writer went from current event trips and speeches of President Obama then to apply examples of 40 to 90 years past. President Obama was not even born yet. History has taught us that the First World War and Second World War were battles fought for territories and economic influence. For instance, the example of the Second World War was fought by those that had territories of influence and economic power like France, England, and United States; and wanted to keep them, and those who did not have the territories and the benefit of the economic power like Germany, Japan, and Italy wanting to take them by force. I guess this person is seeing the United States as the Lone Ranger riding in to defend the down trodden and fight for truth, fairness, and justice. When done, then the citizens of the United States will ride off into the sunset waving their hats and calling out in unison, “Hi Ho Silver…..Away!!! Nice fantasy but not reality based.)
What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? (The Marshall Plan was a stimulus package to get the world economies working again.)

Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? (Our founding fathers made sure that there was the separation of church and state. Religious freedom is one of the strongest basic rights for the founding of this country. There are Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Mormons, and Atheist, and all make up the citizen population of the United States. All have fought and died for this country.) This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. (This is a very inaccurate statement. Many of our founding fathers were students of “The Age of Enlightenment.” Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Abigail Adams, were readers and followers of Voltaire. Writings that touted the value of scientific facts negating religious fables. An example is a quote from Thomas Jefferson, “I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition “Christianity” one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.”)

Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don't show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you! (Was this person as outraged when Barbara and Laura Bush curtsied to the Queen Elizabeth of England? This statement has nothing relating to the arguments this person is trying to present. To quote William Shakespeare, “Much To Do About Nothing.”)

You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What's the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you. (Again, another generalized statement negating any argument this person is trying to present.) You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

(OK here we go) What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members - on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven’t said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn't!

Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses.

In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million - not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now. (With this statement above, I think the writer is finally getting to the real foundation of their outrage. They have to take a pay cut when others are awarded millions in bonuses or a pay raise. It always comes down to the money and the writer’s Freudian statements showing that they are just truly jealous. This financial crisis came about by the policies from the previous eight years of the George W. Bush administration and not the 150 days President Obama has been in office.)

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens (my fellow citizens and me) as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. (Again another statement that is not based on any supporting facts to back this up.) We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you.

I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities.

I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country. (The closing paragraph is again nothing more than a rant. No concluding sentence. Poor structure in general.)

Sincerely,
Every Real American

P.S. I rarely ask that emails be 'passed around'...

PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST...

it's past time for all Americans to wake up!

Ms. Kathleen Lyday
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy. C
Hillsboro, MO 63050
(636) 944-3291 Phone
(636) 944-3870 Fax

Now in conclusion for myself, I found this letter of logical argumentation lacking in supported facts, non-coherent statements, and so poorly constructed that I doubt that this person has a degree from a credible college or university. The English grade that I give this 4th grade teacher is……D- at best.