Archives Bellaciao EN 1999-2016

FOOL'S GOAL

2006-09-28T18:19:51Z

By Sheila Samples
[b]I will seize the opportunity to achieve big goals." George W. Bush[/b] My friend Bernie says a lot of folks have George Bush figured all wrong. "Sure he lies," Bernie said, "every time he opens his mouth. But — think about it. Even when Bush is lying he ends up telling us what he's gonna do. He can't help himself — he just blurts it out. But by the time we understand what he's saying — he's already made a stinkin' mess and moved on to the next one."
Bernie says (…)

- contributions / Governments, USA, Sheila Sample

Shadows On The Wall

2006-07-06T22:11:23Z

Shadows On The Wall Sheila Samples, Arab News Thursday, 6, July, 2006 And so we Americans sit, shackled by self-imposed chains of fear, captivated by shadowy forms that move discordantly across the walls of our perception. Once again we are eager to accept appearance for reality.
The Supreme Court ruling last week rejecting President George W. Bush's military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees casts a huge shadow on the wall. Many are saying it not only curbed Bush and Cheney's (…)

- contributions / Wars and conflicts, Justice, Prison, USA, Sheila Sample

Musings from Tom Joad Country

2006-06-26T16:42:56Z

By Sheila Samples
I've been reading about this "grass roots" phenomenon that's sweeping the country. It must not have "swept" down this far, because I scoured the prairies and plains of Oklahoma, and the only thing I came up with was a clump or two of Johnson grass, a few scraggly buffalo and some errant loco weed...
In fact, there's not much movement of any kind in Tom Joad Country. Maybe that's because Oklahoma has always been, or at least has had the reputation of being, not only poor (…)

- contributions / Movement, USA, Sheila Sample

With Friends Like These... By Sheila Samples

2006-03-16T15:02:11Z

By Sheila Samples
"They're blowin' this town all to hell" -Bo Hopkins in Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch"(1969)
Senator John Warner (R-Va.) has the unexpected problem of a foreign state-owned company taking over operations at U.S. ports all figured out. The dour, self-righteous chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee announced from the Senate floor on March 9 that Dubai Ports World (DPW), one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), "has decided to transfer (…)

- contributions / Trade-Exchange Rates, USA, Sheila Sample

THE WORLD THAT DICK BUILT

2006-02-27T16:31:25Z

By Sheila Samples
This is the guy who pulled the trigger of the gun that fired the round that hit his friend that ruined the hunt and shed some light on the world that Dick built...
Four days after blasting 78-year-old hunting partner Harry Whittington in the face, neck and chest with birdshot, vice president Dick Cheney emerged from his fortified bunker to make a snarling, unapologetic taped announcement to Fox News' Brit Hume that basically amounted to what he did on his own time was (…)

- contributions / Governments, USA, Sheila Sample

TALE OF A CONNECTICUT DONKEY

2006-02-08T17:45:22Z

By Sheila Samples
"Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood...It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes." Senator George McGovern, Sept 1, 1970
Jim Bob came out of the (…)

- contributions / Parties, Governments, USA, Sheila Sample

Who Will Tell the People?

2006-01-27T17:45:44Z

By Sheila Samples
- And who will tell the people - that free speech is a ruse; - The corporations run the country - and then they make the news. - Is it media or mind control - heroic victories or crime? - Who will tell the people... - that we are living in these times. - Song by Willie Nelson
In his essay on "Character" Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A chief event in life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us." I've had such days, many of them through encounters (…)

- contributions / Media-Network, Movement, Democracy, Sheila Sample

GO TO THE LIGHT!

2005-12-31T16:43:25Z

By Sheila Samples
Folks at the White House stay pretty busy these days just trying to untangle the lies George Bush keeps telling every time he opens his mouth. For example, back in April 2004, Bush explained to a cheering audience and an unchallenging press corps in Buffalo about "eavesdropping" on Americans — "When you think 'Patriot Act,' constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because," he said earnestly while leaning (…)

- contributions / Democracy, Governments, Secret Services, USA, Sheila Sample

BOBCATS IN A BRAVE, NEW WORLD

2005-11-17T20:48:41Z

By Sheila Samples
"Preserving liberty may require the rule of a single leader — a dictator — willing to use those dreaded 'extraordinary measures,' which few know how, or are willing to employ." — Michael Ledeen
Goodness gracious! Henny Penny! Since defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and vice president Dick Cheney teamed up to lead the charge to create a New World Order, the whole universe has become untidy. Very untidy. My friend Bernie says Dick and Rummy's big plan to take over the (…)

- contributions / International, Religions-Beliefs, Governments, USA, Sheila Sample

HEY, HARKAVY!

2005-10-28T16:59:35Z

By Sheila Samples
Remember the "Hey, Mikey" TV commercial with two brothers refusing to eat Quaker Oats' new Life cereal until their little brother, Mikey, who supposedly "hates everything" tried it first? Well, I'm not saying I get up every morning and yell, "Hey, Harkavy!" to see what's really happening in the news without all the commercial spin — but I'm not saying I don't either...
Either way, there's no better place to start your morning than with the peerless Ward Harkavy (…)

- contributions / Justice, Governments, USA, Sheila Sample