Yeah, I'm not sure Kennedy was pantomiming. I think it was a reflexive move, and he stopped when he remembered his flask was in the briefcase.

Sen. Byrd, what a slap in our collective face he represents! Next we'll have other brain-dead reps wheeled in on guerneys, life-support techs jump-starting their hearts at roll call and during votecounts.

Too bad our brain-dead President and heartless VP aren't also on life support. Then all we'd need is another North East Blackout!

I know, that's over the top and I'll be surprised, but pleased, if ya let it on.

But let's face it, these murderers in OUR white house deserve to meet the Davil ASAP!!

Speaking of our tax dollars, anyone notice how Duh-booya's brainstorm of raising troop levels comes at the same time of the announcement that Iraqi oil extraction will be farmed out to -duhhhhh- companies in bed with Bushco?

Lemmee fish up some linkage, to Alternet and a few others...can I do that?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece

I see the links work here so where do I look for the rules governing comment and link posting? I'm asking here and posting the link[s] that strays off-topic because I hope you, Mr. Redmond, or another SFBG mind on duty, will respond.

And regarding my needing a response, I posted some gibberish at B3 that I hope to have you, as editor and Big Cheese in Charge, give or refuse your blessing.

I hope to get the SFBG to spearhead a challenge to the Main Stream Media for a Truth Out. Although the Guardian's very existence stands as a challenge-in-waiting, I believe the challenge should be on a front cover, on a billboard with Mr. Brugman's face next to it, saying 'Are you folks at the Chron and at KRON and KTVU CHICKEN???

How about having Ray Taliafano[sp?] from KGO do an article or interview? Let me do the interview, I'll charge ya coffee and a bagel with salmon and Swiss cheese. And Gulden's mustard.
And in closing I must post an article I sent you after the 2004 elect-tron. It's about the Alternative Press Vs. The American Mainstream Media Blackout.

It probably got returned to me as a 'failure delivery' because my computer back then had some viruses, or it got spammed at your end.

Be'leeb dis, Mr. Redmond: I'm not the brightest set of taillights in the Pre-dawn commute, but I'm nobody's Spam.

I'm the Perpetual Thorn in the MSM's butt.

To wit:

note: Written just after the 2004 so-called election...

Alternative Media vs. The American Mainstream Media Blackout

A few months back, as the so-called election was gearing up toward the Big Finagle, I learned about On-Line Alternative Media websites.

I have been meeting hundreds of people from around the globe who discuss issues and exchange ideas, compare strategies regarding activism, supply the Discussion Forums with world-wide Internet links to facilitate greater levels of cross-communication, and basicly get involved in numerous high-spirited Meetings of the Minds.

These Forums have something I couldn't get from reading local community-oriented Alternative newspapers or even nationally distributed progressive-oriented publications, which to me are the sources of REAL information.

These On-line forums have a collective soul-infused Heart that beats with incredible power.

Not that words on a page do not evince heart, soul and spirit.

On the contrary, the writers, support teams and editors who enable Alternative publications to bring readers behind-the-scenes information are the only other hope we have, besides the Internet and good ol' word of mouth, to get ourselves out from beneath the growing shadow that is the Mainstream Media News Blackout.

I have been an avid reader and supporter of this particular San Francisco Treat - no, not that plastic Rice a Roni, you joker you - The REAL San Francisco Treat!

The San Francisco Bay Guardian. Yep, the one you're reading.

Being an ameteur writer and an apprentice Internet detective seeking the Truth behind the Big Lies, I have some idea how much work goes into even a quarter-page column. Alternative publications don't get their news piped in and served up on a teleprompter, that's a corp- news exclusive.

These folks actually do things the same way my comrades and I work. [I'm a construction worker].

They work. They sweat. They insist and probably they get that flushed-forehead bulging-vein thing occasionally.

Lucky those beads of sweat are there to cool things down.

Which differs greatly from the New World of Corporation News. In the spirit of Hollywood and the Corporation News chain of command, beneath Rupert Murdoch we have the Board, the Bankers, the Talking Faces, the make-up crews and hairstylists, the Teleprompter Engineers, then once again, the Bored. The viewers.

How fortunate these sedated couch-potatoes are, and how considerate are their news providers / drug suppliers. While the world-shaking Season Finale of the Scott Peterson Show leaves Sally Shophappy and Sam Sportsection in the emotional vacuum zone, the latest Happy Pill is offered up with scenes of bright-eyed cheerleaders dancing through fields of lillies with laughing puppies.

And as the children run screaming through the halls doing Pepsi cartwheels and high-fructose backflips, there's New Prescription Kiddie Kool! Slip a pill into their jello, and Stop That Problem!

But I digress.

The limitations regarding weekly presentation of global news through local Alternative newspapers, such as the Guardian, is just that - this is a local news publisher. And in San Francisco local does not come in small or medium. Local here comes in two sizes:

'Large' and 'Busting at the Seams'.

The Guardian offices are always the scene of high-energy activity. I have popped in to submit items, enter writing contests, obtain information, examine back-issues and enter more writing contests, and I always enjoy feeling the air-borne electricity that charges even the reception area. My favorite ambiance-flavor, that controlled-frenzy wavelength that one feels in the presence of high- amperage generating equipment.

In more than thirty years of trusting the Bay Guardian, I have become entirely comfortable that my trust and my support have been earned and returned.

One-third of a century is not just a few handfuls of years, it represents a generation of human endeavor. That's a considerable time-span for journalistic integrity and business longevity to remain teamed up, considering the way network news reporting in America has been completely distorted, re-packaged, tossed around, bought and re-sold and - today - entirely censored.

Conversely [sp?], honest news presentations that are predicated upon that ol' stalwart dust-covered American ideal - the Truth, rather than being relegated to some less-than-honorable point between ratings, government-sponsored 'grants' and corporation agenda- benders, have become a mainstay of my hope that our damaged Democracy can still be saved. r/o[shorten]

Journalists who dig deep into local issues and come up with the truth behind the lies, the hidden agendas behind the Corp-puppet newspaper headlines and generic prattle of those robotic talking faces on corp-state television 'news' programs, are now, along with the Internet, our last line of defense against the shadow that grows, our thermal-blanket to fend off the cold chill of repression, that has already spread across our troubled land. [r/o]

Never in our country's history has the news been filtered and censored as is happening right here, and right now.

The Media Blackout is no longer something to be prevented.

That chapter is behind us now; we were pre-emtively occupied, almost like the Iraqis only by sneakier soldiers of King George the Saferist.

We got sidetracked playing 'Elect-TRON', and so we missed our chance.

The Blackout is here, it is thickening; it is very, very real.

It is now a cancer growing upon our collective spirit; a malignant tumor that feeds on our inaction, growing ever stronger.

It is Tyranny, an oncoming enemy to be fought, rallied against, vanquished and forever banished from our lives.

If it's okay to leave the preveding here, or if you suggest I leave the copy at B3 where it hasn't gotten any response, I'll of course understand if one gets the boot.

And THANX!!