Part VI – Presidential candidate’s Yahoo News postings

Once again, I share comments I’d posted to articles appearing on Yahoo News. These were posted between April 29 and today, though appear below in no particular order. As is my usual custom, if I open with a quoted item, that’s from the article itself.

Posted on Yahoo! News

ONE:

The head of the IMF and (possible) future president of France travels to NYC without a bodyguard? He can spend $3,000 a night for a suite and not manage to share the room with (shall we say) a witness? Hmm…$3,000 a night…he must be one of those fiscal conservatives. For that reason alone, if I were French I wouldn’t vote for him.

It’s good he was nabbed before that plane took off since France doesn’t extradite its citizens. As I’ve written before, if Bin Laden had been a French citizen and escaped to France after 9/11, they wouldn’t have extradited him. And what would we have done? Would we have been as nicey-nice with France as we’ve been to Afghanistan? Think about it.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“Come to think of it, I’d toss him in jail for being head of the IMF if I ruled the world.”

TWO:

And how would we feel if a Chinese nuclear armed aircraft carrier appeared off the coast of California? Make that, "more than 12 miles off the coast." Surely we'd understand. Naw, I didn't think so.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Our biggest problem? We're control freaks."

THREE:

What I’m still trying to figure out: Since Rahm [Emanuel] wants to run for US President someday, and to do so he’ll have to at least give the appearance of doing something positive as Mayor, how will that appearance be created?

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“Israel’s man in the White House - the stuff dreams/nightmares are made of.”

FOUR:

[UPDATE: On May 16, I also sent this e-mail, mentioned below, to three different Tea Party groups. Let’s see how desperate they are; let’s see how they respond to this.]

Too bad about Trump bowing out. I was about to send him the same email I’d sent to Palin, Bachmann, and Gingrich this morning.

It said: "candidate for President [should make] the following campaign pledges:

"If elected, I will veto any bill that contains an increase in the debt ceiling. I will also veto any bill containing new spending, new taxes, or new fees.

This same candidate would also pledge:

(1) My campaign pledges will be in the form of a written contract; and

(2) If I were to violate that contract, I would forfeit my office by means of inviting an uncontested impeachment against me. This, too, would be a provision of my written contract."

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“Too bad…Trump of all people, being a businessman, would have fully appreciated the value of a written contract – even a political one.”

FIVE:

Did the arresting detectives actually put their hands on his head to “push” him down when putting him in the squad car? They like doing that.

Also, was this whole thing a set-up? We don’t like getting our noses tweaked. Maybe we decided we didn’t like the way France wouldn’t extradite Roman Polanski so we wanted some payback. If we had wanted more than that, say to sabotage him to help Sarkozy, we couldn’t have had a more cooperative mark. He travels alone, no bodyguard, in NYC for unknown reasons. Voters might decide this man is too stupid to run their country, even if he’s declared innocent.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“I wonder how it is that the cops got to him so quickly before his plane took off.”

SIX:

"...many Socialists voiced outrage at the fact he was paraded, handcuffed and unshaven, before cameras..."

Why even feign outrage? This is what we do in the US: It's called the perp walk, one of our most cherished law-enforcement customs. Surely the French Socialists respect local customs, yes? I mean, we tolerated them shielding Roman Polanski all those years. No, we didn't like it. But at least we didn't send in the SEAL teams to hijack his sick a$$ back to the good old USA. We respected their custom. So they should at least respect ours.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Personally? I've always rather enjoyed seeing some hoity-toity in cuffs. That's just one of my personal customs."

SEVEN:

"U.S. military planners had to take pains to move in and out of the country without having to shoot at Pakistani military forces..."

Be very sure about one thing: We would have opened fire on any Pakistani military that tried to protect its turf against an unknown and unannounced invader. If, for some reason, though, the Pak air force had shot down the SEAL team and killed them all (allowing Bin Laden to get away), our ally could have scolded us by saying, "Why didn't you tell us? Then we would have known not to shoot at you."

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"There were a lot of ways this thing could have gone wrong - and a lot of ways it can still go wrong."

EIGHT:

News Flash: Democrats are conspiring to encourage independents and fellow Democrats to hijack the GOP presidential primary.

"Ask for GOP ballots and vote for the Republican you'd like to see on the ballot" - or so the whispering campaign goes. And why not? Since Obama will be unopposed in his primaries, why not put all those Democratic votes to good use? After all the years we've suffered from the GOP sticking it to us, turnabout's fair play wouldn't you say?

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"And there's nothing the GOP could do to stop this entirely legal strategy. Go for it, guys!"

NINE:

Much is made of the fact that Bin Laden wasn’t armed when killed, and neither were his victims at the WTC. About those victims: No, they weren’t armed but, as taxpayers, they armed others who did things that inspired Bin Laden to take his revenge. There are a lot of ways of looking at who’s to blame. And the web of cause and effect is hard to unravel, especially when past-lives actions are considered.

Karmically speaking, there is no such thing as an innocent victim. Even a new-born babe killed by a gangbanger’s random bullet has a meaning far beyond “sad accident” or “victim of circumstance.” It’s entirely possible that, in a past life, that baby was an adult who had wronged that gangbanger. The hard parts – we’ll never know for sure and karmic retribution rarely works with that kind of one-to-one correspondence.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“But of course, it’s a whole lot easier to just point out what we can readily see – the WTC victims were unarmed.”

TEN:

[NOTE: This is my response to Exmettech, who thought I deserved to get my ass kicked for making the immediately preceding post.]

Exmettech,

Everybody gets what they deserve, sooner or later. Did it ever occur to you that “everyone” you speak of had already kicked the crap out of me in a past life? Maybe that accounts for my current anti-war sentiments.

The problem in the West is they have this belief in the so-called “closed box” system of analysis. Anything beyond what they can immediately sense or experience simply doesn’t exist - like actions taken in past lives. This denial also has much to do with the crushing need of the Modern Man for instant gratification.

I am simply an American expressing my right of free speech and religion. I’ve seen the violence spawned by the Abrahamic faiths (and, yes, I’d include Islam of course), which is why I embrace Buddhism. Your violence is going to eat you and your fellow Westerners alive.

As for “they pay taxes because it’s the law,” there are brave resisters who don’t pay taxes or at least withhold payments that would otherwise be spent on wars. Sometimes it’s okay to violate the law; sometimes it’s a karmic violation to obey the law (without question).

Not everybody in the Twin Towers died on 9/11– and, like it or not, there are reasons for that. Perhaps some very wicked people survived while some very good perished. But those wicked folks might have done some very great good, once upon a time, which resulted in surviving the terrorist attacks. Go figure...no, really, I mean it ... Go figure.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“I dare say what I say because it’s true and I’m not afraid to attach my good name to my opinions.”

ELEVEN:

"The Pakistani intelligence official acknowledged bin Laden's whereabouts may cause problems with the United States, and also embarrass Pakistan."

Oh, the Pakistanis shouldn’t worry too much about that. After all, Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was responsible for the gravest leak of classified info in our history (Wikileaks has nothing on this guy). And yet, Israeli PM Netanyahu visited Pollard in prison in 2002 and actively seeks his release from a life sentence.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Just as we keep wrapping our ever-luvin arms around Israel, so shall we around Pakistan. But...give us a couple of days to get over their complicity."

TWELVE:

Take one good, long, hard look at the photo tacked onto this article. Petraeus is probably thinking, "Damn...I got kicked upstairs to the CIA, which effectively boots me out of the army. And that will end any undermining talk I might indulge in about US troops being drawn down in Afghanistan depending on the conditions on the ground. Looks like Obama has made up his mind about unconditional surrender...I mean, withdrawal."

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Petraeus will not run the CIA. Panetta didn't. Like all good 'soldiers,' both will do as they’re told. And it's not Obama doing the telling - even he gets told what to do."

THIRTEEN:

"We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," said Marty Martin, a retired CIA officer who for years led the hunt for bin Laden.

So what Martin is saying is, "The end justifies the means." Hmm...seems there were some guys who thought the same way, and flew some planes into some towers once upon a time. Politics do make some strange bedfellows indeed.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Well, Marty, ask yourself this: 'What did we give up by ignoring our values to get one guy...a guy admittedly no more than a bit player at the end?'"

FOURTEEN:

Why didn't the SEAL team simply leave the Osama's body where they shot him? Let the Pakistani's take care of the remains. As our ally, that would be the least they could have done. I'm sure Saudi Arabia, where bin Laden's kin still live, would have taken his body. No doubt about it. And we could have gotten that body there within 24 hours - easily. I can tell you this much: We had no intention from the get-go of doing anything but burying him at sea and, no, we didn't even bother to ask if any country would accept the corpse.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"I hope, after all our chest-thumping, self-rightenous, bloodlusty cheering dies down, that we will conclude (cost/benefit wise) that chasing down bin Laden was worth it."

FIFTEEN:

[NOTE: This was written in response to an article about 9/11 victims’ families having closure, now that Bin Laden is dead.]

“Closure” is a loaded and deceptive word, for nothing is ever truly and entirely left behind us. Our existence is a continuum, therefore anything we might like to think of as “closed” has a mind of its own and continues its ripple effects. That’s basic karma.

It is much to the preference of Western-style accountants to “close the books” and “move on.” But those are mere conventions of convenience, which have nothing to do with reality. This might also have a lot to do with our current economic malaise but that’s another story.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“Reality has a funny way of morphing and refusing to die, preferring to reincarnate in forms to test men’s souls.”

SIXTEEN:

"Americans have been absorbing the world-changing news..." What's changed, except we've informed the world we shot an unarmed man and that man's wife rushed one of his attackers? So, we've created sympathy for the unarmed and made a martyr of a woman protecting her husband.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Too often in my life, I have found those who seek 'justice' are really seeking vengeance. Too few instances of turn the other cheek or has that turned into another hated Islamic teaching?"

SEVENTEEN:

It doesn't take much in the way of brains to be a late-night humorist, a point [David] Letterman has labored mightily for years to prove. For instance, it didn't occur to any of these jokers that they've just painted a bulls-eye on themselves. And, unlike the secretive SEALS team (smart enough to lie low and avoid bragging), the whole world knows where they live. And all in the name of pandering for ratings.

These puppies are sick, and lack even the brains to have self-preservation skills. A public display of sheer glee is never pretty to look at. What I'd like to see is an audience greeting such "celebratory remarks" with the comedian’s worst enemy: Stone, stark silence. That's worse than being booed. Even that can be converted into a joke.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Careful of joyous escalation - you know what they say about he-who-laughs-last."

EIGHTEEN:

"Whether he has a gun or not really doesn't matter," said Ratner. "You're lawfully permitted to kill combatants."

Ratner expresses a convenient, though rather silly, view. To kill or not to kill should depend, for instance, on whether the subject is combating at the time or not. If, however, Ratner insists on his view, he must also insist that the Nazis had every right to kill every captured enemy soldier during WWII. After all, why should it matter if they actually surrendered or not - they were combatants? And, Lord knows, they might try to escape and kill again.

Also, screw the photos of Bin Laden's body. I want to see the real-time footage taken by the helmet-cams of the SEAL team members. [Didn’t know about that, did you?] BTW, that's why we had to admit Bin Laden was unarmed. If that footage ever got out (due to Wikileaks, for example) showing we lied about Bin Laden being armed, the political fallout would have been devastating.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"I love how the wagons are circling with the usual suspects chanting ‘Everything we did was legal.’ Certain things in this life are very predictable.”

NINETEEN:

Jay,

I was taking issue with Ratner’s general statement, “Whether he has a gun or not really doesn’t matter…You’re lawfully permitted to kill combatants.” Ratner is in effect saying (again, going by his general statement), “It’s okay to execute prisoners of war, even after they’ve surrendered.” That’s the logical extrapolation of his statement. BTW, I didn’t notice Ratner making any exceptions as to whether this was a conventional war or not.

If I were in charge we wouldn’t have been in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Pakistan in the first place. So much for your comment on “footage of SEALS being dismembered.” In fact, we came very close to exactly that scenario with Obama in charge. Remember: Helicopter crashed. Suppose some of the SEALS had been trapped in the wreckage and couldn’t be freed. I’ll let you figure out what would have happened next.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“As for carrying the ‘presidents jockstrap,’ I aim to kick his lying a$$ out of office. We deserve a far better (and more honest) president than this.”

TWENTY:

Jay,

…To kill or not to kill also depends on the circumstances encountered in Bin Laden’s room (which is why I’m interested in the helmet cam footage) as well as the orders the SEALS had. I don’t think you’re going to tell me the SEALS were told, “Go in and do your own thing, you don’t need any orders from brass or POTUS on this.” Surely we had everything to gain by killing him without giving him a chance to surrender. So of course that’s exactly what the SEALS did – POTUS’s orders.

As to, how can you tell if “a person like bin ladin” is surrendering? How can you tell if anybody’s surrendering? [Hands raised in the air? A passive, non-threatening stance? Was he dressed in such a way (thin nightshirt?) that any observer could see he wasn’t wearing any weapons or a suicide vest?] Why are you acting like Bin Ladin is some kind of super human by describing him as “a person like bin ladin?” Why not just blow everybody away and forget about the surrender option? Why don’t we just make that our uniform military and domestic police response?

An option some folks find inconvenient to consider: SEALS could have just tossed in a stun grenade. I know you’re not interested in my “suppose” scenarios, but (hey) somebody’s got to do some planning and ask some questions (preferably in advance). Might as well be me.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“You know, the more posts I read on Yahoo, the more it sounds like people are over-zealously defending the SEALS (no questions asked…what do you think this is, a democracy?)”

TWENTY-ONE:

Namvet,

The wanted poster may have said “Dead or Alive,” but I’m far more interested in what SEAL’s orders were – the ones from Obama’s mouth. Do you really think POTUS would have given any discretion to his hit squad? He or military brass wouldn’t have let them “figure” anything – let alone “figure [Bin Laden] was carrying.”

There wasn’t any way Obama was going to let Bin Laden live. Now I’m sure that’s fine with a lot of people, but I believe in uncovering as much of the truth as possible. Again, I’d like to see the helmet cam footage. Got any problem with that?

TWENTY-TWO:

Bob,

Um...you forgot the last part of the quote: "but at the end, that's God's fate." There are even Christians in this country who saw the WTC attacks as divine punishment for us having displeased Him.

And, by the way, the WTC was a battlefield. To be sure, what went on in those Towers, in terms of expanding US financial power, can be fairly interpreted as a form of economic warfare against the third world. At least, they saw it that way. So, in conclusion, the WTC was a battlefield. This might not be the kind of answer most Americans would like to hear, but all I can do is honestly answer the questions I’m asked.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“We could use a little more (say, a lot more) honesty in the Oval Office.”

TWENTY-THREE:

Bob,

You asked, "Would those Christians be the Westboro Baptist Church?"

Again, all I can do is honestly answer the questions I'm asked. Here goes: At the time of the attacks, I remember reading about a significant number of US fundamentalists who believed God was displeased with the US and showed His displeasure by allowing the WTC attacks to succeed.

As for your question regarding "Westboro Baptist Church," that group wasn't widely known during 9/11 – possibly not even yet in existence [NOTE: I was wrong on this point]. But there were a lot of other groups who saw US decadent lifestyle (gay marriage, gays in the military, flaunted sexuality, greed, exploitation of third world, pollution) as being reason enough to lose the Almighty’s favor. I don’t agree with their assessment, since there is no Almighty (only the Law of Karma). But I admire their openness to interpreting what happened as at least possibly being Divinely approved.

TWENTY-FOUR:

So Team USA World Police “found” porn on computers in Bin Laden's compound. How convenient. Yahoo posters gleefully making Bin Laden sex jokes are conveniently ignoring the part of the article that says, “... unclear who the material belonged to, and there was no way to know whether bin Laden had viewed it.” But we are never ones to jump to conclusions, are we? I still want to see the video footage on the SEAL team members’ helmet cams. Why isn’t the media saying a single word about this?

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“As your next President, I vow to reduce the influence of lamestream media and ignorant Yahoo posters with too much sex on their minds.”

TWENTY-FIVE:

[Professor Stephen] Hawking speaks of the brain but what of the mind? There is more to our minds than that contained within the box of bone we call our skulls. [Tip of the iceberg, and all that.] But he is right about one thing: There is no God, at least no God-Who-Created-the-Universe. Before he passes, I hope Hawking gets a chance to read the Lotus Sutra. Then he’ll see the importance of becoming a Buddha, which even God (if perchance He does exist) is working to become.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
“Professor Hawking’s biggest drawback isn’t his failing brain, it’s his thriving ego.”

TWENTY-SIX:

SEAL mania has gone too far. They're thinking of bringing back that old TV show "Flipper." I know that was a dolphin, but that's close enough.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012
"Instead of bragging about how our bada$$es are badder than their bada$$es, we should take greater pride in our peacemakers. And, no, a SEAL is not a peacemaker."

TWENTY-SEVEN:

How about seeking the arrest of the persons who ordered (and executed) the air raid on a private residence that killed Gadhaffi’s son? That was an intentional violation of the UN mandate.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012

“War Crimes Prosecutors can be notoriously selective in their persecutions…er…I meant to say ‘prosecutions.’”

TWENTY-EIGHT:

“ U.S. special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea…”

And then the article says if bin Laden would have waved the white flag of surrender, they wouldn’t have killed him. Those are the ROE, you know. Well…I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but that’s not true. If he would have surrendered, he would still have been shot dead. Those were the orders, straight from Obama’s mouth. Anyone paying attention over the past 8 years has seen how, when convenient, we violate our own most cherished values. “We don’t torture.” Yes we do. “Our citizens have inviolable civil rights granted to them by God.” No they don’t.

The only part anyone got right: “We will spend whatever it takes.” I recall one of Bin Laden’s goals was to get us to spend ourselves into bankruptcy. In that, we have been his greatest ally.

Steven Searle for US President in 2012 “Be careful what you ask for.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Steven Searle for US President in 2012

Founder of The Independent Contractors’ Party

“What strikes me about most internet news I’ve read, and comments posted thereto, is how badly and illogically they’re written. H.L. Mencken must be spinning in his grave.”

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com