OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Topic: Hopefully Humorous
The government announced today that it is changing its national symbol from an Eagle to a CONDOM because it more accurately reflects the government's political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, gives you a superiority complex and gives you a sense of security while you're actually being screwed.

[Hats Off To A Damn Brit!]

---

RANT!

Just when I had given up all hope that no one else on this planet gets it, John Kerry has suddenly grown a little backbone and has vowed to filibuster Scalito. If this is anything more than just hot air he's going to catch a lot of flack from the dinkleberries on the right (and you know what they're going to say i.e. "every nomination deserves an up and down vote," "this is unprecedented" "blah, blah, blah") but The Indy Voice foresees Kerry getting even more viciously attacked by members of his own party.

Here's my political analysis of this entire situation. Forgetting that filibustering Scalito on ideological issues for preservation of the union is certainly the right thing to do, Kerry's move is politically savvy because it shows the American voter that there is an alternative to the corporate party of the U.S. and that maybe, just maybe, the Democrats do in fact have some balls. Barring the growing of big hairy ones by the remaining set of knuckle headed Democrats their party is going to crash and burn and I for one don't mind getting the fire going! Until Democrats stand up and fight for democracy here at home and for what is rationale, just and fair, the Republicans, who are, need I remind you, a bunch of selfishly myopic, corporate-owned and operated lackeys will continue to increase their monopoly on the federal and state governments which will only further push this country into all-out fascism.

The Republicans like to blame Democrats for everything from the bubonic plaque to athletes foot but those who know better realize that while Republicans only have themselves to blame for the last 35 years of miserable failures they do have a point in that Democrats are to blame because for the most part they have sat around and watched it happen. And the irony is that while some political consultants believe that to act to the contrary would appear to be "radical" and voters don't want that, it would seem to be a major logical oversight when these same Democratic politicians and their political consultant masters miss that Republicans have been promoting their radical corporate/militaristic/individualistic/globalization agendas even as they continue to win election after election.

Wake up folks! Democrats have such a hard time pushing their agenda because 1- they're not financially and ideologically backed by a huge conglomerate of multinational conglomerates 2- this country has never attempted nor does it know anything about "liberal" policies and 3- Democrats today are by and large completely spineless and continually fail to understand that as long as they attempt to maintain their power by maintaining the status quo they are going to lose it and lose it faster than they have been with expedited expedience over the past 25 years.

The Republicans make stands all the time to push their radical conservatism in the interests of big business as they continue to push this country towards the edge of the great abyss, why don't you take a lesson out of their play book and push back with even greater fervor in the interests of the people? Hey, at the very least there's more of us little people than there are of them.

Response to Feinstein: WAKE UP!
Topic: By Paul Loeb
The Indy Voice is reposting this article (below) by Paul Loeb as a response to the majority segment of ball-less Democrats who don't seem to get that ideology is the specific reason why Alito (and those like him) should be opposed using every possible political tool available.

It is my wish that the American people would elect representatives that nominate judges who don't believe that the President should have unlimited power and have respect for human, worker and civil rights. Barring 61 million people suddenly waking up to reality, those of us who get it should use every ethical means to oppose Bush and this dominant conservative and harsh ideology which over the past 25 years is leading our country down the road of impending disaster. The moral, spiritual and financial standings of the United States in the world continue to erode and untold numbers of the meek and powerless suffer even as more and more people slip into powerlessness as a direct consequence of this cold, unfair, irrational and extreme ideology.

IT MUST BE STOPPED AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO MAKE A STAND!!!

FILIBUSTER EVASION

In the wake of the Alito hearings, mainline pundits are calling his nomination a done deal. Alito didn’t spew obscenities or green bile. He didn’t admit that he’d reverse Roe v. Wade or vow to proclaim George Bush Lord Emperor. Rehearsed and coached by committee member Lindsay Graham (and by some of the same lawyers who justified Bush’s NSA wiretaps), he instead spoke deferentially and humbly about respecting legal precedent and separation of powers, while Republican committee members made him out to be a mix of Solomon and Mother Teresa. Much like Clarence Thomas during his hearings, Alito dodged the tough questions with evasions and platitudes, suffered convenient memory lapses on areas he couldn’t dodge, and justified controversial past stands by saying he was just trying to be a team player. We know little more about him than before--except about his capacity to dissemble.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far away, former Congresswoman Liz Holtzman, who sat on Nixon’s impeachment committee, just wrote that Bush’s defiance of the law through illegal wiretapping, lying about the reasons for going to war, and condoning of violation of US law about detainee abuse constitute grounds for impeachment. Holtzman said impeachment should never be undertaken lightly. She found “voting for [Nixon’s] impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake.” But she said it was necessary in Nixon’s case, and merited in Bush’s as well. A Zogby poll taken last November, just before the wiretap scandal broke, found that 53 percent of those questioned favored impeachment of President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq.

If there’s a chance to stop Alito, much less reclaim our democracy, we need to bring these realities together. The filibuster just might be the vehicle to do that, as Senators could spell out the links between link runaway executive power and a nominee who has consistently ruled and spoken in favor of the unaccountable expansion of that power. Suppose the Democratic Senators actually used a filibuster to talk about the Alito nomination in its broadest context. They wouldn’t read the phone book. They wouldn’t get lost in an endless maze of legal rhetoric about stare decisis. They could talk about how they’d have readily accepted a more moderate nominee, much as Clinton nominated Steven Breyer and Ruth Ginzberg in part because Orrin Hatch said he’d accept them as preferable to other proposed justices. They’d use the filibuster to educate as well as impede.

However they label their actions, suppose the Democrats started debating the nomination, and didn’t stop, in the process addressing the real roots of why Alito would be so destructive. They could read from articles and books about this administration’s abuse of presidential power. They could talk about whether we really want government officials to be able to strip us of our rights at will, listen in on our phone and email conversations without a court order, and infiltrate the citizen groups through which we gather peacefully to express our beliefs. They could talk about the choices women were forced to make when abortion was illegal, what it’s like to be discriminated against, then told you don’t meet an impossible burden of proof, and whether police should be able to shoot unarmed 15-year-olds who flee after stealing $10. They could talk about the Sago mine disaster, and the fruits of a politics where unions are busted and regulations gutted at every turn. They could tell the stories that bring seemingly abstract issues of jurisdiction and constitutional interpretation to life, and make clear their real-world consequences.

In the process they could remind America that this president, with this track record of lies, deceptions, and favors for the most destructive private interests, deserves no presumption of deference. And that when he nominates someone, like Alito, who will only further his abuses of power, Senators have a moral responsibility to oppose him however they can. The wink-and-nod games of the hearings were designed to obscure Alito’s record and frame him as genial and reasonable. If the Democrats accept this, or even quietly vote against him without further protest, they further the lie that this is an ordinary nomination in an ordinary time. If they filibuster and stand firm, there’s a chance that just enough of the now politically weakened Republicans will back down and not risk putting themselves on the line to destroy nearly 200 years of Senate tradition for the naked goal of increasing their power. But Democrats have to take the risk of standing strong, and we as ordinary citizens have to do all we can to convince them to do so.


Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book of the year. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. For more information see www.PaulLoeb.org

ALITO'S EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES
Topic: By Paul Loeb
Remember the "nuclear option" compromise? When the group of 14 Senators reached their agreement last May, they said they'd support a filibuster only under "extraordinary circumstances," presumably if Bush nominated Attila the Hun. I'd suggest these circumstances apply not only to Samuel Alito's track record but also to his nomination's entire political context.

In threatening to end the Senate's ability to filibuster judges, Republican leaders talk much about high principle, the right of Presidents to have their nominees accepted or rejected without parliamentary obstructions. But the sole principle behind this proposed change is that of the power grab. The Republicans control the White House and Senate. They're attempting to consolidate control in every way they can, including trying to obliterate 200 years of Senate tradition on the filibuster. This threat isn't a moral stand: Republicans have filibustered nominees themselves. It's just one more in series of attacks on individuals and institutions that they've viewed as political obstacles, like Tom DeLay's mid-census gerrymandering, the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity, the jamming of Democratic phone banks, and the branding of political opponents as unpatriotic. Honorable conservatives used to warn against the raw power of the state. But the love of power has now become the political right's prime gospel, making the slightest notion of checks or balances heretical treason. Republican leaders work to end the filibuster not because they believe it violates some deep constitutional mandate, but because they believe they can get away with it.

But maybe they can't anymore. When Republicans first floated the "nuclear option" threat in early 2005, Bush's polling numbers were as high as 57 percent. His support has dropped steadily since, in the wake of the Katrina disaster, the legal problems of DeLay, Bill Frist, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Duke Cunningham, and an Iraqi quagmire that's inspired powerful challenges by Cindy Sheehan and Congressman John Murtha. Republicans have lost key electoral battles in Virginia, New Jersey and California. Bush's polls have dropped as low as 37 percent. With once-solid Republican Senate and House seats now seemingly vulnerable, those who vote to eliminate the filibuster and confirm Alito will be taking far more of a political risk than they would have just a year ago.

Were Alito a reasonable Supreme Court choice, all this would be moot. But he isn't. He'll follow the script and evade specifics at his confirmation hearings, but he's still the candidate nominated to appease the political right because they deemed Harriet Miers insufficiently hard-line. Consistently opposing the federal government's right to address corporate abuses, Alito has argued for virtually unlimited executive power, including the government's right to intervene in the most intimate realms of personal life. He's endorsed the rights of police to shoot an unarmed 15-year-old who was fleeing after breaking into a house, defended the refusal of state employers to pay damages for violating the Family and Medical Leave Act, and said it created no undue burden if husbands could prevent their wives from getting abortions. Citizen groups, he's ruled, have no standing to sue convicted polluters under the Clean Water Act. The federal government, he's argued, has no right to pass national consumer protection legislation aimed at preventing odometer fraud or banning the sales of machine guns. Regarding the exclusion of blacks from juries in death penalty cases, he's called the statistical evidence as inconsequential as the disproportionate number of recent U.S. presidents who've been left-handed. In one case, Alito's Third Circuit colleagues said the federal law prohibiting employment discrimination "would be eviscerated if our analysis were to halt where [Judge Alito] suggests."

Alito now downplays his membership in a Princeton alumni group so hostile to the admission of women and minorities that even Senate Majority Leader Frist condemned it. He dismisses as mere job-seeking his declarations, while applying to the Reagan-era Justice Department, that the Constitution does not protect a woman's right to choose an abortion, and that he disagreed with the Warren Court rulings that desegregated schools and expanded voting rights. He's trying to dismiss he memo he wrote, after getting the job, embracing the "goals of bringing about the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade." He also minimizes the breaking of his pledge to recuse himself from cases involving his sister's law firm.

It's precisely because Alito's presence on the Court is so potentially damaging that Democrats and moderate Republicans have a responsibility to challenge his nomination through every possible mechanism, including the filibuster. Republican leaders who try to eliminate it as a political option need to be branded, along with every Senator who supports them, as embodying a politics that believes in nothing except its own right to power. With Roberts, Senators could say they were replacing the equally conservative William Rehnquist. To support Alito, we need to make clear, is to alter the balance on the Court radically for the most dubious of political ends. It does no good to reserve the right to filibuster in theory. If our Senators aren't willing to risk using it in a situation this exceptional, it becomes practically meaningless.

Senators accept a president's court nominations for three reasons: They respect the perspectives of their nominees; they believe a president should have the right to choose whomever they please as America's legitimately elected leader; or they fear the president's political power. But this administration has no moral standing to which Senators should automatically defer. Bush gained the presidency through the extraordinary interventions of his brother Jeb and the existing Supreme Court. He was reelected based on lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, John Kerry's war record, and the true costs of his tax cut and prescription drug plans. And through Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's elimination of 300,000 overwhelmingly Democratic voters from the Ohio rolls and the withholding of voting machines from key Democratic precincts. My friend Egil Krogh, who worked in the Nixon administration, hired G. Gordon Liddy, and went to prison for Watergate, told the sentencing judge that he and his colleagues had "almost destroyed democracy." The Bush people, he said to me recently, "are even more ruthless."

Alito's nomination embodies that ruthlessness. If confirmed, his track record suggests he'd support the Republican consolidation of power at every opportunity. But maybe the capacity of that power to intimidate is finally beginning to wane. If the Senate can find the courage to block Alito's confirmation, they will draw a critical line on a choice whose effects could echo for the next forty years. They need to recognize the high stakes and extraordinary circumstances of our time.


Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book of the year. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. (See www.PaulLoeb.org) To receive his monthly articles email sympa@onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles

Celebrate Jesus' Birthday

Dear Family and Friends,

Jesus gave the world the gifts of compassion, hope, benevolence and love. As we celebrate Christmas this year we asked ourselves,

"How would Christ ask us to celebrate his birthday?"

The answer that we found was to share the same gifts that Jesus gave the world by following his example.

So this year we are celebrating Christmas by trying to act in the image of Christ by hopefully giving you all gifts of compassion, hope, benevolence and love. This year our gifts are a lot less tangible than last year but more durable than ever.

Our $500 donation to Save the Children in your honor has helped save the life of one of the 4 million newborn babies that die every year in the 1st month of their lives from easily preventable causes. This year you helped to feed one of the 840 million people from around the world who are malnourished and starving. This year you helped to stop the spread of AIDS, helped one of the 103 million children who are not in school to learn to read and also helped to educate one of the 58 million girls who too often grow up to become voiceless women. This year all of you helped to improve the communities of perfect strangers not only in this country but around the world.

It is our belief that this was the essence of Jesus' message and the reason why we celebrate his birthday.

We hope and pray that our gift gives you hope and inspiration to spread the message of Jesus throughout the year. We ask that you share this priceless life-long lesson with your children, friends and family so that they too may come to understand the true meaning of Christmas. We believe that Jesus tried to teach us that the giving of yourself throughout your life is infinitely more valuable than all the material possessions ever purchased. There is no gift more invaluable to us than your understanding of this message.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas with much love,

Mr. and Mrs. Indy Voice

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Matthew 13:31-32

Direct Your Anger Accordingly
Topic: State Of The Union
To understand a person's opinion you first need to understand their perspective. So let me tell you about the view from here. In my short time on this earth I've watched as people in this country have grown increasingly cold and disconnected as communities have become places for dissimilar and disinterested people to temporarily hang their hats. Ask the man or woman on the street what's wrong with society and they'll probably blame the politicians or if they're being honest, the minorities, illegal aliens and the poor. Its always struck me as odd that the same people that claim to be true blue-blooded Americans always have someone else to blame when it comes to what's wrong with THEIR country. The problem is never them.

The same people that blame government regulations or lawyers for their woes never seem to find that the problem of what's wrong with this world exists within themselves. The never see their ignorance and their feeling of impotence as the source. It's always somebody else and it's usually some ambiguous group of "them." Muslims, Mexicans, Blacks, Jews, trial lawyers, unions, the ACLU, liberals, women, the poor, take your pick, they're the problem. They never conclude that the problem with this world is their failure to understand how little they understand about their country, this world and themselves.

The destruction of the rain forests and polar ice caps? Not my problem. What problem?

Human rights, civil rights, workers rights being trampled on? Where? I don't see it, must not be happening.

The homeless and poor? Lazy bunch of degenerates! Get a job! Work harder!

You can hear them yelling at the strikers in New York, "You bunch of morally reprehensible, irresponsible, selfish, law breaking thugs!"

Maybe if they pulled their fat-asses off of their lazy boys and away from their plasma televisions long enough to miss a couple of episodes of "Fear Factor" and opened a damn book they'd learn about how from time eternal the wealthy and the powerful have always taken advantage of the meek and poor. Maybe they could read about all the great struggles of the self-less and self-sacrificing men and women that came before them that gave them this opportunity to take it all for granted. And maybe, just maybe, they'd realize that their fate and the fate of the meekest of the meek is inextricably linked.

TECH SUPPORT!!! TECH SUPPORT!!!
Topic: Hopefully Humorous
Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources. In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Hunting and Fishing 7.5, and Racing 3.6
I can't seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications. I'm thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall doesn't work on Wife 1.0. Please help!

Thanks,

A Troubled User

______________________________________

REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support. I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application "Yes Dear" to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5 and Do Bills 4.2.

However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program NAG NAG 9.5. Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0!

WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary With Short Skirt 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Ain't that the truth Lynette!

NO PARENT LEFT BEHIND
Topic: Hopefully Humorous
No politics today just an chain-email,

I promise you cannot read these and not laugh out loud. These are REAL notes written by PARENTS in a Tennessee school district...

(Spellings have been left intact.)

1-- MY SON IS UNDER A DOCTOR'S CARE AND SHOULD NOT TAKE PE TODAY. PLEASE EXECUTE HIM.

2-- PLEASE EXKUCE LISA FOR BEING ABSENT SHE WAS SICK AND I HAD HER SHOT.

3-- DEAR SCHOOL: PLEASE ECSC's JOHN BEING ABSENT ON JAN. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 AND ALSO 33.

4-- PLEASE EXCUSE GLORIA FROM JIM TODAY. SHE IS ADMINISTRATING.

5-- PLEASE EXCUSE ROLAND FROM P.E. FOR A FEW DAYS. YESTERDAY HE FELL OUT OF A TREE AND MISPLACED HIS HIP.

6-- JOHN HAS BEEN ABSENT BECAUSE HE HAD TWO TEETH TAKEN OUT OF HIS FACE.

7-- CARLOS WAS ABSENT YESTERDAY BECAUSE HE WAS PLAYING FOOTBALL. HE WAS HURT IN THE GROWING PART.

8-- MEGAN COULD NOT COME TO SCHOOL TODAY BECAUSE SHE HAS BEEN BOTHERED BY VERY CLOSE VEINS.

9-- CHRIS WILL NOT BE IN SCHOOL CUS HE HAS AN ACRE IN HIS SIDE.

10-- PLEASE EXCUSE RAY FRIDAY FROM SCHOOL. HE HAS VERY LOOSE VOWELS.

11-- PLEASE EXCUSE PEDRO FROM BEING ABSENT YESTERDAY. HE HAD (DIAHRE, DYREA, DIREATHE), THE SH**S. NOTE: [WORDS IN ( )'s WERE CROSSED OUT].

12-- PLEASE EXCUSE TOMMY FOR BEING ABSENT YESTERDAY. HE HAD DIARRHEA, AND HIS BOOTS LEAK.

13-- IRVING WAS ABSENT YESTERDAY BECAUSE HE MISSED HIS BUST.

14-- PLEASE EXCUSE JIMMY FOR BEING. IT WAS HIS FATHER'S FAULT.


15-- I KEPT BILLIE HOME BECAUSE SHE HAD TO GO CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHAT SIZE SHE WEAR.

16-- PLEASE EXCUSE JENNIFER FOR MISSING SCHOOL YESTERDAY. WE FORGOT TO, GET THE SUNDAY PAPER OFF THE PORCH, AND WHEN WE FOUND IT MONDAY. WE THOUGHT IT WAS SUNDAY.

17-- SALLY WON'T BE IN SCHOOL A WEEK FROM FRIDAY. WE HAVE TO ATTEND HER FUNERAL.

18-- MY DAUGHTER WAS ABSENT YESTERDAY BECAUSE SHE WAS TIRED. SHE SPENT A WEEKEND WITH THE MARINES


19-- PLEASE EXCUSE JASON FOR BEING ABSENT YESTERDAY. HE HAD A COLD AND COULD NOT BREED WELL.

20-- PLEASE EXCUSE MARY FOR BEING ABSENT YESTERDAY. SHE WAS IN BED WITH GRAMPS.

21-- GLORIA WAS ABSENT YESTERDAY AS SHE WAS HAVING A GANGOVER.

22-- PLEASE EXCUSE BRENDA. SHE HAS BEEN SICK AND UNDER THE DOCTOR.

23-- MARYANN WAS ABSENT DECEMBER 11-16, BECAUSE SHE HAD A FEVER, SORE THROAT, HEADACHE AND UPSET STOMACH. HER SISTER WAS ALSO SICK, FEVER AN SORE THROAT, HER BROTHER HAD A LOW GRADE FEVER AND ACHED ALL OVER. I WASN'T THE BEST EITHER, SORE THROAT AND FEVER. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING GOING AROUND, HER FATHER EVEN GOT HOT LAST NIGHT.

Lynette Does It Again!

Fascism Files
Topic: Fascism Files
The Indy Voice has created an entirely new category called "Fascism Files." Since we won't (unfortunately) be running out of good material to fit in this category I figured why not create a whole new category.

To start us off just take a look,

Bush critics stifled from representing U.S. overseas

According to Laurence W. Britt in an article published in Free Inquiry magazine entitled "Fascism Anyone?" he concludes that there are 14 characteristics of fascists or proto-fascist states after studying the regimes in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal, Papadopoulos's Greece, Pinochet's Chile, and Suharto's Indonesia.

This action by the Bush administration most closely resembles characteristic #11,

Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.

Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had no right to exist.

It also closely resembles characteristic #6,

A controlled mass media

Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes' excesses.

Never forget that this is your country not theirs!

Salute Il Duce!


P.S. The Indy Voice has had his suspicions verified about the origins of the fascist poem found below. "Bob" the apparent creator of RHL School has publicly admitted that he created the non-agnostic acrostic or more descriptively the vomit inducing poem.

I respect his right to create such a piece but I think the appropriate question is why?

Hey Bobby, if you're truly a conservative and therefore disdainful of government, why don't you seem to have any level of doubt about the head of the executive branch of the government?

Have you saluted Il Duce today?

The New Face of Fascism
Topic: Bush

Click the picture of Il Duce for more...

Apparently the first published online copy of this poem originated at RHLSchool.com. Which is a curious supplier of free children's worksheets. According to their website they are,

"Your place to get free ready to use quality worksheets for teaching, reinforcement, and review. Worksheets that are truly unique! Many of these worksheets can serve as the basis for lessons."

The Indy Voice would be curious to know who RHLSchool.com is. If they aren't the author, then who?

Happy Holidays!!!
Topic: Satire
It's that time of year again when conservatives unionize to create the illusion that liberals are evil godless people out to destroy all that is good in the world. And there's nothing that The Indy Voice delights in more than dispelling the myths of the do-dos over at conservative central. So without further ado The Indy Voice would like to re-post what is sure to become a holiday favorite in liberal land. Enjoy and have a "Happy Holiday!"

Jeremiah 10:2-4: "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."

This is the original pre-emptive strike at the ignorance that may spew from the unending faucet of misinformation such as those self-important ding-a-lings like Bill O'Reilly, et al.

Christmas is not under attack by liberals, it's under attack by those trying to force it into the halls of government and commerce with disinformation and ignorance. (And by the way O'Reilly, Jesus wasn't a philosopher.) Additionally, there is so much misinformation and incomplete understanding of the origins of Christmas and it's traditions that The Indy Voice believes that it requires some clarification.

Christmas, which is the modern term which comes to us from the late Olde English cristes masse, or "Christ's mass", is celebrated all over the world by both Christians and non-Christians. It is usually celebrated on December 25th, but some celebrate it on January 7th. Some people, such as fundamentalists Christians, believe that Christmas should be celebrated without the heathen accompaniments, such as a tree decorated with lights. Some devout Christians DO NOT celebrate "Christmas".

In ancient Babylon "The Feast of Isis" was celebrated on December 25th and it involved partying, feasting and gift giving; this is more than just a coincidence. Additionally, the Christmas tree tradition, originally called "Paradeisbaum" or paradise trees, dates back to Western Germany in the 16th century. Trees were brought into homes to celebrate the annual "Feast of Adam and Eve" on December 24th. The Christmas tree tradition was brought to America in the 1700's by German citizens but it did not become popular until the 1850's when President Franklin Pierce arranged to have the first Christmas tree in the White House. It was not until 1923 that President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn. This ceremony doesn't break the wall of separation between church and state because the act of lighting a "Christmas tree" is entirely pagan in nature even though those doing the lighting are most likely unaware of this.

The Christmas holiday is under attack by the likes of Macy's, not because they will no longer wish their customers a "Merry Christmas" but because they have infiltrated this religious holiday by convincing people that they MUST exchange goods as a show of faith. There is nothing anywhere in the bible that calls for this, yet many secular and non-secular Christians and non-Christians believe that gift-giving is a Christmas imperative. The fact is that all of the Christmas traditions including the Christmas tree, the Christmas ham, the Yule Log, holly, mistletoe, Santa Claus and the giving of presents come directly from pagan traditions.

As to the artificial problem of wishing people a "Merry Christmas" after a purchase of goods, this stems from the belief that "Christ is the reason for the season". He's not. Man is the reason for the season. December 25th (or January 7th) and all the things that go along with the modern day, pagan adopted and man-made traditions, are the reason for the season. In addition to Christmas, Ramadan, Chanukah and Kwanzaa are all being celebrated around the same time this season. Should merchants qualify their customers religious beliefs to make sure that they don't offend? Should merchants wish Jews a Yummy Yom Kippur on the 10th day of Tishri, the Babis a Happy New Year on March 21st, the Jains a Merry Mahavira-mas on April 3rd, and Buddhist a dazzling Dharma day on August 31st? What about the dozens and dozens of holidays, from the dozens of different religions that are celebrated by citizens of this country all year long? How do we address them? Should they be offended when their religious holiday isn't acknowledged by the local purveyor of gifts?(Index of Major Religious Holidays)

Understanding the secular and non-secular origins of Christmas and its relationship to government should make it clear that Christmas should NEVER be entangled with government and self-serving corporations (and TV show commentators). Both are equally capable of destroying a perfectly good religious celebration.

(For more information check out Religious Tolerance)