Tell Your Friends, Tell Your Enemies #1

Dennis Trainor, Jr • Operation Itch writer/ editor
more in NEWS & ANALYSIS

While no one president alone can wave a magic wand and change the world, Barrack Obama has inspired the kind of hope that has people thinking big. Even if you don’t buy into the Obama revolution and think Obama espouses a foreign policy that could only be described as “the Bush doctrine, with slightly less calories” (and you would be correct) you can still dream big, can’t you?

On the eve of the inauguration, let’s create a list, if only as a social experiment, of the things we want in the first year from this administration. Express your wishes in a short phrase or sentence like “single payer healthcare” or “revoke the policy of pre-emption” or “all dogs neutered”. I’ll take the most compelling of these & create poll.

On the day after the inauguration, I will post that poll right here at Operation Itch. This should give us a clear idea of what Operation Itchers want in Obama’s first year.

Then we can put our heads together and see if we can’t achieve it. Don’t think we can get anything done together? Come on, say it with me now- YES WE CAN. – DT  ( you can read the David Swanson article I talk about here)

The Fifteenth Round, A Bucket of Tears and Losing a Home

by Kevin Egan • Operation Itch Contributing Writer    

 more  in Arts & Culture      read all posts by Kevin Egan
 

I promised myself when Dennis asked me to contribute to Operation Itch that I wouldn’t write about politics, considering almost everything on the site is political in nature.  I also can not express myself politically as well as people like Dennis so I usually write about what I know best: music and film.  I do, however, plan to take this next week to let out my final gasps of frustration at what has happened over the last eight years.  I just want to get in a few more final jabs before the bell rings, ending the fifteen round.  I’m well aware that nothing I write will cause the knockout I wish it would.  Obviously, my opponents are too powerful to be punished for their sins but like Rocky Balboa in the original Rocky film, after he realizes he can’t beat Apollo Creed, I just want to know I went the distance and I did my best and got a good few shots in before the end of the fight.  Although, the truth be told, the damage done over the last eight years will be echoing throughout the world for years to come, much like the brain damage Rocky suffered after going the distance against Apollo.

 Okay.  That being said…

 I was a lone man, sunk in the middle of my couch, crying like a child.  President-elect Obama was on the television accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.  Although, there were parts of his speech that were moving, I was not crying because I was touched by what he had said.  I was well aware that he was a politician, an expert on rhetoric, knowing just what buttons to push to tug at our hearts and minds.  It was an historic nomination but that was not what brought me to tears. 

25 Ways to Coddle Your Man (and Earn His Appreciation)

This comes from FREIDA BEE. If you are not familiar with Ms. Bee, you are missing out.

see  more posts in Sex & Relationships     see more posts in Humor
 
Inspired by Lisa’s post, and the great comments which followed, she and I have created a list of our own. In the spirit of feminism, this is a list by women for women. (Of course, men, you can use this list to gauge how satisfied you should be with your woman.)

25 Ways to Coddle Your Man (and Earn his Appreciation):

 

1. When your man spends six hours grilling meat for dinner (that you make the sides for, set the table for, and clean up after), be sure to thank him for making dinner by rewarding him later with a blow job (with a little barbecue sauce on the side, of course).

2. Never poop, never indicate that you poop, take great pains to cover up the fact that you produce and expel solid waste, even if it means you have to leave the house to go to a public place to do your business when he is at home. (Alternately, you could break something on purpose, so he must go to Home Depot, and then you can poo while he’s away.)

3. Hide all feminine hygiene products, both used and unused. Make sure to double wrap any used products and take the further step of burying them deeply in the trash, so he won’t accidentally see them when he empties the trash.

4. There is no question that a woman must douche, preferably twice, after having her period. Nothing good will come of reminding him that you have bodily functions.

5. After having children, consider vaginal rejuvenation.

6. Make him feel like you’re new again by occasionally purchasing and using theartificial hymen. If he’s squeamish about blood, you may want to do this only in the dark. Don’t forget to make the appropriate “first time” sounds.

7. Be sure to use the “skills” other men have taught you, taking special care not to mention where you might have learned them.

Has America Started to Fall Apart?

John Little  • Operation Itch Contributing Writer    

Welcome to the Toeg Effect. This is your host, Toeg. Today we take a look at the state of the union, the American union, in these troubled times. This is a piece about what is America today, and what awaits it if we continue down this slippery slope. It is entitled:

If we look at the health of the country from an economic perspective, we can plainly see that America is probably as strong as it has ever been. Even though the is currently experiencing a recession, nevertheless the unemployment rate is relatively low, inflation has been kept in check, and the strength of the dollar, though weakened due to the current economic downturn, has held the top spot in the world for over a half-century. Indeed, economically speaking, the US can still be considered the darling economy of the world. It still has the world’s largest economy in terms of GDP, and boasts the biggest military by far.

But are economic and militaristic standards the only barometer by which one judges a nation?

What about its bellicose usage of that same military? What about its moral content? What about the general welfare of the people and their quality of life? What about the many freedoms that are now denied its people? Unfortunately, here is where the US woefully breaks apart and uncovers a nation with festering, open wounds in need of dire attention. When one exposes the true quality of life in the US today, the moral fiber and the liberties reserved for the people, comparisons with other countries begin to show that the US is far from the model state it tries desperately to think it is.

The Inaugural Anointing (File Under WTF)

Max Blumenthal  see more in NEWS & ANALYSIS    

On January 7, second-term Republican Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia and two friends prayed over a door. It was not just any door, but the entranceway beneath the Capitol that President-elect Barack Obama will pass through as he walks onto the inaugural stage to take the oath of office. “I hope and pray that as God stirs the heart of our new president that President Obama will listen and will heed God’s direction,” Broun proclaimed.

Standing beside Broun, Rev. Patrick Mahoney launched into a prayer originally delivered by Billy Graham at Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969. “For too long we have neglected thy word and ignored thy laws,” Mahoney preached. “…We have sowed to the wind and are now reaping a whirlwind of crime, division, and rebellion. And now with the wages of sin staring us in the face, we remember thy words.”

In the Quiet and Stillness..

 Anita Stewart • Operation Itch Contributor

No one can say that Florida has an industry or industries that are uniquely “Floridian.” Two industries that seem to thrive in this state are Tourism and Medical/Health with Real Estate running a close third. Certainly year round industries, but more prevalent when the “snowbirds” are here visiting. Hospital census is up, doctors are busy, appointments are booked, the roads on the way to clinics and hospitals are tied up during rush hour traffic. White-haired highways with sightings of seniors driving their cars with assorted license plates from up north, Michigan, Ontario, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio…anywhere up there that has constant reports of freezing temperatures and drifts of snow and cold fronts.

In the years that I have been in Florida, not only the roads, hospitals and doctor’s offices have been full to capacity during the winter, but the beaches, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, garage sales, mini-golf, Dollar Stores, parks, rental properties and amusement parks are always crowded during tourist season. Florida’s tourist season is usually from right around the holiday weeks and lasts until Easter. It can include everyone from the well heeled yuppies, to couples and families, some foreigners but for the most part, well off seniors that can afford to maintain a home up north and a smaller home down here. 

Let Judgment Be Bush’s History

By David Swanson • AfterDowningStreet   
see more in NEWS & ANALYSIS

History cannot be the judge of Bush and Cheney. The corporate news really is the first draft of history, and there will be no magical leap from its dishonesty to an honest account. Most in the Washington establishment want to protect Bush and Cheney and gang, although the New York Times has now printed one column admitting the obvious point that if the outgoing criminals are not punished, their heirs will repeat their crimes. 

What is Bush’s legacy? Wars, ruined economy, destroyed relations, increased terrorism, global warming? Yes, but for the most part Bush’s legacy will be determined by what happens after he’s gone. If all power remains in the White House and Congress devolves into a royal court, that will be Bush’s legacy, and the historians who are permitted to publish their thoughts will glorify, not judge, it. If, instead, we choose to enforce the laws of the land, then judgment will be Bush’s history. In fact, the books judging the need for judgment have already been written. 

For many months, citizens have been funding an effort to send copies of Vincent Bugliosi’s “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” to state attorneys general and district prosecutors. That should continue, and we should get organizedabout electing prosecutors to office who commit to enforcing our laws.