SAD SATIRE ON STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

by Connie Cook Smith


Every time that we hear
our soldiers have died
We recall all the times
that the Bush Machine lied

U-ra-ni-um
and WMDs
The Bushmen were told
there really were none of these

Condoleeza and Powell
joined in on the howl
of lies about labs
and “mushroom-clouds!” most foul

Oh say, should these traitors
go to Iraqi jail?
They've ruined so many lives
they should go straight to hell!

 
HINCKLEY AND BUSH FAMILIES WERE CLOSE FRIENDS
Connie Cook Smith's "What America Needs to Know"

We all know who John Hinckley, Jr. is, now being released from a mental facility in D.C. for nearly killing President Reagan in 1981. A much more interesting subject is, who is John Hinckley, Sr.?

In 1980, Hinckley Sr. was a Texas oilman who, the records show, strove mightily to get fellow Texas oilman George H.W. Bush the Republican nomination for president. The Bushes and the Hinckleys were frequent dinner companions.

But far beyond their social connection, neither Bush nor Hinckley wanted Ronald Reagan to become president, because Reagan was opposed to the tax breaks for the oil industry which Bush and Hinckley and other Texans were highly dependent on.

The effort to make Bush Sr. president in 1980 failed, but he and his backer Hinckley Sr. got the next best thing -- the "heartbeat away from the presidency" office of Vice-President of the United States.

A few months later, Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan, and Bush very nearly did become president at that time, after all. Only one time was it announced on the news about the connections between the Bush and Hinckley families: An almost bewildered John Chancellor on NBC Nightly News reported "the bizarre coincidence" that Neil Bush and Scott Hinckley had dinner plans for March 31, 1981 -- now cancelled, of course.

In other words, the brother of the shooter and the son of the vice-president (and their wives) had a dinner date for the day after the shooting. But it really wasn't such "a bizarre coincidence." Those two families were very close, but the press never focused on that, as it should have. If Reagan had died, the oilmen's interests would have been served.

Some people think that Hinckley Jr. was mind-controlled, CIA-style, to shoot Reagan. Bush was head of the CIA a few years before, by the way. Others think that Jr. wanted to please his dad and get Bush, his dad's candidate, into the presidency for him after all. And legal experts note that the crime occurred in Washington, D.C., the only venue in the United States at that time which recognized an insanity defense. If the kid committed the crime in D.C., he would never serve hard time? Well, coincidentally, that's where he committed it.

A very good read on the Hinckley-Bush connections is a book that came out about 20 years ago, entitled "The Afternoon of March 30." It was published as a novel in order to protect the author. This book is now more relevant than ever, and you can obtain it at click here.

In closing, there's another coincidence to mention. I just learned that in January of 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced a plan to cut the tax breaks for the oil industry. Oilmen H.L. Hunt, George H.W. Bush (head of Zapata Petroleum), and others were no doubt enraged. What a coincidence that Kennedy was shot in Texas later that same year.

In the 1990's LBJ's now-undisputed mistress Madeleine Brown announced that LBJ told her Kennedy was murdered "by the oil people, and aspects of the CIA."

And gosh, one more coincidence! We now have another Bush, the oilman's son, becoming U.S. President in a very quirky election. And apparently, he gave the American people completely phony reasons for invading Iraq, one of the most oil-rich nations in the Middle East.

Hmm.

 
SADDAM AND BUSH BOTH SHOULD BE IN CUSTODY

Connie Cook Smith's "What America Needs to Know"

My reaction to the announcement that Saddam Hussein is in custody is the same as thousands of people in America and around the world: When are they going to get George W. Bush in custody?

It's a felony to lie to Congress, and we've all grown weary of counting Bush's lies, to Congress and to the world. Like the popular bumper sticker says about this president: "Over a billion whoppers told." But unlike a previous president's harmless lying about his sex life, our soldiers are dying because of Bush's lying.

As perhaps the most horrific example of his deceit, his administration was clearly told by the intelligence community that Saddam getting uranium from Africa never happened. Yet Bush psychologically terrorized us all with that false claim to the contrary. Then Cheney and Rice went on the road with the same psy-ops con-game, dishonestly frightening people with images of "mushroom clouds" from Saddam Hussein.

Well, now just look at the powerless man-in-the-rat-hole that Bush immorally manipulated us into fearing. If Saddam had nukes or other WMD, he would have used them against our troops during the invasion in March. He had nothing, and he's been on the run with nothing.

Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell said on tape in 2002 that Saddam was "no threat." But that was before Bush's arrogant epithet was reported in Time Magazine: "F*k Saddam, we're taking him out." That was before Bush's goofy grin and stupid statement in September of last year: "This is the guy who tried to kill my dad."

I say, how dare this little thug -- who hid out from Vietnam in the National Guard and never even completed those duties -- how dare he lie to us about reasons for a pre-emptive strike, and then send our loved ones to death and destruction in a war that has had absolutely no justification!

Let's hope at Saddam's war-crimes trial it becomes crystal clear that Rumsfeld's and Bush Sr.'s deals with Saddam in the 1980's were precisely what kept Saddam in power. Bush Jr. now says "a dark and painful era is over," even though his father's deals helped create it. I join with thousands of outraged citizens in hopes that our own "dark and painful era" -- under both Bushes' monumental deceits and destructions -- will also soon be over.

Connie Cook Smith

 
JFK ASSASSINATION 40 YEARS LATER -- CONSPIRACY THEORISTS WERE RIGHT

Connie Cook Smith's "What America Needs to Know"


According to UPI reporter Don Fulsom, a Nixon White House tape from May of 1972 was released last year, and it reveals Nixon saying that the Warren Report was "the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated."

Anybody who ever spent a few minutes looking at the Warren Commission's shoddy, "Oswald acted alone" conclusions LONG ago knew THAT. Outrage over this cover-up finally resulted in a 1977 House committee investigation. It quietly concluded in 1979 that there were at least two shooters, and that Kennedy likely was "assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."

About that conspiracy, Bay of Pigs/CIA veteran Rafael Quintero has said publicly if he were ever granted immunity and compelled to testify, what he knows about Dallas "would be the biggest scandal ever to rock the nation." On this 40th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's murder, I say, "Lets' rock!"

According to H.R. Haldeman's book, The Ends of Power, whenever Nixon talked about the Kennedy assassination, he used a code phrase: "the Bay of Pigs thing." This takes on startling significance considering that Nixon's June 23, 1972 White House tape, known as "the smoking gun," features discussions on how to stop the FBI investigation into the Watergate burglary -- because it would connect Nixon to "the Bay of Pigs thing."

Amazingly, Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis openly stated in a May 7, 1977 San Francisco Chronicle interview: "the reason we burglarized the Watergate was because Nixon was interested in stopping news leaking related to the photos of our role in the assassination of President Kennedy."

Photos of "tramps" arrested but released in Dealey Plaza that day have long been thought to be Frank Sturgis -- and E. Howard Hunt, who later was given a private office in Nixon's White House, and whose wife was killed in a plane crash as she carried $10,000 in cash as a pay-off to someone in Chicago.

But the part that might "rock the nation" isn't limited to the deceased Mr. Nixon. When he was re-elected in 1972, the first thing he did was to demand the signed resignations of his entire government. According to Sidney Blumenthal's book, Pledging Allegiance, Nixon told Ehrlichman: "Eliminate everyone, except George Bush (Sr.). Bush will do anything for our cause."

Nixon was indebted to the Bush family because, according to Nixon's own memoir, Prescott Bush financed Nixon's first political aspirations, and paved his way to become Eisenhower's vice-president. It needs to be realized that this power behind Nixon was so entrenched that even Prescott Bush's decade of money-laundering for Adolf Hitler, which was forcibly stopped by Congress in October of 1942, didn't hurt the Bush family reputation.

(These facts about the Bush family's more-than-a-decade's support for Hitler are in the previous column -- and they appeared on the CNN crawl and in AP news stories on October 17th, 2003.)

The real tragedy is, profitable deals with dictators is the Bush family business up through the present day, resulting in body bags for our soldiers -- and money bags for themselves! If the media and the American people will trace back these facts, the reasons why JFK was murdered will become clear.

JFK represented World Peace and Equality -- but the Bush Machine perpetually stands for War Profits and World Domination. Obviously, the latter's assassinations and machinations are triumphant now -- thanks to ignorant American compliance.

Yes, it would be -- will be -- "the biggest scandal ever to rock the nation." But I pray it all boils over and spews out. We need this cleansing -- and reversal -- of the disastrous direction in which America is being taken.

Connie Cook Smith