Why are we so polite about describing Fox News? Admittedly I and others have called them liars, whores, assholes, bastards and enemies of all that is true and good, but good and evil are relative terms despite what the religious idiots are selling and any organization in the position of being able to advise and inform tens of millions of people but that chooses to profit through elevating lies, bearing false witness and undermining justice, tolerance and good will between men is beyond ordinary estimations of good and evil. It's time to destroy Rupert Murdock's malignant scheme.
So the racist slimecasters at Fox have no intention of giving up trying to ruin Barak Obama as a candidate; trying to subliminally equate Obama with Osama and with Saddam. from minor idiocies like acting shocked and outraged that he has been said to consume three cigarettes a day, to inventing stories about being a "Madressa" student learning to hate Americans and then attributing the lies to another Democrat they hate - Hillary. It never stops and when the stories are debunked, these seven headed dogs of hell don't hesitate to invent another story: the CNN reporter who found the alleged Madrassa to be an ordinary school must of course be a Madressa trained terrorist sympathizer. It never stops. It never helps to debunk them; it never helps to defeat them in debate. It never helps to treat them with any respect.
It may be satisfying to believe in a God of justice who might some day when it is too late, commit these liars and pirates and terrorists; these enemies of freedom to some blazing tantric hell to have their innards unreeled and their eyes gouged out forever, but we need to be rid of them now.
We need to allow slanderers, liars and libelers to be prosecuted when they attack public personalities with gross negligence, gross malice and no diligence in verifying their stories and sources. There should indeed be a threshold beyond which one may not go without repercussions and if we do nothing, we will not survive as a free society.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Bush Vs. the Bushmen
OK, so I didn't watch the State of the Union Address last night. I'm recovering from the flu and my stomach hasn't felt agreeable for the last week. If you want my opinion of last night's bit of vaudeville, Glenn Greenwald does his usual excellent job of giving my opinions better than I can.
I have enough trouble holding dinner down when watching the President at the best of times, so I set the Tivo to record it and watched one of my favorite shows, No Reservations with restaurateur, chef and raconteur Anthony Bourdain.
Wise choice, it proved to be. Instead of watching Bush, I got to watch Bourdain dining in Namibia with the Bushmen: eating charcoal grilled warthog rectum with baked warthog vomit right from the skull. I feel much better this morning and I don't have that nasty taste in my mouth I usually get from watching our president.
I have enough trouble holding dinner down when watching the President at the best of times, so I set the Tivo to record it and watched one of my favorite shows, No Reservations with restaurateur, chef and raconteur Anthony Bourdain.
Wise choice, it proved to be. Instead of watching Bush, I got to watch Bourdain dining in Namibia with the Bushmen: eating charcoal grilled warthog rectum with baked warthog vomit right from the skull. I feel much better this morning and I don't have that nasty taste in my mouth I usually get from watching our president.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Experto crede
Nobody knows anything; a quote attributed to movie mogul Sam Goldwyn and in the sense he gave it, I agree. It’s about the cult of expertise and the gullibility of the rest of us. It’s about truth and marketing and incompatibility.
One of my pet subjects is automobiles and as far as I’m concerned it’s impossible to get a valid opinion from any journalistic or industry source that isn’t mostly advertising and as larded with hyperbole as Kobe beef is with fat. Advertising does not come free. Journalists know where their paychecks come from and their editors know where their revenue comes from. Journalists mostly write for neophytes and neophytes love to quote journalists and use the jargon they are given to hide the fact that they are neophytes at best and idiots at worst, so you’ll hear that the Yamaguchi 50 is edgy or blingish, has lots of valves or has attitude or is “race car inspired.” You’ll hear about sound systems but you won’t hear a damn thing about lap times or braking distances or quarter mile ET’s. You’ll hear about how American cars don’t “handle” and “understeer” from people who have no idea what that means and will tell you with a straight face that their family sedan has “neutral” handling which is better. If the car is a dog, you brag about how many gazillian RPM you need to get useful power out of it and people will eat it up because bigger numbers are better unless they refer to bigger displacement which is better but is sold as worse – understand? I don’t either, but as I said, nobody knows anything.
So I’m not even partly surprised to read on CNN that a poll by a insurance company specializing in insuring collector cars claims that in the future the big deal will be Japanese cars.
Now I’ve been reading the car mags for over 50 years and I’ve yet to hear a description of the car of the future that proved true. What is held to be of supreme importance in one decade is ignored in the next, for the last few decades, what is held to be important is what the massive advertisers want you to think is important – low drag coefficients one year, variable valve timing the next, tiny engines today, huge honking V8’s the next, so I’m not inclined to believe a bit of this, but I have to include myself in the group called nobody and nobody knows anything. You can only glimpse the truth in retrospect and looking back, I can’t think of more than one Japanese car that has collector value today and that one just barely.
We are assured however that, “in the future, Toyota's Scion cars and its FJ Cruiser off-roader might be hot items at car auctions.” That’s as likely true as those once upon a time predictions that we’d all be driving two seaters with two cylinder, two cycle ceramic engines or maybe Wankels. The reason collector cars are desirable and expensive is that predicting what people will want 30 years hence is nearly impossible.
The main ingredients that make cars desirable, said Hagerty Insurance president McKeel Hagerty, are “cool designs and honest performance. Cars that look hot but don't perform won't end up being desirable in the long term,” he said. Is this why a 1953 Corvette, a disappointing dog on the road is worth many times what my 2006 model is even though it will run 100MPH faster? Is this why people buy dead-dog slow cars, insist they’re “ultimate” and try to take on Vipers at stoplights? Nobody knows anything. Will people 20 years from now think “cool design” means a cube with tiny wheels and a fake wing on top? What about some swoopy things full of curvilinear triangles, a grill like a yellow smiley and lots of fake aero devices; who the hell knows and surely not Haggerty. He’s trying to predict what the children and grandchildren of today’s collectors will want to spend big bucks on and I think he’s got a better chance at winning the lottery.
It’s a fact that people who buy what they think will be the hot ticket 20 years hence and put it in storage usually lose a lot of money, unless it was something very rare and very expensive in the first place and the people who buy McLarens don’t usually care about turning a profit 30 years hence. Even collector cars that were hot in the 80’s are going for half or less than their peak prices. Nobody knows, but here’s a wager: I will meet you at Pebble Beach or the Palm Beach International Concours D’Elegance in 2050. I’ll bring what I have now and you can bring a pristine, skate-board inspired Pokemon Special and bring your title and registration.
One of my pet subjects is automobiles and as far as I’m concerned it’s impossible to get a valid opinion from any journalistic or industry source that isn’t mostly advertising and as larded with hyperbole as Kobe beef is with fat. Advertising does not come free. Journalists know where their paychecks come from and their editors know where their revenue comes from. Journalists mostly write for neophytes and neophytes love to quote journalists and use the jargon they are given to hide the fact that they are neophytes at best and idiots at worst, so you’ll hear that the Yamaguchi 50 is edgy or blingish, has lots of valves or has attitude or is “race car inspired.” You’ll hear about sound systems but you won’t hear a damn thing about lap times or braking distances or quarter mile ET’s. You’ll hear about how American cars don’t “handle” and “understeer” from people who have no idea what that means and will tell you with a straight face that their family sedan has “neutral” handling which is better. If the car is a dog, you brag about how many gazillian RPM you need to get useful power out of it and people will eat it up because bigger numbers are better unless they refer to bigger displacement which is better but is sold as worse – understand? I don’t either, but as I said, nobody knows anything.
So I’m not even partly surprised to read on CNN that a poll by a insurance company specializing in insuring collector cars claims that in the future the big deal will be Japanese cars.
Now I’ve been reading the car mags for over 50 years and I’ve yet to hear a description of the car of the future that proved true. What is held to be of supreme importance in one decade is ignored in the next, for the last few decades, what is held to be important is what the massive advertisers want you to think is important – low drag coefficients one year, variable valve timing the next, tiny engines today, huge honking V8’s the next, so I’m not inclined to believe a bit of this, but I have to include myself in the group called nobody and nobody knows anything. You can only glimpse the truth in retrospect and looking back, I can’t think of more than one Japanese car that has collector value today and that one just barely.
We are assured however that, “in the future, Toyota's Scion cars and its FJ Cruiser off-roader might be hot items at car auctions.” That’s as likely true as those once upon a time predictions that we’d all be driving two seaters with two cylinder, two cycle ceramic engines or maybe Wankels. The reason collector cars are desirable and expensive is that predicting what people will want 30 years hence is nearly impossible.
The main ingredients that make cars desirable, said Hagerty Insurance president McKeel Hagerty, are “cool designs and honest performance. Cars that look hot but don't perform won't end up being desirable in the long term,” he said. Is this why a 1953 Corvette, a disappointing dog on the road is worth many times what my 2006 model is even though it will run 100MPH faster? Is this why people buy dead-dog slow cars, insist they’re “ultimate” and try to take on Vipers at stoplights? Nobody knows anything. Will people 20 years from now think “cool design” means a cube with tiny wheels and a fake wing on top? What about some swoopy things full of curvilinear triangles, a grill like a yellow smiley and lots of fake aero devices; who the hell knows and surely not Haggerty. He’s trying to predict what the children and grandchildren of today’s collectors will want to spend big bucks on and I think he’s got a better chance at winning the lottery.
It’s a fact that people who buy what they think will be the hot ticket 20 years hence and put it in storage usually lose a lot of money, unless it was something very rare and very expensive in the first place and the people who buy McLarens don’t usually care about turning a profit 30 years hence. Even collector cars that were hot in the 80’s are going for half or less than their peak prices. Nobody knows, but here’s a wager: I will meet you at Pebble Beach or the Palm Beach International Concours D’Elegance in 2050. I’ll bring what I have now and you can bring a pristine, skate-board inspired Pokemon Special and bring your title and registration.
Chum
Chum is stinky chunks of bait that one throws overboard to attract fish to the vicinity of your boat and your hooks. That's sort of like what happens when fishy stories like the one Fox and Friends picked up about Barak Obama and the Madrassa. Others, like Headline News' Glenn Beck soon joined the frenzy and I am quite sure that the now debunked story will embark on an internet e-mail tour that will take it around the world for years to come - feeding off the idiots who didn't hear about it or its demise who will forward it to millions of unsuspecting ignoramuses. Like most of these circulating slime bombs, it will begin with pictures of the World Trade Towers or an image of bin Laden with a demonic smile and will pretend to be hot off the press news that has been suppressed by Liberals
Very few of the gullible millions will know or bother to find out that not only was there no source for this "revelation" in the Clinton camp as the slime brokers insisted, but that the Madrassa turned out to be a western style public school. The simple joy of being able to believe that Obama is a brainwashed Islamic extremist will overwhelm the urge to find the truth.
It may be true that humans descend from apes who frequently scavenged their meals from the leavings of predators. Perhaps that would explain the joy with which humans cherish these rotten bits of misinformation and their reluctance to relinquish them in the face of truth, but perhaps there will come a time when the question of repeatedly fooling the public will no longer be about shame on you or shame on me, but shame on anyone who listens to the lying hyenas.
Friends don't let friends watch Fox.
Very few of the gullible millions will know or bother to find out that not only was there no source for this "revelation" in the Clinton camp as the slime brokers insisted, but that the Madrassa turned out to be a western style public school. The simple joy of being able to believe that Obama is a brainwashed Islamic extremist will overwhelm the urge to find the truth.
It may be true that humans descend from apes who frequently scavenged their meals from the leavings of predators. Perhaps that would explain the joy with which humans cherish these rotten bits of misinformation and their reluctance to relinquish them in the face of truth, but perhaps there will come a time when the question of repeatedly fooling the public will no longer be about shame on you or shame on me, but shame on anyone who listens to the lying hyenas.
Friends don't let friends watch Fox.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Reasonable and normal
Does ABC really mean All Bull Crap? They report, you decide.
It's hard to go for a day without some story of some professionally pious man being caught molesting children or engaging in some unsavory acts with barnyard animals, yet despite sociopathic frauds like Ted Haggard having been humiliated in front of the country with his Gay prostitution and drug bust, he's out there bragging about evangelicals getting more nookie than other, less sexy cults do.
We may have thought we had seen the last of him, but like a bad case of herpes or a clogged septic tank, Ted is back again. Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals is part of a documentary called Friends of God with the Speaker of the House's daughter Andrea Pelosi, that the New York Times describes as "a road trip into the world of evangelical Christians that includes a drive-through church, a Christian wrestling federation, a stand-up Christian comic, an evangelical Elvis' and more.
Pelosi as quoted by ABC, says "It was interesting for me to say, these are good people. He was a reasonable, normal everyday man. So, it was hard to stomach what had happened."
Yes, I too wonder why there is such a fuss made about the earthshaking hypocrisy that seems to characterize this egotistical, hedonistic gay bashing homosexual with delusions of grandeur who takes the poor, the stupid, the frightened and the ignorant for huge sums of money.
Haggard is already an object of intense disgust for me, with his brand of ignorant, narcissistic, idolatrous and paranoid shamanism, but I'd rather watch one of those National Geographic films about the mating habits of hyenas than be forced to imagine what debauchery Haggard performs in sordid motel rooms while little old ladies pump a fortune into his bank accounts. Pelosi however is beyond my understanding; insisting that the experience made her want to get her two month old involved in Church as soon as possible and thinks we should accommodate this group of thieves, perverts, blasphemers and liars because of their political power.
What a great country we might have if these subhumans had all elected to start Evangelical villages in Guyana where they could dance naked around campfires pounding on Bibles, having lizard sex with each other and left the rest of us the hell alone.
It's hard to go for a day without some story of some professionally pious man being caught molesting children or engaging in some unsavory acts with barnyard animals, yet despite sociopathic frauds like Ted Haggard having been humiliated in front of the country with his Gay prostitution and drug bust, he's out there bragging about evangelicals getting more nookie than other, less sexy cults do.
We may have thought we had seen the last of him, but like a bad case of herpes or a clogged septic tank, Ted is back again. Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals is part of a documentary called Friends of God with the Speaker of the House's daughter Andrea Pelosi, that the New York Times describes as "a road trip into the world of evangelical Christians that includes a drive-through church, a Christian wrestling federation, a stand-up Christian comic, an evangelical Elvis' and more.
Pelosi as quoted by ABC, says "It was interesting for me to say, these are good people. He was a reasonable, normal everyday man. So, it was hard to stomach what had happened."
Yes, I too wonder why there is such a fuss made about the earthshaking hypocrisy that seems to characterize this egotistical, hedonistic gay bashing homosexual with delusions of grandeur who takes the poor, the stupid, the frightened and the ignorant for huge sums of money.
Haggard is already an object of intense disgust for me, with his brand of ignorant, narcissistic, idolatrous and paranoid shamanism, but I'd rather watch one of those National Geographic films about the mating habits of hyenas than be forced to imagine what debauchery Haggard performs in sordid motel rooms while little old ladies pump a fortune into his bank accounts. Pelosi however is beyond my understanding; insisting that the experience made her want to get her two month old involved in Church as soon as possible and thinks we should accommodate this group of thieves, perverts, blasphemers and liars because of their political power.
What a great country we might have if these subhumans had all elected to start Evangelical villages in Guyana where they could dance naked around campfires pounding on Bibles, having lizard sex with each other and left the rest of us the hell alone.
Bloody Sunday
I can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long...
The Army Times lists a flurry of Iraqi violence Sunday:
* A bomb left in a bag struck a small bus carrying people to work in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing seven passengers and wounding 15.
* A parked car bomb also exploded outside a restaurant in eastern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five, according to police.
* A suicide car bomber targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed one woman and wounded five other people in the northern city of Mosul.
It was a big improvement over Saturday.Saturday saw a Blackhawk helicopter shot down killing 12 Americans and a raid on Provincial Headquarters in Karbala by a group of Insurgents dressed as Americans, that resulted in the deaths of five American soldiers.
The 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, consisting of about 3,200 soldiers are now arriving in the Baghdad area and will, according to the official statement “assist Iraqi Security Forces to clear, control and retain key areas of the capital city in order to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city,”
No suggestion as to how a few more troops will be able to influence the balance of power here, but assist is the key word we need to look at. It contains the assumption that Iraqi Security Forces have the manpower, training and will to have any effect whatever and it suggests that the burden will not be directly on the shoulders of US troops who might, one supposes, be there to show them how to clean their weapons after a hard day's patrol. That's two lies in one word.
Throughout the Viet Nam debacle we were told that we were there as advisers and that we were in the process of training the Vietnamese and turning the fight over to them. Call me a cynic, but I think we're being lied to again. It doesn't take a Nostradamus to predict that there will be a series of little schemes used as ploys to demand silence of the public and give hope to the hopeaholics long enough so that the final ignominious collapse of the misbegotten enterprise will occur only after the Texas Tyrant leaves office and can then be blamed on "liberals" by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, William Kristol and Fox News.
Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I wont heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Kristol Nacht
Shameless blowhard William Kristol said on Fox News this morning, that Democratic congress members are
"so irresponsible that they can’t be quiet for six or nine months and say the president has made a decision, we’re not going to change that decision, we’re not going to cut off funds and insist on the troops coming back, so let’s give it a chance to work."
I'm interested to know what Kristol thinks the responsibility of the Congress is and why that responsibility necessitates silence in the face of continued Administrative irresponsibility and dishonesty. He's not stupid enough to think that adding 7000 combat troops and about another 13000 support troops will stop our inadequate vehicles from being blown to bits on a daily basis and he's not so stupid to believe that we need to wait nine months in silence before we decide that perhaps we need a few thousand more which will of course result in the necessity of another nine months of waiting and on infinitum. Kristol remembers Viet Nam and Kristol is not a complete idiot so what are we to assume about his honesty and loyalty to the best interests of his country but that he favors totalitarian, militaristic rule and hates the functions of government necessary to open, transparent, honest and democratic government.
Oh, hell why don't I just come out and call him the lying son of a bitch and enemy of freedom that he is? And why don't we line the Fox News Nazis and the bastard who owns them up against the same wall?
"so irresponsible that they can’t be quiet for six or nine months and say the president has made a decision, we’re not going to change that decision, we’re not going to cut off funds and insist on the troops coming back, so let’s give it a chance to work."
I'm interested to know what Kristol thinks the responsibility of the Congress is and why that responsibility necessitates silence in the face of continued Administrative irresponsibility and dishonesty. He's not stupid enough to think that adding 7000 combat troops and about another 13000 support troops will stop our inadequate vehicles from being blown to bits on a daily basis and he's not so stupid to believe that we need to wait nine months in silence before we decide that perhaps we need a few thousand more which will of course result in the necessity of another nine months of waiting and on infinitum. Kristol remembers Viet Nam and Kristol is not a complete idiot so what are we to assume about his honesty and loyalty to the best interests of his country but that he favors totalitarian, militaristic rule and hates the functions of government necessary to open, transparent, honest and democratic government.
Oh, hell why don't I just come out and call him the lying son of a bitch and enemy of freedom that he is? And why don't we line the Fox News Nazis and the bastard who owns them up against the same wall?
Thursday, January 18, 2007
We don't talk to evildoers
Did the Warpresident create the Iranian impasse in order to justify another war? According to the BBC, aides to the former Secretary of State Colin Powell say that back in 2003, Iran offered to make essentially the concessions Bush is demanding. In exchange for ending its hostility and support of terrorism we were asked to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an anti-Iranian insurgency, was allowed by Saddam Hussein to base itself in Iraq before the American invasion.
Powell's State Department apparently recommended that we go along with the deal, which might well have ended Iranian supported insurgencies in Iraq and Iranian funded militants like Hezbullah elsewhere, but predictably Dick Cheney's White House shot it down. The world might have been a little better today, a war in Lebanon averted and Iraq closer to becoming a functioning country, but we seem poised for an all out war with Iran and this story, if true, raises questions.
If the invasion of Iraq was conceived as a gateway to a war with Iran, one could see why peace would be anathema, why persuading Iran to make it's nuclear program transparent and its militancy cease would be a stumbling block for the Halliburton Crusade. If Cheney actually believes that we are fighting the devil, are at war with "evildoers" and that negotiation is heresy, one can conclude that the problem in Washington is not incompetence but delusion - and of course they could simply be a bunch of bumbling, stupid, greedy, power intoxicated and incompetent fools. I report, you decide.
Powell's State Department apparently recommended that we go along with the deal, which might well have ended Iranian supported insurgencies in Iraq and Iranian funded militants like Hezbullah elsewhere, but predictably Dick Cheney's White House shot it down. The world might have been a little better today, a war in Lebanon averted and Iraq closer to becoming a functioning country, but we seem poised for an all out war with Iran and this story, if true, raises questions.
If the invasion of Iraq was conceived as a gateway to a war with Iran, one could see why peace would be anathema, why persuading Iran to make it's nuclear program transparent and its militancy cease would be a stumbling block for the Halliburton Crusade. If Cheney actually believes that we are fighting the devil, are at war with "evildoers" and that negotiation is heresy, one can conclude that the problem in Washington is not incompetence but delusion - and of course they could simply be a bunch of bumbling, stupid, greedy, power intoxicated and incompetent fools. I report, you decide.
Condi supports child abuse
"My Fox guys, I love every single one of them." So said our gap-toothed Secretary of State last week, thinking the mike was off. Every single one would include perforce Slimy Bill O' Reilly and slimy Bill thinks it makes for good ratings to tell you St Louis kidnapping victim Shawn Hornbeck wasn't really kidnapped by Michael J. Devlin, the guy who seems to have a history of kidnapping and perhaps murder - he was just skipping school.
"The question is why didn't he escape when he could have? There are all kinds of theories about that…"
"Theories:" these are the vague things people like Bill invoke to make the preposterous seem possible and the demonstrable seem doubtful, but whether O'Reilly is deranged or just a whore is a less important question than why someone with as much power to destabilize the world as does George's favorite retainer would support, much less "love" him. O'Reilly may make excuses for a child molester for profit, out of irrational hatred of everything good and decent or for other reasons of his own. He's only an ugly and malignant nobody. I can only speculate as to Rice's reasons for backing such a man, but then I can only speculate about her reasons for backing Bush, whose mouthpiece she is.
But if she loves and supports someone who supports a kidnapper of young boys she has something to answer for and if Condi is a conduit for the opinions of Bush, perhaps he too loves and supports a man who apologizes for child molesters.
There are many theories about that, but the search for traces of honesty, decency, logical consistency or intelligence in George Bush and his familiars is best left to dishonest, indecent, deranged and stupid people like O'Reilly and the Fox Boys - and of course the bitter, aging and angry women who love every single one of them.
"The question is why didn't he escape when he could have? There are all kinds of theories about that…"
"Theories:" these are the vague things people like Bill invoke to make the preposterous seem possible and the demonstrable seem doubtful, but whether O'Reilly is deranged or just a whore is a less important question than why someone with as much power to destabilize the world as does George's favorite retainer would support, much less "love" him. O'Reilly may make excuses for a child molester for profit, out of irrational hatred of everything good and decent or for other reasons of his own. He's only an ugly and malignant nobody. I can only speculate as to Rice's reasons for backing such a man, but then I can only speculate about her reasons for backing Bush, whose mouthpiece she is.
But if she loves and supports someone who supports a kidnapper of young boys she has something to answer for and if Condi is a conduit for the opinions of Bush, perhaps he too loves and supports a man who apologizes for child molesters.
There are many theories about that, but the search for traces of honesty, decency, logical consistency or intelligence in George Bush and his familiars is best left to dishonest, indecent, deranged and stupid people like O'Reilly and the Fox Boys - and of course the bitter, aging and angry women who love every single one of them.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Little Victory
Perhaps it's not entirely true that the Bush administration can get away with selective obedience to the law. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is reported to have written to the the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee announcing that after more than a year of asserting that the authority of the president absolved him from the requirement to seek judicial approval before listening in to the telephone calls of Americans, Bush will now comply.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat from Texas states that "It proves that this surveillance has always been possible under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and that there was never a good reason to evade the law,"
Whether this proposed cessation of persecution of the American people results from some Pauline epiphany or from the realization that the new congress might have the power to make Bush face some consequences I don't know, but a step is a step. Who knows what might come next?
Still I have to agree with Glenn Greenwald that to celebrate the idea that the government has given a fuzzy promise to begin to obey one of the laws it has been flaunting is a sad state of affairs.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat from Texas states that "It proves that this surveillance has always been possible under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and that there was never a good reason to evade the law,"
Whether this proposed cessation of persecution of the American people results from some Pauline epiphany or from the realization that the new congress might have the power to make Bush face some consequences I don't know, but a step is a step. Who knows what might come next?
Still I have to agree with Glenn Greenwald that to celebrate the idea that the government has given a fuzzy promise to begin to obey one of the laws it has been flaunting is a sad state of affairs.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
One way or another
“One way or another I'm gonna find yaI'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha”
-Blondie-
Whether or not the Warpresident will attack Iran within the next few months, it matters that much of the world and probably much of the Islamic world, believes it. Despite the indications that Bush is aware that regional and world stability is not disturbed with impunity, he continues to brandish his weapons. It matters that Bush seems to believe that threats are the better part of international relations and that you can effect positive long term change in the world by blowing things up and threatening to blow things up.
Will Bush gamble that a “régime change” in Iran will make things easier in Iraq? Will destroying Iran’s infrastructure and its oil production capacity make for an America loving, western secular democracy that will stop sponsoring insurgents and guerilla warfare? If you reply that nobody is that stupid, I will beg to take exception.
It’s been demonstrated that the US had the ability to project our power into Baghdad, neutralize its military and topple the government. It may still be possible for the US to use massive air power to make Iran into a smoking ruin, but it’s also been demonstrated that whatever the word victory means when Bush uses it, it does not result from anything Bush has done or seems to contemplate doing.
Whether the Buildup of naval power in the Persian Gulf is a bluff, a precaution or preparation for another attack; if it is only a paranoid fantasy in a frightened world, it serves to further the image of the United States as a nation run amok. George has made it clear that his crusade does not depend on the will of the nation he is supposed to represent and by attacking Iran or provoking an attack on our navy by Iran he might perhaps feel he can make it more difficult for Congress to cut him off – and perhaps he can emulate Lyndon Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin deception. His actions make it more likely that we will suffer another attack on our soil and if such a thing happens we can be certain that he will use it to crush his adversaries at home as well as to make an adversary of the world.
-Blondie-
Whether or not the Warpresident will attack Iran within the next few months, it matters that much of the world and probably much of the Islamic world, believes it. Despite the indications that Bush is aware that regional and world stability is not disturbed with impunity, he continues to brandish his weapons. It matters that Bush seems to believe that threats are the better part of international relations and that you can effect positive long term change in the world by blowing things up and threatening to blow things up.
Will Bush gamble that a “régime change” in Iran will make things easier in Iraq? Will destroying Iran’s infrastructure and its oil production capacity make for an America loving, western secular democracy that will stop sponsoring insurgents and guerilla warfare? If you reply that nobody is that stupid, I will beg to take exception.
It’s been demonstrated that the US had the ability to project our power into Baghdad, neutralize its military and topple the government. It may still be possible for the US to use massive air power to make Iran into a smoking ruin, but it’s also been demonstrated that whatever the word victory means when Bush uses it, it does not result from anything Bush has done or seems to contemplate doing.
Whether the Buildup of naval power in the Persian Gulf is a bluff, a precaution or preparation for another attack; if it is only a paranoid fantasy in a frightened world, it serves to further the image of the United States as a nation run amok. George has made it clear that his crusade does not depend on the will of the nation he is supposed to represent and by attacking Iran or provoking an attack on our navy by Iran he might perhaps feel he can make it more difficult for Congress to cut him off – and perhaps he can emulate Lyndon Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin deception. His actions make it more likely that we will suffer another attack on our soil and if such a thing happens we can be certain that he will use it to crush his adversaries at home as well as to make an adversary of the world.
Talk softly and forget about that stick
It’s just possible that Bush’s biggest fear is that a movement toward Democracy or simply against tyranny will flower in the Middle East. After all, the countries we favor most are not democratic and some are monarchies so absolute that the kingdom that spawned the American experiment seems liberal in comparison. Bush the elder went to war to preserve monarchy in Kuwait and has done nothing to promote the liberalization of that country since. Jordan is a monarchy and it would be hard to describe Saudi Arabia in terms that might suggest democracy or a move in that direction – yet Bush the lesser doesn’t seem to have been lecturing them on the subject, much less invading them.
And then there’s Egypt. Whether or not a transition to something more closely resembling true Democracy, with tolerance for opposition and guarantees of liberty and justice for all, is possible without risk of war and chaos, I am not qualified to speculate about, but I will venture to say that even by our own weakened standards, Egypt is a brutal and repressive place.
The New York Times today, talks about corruption, cronyism, torture and political repression in Egypt. The polite conduct of Condoleezza Rice’s current visit to Egypt seems to illustrate that the US no longer wishes to be seen pushing Egypt to address such abuses. Amidst the chaos in the Middle East and the hatred of the US following Bush’s adventure in nation building (or oilfield grabbing if you prefer,) the preference for stability and avoidance of open hostility have strongly tempered messianic zeal. While we openly support a variety of brutal and undemocratic régimes, according to the Times “The United States is so unpopular in the region now, many here say, that its support is enough to undermine a government’s legitimacy with its public.”
That we are no longer pushing for Democracy, if indeed we ever really were, can be seen as a strategy of avoiding further instability, but by non longer pushing for democracy in the interest of stability, we may be seen as supporting the kind of tyranny we were hated for supporting in the first place.
“The former pressure was an illusion and the lack of any pressure now will push the crisis between the people and their rulers to the edge,” said Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of Al Dustoor, a weekly newspaper of Egyptian opposition, and will increase the perception “that the United States is supporting democracy when it is in strict alliance with the oppressive regimes,”
Perhaps it’s not just in Iraq that any possible outcome is hard to describe as “winning” and victory is irrelevant.
And then there’s Egypt. Whether or not a transition to something more closely resembling true Democracy, with tolerance for opposition and guarantees of liberty and justice for all, is possible without risk of war and chaos, I am not qualified to speculate about, but I will venture to say that even by our own weakened standards, Egypt is a brutal and repressive place.
The New York Times today, talks about corruption, cronyism, torture and political repression in Egypt. The polite conduct of Condoleezza Rice’s current visit to Egypt seems to illustrate that the US no longer wishes to be seen pushing Egypt to address such abuses. Amidst the chaos in the Middle East and the hatred of the US following Bush’s adventure in nation building (or oilfield grabbing if you prefer,) the preference for stability and avoidance of open hostility have strongly tempered messianic zeal. While we openly support a variety of brutal and undemocratic régimes, according to the Times “The United States is so unpopular in the region now, many here say, that its support is enough to undermine a government’s legitimacy with its public.”
That we are no longer pushing for Democracy, if indeed we ever really were, can be seen as a strategy of avoiding further instability, but by non longer pushing for democracy in the interest of stability, we may be seen as supporting the kind of tyranny we were hated for supporting in the first place.
“The former pressure was an illusion and the lack of any pressure now will push the crisis between the people and their rulers to the edge,” said Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of Al Dustoor, a weekly newspaper of Egyptian opposition, and will increase the perception “that the United States is supporting democracy when it is in strict alliance with the oppressive regimes,”
Perhaps it’s not just in Iraq that any possible outcome is hard to describe as “winning” and victory is irrelevant.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Dangerous George
Many men have been motivated by early experiences of humiliation and a sense of inferiority to rise above it in one way or another. Teddy Roosevelt was inspired by his sickly childhood to be a rough rider, big game hunter, soldier, man's man and President of the United States. If we are to believe the ubiquitous comic book advertisement of my youth, the 98 pound weakling Charles Atlas was so humiliated by having sand kicked in his face by a bully who stole his girlfriend that he was inspired to become a body builder and inspiration to all other underdeveloped males.
And then there is George W. Bush, the runt of the family litter, the guy who was a cheerleader not a football player, the guy who got shit faced and smashed up the car, who sent a fortune up his privileged nose; the guy whose dad bailed him out of everything, covered up his AWOL, made records disappear, gave him businesses to ruin. He's been trying to swagger his way back into machismo half of his life; trying to equal his over-achiever father.
While one might question whether Teddy Roosevelt really belongs on Mount Rushmore, I question that George's image wouldn't disgrace a toilet in the Park Service mens' room, but all this is beside the point. George is facing the biggest humiliation of his life, with the country and the Party turning away from him, the military grumbling, respect for America gone, caught in a hundred lies, his dream of power and glory and adulation fading by the hour. You have to ask yourself what this fragile, marginal and nearly pathological personality will do when faced with defeat. Glenn Greenwald says:
"The most dangerous George Bush is one who feels weak, powerless and under attack. Those perceptions are intolerable for him and I doubt there are many limits, if there are any, on what he would be willing to do in order to restore a feeling of power and to rid himself of the sensations of his own weakness and defeat."
History suggests that the faltering tyrant will not give up his lust for power and like the losing gambler, will only increase his bets. Just what might he do to make us all afraid again? Just what power might he arrogate to himself now while he still can? Will 2008 be too late?
Lower than Limbaugh
First it was Obama the party animal (call me!) then it was Obama who sounds like Osama, then it was Obama Hussein who sounds like you know who and now it's Obama the sex offender. I'm sure you know the name Fox News can't be far behind.
Wild and malicious hyperbole, bizarre associations and preposterous lies - these are the life blood of Fox and when it comes to values, ethics or any restraint of viciousness or commitment to honesty, they have proved again and again that there is no bottom.
The latest terrorist attack in Rupert Murdoch's war on America was run on Saturday by Twin Cities Fox affiliate KMSP, and it consisted of a clip of a Barak Obama rally run during a story about the sentencing of a child molester. I would be inclined to accept the apology of KMSP's News Director Bill Dallman if it weren't for the constant flow of such "unfortunate incidents" emanating from that motherload of malicious mendacity: Fox News.
Wild and malicious hyperbole, bizarre associations and preposterous lies - these are the life blood of Fox and when it comes to values, ethics or any restraint of viciousness or commitment to honesty, they have proved again and again that there is no bottom.
The latest terrorist attack in Rupert Murdoch's war on America was run on Saturday by Twin Cities Fox affiliate KMSP, and it consisted of a clip of a Barak Obama rally run during a story about the sentencing of a child molester. I would be inclined to accept the apology of KMSP's News Director Bill Dallman if it weren't for the constant flow of such "unfortunate incidents" emanating from that motherload of malicious mendacity: Fox News.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Great blogs
I read Libby Spencer's witty post about Peggy Noonan in The Reaction today and want to recommend her blog The Impolitic to anyone who enjoys good writing and trenchant humor. While I'm in recommendation mode, let me also mention Minor Ripper. Whether or not he is related to Jack the Ripper, he certainly does cut up some people who sorely deserve it.
Don't forget to come back here though.
Don't forget to come back here though.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
The surge is on
Republic
1.
a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president.
b. A nation that has such a political order.
2.
a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
b. A nation that has such a political order.
What is the difference between a monarch and a president? That’s a question you have to answer before deciding where the
In a Republic, as the supreme power is vested in the people, it would therefore be contrary to the usual model for a president to persist in stifling and ignoring the will of the people and not only failing to protect the constitution but weakening it by fiat.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to call the
In a clip uploaded to the CBS News web site Friday night of a 60 Minutes interview which will air tomorrow, Bush is asked whether he has the right to ignore congress if they forbid him to escalate troop levels in
"I think I've got, in this situation, I do, yeah. Now I fully understand they will, they could try to stop me from doing it, but, uh, I've made my decision and we're going forward."
Thus proclaims the monarch of
Impeachment
To charge (a public official) with improper conduct in office before a proper tribunal.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
With a President like this. . .
Although cheerleaders for George W. Bush and war in general like to talk of battles and victories, the majority of casualties amongst our troops in Iraq result from roadside bombs, something the standard Humvee offers little protection against. Although some of them have been upgraded and equipped with improvised armor by the troops, the switch from Hummers to the Cougar and the M1117 Armored Security Vehicle would save a very considerable amount of American lives. "They are expensive, but they are going to save lives," said Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, during a recent trip to Iraq. But there’s the rub. According to the Baltimore Sun, procurement of such armored vehicles is painfully slow and the additional troops “surging” into Baghdad will not likely be riding in them any time soon.
Actually, the Improvised Explosive Devices doing such horrible damage to our occupying forces and the lack of vehicles that can offer protection against them are problems that grow from the same source: the obstinate refusal of George W. Bush to plan for that occupation and the removal from his presence of anyone suggesting the need. Not much effort was made to secure Iraqi stockpiles of explosives at the time Bush’s “mission” was accomplished because Democracy and peace were due to spring up within days and they were consequently stolen. Little money was budgeted for the development and purchase of armored vehicles simply because the Warpresident insisted that we were only weeks away from “victory.”
So when we hear that that 60 or more percent of the casualties among the “surges” result from inadequate Humvees and that rate could have been reduced to around 2% by use of armored vehicles; when we hear from the Government Accountability Office that all these deaths result from explosives literally handed to insurgents by George W. Bush and his merry band of bastards what can we ask ourselves but that with a President like this, who needs enemies?
Actually, the Improvised Explosive Devices doing such horrible damage to our occupying forces and the lack of vehicles that can offer protection against them are problems that grow from the same source: the obstinate refusal of George W. Bush to plan for that occupation and the removal from his presence of anyone suggesting the need. Not much effort was made to secure Iraqi stockpiles of explosives at the time Bush’s “mission” was accomplished because Democracy and peace were due to spring up within days and they were consequently stolen. Little money was budgeted for the development and purchase of armored vehicles simply because the Warpresident insisted that we were only weeks away from “victory.”
So when we hear that that 60 or more percent of the casualties among the “surges” result from inadequate Humvees and that rate could have been reduced to around 2% by use of armored vehicles; when we hear from the Government Accountability Office that all these deaths result from explosives literally handed to insurgents by George W. Bush and his merry band of bastards what can we ask ourselves but that with a President like this, who needs enemies?
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Daisy Girl
How things change. In 1964 when a TV ad was aired, linking presidential candidate Barry Goldwater with the possibility of nuclear war, it caused devastating harm to his campaign. Has
I don’t know, but if we are not so repelled by a Deputy National Security advisor with the unlikely name of J.D. Crouch who not only advocated nuking and invading North Korea back in 1995 but is the “brains” behind Bush’s latest plan to achieve different results in Iraq by doing more of the same thing that has steadily failed for four years, then the cowardice scenario seems credible.
"Diplomacy in
The Bush administration continues to provide one similarity after another to the one depicted in Dr. Strangelove – and we all know how that movie ended. The trouble is, we’re not in a movie.
Two bucks on the number three pig
Texas – what a place! I have no idea as to whether the bogus claim to victimhood so popular with Fox-watching shitweasels all over America is as popular in Katy, Texas as in other small towns like the one I live in, but the odds are good. I do know that any objections to words and actions that do not make public display of reverence for Christian supremacy do not seem to transfer to respect for other religions in either place.
Witness the New Tradition of the Friday running of the swine in that charming, all American, Texas town. “You’ll love Katy” is the municipal slogan but if you’re Muslim it may not apply, nor would the “Welcome to the heart of Katy” you might see driving west on Interstate 10 from Houston. Some locals object to the presence of Muslims and to the mosque they plan to build on some 12 acres on Baker Road and so one good Christian neighbor has decided to hold pig races adjacent to their future place of worship every Friday to make them feel unwelcome.
I’m sure it will work, although there will probably be less reaction than if the local Jews staged a Sunday Gospel burning at the Katy Mills Mall or the local Spanish speaking population were to sing the National Anthem in something other than English or the village atheist were to hang a God Sucks banner from his window. But I guess every nation, like every animal, needs an anus – and so we have Katy Texas. Even so, there must be some good souls in that Suburban Sodom. I assume that there will be sermons on Sunday, denouncing the intolerance, the “suspect thy neighbor” rhetoric and of course, the pig races – well, at least I hope so. I wouldn’t want to become a cynic.
Witness the New Tradition of the Friday running of the swine in that charming, all American, Texas town. “You’ll love Katy” is the municipal slogan but if you’re Muslim it may not apply, nor would the “Welcome to the heart of Katy” you might see driving west on Interstate 10 from Houston. Some locals object to the presence of Muslims and to the mosque they plan to build on some 12 acres on Baker Road and so one good Christian neighbor has decided to hold pig races adjacent to their future place of worship every Friday to make them feel unwelcome.
I’m sure it will work, although there will probably be less reaction than if the local Jews staged a Sunday Gospel burning at the Katy Mills Mall or the local Spanish speaking population were to sing the National Anthem in something other than English or the village atheist were to hang a God Sucks banner from his window. But I guess every nation, like every animal, needs an anus – and so we have Katy Texas. Even so, there must be some good souls in that Suburban Sodom. I assume that there will be sermons on Sunday, denouncing the intolerance, the “suspect thy neighbor” rhetoric and of course, the pig races – well, at least I hope so. I wouldn’t want to become a cynic.
Monday, January 08, 2007
No Exit
Even George F. Will is calling George “Warpresident” Bush’s “surge” plan to “a policy that is akin to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's and Gen. William Westmoreland's policy in Vietnam.” It may be important to note that we no longer have a draft and we may no longer have the ability to equip and adequately train any substantial number of new troops, even if we can somehow manage to reach recruitment goals.
Will’s editorial today compares the failed (both militarily and politically) policy of continued escalation (probably easier for Bush to pronounce than surge) with the “phased withdrawal” scenario promised by Nixon and implemented by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird and Gen. Creighton Abrams. Will Phased withdrawal work in Iraq – will it work better than it did in Viet Nam?
According to conventional wisdom emerging from the Balkan experience, about 130,000 troops would be needed to maintain order in Baghdad alone. Currently we have 120,000 in place, but 66,000 of them are Iraqi Police whose loyalties are divided and who are often incompetent. Bush’s proposed increase is insignificant no matter how well it is received by his die-hard supporters; it may be, as it was in Viet Nam, “a recipe for protracting failure.”
I think comparison between war ravaged Europe in 1946 and Iraq 60 years later is apt, yet we have no ability to implement anything like the Marshall Plan that allowed the return of enough order and stability and quality of life to make a Democratic Europe a possibility. Without infrastructure; without electricity, water, heat, medical care and the ability to earn a living – and without immediate prospects for any improvement, Civil war will persist. As Gen. Wesley Clark says, the escalation will "put more American troops in harm's way, further undercut US forces' morale, and risk further alienation of elements of the Iraqi populace."
In short, we can’t supply enough troops to pacify the country by force. We can’t rebuild the country well enough to bring about peace and we can’t get rid of the administration that got us into this.
Will’s editorial today compares the failed (both militarily and politically) policy of continued escalation (probably easier for Bush to pronounce than surge) with the “phased withdrawal” scenario promised by Nixon and implemented by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird and Gen. Creighton Abrams. Will Phased withdrawal work in Iraq – will it work better than it did in Viet Nam?
According to conventional wisdom emerging from the Balkan experience, about 130,000 troops would be needed to maintain order in Baghdad alone. Currently we have 120,000 in place, but 66,000 of them are Iraqi Police whose loyalties are divided and who are often incompetent. Bush’s proposed increase is insignificant no matter how well it is received by his die-hard supporters; it may be, as it was in Viet Nam, “a recipe for protracting failure.”
I think comparison between war ravaged Europe in 1946 and Iraq 60 years later is apt, yet we have no ability to implement anything like the Marshall Plan that allowed the return of enough order and stability and quality of life to make a Democratic Europe a possibility. Without infrastructure; without electricity, water, heat, medical care and the ability to earn a living – and without immediate prospects for any improvement, Civil war will persist. As Gen. Wesley Clark says, the escalation will "put more American troops in harm's way, further undercut US forces' morale, and risk further alienation of elements of the Iraqi populace."
In short, we can’t supply enough troops to pacify the country by force. We can’t rebuild the country well enough to bring about peace and we can’t get rid of the administration that got us into this.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Bury my heart at Haditha
“After the taxi passengers were shot, the report found, the Marines raided nearby houses, firing indiscriminately, using both grenades and guns, in a bloody, door-to-door sweep, killing 14 unarmed inhabitants, in just 10 minutes.”
The notion that the Mainstream Media only reports bad news and does so only to make the administration look bad, may be more muted than it was several years ago, but it is still operative amongst the people who identify themselves as “conservative.”
“One 13-year-old girl was the lone survivor in the second house, losing five family members, including her mother and 3-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother. ‘He fired and killed everybody. The American fired and killed everybody,’ Safah Yunis Salem told investigators.”
Setting aside the notion that the press ought to stress the scanty examples of improvements in Iraqi life attributable to the American presence rather than the random acts of horrifying brutality because we need to maintain morale, we should ask ourselves what we would be most affected by were we in the shoes of the Iraqis. How would I weigh the news that my son’s school had reopened although it might be too dangerous for him to attend against the news that the Americans had raped my daughter, destroyed my brother’s car, killed my sister’s husband and ruined my livelihood?
I am not arguing that our troops are barbarians, but I cannot argue that some of them are not. Regardless of whether it is one percent or half of one percent that are committing humiliating acts, brutal acts and even murderous acts and regardless of whether we think we should take notice or ignore it, the Iraqis; the people we tell ourselves we conquered for their own good are going to remember each and every detail. They have little else to do sitting in the dark trying to cook something over a fire over scrap wood someone risked their life to obtain while bullets ricochet in the street.
How is it that our leadership was stupid enough to think we could demolish the infrastructure and institutions and resources of Iraq without plunging it into chaos and how is it that these idiots could believe we could do it without turning them against us? How is it that Americans who might otherwise seem sane can insist we need to ignore all this for the good of the troops and can still talk about “winning” when what we hoped to win has long since been destroyed?
The notion that the Mainstream Media only reports bad news and does so only to make the administration look bad, may be more muted than it was several years ago, but it is still operative amongst the people who identify themselves as “conservative.”
“One 13-year-old girl was the lone survivor in the second house, losing five family members, including her mother and 3-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother. ‘He fired and killed everybody. The American fired and killed everybody,’ Safah Yunis Salem told investigators.”
Setting aside the notion that the press ought to stress the scanty examples of improvements in Iraqi life attributable to the American presence rather than the random acts of horrifying brutality because we need to maintain morale, we should ask ourselves what we would be most affected by were we in the shoes of the Iraqis. How would I weigh the news that my son’s school had reopened although it might be too dangerous for him to attend against the news that the Americans had raped my daughter, destroyed my brother’s car, killed my sister’s husband and ruined my livelihood?
I am not arguing that our troops are barbarians, but I cannot argue that some of them are not. Regardless of whether it is one percent or half of one percent that are committing humiliating acts, brutal acts and even murderous acts and regardless of whether we think we should take notice or ignore it, the Iraqis; the people we tell ourselves we conquered for their own good are going to remember each and every detail. They have little else to do sitting in the dark trying to cook something over a fire over scrap wood someone risked their life to obtain while bullets ricochet in the street.
How is it that our leadership was stupid enough to think we could demolish the infrastructure and institutions and resources of Iraq without plunging it into chaos and how is it that these idiots could believe we could do it without turning them against us? How is it that Americans who might otherwise seem sane can insist we need to ignore all this for the good of the troops and can still talk about “winning” when what we hoped to win has long since been destroyed?
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Send in the yes men.
George W. Bush shares yet another characteristic of Adolph Hitler - he thinks he knows more about conducting military operations than his generals. As he has done countless times, George has now got rid of two more people who question his genius. Raw Story reports the breaking news that Gen. John Abizaid, US commander in the Middle East who was scheduled to retire in March will leave now to be replaced by Admiral William J. Fallon. David Petraeus will replace General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq. Both men have expressed concern about George Bush's "more of the same" strategy which so closely mirrors Lyndon B. Johnson's reliance on ever increasing troop levels in Viet Nam.
Once again we are shown that Bush's only measure of his subordinates is blind loyalty to his crusade. Screw up and you get a medal, speak up and you get the back door.
Once again we are shown that Bush's only measure of his subordinates is blind loyalty to his crusade. Screw up and you get a medal, speak up and you get the back door.
Another step
exigent \EK-suh-juhnt\, adjective:1. Requiring immediate aid or action; pressing; critical.2. Requiring much effort or expense; demanding; exacting.
George Bush asserted another self-granted authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on December 20th by issuing yet another "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail without a warrant. Typical of White House interpretations of Presidential pronouncements, spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore denied Bush was claiming any new authority and asserted that “the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches” under what Bush calls “exigent circumstances.”
One can concoct a scenario wherein such things may be advisable, but of course the definition of exigency is here determined by George W. Bush and not by the law or by the courts whose job it is to do such things. All Bush has to do is cite 9/11 and anything he can relate to it no matter how speciously, can be justified.
It’s not a surprise, given Bush’s attitudes toward listening to phone calls, reading e-mail and his endless appeals to fear to justify outright defiance of law. It’s another giant step toward a government of Men – or perhaps more specifically one man, rather than of laws.
Certainly one can stop wondering whether the Republican defeat at the polls just two months ago taught the President anything. He seems to be staying that same course and damn the constitution, damn the Generals, damn the will of the people – he will stay the course.
Raw Story has the nauseating details.
George Bush asserted another self-granted authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on December 20th by issuing yet another "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail without a warrant. Typical of White House interpretations of Presidential pronouncements, spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore denied Bush was claiming any new authority and asserted that “the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches” under what Bush calls “exigent circumstances.”
One can concoct a scenario wherein such things may be advisable, but of course the definition of exigency is here determined by George W. Bush and not by the law or by the courts whose job it is to do such things. All Bush has to do is cite 9/11 and anything he can relate to it no matter how speciously, can be justified.
It’s not a surprise, given Bush’s attitudes toward listening to phone calls, reading e-mail and his endless appeals to fear to justify outright defiance of law. It’s another giant step toward a government of Men – or perhaps more specifically one man, rather than of laws.
Certainly one can stop wondering whether the Republican defeat at the polls just two months ago taught the President anything. He seems to be staying that same course and damn the constitution, damn the Generals, damn the will of the people – he will stay the course.
Raw Story has the nauseating details.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Common Sense
"If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate. If a different approach is taken, the next two years can be fruitful ones for our nation."
-George W. Bush-
Seems George is more than a clown – he’s a comedy writer too. So what did the Republican congress have in mind when pushing the flag burning amendment? George’s attempt in his Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, to appear as a wise, circumspect statesman is a real stomach turner. The different approach of course, is a continuation of the Rubber Stamp function of the legislature; an approach about as different as his likely escalation of troop levels in Iraq.
A continuation of Borrow and Spend, a continuation of optimistic economic prediction and continuing to press for more executive power – that’s the plan. Destroying the institutions and infrastructure and livelihood and the internal security of a country and plunging it into civil war? Well we just define it as a common sense approach because :
“when America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer and the world is more secure.”
If the new congress really wishes to take a new approach, it really has only one choice and that is impeachment – and quickly – before George W. Bush’s common sense destroys the world.
-George W. Bush-
Seems George is more than a clown – he’s a comedy writer too. So what did the Republican congress have in mind when pushing the flag burning amendment? George’s attempt in his Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, to appear as a wise, circumspect statesman is a real stomach turner. The different approach of course, is a continuation of the Rubber Stamp function of the legislature; an approach about as different as his likely escalation of troop levels in Iraq.
A continuation of Borrow and Spend, a continuation of optimistic economic prediction and continuing to press for more executive power – that’s the plan. Destroying the institutions and infrastructure and livelihood and the internal security of a country and plunging it into civil war? Well we just define it as a common sense approach because :
“when America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer and the world is more secure.”
If the new congress really wishes to take a new approach, it really has only one choice and that is impeachment – and quickly – before George W. Bush’s common sense destroys the world.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Where's Obama?
CNN’s “Where’s Obama” incident may or may not have been purely accidental, but the practice of falsely relating disparate or even antithetical things has become a refined skill in advertising and the media (is there a difference?)
Barak Obama seems to be the recipient of a suspicious number of accidental associations with militant Islamic figures and some quite obviously deliberate. I’d like to say it will backfire and I’d like to say that such things are too childish to work, but fictitious association building has become the way things, people and ideas are sold in our brave new world. Last night I watched an advertisement – a video shot from the cockpit you’re meant to believe is a race car on the Nürnburg Ring complete with sporty engine sounds. We pass sports cars like they’re standing still. Of course what they’re advertising is a truck and the entire premise is a grotesque lie on a par with the “Joe Isuzu” ads of the 1980’s only without the humor.
No your SAAB doesn’t “come from jets,” a Suzuki truck is not a fair substitute for the performance and excitement of a high performance motorcycle, your Jeep may have been “Inspired by race car design” but has no actual race car design, performance or safety, Theresa Kerry has never been the CEO of the ketchup company and Barak Hussein Obama shares nothing other than a name with the former tyrant of Iraq and nothing at all with Osama bin Laden. CNN may apologize profusely, but the image has been created, the outrageous lie has been launched and there is no bringing it under control. Are we one step closer to a world where the truth is what you want it to be and facts are things you create to sell it?
Barak Obama seems to be the recipient of a suspicious number of accidental associations with militant Islamic figures and some quite obviously deliberate. I’d like to say it will backfire and I’d like to say that such things are too childish to work, but fictitious association building has become the way things, people and ideas are sold in our brave new world. Last night I watched an advertisement – a video shot from the cockpit you’re meant to believe is a race car on the Nürnburg Ring complete with sporty engine sounds. We pass sports cars like they’re standing still. Of course what they’re advertising is a truck and the entire premise is a grotesque lie on a par with the “Joe Isuzu” ads of the 1980’s only without the humor.
No your SAAB doesn’t “come from jets,” a Suzuki truck is not a fair substitute for the performance and excitement of a high performance motorcycle, your Jeep may have been “Inspired by race car design” but has no actual race car design, performance or safety, Theresa Kerry has never been the CEO of the ketchup company and Barak Hussein Obama shares nothing other than a name with the former tyrant of Iraq and nothing at all with Osama bin Laden. CNN may apologize profusely, but the image has been created, the outrageous lie has been launched and there is no bringing it under control. Are we one step closer to a world where the truth is what you want it to be and facts are things you create to sell it?
Sunday, December 31, 2006
They're selling postcards of the hanging
Cell phone video is providing us with many things the media find too repulsive or dangerous to put on public view, so it is not surprising that the Execution of Saddam in all it's horror can be seen on the web.
The actual drop, the grotesquely broken neck and the swinging body, heart no doubt still fluttering, are accompanied by stills of the purpling corpse in a blood stained shroud, but what is perhaps more disturbing is the audio - at least to those who speak Arabic. According to Bob Murphy, Senior Vice President of ABC News, the official recording did not have the hostile taunts revealed on the "pirate" video. "It's clearly a hostile environment."
Will the Passion of Saddam going to his ignominious death while being taunted by his enemies play well in Sunni Iraq and elsewhere? Will The shroud of Baghdad become a sacred object? Stranger things have happened and I expect that the civil war or "sectarian violence" if you prefer will not be lessened in intensity by the killing of Saddam, nor will it change attidudes toward the US for the better.
The actual drop, the grotesquely broken neck and the swinging body, heart no doubt still fluttering, are accompanied by stills of the purpling corpse in a blood stained shroud, but what is perhaps more disturbing is the audio - at least to those who speak Arabic. According to Bob Murphy, Senior Vice President of ABC News, the official recording did not have the hostile taunts revealed on the "pirate" video. "It's clearly a hostile environment."
Will the Passion of Saddam going to his ignominious death while being taunted by his enemies play well in Sunni Iraq and elsewhere? Will The shroud of Baghdad become a sacred object? Stranger things have happened and I expect that the civil war or "sectarian violence" if you prefer will not be lessened in intensity by the killing of Saddam, nor will it change attidudes toward the US for the better.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The voice in the whirlwind
I understand there are tornadoes in the vicinity of Crawford Texas as I write this. Our Warpresident/decider has taken refuge in an armored vehicle, something I've been told is the dumbest place to ride out a twister which could easily pick up an SUV and toss it into the next county. One would think that a real Texas farmer or at least someone who has read the Wizard of OZ would have a storm celler, but Bush is neither and after all, who could have suspected a tornado would hit Texas much less a hurricane hitting New Orleans.
Of course being as religious as I am, I believe that tornadoes and hurricanes and most natural displays of awesome power are the will of God and if God isn't yet telling Bush his days are numbered, perhaps he is at least clearing his throat.
Why now? Becuase as I read in the Daily Kos, Bush's brown shirts have intimidated the scientific community into lying about the age of the Grand Canyon. That Noah's flood, for which there is not a shred of evidence anywhere in the world carved this trench through a mile of granite and hard shale in a matter of a week or so some 6000 years ago is now the official story. Never mind the vast amount of precise data which points elsewhere and never mind that history itself shows a continuity of civilization through the alleged period, we have to surrender our minds to the idiot prince in Crawford.
As I said, God is clearing his throat and although I can only guess what he will have to say to the psycho in Chief, it may have something to do with bearing false witness by testifying against God who may or may not have written the books other idiot princes turned into the Bible, but sure did write the rocks.
So listen up, George and pay attention to the voice in the whirlwind all you book worshipping literalist vermin. Your days are numbered and the number is small and your time is short.
Of course being as religious as I am, I believe that tornadoes and hurricanes and most natural displays of awesome power are the will of God and if God isn't yet telling Bush his days are numbered, perhaps he is at least clearing his throat.
Why now? Becuase as I read in the Daily Kos, Bush's brown shirts have intimidated the scientific community into lying about the age of the Grand Canyon. That Noah's flood, for which there is not a shred of evidence anywhere in the world carved this trench through a mile of granite and hard shale in a matter of a week or so some 6000 years ago is now the official story. Never mind the vast amount of precise data which points elsewhere and never mind that history itself shows a continuity of civilization through the alleged period, we have to surrender our minds to the idiot prince in Crawford.
As I said, God is clearing his throat and although I can only guess what he will have to say to the psycho in Chief, it may have something to do with bearing false witness by testifying against God who may or may not have written the books other idiot princes turned into the Bible, but sure did write the rocks.
So listen up, George and pay attention to the voice in the whirlwind all you book worshipping literalist vermin. Your days are numbered and the number is small and your time is short.
The best of the worst - 2006
2006 was an outrageous year. All it usually took for me to find something to write about was a look at the headlines or a quick look at what Fox was spewing and there were plenty of outrages in word and deed to choose from. I wouldn’t dare to try to list the best of the worst, even if I did have the huge chunk of time it would take, but AlterNet was audacious enough to post their 11 most outrageous Right Wing comments of 2006 . Apparently they would have stopped at 10 but for Ann Coulter – still Michael Savage’s savage claim that Wolf Blitzer “would have pushed Jewish children into the oven” is pretty bad, but not as funny as fat old Rush Limbaugh’s attempt to blame obesity on the Liberals while telling us you have to slaughter the cow to get butter.
My favorite in the Honorable Mention class has to be MSNBC’s Glenn Beck calling for the nuclear annihilation of not only Iran, but everyone else that disagrees with Mr. Beck. But of course that’s only my opinion. Nearly everything the media blowhards and the other representatives of the Bush administration (if I’m not being redundant) gave us was outrageous enough to qualify. There is no way to list them all or to comment on them all even if I had the stomach for it. I’m left with a vision of Kurtz in his jungle hell mumbling incoherently about the horror.
My favorite in the Honorable Mention class has to be MSNBC’s Glenn Beck calling for the nuclear annihilation of not only Iran, but everyone else that disagrees with Mr. Beck. But of course that’s only my opinion. Nearly everything the media blowhards and the other representatives of the Bush administration (if I’m not being redundant) gave us was outrageous enough to qualify. There is no way to list them all or to comment on them all even if I had the stomach for it. I’m left with a vision of Kurtz in his jungle hell mumbling incoherently about the horror.
A month of holidays
Perhaps one of the many reasons Christianists have for making a fuss about anyone conveying their wishes that someone’s holidays be happy, is that it reminds people that the Christians who celebrate Christmas are not the only show in town.
It may remind some that having the Wal-Mart greeter say “Merry Christmas” has little to do with “Putting Christ back in Christmas.” It might remind others that it isn’t only a few million Jews with their candlesticks who would like to feel American in their own right; the millions of Muslims of America have their season as well. The Hajj begins today and Sunday marks Eid Al-Adha.
It may be worthy of note that the Postal Service offers an Eid stamp, along with Kwanzaa and Hanukah and Christmas and I’m almost surprised that the Christmas turkeys haven’t been gobbling about that one.
The fact that a religion so fashionable to vilify celebrates essentially the same story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son that appears in the Hebrew Scriptures might come as a surprise to the Sunday school educated residents of the Bible belt who seem to have some sense of ownership over the books, if not the theology of other religions and I’m sure it would offend them if in saying “Happy Holidays” we were wishing a happy holiday to a Muslim. So when they start grumbling about the offense to their freedom of speech and their religion, remember that they’re trying to invade your freedom of speech and diminish your freedom of religion. I have no problem with wishing a merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates it, or happy Eid or Hanukah or Kwanzaa when the situations is fitting – otherwise it’s Happy Holidays Y’all and I really mean it.
It may remind some that having the Wal-Mart greeter say “Merry Christmas” has little to do with “Putting Christ back in Christmas.” It might remind others that it isn’t only a few million Jews with their candlesticks who would like to feel American in their own right; the millions of Muslims of America have their season as well. The Hajj begins today and Sunday marks Eid Al-Adha.
It may be worthy of note that the Postal Service offers an Eid stamp, along with Kwanzaa and Hanukah and Christmas and I’m almost surprised that the Christmas turkeys haven’t been gobbling about that one.
The fact that a religion so fashionable to vilify celebrates essentially the same story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son that appears in the Hebrew Scriptures might come as a surprise to the Sunday school educated residents of the Bible belt who seem to have some sense of ownership over the books, if not the theology of other religions and I’m sure it would offend them if in saying “Happy Holidays” we were wishing a happy holiday to a Muslim. So when they start grumbling about the offense to their freedom of speech and their religion, remember that they’re trying to invade your freedom of speech and diminish your freedom of religion. I have no problem with wishing a merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates it, or happy Eid or Hanukah or Kwanzaa when the situations is fitting – otherwise it’s Happy Holidays Y’all and I really mean it.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
What's in a name?
While we can't be sure that Barak Obama will run for President in 2008, the Swift Boat crew is already standing by to cast off. David Wallis wrote an amusing article about middle names of candidates for Slate yesterday. From FDR's classy Delano to Harry S Truman whose middle name actually was S, the cadence and sound of a candidates name can have an effect on the way we perceive them that translates into votes. I'm sure that Barak Obama takes these things seriously, since his middle name is Hussein - after his Kenyan father and grandfather.
You can hear Republican strategist Ed Rogers carefully stressing that appellation on Hardball with an audible sneer "Count me down as somebody who underestimates Barack Hussein Obama." One can almost hear the bilge blowers whirring and the big diesels turning over.
"You can't solve Iraq with a campaign about people's middle names," said Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs to Maureen Dowd and he's right, but you can give the nitwits and the Xenophobes and bigots and pathological Republicans something to cackle about and you can't solve Iraq if you lose elections.
Debbie Schlussel, the right wing nutjob, says Obama
"… is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as president when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?"
One of my predictions for the coming year is that we will hear a lot more bigoted, racial insanity in 2007.
You can hear Republican strategist Ed Rogers carefully stressing that appellation on Hardball with an audible sneer "Count me down as somebody who underestimates Barack Hussein Obama." One can almost hear the bilge blowers whirring and the big diesels turning over.
"You can't solve Iraq with a campaign about people's middle names," said Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs to Maureen Dowd and he's right, but you can give the nitwits and the Xenophobes and bigots and pathological Republicans something to cackle about and you can't solve Iraq if you lose elections.
Debbie Schlussel, the right wing nutjob, says Obama
"… is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as president when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?"
One of my predictions for the coming year is that we will hear a lot more bigoted, racial insanity in 2007.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Hide the guns maw - here comes Nancy.
Perhaps it’s the sort of conversation one might expect in a gun store, but still it makes me shake my head in wonderment. “Nancy Pelosi is going to make a treaty allowing UN troops to take away our guns” said an otherwise apparently sane person. “When that happens” said the proprietor; “When that happens I’m going to burn my records and close the shop.”
I imagine Ms. Pelosi would be surprised to know the extent of her powers and I suspect that an international treaty allowing foreign powers to perform law enforcement in the US isn’t going to go very far regardless of who is president or speaker of the house and particularly when such enforcement would abrogate the Constitution, not to speak of sovereignty, but I suspect that the fantasy has more than one adherent none the less.
It’s not new, of course. Back when “Billary” was going to take our guns I listened in awe to a radio broadcast claiming that the UN was building a secret headquarters (with the cooperation of the Clintons) under Philadelphia from which their assault on America would be staged. Our involvement in the Balkans was, of course, designed to facilitate turning over command of our armed forces to the United Nations.
Anyway, it was hardly a surprise to me that the NRA sent me (no, I’m not a member) a slate of approved candidates last October that included Katharine Harris. Apparently, the threat of those “Liberals” taking away our guns is sufficient to justify voting for a proven incompetent and possibly felonious liar who thinks it’s sinful to vote for non-evangelicals and morally justifiable to interfere with the election process to install God’s other candidates. The NRA has often been called a purveyor of paranoid hyperbole. I think that’s overly gentle.
What I object to the very most however is that as a supporter of the Constitution as the true core and foundation of our government, I am sometimes lumped in with these people. As a Liberal, I prefer as Ben Franklin did, to accept risk rather than tolerate an excess of authority, whether in the name of “tradition” or security. When the Constitution says “shall not be infringed” or “shall not be violated” as concerns its protected rights, I take it seriously and I do not see the absolute eradication of crime or danger as an achievable goal much less a goal to be pursued at the expense of liberty.
Contrary to the bumper sticker popular in the 1990’s, it wasn’t God Guns and Guts that made America great, it was the constitution and when we have interpreted it so as to apply its protection and promise to all of us, we have prospered. We have prospered as freedom has prospered and we have been diminished as we have attempted to ignore it. It's that basis of our freedom and if you want to take it away, you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Your papers please. . .
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
-Constitution of the United States of America-
Like many of you, I had a bit of a drive on Christmas day – 120 miles round trip and nearly all of it on the Interstate. Of course this being Florida, it can be hard to tell the drunks from the incompetent and the insane, but I’m sure that the fellow in the Honda who did a complete stop in the “Sun Pass” automatic toll lane was just a garden variety idiot, or else he wouldn’t have dedicated the next 20 minutes to trying to prove his Honda was much faster and more agile than my Corvette. I’m sure he convinced himself without much effort.
I’m not sure about he several mega-SUV’s that slowly lumbered to the end of a half mile merge lane and then attempted to merge at 20 mph into a lane traveling at 85. It’s easier to assess the little sedans loaded with passengers traveling at 45 in the center or left lanes – if they are 85 or older with chins resting on the wheel, it’s just incompetence. If they’re much younger, you can bet they’re as smashed as the young men in the full-sized pick-ups rolling at 95+ down the left lane in the pouring rain.
One way or another it was a circus out there and it thoroughly ruined the mellowness of the evening. It could have been a field day for the police had there been any in sight. It seems that my county and the adjacent counties had decided to set up road blocks on the secondary roads instead. Judging from the comments in the local paper this morning, you would think this was a very popular idea and the one fellow who happened to question the random searches was promptly drowned out by a flood or hyper-emotional tirades from MADD members and others who hate due process and the rule of law. If one cuts through the dubious stories of friends and family slaughtered by drunks, one consistent theme remains: if it saves one life it’s worth it. That’s a statement worthy of being posted, if not above the gates of hell, at least at tyranny’s door. To reduce it to the absurd, a total curfew would save many, many lives and a police state is a safe state.
More than the inconvenience of sitting at a roadblock while policemen justify their presence by writing tickets for broken tail lights and peering and sniffing into your car with flashlights and trained dogs and making intimidating comments, it’s the fact that one more increment of what was a guaranteed freedom has been lost in the name of security. Ah, but driving is a privilege, say the mothers of MADD and so might it not be just a small step to say that renting an apartment is a privilege or being a citizen is a privilege which necessitates searches without probable cause. In fact our government seems to operating on that presumption.
Somehow it makes more sense to Americans to insist that our troops being blown up in Iraq are “defending our freedoms” then to notice that our freedoms are being taken away in the name of safety or that the obverse side of the security coin is servitude. The granting of unwritten Writs of Assistance that allow police to detain, search and inspect citizens without probable cause may seem a small step toward safety, but it’s a giant step toward a police state.
-Constitution of the United States of America-
Like many of you, I had a bit of a drive on Christmas day – 120 miles round trip and nearly all of it on the Interstate. Of course this being Florida, it can be hard to tell the drunks from the incompetent and the insane, but I’m sure that the fellow in the Honda who did a complete stop in the “Sun Pass” automatic toll lane was just a garden variety idiot, or else he wouldn’t have dedicated the next 20 minutes to trying to prove his Honda was much faster and more agile than my Corvette. I’m sure he convinced himself without much effort.
I’m not sure about he several mega-SUV’s that slowly lumbered to the end of a half mile merge lane and then attempted to merge at 20 mph into a lane traveling at 85. It’s easier to assess the little sedans loaded with passengers traveling at 45 in the center or left lanes – if they are 85 or older with chins resting on the wheel, it’s just incompetence. If they’re much younger, you can bet they’re as smashed as the young men in the full-sized pick-ups rolling at 95+ down the left lane in the pouring rain.
One way or another it was a circus out there and it thoroughly ruined the mellowness of the evening. It could have been a field day for the police had there been any in sight. It seems that my county and the adjacent counties had decided to set up road blocks on the secondary roads instead. Judging from the comments in the local paper this morning, you would think this was a very popular idea and the one fellow who happened to question the random searches was promptly drowned out by a flood or hyper-emotional tirades from MADD members and others who hate due process and the rule of law. If one cuts through the dubious stories of friends and family slaughtered by drunks, one consistent theme remains: if it saves one life it’s worth it. That’s a statement worthy of being posted, if not above the gates of hell, at least at tyranny’s door. To reduce it to the absurd, a total curfew would save many, many lives and a police state is a safe state.
More than the inconvenience of sitting at a roadblock while policemen justify their presence by writing tickets for broken tail lights and peering and sniffing into your car with flashlights and trained dogs and making intimidating comments, it’s the fact that one more increment of what was a guaranteed freedom has been lost in the name of security. Ah, but driving is a privilege, say the mothers of MADD and so might it not be just a small step to say that renting an apartment is a privilege or being a citizen is a privilege which necessitates searches without probable cause. In fact our government seems to operating on that presumption.
Somehow it makes more sense to Americans to insist that our troops being blown up in Iraq are “defending our freedoms” then to notice that our freedoms are being taken away in the name of safety or that the obverse side of the security coin is servitude. The granting of unwritten Writs of Assistance that allow police to detain, search and inspect citizens without probable cause may seem a small step toward safety, but it’s a giant step toward a police state.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
The fright before Christmas
The Christmas bombing of 1972: James Carroll wrote about it for the Boston Globe back in 2002. People my age don’t need to read about it. We remember being called traitors for our disgust with a massive anti-civilian act of unbridled terrorism.
“American pilots flew nearly 4,000 sorties, including more than 700 by high-flying B-52s. Those ''area bombers,'' incapable of precision, had never been used against cities before. That they were used now was a sure sign that this was terror bombing pure and simple. . . . Everyone could see that the bombing was a final venting of frustration and rage by a superpower faced with ignominious defeat.”
Carroll’s point though, is not to point out the massive brutality this country can dish out without questioning its morality or that patriotism can be used to glorify murder most foul, but that years of war and flag waving and supporting the troops and making Americans with a conscience the scapegoat for our relentless defeat, the moral sensibilities of our leaders had declined to the level of panic and animal viciousness. Anything to win – anything at all.
“Those who ordered and carried out the brutal attacks against population centers at the end of the Vietnam War would never have done so at the beginning. What Nixon commanded in 1972 he would have condemned in 1969. . . The war transformed
As Christmas approaches once again and as the Pentagon apparently plans to move additional warships and strike aircraft into the
It’s not the sort of thing to bring visions of sugar plums to my slumbering brain in the nights before Christmas.
Friday, December 22, 2006
The holiday that ate Chanukah
You’d probably never have heard about Hannukah if it didn’t occur in December. Like Simchat Torah or Tu B'Shevat or Sukkot or Purim, it wouldn’t appear in the news and you wouldn’t find symbols or tokens of these holidays in airports and shopping mall atriums. It’s a celebration not nearly as important or seen as nearly so holy as the “high holidays” like Yom Kippur that sometimes get a passing mention.
Of course that dynasty came to an end, the Romans became the next occupiers and persecutors and the longing for another hero to come and install another Jewish king arose (and preferably one related to the house of David and Solomon rather than one of those half baked Hasmoneans.) The Messiah myth produced several failed attempts led by such people as David Bar Kochba and Joshua of Nazareth. All were disasters.
So until recently, celebrating Hanukah (however you prefer to spell it) was a bit like celebrating that one-run lead in the first inning long after the game was over and you lost – but then came the elevation of Christmas to an American commercial holiday.
20th Century Christmases are so powerfully seductive, with their long English and Nordic and Greco-Persian traditions to give romance to cruising the malls; with colored lights and catchy jingles, illuminated polystyrene images of flying arctic ungulates held over from the late Pleistocene and visions of iPods and Play Stations in children’s heads. Christmas has the entire might of the American economy behind it. It became torture to a Jewish kid whose parents chose to ignore Santa’s juggernaut, leaving them with some cheap plastic top, some foil wrapped chocolate coins, a box of cheesy looking candles and some mumbled prayers in a language few of us speak. It worried parents afraid of their children losing what they considered to be a Jewish identity. Ecce Haunukah, reborn and reshaped to look like Christmas without a tree.
Nothing says “Me Too” like a tin foil covered candelabra in Macy’s window or the
So to the idiots who see this travesty as a challenge to the ultimate victory of Christianist supremacy, I would suggest that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Santa vincit omnia.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Miracles
I’m still waiting for a couple of things I heard many times as a child – well one actually. The first was that the sun always shines on Easter, which of course is true, given enough altitude. Just ask the guys on the International Space Station. The other is that there are miracles on Christmas. Of course it’s a cynical quest. A miracle has to be something that can’t happen but does happen and to my way of thinking, if it happens, it can’t be a miracle. Most people though, are satisfied with much less in their miracles; a water stain on a wall, a burn pattern on a grilled cheese sandwich, someone who was sick got better despite some doctor’s prognosis. As Christmas approaches, we search for these justifications for our idiocy.
I don’t know if someone somewhere doesn’t have a vast database of disasters plotted against the calendar but I would be willing to bet, that the odds are about the same on Christmas as any day of the year for floods, landslides, earthquakes, fires, famines and pestilences. It may be a holiday for most Americans but not for Death. Taking a quick break from supervising my holiday house guests today, I see that the news is still full of grief and horror and sadness and misery and death as has the world been down all the thousands of generations, but I’m sure that someone will ferret out a miracle from the endless stories of the ferret eating the baby’s toes or the infant run through the airport X-ray machine. People will be blown to bits today, people will starve and die in agony in gutters. Life with its concomitant horrors will go on as it always has and without interruption.
Still, we will have our miracles to clutch at in this cold and uncaring universe;to give a sense of meaning to lives that mean anything only to us as we sink into the inevitable grief and sorrow and suffering and an eternity of oblivion, as the universe stretches out into an infinite and meaningless immensity.
Happy Holidays
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Running through the jungle
Mel Gibson sees himself as a victim; thinks he’s been unfairly treated after his boozy transgression against public safety, his coy flirtations with holocaust denial, his demented tirade against the Jews and his resisting arrest. In a telephone interview, Gibson said:
"But how many people do you know get a DUI and are kicked around for six months? It's out of proportion. I'm not saying I wasn't at fault. Hey, we're not perfect, we're all human, get over it. I've apologized, done the right thing, now get the hell over it. I'm a work in progress."
He’s definitely a piece of work of some kind, that’s true, but since many people have gone to prison for what he got away with, the notion that, as he said to USA Today, he should get a target tattooed on his chest, is just another smug and arrogant bit of the persecution obsessed Mel Gibson.
“they're calling it blood porn. To make it personal against me, that's a low blow."
And it’s just as low to take specific criticism of his movies as evidence that he’s a victim and unfairly so. But was Apocalypto “the right thing?” As with his depiction of early first century
“Gibson has taken bits and pieces from various groups and time periods and mixed them together with a large dollop of his own feverish imaginings into a Chinese menu of ‘one from column A and one from column B,’ with no attempt at accuracy.”
While the non-Mayan actors may be mouthing a modern Mayan dialect by rote, as Romans in The Passion of the Christ mouthed medieval Church Latin instead of Greek, they are not Mayans but rather native Americans from the American Midwest and the more important the role, the more the casting reflects Gibson’s biases. Gibson’s Jesus, for instance, could have easily passed for a Northern European, while the nasty unbelieving Jews were as stereotypically semitic as one would see in a medieval passion painting. In Apocalypto, says Danien
“we see fewer than a half-dozen people who are recognizably Maya in appearance.”
Of course that’s a bit typical of old Hollywood casting and location selection (the film was shot in Vera Cruz, not in the Yucatan,) but Gibson can only sneer and tell us that historical accuracy is more appropriate for the History Channel. What he sells is populist pandering, full of blood, torture and victimhood and it’s tempting to speculate that this fits with the personality and the dark fantasies of a man who feels the Jews who control the world and start all the wars are out to persecute him.
If you want two gory hours of torture and human sacrifice, go see Apocalypto, says Danien.
“If you'd like to learn something about the real lives of the Maya and other peoples of
And you won’t be enriching an alcoholic bigot by doing it either.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Call me obsolete
The new American – what is he like? According to the US Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States to be published today, the 21st Century edition of Homo Sapiens Americanus is taller, fatter and much more likely to be seen sipping like an infant from a bottle: ten times more likely than he was in 1980 according to the New York Times.
The American of today seems more likely to choose prayer than a Chiropractor than he was 25 years ago and more likely to get news and information from the Internet than in previous years; no surprise there or in that we seem to be spending more quality time alone being entertained and informed without human contact.
As a college Freshman in the 1960’s, my objective was to become a cultured man. My choices, a cause of concern to the administration, were a farrago of subjects from Japanese esoteric Buddhism to thermionic devices to structural geology to music theory to Medieval German Literature to aerodynamics to English Romantic poetry. Had I heard the voice ask “quo vadis?” I could not have answered, nor could I today I fear.
Those very few who admitted to being business majors in my day had few friends and little respect. In 1970, a whopping 79% of freshmen gave their educational goal as “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.” Last year, 75% asserted that their objective was to get rich.
Still, the ratio of men to women obtaining professional degrees 35 years ago was about 15 to 1 versus today’s nearly 50:50. The number of woman doctors has doubled. It’s hard for a curmudgeon to see anything but progress in that, but still I wonder about how many of these newly degreed young men and women could tell you the differences between Soka Gakkai and Nichiren Shoshu or describe a beam power tetrode or quote Roswitha von Gandersheim.
And I alone have escaped to tell thee.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Lawyers, guns and money
The Republicans must be having a hard time finding something to scream and yell about, since they’ve spectacularly screwed up most every mission they have embarked on and ignored every promise they've made in the last decade or so.
Who would have thought however, that the “save our children” circus so closely associated with Mark Foley would be seen as something with life left in it by a Republican so prominent as John McCain? The Arizona Senator has introduced the most hysterical bit of ill-considered, questionably Constitutional and sloppily written garbage recently to pose as legislation. According to a C-Net News.Com article,
“concern about protecting children online has reached nearly a fever pitch in Washington”even though, according to the article, studies by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show the online sexual solicitation of minors has dropped in the past five years.
Of course you have a hard time proving that to those who see sin and deviltry everywhere and perhaps these crusaders do see a lot of it because it seems so many of them are involved in it, but primarily, the War on Pornography that has been a major part of the Republican platform in every campaign for decades during which Islamic terrorism was ignored, seems to be the leaky life ring they are grasping at in their panic. Even though the definition of child pornography has become so broad that taking fully clothed pictures of children with their parents’ consent can land you in jail, McCain still stoops to the side-show level to grasp at any vote he can find.
The repercussions of this legislation, should it somehow pass (and who is going to vote against anything that promises to save the kids from pederasts?) will be staggering for those who post in blogs or publish blogs with discussion sections. Put your profile, or profiles of your fellow bloggers on your Blogger page? Better do a background check because if someone there or in your discussion area was branded a sex offender when he was four years old, you’re going to need lawyers, guns and money before the matter is settled.
In fact, the various ramifications and repercussions of this hysterical witch hunt are too vast and amorphous to treat with here, but let me sum up with the opinion that if we do not take every available action to rid our nation of the Republican insurgency, we may one day be looking at Afghanistan with longing.
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