AMERICAN EX

GOD SMITES THE BIBLE BELT

2005-09-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

If you, like many right wing christos, believe that 'god' is punishing sinful New Orleans, there are other factors to consider. The hurricane and the massive flooding, was not limited to New Orleans. It took a great big bite out of the Southern bible belt as well.

In the last few years, god has taken big swipes at the very liver of right wing born againism, with hurricane after hurricane. Florida is, after all, one of god's favorite targets for his wrath, and a hot bed of Christian fundamentalism, as well. Several of the big christo money siphoning organizations, such as the many profitable enterprises of Pat Roberson, are head quartered in Florida. Florida is a noted breeding ground for the mega-church, and god flings his wrath at it, several times a year.

Regarding the sinners of New Orleans; it seems to me that most of them got out of the city. Leaving the people with the least control, regarding the character of the city, to feel god's rage. To take the rap for the club owners, the partying tourists, the big pimps, and the uptown business guys with money to spend on their sins. Most of them got away. Leaving the shoe shine boys, the street performers, and the cooks and the maids and toilet cleaners, the old, the sick, the poor, to pay the price. The majority of whom are Christian.

God is a strange dude. Perhaps a bit dyslexic.

Of course, there is the possibility that god had nothing to do with it and that any moral lessons to be drawn, must be determined not by our opinion of the people effected, but by our response to the people who have been hit so hard, by a natural force.

A force that appears predictably, every year, as the Atlantic ocean heats up. To my mind, the only unnatural aspect of this hurricane, is that global warming is increasing both the frequency and intensity of these storms. It should give us cause to pause and rethink our rejection of the Kyoto agreement. But no, we'll just continue to call it the will of god. Like I said, god is a strange dude, in the minds and mouths of believers.

But, If you must try to bring the will and intentions of god, the voice of god, into the meaning of these events, I can't help but notice that god smites the Southern bible thumpers, with alarming regularity.

Is there a message in this, believers? You tell me.

In my last post, I mentioned that a Pat Robertson organization, Operation Blessing, is near the top of the list of charity organizations, endorsed by the government to receive donations of flood relief money, from private donors.

That is to say that your government is telling you this is a 'trusted' organization. Not so, gentle reader.

Moneys from charitable organizations started by Robertson, have been channeled into private businesses and used as leverage for Robertson's gold and diamond mining interests in Africa. Blood diamonds yet. It seems that Pat Robertson is personal friends with some of the most brutal dictators in Africa.

Oh, but he's a godly man. 'Cause, like I said, god is a very strange dude.

I mean, what do you call a person who throws a grenade into a crowded bar, to get one guy? A coward and a terrorist.

What do you call a god that blows away an entire region and a whole city, to get a few thousands 'sinners', who have mostly fled the area? Clumsy? Stupid? Blind? Psychopathic? Republican?

What do you call a man who creates such a god? You tell me.

Pat Robertson: 'I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist'
is a well researched article by Greg Palast, of the London Observer. You might want to read this, especially if you are considering sending your money to Robertson's Operation Blessing. If you really want to bless this hyper wealthy man, with more capital to use as leverage in his many questionable business dealings, go ahead. I'm sure Robertson's god will bless you. Like I keep saying, god is a strange dude. In the minds and moths of believers.

Here is a genuinely scary link. A story/article about a FEMA relocation/concentration camp for New Orleans evacuees. A group of Churches in Oklahoma share own a large camp ground with barracks style 'cabins'. The cabins belong to different Churches and were donated by the churches, to be used by the people coming from New Orleans.

The story is about a family outing, to carry supplies to the camp for the evacuees. These people, this Christian family on a charity mission, saw the grim face of FEMA and the reality of how the cabins were to be used. The article is replete with photo's taken by the writer's daughter.

The cabins have large functioning kitchens, but the inmates, I mean evacuees, will not be allowed to use them. Two meals a day will be delivered. No outside food will be allowed in. The evacuees are not allowed to leave the camp, at all. They will be there at least five months.

Local churches may not bus inmates, I mean evacuees, to local churches for Sunday services, the list of FEMA rules goes on and on. The good people that donated those cabins had no idea that their charitable offer would be turned into an actual interment camp with a large detachment of military guards.

The link will be at the bottom of this article again. You really want to check this out, I find it very strange and very disturbing. They went into this agreement, believing they were offering hope and charity to these people, not providing a FEMA prison for flood victims.

We should watch what happens to the evacuees with great care. The heavily armed mercenaries that are being sent into New Orleans, to 'relieve the military' are notorious for murders and abuses in Iraq. Reporters are being forced out as the mercenaries are being shipped in.

These paramilitary security outfits are noted for their lack of training and lack of discipline. They are hated by the regular forces in Iraq because their actions against civilians have caused numerous reprisals. They are also almost exclusively white, from Arkansas and West Virginia where unemployment is very high.

These are not police, these are not soldiers, they are a large gang of red neck yokels with guns and uniforms. The reporters have been removed from New Orleans. FEMA is adamant that there would be no photographs of this important historical event.

I don't think they are just hiding the bodies of the flood victims, as part of covering up the actual death toll. I think they are expecting the new death toll to rise and they don't want witnesses. That is the new American reality. Government that operates in complete secrecy, with no accountability.

Remember that great big no bid, sweet heart contract given to Haliburton, before almost anything was done on the ground? Guess who is supplying the mercenaries? Yep, Haliburton. Their 'advanced construction team', I suppose.

Watch this closely because this is what is in store for America. You think it won't happen? You didn't think it it would go this far either, did you?

I Just Got Back From a FEMA Detainment Camp

Now Is the Time for Your Anger

2005-09-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, as usual, is refusing to answer the obvious questions coming out of this government created disaster in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. No real surprise there, that's what Scotty is best at. Talking a lot without actually saying anything.

Now, of course, when asked direct questions regarding the human side of this calamity, the obvious questions regarding the predictability of the disaster and the lack of response, Scotty says, "Now is not the time to be pointing fingers."

We all know, or anyone paying attention knows, that Scott is just an A class professional prevaricator and bull shit master. Top of his profession actually.

But I must insist that now is exactly the time to be pointing directly at the very obvious problem that this entire nation is suffering from. That is the absolute absence of responsible, competent, accountable leadership.

For those marveling at the bungling, disorganized, unmotivated leadership and effort the federal government has shown in this American crisis, I invite you to consider: This is exactly what is happening in Iraq, to our troops, and to the country and its people.

Heavily armed, bungling, incompetence managed by the same people who have been 'managing' this hitherto sleepwalking relief effort. There are damned good reasons why things are going so badly over there. Just as there are real reasons why things are going so badly, at home in America.

Now is most certainly the time to point fingers, while the reality of this criminal lack of responsibility is still on the ground, while the reality of the human consequences are still in our faces.

This is emphatically not the time for these useless rich punks to play politics and pretend they are being picked on by the 'liberal' media. But, let's face it, that is all these people know how to do. They lie and spin the truth to justify and obscure the reality of their odious motivations.

This cabal of neo-cons and religious conspirators, is composed of people who have never had real down and dirty jobs in their lives. They have never actually done anything except play politics and make money. It's like a big Monopoly game to them and the people are, at best, just chits, chips, ciphers.
We are not real to them.

I have said before that when the real cost of this war starts coming home, the support would not last that there would be a turning. Now, we are all face to face with the real cost of having handed over so much power to one dogmatic individual.

In handing so much power to this puppet president, we have in effect, given our country into the hands of a small group of rich, powerful little men, who see the real world and it's billions of people, like a particularly engaging game of Risk.

America is just another big counter piece in their game. And you, no matter what your political identity, do not count at all in this game.

DAMN THEM ALL

2005-09-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

I know that most of you are very aware of what is going on, or not really going on, in New Orleans and the gulf states. I won't recite the details. A few verbal pictures will suffice.

An Arkansas man, an airboat operator, brought his rig down to New Orleans, to volunteer to ferry people out of the city with his swamp boat, capable of operating in very shallow water. FEMA said they would let the man do it but that he would have to purchase his own gas. Airboats, propelled by an airplane engine, can burn a hundred dollars an hour, or more, in aviation fuel. So the man had to pull his boat back to Arkansas.

Seriously ill medical evacuees stranded on the roof of a hospital, one with a helicopter pad. Stranded for a day, so far. No helicopters to lift them off the roof. The two local airports are flooded but one has to wonder, where are the National Guard helicopters? Where are their many high water vehicles and the people to operate them? That has always been the job of the National Guard, to respond in force, to just such a disaster.

Like the money that wasn't used, on urgently needed repairs and upgrades to the flood control system in New Orleans, half of the Louisiana Guards men, and virtually all of their equipment, is being squandered in Iraq.

The director of FEMA, learned that thousands of people were stranded at the city convention center. He learned it while being interviewed at a television station. He was totally surprised to learn of it, yet it was one of the places people were told to go to, were supposed to go to, in case of such an emergency.

But, of course, the head of FEMA is a Bush political appointee with no experience in disaster management. Just lots of experience with playing political favors.

Every American, watching the fatal magnitude of the detachment of Bush and his administration and their bumbling incompetent response to this terrible, predictable, event, should understand that this is what America has become. Do not believe that the government is going to be more responsive to your needs, your survival, when disaster, natural or otherwise, visits your neighbourhood.

Please do not hesitate to write and or call your representatives and senators, let them know this will not be forgiven or forgotten. Let them know that this gigantic betrayal of public trust is just that, a betrayal of the highest magnitude.

A point of information for those wishing to donate funds to help with the relief efforts. Any money sent to FEMA or any government agency, is being sent to a list of ten organizations. Number one on the list, as you might expect, is the American Red Cross, number two on that list, number two, is a Christian organization owned, operated, and presided over, by none other than Pat Robertson. Pat 'It's valuable to have a friend at the White House' Robertson.

Update, Operation Blessing, is the name of Robertson's organization, it has been moved to number three on the list. It is one of the organizations that is wanting money only, no volunteers. Fits, eh?

I think it would be a much better idea to send money directly to the organization you most trust rather than any fund that is going to be doling out money to organizations operated by slimy evangelists and politically favored con men. New Orleans doesn't need bibles.

Mean while, the government is refusing to allow international aid and rescue organizations into the US to help. Hell, the UN would have figured out how to air drop supplies from Europe by now. But America the mighty, is without leadership and it's bumbling, overstuffed bureaucracy, headed by know nothing political appointees is paralyzed .

I am full of anger and sorrow. My imagination blurred with the images of all those people, in all that chaos, many dying by the hour.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the media that those poor, sick, old people, black babies, and mothers and children, anyone who could not get out of the city, have themselves to blame.

We, as a country, must not forgive, and dare not forget what this little cabal of political freaks and rich thieves have done to America . With their lies, their greed, and their genuine distain for ordinary Americans.

Truly, George Bush is a very little man and a very little president. I weep for America.

Link to a journal with first person reports from New Orleans, including a cell phone conversation with a man stranded, with thousands of others, in the city's convention center.
LINK HERE

The Mayor of New Orleans pleading with the president and federal government to save the people of his city. This is heart breaking but you should listen.
Be patient, it takes a minute or so to load, worth the wait if you want a first hand feel for just how bad it is.

You can also hear this interview at Air America, under the Mayor's picture on the left side of the page. Click Here

Nixon Revisited?

2005-08-29T01:04:00.000-07:00

Shortly after America's second phony election, reading the entrails of the American body politic, I predicted that the little president, George Bush, would end his second term in disgrace. I said, at the time, that just as little George had made a good if flawed figure head, he would also make an excellent fall guy, when the table began to turn.

This is one of those predictions I really wanted to be right about. It's looking good, so far.

When the little president was sworn into his second chance at the office, he had the lowest approval rating of a second term president, since Richard Nixon. Nixon, of course, left the office in disgrace, during his second term. For crimes much smaller than many perpetrated by this administration.

Right now, as I'm sure most of my readers know, George Bush's approval rating is a couple of points below that of Nixon, when that Republican was ran from office.

I remember clearly how strange and drawn Nixon looked when he left office. I remember his public out bursts and temper tantrums that became more frequent as the pressure grew.

Capital Hill Blue has an interesting article on the little president's current behavior. A short quote from the article:

White House insiders say Bush is growing increasingly bitter over mounting opposition to his war in Iraq. Polls show a vast majority of Americans now believe the war was a mistake and most doubt the President’s honesty.

“Who gives a flying fuck what the polls say,” he screamed at a recent strategy meeting. “I’m the President and I’ll do whatever I goddamned please. They don’t know shit.”

Very Nixon like, actually. Except Nixon was braver than the current presidential model. Nixon was not afraid of anti-war activists. He spoke to many. Nixon did share Bush's opinion that the president is somehow above the law and is endowed with God like powers to alter reality to fit his personal agenda.

Another quote from the above linked article, this from Dr. Justin Frank:

Bush’s behavior, according to prominent Washington psychiatrist, Dr. Justin Frank, author of “Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President,” is all too typical of an alcohol-abusing bully who is ruled by fear.

To see that fear emerge, Dr. Frank says, all one has to do is confront the President. “To actually directly confront him in a clear way, to bring him out, so you would really see the bully, and you would also see the fear,” he says

Now we have been witnessing his increasingly erratic and hostile behavior for some time. Cindy Sheehan, or what she represents, is bugging the hell out of the little president and has him literally on the run.

He went to yet another vacation spot to have a news conference about this woman who he hasn't got the time or frankly, the nerve, to meet face to face.

Though, to be fair, this weak, irresponsible, compulsively lying little rich boy, who has always been protected from the consequences of his own actions, can't stand beside this woman. He knows how small and weak he will look when compared directly to this woman, this ordinary citizen with a real and honest question that America wants a real and honest answer for.

Some insiders are beginning to speculate that the little president may be drinking again. Now, that might explain why he takes so much time off and works such short hours when he is in 'on the job'. But to me, the dry drunk syndrome seems more likely. Read the article for yourself, Dr. Flood does make interesting observations of the president's behavior.

Things are not going to get better for the little president. He has created a mess, the likes of which the US has never experienced before. Meanwhile, there seems to be an awakening happening in America. Cindy Sheehan's vigil and the little president's childish reaction to it, have had a dramatic effect on the American people.

No amount of swift boat liars, talking Republican heads on the news, smear articles, and even the PR company creation of a 'Counter Cindy' group, have been able to blunt the simple message going around the world. The president of the United States is nothing more than a rich child of privilege. war mongering, egocentric bully. And, a coward.

The man's cowardly spine has never been seen so clearly evident. So undeniably obvious, for all to see.

This would be very funny, very laughable and entertaining if one didn't understand how dangerous a frightened coward with power can be. History is replete with examples of banal, vain little men who were willing to bring about the destruction of their own people to protect themselves from the consequences of their actions.

I do not believe this president, this government, could turn it's own army against the American people. There will always be some units that can be counted on, but the Army, as a whole is in shock from what it is doing to the Iraqis. They are well aware of the children and women and old people they are killing. The men who follow the fire orders don't forget who they are aiming at.

However, having stepped into the land of speculation, I note that the Christian brown shirts, who are not joining the military in large numbers, are waiting in the wings. Robertson's recent threats, regarding the president of Venezuela, were a slight preview of things to come.

I have expected for some time now, that Bush, through Robertson, Dobson, and others of their ilk, will attempt to stir the religious right to violent actions against political opposition that is growing in America today. Historically, there will be nothing new about such events. This president is a big believer in using violence to force agreement or surrender.

As the stakes get higher, and they will, the worst of this nasty little man will become apparent.

On a lighter note, the hate preacher, Fred Phelps has appeared at a couple of funerals for Tennessee National Guardsmen, recently killed in Iraq and got a real Tennessee Volunteers welcome. Read it here.

Chased away they were. How about a cheer for those good people in Tennessee?

While I have very real fears for the future, it thrills me deeply to see the evidence of so many Americans beginning to awaken from the complacency and slumber that has held so many of us for so long.

Try as hard as they may to hid it, the cost of this evil destructive course America has embarked upon, is coming home. Pay back is coming Mr. President.

It isn't here yet but the president can hear it already and it scares him.

The State of the Current Disunity

2005-08-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

George Bush used to tell us that he is a uniter, not a divider. There is a certain kernel of truth to that idea but not one the president intended.

China and Russia have made history recently with their joint military exercises. The reason for the joint exercises? Russia and China find themselves very uneasy with the unilateralism of current American foreign policy.

Islamic extremists who have never had a foot hold in Iraq before, are finding common cause with the insurgents of Iraq, likewise the Iranians.

The majority of Europeans have united in their distrust and fear of the little president and his administration.

America has, in many ways, been torn asunder by the outrages of this defender of the rich and protector of the powerful. I think it fair to say that the American population is in a severe flux of disunity. A flux that is growing by the day.

Many months ago I predicted that the draft would have been reinstated by this summer. I am not sad to say I was wrong. That is the sort of thing I like being wrong about.

However, my reasons for that prediction still remain and the administration's inability to deal with the problems, show what a tenuous position the little president and his neo-con handlers are actually in.

The war is going very badly for our war time president. While he and Cheney, and the rest of the deck of white house cards continue to proclaim victory, most of the world is seeing a different story unfolding in Iraq.

In fact, the only people sensing victory are the same losers who started the war and wish to continue it. The same losers who are now making threats and trying to build a case for war against Iran. The same ones continuing to decimate the military while losing in Iraq.

Now, the building disunity I spoke of in the title, refers to the United States itself. The little president has no answers for any of the questions that are being inspired by this war. What do you do when you've skated so far upon the thin ice of fabricated evidence and flimsy excuses?

In his last radio address, the little man who could not face the mother of one of his victims, attempted to explain his war with the same old lie. A lie even key members of his administration have admitted is wrong. 9/11, 9/11, 9/11.

Almost no one still believes that lie but the little president, pro liar that he is, keeps telling it. Only the brain dead and utterly ignorant still believe him. Their ranks are beginning to shrink and at the same time, the ranks of ordinary citizens, fed up with the lies and the over the top power abuses of this administration, are growing rapidly.

The success of Cindy Sheehan's vigil is an indicator of how strong and how fast this movement of rational questions is growing.

Cindy Sheehan did not create this movement, she gave it a face, and a focus point, but she is so successful now because the balance is changing. People who have been quiet, for too long, are finding their voices. And finding the courage necessary to question such a paranoid regime, in public.

No amount of carefully orchestrated political display, such as the government sponsored Garth Brooks parade and concert, in Washington, will change the simple truth. There is no reason for war in Iraq, other than a naked grab for oil, money, and power. Nothing uniquely American is being defended, nothing good is being disseminated to the Iraqi people, but Halliburton is making an enormous pile of money, as well as the big oil companies.

Meanwhile, our soldiers are dieing in a war of pure greed, in unarmored vehicles, without proper body armor, because this administration is trying to save money on protective equipment while borrowing billions upon billions to throw at the corporate interests the White House serves.

One thing the war mongers realized, from the beginning, was that this war would not be supported by the American people if any real sacrifice was demanded of them. A clear indication that they knew the excuses would not fly for ever.

In spite of the huge cost of the war, Bush has given massive tax breaks to the rich and dares not raise taxes to support his war. For purely political reasons, he's leaving that for another administration to take the heat for.

Anyone doubting the slim support for the war has only to look at recruitment statistics. They are in the pits. Many of the traditional sources of recruitment, Black Americans, immigrants, and the poor, have quickly figured out that the military is not a reasonable alternative to poverty and unemployment.

In spite of their 'support the troops' stickers, and vocal proclamations of support for this insanity, Republicans, young and old alike seem to be waiting for someone else to do the actual fighting. They certainly aren't standing in line at military recruitments centres or packing their kids off to boot camp.

What popular support this war has, will evaporate very quickly if the draft is reinstated. So, the little president has decided to use stop loss programs to force people to say in the field long after their enlistment times are up. He uses National Guard and reserve units like regular troops, in spite of their man power and equipment shortages.

Recruitment is not replacing the losses. If you believe it is, then you are only looking at the official KIA figures. The loses, due to all causes, are out stripping recruitment.

The cracks of division are showing in the ranks of the Republicans themselves as more and more become embarrassed by their support of this failing regime. The idiocy, arrogance, and rank dishonesty of high administration officials, becomes more and more difficult to support.

Many are beginning to worry about the next set of elections, in 2006.

A small warning. Some people that I have spoken with and heard lately, mistakenly believe that an unpopular lame duck president will become powerless and will begin to make concessions.

George Bush is a vain, power besotted and scared little man. As pressure mounts against him, in the US, he will more likely escalate his excesses, rather than retreat from madness.

I should not be surprised if the real purpose of the Patriot Act becomes much more obvious between now and the end of this little president's reign.

The Slime and Drudge of Smear Mongers

2005-08-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

I did not intend to blog on this subject again so quickly, but the newest bit of low end smear tactics from the right, inspires a response.

This is from the Drudge report, a letter supposedly signed by some of Cindy Sheehan's relatives, appealing for Cindy to "Stop"

Below, I have reprinted the short 'article' in question.

FAMILY OF FALLEN SOLDIER PLEADS: PLEASE STOP, CINDY!Thu Aug 11 2005 12:56:21 ETThe family of American soldier Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has broken its silence and spoken out against his mother Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil against George Bush held outside the president's Crawford, Texas ranch. The following email was received by the DRUDGE REPORT from Casey's aunt and godmother:

Our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy we are breaking our silence and we have collectively written a statement for release. Feel free to distribute it as you wish. Thanks, Cherie In response to questions regarding the Cindy Sheehan/Crawford Texas issue: Sheehan Family Statement: The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation.

The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect. Sincerely, Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.

To start with, just to be fair, this note claims to have been written by two individuals who assume they represent the rest of the family yet only two people claim to have written it and neither has named themselves. Odd thing for someone making a public statement claiming to speak for others. It reads like it was written by a political hack, to me.

But, one must consider the source. Drudge is a bottom feeding muckraker who had his moment of attention, quite some time ago. He has milked that moment for all it's worth but try as he may, he can't make it back to the lime light, no matter how low he sinks.

This article is as low as it gets. He presents it in a manner, mentioning no names, that will allow him an out, if it turns out to be fraudulent.

Let's assume that it isn't a made up job, (just for the sake of discussion). Being, as I am, the product of a red neck American family, it is easy to read the self pity, arrogance, and presumption in this little lash out.

I can imagine that a strong, active, intelligent woman like Cindy Sheehan is leaned on by at least part of her extended family and in-laws. Some one may be missing her free services. Pure speculation based on the note of self pity in the demand.

The arrogant assumption that their needs and desires out rank Cindy's, based on some level of blood tie, speaks for itself. The attempted guilt trip, the claim that Cindy some how dishonors her son, by not playing the pretense that it was a noble loss, is just the sort of garbage that families and in-laws throw at each other on a regular basis. Always striving to claim the moral high ground to excuse their desire to control. Yet it still reads like it was written by a pro political hack.

What this sort of tactic says, for the right wing war supporters, is that they are running out of options and ideas. The tiny president can't meet, face to face, with an honest citizen, one not swayed or bought by dreams of political reward. It is damned hard for the hacks to to come up with a good excuse for the president's obvious show of weakness.

A person like Cindy is very hard to smear. So you have make up a family drama, a soap opera scenario, in a strained attempt to paint the woman black. They have to do that because the president's behavior is beyond any spin doctor fix. The toadies and operatives find themselves with the dire task of trying to smear and belittle a woman who genuinely represents many ordinary Americans.

To me, the most telling thing in this scenario, is that the president can't face this woman. If he himself, actually believed in the necessity and the 'nobility' of this war, he would have no trouble meeting this woman whether she agreed with him or not. But the compulsive liar, the little president, can not meet this woman because she stands so much taller than he does. He and his advisers know it.

The little president, dumb as he is, knows exactly why we are really fighting this war. But he can't say it, can he? He can't talk about the promises to corporate supporters, he can't talk about his pre-presidential plan to invade Iraq as part of becoming his idea of a "Great President".

He can't talk about the natural destiny of his superior class, he can't talk about the power and privilege of oil companies, or the tax dollar pork, literally thrown at his class and his corporate cronies and supporters. He can't talk about Dick Cheney and the mountains of corruption that lay there in. He can never admit that he isn't really the president, that Cheney and Rove call the shots in his 'great' presidency.

He can not stand face to face with an honest uncorrupted citizen. No wonder he hates and fears democracy.

All the kings men and all the kings horses do not know what to do with an honest, courageous citizen who can't be bought or killed and will not back down.

Lo' how the mighty are falling. The entire world is watching this drama. A stand off between an honest and courageous woman and this powerful, cowardly liar. It is not getting the coverage one might hope for in the corporate American media but it is a big story in Europe and much of the world. It was a feature story in Canada's national media today.

The little president blinks early, in every personal test he has faced. I can not believe this weak, lazy, cowardly little man is actually the president. A president who doesn't work late. Doesn't work week ends. and spends much of his time on vacation, does so because, he is only needed for the figurehead duties.

I haven't seen the little President at his gate saying "Bring it on little momma!" He only says that when someone else is on the sharp point of the stick. Pathetic.

My friend and soon to be editor, Nancy, another transplanted southerner, has asked me to pass this on to my readers:

MoveOn is taking out an ad in President Bush's local newspaper in support of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who is camped outside Bush's ranch in Texas asking for a meeting with the president. They'll publish the number of signers and the best comments in a full two-page spread in the newspaper nearest to Crawford (The Waco Tribune Herald) while Cindy holds her vigil. Can you sign and spread the word before the 3:00 PM Friday print deadline?

http://political.moveon.org/meetwithcindy/

Post Script- Cindy Sheehan's husband and immediate family have expressed great support for what Cindy is doing, giving support to my belief that this letter is a sham. Who cares what a couple of pissed off in-laws think? Most of us have experienced the reality petty judgmental in-laws and all of us have experienced the reality of media hacks that make things up.

We shall see which variety of smear scam this is.

That Dang Woman at the Ranch in Crawford

2005-08-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

That dang woman is Cindy Sheehan, of course. The mother of a young soldier killed in Iraq. Like a lot of people, Cindy Sheehan wants to know the reason her son died. Why president Bush and his cronies created a war out of lies and deceptions and sent her son to die in it. Cindy has more reason to want to know than most of us.

Several years ago, I returned to the States briefly, in hopes of clearing up my situation with the Air Force. At the US side of the border, I was detained. While there I met a very large scary looking border guard who told me that he lost his son in Vietnam and he wished to God that his son had gone to Canada or any where but into the damned Army.

The man was plagued with the same question Cindy Sheehan is plagued with. Why? That border guard was being eaten by the same question. "No one can give me one reason why?" He said that more than once.
The story of the border guard.

His question was never answered and neither will Cindy Sheehan receive the real answer from Bush.

I recently wrote an article here entitled, "The Problem With Lies". This little stand off in Crawford Texas is an object lesson in the problem with lies.

You see, the little president, some would say the most powerful individual in the world, is hiding from this woman and the whole world is watching him do it. He has sent two top aides out to talk to her but the attempted nice cop brush off didn't work.

Bush sent his top National Security adviser, Stephen Hadley, to tell Ms Sheehan that there really were WMDs in Iraq but they were spirited away to Syria. Yep, the WMDs are hidden in Syria, little momma. Cindy, being a very intelligent woman, not impressed by lofty titles, asked, "Is that the official White House position?" Political hack beat a hasty retreat with tail tucked firmly between his legs.

The little president is still hiding in his ranch hoping that danged woman will go away. He's on vacation from a real tough job and wants his play time, damn it. Lyin', thievin'n, and murderin' is damned hard work, ya'll know.

This is a no win situation for the little president. If he has her arrested, as is being threatened, he shows the world what a weak, cowardly, small hearted man he is.

No matter how revved up his sincerity act is, he has no answers to give this woman because every thing he says is and has been a lie. No WMDs. No links to 9/11. No links to Al Qaeda. No terrorists operating (before Saddam fell). The evidence was carefully cooked to support going to his war, for reasons that have never been said out loud.

If he meets her in private, the media is going to be much more interested in what she has to say about it than what that predictable old liar has to say.
She is much smarter than Bush and keeps asking all the right questions. Questions Bush can't answer because he's been caught in all his old lies and few seem to be buying the new ones.

What's a slimy politician to do? Bush has never faced up to anything real in his life. Never. He only speaks to hand picked crowds. He was afraid of the Canadian Parliament. They may have asked unscripted questions. Bush can't answer questions not created by his handlers and rehearsed ahead of time.

When he talks off script, he just becomes the shrugging, smirking, rude little bugger that is has always been. Not very impressive for man who is so proud of being a 'war time president'. A title he was very anxious to have, long before 9/11.

He met this woman once before, at the White house. The president 'sharing the grief' of mothers of KIA soldiers. He kept trying to turn it into a festive occasion like the women should be just thrilled to meet the little president and fearless leader. He did not know her name or the name of her son. He kept calling her "mom". She asked the wrong questions then, as well.

What can this smirking fool of a mass killer, this compulsive liar, tell this intelligent, aware woman who will not be impressed by his royal president fantasies?

As I said before, lies make you weak. Look at our president. Cowed by lone woman standing beside the road in Texas. Pathetic.

Update: Rice and Rumsfeld will be arriving at the presidents ranch on Thursday. Cindy Sheehan has been informed that that she may be arrested Thursday as a 'Threat to national security'. Imagine that. I have to wonder, what terminology do they use to distinguish between real threats to national security, and the sort of 'threat' that this gold star mother represents?
I suppose they are all the same to someone as cowardly as the American president.

To avoid the embarrassment of arresting her as a security threat, the local Sheriffs department has suddenly decided that the land Cindy is standing on is private property, not county owned as they originally said. However, they can't say exactly who it belongs to, only that it's privately held.

How peculiar that no one seems to know who owns the land right next to the presidents ranch.
Oh yeah, of course I believe that, I'm sure you do too. I have to laugh at the feeble lies and games these bastards must play, to avoid dealing with the simple truth. But, that's America for you.

A couple of interesting links:

http://www.meetwithcindy.org/

discussion at KOS

Nuts 'R' Us

2005-08-08T03:17:00.000-07:00

The particular nuts in question, Reverends James Dobson and Fred Phelps, represent the far nut end of modern Christian dogma. Each would insist that he is teaching and upholding an ancient belief system. Cursory examination contradicts that claim.

Phelps is a gay hater to the nth degree, as deeply bigoted as I think it is possible to be. And he is proud of it.

Phelps calls himself a minister, pastor of the Westboro Baptist church, in Kansas City. A cult group ran from nut man's basement. He feels himself called to a ministry of fag hating. He pursues it as an avocation.

For those who don't recognize the name, Phelps is the Baptist preacher made notorious for his picketing of funerals of gay people, with signs that say cute things like "Thank God for AIDS" and "God Hates Fags". Scroll to the bottom for a pic of Phelps in action.

Click here for more than you ever wanted to know about this sick hate addicted man. A man who allegedly beat the hell out of his wife and children, on a regular basis. Often while drunk. Good Christian man that he is.

Four of his now adult children, and their mother, bear permanent scars and injuries from the beatings delivered. Sometimes with an axe handle.

Now this self declared man of God has decided that God hates America because Phelps finds himself in trouble with the law and maybe with the tax man. So, suddenly, God hates America (for all the wrong reasons) and God laughs when Americans dies in Iraq. Once again, for all the wrong reasons.

To prove his point, Phelps and his pathetic little crew, have started picketing the funerals of KIA Iraqi war vets. With signs saying things like "Thank God for IEDs". IEDs being the military term for the improvised explosive devices that have killed so many in Iraq. More commonly referred to as road side bombs.

This man is so supremely egocentric, he declares that the IEDs of Iraq are God's way of punishing the US because someone once set off a bomb in or near his 'church'.

Obviously God has his eye on the Right Nutty Reverend Phelps and his twelve or so dispirited followers. Mostly family members.
I've yet to read a description of this little group of followers, relatives with children, that did not include words like, dispirited, glum, embarrassed, etc.

Phelps believes God has commanded him to beat his family into line. Phelps is very fond of death threats. Follow the links on the Wikipedia page linked above. The man has numerous arrests and convictions, including child abuse charges arising from a brutal axe handle assault against two of his sons. The assualts were reported by the boy's school when they came to school with bleeding wounds, covered in brusies and abrasions. Both have permanent injuries from the beatings, one has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Yes, the love of God, don't it sound inviting?

When you read about this man, and read his own words, it becomes very clear that Fred Phelps loves and worships Fred Phelps and nothing else. God is his excuse for being a cruel, hate driven, narcissistic nut job.

According to Fred Phelps, God hates America because there are "fags and dykes" in the military. Not only that, but the 1,800 and still counting American soldiers killed in Iraq are now burning in hell because there are "fags" in the military. Does Reverend Phelp's God sound a lot like Satan?

I suspect the possibility that the bad reverend has bitten into something he can't chew. The military has issued a special order, to all service personal, to avoid contact with this nutter, so that he has no opportunity to sue the military.

Guess what, Reverand Ass? There are a shit load of vets and relatives of vets that did not receive that order.

While I certainly would not be so foolish as to advocate violence against even this walking turd, I have worked with angry messed up vets, 'coming down' after their time in Vietnam. I know there are some very, very angry young men in America, right now, who do not appreciate what this self enamoured fool is doing.

On the other hand, Phelps openly encourages soldiers to dessert. That used to be illegal, didn't it? Or is it only illegal for non-religious types?

Nut two, James Dobson is only slightly less vicious but much more dangerous. Like Phelps, his true religion his himself and his burning hatred of gays is what binds him to his twisted version of Christianity. A version that glorifies anger, hatred, blood lust and turns love into a four letter curse word.

In short, another self serving, Satan worshiping nut case, pretending to be a Christian. Lots of those around these days.

Dobson is more dangerous than a Phelps because Dobson is much smarter and has been a much better self promoter than Phelps. To be fair, Phelps is a hungry hound for media exposure, but he ain't got the bucks to really make it happen.

I guess God doesn't love Phelps enough to send him much money.

Dobson on the other hand is reputed to be riding a camel at a needle as god has, and blind ignorance have, sent him and his organization lots of money.Whether the camel through the eye of the needle analogy fits Dobson or not, the man lives well, flies to his appointments and doesn't sleep in a camper or flee bag hotels whilst spreading the gospel of his serpentine religious/political creed.

Dobson pushes the cart of Focus on the Family before him as he decrees, screw the poor, screw the raped, screw the young, screw the humanity of women and oh, by the way, Sponge Bob Squarepants is part of the gay agenda. Kill it a'fore it multiplies!

Abortion is evil, uppity women are evil, young women are witches and the damned gays are the cause of it all.

'God loves you but he's going to torture you for ever if you don't do and vote as I say.' I suppose.

There is a striking commonality with these two 'men of God'. Each preaches a gospel that ultimately focuses on themselves.

Two angry, hate driven men who lust for power and recognition. Who spread their hatreds, equating their bigotries with the very nature of God, which they claim to represent, in a special way.

While Phelps is a mere symptom of the spiritual state of America, a festering boil on the arse of Christianity, Dobson is one of those helping to create that ugly spirit. A man who has the ear of the little president and apears to have the power to play Kingmaker in the administration.

Phelps and Dobson, two banal, hateful little men cut from the same cloth and and worshipping at the same alter. The altar of an agrandized self. A self than believes it is empowered to judge and condemn as suits its desires and interests. As though they and God were one.

If I were still a Christian, I would have to say, that these two men and the legions riding or clinging to the same bandwagon, worship a god that I call Satan.

Links again:

Dobson: Focus on Himself

Brian Elroy McKinley This is a very interesting site well worth a visit. McKinley is a former Christian who speaks with wisdom and the authority of personal experience. He has written a number of penetrating articles on a variety of topics including his percerptions of what has happened to American Christianity in the last few years. He wrote Dobson:Focus on Himself

Pic of Phelps

Wikipedia articles on Phelps

Dobson as Kingmaker

I've just discovered a web site recently put up by Jay Currie, here in British Columbia. The site advocates extraditing Phelps to Canada to face Hate Crime charges. Phelps has been charged with hate crimes in Canada, as a result of his criminal activities in this country. He is officially persona non gratis up here. You can't openly advocate violence toward an identifiable group in Canada. In America it's alright as long as the hated groups don't include the White House occupants.
Find it here.

Complaining Prosecutors, John Bolton, and the Little President

2005-08-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of a prosecutor complaining that a trial is being rigged, in favour of the prosecution? Neither have I. Such claims are made by defense attorneys, on a regular basis. But, when the prosecutors in a case, begin to complain that the proceedings are being rigged in favour of the prosecution, I have to give it a listen.

That is exactly what has happened in the up coming closed trials, via military commission, for four Gitmo detainees.
Read this now, please.

The leaked emails give further credence my assertion that the majority of people being held in detention are not terrorists but people picked up in random snatches, usually from the streets of Iraq, during public protests or grabbed at random from the crowds gathering after an insurgent bombing.

The prosecution is complaining that there is no real evidence against the detainees in question. The prosecutors are complaining that they are working very low level cases and that they have been told that the Tribunal will be hand picked and convictions are already a done deal. The prosecutors are assigned to gather information and evidence for any future review of the commission.

When the prosecutors themselves are complaining of guaranteed convictions, some things are very, very rotten in Gitmo.

The Pentagon's Brigadier General Thomas Hemingway, informs us basically, that the complainers were cleaned out and there's no problem, any more. " "I think what we did is work on some restructuring in the office, there was some changes in the way cases were processed…

None of the assistant prosecutors who complained are involved in the cases, any more.

Damned, if that hasn't become the American way to deal with problems. Get rid of the person who points out the problem. Shoot the messenger, every time. Predicated upon the insane idea that if no one knows there is a problem, there really isn't a problem. We don't bother with being good, we are too busy trying to look good.

At the same time, the little president who hates democracy, has taken it on himself to appoint John Bolton US Ambassador to the U. N.

As usual, the little president lied his tiny face off in his speech, announcing the appointment. One lie after the other about Bolton's passionate love for the UN Remember, that's Bolton, the guy who wants to see the end of the UN, wants the US to be the only permanent seat in the security counsel, thinks the UN must serve US interests or be dumped. He's got passion alright but the little president misnamed that passion, didn't he?

That, of course, is what the little president does best, tell great big old lies with a straight face and a down home, next door neighbor style. Dumb as he is, he's good at that. Learned it very early one suspects and never got around to growing out of it.

Soon I must talk more about the big president, the one that keeps the neocon plan moving forward under the smoke and mirrors of Carl Rove's propaganda machine. Dick Cheney. Uncle Dick has been a busy, busy boy these last few years and deserves a lot more credit than he gets, and attention.

The full truth of the outing of Valerie Plame, the high level CIA agent, has not been told. Cheney is in the mix and I for one want to see if Rove will fall on his sword to protect the big president or will that honour fall to "Scooter". Scooter, that's a good name for a fall guy, eh?

For those who wanted to know, the novel is now officially done. At least the first draft is finished. I'm taking off a couple of weeks, to do some blogging and research for the next novel, before the revision process begins.

THE PROBLEM WITH LIES

2005-07-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

Lying is part of human nature. It is literally in our genes. Primates rely upon deception and misdirection as an important and oft practiced social and survival skill. So does the human primate. It is a fact.

You tell the bank clerk you forgot your pass book when in fact, you never bring it. You tell the beggar, sorry, I don't have anything, when you do have a thing but you'd really like to scream at him for being a bum. All matter of lies are part of avoiding conflict, avoiding attention, and avoiding blame. Getting support, getting attention, and getting praise.

Whether you believe deception and misdirection, or lying, is encoded in our nervous systems or if you believe it is a sin, invented by some malign god, i.e. the Devil, the effect is the same.

When the lies used to justify ourselves, become more numerous and more important than truth, when real communication becomes impossible because nothing and no one can be believed, political and social disorder are next on the menu.

We are in a strange state in America. Never before has 'morality' been a hotter and more frequently talked about subject. Yet, the superficial culture of lies, deception, misdirection, commercial seduction and enticement, and perception manipulation, has become the dominant social and moral culture of the United States. An empire that has lost it's moral centre.

Every lie creates a bodyguard of more lies, held in place by the need to hide the first lie.
I once knew a man who, for reasons I do not understand, would tell everyone he knew, really terrible, sometimes bizarre lies about his wife. At some point he would pull you aside or invite you to lunch and seemingly pour his heart out with some strange unpleasant story about his wife. A story in which he was the innocent victim.

Once you had heard the big story about the terrible thing the wife is and the thing she did, you would never get a chance to be alone with the woman again. The guy went to incredible lengths to keep people separate, always talking to each one individually. Then making sure his wife was absent or very guarded at social situations. A lot of work and a lot of lies went into to trying to maintain the original lies. Many of their friends actually believed the stories until finally, too many people compared notes.

Now, no one who knows him, believes anything he says, about anything at all.

I mention this because Blair, then Bush, Rove, and the whole White House gang, are becoming mired in the complexity of their own multi layered web of lies and supporting fabricated 'facts'. Lies explained away and justified, by yet more lies.

A couple of examples: Coming up to the last election, the Terrorist Alert index was raised to orange, in an obvious attempt by the White House to use the so called alert system as a political tool, to aid the President in the election. Bush came under a lot of criticism when it was discovered that the justification given for the orange alert, was based upon intelligence that was four years old. In other words, a couple of big old hairy lies involving the state security apparatus, used for purely political purposes.

Well, that was looking pretty bad. Desperate for something to justify the original lie,
the Bush White House revealed that a well placed Al Qaeda operative, a computer expert, had been arrested by the Pakistanis. Tom Ridge, then head of homeland security, did not name the agent but revealed enough about him that he was easy to identify. The White House gang justified their previous political actions, by revealing that Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan was a double agent. A young computer expert, important to communications. Khan had a plan for bombing the London subway in his computer.

He was arrested and 'turned' by Pakistani security agents. He was proving to be a valuable source for learning the locations of sleeper cells in various locations.

Mohammad Noor Khan represented a major intelligence coup. Turning a man, as well placed as Khan is a rare and lucky event. Numerous terror cells may have been rolled up. But, for purely political reasons, the White House, blew the cover and the usefulness of this rare variety of intelligence find. An active, well placed, Al Qaeda agent.

Oddly enough, MI5, in Britain had gotten leads, via this agent, regarding a cell that was beginning to form, in and around Leeds. The cell was planning to bomb the subway.
But, suddenly his fellow terrorists discover Mr. Khan has been arrested and given information. The British were forced to roll up the cell prematurely laying a dozen petty charges that only warned the cell that they were known.

For more information regarding Mr. Mohammed Khan, click here.

Now we are told that the young men who carried the bombs, in the recent London bombings, were mostly from Leeds. Obviously, it would appear that a new now undetected cell had formed and carried out the original plan.

That is, if we are to believe official reports. How many lies to you try to believe before you quit believing anything government officials say. Knowing that the story will change in a day or two and previous, obviously erroneous statements, will be dropped and forgotten.

The Valerie Plame outing is another clear case of persons in the White House, willfully damaging national security for short term domestic political reasons. Shameful.

Numerous lies have already been revealed from Rove and the White House press secretary. Previous strong statements, made by Scott McClellan will not be commented on. The President, who figured no one would get caught, once said he would fire anyone guilty of such a leak.

Now, Bush just can't go and fire his political brains, can he? Of course not. A couple of days ago, in his sternest stage voice, Bush declares that now he will fire anyone in his administration, guilty of a crime. Emphasis, mine. But really, the emphasis belongs to George, doesn't it?

Lies, to cover lies, with yet more lies. Creating the ground work for yes, more lies.

All of this to get revenge for some one telling the truth about Saddam's actual military capabilities. A web of lies, to cover previous lies and to provide a setting for lies to come.

A very important CIA asset, specializing in searching for weapons of mass destruction, is outed. Made invalid, useless, blown. Her various networks and international contacts, suddenly exposed. The harm can not be accurately assessed.

Lies and more lies to cover venal, short term, political goals, for the White House.

The problem with lies is that eventually, no one, friend or foe, can believe anything you say. No one can trust you. No one can trust your administrative or intelligence officials, at any level.

How can the CIA guarantee the safety of potential agents when they can't protect themselves from White House whims?

The security agencies from other countries can not rely on the Americans to be partners in sharing intelligence. Try to imagine, that if any country ever again turns an important Al Qaeda operative, the CIA, the Americans, will likely be the very last to know. You can't trust the Americans because you never know what their motives are. Everything in America has become politicized. The agenda is never completely on the table.

In the minds of the White House gang, it's all a political power game. A game played with so many lies, the truth becomes meaningless. It's all about what you can get away with. Bush has gotten away with a lot in his life time. Pretty well everything, judging by his protected, privileged existence.

Given the reality portrayed by the Downing Street Memos and related documents, the lies revealed by those memos, and even the lies that were planed re "Fixing the intelligence, to fit the policy", it is hard to even care what these people say. You know it is not the truth, before they even start talking.

For those who still want to believe in this criminal madness, I have got to ask. How many more lies are you prepared to swallow before you admit you've allowed your self to be duped?

Duped by an arrogant, down talking, fake cowboy of a billionaire, intent upon making the world free and easy for his own class. A class, to which, you do not belong. Though you do get to pay their taxes for them and fight for their further enrichment, and come back and work at Wal-Mart if you've been a good little drone and you aren't too crippled and don't mind shit pay, long hours, no respect, and no loyalty. Sort of like the Army only the pay is even worse. No benefits, at all.

Yep, that's America, the greatest country on earth if you happen to be very rich.

For the rest of us? Lies upon lies, covered by lies upon lies. It just sort of blends in with the commercials for some folks.

Check out this musical response to the same questions, How Many Lies? And a lot of other good stuff at Disenfranchised Music.

The Return of American Ex

2005-07-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Friends, readers, Romans, and the interested,

I am Almost back. The novel nears it's end and once again I should have enough brain power to revive the blog. When I left, I expected to be posting the occasional article. It did not work out that way as I found I could not get my small head around both. This is my first novel. Perhaps eventually, I shall be able to write fiction and politically motivated articles, at the same time.

The world has not improved since I took off. In fact, it has gotten even worse and even more dangerous. Iraqi citizens are still being killed by the truck load, for the crime of being born Iraqi. The terrorist activities of the Americans, indiscriminate bombings, mass arrests, medieval torture prisons, and daily shootings of civilians, have turned a once stable society into bedlam.

Every thing in Iraq is much, much worse than before the Americans came to 'liberate' the place for American and corporate control.

The Bushbaby and his neocon supporters are still pretending there is a connection between Saddam and 9/11. Osama ben Laden is still free because there was never any real White House interest in getting the bastard. Bush and co. are too busy dismantling Iraq and turning it into the radical hotbed it never could have been, under Saddam.

Republicans and Bush appointees control every branch of government and the Supreme court, in one sitting has wiped out property rights for ordinary Americans, in favour of special corporate rights, allowing cities to make economic determinations for who may or may not own property in American cities.

At the same time the court gave AOL/Time Warner, the telephone companies, Disney, and big IT companies, content control of the internet, declaring that the big companies do not have to share broad band lines with anyone they don't want to share them with. Effectively giving the big IT giants control of of the 'net'. Soon, a server offering content the big companies don't like, will be blocked from broad band lines. That's freedom of expression, the New American style.

They couldn't quite make up their minds regarding state support of religious doctrine. But that isn't surprising, it was the only thing in this traitorous Court's agenda that did not put money and special rights into the hands of the big corporations, who now dictate American social and foreign policy.

Just when Americans of every walk were beginning to finally ask the hard questions regarding this corrupt president and his pro corporate, anti democratic agenda, Bush is saved by another terrorist attack, this time in London. The bombings could not have happened at a better time for Blair and Bush. It is difficult not to at least wonder who is actually directing some of these attacks.

What would Bush and the other neo-con chicken hawks do without Al Qaeda?

Suddenly, Carl Rove outing a deep cover CIA agent, for political revenge against her husband, is not front page news. A very serious crime committed for the most petty, most venal reasons. Because the agent's husband wrote a knowledgeable expose' of one of Bush's big lies, intended to justify his personal war ambitions. The African yellow cake uranium that Saddam never actually purchased. Once again, the 'intelligence' was fixed, to support the policy.

American soldiers are still being killed in Iraq and more and more, the old excuses for the Vietnam tragedy, are being dusted off to excuse staying with this dangerous unwinnable conflict.
Still, the VA can not nearly serve the needs of the returning wounded who are booted out of the Army hospitals as fast as possible, with the promise that the VA will take care of them.

Every week, the insurgency becomes stronger and every week, some White House liar repeats, the now tired old BS, that the insurgency is in it's death agonies.

Bush and his mouth pieces still describe their enemies in terms that clearly describe the policies and actions of the Bush regime

A good number of mindless Americans, hip deep in debt, working their asses off, for a future that looks bleaker every day, still pretend that this is like World War II, and America isn't really playing the role of the Germans and Imperial Japanese. After all, we are the good guys, no matter what we do, right?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The world has not improved since I started my novel, so I shall be back, at least once a week I have missed the blog and the responses from readers, of every opinion. I do wish the righties would speak up but they continue to be shy about speaking outside their own circle of believers.

For those who have wondered, I'm in the last twenty or so pages of the first draft of the novel. It has taken about three months to get this far. Yes, my readers here will be the first to know when it is published.

More to come...

American Ex Slows Down

2005-04-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

American Ex is going to be slowing down for a while. I've committed myself to writing a novel and until that is done, the blog will necessarily be on the back burner.

I will still post occasionally. If you are not on my announce list and would like to be, please send me your email address via the email link, in my profile. It won't get used for any purpose but to let you know when I post.

To quote Douglas MacArthur as he ran from the Philippines, "I Shall return."

thanks,
Thomas

The History of the Big Dig

2005-04-11T01:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends and those about to be amused, confused, and perhaps slightly abused.

A friend and regular corespondent, Thomas Moody of New Hampshire, sent this brilliant bit of prose poetry, reminiscent of Lord Buckley's Word Jazz works.

If you are not familiar with Lord Buckley, click here for an introduction to an amazing American poet.

The piece to follow is strange, funny, twisted, and it makes no sense except that it makes a lot of sense. Ready?

An History of the Big Dig

by Thomas Moody

Most people alive today, having never known a world in which the Big Dig
wasn't the primary stimulus of the global economy, wonder how it all
began. Originally dubbed the "Big Pig", the history of this project goes
back to the ancient Celtic sport of Piggyback (Assukk, in the original
Celtic). Prior to their (the pigs') domestication, the Celts dreamt of
mounting the swift swine of southern Scotland (sometimes called England in
the current era), racing them at breakneck speeds around a track marked by
huge upright stone slabs and lintels, and betting on what's for dinner.
The Celts decided to try a proof-of-concept project before expending
limited capital reserves on a massive pig domestication program, so they
built a track, designated some individuals to play the role of pigs and
some to play the role of riders (inadvertently setting off a "this little
piggy" craze that persists to this day), and tried racing the "pigs"
bearing their "Piggybacked" riders, but found that the "pigs" could only
run for several days before collapsing from fatigue. To continue the
experiment, they assigned two foot racers (fetisha) to run
counter-clockwise (bazzakkverd) around an inside track (crook) for each
"pig"-and-rider pair (hiyoporca) running clockwise (tuiztanzhout) around
the outside track (luezer). (Hence the roundabout and driving on the
left.) The hypothesis was that with a net mass of zero Celts running
around the track, the race could go on perpetually. This proved false, as
in molar (molar) terms, there were 2 moles of fetisha going bazzakkverd
for each hiyoporca going tuiztanzhout, leaving nobody in the stands to
drink beer (pist) and place bets, as every man Jack and woman Jill of them
was running on the track due to the severe labour shortage that existed
prior to the perfection of the Viking au pair (uellalla) ship. Even with a
sufficient labour force to test the scheme it would have failed, however,
as there existed a toll system in that time which charged each hiyoporca
going tuiztanzhout on the luezer a shilling per circuit, and each fetisha
going bazzakkverd on the crook a tuppence and halfpenny per circuit, and
due to an inability keep the two tracks moving at equal speed but opposite
angular velocity with any real consistency (the average fetisha tending to
travel at higher speed than the average hiyoporca), a chronic imbalance of
payments would have developed, leading eventually to a currency crisis and
a run on the pound in the dark days before central banking. Needless to
say, after several thousand years, the Celts eventually abandoned the
project, and in an effort to put the painful futility of it all behind
them, they took to herding sheep, from which we get the sense of the
expression, "feeling sheepish". Nevertheless, many ages later, the legend
of this massive project of antiquity, which came to be known as "oops" or
"hoops", laid the basis for a less strenuous game that could be played
indoors with a pneumatic sphere (the "net mass"), and one of the earliest
professional organisations of the modernised parimutuel system is named
the "Celtics" in honour of the athletic tribe of yore. The strain of
accommodating the expanding arrearage of punters made the total
destruction of the Celtics' original venue in Boston's historic North End
inevitable, and realising that "Big Dig" rhymed with "Big Pig", city
planners, in the grip of the Great Tea Shortage of 1773, were inspired to
pick up where the ancient Celts left off, and developed a largely
underground urban renewal program that is still unfolding today.

I was breathless at the end. I look forward to having an audio file of this piece on the coming web site. It was meant to be heard rather than read. As well as a PHD biological sciences that I can't pronounce, Mr. Moody is also a veteran performer of nouveau Vaudevillian and clownbanditry acts of artistic/poetic expression expression.

I don't do these poetic interludes very often but this one was too much fun to read. I had to share it.

Wednesday, I shall continue with the usual attacks against the empire, with a new article entitled "Theocons, Neocons, and Lying Thieving Cons"

You'll find it here, at American Ex.

The Spirit of Political Activism

2005-04-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

I read something tonight that is having a big effect on me, I feel a need to share it with you. My currently philosophical state of mind was triggered by an article at Dissident Voice, by Joe Bageant, a Southern writer that I have great regard for.

Joe writes about people. When making a political point, it comes from the bottom up, not from the preaching top down voice, so common among writers of both the right and left. Joe finds truth and beauty in places the liberal elite write about from a great distance. Joe is having a beer with people that too many high minded writers and liberal thinkers, see as morally, intellectually, and culturally inferior.

The article in question today, is entitled "In Praise of Holy Madness", at Dissident Voice. A topic that you might imagine would be of little interest to a long time atheist, such as myself.

If you don't click on the link and read the article, you are doing yourself a disservice and what follows will make less sense. So, please read it. It's just a page. Very readable. Like most Southern writers, Joe is a good story teller and the topic is very relavent to the political and cultural reality of modern America.

A quote from Bob D., the man the article is about:
Elevating carnage to cultural protocol is very dangerous. And official rationalization of it is disastrous. Why isn't someone talking about these things? We have no examples. We have no ideals. We have only corruption and self-justifying silliness in service of capitalism as it runs further and more terribly amok.

Bob D. goes on to say:
And to the forces on the left trying to combat all this I say: The realization IS compassion." "Consciousness" and "heart" arise together. They are one thing. The compassionate try to help even their most despicable brothers. That's why it is written: "Without love, I am nothing." Yet the left throws it all away. Though the left is so often correct in principle, it becomes merely the other side of that one counterfeit coin we have been offered.

Bob D. is a massively eccentric man. He lives, with his dogs and elderly mother, in an ancient, falling down Victorian house, in Tennessee. A relic of more prosperous times. Bob is not a person many people would listen to and almost none would take seriously.
Yet, when you read his words, it is very clear that this "madman's" thinking is guided by vision, intelligence, and an open heart.

Now Bob, is not impressed with the right, the Christian right, or new age garbage for rich, greedy, self involved persons seeking spiritual justification for not caring about the state of the poor, the ill, and other social outcasts.

Bob cares a lot abut how we treat each other and the other things living on this little planet. Bob also has an understanding of the spiritual/psychological reality that forms the underpinnings of society.

Bob believes atheism is foolishness. I did not say I agree with everything Bob says. But I do agree in his intent.

His admonishment to the left is short but full of genuine wisdom. If we can not develop compassion, if our idea of conciousness is based purely on science, intellect, and a hatred of our opposition, we shall create, in the long run, something as inhumane and uncaring as what we are now opposed to. Different faces, different slogans, different rhetoric but the same old top down shit we are drowning in today.

I know that currently, the great majority of my readers are firmly situated to the left of centre line. Anarchists, socialists, liberals, and free thinkers without a set ideology. Agnosticism and atheism is rampant among us. If you have read anything by me, you know I have zero sympathy for and very little in common with authoritarian preachers, of any ilk. That disregard also includes the more authoritarian variations of 'liberation' theology.

I struggle not to hate their empty, soulless, punishment obsessed followers. You can't really understand people you hate and you will never change their way of thinking. Bob reminds me how important it is to view even the opposition with some compassion.

That's a hard one but compassion does not mean giving in or over looking evil. It means feeling for and trying to understand the internal reality of those who would kill or jail me, given the chance. There is great strength in that understanding and it may help us to not make the same mistakes as they have. It is the only way off this revolving wheel of repression, war, rebellion and then, more oppression.

I still say we do not need religion but compassion, love, and the willingness to take responsibility, as opposed to taking control, is very important. Our apparent inability to give a shit, is killing us.

I gave up on church and religion and god, a long time ago. But, I learned a lot from the Jesus guy. Although I do not accept his divinity, the direction he pointed in, could change the world if Christians could become a little more Jesus like. And less like Paul in his angry period.

No one listens to holy mad men any more. But we sure listen to the evil mad men. I suppose because they seem more normal, these days.

Bob said, again, The compassionate try to help even their most despicable brothers. That's why it is written: "Without love, I am nothing."

His madness is driven by vision and intelligence. "Without love, I am nothing" is quoted from second Corinthians. Written near the end of Paul's life, it contains the wisdom that Paul had sought, his whole life. When it came, he repented of much that he had written before, in his angry law bringer days. The modern evangelical right loves to quote the angry, punishing Paul. The wisdom seen in Corinthians II, is rarely quoted these days, except to prop up our belief that we are the 'good guys' with our hearts in the right place. Then we quickly return to punishing the poor and all who disagree with our nice middle class social values, disguised as religion.

Religion sucks. That does not negate the profound importance of trying to become a spiritually/psychologically complete human. Otherwise, in spite of the best of intentions, we just create more hell. The world could use some more of Bob's 'madness'.

The world around him may not take Bob seriously, but I bet I am not the only person to respond to him in this manner.

I'm still an atheist and I still believe compassion is the key.

But, it is a process, becoming a complete human. It is a slow process for most of us.

Once again, the article is found HERE.

Soap Opera News, American Style

2005-04-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, the Pope is dead. I seem to recall some brief announcement in the news, to that effect. Maybe a photograph or two on every single news paper in the world. Perhaps a special piece on FOX and CNN. A special piece that will last until Friday on every single network.

If it weren't for the 'net', I would be taking another news break until next week. I am seriously Poped-out, already. Wouldn't you know it? The body will lie in state until it is entombed or what ever is done with dead Popes.

Nothing I am about to say, is about John Paul II or any other Pope. This is about media and the manipulation of mass perception.

A few days ago I went to the Library to look at the front pages of news papers distributed in the last six weeks or so. What I found was no surprise, at all. I learned that American news papers are competing with soap operas and day time television for the hearts, minds, and product loyalties of the American public.

It is true that soap operas often reflect contemporary values and events in strange narcissistic ways. It is also true that the news media has learned a lot from the successful soap opera formula, and its ability to capture the imaginations of the proverbial public. Creating an alternate reality, in the minds of viewers, that can alter their perception of objective reality.

One common feature, of stories I hear from Canadians visiting American relatives, or American/Canadians visiting 'home', is the story of American families and friends sitting around obsessing about the prices of commodity goods and talking about soap opera characters, as though they were real people. Causing much confusion until the Canadian visitors realize their American hosts are talking about day time television characters..

Now, soap opera addicts populate both sides of the border. They just seem to be much more common among the general population in the States. So many things in the culture seem to promote the commercialized alternate reality, created by the entertainment and commercial media.

Now, the news media has gotten into the act, in a very big way. Yellow journalism and tear jerk human interest stories, have always been a staple of the news media, especially the newspapers. Currently, there is almost nothing else on the front pages of even the major American newspapers. One soap opera after the other, punctuated by unexamined, unquestioned 'news', sent straight from the propaganda department of the White House.
National and international news with a pro-corporate business spin on it.

Things of great importance, that the White House and corporate ownership find inconvenient, are conveniently ignored. If you don't have an internet connection, or the time and will to do some searching, you only know what they choose to tell you.

But damn! Don't they like to spill the juicy beans when it comes to things that are of no real matter to the state of the world or the American role in the state of the world.

My trip to the library, did not result a scientific study. What I am reporting is the impression given by quickly thumbing through a big collection of daily papers. While we are at war with many of the citizens of Iraq, while we turn Afghanistan into a giant military prison camp, while ever more revelations appear regarding wide spread torture in military jails and that the orders for the abuses came from high in the military.

While Cheney's business alma mater, Haliburton, is being investigated for fraud, theft, and a variety of cover up and bribe allegations. While Congress has committed bloody rape against debt ridden Americans, with the new bankruptcy laws, the news papers were focused on an entirely different world.

Sure, many allegations, contradictory science reports, and military screw ups, get some mention, most are handled briefly, with as little details as possible and a bit of 'this isn't important' spin at the end of the obscure little articles.

Meanwhile, the dead and wounded, from Germany and Iraq, are still flown in under the cover of dark. But, so what? Martha is out of jail and all set and ready for her new crusade. Comments from Martha's cell mate are headline news.

Martha, Martha, Lacy Peterson, procurement scandal, Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, Martha, Terri Shiavo, report cites vote fraud, Terri Shiavo, Church protesters, Terri Must Live, Shiavo Death Threats, Bolton to the UN, Michael Jackson, blackmailer testifies, Pope, Terri, Pope, Wolfowitz to the World Bank Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson, congress wants changes in Patriot Act, Terri Dies, Culture of Death, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Pope is ill, Pope is ill, Pope is dead, Pope is dead, war on Iran, Pope, Pope, Pope, Pope.

You get the picture. Colourful, passionate, soap opera, presented as news. The world is burning and Americans are fiddling with the dial, or looking for the celebrity cross word puzzle. Or maybe testing their "Day Time Television IQ", on the arts and entertainment page.

I knew I was in for a long breath holding session when Air America hosts, and both Bernie Ward and Ray Taliaferro, over at KGO were also on about the Pope. But, with the great numbers of people caught up in the drama of it all, what else can a talk show host talk about without taking his or her phones off line?

Here is a question that is bugging me a bit. Wasn't there an encyclical, from the then voiceless Pope, saying that a feeding tube was not an extraordinary measure and that every Catholic had the duty to preserve life, as long as possible by artificial means? I could have sworn such a thing was in the news.

However, the Pope then decided to die in his apartment rather than be artificially maintained. I'm not criticizing the Pope, what I am asking myself. is exactly who produced the encyclical and made the decision to announce it, while the Pope was still alive but unable to function as the Pope?

I also find myself wondering if this is a portend of the conservative political maneuvering, going on among the Cardinals, who will select the next wearer of the Papal Ring.

For The Love'a God, Martha!

2005-04-01T04:23:00.000-08:00

Do you ever wonder what the hell is going on in the world? Of course, you do. I wake up like that, every day. At the crack of noon.

Today I made my very strong cup of Dark French roast and stepped out to the corner, to blacken my lungs, as my sweetie calls it.. Caffeine is the secret of life before five PM and the true aroma of heaven. My appreciation of the taste and aroma of heaven was short lived.

There, staring me in the face from the Newspaper box, are the words: Dar-fur Death Toll Exceeds 300,000. Three hundred thousand people murdered for having the wrong colour skins, in their own lands. Murdered by religious extremists only a couple of short steps beyond our own home grown variety of religious extremist.

You get the strong impression that most of the industrialized world, does not care. Why? This is worse than Bosnia. Could it be because these are dirt poor black people, in Africa?

The racist Islamic extremists in Dar-fur, and its national government, of the same ilk, and those in the outside world capable of having a positive effect, are knowingly responsible for a horrible mass of crimes. Those who commit these mindless atrocities and those who sit on their hands watching, are guilty.

Hey, I thought there was a war against terrorism. Too bad those black, Islamic people of Dar-fur have no natural resources to trade for their miserable lives. Who needs them? Is that the thinking or is there any rational thinking going on the places of power and wealth?

Mean while, back on the ranch: In the good old USA, the religious zealots and their cynical leaders edge closer and closer to open violence against everyone they don't like. Which appears to be quite a few people.

One thing clearly indicated by their angry lustful death threats, is that they do not trust their all powerful god to take care of his own business. "Vengeance is mine!" they cry. Cleverly forgetting the last part of the biblical quote. "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord." Makes it clear, it does appear, that he and he alone will reap vengeance upon his enemies.

Now, If you actually believe this stuff, why do you act like such soulless barbarians? It is a real question that I am yet to get a real answer to...

I have said in the past that I believe the politicized Christians of America represent the brown shirts of this place and era. The SA was a political movement with strong religious overtones. The religious ideology was a strange mix of reconstructed Nordic paganism and some aspects of protestant Christianity.

They were a force not directly connected to the government. The murderous zealots, Hitler could direct at anyone, while maintaining a legal distance. In the end, he allowed the army to destroy the brown shirts as part of his deal with the Army and some of the big money corporations, whose support he needed. Take note Born Againskyites.

The Evangelical Christian Right is a deep fetid pool of rage, hatred, and fear, just looking for any excuse to unleash their sick godless rage. Many actually believe that their cowardly murderous actions will win them hero status and give them a ticket straight to Jesus, the oops, pacifist... I suppose if enough people pretend you are in heaven, you will be. Sort of. In a way, I guess.

You know these guys are desperate because they don't even get promised seventy virgins in paradise. I suppose that would be a bit frightening to an American protestant. Girls are still icky for them.

All in all, the motivations for one variety of narcissistic nut case is pretty much the same as for the other. That goes for Fearless George, as well.

I have never lived under foreign occupation so I reserve judgment regarding those who willing give their lives to repulse a hyper destructive occupying army.

I do not find it that difficult to imagine being either an American soldier or a devastated citizen whose crime is the mere fact that he lives in Iraq. This horror must stop.

If this class of violent minded, moral reprobates, who populate the politicized evangelical right, have their way, a big box of that same horror, created in Dar-fur and Iraq, will be opened and poured out in the 'Homeland'. Cause they love America so much, they want it all for themselves.

For those of you in the black community, who have allowed your fears and prejudices regarding gay people, to suck you into to this hateful version of Christianity, you should take note:
I grew up in the heart of this terrible movement and I guarantee , that no matter what is said today, these people of the Christian white right, will come to consider you in exactly the same light, as the Arab Muslims of Dar-fur view their black Muslim brothers and sisters. Not good enough, not 'real' Muslims. 300,000 thousand die. More will yet.

That is how these movements have always developed. The majority of the many, many thousands of Jews killed or made refugees by the Spanish inquisition, were Christians. The vast majority. But, once again, not good enough, not 'real' Christians. You get the picture? Insanity is often described as doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

I know, in the end, when they let themselves loose, they will consider all black people, not good enough, not 'real' Christians. They can't help themselves. The devil has them by the balls and you don't want to join with them, brothers and sisters.

Preacher mode off.

OK, moving right along: I want to end this post with a plug for three bloggers I read and admire and believe you will enjoy reading. I know from comments and from emails I receive at my hotmail addy, that I have some very bright readers. Readers that I am genuinely proud of. Respecting that, I will not steer you foolishly to just any old blogger I happen to like.

Each of these three bloggers has something unique, pithy, rational, and entertaining in their writings. I'm sure we don't all agree with each other on every thing, honestly opinionated people never do. But I find each of them more than worth the read..

In no particular order:

God dem!
By JET- a relative newbie who is finding herself and her writing voice very quickly. A natural born writer with logic, passion, and a real interest in her topics. Be nice or be deconstructed.

The Lucidity and Lunacy of Millicent Frastley
Frstlymil is my absolute favourite non political blogger. There is a very sane philosophy between the lines but she has her own very unique and very readable way of communicating with the written word. Her observations of life, in her part of LA, are always entertaining but often moving in a very personal way, as well.

Last and far from least,
Skinny Dipping With the President Rhonda describes her blog as "Political Rant meets Personal Diary". A very fitting description. Rhonda is often short, very punchy (I like that), to the point and has a wicked imagination and sense of humour that is only beginning to greet the world. She ads something new and different to my day of ugly news reading . She is already damned interesting and I think her best is yet to come.

I like the idea of introducing my readers to other writers I find interesting and hope you do as well. You have suggestions? Email them to the hotmail addy found in the profile. I don't want to put it here because of the damned spammer collector bots.

I am not putting permanent links on this blogger site because I will soon be moving to a web site where I will repay all the links I owe. I will continue to regularly update this blog but the archives will be much more accessible. I plan to have some features that I hope will increase both the information and yes, the entertainment value of the site.

See ya Monday.

Bits and Pieces of life in Wonderland

2005-03-29T04:17:00.001-08:00

As usual, there are a number of things I want to write about. Too many things. I strictly avoided the news, in any form, for better than ten years. Given the current state of things, I felt I could no longer afford that psychological luxury.

So, now I am bombarded with a flood of information and more things going on than you can shake an opinion at.

The Shiavo farce has been one of the most ridiculous bits of noisy mindless spectacle that one could imagine. It's like something Kurt Vonnegut might have written in his hey day.

I dunno, feeding the undead seems strange to me. Undead may be the proper term for what is left of the woman, given that most of what was her brain, is now spinal fluid. A ghastly, ghoulish piece of political bullshit, is what this has become.

I did find a very interesting site that you might want to know about. Watching America is a news site that posts on line news articles, from around the world. The topic of the site is, how people around the world view America. The non English articles are translated into English. I am finding it an interesting read and a valuable resource. Check it out if you haven't already.

I think it is an important site, for Americans. The corporate/FCC media barricade around America is almost impenetrable unless you have a good short wave radio, or an internet connection. That internet connection is useless unless you know how to search and unless you develop a bit of discernment regarding information sources. I think that one of the reasons Americans have such an unreal attitude about their place in the world, is because they have no idea how little they know of the world.

The Watching America site intends to make it easier to get a good cross section of just what the world thinks about America and its' actions. It isn't all negative, but it is a very different perspective that people should expose themselves to.

Moving on with this morning's report: President Bush may fall off the news for a day or two. At 11:08 a.m. ET, a very large earthquake happened just off the coast of Sumatra. In the same region as the earthquake that created the recent tsunami. The US Geological Centre categorizes this 8.2 r event as a "Great" quake, the highest of their seven levels of seismic events, as described by the US Geological Centre.

This not good, ladies and gentlemen. Thailand has been the first country in the region to issue tsunami warnings to its' coastal populations. I do not want to wake up tomorrow to news of another great catastrophe. I do not wish to hear more preachers and Imams gleefully pronouncing their gods' judgment on the victims of a natural event. Its like they are bragging because it didn't happen to them.

These outpourings of religious 'love' are always, shall we say, instructive?

For instance, back to the Shiavo fiasco; I find myself wondering, if any of the ignorant jerks with megaphones, screaming and insulting the cops outside that Florida hospice, have ever had the experience of following a loved one into a hospice. Such disregard for the peace and sanctity of the dying and their families and friends, speaks absolute volumes about the real spirit behind these people.

To paraphrase something once said to me, by an evangelist preacher who never sold out to mammon, "Observing and judging the spirit motivating these actions, I conclude that their God is my Satan."

I'm not a religious person and do not believe in such entities as Satan, demons, angels and Gods. But, in a psychological and even sociological sense, the words of my friend still hold true.

In other news: It seems that President Bush, our Fearless Leader, has been fibbing about the safety of nuclear facilities and stock piles of spent nuclear fuel. It seems that commercial nuclear facilities like dumping their atomic waste in standing pools of water rather than in more attack resistant dry storage facilities. Why? The commercial industries say "it is unnecessary and too expensive." In other words, it will cost something.

The problem is, that these water pool storage tanks are open to a variety of terrorist scenarios, from the possibility of attack with a very large explosive device to insider theft of spent nuclear rods. Like so called depleted uranium, spent nuclear rods are very, very dangerous materials.

Yet, ever the corporate go boy, the president assures us the nuclear industries are safe, as they are. You would not want our patriotic corporations wasting money, taking responsibility for the dangers they create. This, in spite of a government sponsored report that warns of the grave dangers.

Let's see, since 9/11, the airports have become difficult and restrictive for the public and still fail every serious test of their security measures. The constant colour coded terror alerts were nothing more than an irritating piece of political stage setting, for the elections.

Port safety is under constant criticism and now we see the President is lying, again, about nuclear security.

I ask you, other than terrorize immigrants, especially Arabs. Other than locking up and threatening people with opinions disliked by this rightist regime, other than providing this government with the power to pry into every aspect of a citizens life, without court supervision or charges being laid, what has this damned Patriot Act and this anti-terrorist hysteria done for us?

Nothing good. It has helped usher us into a war that had nothing to do with terrorism. It has distracted the population away from what this exceptionally dishonest government is doing, to their county and the political and economic future of all Americans.

America marches head long into economic, military, and political disaster while many of its citizens and congressional representatives obsess over a dead woman and the Michael Jackson trial.

While obsessing with the "get the freak", Christian and politically motivated hysteria, a very dangerous legal precedent has being set, in allowing what is essentially hear-say evidence to be entered in to a serious criminal case. As dangerous as this precedent is, the majority of sleep walking Americans nod their heads sagely. Anything to get the little freak. He's a weirdo, he must be guilty.

So, are we now willing to allow rumour and hear-say, regarding former blackmailers, to be entered as evidence? Blackmail and cheap character assassination, donning the mantel of objective evidence? Screw the constitution. Get the weirdo. Don't trouble your little minds with the real world implications of the courts precedent setting evidence ruling.

Mean time, the Florida State legislature marches along with it's bill to deprive university professors of the right and necessity of teaching unpopular subjects containing unpopular ideas.

You don't like your grade, if you think your lousy, poorly researched, poorly written, undocumented essay, got a failing grade because your prof disagrees with your half baked beliefs, Hell, sue the bastard. Skip the egg head work and litigate your way to a degree.

Tragically, and it is a tragedy, a very large percent of the population does not understand, even vaguely, the crucial importance of academic freedom. That is, freedom of thought in places of learning.

There is an old story, likely a myth, where in, Alexander the great, after conquering Athens, met one of the great Philosophers of the City. A famous one, but which one, I forget. Alexander, as new King and head of a great army, asked the wise man if there was anything, at all, he could do for him. The philosopher paused, looked up at Alexander and said, "Yes, you could move, you are blocking my light."

Just how far the philosopher wanted Alexander and his army to move, I don't know. But, I know that if George Bush the Small, and his allies actually wanted to do something for higher education in America, they would leave academic freedom alone, and quit blocking the light.

But, blocking the light is exactly what this regime is about. Isn't it?

Links regarding academic freedom in the US of A.

Silencing Speech on Campus, The Nation, April 4, 2005 issue:

Relevant pieces, from shortest to longest:

Article one.
Article two.
Article three.
Article four.

Poor George

2005-03-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough couple of weeks for King George. Three months into his second term, his approval rating has begun a rapid swan dive. And it seems to bother the King, very much.

Wolfowitz is headed for the top of the World Bank, only because he has been forced out of his base of power, among the neo-cons and Generals of the Pentagon. Ousted because Big Oil money does not like the war, and what it has become, and because the neo-con dream of privatizing the Iraqi oil industry runs counter to the interests of Big Oil.

That may sound outrageous to some. Allow me to explain. The large oil corporations of the US were all for going in and killing Sadaam and his immediate supporters. They had their own military plans.

They already had his Bathist replacement picked out. Another strong man, who would maintain the countrys' infrastructure and internal security and be friendly to the US and the Oil Companies interests. Maintaining the status quo, strengthening their own position with OPEC, freeing up Iraqi oil, for the world market, all with out a messy, politically dangerous war. Another Sadaam, good for maybe another twenty years.

The oil companies in America are making record breaking profits. They have no desire to break OPEC. They want their own puppet at the OPEC table. Again, the rising price of oil at the producer level, has only benefited the American oil companies. They are making record breaking profits as I write.

Big oil does not want to destroy OPEC by privatizing Iraq's oil, thereby countering OPEC's ability to control the price of oil. The neo-con idea of privatization, and the neo-con approach to the war, run directly counter to the interests of the major share holders of the big oil corporations. Not light weights in American power politics.

So, things are getting complicated for King George who owes much of his good 'fortune' to big oil money.

Conservative Senators and members of Congress, from both sides of the isles, are building opposition to the far reaching powers given to the government and the Executive Office under the Patriot Act. Conservatives are beginning to realize that they too may become victims of a law that ignores the constitution, the legal lynch pin of the American system.

Many of his former Christian-Right allies are pulling away from the fold, some because they have begun to realize the President is a shifty, back tracking liar, that has used them. Some because the blatant, obvious as a whore's hooters hypocrisy, of Bush intervening in the Terri Shiavo case, is too much for anyone to bear.

George screwed up again. Eighty two percent of the population disagrees with what he is doing, regarding Terri Shiavo. But damn the peasants. If the filibuster rules get changed, under the cover of all the Shiavo smoke and mirrors, he will stack the Supreme court with the kind of Judges that would have heard the very weak Shiavo case. The kind of judges that know when to support the needs of the King.

What do mere citizens know about these things?

Mean while, the revelations about the fake news distributed from the White House and dutifully presented as actual news by media outlets, has caused more Bush believers to doubt their faith.

More and more, top Republicans and noted Christian gay haters, are getting outed for sex with little boys, child porno, and or taking it up the bum from Bulldog and his roguish Marine playmates.

Ordinary Americans refuse to believe, that the new bank and credit card company sponsored Bankruptcy Bill, is good for debt ridden Americans.

As if enough people weren't already grumbling and disturbing the King's rest, a damned grass roots anti-war movement has come alive in America. Something George greatly fears and thought he could control via the marvelous co-operation given by the media. If no body know there's a movement, it won't matter. It seemed to work in NYC during the Republican convention. The largest demonstrations and mass arrests in New York City history, and barely a blip in the news, anywhere in America.

Still, a real cross section of Americans are disbelieving George's excuses for his war and they are daring to speak up about it. Some dare to say he is losing the war. This should not be happening to a noble War Time President, who worked so long and hard, and told so many huge lies, to create his war. George figures he deserves to have it his way. It's his war, his 'mandate', and his country, damn it!

But that devils' invention, the internet, has become a leak in the media/information wall erected by corporate media and policed by the FCC, the sworn enemy of independent media.

In spite of all the best efforts and great successes in controlling American information media, the reality of all his many, many lies, speaks much louder than his words. Just when he was getting ready to go back on his promise to stick to the all volunteer army, and reintroduce conscription.

I wonder, if Bush still believes his directions come straight from God? Does he believe all the many people, from every place in life, who doubt him and distrust him, are all merely tools of evil? Allowed by God, to test his resolve? A scary thought, boys and girls.

I nearly wept with laughter, listening to one of the most vindictive men to ever grace the Oval office, practically begging Democrats and detractors to quit criticizing him and his policies.

What kind of wimp crap is that? The first time this vicious, no holds barred, wielder of character assassination (McCain, Kerry, AARP, to name only three), begins to feel a bit of heat from the fires he has started, he takes it personal and wimps for sympathy.

Damn! Somebody put this worm back in the garden. He has a natural place in life but it is not the Presidency of the United States.

I've said before: George Bush has been a very useful puppet for Cheney, and the Neo-cons behind him. With his many personal flaws and weaknesses, Bush will make an even better fall guy.

Personally, I would not begin the cheering yet. His most viscously destructive acts are still ahead of him and us. Tyrants, dictators, and fools like Bush, do not go gentle into that good night. He will rage against the dying of his power.

Baby Steps, Learning Quickly

2005-03-21T23:36:00.000-08:00

Awareness is awakening in America and a movement is being born. If you only get your news from FOX, CNN, and the other corporate media outlets, you are missing some important things happening in America.

Which is exactly what the corporate news is largely about, keeping your attention focused on the wrong things. While painting a picture of the world that more nearly reflect what Karl Rove and the corporate/government theorists want you to see.

Truthout.org has a page of stories from actions around the country, here. I have spent some time today, searching out and reading info regarding protests and actions around the country, on this, the second anniversary of this war. It cheers me more than anything I've seen lately. I feel much less alone today.

Even Vancouver, on the draft less side of the border, had two thousand people marching in a steady downpour . Go here for pics of Vancouver march.

The number of actions and the average number of participants was much, much higher than this time last year. Actions leading up to the anniversary stepped up, around the country.

Students are fighting to counter the lies and deceptive tactics of military recruiters on campus. Many school administrations are assisting police in the on going attempt to silence opposition voices. In the process, those administrations are helping to build a campus movement. The more repressive their measures, the more heat generated. the faster resistence will grow.

It's all good.

Large numbers of veterans, and veterans and soldiers families, participated all over the country. In Fayetteville, NC, at Fort Brag, the demonstrations were three times larger than last year, with participants from a growing number of veterans and military family groups.

To have these people, representing the soldiers and the veterans, in such numbers, so early in the struggle, is very encouraging. The signs indicate the campus is starting to catch up.

Trade unions were involved, in a big way in many cities. For a list of cities where actions took place and a lot of the photos' go to Indybay.org

New faces appeared almost every where. I've received numerous emails from people in different cities telling me that they saw people out, this week end, that they had not seen before. In some places lots of new young faces appeared and others talked about the numbers of baby boomers who showed their faces.

The impression I get from the news one must look for on the net, and from what I have read from many participants, is that the anti Iraq War movement is well and truly arising among the American people.

It occurs to me that those who see the world only through the corporate media filtre have no idea something is happening, yet. That means George Bush doesn't know it yet either, I suppose. Until Karl lets some one tell him about it, he just won't know. I'd like to be the proverbial fly on the wall when he begins to figure it out. George doesn't handle bad news well. Especially this kind.

Staying with the reality community, we can not expect too much too quick. Therein lies the road to despair. Trust me, I know. Been there, done that. Don't go there.

One great day to celebrate the work that went into making those actions happen, will not stop the war. Won't even slow it, but some of the big steps have been taken now. There is a long siege ahead of us. We are like flees battling a Leviathan. It is a long fight that all together we will win, we will weaken the beast beyond repair. But it will not happen quickly.

We are in for a long fight and the casualties are yet to come, on the civilian side, but they are coming.

It will be interesting to see what effect the appearance of an anti-war movement, spawned before the reinstitution of the draft will have. It will certainly strengthen the no draft argument. The military reality won't go away and neither will a pesky, politically dangerous anti-war movement.

It's a pickle for the neocons and the war supporters in Washington.

If you have not already done so, I urge you to visit the links above. Read the stories, look at the many great pictures. Do a google search or go to your best news sites and read and see for yourself that a movement, is arising, among the people of America. It is just taking baby steps but it is growing and learning fast.

Then, find something you can do, something you want to do, to lend your shoulder to the wheel of democracy . It's a long trip, pace yourself for a long run. Something to give yourself a reason to be out on the streets.

Small, persistent, consistent, smartly applied pressures, can combine to topple anything. Even Bush, Cheney, and their neocon masters.

Here is a very personal idea about movement building. I believe it is profoundly important for us to have real gratitude and appreciation for anyone who steps up to plate in these times. I believe we should not hesitate to support each other in the ways that we reasonably can. The best way we can support the greater cause is to support each other, without undue regard for what we get out of that support.

Ideally, the support is mutual and strengthens us all. Making us difficult to break. Hard to isolate. More flexible in our responses to danger and adversity.

In contrast to despair, it pleases me greatly to see the stirrings of this movement in America. To see people in America reflecting the saner voices of Europe and the rest of the world. The cultural wall between Americans and the rest of the world is a very bad thing.

I have every reason to believe that the great majority of my readers are progressive thinking people. To you and to myself I want to say, have heart. We've only just begun to fight. In the long run we will win.

The constant flow of bad news, of lies, deceptions, crimes denied and wiped away, while innocents are condemned to prison, death, illness, and deprivation, can easily drive the strongest minds to despair and defeatism.

Beyond the dismal managed reality of FOX and the gang, there is something real stirring in America. The one thing Cheney, George, and the neocons are afraid of. A vibrant ground up movement of conscience, stopped Richard Nixon. George and Cheney are even more flawed than Agnew and Tricky Dick Nixon.

We are still living in the darker regions of Wonderland but the picture is much brighter than it was a year ago. Have heart, we will see it through to the other side of this toxic era. We can win. We might win back America.

A video of the large demonstration at Fort Brag in North Carolina.

The Honour and Character of a Nation

2005-03-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

Nations, like individuals, are perceived to have a character. That character is demonstrated in a number of ways. Health care, street crime rates, poverty, access to services, air quality in the cities, etc, are some of the indicators used to determine the character and the livability of a society.

The United States consistently scores low in most of these areas. For instance: While Americans spend more on health care, per capita, than any other country, it ranks something like 27th in services actually delivered, because the American ideal, the medicine for profit model, creates world class care for those who can afford it, while it presents very poor care for a majority of its citizens.

Over whelming medical bills are the chief cause of personal bankruptcies in America. What does that say for health care in such a supposedly rich country? The first question that will come to mind, for many is, "Who's rich in this rich country?"

That has become a good question in a country whose national wealth is so heavily concentrated in the hands of a few big time corporate families.

The specific indicator of a nation's character and honor, I want to talk about today, is how we treat the veterans of our armed services. An important one because it is the back side of the patriotic rhetoric used to recruit these citizens. It is, in deed, where the rubber meets the road regarding the governments sense of responsibility to and for those who have given so much to the nation and the government.

I have learned things in the last couple of days, that are at once, enraging, depressing, and just plain shameful. It really makes you wonder what kind of people can do these things and still sleep at night and whistle "On Ward Christian Soldier" as they set such tragedies in motion.

The next couple of stories are two examples of the reality awaiting many returning vets.
As you may already know, a huge percentage of Vietnam era veterans either are or have been on the streets, for lengthy periods of time.

Many, suffering from untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, have suffered for years with no help, what so ever. It took the government and department of veterans affairs over thirty years to admit to the existence PTSD. Simply because the powers that be, refuse to accept any responsibility for the damage they do and the cost they create. The blame is placed on individuals who are punished for being so afflicted.

Iraq injuries differ from past wars: More amputations, brain traumas By William M. Welch of USA Today. In spite of the title, this is an almost cheery article about some of the things being done for seriously wounded vets. As one would expect from USA Today, the article focuses on the advanced technology of modern prosthetic limbs, by way off letting you know about the marvelous things that could be done.

It fails to mention how difficult it will be to get such wonderful things out of the VA, or how long the backlog is for treating returning vets. Of course, the massive budget cuts were not mentioned. It was a 'feel good in spite of it all' article.

The article starts with details about the nature of wounds being dealt with in this conflict. The combination of improved body armor and the powerful explosive weapons being used, (taken from American control) mean that men are surviving blasts that would have previously killed them. Surviving with massive debilitating injuries such as multiple amputations and serious brain trauma. Many of these are people that will require medical assistance and living assistance for most of their lives.

Here is a short quote from the article:
"The VA is financing research into a variety of new technologies to help amputees, including high-tech prosthetic limbs and regeneration of tissue. A study underway at the VA's center in Providence, in collaboration with Brown University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is exploring the potential for restoring greater function after limb loss."

This all sounds great until you realize the VA is grossly under funded, grossly under staffed, and the line ups of new cases are getting longer every week. Add to that, a minimum $10 billion (the smallest estimate I've heard) bucks was just axed from the VA budget, to help pay for the one point seven Trillion dollar tax cut for the rich.

A bit closer to reality, is this article, The New Wave: Our Future Homeless (vets) is found a blog called the Junkheap of History.

A quote from the article: “John Staresinich is a Purple Heart veteran who has slept in cracks in highway overpasses and abandoned cars, camped out in thin tents next to railroad tracks and fought off rats and bugs in Chinatown flophouses.In December, he was diagnosed with severe combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder -- 32 years after returning from Vietnam -- and is now getting help from the federal Veterans Affairs in Chicago. He says it took more than a year of begging that agency.
"Soldiers from Iraq are going to come back with PTSD," said Staresinich, 54. "I hope they treat them sooner than they did me."

Something wicked this way comes. A large percent of Vietnam era veterans, are or have been, homeless for significant periods of time. Many are ill, physically disabled, and or mentally traumatized to the extent that they are unable to work or care for themselves. Many have been denied VA treatment or assistance for thirty years until Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was finally recognized by the Veterans Administration.

Iraq war veterans are already beginning to appear in homeless shelters. Often wounded in one sense or another, they are discharged by the Army one day, the next day, still ill and still recovering from often serious wounds, they are on the street. With no job. If they don't have families, or their families are unable or unwilling to help them, they rent a room and apply for medical assistance from the VA and begin waiting. It is probably going to be a very long wait. Mean while you are sitting somewhere with your injuries, getting broker by the day.

Imagine, that you are suffering the emotional and mental effects of combat, unable to sleep, afraid to sleep because of the dreams and night terrors, unable to relate to being sick, in a world that is utterly oblivious to you and what has happened to you, in the service of your country. The nation that was so proud to 'support our troops' until you got messed up in combat. Then, you disappear. Blind, legless, or traumatized, it don't matter. You disappear.

Especially for people with no family support, the step from the barracks to the street can be very fast. The effects on families of these returning vets is profound, as well.

The stress and unending burden of years of care and heavy medical expenses, destroy families. Living with a loved one who has come back changed, in strange, often frightening ways, is beyond the coping resources of many.

I've known men who had what in the vernacular of the day was called, "the thousand yard stare". The look of a person with a profound emotional detachment. A barrier that nothing gets through. People are talking about that thousand yard stare again. That "Marine Look" as some Marine wives attempt to describe it.

A person trying to get back from that mental hell hole, to reclaim himself and his life again, has a very long road and an extremely difficult road ahead of him, with out proper professional care. Families can help but they are not equipped to dealt with something they can not understand. Something so profound.

A few months ago, in another blog posting, I said: I want you people who voted Republican to remember that, when they take your kids to fight for Cheneys' millions. When beauty comes home in a body bag, when athlete of the year comes back permanently mangled, when your once cheerful lad returns changed and estranged from you in ways you could not have imagined, remember, YOU asked for it. You made it all possible.

I feel I must say it again. It is happening. It is not a future event. But, very few seem to really care. It is a terrible thing yet there is very little media mention of such problems for vets. When there is, you get a 'feel good about it' fluff piece like the article from USA Today, as mentioned above.

Listen carefully, the so called "all volunteer Army" is about to go the way of the dinosaur. It is being burned up and chewed up bit, by irreplaceable bit. The economic draft is not working anymore. The Army is no longer a rational alternative to poverty and poor job prospects. Poor job prospects have become a rational alternative to death or dismemberment.

Give it what ever bureaucratic sobriquet you like, the Draft is on it's way back and will be operating by this summer. The present Army can not last another year with out a massive injection of new soldiers and equipment to replace exhausted Reserve, National Guard and regular Army and Marine units, now long in the field.

Keeping in mind the terrible state of VA care for seriously wounded vets, remembering the nature and severity of wounds characteristic to this war, and not forgetting that the draft is coming to families near you in the near future, ponder what this president and this government have done to the VA, in the latest budget.

I've said before that the budget is a true reflection of the real agenda behind the
Bush and neocon rhetoric. It is where the moral rhetoric meets hard reality..

I have a somewhat cynical saying, all mine, that I believe pretty well sums up the lesson in this budget. Having spent much of my life in and around the music biz, I eventually came to the conclusion that Money, not imitation, is the most sincere form of flattery. Imitation may be copy right infringement and money says the record company means some of the crap they hand you.

You see, the music biz is full of people that want you do freebies. Only they don't call it a freebie because then they might owe you something for providing free entertainment at their successful bar or for their premeir or what ever. They tell you how wonderful you are, how you are a star on the rise, and this gig is going to be Great Exposure for you.

You know they really like you when the check doesn't bounce.

This budget is the flip side of the Army contract that says "You Giveth, We Taketh Away".

Like the record company, Bush and the war supporters say, "We love our troops, they are the finest most honorable and bravest people in America". Over and over they say it. But, when they have squeezed every thing they possibly can from you, broken your body and your mind and disrupted your life and every thing you are, you are suddenly characterized as a "drain on national security".

In other words, you are on your own, we want to forget you, you suddenly unpatriotic drain on our security.

Magnetic ribbons become an endlessly repeating bad joke in the eyes of veterans and active soldiers, as the grandstanding of official liars, wears thinner and thinner.

Read'em and weep as the saying goes. The underhanded methods of presenting this budget, refusing to make projections for future cuts and effects beyond 2006, the specific nature of the cuts, and the very direct effect on returning vets, tells you about as much as you need to know regarding the reality behind the rhetoric and lies of Mr. Bush. He knows he's lying but that is what sociopaths do.

The numbers speak volumes. This article, from Common Dreams, is written by Ashley L. Decker. Herself, the daughter of a Vietnam veteran who still suffers from exposure to Agent Orange. Ashley also suffers from genetic problems directly attributable to her father's exposure to Agent Orange.

A quote from the article: The House of Representatives have recently voted on the 2004 budget which will cut funding for veteran's health care and benefit programs by nearly $25 billion over the next ten years. It narrowly passed by a vote of 215 to 212, and came just a day after Congress passed a resolution to "Support Our Troops." How exactly does this vote support our troops? Does leaving our current and future veterans without access to health care and compensation qualify as supporting them?

The Veteran's Administration, plagued by recent budget cuts, has had to resort to charging new veterans entering into its system a yearly fee of $250 in order for them to receive treatment. It is a sad irony that the very people being sent to fight the war are going to have to pay to treat the effects of it.

How's that for 'supporting our troops' ? Makes you feel good to be an American, don't it? We support our troops as long as they are healthy and still in uniform. As soon as they are used up, we just toss'em, like no refund bottles. What good is a used up hero, eh? Is that not the American Way?

The great American comedy never stops with the laughs. First those brave and noble Congress people vote for a hearty and self soothing "Support Our Troops" resolution, then set about dismantling the only support available for our returning troops. Yes, that is a shining example of what has become the American way.

This next article is from the News Tribune, in Tacoma, Washington. The article details some of the damage that will be done to veterans in Washington State, a state which has the fifth highest number of ex-military personnel among its citizens. What is talked about here is happening all over the country.

A quote from this article: WASHINGTON – More than 10,000 Washington state veterans could face a $1,000-a-year increase for their medical care under a Bush administration budget proposal, a veterans advocacy group says. And state officials warn that the White House spending plan could force out roughly half of the 600 residents at Washington’s three veterans homes, possibly resulting in the closure of one of them.

“It’s almost hopeless for the average vet to get taken care of,” said John Kenny, who fought as a machine gunner in the Philippines and New Guinea during World War II. “It’s a scandal.”
The administration has proposed charging some veterans a $250 annual fee for access to medical services provided by the Veterans Administration and more than doubling the copayment for prescription drugs from $7 to $15. The new fees would apply to single veterans making more than $26,000 annually and married veterans making about $30,000 annually.
In addition, the Bush administration budget would significantly reduce federal support for state-operated veterans homes and impose new limitations on who can be admitted.

What can I say about this? Thousands of vets are on their way home. Many with serious debilitating injuries. The VA is already struggling and failing to keep up. We love to shout empty slogans about 'our troops'. While laying off nurses and closing clinics, hospitals, and homes.

I've written this with a particular eye to young men who are thinking of joining the military or facing future conscription. Please, be aware, that if you are one of the very many who will be killed or injured in this conflict, you will count for nothing, in the grand schemes of things in America.

You will be, "a drain on national security" to quote a White House nob.

Here is one last little issue, that I will write about in greater detail, later. Depleted Uranium, which is packed into a variety of munitions, is proving to be much more danger than originally thought.

It has been demonstrated, by the army, that the DU in a twenty mm round is partly vaporized upon contact with any hard surface, rocks, building, or Armour. In larger munitions such as artillery and tank shells can vaporize as much as 100 percent of the DU inside it.

The vaporized DU forms microscopic aerosol particles which are then breathed in by those in the vicinity of the firing. Which is pretty much everyone in Iraq. These micro particles, unlike normal sized particles pass through the blood brain barrier with ease. They end up deposited in the brain, liver, kidneys, pancreas, you name it. The micro particles stay there and do much more damage, including more genetic damage, than than conventional sized radio active particles.

These problems are showing up in the vets and the children of vets from the first Gulf War. Coming home in one piece does not mean you have survived the war. Or even that your future children have survived the war.

Of course, the VA and the military and the government are refusing to even admit, much less take any responsibility for something the world has been warning them about for some time now. DU is very dangerous and most of the soldiers in Iraq are being exposed to vaporized DU, many on a daily basis.

It took the VA thirty years to admit the existence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They are a long way from admitting and taking responsibility for the wave of cancer loaded vets and genetic deformities, in their children, that have already been created by DU.

Young people considering the army or just waiting for the draft, keep these things in mind. No matter what that recruiting officer tells you, you will be an utterly expendable counter in this game of money and power. The pride offered in the wearing of that uniform will melt away very quickly when you realize just how valuable you really aren't, to those whose interests you serve.

Trust and loyalty are necessarily two way streets. The present government is loyal only to its' own aspirations, which in many ways, are profoundly disloyal to the country and its people. They do not deserve your trust.

You give, they take, that is the true law of the land and will remain so as long as you are willing to give yourself away so easily.

If it Weren't So Horrible...

2005-03-02T03:45:00.000-08:00

Reading the news and doing some research regarding how things work in the New America, I'm constantly floored by the rich black humour of it all.

I mean, George Bush lecturing Putin, about the dangers of sliding into totalitarianism will someday be the stuff of comedic dramas set in this period.. Bush lectures Putin about the importance of a free press, while his neocon allies have destroyed the independent press in America. While George himself is involved in creating propaganda, disguised as news, and stacking the White House press corps with shills. It would be hilarious, were it not for the terrible reality behind the joke.

My impression of this particular incident is that it was put on, primarily for the benefit of the home audience. George Bush resolutely defending democracy and the free press, to a bunch of Russian would be totalitarians. That proves America is a free democracy and the press is free, and we are the good guys. Don't it?

When I was a young guy in Alabama, I remember having a very simplistic idea about the basic difference between authoritarian communist countries and the capitalist countries. The idea came directly from the Communism verses Democracy class in the 11th grade. However the conclusion was greatly frowned upon by Mrs. Vines, the matronly history teacher who was the perfect bitter, myopic, bovine personality for disseminating the obedience propaganda that made up most of the 'study' material of 11 th grade history.

My theory, in a sentence, was that Communist societies controlled society with police and detention while capitalist societies just starved you out if you say or do what the elite doesn't like.

I was reminded of Mrs. Vines during the press conference with Bush and Putin. A reporter asked Bush if opposition writers were not fired in the United States. And George smiled and said something like, That's the difference, the government doesn't fire them, the editor fires them, or the publisher, or the owner of media outlets fires them. He was grinning his fool face off while saying it.

What he's telling Putin is that corporate totalitarianism with the outward appearance of democracy and a market driven, corporate owned, "free press", is the way of the future.

What he is telling the American people is that "We are right. We are the givers of democracy and enemies of evil." Preaching quite the opposite of what he does in the world.

That, of course, is what the rest of the world sees from America. Bloody tyrants who persistently say the very opposite of what they mean. People for whom peace means the destruction of anyone seen to be in the way of the great neocon plan to control the worlds' economy. People for whom liberty means obedience to the financial and political needs of corporate power.

A few days ago, I had a long telephone conversation with a friend who lives in southwest Texas. He was telling me how the right wing born-agains have taken over all cultural events in the town and any business that does not support them is boycotted by the 'good' people.

An annual Christmas festival that had ran for a number of years was taken over by the local Evangelicals. There was no music except hymns and most of the booths were put up by dour faced Christians handing out "Sinners Will Burn" leaflets, and businesses not selling Christianity along with their products, were boycotted. The very people who put up most of the money for the event were boycotted for not being Christian enough. It was a financial disaster, of course. Which was part of the idea.

My friend says no one will even speak against it because, as my friend said, "They operate like a gang, they target people they don't agree with."

The police and members of city council are part of it and they make life expensive and dangerous for those they consider to be the wrong type. Perfect Brown shirts without the uniforms. Playing exactly the role played by the SA during Hitler's rise to power.

They don't wear uniforms and they don't talk the same racial propaganda, yet, but they play the same intimidating role and the same social enforcement role played by the Brown Shirts, not all that long ago.

In the same conversation, my friend expressed dismay and real resentment regarding the way that Europeans and much of the world now view Americans. He said, "It's a kind of racism, you know."

I know how he feels and yes there is a straight up bias involved. But, understanding the feeling well, I know that the very people my friend is afraid of, in his home town, are the people who now represent Americans to the world. People don't like dumb, arrogant, ignorant nazis. They never have and never will.

The idiocy that Americans seem to revel in, such as the gayness of Sponge Bob, their fanatical hatred of gays, and non Christians, their inability to grasp simple cultural concepts, their fear of everything that isn't them, makes it difficult to see through the mainstream well enough to see the people that don't represent that.

Everything you see in the media that comes from the States, reinforces the stereotype. More liberal thinking Americans are painted with a bad rap but we are stuck with it until enough of us stick our heads above the ground to be seen.

The difficulty is that you can't stick your head up as an individual without getting smacked down in one sense or another. Being in Canada gives the illusion of some protection but it is a very thin protection.

We must put ourselves into the struggle against what is happening or be eaten, in the long run. Simply rolled over and absorbed. Few at a time until America is entirely safe for naked corporate control.

Germans turned out in humongous numbers to express their attitude toward America and the danger it presents to the world. Kept far from the sight of Fearless Leader. Mean while, the US media almost completely ignore what Europe is well aware of. There lies the mental divide between Americans and Europeans.

Europeans and the people of the world outside America, know many things that Americans are not allowed to know. Ignorance refers to a lack of knowledge and information. We are all born in that state but to stay that way, your whole life, requires work.

For my American friends, esteemed colleagues, and loved ones who do not represent this ugly new version of the American identity, you have the sympathy of much of the world but you are very hard to see. Very hard to separate from the background of your fellow citizens.

I believe we must recognize that it is up to us to alter this. It is not fair, but fair is a rare element in the human world. Like truth, fair is not a common thing.

What truth comes from the mouth of George Bush? Next to none. In what way is the application of American power fair to those who bear the burden and live in the rubble of countless broken lives?

The everyday lives, dreams, and ambitions of an entire nation of people shattered and made waste by American corporate greed. Greed directed, financed, and staffed by American corporate employees and literally thousands of Americans working as mercenaries.

Where's fair?

There is a real world price to pay for everything we do and for everything we don't do.

Bush is doing surreal stand up with Putin as his straight man and I'm wondering what happened to the rotten tomatoes.

Pure OP-ED: The White House Press Corps

2005-02-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

Giving a bit more thought to the Gannon/Guckert affair, it occurs to me to wonder why that small, ' everybody knows everybody' group, the official White House press corps, never questioned what this man was doing in their ranks.

Questions and rumours were around before bloggers and independent papers started investigating this obvious Republican shill, the bought man in the press corps.

The immediate answer is simple. Everyone in the White House press corps is, in more ways than one, bought. And bought people don't raise many questions about other bought people, no matter how they feel about that persons involvement.

In this Administration, unwelcome questions can reduce your access, immediately reducing your rank and privilege at the White House and with your employer. Anyone who says " screw that, I'm telling the truth and doing my job", will not be invited back to the party and that persons job will be subject to big job description amendments.

Ergo, in the great grand scheme of things, the media and its reporters, those with 'access' were all well and truly bought before that White House Press Pass was issued.
It's the corporate way, it's the new American way, and the press is free to print what is given to them, likewise, the electronic/television media.

It is a very successful control method. The problem with corruption is that it can work so well, so smoothly.

The sad thing, for me, is that many, many Americans do not understand what is wrong with this picture. Not a thought for where it leads. With no understanding regarding the relationship between democracy and a free, independent press. Or media, if you will.

Ignorant of historical precedents, that would indicate the great dangers in the path that America has taken, both at home and abroad. Ignorant of their own history and the nature of their own democracy, many Americans seem helpless. Unable to think clearly, living with the ubiquitous presence of the Corporate media/propaganda machine.

America is being spoon fed crap from the White House, delivered to homes, dinner tables, bedrooms and lunch counters every where, by the many, many organs of the corporate media. Yum, yum, eat up America. You can hardly turn it off and get away from it.

So what am I getting at? I am getting at the fact that the people in the elite White House press corps, have completely sold themselves. And the ignorant malleability of American mind that I describe, is something they individually and collectively have real responsibility for. Very direct responsibility. For the individual, no amount of excuses alters the reality of what you do and the effect it has in the objective world.

I certainly don't blame the media for all the county's ills. There is blame enough to be spread far and wide. But the virtual death of independent media, at the hands of media giants, has concentrated the ownership of nearly every thing you see, hear, or read, into just a few hands. A small group of hideously wealthy men, with common interests and driven by the same market forces. An important thing to remember

They can never share the interests of the millions of ordinary Americans but they own the people who can sell the idea that Corporate America is America. Sell the idea that ordinary Americans somehow benefit when the mega corporations own and control the streets of the world. A big profit for Haliburton is somehow a victory for Americans?

Wave the flag and praise the lord while your jobs are outsourced by the same Flag waving American Corporation. The same corporation and corporations that want to use your kids, in their thousands, to clear the ground and make the mid-east safe for corporate exploitation.

Of course, it is never, never described that way. The reality is clouded by a peculiar 'boosters' variety of quasi patriotism. Bumper stickers, car magnets, bracelets. Just like the football booster crap I used to sell door to door when I was a kid. Sold bags of University of Alabama and University of Auburn pennants, bumper stickers , key chains, all that booster shit. Sold a lot of it

I suddenly liked college football a lot more, especially Alabama's team because their stuff sold way bigger than anything else

It's one thing to sell sports teams in such fashion but boosterism is antithetical to patriotism. It is short lived and marches how ever the wind blows it. It can only follow. But, it can be led.

So, in truth, I have no sympathy for those who sell out so big. The sell out is big because
of the enormity of the intellectual and moral responsibility that is abdicated. Because the results are far reaching and long lasting.

I don't usually make direct analogy between George Bush and Hitler but I will say something about one aspect of their mass appeal to their respective nations.

When the Nazis were at their popular zenith, the German people were, in a sense, bought by the Nazi "Economic Miracle" that had greatly improved the lives and living standards
of the German people. The workers, the middle class, and the elites. There is nothing like economic success, after a long and terrible period of enforced poverty, to win the hearts and minds of a people. To take a nation from despair to illusions of grandeur in a very short time, buys a lot of political credit.

Perhaps, given that the contemporary American economy is in ruin, and diving deeper into debt, with a will, and given that so many things are going wrong, costing so much, and causing so much damage, blind boosterism and religious fear and 'faith' are all you really have to sell.

If and when that wears thin, you have your Homeland Security apparatus, armed with the multiple applications Patriot Act, to keep the plebes from gumming up the plan. The march to corporate utopia must not falter, hesitate, or turn aside for a minimum of four more years.

The media plays a big role in this resurrection of the old totalitarian monster. The individuals who facilitate this process of corruption, knowing exactly what they do and the stories they don't tell, doing so for rank, privilege, and serious recompense, bear responsibility.

I will have this thought in mind every time I see a story from a "White House Correspondent".

The Gannon/Guckert story is No Mere Sex Scandal

2005-02-23T02:51:00.000-08:00

I've been avoiding talking about the Jeff Gannon/ Jim Guckert scandal. Partly because everyone else is writing about it and partly because I've been slow to realize how important and how big the story is.

Watching the George Bush Takes Over the World saga, has put a razor edge on my natural cynicism. The breaking story of a gay prostitute masquerading as a White House press correspondent, to help sell what ever soap the president was currently pushing, was completely in character with this administrations' usual mode of operation.

Yet another example of the Bush gang stacking the deck. Dealing only with the corporate media that knows to 'play ball' and or replacing legitimate reporters with trained stooges who present Republican propaganda as real news.

But this story is proving to be much more than yet another insidious propaganda ruse that is an everyday part of the Bush administration.

There is no doubt that the administration knew who and what Gannon/Guckert is. He has been a Republican activist since the days of George Bush senior. There is mounting evidence that Gannon's activities, in the world of male prostitution, went beyond selling his own body and also into supplying male prostitutes and even minors to Republican big wigs.

This is still speculative as more evidence must be obtained and some questions need to be answered. But it is starting to look ugly, once again, for the 'moral purity' party.

For me, the story gets really strange and interesting when we discover that Gannon is a person of interest in the 'outing' of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. It seems that in the course of an interview with Ms. Plame's husband, Gannon let on that he knew things about the case that he should not have known.

Now we learn that Gannon was one of only six people who saw the documents containing the information about Ms. Plume, that was leaked. Blowing her cover, ending her CIA career and compromising any agents that were known to know her. This is a serious crime.

The question that immediately comes to mind, one that has not been adequately answered, is how and why was a man like Gannon, with no journalistic credibility, was given access to such documentation. Who vetted him for such trust?

Paranoid Supreme George Bush does not allow serious access to legitimate reporters he doesn't know and trust. Gannon was not a legitimate reporter. He wrote for one web site yet had access given few other reporters. Bush and his handlers knew Gannon and trusted him for their own reasons, while no one else, including the Secret Service and the FBI had a clue who he was. If you believe the FBI and SS were ignorant of the man and his other proclivities, I have a seasonal property in sunny Florida that I would like to tell you about. I'm practically giving it away.

OK, link time. So you know I'm not making up this weird tale as I go. One thing I repeatedly see from the actions of Bush and the neocons, is that truth often seems much stranger than fiction. To paraphrase Richard Franklin; That's because the truth isn't heard that often.

This is a link to a thread at Thom Hartmann's excellent site. The poster has put a lot of information and links together that are of some interest. The post starts with a copy of a letter Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, a ranking member of the House Rules Committee, has sent to President Bush, asking him to explain to Congress and Americans why this fraudulent individual was repeatedly cleared by the White house staff. In order to allow him to infiltrate the legitimate press corp.

It is a good question. Yet another good question we are not likely to get a straight answer to.

Below Rep. Slaughter's letter is a copy of an open letter addressed to Representative Slaughter by her local newspaper, the Niagara Falls Reporter. The letter exposes their own discoveries regarding Gannon and ask the representative why such blatant gerrymandering of the White house Press Corp is being allowed.

As more than one writer has asked: How is it that it took bloggers twenty four hours to find out who this man is and what his other activities are, yet, the FBI and Secret Service allowed this man into handshake/pistol distance of a very paranoiac president, without knowing who he is in minute details?

Maybe they did, but if so, his pass came from the very top. The only way to circumvent the tight control of the press, around the president.

On one hand we have yet another example of bought media in the White House. Something this administration gets caught at, with alarming regularity. Going so far as to hire their own shill and insinuating him into the White House Press corp, the most elite job in journalism, signifies that this administration and this president will stop at nothing to control the media.

For those who don't already know, Gannon never worked for a newspaper or any other media outlet. He writes, or rather did write, for one right wing web site.

Here are some other links regarding Gannon/Guckert. Be warned, some of the links are cached web sites Gannon used to advertise his many escort services. $200 per hour or $1,200 for a week end of his special attention. This one has quite a number of links, some a bit on the lewd and rude side. If you are sensitive to naked guys, don't look. You have been warned.

If you want to see just how deadly serious this story may get, check this out. . It is an interview with Joe Wilson, a conservative critic of the Bush administration, whose wife, a veteran and well placed CIA agent, had her cover blown by a leak from high up in the Bush White House.

We learn in this interview, that Gannon/Guckert , the phony journalist and rent boy, was one of only six people who had access to those documents. Using a false name and telling Mr. Wislon that he was a conservative, "not a neo-conservative", Gannon was able to interview Wilson. The story that came from it was a hatchet smear job that had little to do with the interview and everything to do with White House revenge. It was in this interview that Gannon/Guckert clearly revealed that he had seen the secret documents.

The roll this shill was playing for the white house regarding this affair is, as yet, not known. There is no excuse for revealing this kind of potentially dangerous information to a man like Gannon/Guckert. Either he had no security clearance, which appears to be the case, meaning some one very high up put damaging secret documents in this man's hands for political reasons. Or he did have clearance meaning the FBI and Secret Service are lying. This is like Kerik only much worse.

There appears to be no end to the political corruption of this president. A man who can't take a hint of criticism, keeps long enemies lists, and believes in avenging the tiniest slight. Wilson's wife was considered "fair game" by the white house because of Wilson's conservative criticisms of the Bush government.

Given that Gannon may have the keys to a few Republican secrets, given that he loves to talk, and given that prostitutes are very easy targets, Gannon is now at the top of my list of people most likely to disappear, without a trace.

This batch of Republicans and their neo-con allies seem to corrupt and weaken everything they touch. Will America survive their touch?

The American Condition

2005-02-17T03:04:00.000-08:00

There is an important sense in which I am no longer an American. I have lived outside the country for thirty five years. Being part of a culture that in many ways is more aware of and more connected to the world outside the US, has seriously altered my perspective on many things, particularly how America is viewed by the objective world and how Americans perceive themselves in that context.

I grew up in 'wrong side of the tracks' Alabama. A product of my class and Southern culture, I was an all American, Jesus loving, redneck, racist, flag worshiper of the first water. I couldn't wait to grow up to join the army to be like my dad.

Marx said that being determines consciousness. I am a long way from my origins. My former junior Nazi self seems almost a dream at times, but the fact remains that for whatever changes have occurred, I am a product of that place and time. Having been away for so long, I view it from the perspectives of both a citizen and a foreigner.

I do not share the contempt that much of the world feels for Americans. I share some of it, of course. It is difficult not to feel some contempt for such willful ignorance in a people. But having grown up on the low end of the working class, in the deep south, I understand the nature of that ignorance and how everything in the environment perpetuates the helpless ignorance of so many Americans.

I also see, very clearly, the hard reality of why a functioning democracy actually requires educated aware citizens to remain a democracy.

The checks and balances system that has worked for so long, has been over whelmed. Every branch of government is under direct control of, or under serious pressure from neo-conservative Republicans.

With that checks and balances system broken, leaving the constitution unprotected and unenforceable, it is up to the citizens of the country to bring the government back in line with basic democratic principles. The citizens of America, in their ignorance, hubris, and lack of will, are simply not up to the task. Many have no understanding of what has been stolen from them and therein lies the true danger of ignorance.

Reading the news, one is assailed with the evidence of the systematic destruction of all traditional American values, as this neocon/corporate coup continues to gain power in the state and the over the thinking of the American people.

Today, I want to bring to your attention three news items that I believe combine to paint a picture of this new Imperial America idea. From the growing white power movement that sees the political and cultural climate of America is ready for them, to the organized moral panic movement that blindly supports this corporate power grab and helped keep Bush and his wealthy cronies in power, to the latest White House budget. A budget which spells out in dollars and cents the real social and political goals of the Bush gang.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story by Stephanie Simon about a white supremacist group making efforts to bring its violent racist ideology to the American mainstream. The story, titled Neo-Nazis Aim to Upgrade PR is reprinted HERE, at Truthout.org.

A quote from the beginning of the article:
St. Louis - White supremacist groups around the country are moving aggressively to recruit new members by promoting their violent, racist ideologies on billboards, in radio commercials and in leaflets tossed on suburban driveways.

Watching with mounting alarm, civil rights monitors say these tactics stake out a much bolder, more public role for many hate groups, which are trying to shed their image as shadowy extremists and claim more mainstream support.

Watchdog groups fear increased violence from these organizations as they grow. But perhaps an even greater fear is that the new public relations strategy will let neo-Nazis recast themselves as just another voice on the political spectrum - even when that voice may be advocating genocide.

In deed, the National Alliance, the organization responsible for the advertising campaign mentioned in the article does openly advocate the killing of non-whites, especially Jews. A quick look at their web site will confirm the violent nature of the organization. I don't like to make a link to these creeps but it is an educational glimpse of the mentality involved.

Sick but intelligent minds that wish to resurrect the Nazi cause and introduce their dangerous, violent ideology to the American mainstream. They believe that conditions in America are right for them. They may be correct.

Scapegoats are all the rage in America today. Blame for Americas woes is being laid on every one, except those actually responsible for the terrible state of the Union.

The Christian Right blames gays, all Muslims, and titties on TV. Bush blames an already defeated enemy who happens to have a lot of oil and nothing to do with the events of 9/11. Suddenly, almost everyone is a threat to national security. Even veterans benefits are a "drain on National Security". Old folks are a threat as long as Social Security is functioning. Of course, during the election campaign, wimpy old Kerry was a threat to national security.

The Nazis ? Well, you may be surprised but to hear it, but the Nazis blame the Jews. Bush is a Puppet of Israel and the neocons are rich Jews, controlling and ruining America for their own perverted interests. Reading some of their articles, you see that there are some bright if twisted minds involved in the leadership of the National Alliance. If you check out their discussion forum, you get a look at the kind of mindless violent brown shirt loser types that they appeal to.

It strikes me as odd that these hate filled people can advertise their hate and urge people to see all non whites as dangerous enemies and even advocate the killing of Jews, all in the name of the First Amendment. While university professors who raise too many questions regarding Americas dangerous actions, lose their jobs and are vilified in the mainstream media.

It would appear that first amendment protections are only for those whose ideas are in line the thoughts of our Fearless Leader.

Every one seems to have the 'final solution' in mind.

Now, speaking of final solutions, let's head down to the Florida panhandle, an area that has become the epicenter of the Christian right.

This article, Rapture Awaits in the Florida Panhandle, is by Tom Harpur, a leading Canadian theologian.

A quote from the article:
(at the conference)There were stunning statements about humans having been only 6,000 years on Earth and other denials of contemporary geology and biology. And we learned that the Rapture, which could happen any second now, but certainly within the next 40 years, will instantly sweep all the "saved" Americans (perhaps one-half the population) to heaven, leaving the United States as "a Third World country" with the European Union becoming the revived Roman Empire.

But these fantasies were harmless compared with the hatred against Islam that followed. Here are some direct quotes: "Islam is an intolerant religion - and it's clear whose side we should be on in the Middle East." Applause greeted these words: "Allah and Jehovah are not the same God ... Islam is a Satanic religion ...We will never be able to understand their (Muslim) mentality ... They're going to attack Israel for certain. ..."

Gary Frazier shouted at the top of his lungs: "Wake up! Wake up!" And roughly 800 heads nodded approval as he added that the left-wing, anti-Israel media - "for example, CNN" - will never tell the world the truth about Islam. According to these three and the millions of Americans they lead, Muslims intend ultimately "to impose their religion on us all."

Think about how the world looks if you are one of the millions who have fallen for this political scam dressed up as a religious movement. If you actually believe that any minute now, when the things you set in motion seem to be at their worst, poof, you are going to be magically transported to safety, high above the ruined earth, where you get to watch and cheer the millions burning in the fires started by your leaders, with your support. If you actually believe that, then you also believe you bear no responsibility for your actions.

What is this, the religion of no money down, no payments until after the rapture, when the 'good people' have split the scene, leaving the bill they've rung up? That alone speaks volumes about the morality of these people.

Now, if you have any doubts about the political nature of this theology, think about this. In spite of the slavish literalism of these preachers, the idea that the universe was created in seven twenty four hour days, the earth is only six thousand years old and fossils are faked creations of evil scientists, they leave that literalism behind when it suits their purpose.

For recruitment purposes, they left out a very important biblical number regarding how many are actually qualified for the rapture. I will repeat a line quoted from above as it is important political adaptation these 'saints' have made for themselves.

the Rapture, which could happen any second now, but certainly within the next 40 years, will instantly sweep all the "saved" Americans (perhaps one-half the population) to heaven, leaving the United States as "a Third World country" with the European Union becoming the revived Roman Empire.

How interesting that about half of America will suddenly pop up to heaven when the shit gets deep. Approximately the number that voted for Bush. How very comforting to believe your vote will get you into heaven while the rest suffer for a wrong vote.

However, in the Book of Revelations, from whence most of these strange ideas originate, it clearly states, in Revelations chapter 7 verse 4:

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

The number sealed are the number to disappear in the 'rapture'. Now, 144,000 may have seemed like a big number at the time it was written but that isn't even a medium sized town in America. If you continue to preach what the bible says, that only 144,000 are chosen, the sense of security given your followers is suddenly gone. Millions of Christians but only a virtual handful make it to 'home free'. That number, no matter its source, is not good for business.

A huge number that includes half of America gives one the sense that one might be in that number. Odd again because the number was not chosen at random by the early writer. It says, further along in the passage, that there will be 12,000 taken from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Unless you believe that half the population of America belongs to the original twelve tribes, then you have yet more problems. If you can count, it gets even less likely that your vote for Bush will get you into heaven.

The most important idea in all of this is the belief that Christian right politicos bear no responsibility for what they do and what they support. The destruction of the worlds forests, oceans, and air will only bring about the rapture that much quicker. Implying, very strongly, that war and environmental destruction are God's work. Completely justifying evil, in the name of their Republican God. Why, letting the logging companies clear cut the earth will only bring Jesus back sooner.

To poison the earth is a good thing that will help bring back Jesus. However, a mega war in the Mid-East is the only way to ensure his return, according to these Christian Brown Shirt types.

You know our war time president says a hearty Amen to that idea.

The third in this group of articles, that paint a picture of the American political and economic reality, is an article about who and what got the axe in this governments' budget.

Here are a list of programs cut from the federal education budget. Take a look, it is very revealing. Almost every thing axed in this budget were programs intended to assist the poorest and most needy, while permanently relieving the very wealthy and many corporate groups utterly free from taxes.

This is only the list of high school programs getting the boot. The total education rip off is longer. You can view the entire list of federal cuts at This Is What Tax Cuts and Stupid Wars Cost

High School Program Terminations: Vocational Education State Grants, Vocational Education National Activities, Tech Prep State Grants, Upward Bound, Talent Search, GEAR UP, Smaller Learning Communities Perkins Loans: Capital Contributions and Loan Cancellations, Regional Education Laboratories, Safe and Drug Free Schools State Grants, Ready to Teach, Parental Information and Resource Centers, Alcohol Abuse Reduction, Foundations for Learning, Mental Health Integration in Schools, Community Technology Centers, Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners, Foreign Language Assistance, Excellence in Economic Education, Arts in Education, Women's Educational Equity, Elementary and Secondary School Counseling, Civic Education, and Star Schools.

Makes you feel right smart being an American, don't it?

While reading the lists, keep this in mind: Not one penny was taken from the 100 million tax dollars wasted on the destructive, counter productive Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage programs. No sir, this bit of government largess, that has destroyed comprehensive sex health education in American public schools, while fattening the coffers of various well to do Christian propaganda groups, is sacred and politically important. In fact, Abstinence Only Christian morality classes, got three time more from this budget than from the 2001 budget. Ah, the smell of American Christian morality. Or is that a pig farm?

So we cut arts, civic education, mental health programs, alcohol abuse programs, and safe and drug free school programs while continuing to pump money into so called "faith initiatives' for a sex misinformation program that benefits no one but the president's pet religious supporters. Money taken directly out of other education programs of much greater value.

Teen pregnancy and STD and HIV rates continue to climb well ahead of Canada and European countries that use real comprehensive sex health education in their public schools. But in America the great, that would be a waste of money. The health of our kids is much less important than the health of our giant pharmaceutical companies that sell the expensive HIV drugs. It would be economically unfair to the drug corporations teach these kids to protect themselves. Besides, Jesus don't like it.

And that seems to sum up the New American way.

The 'good people' have dumped all responsibility for the world in their preparations for a magical disappearing act that will save them from the consequences of their own stupid, self serving actions. The president considers himself to be one of the ones that will avoid the horrors set in motion by himself and his wealthy cronies. Straight up to his rich daddy in the sky.

I suppose that needles will suddenly enlarge, to let the camels through the eye and the wealthy into heaven. In the new American version of Christianity, the rich folks are sitting in luxury class on the rapture train to heaven.

The Bush government makes a stab at reducing the deficit by cutting education and poor Americans out of the budget while continuing to borrow ruinous amounts for his war, his Social Security scam, and his huge spy and security money pits.

Mean while, protecting those who benefit from the dismantling of America from any cost. Making sure that generations of ordinary Americans will be stuck with the endless cost of the irresponsible borrowing of our Christian President. So much for good stewardship.

The most violent race hate groups feel that mainstream America is ready to accept them. It certainly looks like they are correct. They have very much in common with what mainstream America has been molded into.

An obvious reference to "Tomorrow Belongs to Us", a popular Hitler Youth song, the Nazi National Alliance slogan is "The Future Belongs to Us".

The future of America looks pretty dismal from where I sit. Something only a Nazi would feel at home in. Utter ruin.

A Civilian Torture Trial

2005-02-12T02:45:00.000-08:00

A civilian CIA contract employee, charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners, is on trial in Federal Court. This is the first trial stemming from the torture scandals to appear in civilian courts. So far, all the trials have been in military courts where defendants have fewer defense options.

In the courts martial trials, defendants were not allowed to call testimony from the officers who gave them their orders. Neat, eh?

This however is a civilian court and the defendant David A. Passaro, 38, will be able to site statements made by top White House officials, in his defense.

The article is by Scott Shane and was originally printed in the N Y Times. It is reposted in an easy to read, printer friendly format at Truthout.org .

A quote from the article:
" Mr. Passaro, a former Army Special Forces soldier from North Carolina was hired by the C.I.A. in 2003 to capture fighters from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and question them at a base at Asadabad, in northeast Afghanistan.
He was charged in June with four counts of assault, accused of using his hands and feet and a large flashlight to beat a prisoner named Abdul Wali over two days. Mr. Wali, who had turned himself in to the American military after learning he was under suspicion of firing rockets at the base, died in his cell on June 21, 2003. Mr. Passaro is not charged in his death.
In court papers, Mr. Passaro's lawyers say the interrogation was considered urgent because Mr. Wali might have had information that could protect the American military from further rocket attacks. "

It is impossible for me to say anything in this man's defense. He does not deny his actions, so, some level of guilt is presumed, even at this point. He does not argue that he did not do what he is accused of, he is arguing that he had reason to believe he was following orders as expressed by government officials and the president. One assumes that Mr. Gonzalez' senate testimony is involved.

The story from which the charges emerge, in itself is, rather strange. A man learns that he is wanted for questions regarding recent attacks. Trusting fool, he turned himself in to the police to answer their questions. However, the poor sap didn't know anything that the Americans wanted to know and on the off chance that the man who brought himself forward might know something else, they beat him without mercy for two days. That's two days ladies and gents. On the third day, he died. Supposedly from a heart attack.

By the new Gonzalez definition, it's only torture if you intend to kill the person. After systematically beating the man for two days, the victim dies in his cell. The CIA interrogator cum torture master, is not responsible for the death because we wasn't trying to give the man a heart attack, if in deed, that is what the man died of. We will never really know, will we?

Of course, it remains to be seen if the court will even allow the defense. Civilians charged with crimes still have more rights than a citizen in the military. At the same time, if convicted the CIA contractor could face a much stiffer sentence, under the Patriot Act.

It is difficult for many to see right now but I do believe that in a few years these charges are going to end up in international courts where executive privilege and such barriers to justice and information, will have no power.

I don't expect to see this happen very soon. America is still too powerful, but that power is, in the long term, waning. This neocon push for power and complete control of America and the worlds oil supply is doomed. The cost is going to break America. In the long run, the personal fortunes amassed by these political criminals will not protect them from the world. Their corporate masters will happily sacrifice everyone of them if that is the small cost of maintaining business with the rest of the world.

George Bush is a great puppet leader figure for now, but he will make an equally great scapegoat if things continue to go so badly.

Another telling and interesting tid-bit from the article:

" In court papers filed in December, Mr. McNamara, a federal public defender, objected to the use of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 in prosecuting his client. Among its provisions was an expansion of the government's power to prosecute crimes committed at United States facilities overseas.
"To subject Mr. Passaro to prosecution for actions taken in battle and in furtherance of this wartime mission under a criminal statute not intended for battlefield application violates the United State Constitution, contravenes Congressional intent, and turns the Patriot Act on its head," Mr. McNamara wrote."

The argument being, it would appear, that the Patriot Act was not intended to be used against agents of the government. For those of you steeped in hubris, who believe that the Patriot Act was never intended for 'good' people like yourselves, take note.

The Patriot Act is a political weapon that the government will use in anyway convenient to the purposes of those in power. It is the proverbial two edged sword that cuts either direction it is swung in.

When you who still support this power grab by Bush and his neo-conservative handlers, realize the mistake you made, remember when you weren't worried about all the extra powers the state has given itself.

The only bright spot in this present case is that for the first time, the master 'minds' of this decent into barbarism, may be mentioned in federal court in connection with their crimes. We can hope.

Links to more stories regarding this case.

Go here to read the actual charges against David Passaro

Warsaw Ghetto Revisited

2005-02-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

I wish to direct your attention to an infuriating article by Dahr Jamail. Mr. Jamail is one of the very few independent journalists in Iraq. The article is based on interviews with survivors including a local doctor.

Click here to read the article. If you don't read the article, what comes next will make less sense. You need to see what the world is reacting to. The hatred these people have learned for America, its soldiers, and even its people.

There are no excuses for what American money and military power is doing to the people of Iraq. Good guys do not murder families in their beds. Good guys do not kill children.

I'm not just talking about the bombings. Reports of American troops murdering civilians in Fallujah are common. The few survivors uniformly tell very believable tales of murder and sadistic brutality on the part of American Imperial Storm Troopers.

A quote from a doctor who worked near Fallujah during the American siege.

"One of my colleagues, Dr. Saleh Alsawi, he was speaking so angrily about them. He was in the main hospital when they raided it at the beginning of the siege. They entered the theater room when they were working on a patient...he was there because he's an anesthesiologist. They entered with their boots on, beat the doctors and took them out, leaving the patient on the table to die."

This story has already been reported in the Arab media.

The doctor tells me of the bombing of the Hay Nazal clinic during the first week of the siege.

"This contained all the foreign aid and medical instruments we had. All the US military commanders knew this, because we told them about it so they wouldn't bomb it. But this was one of the clinics bombed, and in the first week of the siege they bombed it two times."
He then adds, "Of course they targeted all our ambulances and doctors. Everyone knows this."

What kind of country and what kind of people visit such terror on a civilian population? What kind of people specifically target ambulances and civilian doctors? What kind of nation makes war on children, the elderly, women, and anyone with the wrong colour of skin, to obtain control of their natural resources?

Savages and barbarians. Savages and barbarians do those kinds of things in the name of 'liberty', corporate wealth, and in the name their savage gods. Ignorant blood stained barbarians who roll their war machines over ancient Babylonian floors, like drunks doing dough nuts in a parking lot. Mindless savages defiling the very cradle of human civilization. Not understanding what is crunching under their combat boots.

These crimes will not be easily forgiven. The US has taken steps to assure that they will not be charged with war crimes by most of the worlds poorest nations, the very ones most likely to become victims. Such agreements are part and parcel to the ruinous 'loans' made to the leaders and native elite of said countries.

But Humpty Dumpty is headed for a very hard fall. As Americans used to be fond of saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

The American economy is in serious trouble. What very little responsibility the government takes for the welfare of its people, is being systematically shut down. For budget considerations.

I have said before, that there will be a very large price to pay for this insane deficit and for relieving the wealthy of all financial responsibility. Like all countries who become saddled with so much debt, social services are the first thing to go in the quest to repay the money borrowed. Borrowed and burned by the government and the corporate pigs at the public trough.

The only part of America that has a chance of coming out of this war better off, are the same big corporations that are bringing us this war. The same ones now urging Congress to re-institute the draft. The very same corporations that are moving all of the decent jobs to offshore factories while maintaining their American tax breaks.

They want to put your sons into uniforms and send them to the killing fields for the benefit of no one but those self same corporations and their shills in government.

At the same time, we are told it is "necessary" to cut veterans benefits including the expensive medical care many of them will need. Well, it is a budget consideration and what do these soldiers and their families expect? If he is dumb enough or slow enough to get himself wounded, he is now a drain on 'National Security'. And an enemy if he or his family go whining and complaining.

Meanwhile, we are busy teaching the people of Iraq, the Arab world, and the world at large, to hate us. We are working hard for it and will not be denied.

Hasn't America become a wonderful country? A veritable model for the world.

America is dangerous but it is also weak and ill prepared for the battle it has started.
The giant has brittle bones and doesn't seem to know it.

The Slow Turn of the Conservative Worm

2005-02-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

My sister sent a very interesting article today regarding the personal cost of war that the media largely ignores. The article is doubly interesting because it appeared on a conservative web site, The American Conservative. Web site for the magazine of the same name.

The article in question is the Walking Wounded by Fred Reed. It is a damned good read and contains some real wisdom in his observations regarding the crucial difference between the war in Iraq and the last big military adventure, Vietnam.

A short quote from the article:
"People say that this war isn’t like Vietnam. They are correct. Washington fights its war in Iraq with no better understanding of Iraq than it had of Vietnam, but with much better understanding of the United States. The Pentagon learned from Asia. This time around it has controlled the press well. Here is the great lesson of Southeast Asia: the press is dangerous, not because it is inaccurate, which it often is, but because it often isn’t. So we don’t much see the caskets —for reasons of privacy, you understand."

This article is well worth the read. While you're at it, introduce yourself to a strange and interesting mind, in the person of Fred Reed. Fred Reed on Everything. Fred claims to be wacko but compared to what passes for sanity in the US of A these days, wacko is more rational. At least in Fred's case.

Fred is very much his own guy so you can decide what political category he does or doesn't fit. I think he's sort of an old style two fisted liberal but he might poke me out for saying that.. Seeing that 'liberal' has changed meaning three times since the era of that variety of liberal. Hell, these days we don't distinguish liberals from commies, anarchists, or egalitarian billionaires like Jimmy Carter. How they all got into the same camp is a great mystery but it makes as much sense as any of our current political and theological terminology.

Fred paints a true picture of the unpleasant reality for returning vets. Men who are returning in sizable numbers but are completely ignored by the corporate/government sanctioned media. These kind of stories reveal the lie of honor and respect afforded the people we send to do the dirty work.

Thrown body, soul, and mind into literal hell to "protect America'" and "Liberate" the Iraqis, they are dumped like used tampons when they are too wounded to be of further use. Sure it's an ugly image but it is an ugly fact of life for these patriotic young men we pretend to honor and cherish. Until they lose their hands and can no longer do the dirty work.

Fred, like many smart and worthy writers, seems to believe that the political cost of reintroducing the draft will ensure it will not happen. I hope he is right but if you've been reading this blog you know I believe the draft is absolutely inevitable.

PNAC will have its way with congress. If you don't get the reference, check my last post for details and the links. It is not possible to maintain present commitments and support future foreign policy goals with the present military. Stop loss programs and using up your reserves so early in the campaign comes with a heavy payback ticket regarding future manpower needs.

It is important, to the persons responsible, to keep Americans ignorant of the real cost of this adventure in Imperial governance. It is bad for recruitment, among other things.

The fact that this timely piece should appear on a site such as the American Conservative, is significant. Or so I believe. Traditional conservatives are beginning, just beginning, to question their support for these radicals that have a strangle hold on American democracy.

The coming draft is a dangerous game but there are two choices. Bush and the neocronies can pull back from the brink and find new approaches or they can reintroduce conscription.

The tricky part will be how to reintroduce deferments. Without deferments, even a tame media can not hide the universal threat.

But the media will play ball. At first the draft will be a temporary measure. Draftees, congressional spokespersons will proclaim, will only be used for non-combat roles, to free more regular army for combat duty. Then only conscripts who 'volunteer' are sent to combat and eventually, just like in Vietnam, some terrible event will happen, requiring thousands of conscripts being fed to the on going effort.

I am convinced of the inevitability of this, not because of Vietnam, but because of the state of the American Army and Marine Corps and the size of the thankless task before them.

That appears to be the choice, back off or renew the draft. For a "war time president" who has never made a mistake, backing off is not an option.

American Students and PNAC Demands

2005-02-04T01:27:00.000-08:00

A lot of comment has been generated about a recent poll that suggests that a significant number of students are completely ignorant of or even hostile to basic First Amendment rights. If you are not already familiar with the story, hit this link to a short article at Doug Ireland's excellent blog.

You can read a more detailed article and download a PDF copy of the entire report HERE.

In a nutshell, the report, based on a survey of 100,000 US students, found that a third of them felt the First Amendment, goes "too far". Nearly half felt the government had a right to approve news stories before they are published.

This, of course, has caused distress among forward thinking adults. Comments often reflect dismay and even despair for a generation of 'Hitler Youth' being turned out by American schools.

I understand and can see the possibilities of the worst scenario but I believe this news may not be as new or as darkly ominous as it may seem.

These sort of surveys have been done before and similar results have been achieved. If such a survey been administered at my school at age 15 or younger, I and many of my contemporaries would have expressed similar ideas, based on a grossly overstated respect for uniforms and government authority.

Many of our ideas came from movies and stories about WWII and even 50's monster movies where the soldiers, G-Men , and the police stood against unknown enemies. and always protected the public good. Heck, if the local police got taken over by the aliens, you knew you were in serious trouble. Youth can be trusting that way.

The kids of the late fifties and early sixties, who had the same confusions about patriotism and the importance of civil liberties, later became some of the stalwarts of the Youth and Anti-war movements. of the sixties and early seventies.

I am not discounting the misgivings people have about these results but I am trying to put it into a perspective other than the purely political.

Given the non-stop wash of broadcast and cable propaganda bombarding the American public and given that youth is particularly tuned to the media, it is not surprising that American youth and adults have so little regard for the "liberty" they believe their enemies want to take from them.

We are getting into the real nuts and bolts reasons why an informed public is necessary for a democracy to function as a democracy. It is a learning process and every generation has to learn it again. Just as each preceding generation must learn and help pass on to the next.

My generation has failed the next. We learned our own lessons regarding the American right to express your beliefs, in opposition to the predominant culture, the police, and the state, in our resistance to Vietnam and conscription. Then we went to sleep or devoted ourselves to more renumerative pursuits such as becoming Republican functionaries.

One of the most radicalizing factors of the Vietnam era was the draft. It became impossible to ignore the real world as it relentlessly pursued you in the form of the Selective Service Board.

Middle class post grad students lived in terror of dropping low enough in their GPA to expose themselves to the draft. Working class kids mostly waited until they were abducted. by the hawk faced women that ran the local draft board with their hard eyes and angry, form typing fingers.

It is easier to maintain the fantasy belief that all is OK in America, that it will turn out alright if we just buckle down and hold the course. If we just believe in George and the version of God he claims to champion.

That is, until the real blood and money price of it all starts really coming home. Get ready boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, the price is coming home and the price is going to be high. The pay off, just rhetoric in the face of real cost.

Below is a link to a letter, a wish list, if you will, sent to the American Congress by PNAC, Project for a New American Century. A Corporate/Neocon power bloc whose past officers read like a who's who of the present government.

"Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States, former CEO of Halliburton; Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense; Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense; Elliot Abrams, National Security Council; John Bolton, Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security; I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top National Security assistant". To name a few.

Enormously wealthy, powerful, and connected in Government, PNAC got everything it wanted from the wish list it presented Congress in 2,000. This time, in a letter presented a week ago, PNAC is telling congress it is time to enact the draft again if they, meaning the PNAC, are to achieve their immediate and long term policy goals.

Here is a short quote from the PNAC letter to the Congress. The word draft is never used but the meaning is very clear.

"So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required, and Congress will make its own determination as to size and structure, it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution places the power and the duty to raise and support the military forces of the United States in the hands of the Congress. That is why we, the undersigned, a bipartisan group with diverse policy views, have come together to call upon you to act. You will be serving your country well if you insist on providing the military manpower we need to meet America's obligations, and to help ensure success in carrying out our foreign policy objectives in a dangerous, but also hopeful, world."

Read the entire PNAC letter here PNAC wants the congress to produce and pass a bill to start the draft. PNAC doesn't want the president to introduce the legislation, they want Congress to do it, to share the blame.

I expect a number of conscripts will be in Iraq for New Years eve , next year. To beef up the military enough to hold present positions and be able to invade another middle eastern country, (long term policy goals) many, many boots will have to be filled. The Army and Marines are playing catch up right now. The stop loss program can not extend the fighting ability of men for ever.

When conscription does begin, I will not be surprised if the enlistment is extended to more than the two years expected during Vietnam. Two year conscripts will rotate out too fast to be effective. Requiring drafting ever greater numbers, upping the political risk.

While I share the concerns of many, regarding the beliefs of our younger citizens, I believe the next two years may provide the reality cure for many of those students as they and their friends become fodder for the slaughter.

There are too many questions that Americans are not asking themselves. An uncle of mine, a farmer, oft said that, "you can talk to a mule until you are red in the face. Sometimes you gott'a hit it in the head to get its attention".

In this case, it is history and the New Imerial America that shall be smacking the mule on the head, hard and often. Perhaps its attention will be gotten, in the time to come.

Another Day Older...

2005-01-30T23:06:00.000-08:00

I've not posted for a few days because I had a birthday and felt it was a great excuse for a short vacation. A few days of thinking, as little as possible about politics and the state of the world, is not a bad thing.

Nothing has actually changed in the last week. America is still at war in its quest to control the worlds oil supply while making a mockery of the democracy it pretends to be spreading.

Prisoners in American control are still being abused and tortured. American forces and intelligence services are still using "cruel and inhumane" methods which the new attorney general says are not unconstitutional.

One thing I did learn this week is that many of the detainees being systematically abused were arrested for looting, theft, and other minor crimes or merely scooped up out of a crowd of protesters. These people have little or no information of use to anyone. But, we torture the hell out of everyone in the chance that maybe one of them knows something of interest. Ah, the smell of democracy and the scream of liberation.

The coming war against Iran moves ahead. Special ops troops have been operating inside Iran for some time and more operations are planned. The administration pushes ahead in its war plans as though Iraq were already a great victory rather than the grinding defeat it is becoming.

The Christian Right is still preaching its message of hate, ignorance, and discrimination. Bush no longer seems inclined to push the anti-gay marriage amendment, now that he is safely back in office. Some of his most virulent Christian supporters are right upset about that. Finally, it begins to dawn on them that George is just another lying quadra-faced politician, interested only in himself. Welcome to the reality based world.

Americans still live in a non-stop wash of print, broadcast, and cable propaganda . A huge percentage are still in the dream time created by the murmur of wealth, power, safety, and cheap commodity goods that is ever present. They continue to dream that their interests are represented by corporate interests.

Many Americans still believe that George Bush, our Fearless Leader, is a regular guy, just like them. And he would be if they had been born into a family of billionaires. Had they been coddled, protected, and endlessly promoted on a pillow of money and privilege, then he would be just like them, perhaps. If they had golfed their way thru Yale and Harvard on daddy's money and had grown up knowing only other rich people, then he would have something in common with them.

I notice Iraqis and US soldiers are still dieing in ever increasing numbers. US troops in armoured vehicles are touring the country urging people without armour to come out and vote. The ballots have no names because there is no semblance of order and public safety under the 'protection' of the American liberators.

Great numbers of recently wounded Iraq vets are being booted out of army hospitals and told the VA will take care of them and their new medical needs. Meanwhile, the VA is overwhelmed with sick and wounded vets that the VA can not care for. Vets in some VA hospitals are being charged extra for their meals. Bush wants to pull more money away from the VA at the same time that the military is unloading responsibility for wounded soldiers.

Yes, and the Pentagon is warning us that Veterans benefits are now a "burden on national security". The "use them and throw them away" attitude, is unforgivable for a government that asks, no demands, so much of it's men and women in service. From a government that has blatantly lied to it's soldiers and citizens from day one.

Young fellows giving thought to or being pressed to join the military, heads up, if you get all fucked up like so many thousands have, so far, you are on your own when you come back with half your face missing, both hands, most of your intestines, or your legs, etc. You are on your own. The graphic language is necessary because the afore mentioned wounds are coming home by the plane load.

Explosives and high energy bullets make very nasty and massive injuries. Greatly improved trauma techniques mean a large number of seriously wounded soldiers will survive their initial wounds , to need months, years, or a life time of treatment and assistance.

If we as a nation, can rationalize using the very troops we laud so loudly on the way to war, in such a cheap, disrespectful, and inhumane fashion, then we must ask, what kind of people we have become? What kind of nation are we? The answers are not pleasant.

Social Security is still on the chopping block. Today's and tomorrows seniors shoved aside and no longer a burden to national security, one presumes.

So, that is the big set up for Bush's Raw Deal domestic agenda. Persons no longer able to support the corporate good are merely shoved aside into an ever growing underclass of those that no longer count. With the new powers of the so-called Patriot Act, anyone who doesn't like it can be dealt with, in secret if need be.

Little has changed over the preceding week. The debt climbs higher, bankrupting the future for generations to come.

And much of befuddled America supported the war, dismantling Social Security, massive debt, and on going animosity to wards the world. Voted for it because they were so busy besmirching the name of their God with their blind consuming hatred of gays and anyone who isn't one of them.

Your Jesus did not hate sinners nor did he separate one kind of sinner from another. The contemporary Christian Right does all these things, proudly, in the name of the same Jesus.
So, there you have it. A week goes by an nothing changes except to get worse.

Ten more tons of explosives and what to you get?
Another day older and your deeper in debt..

Crime Figures, Great and Small

2005-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Spc. Sabrina Harman, one of the participants in the tortures carried out at Abu Ghraib, has chosen to be interviewed on ABC's 20/20. A little positive PR before the trial.

Spc. Charles Graner, another MP charged in the abuse scandal, has just received a ten year sentence for his part in the abuse.

It appears that one thing weighing very heavily against Spc. Graner, was evidence that he took great pleasure from the abuses he and other guards perpetrated. Spc. Harmon whose smiling face appears in some of the most damaging of the photos is bringing her serious face to television to say " she wishes she could apologize to the Iraqi people, but doesn't think she did any thing wrong".

She wishes she could apologize. Doesn't that make you feel all warm inside? She says that she didn't hurt anybody. Presumably, Iraqis are nobodies.

She was part of the party that created the now famous picture of the Iraqi man in the hood with the electrodes secured to his body. The human Christmas tree in the eyes of some.
She was smiling a lot in those days but she isn't smiling now.

She wants you to know that children love her and she was kind and generous to an Iraqi family that cooked hot meals for her. Touched?

I think we can believe that Harman will get a lighter sentence than Spc. Graner. We can be just about 100 percent certain that no one who gave the orders will be mentioned, much less held accountable.

At Graner's trial, the defense lawyers attempted to bring the orders he and other defendants were following, as evidence to the trial. The media did not report that the defendants attempted to compel the testimony of officers such as LTC Jordan and COL Pappas. The court refused to grant immunity to the officers so there was no testimony from the officers. It is cool to be an officer, no? Big scoop for the media too, eh? Alas, the media somehow missed that part.

It is quite remarkable that no one above a Staff Sargent has been charged with a crime. Yet, it is obvious to everyone who cares to look, that these MPs were following directives from civilian and Military intelligence people, at the prison. In this interesting background piece about the 372 Military Police Company, the unit the accused belonged to at the time of the crimes, some interesting things are said about strange changes that took place in the prison after the 'spooks' moved in. Only one low ranking military intelligence soldier has been charged with anything.

It started with Bush sending Gonzalez to get a legal memo that allowed him to redefine torture in a way that makes the term meaningless. The memo was requested by the CIA, according to Mr. Gonzalez.'s testimony during the confirmation formality.

Now Bush can give the CIA the good news that they can torture as long as they are not trying to kill the victim. Such mercy from Fearless Leader. Protecting the lives of even his enemies.

The Prez tells the CIA to play rough and dirty with detainees. The intelligence spooks move into Abu Ghraib and suddenly, terrible things start to happen. What are we supposed to believe? That those MPs suddenly went weird, all at the same time? And the events only coincidently occurred after the spooks moved in?

That is what the White House and the military would have you believe. The court says there is some responsibility higher up the chain of command, yet, no charges, and damned little truth revealed.

One cheery note for crime watchers: Our beloved Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld, has been charged with war crimes in Germany. For the time being, at least, Mr. "Go with the Army you've got" can not go to Germany without facing possible arrest. When is the last time an American Secretary of State was threatened with arrest by a non hostile nation? A long time ally.

While I do not believe the German charges will stand for long or be brought to trial any time soon, I do believe they are but a taste of what is to come.

At this time, it is difficult to imagine that those in power and those that gave the top level orders will ever be truly held accountable for their actions. It appears that America is at the zenith of it's power and can not be touched by anything as feeble as international law.

Truly, it looks like the Empire has already reached near its zenith. It has certainly inflated and over reached itself so early in its conquest stage, it could well be that we are already witnessing the beginning of the trip down.

That sounds imaginative and naïve today but I wonder if future historians will not view this and the next couple of years as the beginning of the end of this self proclaimed empire.

The US still has a potent military but most of it is in Iraq, strained to the limit, in a fight they are destined to lose. The Bush administration is running up the debt like a drug addict with a stolen credit card. With no end in sight.

The dollar is plunging and any small export gains made have already been spent. The long term ramifications are just beginning to be felt.

I keep wondering, what happens when the government of the United States has borrowed more than it can possibly pay? What will the terms be and who will make those terms?
On whose behalf and for whose benefit are America's resources being spent? And who is going to foot this massive bill?

American citizens need to be asking themselves these questions. We need to be asking these questions at every opportunity and we should be demanding some real answers before the real price of this president's ambitions rises any higher.

There are reasons why this president operates in such secrecy while creating an impenetrable wall of yes-men around himself. There are too many important questions not being asked of this group of extremists who have taken control of America and are turning it into something that serves the interests of very, very few Americans.

The corporate media is not going to ask those questions for us. Meaning it is up to us to be asking those questions at every opportunity.

THE FAIRY KING DOES HIS THING

2005-01-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

THE FAIRY KING DOES HIS THING

So what? I did not listen to or watch anything about the fantasy style coronation of our Fearless Leader. Not even the critics did I give ear to today.

I did however read the headlines on a few news sites to find out if there had been any unexpected happenings of note. Like maybe Condi forgetting herself and exclaiming, "Oh Daddy!" and planting a big wet one on the Imperial kisser. That would have been interesting.

Or maybe if a new Secret Service guy mistook Gonzalez's tan complexion and shifty eyes for those of a would be terrorist and zapped the Attorney General with a stun gun, acting upon the better safe than sorry principle, as endorsed by Mr. Gonzalez. That would have been a cheery human interest story.

Or if some one had spiked the near beer with LSD and the President had suddenly felt a need to speak the absolute truth. No telling what he might reveal before Cheney realizes something is amiss with the puppet and has the Secret Service wrestle the President to the floor (for his own safety) and carry him to the White House for a Thorazine drip. That would have been real news.

Maybe there is hope for the unexpected yet. After all the coronation balls, perhaps it will be discovered that one of the Royal Twins spent the night with a 76 year old, big time, corporate supporter and contributor. Daddy's hopping Texas mad but finds himself in a political/moral dilemma he's not equipped to handle. Condi and Gonzalez determine that it's OK to call air strikes on any media outlet that runs the story. Gonzalez becomes the first Attorney General to serve as a supreme court justice during his term as Attorney General.

But, sadly, none of that has happened, so far. So, who cares. The Fairy King throws a god awful expensive party for himself , happily paid for by the other Royals, the corporate persons and their directors. A huge glitzy "We Got the World by the Balls" ball. A well planned, carefully choreographed, and orchestrated ritual of Imperial Ascension. So what?

Most of the world mourns to see this power obsessed little man with his destructive dreams being elevated to such power. The world is watching and old specter rising on the skyline again.

I have no desire to watch this celebration of the ghouls.

A Letter From Baghdad Buddy

2005-01-20T01:04:00.000-08:00

Back on November 15/04, I posted an article titled Annex Canada?. Near the end of the article I made a short blurb about the propaganda wash that Americans live in, using a sound clip found on the web site for a Mussel Shoals, Alabama radio station, WQLT.

The sound clip is of 'reports', phoned in from Iraq to the station by an Army Major who calls himself 'Baghdad Buddy'.

Here is what I said on November 15: On a different note: A bit of home cooking in the form of an interview on a Mussel Shoals, Alabama radio station. Baghdad Buddy, is an Army Reserve Major stationed in Iraq, this is his last 'show' before returning to Alabama, on leave. Go there, click on "Baghdad Buddy" on their home page.For Canadians and others not familiar with the feel of local media in American cities, check this out. This is mainstream small town radio, all over America. No questions, no doubts, just wave the flag and god bless us lucky folks who are free to buy anything we can afford.The Major who understands his political responsibilities does a good job of painting the Bush correct image but does have a slip of the tongue when he describes the events in Iraq as an insurgent war. He quickly covers himself by calling opposition fighters "ex-surgents", as "they mostly come from outside the country."The Iraqi people love us, of course.

Buddy did a google search for "Baghdad Buddy" and found seven or so pages of entries, mostly about some Air Force Major who was referred to as Baghdad Buddy. But he also spied what could be construed as negative comment from what he took to be a Canadian.

A day or so ago I received an email from Buddy. Buddy is his real name. He doesn't say so, but, given his Army job of training Iraqi soldiers I would hazard a guess that Buddy is an intelligence officer. I did ask but Buddy did not reply.

Check out the WQLT web site for Baghdad Buddy clips and a blurb about him that seems to support my assumption.

For the sake of this piece, I am going to display portions of Major Buddy's email, for response. I will post the entire contents in the comments section. I have removed his email addy from his post as I've not heard back from him since informing him that I would post his email.

As I read it, Buddy's main point is that he isn't spouting the official line but just telling an observed proof. My contention is that whether the lies are believed or not, he is playing the role of a Military Intelligence/information officer. Per the restrictions, beliefs, and interests of his class and role, he spouts disingenuous propaganda as part of his job.

This isn't about Buddy, it is about the role he plays in the ceaseless propaganda wash that the American people are subject to. Good old buddy is just a small cog in the machine.

Thus we begin.

I am the Baghdad Buddy that was mentioned on one of your postings. Interesting that you somehow acquired the radio show in Canada. It is a shame you missed the show where one of my interpreters went on the air with me and thanked "the President and the American People on behalf of millions of Iraqi women because now they have hope". I could probably get you a copy if you would like. I am curious as to how you came across it.

Well Buddy, hit the link above and you will come across it the same way I did. I'm not sure why you think I should have heard the clip you mentioned. George Bush has been spouting the same empty rhetoric. No one can seem to find the millions of Iraqi women who now "have hope". Hope is one of the things in scant supply among the Iraqi people right now.

The only hope that millions of Iraqi people, in the rubble you created, is the hope that the destroyers will leave.

Buddy continues: I wasn't playing the party line. You must understand my mission was to live with and train the Iraqi Army. I spent the entire time living, eating, patrolling, convoying with these people. This was my personal experience with them…

What is being clearly said is that Buddy believes in the party line. He believes that Americans should see the situation the way he describes. He spent his time training and indoctrinating unemployed Iraqis, who desperately need the money.

The hope, the jobs, business, schools, hospitals, sewers, phones, and electricity are all destroyed by the 'liberators'.

Back To Buddy: ... For whatever reasons you or all others believe we went into Iraq, the end result is I saw many people who are starving not just for food, but information, new ideas etc. Not so unlike you in Canada and I in America. We have always been able to speak our mind, they have not. They can now, those that are brave will. Those that are not will wait to see who the winner is before they get off the fence

So, we will just drop the reasons for going in now that they have all been prov-en lies and concentrate on the fact that you saw people who seek freedom of information and the right to speak.

How do you get all that new free flow of information to people who have no electricity or phones and little contact with the outside world? All of that was destroyed.

In recognition of these simple facts, the insurgency now represents more people than the entire US Army. And you are right, only the brave speak up, no matter what they believe because some one, likely a Marine, maybe an insurgent, is going to have an armed opinion of their own. Is that the democracy that is being spoiled by a few trouble makers? Or the one that is being rejected by the Iraqi people in very large numbers?

Now we get to where Buddy is really coming from: usually much less than 10% of the a country's population does the fighting for the freedoms that the rest of the country enjoys. That same group of complainers are the same ones that use those freedoms to talk bad about the ones that have the stomach to fight for what they believe. By fight I don't mean stand behind a protest sign in a free country. I mean put their lives on the line. Not their attitude. Soldiers are citizens too they just earn it and cherish it. Others are recipients born into it.

You see, Buddy is a special guy representing special citizens. Those who have earned freedom as opposed to those who are mere recipients. This thinking is often at the core of the political logic of the army mind. In the modern context it is bullshit and a dishonest claim for special status.

It starts with the most important and most egregious lie. that the soldiers of America are representing or fighting for anyone's freedoms. The people you claim to have liberated have never experienced the level of violence and oppression brought to them by the 'liberators'.

To fight for corporate domination of the world and then pretend that odious work makes you one of the few Americans who have 'earned' their freedom is irrational, at best, and intentionally deceptive at its worst.

America's freedoms have been served not one whit by this ruinous, hideously destructive war. Americans have fewer freedoms and fewer constitutional protections than ever before. Those freedoms are being taken by the political and economic elite of America. Not by Iraqis trying to push a brutal foreign army out of it's home.

Saddam had lights, water, and sewage fixed in two months after first Gulf War. The rich smart American military and corporations such as Haliburton have spent billions, that's billions, of American tax dollars and have done nothing but continue to destroy the country, killing over a hundred and fifty thousand civilians in the process.

The current insurrection grew directly out of the chaos created by our 'freedom warriors'.
We created the chaos and have refused to fix any of it. The insurrection grew out of the despair America created and then ignored as not important.

You are not fighting for freedom Major Buddy. You are quite the opposite of the image you attempt to paint and a lovely example of your ilk.

In Buddy's world view, those who resist and speak against this on going slaughter of innocents are just complainers and cowards, perhaps unworthy of what freedoms the government and it's army and police choose to allow.

In Americas' revolutionary war, Buddy's ilk wore red uniforms.

The entire email is posted in the comments section. You may find it informative. Some Canadian readers may find it a bit bizarre. It is more of the same and it still reads like a script.

The Matrons of War and One of Bush's Better Lies

2005-01-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

Reading comments to my last article, The Everyday Cost of Treachery, I find a note from Ian McGibboney of Not Right About Anything fame.

Quoted below is part of his comment.

Probably the worst thing I'd read on the subject came soon after the Iraq War had begun. A letter in Newsweek berated Anna Quindlen's previous column about her kids going off to Spring Break. This woman's response was that all of that was a waste of time, because "our young people should be doing everything they can to pitch in and support this war and fight for freedom" or something approximating that.

The righteous lady paraphrased above is a type I have some experience with. As a young male draft prospect, in Alabama, I tagged them the "matrons of war". Although, I hasten to add, they come in all age categories, the attitude is matronly in the most unpleasant sense.

I remember a comment once made by a girl friend of short duration. I was griping about being draft fodder for the dumb ass war when she piped up with, "Well, I think the Army makes a man out of a boy". She was all of eighteen.

It came from the same self satisfied, pampered, moralistic vantage point as the woman Ian mentioned. The attitude of someone with little to loose, often with something to gain, bearing a real sense of entitlement and complete confidence in her feminine wisdom.

I recall a Republican couple interviewed during the RNC in New York. Real American beef cake they were. Tall blond haired blue eyed Texans. He wore a business suit and a big white Texas cowboy hat and she was dressed for the prom. Actually, they were both dressed for the bloody prom. Texas wedding cake decorations that spoke.

He spoke with great confidence and the usual Republican hubris about how great America is and how George Bush was bringing us into a new era of strength and prosperity and God ain't it great to be a rich, politically connected white Texan. She smiled demurely and said, "I'm with him." every time the interviewer asked her a question about the convention.

Finally a question was asked about John Kerry and Miss Texas knew this was something she was well qualified to answer.

"Well, I'm sorry, she said with a smirk that said she was the expert on this subject,' but John Kerry is a wimp." In the end, the smirk betrayed a hint of embarrassment for poor dickless John. Penetrating analysis from daddy's pretty blond princess. You got the distinct impression you had just heard her one and only political thought.

They smiled and waved goodbye and with great cheer they marched like proud, brave, free Americans down the secure, fenced off sidewalks of Republican central.

In Alabama, I knew a lot of these matrons of war. Hair dressers, church ladies, tax collectors, school teachers, cheer leaders, home coming queens, aunts, girl friends and dear old mom.

I'm yet to meet one in Canada but I'm sure they are here. The characters show up in European and Russian novels often enough to imply that they exist every where. Someone has to marry and give birth to the male version. And keep them in line.

In America they are churned out in factories and delivered to middle and upper class neighborhoods and some working class homes, all over the country. Ann Coulter is probably queen bee of the war matrons. Arrogant, authoritarian, with a head full of gas and a sharp memory for self serving cliché's. Determined that someone should pay the price for the decadence she lives in and equally determined that it should be someone else. Someone less deserving. Someone less special.

It is a familiar theme these days. Almost every one who supported this war with their vote, is waiting for some one else to do the dirty, dangerous, costly stuff. Waiting for some one else to shoulder the responsibility and eventually to take the blame for the ruinous path they have chosen to be led down.

On a different and slightly cheerier note, Christian Right types all over the country are expressing their dismay that the President is not pushing forward with the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

George has bigger, more important, more lucrative fish to fry and has no plan to bring up such a side tracking amendment until it suits his agenda. Like maybe just before the next election, when brother Jeb can use all the help he can get.

Now that the evangelical right has helped put him back in power, George is suddenly less concerned about the fools that got so side tracked by their ignorant homophobia, that they appeared in record numbers to vote for the corporate rape of Iraq, years of war, record deficit spending and the abandoning of the constitution. Hey, did God tell them to do that? I gotta' wonder.

Well praise the lord brothers and sisters, and open your crusty eyes to a fact well known by half of America and most of the world. George Bush is a great big liar. A politician, who like all his breed, worships money and power.

Now ask yourselves again, seriously. Was it really God that told you to trust and vote for the party boy oil baron and his big business cronies? Was it really?

I would really like to know. Do you still think God has his hand on this liar, this promise breaker? This privileged rich war lover who walked away from service when it was his turn and who immediately put your precious amendment on the back burner when he was securely returned to office.

Once you realize he has lied to you too, go back and rethink some of the other lies the President of the USA has given life to. The ones you didn't care about as long as George was against queers ruining the sanctity of your marriages.

Sometimes, waking up is hard to do.

The Everyday Cost of Treachery

2005-01-16T03:20:00.000-08:00

My Brother Died in Vain is the title of an article I read today (click here). The title almost says it all. The White House has at long last made official, what the world has know for years. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Except the ones recently brought there by the Americans.

It's a story about the real cost of this greed driven waste of so many lives in Iraq. An examination of cost versus result. The cost of proving what was already know to be a lie.
Another drop of blood on our new American dream cum nightmare.

Again and again ordinary American families will be left with that cold unanswerable question. Why? To what real purpose was this life expended?

There will never be a real answer to that question. That is the real horror of it. To each person who actually cared about this young man, it is the beginning of pondering a question to which there is no satisfactory answer.

This is not the price of liberty, it is the destruction of liberty both at home and abroad. Liberty does not send young men, with potential yet unfulfilled, to be sacrificed for the greed and the power lust of elitists and their demagogues.

Liberty does not destroy a country and violate and oppress its entire population, for greed or any other reason.

Liberty does not torture, abuse, or incarcerate people, perhaps for life, without provable charges.

Liberty does not burden the families of the working class and working poor with the price and responsibility for the reckless decisions and actions of the ruling class.

Totalitarian governments do all of those things.

A quote from the article:
At home, the sidelines are overcrowded with patriots. These Americans cower from the fight they instigated in Iraq. In a time of war and record budget deficits, many are loath to even pay their taxes. In the end, however, it is not their family members who are at risk, and they do not sit up at night pleading with fate to spare them.

The writer alludes to one of the most puzzling aspects of America's abdication to authoritarian government. Specifically that so many Americans have been convinced they can support such policies and actions, without paying a real price. As though someone else will pay the bills and do the fighting.

That much is obvious. Why else would all branches of the military be undershooting their enlistment quotas? In spite of massive recruitment drives. One is forced to ask; Where are all the men who voted for the war? They are still waving flags and writing stupid brave things on the net but they are not signing up for their war. They are waiting for some one else to do the hard parts of their new style patriotism.

It would seem they are expecting that class of Americans who traditionally escape unemployment via the army, to join up and fight the dirty Arabs for them. They love the idea of killing and dieing for 'freedom', they just want some one else to do the dieing part.
The getting wounded part, the going mad from stress part. They prefer to change the channel or have a beer when it gets too heavy.

Sadly, for the National Guard and Reserve and Regular Army units being ground to a nub in the desert, the President is determined not to burst the bubble for his supporters, by reintroducing the draft. He knows how quickly his popular support would melt in that eventuality. When enough Americans begin to realize the price they must pay for the mad excesses of this government.

I don't believe the draft will start again until Bush and cronies are sure they have complete control of the state's repressive apparatus. The Attorney General's office, the CIA, the DHS, the FBI, the politically motivated Judges, need to be controlled by Bush appointees whose major and often only qualification for their jobs are that they are politically 'on side' with Bush and his prescription for a new America that nobody voted for. A cheery view, I know, but that is how it looks.

Chertoff, our new head of Homeland Security, is a much more reliable political bag man than Kerik could have been, for all his willingness. The most cursory look at Chertoff''s record of achievements do not bode well for democratically minded (note small 'd') Americans. Check here for a few details.

Reading the article by Dante Zappala, regarding the loss of his brother in Iraq, I can not deny that we are all responsible for what is happening in America's name. And that each of us has a responsibility to find it within ourselves to speak, to resist in some way the dark human cloud that is forming.

Are you looking for your voice, your part to play in what's to come? In the long run, there is no safe choice, not even for the bumber sticker God fearin' Republicans. The Angel of Mercy is very unpredictable.

http://www.madcowprod.com/01122004.html

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7697.htm

It's Too Quiet On the Front

2005-01-12T02:43:00.000-08:00

I believe the confirmation of Gonzalez to the post of Attorney General may some day be thought of as the turning point in the administration's domestic security agenda.

Bush has elevated his private counsel to Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of the nation. A man with no commitment to the constitution, whose only qualification is his ability to foster legal interpretations in accordance to the wishes of George Bush.

The mute surrender of Democrats is a part of the story I do not yet claim to understand. It as though the entire Congress and Senate were afraid to speak. Living in a more democratic country, I am genuinely astonished at such feeble murmurs of dissent from the Democratic members of both houses.

In Canada, I can remember no time when minority opposition Members of Parliament were silent in the house for more than a few hours at a time. I believe that on any given day there are more questions asked and statements made about Bush policies, in the Canadian Parliament, than from all the Democratic seat warmers in Washington. I gotta' ask; What's with that??

It makes me nervous. I'm giving you a link to an article by Thom Hartmann that explains better and more eloquently than I can, just why this confirmation makes me so nervous. Hartmann article.

The Democratic surrender, some would say sell out, will be a notable part of the story as it unfolds and to future historians who study this halcyon era.

The question that bothers me, right now, is, if the Patriot Act with its secret courts and suspension of basic rights, contains nothing that 'ordinary citizens' should need to fear, (as some apologists will tell you), Why is everyone so bloody obviously afraid? Why is that?

It appears to me that people who aren't at least nervous about these developments, come in two broad categories: Those who are, for what ever reason, oblivious and those who believe they will be immune. Passed over, as it were.

The shadow of totalitarianism sits over everyone. That is why it is called total-itarianism. Not only a show of allegiance but real sacrifice is expected and in the long run, all but a privileged few will pay their portion and more, of the sacrifice for power and wealth. Not your wealth, of course. The starving bankers and the homeless corporations need every dime they can get.

Let's see; The people and corpos at the top no longer pay taxes. Someone has to make it up. Guess who?
Whose jobs are being shipped over seas by the same tax less corporations?

Haliburton, Bechtel and other well represented Corporations know that they could make a quadrillion dollars if they can control Iraq. Whose sons have to fill those beleaguered boots on the ground?

And who is going to pay for the open ended government borrowing, already at record heights and bound to rise? What happens when we borrow more than we can pay? What ever the cost, guess who pays?

When you have finally had enough. When the taxes hit home. When your sons and friends and young relatives continue to be sacrificed, when you are sick, of all but the shitty jobs disappearing, while the 'American' corporations grow richer than ever before. Remember, before you say a word, that when you demand to not be cheated, not used and economically trashed, you will be stepping into the category of those for whom these unconstitutional laws were made.

The laws and the new interpretations are there, in place. These kind of laws have a power of their own, very much like powerful weapons. The weapons always get used.

Thom Hartmann article

Hartmann site

Edgar Ray Killen, a Morality Tale for Mr. Gonzalez

2005-01-10T03:06:00.000-08:00

I've recently read about what for most of us is very good news. The arrest of the prime suspect in the 1964 execution murders of three young civil rights workers, in Mississippi.

Edgar Ray Killen, a fundamentalist preacher and proud member of the local KKK 'Klavern', has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the deaths.

Killen, who is perhaps a devotee of nominative determinism, was the lead suspect from very early in the strange investigation carried out after the murders. Killen, known as 'Preacher' by his Klan buddies was charged with conspiracy to commit murder back in 1965 but a lone juror held out against conviction saying she could not convict a preacher.

Based on old and newly collected evidence, the now 79 year old Preacher has been charged with murder in connection with the 1964 slayings. The families of the slain have expressed great relief that there will finally be a real day in court for the crimes committed so long ago.

After reading Tim Shorrock's blog, I did a bit of research regarding this case and a related crime committed in Birmingham, Alabama, the same year. The infamous 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in which three little girls, changing into their choir robes, were killed. Approximately ten sticks of dynamite were used.

I remember the day of the church bombing. A cloudy, thunder stormy day. Everybody was tense. We lived in an unincorporated, mostly working class area called Fairfield Highlands, Alabama. The area was noted for the number of Klan members reputed to live there.

Klan membership was always publicly denied but some families were very obvious in spite of their vows. The bumper stickers, the numerous Confederate flags, and the acts of casual violence attributed to them, sort of gave them away.

There was real talk of open rebellion among the most extreme. The talk was rampant among the young male population, always the shock troops and cannon fodder for such revolts.

The civil rights movement and the Federal enforcement of Supreme Court Judgments, as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act had created a states rights fervor among marginalized workers, and working and lower middle class people, whose rhetoric was as angry and outraged as those who supported it.

The mind set of the majority community could accept the murders carried out in Mississippi and in Birmingham, as well as numerous other atrocities against citizens and the Constitution itself. In fact, a majority just did not care. Many actually claimed the bombings were the work of radical Black groups that were trying to start a race war. Nine of the earliest police suspects were Nation of Islam members.

I was a product of the time and place and was as callous and war like in my view as anyone but… a day after the bombing, sitting alone watching the TV for coverage of the on-going riots, I chanced a look at the photographs on the cover of my fathers copy of the Birmingham News.

The photos of the three little girls were on the front page and just for an instant I really looked at them, and in that instant I was struck by the utter innocence and tiny flower like beauty of them. In that unguarded second, I received my first sharp sliver of conscience.

For a breadth of time small too short for a name, I saw myself and my own guilt and responsibility, staring back from the paper. It was only an instant quickly forgotten but a tiny wormy embryo of doubt was planted in my young redneck heart. An un-noted change had begun.

Now, so many years later, a life time away in some respects, murder charges have finally been laid against the accused ring leader of the two carloads of Klansmen that lay in wait for and brutally beat and murdered those three young men.

In the Birmingham Church bombing, the case was closed and opened five times over the years. In 1977, one of the bombers received a life sentence. In 2000 another was convicted and in May, 2002, Bobby Cherry, the dynamite supplier and leader, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Years of cover ups and political interference had been overcome. These men hid in plain view in a culture whose mind set they once represented. Today, there is a political will to bring these criminals to justice.

The moral to this cautionary tale is for those who have put the issue of torture on the world table in such a big way lately, from George, thru Gonzalez and Rummy, and down to the smiling lady MPs and their mates.

Right now, the country is torn. Most folks are at least queasy about torture just as most Alabamians were queasy about murder and bombing churches.
But just as then, the above mentioned future defendants represent the mind set of enough Americans, that they walk free.

That is the current reality of the American body politic. While the current regime will likely use every means at its disposal, under its new totalitarian laws, they can only postpone their inevitable decline.

International law and the crimes committed will not go away. The hearts and minds of people will change. The requirements of justice will remain.

American Morality. Liars, Murderers, and Torturers

2005-01-07T05:38:00.000-08:00

America has come to a place and become a thing that most Americans once thought could not happen. But, the writing has been on the wall since shortly after the second World War. When even conservatives such as President Dwight Eisenhower, while leaving office, warned the American public to be wary of what he called the Industrial Military complex. Eisenhower neatly forgot to mention growing power that corporate lobbyists had in government.

The writing on the wall is written in flames now. Yet, most Americans seem unable or unwilling to read it or even admit its existence. As if things will be ok if we just close our eyes and stay the course. But then, with your eyes shut, you don't see when the course is inexorably leading to disaster of phenomenal proportions.

The American ship of state is headed for the rocks and nothing will save it now. With Fearless Leaders' blind hand at the wheel, the proverbial ship of state may even sink.
America is entering into a place so dark and chaotic that even these dark days will be remembered, with regret, as the end of the 'good old days'.

Those are terrible words and it gives me no pleasure to say them. It isn't a hope or a threat, it is an expression of the natural, historical outcome for despotic regimes that use torture, arbitrary mass detentions, and whole sale retaliatory punishments against civilians. Such as carried out by the Germans, who often destroyed entire villages and their occupants, as punishment for insurgent activity in the area. A serious war crime. Like Falluja.

Leaving aside the blatant intentional lies that Bush, Rumsfeld, and later Colin Powel, told to the United Nations and to world leaders. All to excuse inexcusable aggression against a country no longer capable of being a real danger to the United States. A country that had absolutely nothing to do with the events of 9/11. The original excuse for this so called war against terrorism.

Leaving aside the intolerable murder of over a hundred and fifty thousand, or more, Iraqi citizens. Civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Most of whom were trying to hide from both the Americans and the insurgent fighters. Forget for just a moment, about the destruction of Falluja, where many more women and children were killed than insurgents. Let us briefly deal with the issue of torture.

Spear headed by Gonzales, Bush's' personal attorney, the White House has sought to get the President legal authority to use torture. A move that much of the defense department, minus Rumsfeld, and most of the top military brass strongly disapproved of. Knowing that it would have terrible consequences for American service personnel. Something that our "bring it on" Fearless Leader doesn't seem to mind. Since he doesn't realize his clackers are headed for the chopper, as well.

Gonzales pushed for and helped write a legal memo that redefined torture in a manner that is essentially meaningless. Under the new definition anything that does not kill the prisoner is not torture. If it does kill the prisoner, a prosecutor would have to prove the death was intentional to get a conviction. Imagine trying to prosecute such a charge.

"No sir, I did not intend to kill that man by hanging him upside down in a barrel of water while zapping his testicles with a fifty thousand volt stun gun. He must have had a bad heart. Not my fault. Nope, never intended to kill him, sir."

However Gonzales and Bush want to twist the rule of law to get what they want, the world has laws not subject to American veto. Torture is not only illegal in much of the world, it is looked upon as the lowest form of cruelty and perversion by much of the population of the planet. There will be a reckoning.

In the eyes of the world, America, it's soldiers, politicians, and even its citizens have become monsters. Your monstrousness grows daily.

There are high ranking officials in the present government that may end their days in prison. Possibly even George Bush himself. Cheney and Rumsfeld will likely die of natural causes before that comes to pass. But Gonzales is a relatively young man who may still be around for that day of reckoning. We can only hope. Once again, this is not a threat but a picture of where we are likely headed.

America will become a room in hell before this happens. When it becomes apparent that they are doomed to failure and redress, this government and their neocon allies will use the Patriot Act and their new detention powers and their new interpretation of torture, on American citizens, in a big way.

Can't happen here? If you still believe it can't happen here, you have not been paying attention to what is going on in America. Lots of things are happening in America, right now, that I and most Americans did not believe could happen, in America. But here it is.

Under the Patriot act, any citizen can be arrested and be incarcerated for an indefinite period of time, with out charges being laid. Persons arrested under the Patriot act have no access to lawyers or anyone else who can help them. Who will ever know what happens in those secret incarcerations. Beatings, electro shock torture, rape and sexual tortures and simulated drowning are all being carried out by CIA and military intelligence 'interrogators'. Professional torturers in common language. People whom I hope will end their days in prison.

We are in for a time of hell but this regime will fall and it will fall hard.

A note to those MPs and other soldiers whose smiling faces appeared, grinning, while abusing those people. You are marked. When this government collapses, you better be prepared to run and hide because every one of you is going to be on an international fugitive list. You will only be small cards in the deck but you are the ones easiest to get. Your trials will be test cases for the trials of the big fish. The time very well may come when you will once more face your victims, but then, it will be in a court of law. Something Fearless Leader and his cronies don't believe in. But, it is waiting for them.

An up date: A very good video report re Gonzalez and his role and the white house role in creating the new definition of torture. Please note that his most determined questioner was was a conservative Republican Senator. The Gonzalez Evasion tape.

Good Morning, 2005, So long Bill Moyers

2005-01-03T02:53:00.000-08:00

Bill Moyers has recently retired from his PBS "Now, with Bill Moyers", after more than 30 years in journalism.

I have just listened, for the second time, to a speech made by Bill Moyers. A keynote address to the founding National Conference on Media Reform. I find it both moving and informing. And more than a little bit discomforting. What follows is not about Moyers but a personal response to some of the ideas he expressed.

When I was young, I was very taken by the words and the stories of people like Tom Paine, Ben Harris, Daniel Webster, etc. I had a strong belief in the ideas and ideals of the American revolution. The country that I learned to love and its revolutionary ideas and ideals, simply does not exist and hasn't for a very long time. Certainly not since the 40's.

That great revolutionary era is the America and Americans that Moyers represents. I feel like the American revolution is being fought again and the forces arrayed against liberty are bigger, richer, and stronger than ever before.

I think about that little bunch of merchants and farmers and printers, who stood together at Lexington bridge and at Concorde, with squirrel guns and fowling pieces, against what at the time was one of the worlds most fearsome military machines.

Every one of those men must have been conflicted as hell. They didn't know what would happen. They had every reason to believe they would all be killed for their defiant gesture. They had wives, kids, parents who counted on them, businesses, etc. None of them could see the future anymore than any of us can. They were, to a man, scared shitless when they walked out of their houses to stand on that bridge to say "Thou shall not pass!", to those heavily armed, trained and experienced Redcoats.

Much of Tom Paine's most celebrated writings were dispatches written while he was fighting with Washington's army. He was, by all accounts, a brave soldier. What ever courage he had on the field of battle, it was with his pen that he recruited an army and a nation to support it. His little paper, Common Sense, and his dispatches from the front, did more damage to the Imperial cause than he ever did with sword or musket.

Not only him but that other dozen or so of the independent weekly papers that supported the cause of independence from the Empire.

Moyers talks about a courageous American spirit, held it would appear, by only a small minority of Americans. A lot of Americans disagree with what is happening. Patriotic Americans were once obsessed with genuine liberty. Now they are fat, submissive, and want someone else to defend their American freedom to buy anything they can afford and to not really give a shit about anything else. To paraphrase Tom Paine: Things too easily attained are too lightly valued.

Moyers makes me want to buck up, do more, be more productive and strive to do it honestly. Makes me want to drag out my squirrel gun to stand at the fucking bridge. My squirrel gun being this bloody computer and internet connection.

It is a slightly sad and ironic thing. After all this time and all I hate about what America has become, in my heart, I'm still an American. A variety that has gone way out of fashion. Somehow, taking Canadian citizenship feels like a final turning away from what ever good the place once represented in the world. Something I must do to get a passport. I won't be giving up my American citizenship but it still represents a shift in my perception of myself.

I have no reason to believe I will live there, ever again. Yet, I still feel like a patriot, by my own definition. It has been a long time since America was worthy of that sort of patriotism. The worlds first successful colonial democratic revolution. Created against terrible odds. A small nation whose writers, thinkers, leaders, and citizens inspired their ilk, all over the world.

Now, that little country has become an imperial giant that thrives on the exploitation of and out right control of an economic colonial empire, the likes of which has never been seen before. An empire built more by corruption, greed, and financial and legal slight of hand, than with raw military power. Although the threat and use of force is always present.

By every standard, American democracy is in crises. Those of us who still believe in human liberty and justice and equality, in the right to freely express opinion contrary to that of either the State or the 'majority', those virtues that inspired and drove our revolution, are now labeled as unpatriotic, disloyal, terrorist sympatizers and worse.
By a jingoistic corporate media that marches in lock step to the drum of the corporate business agenda.

I strongly urge you to watch and or listen to the speech Moyers made at the founding conference of Journalists for Media Reform. He presents a view of patriotism that does not include blind allegiance to one man or one Party ideology

Ignorance, Heart of an American Nightmare

2004-12-29T02:16:00.000-08:00

It is difficult, at times, to keep my spiritual head above the water. The water being the flood of distressing, disturbing, and just plain horrible news regarding what is being done in the world.

I do not get my news or at least not most of my news input from 'mainstream' corporate controlled media. When you compare the news of the world as presented by the big US media, to the information disseminated in the rest of the world and even from homegrown independent media, you are immediately struck by the paucity of details in US generated stories.

The majority of Americans are plugged into the corporate media in a very big way. Night and day the TV and radio blast right wing pundits and talk show deans, preachers and good old boy local radio personalities with their God Bless America patriotic 'contests' and White House approved questions in interviews with local vets, usually officers, praising the president and his holy crusade.

They wake up with it, drive to work with it, sit with it at night and go to sleep with it..

The result of the perpetual media wash Americans live in, is that Americans have a particular and peculiar world view that separates them from the rest of the world, from the rest of humanity. Of those Americans who are aware of this peculiar mental schism
many support it, as a good thing. God is on our side and the rest of the world is wrong.

In my checkered past I have worked with a few people that can be safely described as clinically paranoiac. I have listened to many hours of why "everybody is crazy, wrong, and blind, except me."

The "God is on our side and the rest of the world is wrong" view, is not a rational or healthy world view. It never is.

But, I think the majority of Americans with that peculiar and well insulated view, do not realize that the rest of the world knows things that they have not been allowed to see.
I think the sleep walkers have no idea how much and exactly what kind of evil is being done in their names.

If they did, they may be too lazy, greedy, and self serving to give a shit but, as it is, they will never have the chance to know.

For a democracy to function as a democracy, it first requires an informed and involved citizenry.

Informed, no longer describes the American populace. Ignorance is the lack of information. That lack, that ignorance, has become a hallmark of Americans, in the eyes of the world. A world that knows a lot of things Americans just plain don't know.

Many Americans may not deserve the view the world has of them but if they don't start showing some real resistence, they are going to be stuck with it, whether they arguably deserve it or not. In the face of the massive aggression the government is guilty of, passive disagreement just doesn't cut it.

ANOTHER SACRIFICIAL GUARD UNIT

2004-12-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

Another National Guard unit has come forward with serious questions and specific complaints regarding their lack of readiness for combat duty. The story is from the The Standard Times, in Connecticut.

A brief quote: HOUSTON -- Members of a second National Guard unit that prepared for duty in Iraq at the Army's Fort Bliss compound have come forward with allegations that they were not adequately trained… The unit's M-60 machine guns reportedly were in such bad condition when the soldiers deployed in February that one sergeant -- in a section of a post-training summary sent to his commanders that was titled "gun maintenance" -- wrote: "Perhaps we should throw stones?"

This is the second time in weeks that a National Guard unit's senior NCOs have outlined such obvious deficiencies in training and equipment.

The list of problems presented include old unreliable vehicles, many of which were towed from Kuwait to Iraq. Of the 21 M-60 30. cal. machine guns belonging to the unit, only three were without deficiencies. At the time of deployment, most of the pistols and grenade launchers belonging to the unit were considered unreliable.

These men are being sent to the slaughter. Guard units were never meant to be deployed in this fashion. The National Guard was intended for disaster emergencies, civil unrest, and as a last ditch home defense force. They have ancient unarmored vehicles and unreliable weapons because they are not intended to need the heavy weapons and armor of the regular army.

But, to avoid a politically dangerous return to the draft, the ideologues in Washington are willing to throw large units of under trained, under armed, home Guardsmen into a hot war with weapons that don't work and trucks without transmissions, much less armor.

They are being used in a dangerous and complex context that requires situation specific training. These men are simply not getting that training. They were deployed a month early due to a bureaucratic mistake made by senior officers. The result of all these short cuts are unnecessarily high casualty figures.

There are no excuses for this level of hubris, corruption, and managerial incompetence.

The Army's predictable response is to pretend that there are no real problems and that the men are complaining because they are finding war time training too tough and strict.

The reality is that these men are not complaining about the chow or the lousy barracks or restrictions to base. They are complaining about the lack of training. and unreliable weapons and equipment.

Even crazy ass Hitler did not throw virtually unarmed home guard units into the fray until the allies were in Germany itself. Here we are, in the beginning of what looks to be a long bloody losing conflict, and the Fearless Leaders have already thrown the old home guard into the thick of the war.

This is a culpably reckless , criminally incompetent, and wasteful destruction of thousands of human lives. Yes, I'm counting the Iraqis too. It is beyond logic and beyond redemption. It will not be forgotten or forgiven, in the long run.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their cronies, have over reached themselves by a long way. This president has garnered enough power for himself that he and his gang could do a lot of damage on the way down. How many fronts is George Bush willing to fight on?

Willing and able are two different things but I suspect George Bush is quite ready to fight a home front in order to silence and intimidate opposition to his holy self aggrandizing crusade.

Why do so many banal little men, like George, dream of having the appearance of greatness? Not the attributes of greatness, just the appearance.

MERRY CHRIZBAH

2004-12-25T04:58:00.000-08:00

It is about four AM on Christmas morning. As appears to be a personal tradition, I am sitting at the computer hacking at some idea or vain thought.

Pausing to look out on the wet empty downtown streets, I watch a raggedy homeless guy going thru trash cans that I know he went thru about an hour ago. All to no avail it would appear. I am remembering more than one Christmas spent on the streets, many years ago.

I sit in my warm apartment with my very own computer and work space and my little family, asleep in the next room. I am reminded how lucky I've been. How well things are compared to how they could have turned out. I have no personal complaints worth airing. Would be damned ungrateful if I did.

But there are a litany of things to complain about and worry about, in the objective world.
Evil does not sleep on Christmas or any so-called Holy Day. Or any other day or night, for that matter.

Since I am not a religious person, my Christmas wishes are really my end of/beginning of the year wishes. A time to look forward and at same time, to reflect on the past.

I have hope for the future. I have no hope that the greedy and the power hungry will come to see the error of their ways. I have hope that many more Americans will start waking up, to the mess we are creating in the world and the price we are paying for it.

I have hope and even believe that Americans are going to awaken in numbers sufficient win back America for democracy and the constitution.

I have hope that a new kind of patriotism will overtake America. A patriotism that is born out of a love for the land and for its people, not the idea of thoughtless loyalty to a man or a party that is currently called patriotic.

George Bush does not speak for God and George Bush does not represent the aspirations of the American people. He is a wounded hungry little man, a politician, elevated far beyond his abilities.

Patriotism refers to the land and the people. Not a political demagogue. I hope and believe that Americans can and will come to make that distinction.

I have no faith in gods. I have only guarded hope for humans. I do have some faith in the power of necessity.

Merry ChrizBah to my fellow humbuggers and for the rest, dare I say,

A Happy Holliday Season to you

The Big Why?

2004-12-24T03:42:00.000-08:00

I can well imagine that Christmas will be a somber affair for many Americans this year. It certainly will be a time of mute celebration in Iraq. The fireworks there not being of the celebratory variety.

I watch very little American TV news but I can imagine the patriotic human interest stories being played out on the networks, after the bombing of the mess tent in Mosul.

Heart touching stories of All American young men and the communities they will not be returning to. The families they are lost to, will be quoted. In their grief and misplaced loyalty they will say how proud they are of the dead young man and the noble cause he died for.

What else do you really expect them to say? Unless they have already been asking themselves the right questions, anything else will seem to lessen the memory of the departed and to question the value of his sacrifice. Humans don't work that way.

But go back and ask them again in a couple of years or less. Some lonely night the unanswered question, Why? will creep into the hearts of those who cared most and that question will never have a good believable answer.

Thirty five years ago we were asking ourselves that same question, born of grief and the despair of loss. The question was never ever answered to any ones' satisfaction.

About thirty years ago, I made a brief trip back to the States. I had made arrangements with a civilian lawyer, in Seattle, who, as it turned out, did not know what he was talking about. He did not know that the Army and the Air Force had radically different policies regarding long term AWOLs such as myself.

That bungle and how I eventually pulled myself from the frying pan and back to Canada, is a story for another time. Right now I want to talk about the big mean looking, red faced border guard who made a point of telling me what he thought of me and my situation.

I had been at the American border station for maybe half an hour, waiting for the FBI, or as it turned out, the Belleview police, to cart me off. Still trusting in the 'deal' my so called lawyer had made, I expected the FBI to pick me up any moment and deliver me to the nearest Air Force base where I would be jacked around for a week with admin. BS and booted out with a bad discharge.

The border guards had made calls and arrangements of their own while I was awaiting my men in black. I noticed one big ass border guard who kept looking at me in a very intense manner. He was a huge blond haired, red faced man with forearms the size of my thighs. I had no desire to antagonize this guy, in any way.

I was sitting behind a little metal table I had been directed to when Officer Hugefist approached me with real emotion in his eyes. I figured I was in for a serious beating.

He placed those big hands on either side of the table and leaned in to talk low, eye to eye. The first thing he said, in a very tight voice was, "I had a son, just about your age. He died in Vietnam..."

You can imagine that I saw the gates of hippie hell opening wide to swallow me whole. His blue policeman's eyes held such anguish, I can not describe. Where I grew up, men usually express such painful emotion with violence.

"I wish to God he had gone to Canada instead. I'm glad you aren't dead. I'm glad your fathers' son is still alive."

The man had wanted to tell me about his son and to tell me, a kid in his lock up, that he was glad I'm not dead.

In spite of my circumstances and the relief I felt that he didn't hate me, the sadness I saw in that big tough man stays with me today. Now, removed from the fear that oppressed me at the time, those sad eyes and the sense of loss they betrayed, are my strongest memories of what proved to be a very harrowing time.

Today, I think about that man and the dark worm of sorrow and regret that had lodged in his heart and the angst in his voice when he said, "Nobody can give me one god damned good reason why. Nobody."

No one ever will be able to produce a good answer to that question. A good answer stops the question but there are no good answers.

For a lot of the kids doing the dirty work in Iraq, this will be their first Christmas away from home and family. For some families, this season will mark the begining of living with the unanswerable why.

My Heroes

2004-12-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, Pablo Paredes is a courageous young man whose recent actions, his public refusal to carry out assignments relating to the war in Iraq, puts him in that class of people I call heroic.

For those who still mistakenly believe that heroism, and the very word hero, is inextricably bound to the willingness to do violence on demand, I want to tell you the story of a genuine hero, a war hero, yet who never did or intended to do, harm to anyone. Her name was Mathilda Agees, Tilly to those who knew her. She never carried a gun.

She helped carry two Jewish children through the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. A serious 'crime', punishable by death. She and other family members undertook this dangerous personal/family mission, simply because it was the right thing to do. Because good people must resist evil and violence. And because in their minds, the moral survival of her occupied homeland depended on such acts of quiet, persistent Resistance.

'The boys' as Tilly called the young brothers, did survive the war along with the rest of Tilly's family. Last year, 'the boys' sent money from Holland, to buy Tilly a computer so she could stay in touch via email and trade photos.

One of the boys had blond hair and blue eyes and though every bit as Jewish as his dark haired brother, looked a stereotype little blond Dutch boy.

Tilly worked as a grade school teacher and passed the blond boy off as her younger brother that she took care of. Not an uncommon situation at the time and place.

One day she and the boy were accosted on the street by a German SS Colonel. The Nazi stopped her to inquire about the boy. Tilly was scared to death and was sure their time was up, visions of her family went through her mind but she stayed cool. A power she never lost.

The Nazi officer wanted to congratulate her for producing this fine example of young Aryan manhood. He lifted the boy up, admired him and set him down with an affectionate pawing of his blond hair.

She told me she did everything exactly as usual that day. She got to work on time, as always, but was "absolutely distracted for the whole day. It was embarrassing."

She and her family lived under constant threat of exposure and death through the entire Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Tilly, her family, and many, many others like them are what I call heroes and I do not use the word lightly.

Tilly Agees died Thursday, the 16th of December, at 2:00 A M, at the age of eighty five.
Ms Tilly's entire life consisted of teaching and helping. She never shirked responsibility.
Something good has gone out of the world and I wonder who will take her place. She was, in the truest sense, a war hero. She never picked up a weapon or wore a uniform or hid behind a flag.

Today in Iraq, the average age of the American soldier is 19 and 1/2. Nineteen and a half years old.. That means a significant number are even younger. No matter what these teens are being told, no matter what excuses they believe, when they get there, they will be fighting to stay alive and to keep their brothers alive. They will follow orders from the political bunglers as best they can, while fighting to stay alive.

In those terrible circumstances, some men will stand out for their courage and for their commitment, not to the war but to their brothers. Truly courageous men will sacrifice themselves, not for our Fearless Leader but for the survival of their comrades, in combat.

Such heroism can not be denied. Nor should it be forgotten. Neither should it be degraded by self serving politicians who interpret these acts of personal heroism as political support for Fearless Leader and his personal crusade to make war on the world.
It is a shameful political rite.

Back to Pablo Paredes: There are heroes who do not carry guns and do not threaten anyone. Just as my friend Tilly did, Mr. Paredes represents that variety of genuine heroism. I have linked this Democracy Now video interview with Pablo in a previous article. As well, here is a link to an audio file of the Statement that Pablo recorded before turning himself in to Naval authorities. The tape was played to a rally of supporters on the same day, the 18th of Dec. 04.

I'm focusing on Paredes today because I believe he represents the very kind of heroic people that are needed in abundance, if America is ever to regain any moral stature in the world.
Pablo Paredes had nothing to fear from his job. Petty Officer 3rd Class Paredes operated a ships defensive missile battery. He made it clear that his job put him in no combat danger.

His motivation is a serious matter of personal conscience. A social and moral conscience that developed while the young man 'grew up' in the Navy. Like many of today's soldiers, Pablo had a recruiting officer on his case, making regular calls and invitations to come to the recruiting office, meet for lunch or coffee etc. since before he finished high school. Recruited as a child, a teenager, Pablo came to maturity in the Navy.

An obviously working class, self educated, self directed young man, his is the face of honest question, honest doubt, and straight up, all American opposition to something most all Americans will eventually agree was a stupid, deadly mistake. There is courage and boldness in this young man that is not characterized by egocentric outbursts or angry diatribes.

I see and hear a thoughtful, constrained, intelligent young man that understands what he has set himself up for, and why. I feel sure we will see him again when his ordeal with the Navy is over. We need young people like him, very badly.

I would like to leave you with this thought. Pablo Paredes found himself faced with a moral choice that many of us will never really face. The consequences of his choice are real and immediate. He could have, more easily and more safely, finished up his remaining time (18mths) in his not dangerous job and spoken up after getting his honorable discharge and the benefits accrued.

But Petty Officer Paredes, a tiny cog in the great war machine, developed un-borg like self awareness. As that awareness developed and matured, Pablo found he was no longer willing or able to perform as an un-individuated cog. Because he knew what the big machine was actually doing to the world.

Pablo appeared at the dock where his unit was boarding their ship. He was dressed in civvies, wearing a black tee shirt that said in big white letters, "Like a Cabinet Minister, I Quit".

The cog had found its humanity and its natural dignity. The cog had found its own voice and the moral courage to use it. A simple human statement that perceives its own worth and reacts with the most rational personal course, "I quit!" I know what I am part of and I will no longer play that role.

For those interested in keeping up with developements in Pablo's situation in the Navy, you can find information at GI Fightback , Citizens for Pablo, and at Peace Redding , you will have to do a search at Peace Redding but the site is worth a look if you are not familiar with it.

In the early spring of 1969, my favorite personal inside joke was to loudly declare, "I quit", at absolutely every thing that irritated or oppressed me. It was a joke only because a lowly airman first class has no option called 'quit'. It isn't a job.

Toward the end of my stay with the Air Force, I was shouting it aloud at any moment that seemed appropriate. The flight line was hellishly noisy. I could sometimes scream my slogan directly into the faces of Majors and Colonels I was strapping into the F4s, without being heard.

So, I was moved by the simple claim and declaration made by Mr. Paredes. "Like a Cabinet Minister, I quit"

This War Has Two Fronts

2004-12-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

"If you kick their butts hard enough, their hearts and minds will follow" A military slogan frequently heard during the Vietnam war.

It may occasionally prove true, in the short run, but in the long run, the pure force tactic will create more enemies than any military force can handle. Bitter, highly motivated enemies. The worst kind.

On the war front:
Another courageous young man has come forth with his own story and photographs of the casual violence and contempt with which imperial American forces are encouraged to treat Iraqis.

Aidan Delgado, a young mechanic in the Army reserve, recently honorably discharged, has come forth with his story of having applied for CO status while in Iraq. He turned in his weapon, explained his intentions and purpose and began the long grueling process. During that time, Delgado worked as a mechanic at the Abu Ghraib prison. He witnessed and heard of incidents and brought back a number of photos taken inside the prison. His story, at Democracy now, is very disturbing

When you hear these stories, appearing from a variety of sources, when you examine the photographs closely, you must wonder how the Iraqi people could not hate the US forces.
Imagine if North America were invaded by a brutal, heavily armed force that destroyed your electric grid, sewage lines and disposal plants. Took over or shut down hospitals, destroyed the local police and city administration, schools, churches and public services.

Imagine that occupying force forbade any protest of those imposed conditions and regularly incarcerated men, both fighters and civilians, including male children. Then, imagine that you learned that the people detained by the foreign troops were systematically tortured and abused in the most horrific and perverse manner possible. Sexual tortures, rape, S&M type tortures of the sort you would read about only in the most sordid fetish magazines.

Do you not believe you would be compelled to resist such barbarism? For barbaric is the correct word to describe American behavior in Iraq. Immoral, perverse, barbarism. The spirit of Caligula's Rome resurrected by a twenty first century 'Christian' potentate. A horror to behold if you look at it's actions on the ground, if you think of the terror inflected on the people who live there.

Life under evil Saddam was never so terrible. Yet, Americans think they are the 'good' guys. While Saddam, whose brutality was never acted out on such a broad crippling scale, was manifestly evil. Can you really imagine that the people whose lives have been destroyed, whose homes, schools, businesses, and professions no longer exist, are not enraged by how they are treated and by revelations of such barbaric actions on the part of the occupiers? Occupiers who dare call themselves liberators.

On the home front:
Neither Americans or Canadians would sit as passive witness to their own demise, to rape, torture, mutilation, and deaths of citizens and children, detained whether they are combatants or not.

At least I don't think Americans would tolerate such treatment. However, the government that is committing these crimes in Iraq has been passing laws and gaining powers that will allow them to use the same people to do the same things at home.

The government is doing things, on a regular basis, that only a few years ago would have been soundly denounced, by all Americans as things that only happen in foreign dictatorships. The old Soviet Union, for instance.

Police in Virginia recently visited the home of an 11 year old boy who had been reported for making "anti-American" remarks, at school. 11 years old, mind you. The child's parents were interrogated by police for three hours. The police wanted to know, among other things, if the parents knew any foreigners who harbor anti-American ideas.

The child's mother, Pamela Allbaugh, described the police interrogators as " like George Orwell's …thought police". She was quoted as saying, "If someone would have asked me five years ago if this was something my government would do, I would have said never."

Well, five years ago, I would have agreed with her. The rules have been hurriedly rewritten by people whose loyalties are in line with their own political and financial purposes rather than with the democratic principals and the constitution that were once what the U.S. of A. was about. Sometimes mistakenly so, with dire consequences, but in the end, the checks and balances system did eventually right the ship of state.

No more. That system is in tatters, as key positions in all branches of government are being filled, by often unqualified and compromised appointees, based solely upon their correct political loyalties. Their willingness to go along with this new vision of an authoritarian imperial America. Corporate and government power freed from the shackles of the constitution, that pesky document that has stood, so long, between the naked power of vested interests and the rights of private citizens in this country.

It remains to be seen just how far these people, this adminsitration, are willing to go in furthering and protecting their political coup and the powers they have taken for themselves.

Honorable Soldiers

2004-12-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

Lately, I have spoken a lot about dishonorable men, women, and generals. Every day becomes a litany of dishonorable acts with terrible consequences for those on the ground, in Iraq.

Today I want to talk about some men, soldiers and sailors, who have honored their country, its citizens, and the many before them who served a once honorable and democratic nation. These men, individually and as a group, represent the public face of those Americans, citizen soldiers of conscience, who refuse to obey illegal orders, and those who will not play silent witness to criminal acts perpetrated by the military.

Each of these men have, for reasons of conscience, put themselves in harms way, via the military 'justice' system.

Sgt. Frank Ford was a National Guard counter intelligence officer stationed in Samarra.
On the fifteenth of June, 2003. Sgt. Ford reported to his commanding officer that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of prisoners.

The officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, gave Ford thirty seconds to retract and forget about his report. Sgt. Ford refused to retract his report. Ford was immediately relieved of his weapons and security clearance, meaning that he could no longer function as an intelligence agent.

36 hours later, Sgt. Ford was strapped to a gurney and secretly, without orders, flown first to Kuwait and then to Germany and later to the States. Altogether, he was kept isolated in locked mental wards, for eight months. All of the numerous psychological tests revealed nothing but a normal individual with no mental health problems.

So, that is the new American Way? Your intelligence guy tells you the truth about something important, but it isn't what you want to hear. So, just lock him up in a mental institution. No messy charges to defend. Hell, it worked for the Russians.

Ford was honorably discharged and is now retired from the military after thirty years of service. Sgt. Ford retired as a senior NCO with many years of active duty service.

You can find a detailed and very interesting account of this story at Democracy Now.
It is an interview with David DeBatto, a writer and former intelligence officer who served in Iraq. The Sgt. Ford story is far from over.

Next on my list of Honorable Soldiers, is a Sailor, Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes. Paredes joined the Navy when he was 18. Out of school and not sure what to do next, Pablo was pursued by a Navy recruitment officer who was determined to get his kid.. Pablo enlisted in the Navy.

That was in 2000. Now, twenty three, Paredes is a mature well spoken young man who has done a lot of growing and a lot of learning since the Navy got him, at 18. He finds himself in an untenable situation, serving a purpose that he believes to be utterly wrong and destructive.

This article is an interview with the young man who speaks better for himself than I can. You can read or watch the interview here, at Democracy Now. I watched the interview twice. I was struck by the honesty and the simple courage of this young man. He reminds me of people I knew, a long time ago, the last time America attempted to put down a colonial insurrection.

Petty Officer Paredes is not leaving the country. He is not hiding out or attempting to avoid the Navy. He is simply refusing to lend himself to the continuing crime being committed in Iraq. I imagine he has turned himself in or will when he has the right lawyer in his camp. This is not the sort of thing you use a JAG lawyer for.

Mr. Paredes made it very clear that his work for the Navy exposes him to no combat danger. His decision is based not on personal fear but a sense of personal responsibility.
He also made it very clear that he will be returning to the Navy to face charges.

Contrary to what the howling war lovers will scream, personal fear is not often a big factor in such decisions. If it were, Pablo would just be quiet, do his job, and finish his enlistment, which is nearing it's end. No fuss, no muss, no going to jail and no less than honorable discharge to create future employment problems.

I will have more to say about these two men and many others of their ilk over the next while. These men are the embodiment of the kind of courage that America, as a nation, needs to relearn.

For those of you whose morals and principles are so thin, so warped that you would call men such as Pablo Paredes a coward, I invite you to actually stop and think about this.
Pablo had nothing to fear from just doing his job until his time was over. The course he has chosen to take has much to fear in it. Think about that and then think about your definition of courage and coward.

Lies That Tell the Truth

2004-12-11T01:44:00.000-08:00

Starting with the unexpected news: Bernard Kerik has asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration for the post of Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

It seems that Mr. Kerik had yet to file the required disclosure forms necessary for the appointment. While filling out some of the forms, Kerik suddenly discovered that he had hired an illegal immigrant to work, in his home, as a housekeeper and nanny.

Kerik also admitted, "It has also been brought to my attention that for a period of time during such employment required tax payments and related filings had not been made."

Read the AP story here Kerik Withdraws.

It seems everything was going just fine for BK until it came time to bring forth those pesky ethics filings. I'm sure Kerik will get along very well but it must be such a disappointment. So close to having his very own secret police agency. Snatched away by an innocent everyday act of exploitation and tax evasion. How sad, blowing his chance to play Beria to Bushs' Stalin, on the world stage.

It was a rough week for Mr. Rumsfeld, too. It seems some private soldier, some tiny cog in the great wheel of neocon destiny, had the gall to ask why he and his comrades were being sent into combat without armour. A reasonable question which got a loud welcome from the twenty one hundred troops present at the photo op for the Secretary of Defense.

Mr. Rumsfeld, on the other hand, did not welcome the question, at all, or so it appeared. Rumsfeld, like his boss George Bush, shows his true nature the instant they are asked unscripted questions they can't easily ignore. Bush becomes an ignorant stumbling yokel who smirks, lies, and repeats himself, often out of context.

Rumsfeld hems and haws, puffs up and gives glib dishonest answers that demonstrate he is a man who just doesn't care about anything but his political agenda.

Rumsfeld told the soldiers that armour was being fitted to vehicles as fast as it was physically possible to do. Big lie. The company that makes the best factory fitted amour for the vehicles in question, has already offered to increase production but have not received orders to do so, from the Defense department.

His now infamous answer to the soldiers demonstrates very clearly the glib hubris and irrationality of the man. “As you know, you go to war with the army you have, and not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time . . . You can have all the armour in the world on a tank and it can still be blown up.”

First the silly part: Yes, you can get blown up in a tank. But, you are much more likely to get killed in a soft skinned (like a family car) hummvee or truck. A handgun will penetrate these vehicles, let's get real.

Now, to me, this statement is a raw revelation of the cheep greed and irrational mind set behind this rush to war. America was not suddenly forced into the war against Iraq. The intention and the plans were long in the works. But, much more preparation went into attempting to convince Americans and the world of the dire necessity of this war, than went into the war itself.

There was plenty of time to be buying and stockpiling weapons and equipment. Iraq posed no actual threat. There was no real need to go to war at all. There was certainly no real world reasons to launch the war on the day they did. However, there appears that Mr. Bush had a political timetable that superceded all other considerations.

Generals who dared tell congress that many more troops were going to be needed were quickly retired. Intelligence reports that didn't reflect what the administration wanted to hear, were buried or trashed.

The lack of preparation based on grossly optimistic projections from the White House, is costing young American lives in numbers that will only increase.

I would like to end this with a parting thought to those thinking of signing up for the war, here is just how grateful your country will be for your services. If you are seriously wounded in Iraq, too serious to return to duty, you will be immediately discharged. You will be forced to sign a waiver agreeing to accept continued medical treatment from the VA. Then you will discover the VA is completely swamped and unless you can afford private health coverage, you will wait a long time for treatment.

This is what is actually happening to returning vets. Men with serious debilitating injuries are being dumped on the streets without adequate or proper medical treatment. The first wave of Iraq veterans are beginning to appear in the homeless shelters. It's just starting. More and more, the reality of this ugly little war is coming home to America.

Encroaching Security. Are you safe enough yet?

2004-12-08T03:50:00.000-08:00

Bernard Kerik has been named by Bush to be the new head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Doug Ireland has written this informative article about Bernard Kerik. An interesting discussion about Mr. Kerik can be found at Democracy Now.

This former driver/bodyguard for the wealthy has parlayed his relationship with Rudy Giuliani, into ever bigger, more responsible government positions. So far, he has been a miserable failure.

That, we see, is the beauty of working for the Bush gang. Failure is routinely awarded. Unqualified, inexperienced, inappropriate applicants are regularly given big appointments based on nothing more their loyalty to the right individuals and the correct ideals. A sterling example of the new American way.

Get this: In October of 2003, Bernard Kerik Said:
"Political criticism is our enemy's best friend." As quoted by Newsweek.

Read it again. He isn't saying protest or even dissent may be a comfort to enemy, he is saying "political criticism", the very heart of what American democracy is about, is "our enemy's best friend." This is the man our Fearless Leader wants to appoint to the head of the Department of Homeland Security.

On a similar note:
If you still worry about terrorists plotting to take over your computer, or fill the minds of your children with dangerous reality based perceptions, cheer up, the good guys will take that worry away from you, along with a few more basic rights.

George Tenet, former head of the CIA, had this, to say about that. "I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," he told an information-technology security conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control."

Tenet Calls for Internet Security, From the Washington Times, Dec, 02,04

Tenet goes on to say that only individuals with a demonstrated concern for security should be allowed access to the web. Presumably the only way an individual could prove his/her concern for security would be to install government tracking and reporting software. Conveniently provided by your server. I ask, how else can an individual demonstrate the specific concern Mr. Tenet refers to? All others should not be "allowed" access.

Let's connect a few dots. The Bush appointee to head the Department of Homeland Security, believes that political criticism makes one the "best friend of the enemy".

Now, where are you most likely to find uncensored political criticism in the US of A? Where do most Americans, of any political persuasion, participate in or read unfettered political debate and argument with other citizens? The obvious answer to both questions is, of course, the internet.

Is that the new danger to our Fearless Leader and the trusted few at the top of his pyramid of 'leadership' ? Free exchange of ideas and information between Americans?

Perhaps it is free discussion between Americans and dangerous anti-American foreigners, that disturbs the sleep of Fearless Leader and those assigned the task of protecting him from reality.

Uncensored international news and opinion coming into the homes and minds of Americans, disturbing and disrupting the carefully nurtured political and moral ignorance of ordinary Americans, simply can not be tolerated. Informed citizens start wanting democracy, they start thinking they have rights.

No, we will have to do something about that, if the new America is to be free of antiquated and disquieting ideas of freedom of expression and other unpatriotic thoughts. Americans are free to buy anything they can afford. What other freedoms compare with that?

Fearless Leader seems to be afraid of a lot of things. He ran from Canadian Parliament, for fear of possible heckling from a couple of members of those staid old chambers. He won't eat dinner with other heads of state that haven't be frisked. He only wants committed supporters at his campaign rallies, and he fears any news or comment he doesn't control. He fears that Americans will finally wake up and realize that patriotism is about the country and its people, not about loyalty to a political demagogue.

Democrats Move to the Right...Again.

2004-12-06T01:03:00.000-08:00

There has been some small rukus regarding these two statements, quoted below. released by well placed Democrats.

We've got to repudiate, you know, the most strident and insulting anti-American voices out there sometimes on our party's left... We can't have our party identified by Michael Moore and Hollywood as our cultural values.

—Al From,CEO, Democratic Leadership Council

You know, let's let Hollywood and the Cannes Film Festival fawn all over Michael Moore. We ought to make it pretty clear that he sure doesn't speak for us when it comes to standing up for our country.

—Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute, the think-tank of the DLC

From an article by Matt Taibbi at New York Press

As I've said elsewhere, this continuing push to the right, by the Democratic national leadership, is disturbing but not surprising. It is the continuation of a long set trend in the leadership of the Party. Pushing ever further to the right.

The leadership seems to believe they will retain the democratic core, no matter what. So, they think the solution is to win a chunk of the conservative vote. They could be making a large mistake and pulling away from their core at the perfectly wrong time.

The next four years of Republican rule could well push the county to the left just as the Dems make their shift to the right. Left and Right just don't have the same meanings that they once had. The political middle appears to have shifted far to the right. Everybody to the left of Fearless Leader is now a Liberal, whether you think you are, or not.

The Democrats do not need to go any further to the right, to pick up the many disaffected old style conservatives, who I believe will fall away from the Republican umbrella over the next four years. Pulling further from its already hurting and demoralized base, will pave the way for a serious third party appearance. Especially as there will be so little difference between the Ds and Rs.

Maybe the DLC is marching right...into oblivion.

The DLC is so far removed from its political base it no longer knows where or what that base is. The Democratic Party leadership is trying to dance with the opposition and in doing so, is allowing the opposition to lead, to set the cadence.

Any decent boxing coach will tell you that when you control the cadence and the rhythm of the fight, you control the fight. You control the offensive action when your opponent only reacts to your pace.

Again, I believe the leadership of the Democratic Party rather thoughtlessly assumes their mass base will follow them, for lack of a real choice. I think they are dead wrong this time. If they are wrong, the price could be monumental as it may be remembered as the end of the Democrats.

I can perceive a possible future in which the Democrats are viewed as a third party vote spoiler, by all involved.

That may be far a fetched scenario but the next four to eight years are going to be very interesting times for the Democrats and their party.

Personally, I have no allegiance to the Democrats. They do not represent a real alternative to the corporate, anti-democratic forces that shape the Republican party. They are trying to make a hit on the same corporate casting couch.

One thing the Dem heads seem to lose sight of: For every 'swing voter' Moore lost them, he gained several new, first time voters for the Democrats. Moore does not need the Democrats.

I am hoping to see a real political alternative, born out of those who will spill from the Democratic Party. If those disaffected liberal democrats can link with people from outside the old party framework, new ideas will be born.

If something like a voting coalition could be formed or a unifying third party comes into existence, we still have the problem of a seriously dysfunctional electoral/voting system. The present system can not be trusted. It is corrupted, open to wide spread abuse, and does not inspire trust and respect on the part of the masses.

Frankly, it looks rigged.

The Missing Part of the Plan

2004-12-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

America is well and truly stuck in Iraq. While the Pentagon and the White house continue to insist they are fighting 'terrorists', it is obvious, to the world, that the struggle in Iraq is now a popular war of resistance, an insurgency. An uprising, of the local inhabitants against a foreign occupier. An occupier whose benevolent intentions are demonstrated false, by the vicious, brutal reality of occupation.

Within weeks there will be 150,000 American military personnel in Iraq. Virtually the entire military. The 15,000 being deployed now, a month earlier than originally scheduled, are largely composed of poorly trained, badly equipped, National Guardsmen. You know, the last ditch home defense force.

Guardsmen have come forward with complaints and real concerns regarding their lack of preparation. These Guardsmen are expecting un-necessarily high casualty rates due to lack of theatre specific training. Poorly trained, conventional troops are being herded into an insurgent war they have not been trained for.

Let's think about that for a minute. Virtually your entire military, including your older home guard troops, are way over in Iraq. Furthermore, your civilian police and fire departments are suffering from the loss of some of their best, most experienced members. Lost to the National Guard, and nobody knows for how long.

What could possibly go wrong?

The hubris displayed by Washington is beyond belief. Making one political and military blunder after the other, while steadfastly denying that any mistakes are being made, the political and economic theorists guiding this administration, march in rigid lock step towards a disaster of historical proportions.

The price for this calamity will be borne, of course, by ordinary citizens. The ones who pay the taxes and provide their sons as gris for the war mill. Not the wealthy corporate elite. They no longer pay taxes and their sons and daughters are about as likely to be in service as the sons and daughters of members of the executive and legislative branches of this war loving government.

Bush and his loyalists, the only kind still working in Washington, are committed to fighting it out in Iraq, no matter the cost to Americans. Iraqis, more and more, are becoming committed to resisting this occupation.

There is no end in sight. The neocon theorists and corporate futurists have made the big obvious mistake futurists so often make. Their theories tend to ignore the people involved, assuming a population that is receptive to and malleable to corporate and technocratic interests. That is to say, these politicos ignore the political reality of the world they are planning to build. More hubris.

Given that the Bushites are committed to their plans and intentions, and the Iraqi people show a marked disregard for the wishes of Washington, American troops are going to be on the ground, in Iraq, for a long, long time.

Yet, the Army is already dangerously over committed. Recruitment numbers are sub par with little expectation of big changes. Arthritic pilots, in their fifties, are being called back to service. Discharge dates for active personnel are now for the "duration".
A tour of duty no longer has an end date. It's till your dead or till it's over.

The military can not continue to operate in this fashion. Without many fresh faces to fill the ranks, the military will begin to crumble from attrition and the morale problems that develop when soldiers are kept in combat too long. Much of the army is already past its 'best before' date.

The draft is coming back and it can't be delayed much longer. Bush and his advisors do not want to play that card. The draft is a dangerous political item. Opposition to the draft was a major part of the political beating the conservative elements took in the late sixties and seventies. Lessons not forgotten. Ergo the reluctance on the part of the administration to even talk about the draft.

Meanwhile, the structure of the new selective service system is being quietly put into place.

Around the 'net', I read quips and jokes by bright young guys talking about getting back into college to sit out the war. That isn't going to work this time. The laws were changed, by the Democrats, who sought to remove some of the class bias inherent in the old law. College deferments are now a thing of the past.

I believe the sons of the middle class are expected to play a much larger role in future corporate wars, than was expected of them in Vietnam.

The economy helped make that possible for the volunteer army. In peace time, the all volunteer military attracts the best and brightest of unemployed youth. For those with ambition, joining the army was a viable way for working and lower middle class youths to obtain technical and post secondary education.

War time service is very different. Those educational programs are still there but no one on the ground, in a war zone, has time, energy or inclination to cram for mid terms.

I do not doubt that loop holes will exist that will allow the sons of the political and economic elite to find deferments. The top echelon and the politically connected will have their get out free cards punched. Low level State department appointments. Medical deferments based on the best doctors and medical reports money can buy, etc., etc.

But, the blatant class nature of the draft, during Vietnam, was part of what made it politically dangerous. They won't make that mistake again. I believe they are counting on the propaganda machine to keep the patriots and conservatives in line when their kids come home in bags, or crippled, or crazy as hell.

With the built in population control features of the Patriot Act and the neocon grip on the corporate media, combined with the governments' regulatory powers over independent outlets, the Bush and his cronies may be able to control most of the population of America.

The rest of the world? Well, there lies the problem. The lack of passivity on the part of foreigners and 'darkies', wasn't part of the plan. That is the part the theorists and futurists never seem to consider, much less understand.

This dream of a neocon, corporate paradise is headed straight for hell. Too bad the rest of the world is in for the ride, as well.

For a refreshingly honest and humorous musical interlude, pay a visit to the folks at Disenfranchised Music, DFM

Something To Believe In

2004-11-30T02:18:00.000-08:00

I was directed to an article on Yahoo news titled "Families Endure Private War" By Mike Dorning. It is a reprint from the Chicago Tribune.

It starts with this: "Holly Friedrichsen was hoping for a tear--or a smile, at least--when she held aloft her 5-month-old daughter to give her husband his first glimpse of their child.

Instead, what she got was what she and other wives call the Marine Look. "There's really no emotion to it."

I strongly suggest that you hit this link, and read the short but informative article, before reading what follows.

During, and for a while after the Vietnam version of this madness, I worked, in a very unofficial way, with some vets that were sent up to Canada, by friends, to 'cool out' in a low stress environment where flags and loud phoney patriots and confused family members would not be in the way.

Mostly I just hung out with guys and helped keep the safe house together. One guy explained to me that I was tolerated and even accepted, mostly because I knew when to shut up. I spent a lot of time listening, eye to eye with my mouth shut. Then the dreams started. I've never slept much but for a while, I didn't want to sleep at all.

One guy I hung out with used to walk around, in Milwaukee, with a shrapnel grenade in his pocket, the pin pulled and a strip of tape holding the spoon in place. He was a very ordinary working class American guy before the war. All of them were.

Some commentators seem to think it is the tactics of the insurgents that created so many haunted vets but that is wrong. With individual exceptions, American soldiers do not like fighting civilians.

With no exceptions, they don't want to fight senseless un-winnable political wars against poorly armed, highly motivated civilians. Especially when they fight with such selfless determination for their own homes.

They are not fighting an army. They are fighting kids, old men, shop keepers and teachers. Patriotic civilians resisting a foreign occupier. Just as the soldiers themselves would if their own country were occupied.

Calling an artillery strike on a building and then going into what is left of the building, to find the shredded bodies of women, children, and grandmothers, no different from what they left at home, has a profound and lasting effect on a person who is not already psychotic.

No one wants to see himself as a murderer of babies. It is very hard to care about or respect yourself after that. And believe me, they never forget. Most eventually learn to live with it. many don't and their lives are usually short.

Fighting German, Japanese, or Chinese Soldiers is one thing, fighting peasants, farmers, and shop keepers is entirely different. There is a huge price to pay. A price that Bush and his ilk know and care nothing about. While starting this stupid war, Bush cut the pay and the VA benefits for soldiers and vets. Another show of care and undying gratitude from our proud 'war time president'.

A recent email from one of several vets I am in contact with said, (forgive me man, I paraphrase your words) "I don't believe in hell, but I'm not worried if there is such a place. There's going to be so many Christians and patriots, there won't will be room for me."

We have a duty to stop this horror. There are no excuses for inaction. If you have come to understand how wrong and evil this war is, and you choose to do nothing but whine, you are as guilty as any of our new style 'patriots'.

See what happens in Canada over the next couple of days and then ask yourself why Canadians should care so much more than you do. That last sentence is not for those who have begun to activate themselves. It is for the rest of you.

The War Trickles Home

2004-11-26T02:25:00.001-08:00

To start, a short quote from an article in the L.A Times, reprinted at the Smirking Chip. The article is worth a read for anyone interested in a worms eye view of the war effort.

DOÑA ANA RANGE, N.M. — Members of a California Army National Guard battalion preparing for deployment to Iraq said this week that they were under strict lockdown and being treated like prisoners rather than soldiers by Army commanders at the remote desert camp where they are training.

More troubling, a number of the soldiers said, is that the training they have received is so poor and equipment shortages so prevalent that they fear their casualty rate will be needlessly high when they arrive in Iraq early next year. "We are going to pay for this in blood," one soldier said.

America has a long history of sending large numbers of poorly trained, poorly equipped soldiers into battle. It started in the American civil war and continues to this day. The "All Voluntary Army", represented a departure from that strategy. But, there is a worm in the apple.

As the professional cadre is used up, more and more of these short trained citizen soldier/conscript units will be arriving in country. Civilian deaths and military casualties will climb. As they did in Vietnam when destruction of the professional, regular Army troops, led to the introduction of poorly trained draftees into combat.

Scared, untrained, men with guns are dangerous and unpredictable. The worst of the civilian massacres in Vietnam, were committed by conscripts.

Not because draftees were somehow more vicious than the professional soldiers but because untrained, scared men with guns, are dangerous and unpredictable. They panic, they forget what little training they've had, commanders lose control, and they shoot anything that breathes.
In a state of pure terror.

They are not good soldiers and their casualty rates show it. Their losses will be high in the beginning of their tour. On the job training for such a dangerous occupation is madness and waste. Where failing a training exercise, often means death. That's OJT, Army style.

Most of the Guardsmen are guys who like to play Army on a monthly weekend, during peace time. Yes, they tend to vote Republican. Now, they find themselves face to face with the terrible reality of what they have chosen for the country.

This reality 'therapy' will alter the thinking of some of them. It isn't theoretical now. Dreams of heroic deeds and accolades of a grateful country are replaced by the hard reality of being a cipher, in a political game they have no voice in. Face to face with the reality that the Commander-in-Chief does not give a shit about them, only his own ambitions. It is a learning experience.

We must use these 'reality demonstrations' as educational tools. To break through the confusion of that half of the country that is sleepwalking over a precipice.

Remember this old joke? "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers."

Well, Guardsmen, welcome to the passenger list.
Do you now wish you had awakened a bit sooner? I wish you had too.

That sounds callous, even in my ears. But, it's a reflection of the hard reality of the situation. The war keeps coming home. It continues to become the harsh reality for more and more of us, as more men and money are poured into the pit that has been dug in Iraq.

The trickle of cost has just begun to be felt. Not 1/000th of a percent of what ordinary people experience in Iraq. But, the trickle has begun in earnest. The channel will inevitably widen. The war is coming home.

Once more, I would like to remind readers that I encourage anonymous posting for those wishing to avoid the registration process.

Patriotism and Self Worship

2004-11-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

Patriotism, often a thinly veiled form of collective self-worship, celebrates our goodness, our ideals, our mercy and bemoans the perfidiousness of those who hate us.
from War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, 2002, by Chris Hedges

This quote from Chris Hedges' book, has been bouncing around my head for the last couple of days. I'm impressed by his ability to sum up the sort of patriotism that is being displayed in America, in one short sentence.

Thinly veiled self worship in which we praise ourselves and condemn all who aren't us, especially those who we stand in opposition to.

The current American version of Patriotism, not only bemoans the 'evil' of all foreigners, except the British, it also targets much of the American population. This ugly new American 'patriotism' denotes not loyalty to the country but to one man, George Bush and his dangerously irresponsible neo-conservative power grab.

Traditional conservatives take note, when you finally wake up and realize that the neo-conservative corporate elite, have stolen your country and spent enough to have your great grand kids still paying the debts they are running up, while they are tax exempt, you will become a target of that patriotism as soon as you seriously speak up. Assuming you ever become patriotic enough to speak up.

Genuine patriotic love for the country itself, is not a popularity builder. It will necessarily bring you into opposition with the new patriots who seem to believe that Jesus is a member of the corporate elite that makes senseless war, spends like crazy, and pays no taxes.

From the Greek, patriotism refers to the "fatherland". It refers to loyalty to ones land and people, not an individual, not some demagogue with an itch to become the first Emperor of Imperial America.

Someone who is very important to me read this blog recently. He disagrees with me and my view of what is becoming of America. As I expected he would. All he actually said was that he is a patriotic guy and loves the flag. He is maybe the last guy on the planet that I want to argue with, especially about politics. Given his mild reply, I suspect the feeling is mutual.

But, this idea that patriots just do what a government tells them to and that those who disagree are un-patriotic, truly sticks in the craw. It is an assumption that a significant percent of the American population has bought into, to their peril and great cost.

Naked corporate fascism has come to America, wrapped in the flag and waving the bible.
It has found America easy pickings because so many Americans worship the flag and an Americanized Jesus, but not the things those symbols stand for.

I never lost my love for the things America once stood for. I still love what it may be again. I do not love this arrogant power hungry, coddled rich boy, who deserted the military during Vietnam and now wants to set the world on fire for the sake of the very rich and for his own ideas of personal glory.

If only he had wanted Osama Ben Laden, the one who actually attacked us, and did so much damage, as much as he wants Iraqi oil, the enrichment of Haliburton, and the 'honor' of being a "War time president".

If George Bush is a patriot, who needs it?

A little light reading for Patriots, blogs written by our soldiers, the ones doing the corporate dirty work under our besmirched flag.

Op-Ed THE MORE IT CHANGES...

2004-11-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

In the last while we've seen a lot of changes in the Bush cabinet, with the promise of more to come. This changing of the guard represents the current defining example of that ancient adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same.". Only more so, one might add.

Powell, once seen to be the voice of reason in the cabinet, eventually became the voice of compliance, damaging his credibility, perhaps fatally. Whatever reason was left in that voice, the president has been deaf to it, from the beginning.

Gross, Gonzales, Rice, etc. just more of the same only, more so.

Now they have begun clearing out the non-believers and liberal democrats from the CIA. We don't want anyone who balks at using the CIA in America on Americans. We don't want information coming from anyone who doesn't see things the way 'we' do, the president seems to think. What else can be meant by the idea of enforced "loyalty to the president"? Not loyalty to the country and the government but loyalty to the man. Government employees should be party members now?

If there is no one left, to let on we're failing, no one will know. Mission Accomplished. We're winning the war and democracy has never been sweeter. And when we've incarcerated all those malcontents that don't believe our new democracy is sweet, it will be sweeter still.

God Bless America the Sweet.

Democracy and the founding personal liberties are being beaten to death, before our eyes, by an authoritarian gang of corporate sponsored party hacks. It is a misery to behold.

Every arm and branch of government is being filled with cookie cutter Republican functionaries. The president, himself a long time beneficiary of unqualified appointments, sees no problem with surrounding himself and filling all niches of his government with such appointees.

They will know which side of the bread the butter is on. On the Republican side, of course. On the George Bush and America has never been sweeter side. That is where the jam and butter is. Let the 'reality mongers' eat hard tack and burnt crumbs.

Of course, the sweetness can only spread so far and so wide. All may have been born equal but all do not merit equally. Proven allies first, then their deserving friends and relatives.

For those who merely voted for them and had the bumper sticker on their cars, well, thank God they have a Godly Commander-in-Chief to feed their sons to.

Those folks should not be expecting a share of the pie. After all they are lucky already, just to be 'right minded' Americans. Safe from foreign terrorists and free to do what is expected of them.

Don't expect jobs, the corporate need for cheap offshore labour makes America competitive. The military will supply employment for the young and the rest of you should be able to find your own jobs. After all, you're Americans, fearlessly independent, willing to take your chances in the new corporate America. You're the right stuff. Or you should be.

Don't expect tax relief unless you are of the deserving rich. America is stronger and better when the rich prosper. Someone has to pay taxes to support the now deregulated budget deficit and the war. And that someone is, naturally, you Mr. and Ms working and middle class America. Remember, when exonerating the very wealthy from all responsibility for their large part of the tab, America is made stronger and Americans are made, well, poorer.

Improved medical benefits and more inclusive medical insurance for the citizens of the greatest country on earth? Care for the elderly and those who can't afford big insurance premiums? Surely you jest. That's communism here and now and a waste of the savings you might otherwise have horded for your unproductive old age.

Remember, we are not lazy cowardly Europeans or cold hearted Canadians. We know that having the best medical care in the world, for that percentage of Americans who can afford it, is what really counts. The profits of the giant drug manufacturers and the medical establishment make America strong, a great place to Live. Not easy access to medical care. That isn't freedom.

But, be assured that your presidents sweets will be spread far enough to have his followers in every nook and cranny of government, from the VA to the Supreme Court.

With the weakling Powell replaced by the presidents favorite unqualified ideologue, Ms Rice, and the scary old war horse Ashcroft replaced by Mr. Bush's most trusted private lawyer and enemy of international law and justice, Mr. Gonzales. With the loyal functionary Mr. Gross cleaning any free thinkers from the CIA and Mr. Rumsfeld still firmly in charge of the Defense Department, the new Corporate Imperial America is near complete, near perfect. Now, regarding the Supreme Court...

It is a great day for ancient truisms. "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The more things change, the more they stay the same". Only, more so.

Another American Story

2004-11-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

After I decided that I would not plunge into the void by way of suicide, to escape my anxiety packed situation, things got better somehow. I had already made my official departure, as far as my father was concerned. In his mind I was well on my way to a year in Thailand.

I knew that the number one way you got caught was by staying around your home town.
I was a bit too low class for Hueytown. It was a bedroom community of union and lower management people from the steel mills and iron foundries, a couple of miles away. Their kids went to college.

Most of my friends lived in Dolomite, a neighborhood much less prosperous than Hueytown. It was a mix of steel and iron workers, auto shop workers, part time mechanics, and industrial laborers. Several local families were getting government "relief", a nice word for welfare. Government handouts was the term often used.

Dolomite seemed to have a lot of it's young guys in the military. You might expect such a neighborhood to have a lot of flag waving, support the boys patriotism among folks on those shabby streets, but it was not so. There were those with that mind set but many felt real ambivalence toward the war.

Among the guys my age, there weren't a lot of hero stories going around like the year before. Someone's older brother was in the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles. We all knew this boy, a year or two older than us. He had been part of the one and only big airborne assault in the Vietnam war. It was a horrible disaster for our guys. The 101st Airborne was slaughtered. "Hung up in the trees and blown to shit. And what the fuck for?" our local survivor was quoted as saying.

Last years heroes were coming home from South East Asia, telling stories even more terrible than on the news. Last years heroes telling any guy that would listen. "Don't go.
Don't join, do anything you can, but don't go."

That was the clear message from more than one returning veteran. A message that was heard by even the toughest boys on the street. The message was coming from macho big brothers, from the idolized older cousins and football heroes. The ones that could talk about it. Some returned in boxes some wounded so badly they were talked about only in hushed whispers among the boys.

The heroes came back telling the parts of the story most had not heard. About the reality of what was being done, the reality of being a completely expendable game piece in a delusional political game. A game that none of us understood. As one returning vet put it, "Even if we win, what do we get?"

None of us knew an answer to that and neither did the government.. Patriotism seemed to be the only reason to go fight. Flag waving patriotism, backed by no discernible need or danger, with nothing to gain, seemed a weak reason to "sign your life away" as we called signing the enlistment contract.

Recruiters always smiled and said that when they give you the pen and hand you the contract. Big smile. "Here you go young man, sign your life away." The only time a recruiting officer is 100% honest.

I knew the Air Force would not contact the FBI or local police until my AWOL date hit thirty days. I used part of that grace period to hang out with friends in both Dolomite and Birmingham. Things had changed a bit in my year away with the Air Force. A subtle difference. Guys that finished high school last year were all coming up for the draft. Much of the post high school exuberance was already replaced with a certain dread of the near future.

Most had already passed their selective service physicals, in spite all the flat feet, weak lungs, trick knees and such, many had hoped would exempt them from the dubious thrills of the Army.

A few more had joined the Navy or Air Force, mostly to avoid the army. The thinking being that four years in the Air Force or Navy beats a year in the jungle.

While the recent returnees had cast a pall on the thinking of the boys, the heroic war stories did not disappear. Almost all American boys were big on the hearing of, repeating of, and enlargement of real war stories. Even those most terrified were mesmerized by the battle stories told by returning friends and relatives. I used to do the same.

One way to make such a future bearable is to imagine yourself a victorious hero, returning with medals, stories and only minor wounds. Maybe a manly but not disfiguring scar.

It was a way of facing a dangerous crossing, to envision yourself being heroic, victorious, and invincible. Only the very young can do that in the face of the harsh reality. That is why the military likes to get them while they are young.

Some guys are good at maintaining that victorious vision of themselves. It gives them a false sense of courage that makes it easier to face the inevitable. That vision tends to disappear sometime between basic training and the first instant of combat.

A year before, I had attempted to sweeten the bitter pill of losing the life I wanted to make, by entertaining fantasies of heroism and lascivious Asian pleasures. Somehow I would not miss my real life or hear it calling to me. It didn't work, of course. For me, the cushioning fantasy disintegrated immediately upon contact with the military.

A year later I was listening to the next crop of ' abductees ', about to be conveyed into the guts of the machine. To be broken and remade. To be trained, indoctrinated, and cowed into submission. And the question, "What do we get if we win?" kept resounding as I talked to and listened to these kids, with lives hardly started, facing a hell whose purpose none of us knew.

I felt strange among them. At most, one or two years older, I felt some how removed from my friends and the place. Already separated by both the past and the future.

I remember these things and I am filled with a sense of urgency. Driven by a desire to remind, especially those Americans of my generation, that we must not do this to another generation of young Americans. Not for the greed of a few, not for the ambitions of the rich and powerful, and not for the mad hollow rhetoric of demagogues with messianic delusions.

We keep saying "never again". But, we keep doing it, again and again. New victims, new excuses and rhetoric, new justifications for barbarism. In the name of Allah, in the name of God and Christ, in the name of loyalty to leaders loyal only to themselves and their cronies.

Annex Canada?

2004-11-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

Thomas McCullock enjoys upsetting my apple cart. He's done it again, sending me this. Just to brighten my day, no doubt. You're a pal, Thomas.

A quote from the article, in the Globe and Mail

The minority Liberal government will have to decide by year's end whether to renew the mandate of a joint Canada-U.S. military planning group, which has been working on an ambitious project that could bring the armies and navies of both countries under a single command for North American defense...

One can easily imagine the many, many, ways such a deal could go horribly wrong for Canada and Canadians. On the bright side, Canadians would not have to worry about a flood of American draft dodgers coming up here. We'll be too busy retreating to the bush (bush is forest, or 'the woods', in Canadian) or attempting to flee to Europe and Asia.

Unlike some of the more frantic posters at Vive le Canada, I think this is not likely to come about, but the mere possibility of American troops on Canadian soil is intolerable. This is a President and an administration that has shown a marked propensity for 'extreme solutions' to fictional problems.

This is a government that has no respect for it's own constitutional and democratic traditions. A government that is openly hostile to the rights of citizens of other countries.

America is a dangerous friend. Let us not forget that the occupational forces in Iraqi are now there at the "invitation" of the appointed Iraqi government.

America has few friends because to be Americas' friend is to do as you are told, what ever the price. Remember how Americans reacted, to France and Canada, for not going along with Bush's personal crusade against Saddam and Iraq.

America is never really your friend. The new covenant in Washington sees itself as a historical end unto itself. No other interests are valid, the cost to you, is never too high, for their purposes.

I reread the preceding paragraphs and I want to say, "no, that is too hard, too cynical". I wish I could say that. I wish I could feel moved to edit, to soften my view. But that is how it looks. This is not the America that I once, long ago, had such hope and belief in. This is the New America. Don't trust it.

I get no pleasure from saying these things. It fills me with grief that our once noble, revolutionary democratic experiment, has evolved into an imperial republic, bent on the destruction of it's founding principles. Not only at home, but in the world, as well.

Looking at the current state of American democracy, it is a very sad sick joke when Bush and members of his cabinet tell the world that they are spreading democracy to the heathens.

On a different note: A bit of home cooking in the form of an interview on a Mussel Shoals, Alabama radio station. Baghdad Buddy, is an Army Reserve Major stationed in Iraq, this is his last 'show' before returning to Alabama, on leave. Go there, click on "Baghdad Buddy" on their home page.

For Canadians and others not familiar with the feel of local media in American cities, check this out. This is mainstream small town radio, all over America. No questions, no doubts, just wave the flag and god bless us lucky folks who are free to buy anything we can afford.

The Major who understands his political responsibilities does a good job of painting the Bush correct image but does have a slip of the tongue when he describes the events in Iraq as an insurgent war. He quickly covers himself by calling opposition fighters "exturgents", as "they mostly come from outside the country."

The Iraqi people love us, of course.

Now's Not the Time for Your Tears

2004-11-11T17:21:00.000-08:00

It's Rememberence Day in Canada . The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The official end of World War One. The Great War. The War to End All Wars. When we come together to remember the price paid, by so many, in our many wars.

That is the official reason for the holiday but more and more it feels like a celebration of war itself. I can't celebrate. The celebration feels like a betrayal of all those lives not lived. All those people, all those young men. All the novels not written. All the things not invented, explorations not made, and children never cherished. Husbands and fathers who never came home. All that promise and possibility wiped from the earth in one big swipe.

It is hard not to remember that WWI was not nearly the end of war.

It fills me with sadness but it also fills me with determination to denounce this current American madness for what it is. We remember the Holocaust and swear to never forget, "Never again". But, already we have forgotten and prepare to do it all again for new and better excuses remarkably similar to the excuses we've always used.

I remember a very hot July day, on the pistol range used by the Jefferson County, Alabama sheriffs department. I was 13 maybe 14 years old, out with my dad and a couple of other deputies Braving the heat to practice for an up coming match.

There was a man there, about fifty, who came with one of the deputies but certainly wasn't any kind of police officer. He was nice. Soft nice like a Sunday school teacher without the fakeness. Cops can be nice too but it's different. Harder, there's always an sort of jovial brutality in cop nice.

I was wearing army fatigues, as I always did at the range. My favorite cop , Duke, was also in the National guard and he wore fatigues to the range.

The man asked me my age and then wanted to know why I was already dressed like a soldier. It was a strange question, in the company. No cop had ever asked such a question and I knew a lot of cops. It was obvious that the man didn't like it.

He was irritated and said something about the War to End All Wars and how stupid it was. "Dressing babies like fodder for the next war". I was offended at being referred to as a 'baby'. But I was more taken by the man and his passion, so unexpected in the company. More so than I knew, at the time.

When I realized he was irritated at my dad and not at me, my curiosity was seriously piqued. It was hot as hell on the treeless range. The man gave me a bottle of Frosty root bear. That was when the bottles were shaped like bears or maybe snowmen. It looked cold, even in the sun.

We took the pop over to a lone water faucet standing in the weeds near the target shack, to cool it off. He tried to tell me why my fatigues bothered him and that it wasn't personal to me. I didn't understand anything he said.. But I knew he had a different attitude towards the wars than I had heard from my dad or any grown up. What struck me and makes me remember him was the deep sadness I saw in his eyes.

I remember that, most of all.

A couple of weeks ago, I took an elderly friend to her hair dresser appointment in an area more residential than my usual downtown turf.. Every street corner had two or three boys dressed in sharp new military cadet uniforms. All looking about ten to fourteen yrs.

They were selling poppies for the coming memorial day. I talked with a couple of boys who wanted to know why I wasn't wearing a poppy. I told them but I was more interested in listening than talking.

One particularly bright young man, who had been selling his poppy quota quite aggressively, agreed with me that in a sense the holiday was a celebration of war because, "War is important and we have to be ready, all the time." He quoted something insane from Gen. Paton about war being the height of human endeavor.

We spoke amiably enough, for a moment. I walked away thinking about the man on the shooting range, all those years ago. Now I understand what I saw in his eyes when he looked at me and my army fatigues.

But, now is not the time for our tears. It's time to gird the loins, buck up, and rededicate ourselves to the task of resisting this current madness.

If we fail to raise our voices at every turn, then only the war lovers will be heard.

a good read for Rememberence day

For Whom the Bell Tolls

2004-11-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

How it looks from here

It appears that seventy five percent of the people who voted for Bush still believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that a connection existed between Saddam and Osama Ben Laden and 9/11.

That certainly reinforces the old Big Lie theory. It would also seem to indicate that much of America simply isn't paying attention to what is going on.

I suppose when you get your view of the world from FOX news and televangelists, you aren't bothered by facts. You just know what's right. Truth is a matter of who you choose to believe. Simple, eh?

Objective facts merely confuse us. Sure Bush is a compulsive liar. So what? Bush lies for God and Bush ain't no egghead. He's as dumb as a duck and we're proud of him. He's one of us.

I want you people who voted Republican to remember that, when they take your kids to fight for Cheneys' millions. When beauty comes home in a body bag, when athlete of the year comes back permanently mangled, when your once cheerful lad returns changed and estranged from you in ways you could not have imagined, remember, YOU asked for it. You made it all possible.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, for in fact, it tolls for you.

The Draft: After I Get Out of the Army

2004-11-06T04:26:00.000-08:00

I remember hanging out with the guys in the "smoking pit" at the end of Oak Hall, at High school. It wasn't a pit but just an area at one end of that section of class rooms where smoking was allowed.

I and most of my friends were seventeen, on the verge of having to register for the draft, at 18.

The draft and the war, but mostly the draft, was a daily topic of smoking pit conversation.
It seemed that half the guys I knew were sure they wouldn't get drafted. Like Bob, a clean cut but cool guy who told us, at least once a week, that his aunts and grandmother assured him his back was bad and his feet were flat and none of his uncles passed their physicals in WWII. No way would he get drafted.

Everybody had bad knees or weak ankles, sick mothers, or some sort of get out of jail free card, regarding the draft. I don't know if they really believed it or if those were just reassuring stories they told themselves, to be able to ignore what was on the horizon for all of us. I do know that most of them, and their aunts, were wrong.

Standing in the cold morning air, crouched over cigarettes, stamping the penny loafers that were a 'must have' in 1967, guys in their last year or two of high school talked a lot about the things they were planning to do with their lives. Trades, businesses, marriages, schools, etc.

For this crop of working class boys, virtually every statement and rejoinder was prefaced with the phrase, "When I get out of the army?" I remember over hearing that phrase, several times, every day. Anytime a guy talked about what he wanted to do with his life.

We didn't actually talk about the war very much. We talked about the draft, we talked about girls, cars, jokes, and parents, told lies about girls and risky adventures, talked about the looming draft and talked mostly about "When I get out of the army."

When the draft was finally abolished, by Nixon, I hoped that mine would be the last generation of young Americans to view the future as something that happens after you get out of the army. Like so many of us, I thought that would be the case, until recently.

Even hard core Republicans, such as my father have come to see Vietnam as a "tragic mistake that should never have happened". Dad gives himself a pass on his former support for the war and his willingness to feed me to the war machine, because "We just didn't know what was really going on".

Well, I accept that. With a view of the world and America and the meaning of patriotism shaped by the experience of the second world war, his generation was damned slow to see and recognize what was going on around them.

That level of ignorance may be forgivable, the first time. But, not again.

No one in mine or my fathers generation can pretend that we haven't seen this particular evil raise it's head before. None of us can excuse, going along with this madness, with a pretense of ignorance and innocence. It's way too late for that. Our generations have lived that bit of history and there is no excuse for not recognizing what is happening in Iraq and the flimsy lies that are used to justify it.

Say what they will, the Army and Marines are grossly over extended. Recruitments are way down as the corporate and political motivations for this war become more apparent and as it is becoming obvious that a contract with the military is binding only on the enlistee. This government can and will change the terms of the contract on a presidential whim.

Massive numbers of new bodies are needed, just to maintain present commitments. Virtually our entire military is in Iraq, right now. They are over extended, under supplied, with troops who have been in a combat zone for much too long, already.

The draft is coming back. There is no other way to maintain the number of troops needed. America has under taken an aggressive imperial policy that will demand more bodies than a professional all volunteer force can provide. The draft is coming back.

Eighteen to thirty four year olds, this time. A whole new generation of young Americans viewing the future as something that happens after you get out of the army. Assuming you get out of the army.

Afghanistan was understandable, inevitable even. Iraq raises the thorny question of why, in the minds of future casualty figures. The young Americans needed to pull off this corporate coup, are asking that question. They will begin to ask it more and more. It is a simple and very important question that will not answered.

We've seen it before. I saw it before and I know how important the question becomes to those who view the future as something that happens, when you get out of the army.

Thinking of Leaving?

2004-11-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

Since starting this blog, I have received a number of emails from Americans expressing the desire to move out of the States. Anyone with any awareness realizes that the next four years are going to be strange and difficult in America. To say the least.

I hear from friends down there, that talk of exiting the 'Homeland' is very common.. For most, that is not likely to happen. It takes money to immigrate to other countries.
Money and education, which most of those likely to be turned into cannon fodder, simply do not have.

I think it fair to say that many Americans richly deserve the hell they have signed up for. Unfortunately, many who will pay the highest price, do not.

It is one thing to go about proclaiming your 'freedoms', it is an entirely different thing to live as a free people. Thomas Jefferson said that liberty requires eternal vigilance. Most Americans seem to have lost the nerve for that sort of vigilance, apparently assuming that Liberty is a freebee guaranteed by someone else. A roll the neocons and their pet politicians are eager to assume.

Unable and unwilling to see beyond the dictates of this strange political/religious cult that has over taken American Christianity, their arrogance and ignorance leads them, blindly following a fool over the precipice.

Kerry weaseled out. That's my take on it. Once again the Democrats blinked and lost nerve. Given the amount of registration and voter fraud pulled off by the Republicans, in so many areas, it was a betrayal of the people to give up so easy.

Kerry was never a solution to the problems America has dug itself into over the last four years. But, he would have represented a brief respite from this over the top assault on American democracy and the constitution.

It may be of some interest, to follow Kerrys' senate activities over the next couple of years, I suppose. But, the weasel cowed at the most crucial moment. Like so many, he chose to submit.

The world will not submit to this ignorant greedy little rich boy and his corporate masters. Too many Americans believe the country can go it alone. As they fail, and the price comes home to them, they will blame and punish everyone but themselves.

George once told his biographer that a great leader never admits a mistake. Georgie is determined to be remembered as a great leader, whatever the cost to America and the world.

In truth, this empty, morally weak, emotionally and intellectually stunted little man, does indeed, represent the character of far too many Americans.

Like so many of his countrymen, this president who never had a passport before becoming president, is largely unaware of the global reality. The real world price of this arrogant disinterest will be paid by all of America. All of America.

For those of you planning to exit the beast's belly, get your passports, NOW. Do some real research regarding possible destinations and the immigration laws of those countries. Don't wait until the shit hits the fan to plan your escape. You really need to know where you are headed before you start that journey.

Draft evaders were eventually 'forgiven'. Deserters are still considered criminals, after almost forty years. The clear lesson in that, is that you want to save yourself before you're fitted for the uniform. It is much more difficult after they've claimed you for the army.

A Tale of Two Deserters "The Big Decision"

2004-10-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

When I decided to quit the Air Force, it was just that, a clear level headed decision. I knew that once it started, there would be no going back. I was playing for keeps, just like the Air Force.

I knew a guy who had gotten out by going AWOL at every opportunity. He would take off, go and do what ever, then reappear at the base, just before the end of the thirty day 'grace period'. After that you were listed with the FBI and a search was begun. Theoretically, you could be charged with desertion after thirty days.

He'd catch hell and get punishment details and the next time he got paid, poof, he's gone again. It took him almost two years. Much of that time spent in the stockade.

By the time I made the final decision, it was past time to go. I couldn't see wasting another day of my life under military control. Control of ones own life was what it was all about, to me. I resented every day of this involuntary and pointless servitude.

My intention was to reclaim my freedom and to reclaim and rebuild my life, some where else. Europeans had once come to America, to escape this very sort of thing, in the 'old world'. In the late 60s and early 70s, young Americans were escaping America. Now, in 2004, they are looking for safe harbor, once again.

I have a very clear memory of the moment I made the final decision to quit the war machine. I was sitting in my old 50 Chevy, in a dark parking lot in downtown Birmingham. I had a tight sweaty grip on an old twenty two caliber,. single shot target pistol, I had just stolen from a friend.

Feeling bitter, angry, hopeless, and helpless, in the face of the Air Force and the US government, certain I was morally right but knowing that didn't matter, I thought of taking the quick way out, with the pistol.

I was being sent to Thailand. About the best duty I could have hoped for. Much more interesting than a stateside assignment with very little of the danger presented in Vietnam, just across the border.

My room mate who had just returned from a tour in Thailand told me, many times, that the only real danger in Thailand was in the bars and on the flight line if one was too brainless from the festivities at the bars.

But, I would be loading bombs and munitions and launching the planes just miles and minutes from their farmer targets. I would still be putting my puny shoulder to a wheel I didn't believe in, pushing in a direction I was sure was very wrong.

Knowing that my family and everything I had ever known would be lost to me and feeling that my odds of beating the Government was way bad against me, I decided to 'fuck 'em all' and blow my own brains out. Depriving the criminal politicians of my service and avoiding the whole slave thing.

I sat in the car not far from a little coffee house I used play. I could not give the Air Force another day of my life. I would wear that damned uniform, never again. But, I couldn't face the large reality of deserting the military of my home and native land. That is not a small or easily made decision.. I decided to shoot my way into a final compromise.

I remember loading the old 'break down' pistol with a hollow point long rifle round, sure to do the job correctly. I didn't say good bye to the world or leave a note or think forgiving thoughts to those that may have wronged me. I grabbled the gun, cocked the stiff old hammer and put the gun to my temple. I didn't know that the mouth was a better shot.

I closed my eyes and started pulling the trigger. The trigger had a long pull and a lot of creak. Meaning it didn't pull evenly.. The trigger creaked twice. I felt the gun go off, my head expanded from the inside and in that nano-second, I felt profound regret at the stupid thing I had just done.

Thank rust and bad gun makers for trigger creak. The gun had not gone off. But, to this moment I still feel the blast against my scalp and the flash of red, inside my head, before bitter and profound regret fell onto me. I have never been prone to hallucination. That was a powerful one.

I jerked the gun away from my head. I released the sticky hammer and sat the pistol on the seat gently, to avoid accidental discharge.

Suddenly, everything looked different. I came up from my very, very brief face to face with death, with a whole new outlook. Death waits for everyone, no matter what they do with their time here. The choice was simple, fight or submit. Submission, to what I perceived as historical injustice, was not possible.

I felt then, as I do now, that the men who wrote and signed our national manifesto, the Declaration of Independence, would have agreed with me.

I decided that I would fight. I would play for keeps and I would be prepared to accept and deal with the consequences. I would not give up, go back, or kill myself. I would be a free person again or die trying.

I don't feel like talking about party boy George tonight. I had never heard of him at the time, as George and I ran in different circles. George and I could not have related on a face to face basis. George Bush has never ever been his own man. Never made his own decisions, and never taken responsibility for or accepted the consequences of his actions.

If he weren't the make believe president, he would not be worthy of a line of text.

Election Violence in Homeland America??

2004-10-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post regarding the upcoming election. Monday I will deal with something else. Anything else! I'm so tired of this election, I will be glad when it is over. Though, not as glad, if Bush manages to steal the election, as I believe he will.

Even if you are also sick of it, here is something you should read before election day. It will be all the news in the days following the election.

The article, entitled Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote, it is written by Bob Fitrakis and Jack Wasserman, of the Free Press.

A quote from the article:

* Under an archaic Ohio law, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, or any slate of five candidates, may embed official election challengers inside polling places. The New York Times reported on Oct. 23 that the Republican Party intends to place thousands of lawyers and other GOP faithfuls inside the polls to challenge voters. Republican insiders confide here that the key goal is to jam lines and frustrate new voters. The GOP apparently figures many voters in key Democratic precincts won't wait in line more than 15 minutes to vote. This is certain to be a major tactic in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County and other Democratic strongholds. The GOP is not planning to challenge voters in Republican districts. "

Think about that. The Republicans are planning to hire thirty five thousand lawyers and young Repuglicans to harass and intimidate and inconvenience voters in Democratic, mostly black neighborhoods, all across the country, not just in Ohio.

The intention to steal the election is very plain to see. The twelve things mentioned in the article are going to happen all over America, except, of course, in Republican districts. Because they are the 'good' Americans, the only ones worthy of the vote, or so the GOP obviously believes.

I predict that there will be violence at the polls in some areas. These scared white middle class Republicans are going into black neighborhoods to actively intimidate and harass locals who are trying to vote. Given the fear and racial arrogance that will motivate a lot of these political thugs and given the Republican love of guns, some of them will be armed. Make no mistake, we are talking about America. Some of the Republican thugs will go into to those communities armed against citizens that they fear and consider to be enemies. Good enough to fight the Republican wars but not worthy of voting.

I will not be surprised if there are incidents of real violence and even shootings at some polls on election day. Two likely hot spots will be Detroit and Philadelphia. Where the Republicans have long talked of the need to suppress the black Democratic vote.

I have no sympathy for anyone who goes into any American community to suppress the vote and deny fellow citizens of what is a sacred democratic right. That is about as Un-American as you can get.

I confess to hoping that the people in those communities will give these whey faced little Nazis a real lesson in participatory democracy. I think it more likely that a voter or two will get shot by some scared white punk on a mission for his ugly political deity.

Another link regarding GOP plans to challenge black voters in Florida. Video

Don't you just love America?

Election Fraud Op-Ed

2004-10-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

I put the term Op-Ed in the title of this because I have an opinion to express about something that has not yet happened. Simply put, I do not trust that the American Presidential election will be an accurate reflection of the intentions of the voters

In such a tight race, it is my opinion that the Republicans will shave enough Democratic votes to be able to appoint Bush to a second term. All the elements for disaster are in place and the motivation to create that disaster is very strong in some sectors of the Republican camp.

The Bush campaign is busy looking for fraudulently registered Democrats. I am sure some will be found as there are always some fraudulent registrations in every election. What concerns me, are not these petty individual frauds, as loathsome as they are, but some of the organized efforts by local election officials in several areas, to deprive large numbers of potential Democratic voters access to the polls.

There is the case of the phony voter registration company that has collected and destroyed unknown numbers of Democratic registrations, in three states. Who is out to bust those bastards?. People who will not know they have been defrauded until they appear at the polls on election day. To late to do much about it, in many polling areas.

As well as the hugely documented problems in Florida, there are new problems showing up in that state during early voting. As well as the problems occurring because of the same old corrupt or incompetent officials that caused the trouble in the last national elections, we now have electronic voting machines that did not function, had not been tested before the beginning of voting, and some machines that had not had their counters reset to zero before the voting began. Most of these problems occurring in counties with Republican election officials. Hard to believe there are no non-partisan election officials in a country that calls itself a great democracy.

International elections supervisory groups, could not certify US elections because of the many failures , irregularities, the lack of a non-partisan federal elections committee, and the use of electronic voting devices that have no recount provisions built in. i.e. a printed record of the vote cast.

Let me say that again: American election standards do not meet the international criteria for fair elections in the trouble spots of the world but, it is, it would appear, good enough for America.

I don't believe Bush will necessarily win the popular vote but I believe he will be made president, no matter how the electorate votes. I sincerely hope I have to take all this back. I hope I must publicly recant my unworthy suspicions in ten days or so. Time will tell.

This is one of those times I would much prefer to be wrong.

Rather than spread the links through out the text, here are the links to things that I'm concerned and talking about.

An open invitation to fraud: Article

Suppression, Fraud, Breakdown, Democracy Now Video

Carter Centre View of American Elections, NPR Audio Interview

The End Times President?

2004-10-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

My last post, regarding the specifics of the Presidents religious beliefs received this comment from an anonymous Canadian reader:

(Note: I encourage anonymous posting for those wishing to avoid the registration page)

"Well, that may be true but I'm not sure how much we should focus on his religious beliefs. We know they exist and should have no place on the political platform. I'd be willing to bet he knows as little about religion as he does politics. Nevertheless, world wide, religion is often used to cover up agendas where substance is lacking. The Bush dynasty (Papa, daddy and George) is one of very dirty money and it is the politics of greed that fuels their cause. Right now religion is is the suit, but a business man will play whatever role provides the means."

It is a good question and one that deserves an answer. At any other time, I'm pretty sure I would have the same opinion and question. Having some knowledge of the role religion has historically played in American politics, one simply accepts that religion is always part of the political mix.

But, some of the specific tenets of this presidents beliefs, and the nature of the Presidents personal commitment to those beliefs, has brought religion into the White House, into government policy, and into the election in a way that is very new, and I believe very dangerous for America.

Jimmy Carter was, arguably, the most religious president of modern times. In a recent interview on NPR's Fresh Air, Carter spoke about the many hours he spent in prayer, every day he was in the White House. Carters family were strong supporters of the Southern Baptist Convention for generations. Yet there is not one example of Carter attempting to bring government policy in line with specific tenets and goals of the Southern Baptist Church. No example of Carter attempting to interject his Christian beliefs into the classroom, the courts, or the federal Government.

It is one thing when the character of the man making decisions is informed by his religious commitment. It is an entirely different matter when the decisions are informed by the strictures of one mans' religion.

A president is elected to further and protect the interests of it's citizens, not to further the goals of his religious sect or denomination. Our president is completely blind to this idea and is utterly contemptuous of iron clad constitutional restrictions regarding the relationship of Church and State.

The key concept, in the constitution, is separation. Church and State are a poisonous mix. The founders of the country recognized the dangers inherent in giving religion a place in the government. Today, the potential wreckers of that same country ignore the wisdom of the founders, to everyone's peril.

George is not an old line, mainstream Christian. He is a relatively recent convert to a Christian/political cult that was born in the early seventies. A little old style Christianity, a whole lot of contemporary 'end Times' theology, coated, flavored , and given purpose by rightwing political and social values, this new brand of American Christianity is very much a political animal and very little of the spiritual is in evidence.

Officially, President Bush is a member of the United Methodist Congregation, a mainstream tradition. But he is a Methodist, in name only. Bush does not attend a Methodist Church on Sundays nor has he mentioned the church in any public address. Although he mentions his religious beliefs with alarming regularity.

Mr. Bush' core beliefs have much more in common with the extreme ideology expressed by Jerry Falwell and his brand of extreme right-wing evangelicals than with the beliefs and positions of the United Methodists.

While George Bush is ever the politician and has been careful not to identify himself with any specific trend, his policies and public statements have moved him well outside mainstream Christianity which tends to be more liberal on issues from abortion to gay rights, than President Bush.

The organized Christian-Right certainly see Bush as one of their own. He is seen as 'their guy' in the White House. When the organizers of the Republican Convention chose to play down the religious side of their message, for fear of alienating the 'undecided' voters of America, very few evangelical members of the Christian-Right were concerned. Most seemed to understand the political gambit being played and expressed confidence that what ever was said at the convention, the man in the White House carried their banner.

The few dissenters were mostly from old line fundamentalists, who share many beliefs with, but do not share the political drive and savvy of the evangelicals.

I perceive two areas in which the presidents' particular religious beliefs become issues of public concern:

One. The contemporary evangelical-right sees itself with a worldly mission of spreading their brand of Jesus belief through every means possible. Every committed believer is expected to spread their gospel through every means and office available to them.

In his time in office, George Bush has conspicuously rewarded his Christian-Right supporters via his so called "faith initiatives' in which millions of dollars of social service and education funds are injected directly into church groups.

I have written about some of the details of the successful White House effort to stifle any legitimate voice advocating comprehensive sexual education. ( Those posts can be found in the August Archives) Real sex education has been removed from American schools in favor of ineffective morality based Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage programs.

Bush has systematically opened the doors of government to 'faith groups' while freezing out every voice for science based sex education and every organization committed to AIDS and HIV reduction thru dissemination of safer sex information.

The CDC is no longer interested in prevention. Abstinence is the official fairy tale excuse for a colossal public health failure of purely ideological origin.

That ideology is found in the evangelical belief that America, whether it likes it or not, is being prepared for a day of judgment by a particularly sectarian and warlike version of Jesus. Jesus the avenging, fag hating, Arab hating, War God come to smite all but his chosen few. Checking the bumper stickers, making a list.

Two. Evangelicals of most persuasions believe that the end of the human world is at hand. Most are not counting the days or taking buy-outs on their pension plans but there is general consensus that many of the preconditions for the return of Christ are met. The most important precondition will be achieved when Israel reclaims its' Old Testament boundaries and rebuilds the temple of Solomon, in Old Jerusalem.

The Christian Zionists have a very strong lobby in Washington and access to the White house. The Christian Zionist ideology has tremendous sway within contemporary evangelical Christianity. Put as simply as possible, the Christian Zionists believe that the support and defense of Israel, regardless of all other interests or concerns, is a necessary part of fulfilling the conditions for the mother of all wars and the appearance of Christ on earth.

Christian Zionism believes that a US foreign policy built around the protection and support of Israel is required by God if a nation is to be judged righteous.

I want to know, and I think the American people have a right to know what pre-drawn religious schematic is guiding the president and his like minded advisors and decision makers. I have to wonder why this president surrounds himself exclusively with men of similar religious purpose, to the exclusion of all other voices even within the Republican party.

I want to know what role his personal religious convictions play in the irrational, counter-productive Iraq war and the draining demoralizing occupation that has turned Iraq into a fertile terrorist breeding ground.

I have not forgotten corporate forces, the desire to 'own' the oil, or the billions to be made in 'rebuilding' the country. That's Cheney's department and Mr. Cheney is a very busy and powerful vice president.

If the Christian-Right were not useful to the National Heritage Foundation and other neo-conservative corporate interests, their money and influence would simply dry up. Many would be working real jobs again or back to hawking 'prayer cloths' and begging for faith offerings on late night local radio in Bugtussle Alabama. Most would still vote for Bush.

Our president appears to work for two masters; corporate wealth and power on one hand and the evangelist shaped God that has appointed and led him to the presidency of the United States.

I want to know what makes this cut out of a man tick. This shady shaky character with the hidden past, his terrible reign as a 'Bush' governor, .and his plans and motivations that are never completely on the table.

The aggressive haphazard way he has handled the war, grossly over extending our seriously undersupplied troops, indicates that he and his advisors are operating with an ideological map that does not reflect the actual terrain. History would indicate a catastrophe in the making.

The president keeps telling everyone to trust him. Yet he does not trust himself enough to say right out why he is so dead certain that standing firm on this disaster course, in an ever worsening situation, will lead to ultimate victory in this war on terror. Or is it war on Iraq, or Syria, perhaps Iran is next?

God may have told George but George ain't telling anyone except his ever tightening circle of trusted, like minded advisors.

Who counts, in America?

2004-10-20T23:16:00.000-07:00

I started my last post with a quote from Daniel Webster. It is fitting that I start this with another short but informative quote from a well known twentieth century political figure:

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes, decide everything".
Joseph Stalin

This pragmatic bit of political reality was very evident in the United States a mere four years ago and should have taught us a badly needed lesson regarding American elections.
The lessons were not learned by anyone except, it would seem, the Republican party.

The Republicans certainly learned that they don't need to win elections to maintain power in America. The more extreme factions of the Republican party demonstrate nothing but contempt for democracy and the American people. Witness the unending attempts by our All American Republicans, to cripple the government, throughout the Clinton presidency. No matter the cost to Americans.

The worst Republicans are patriotic Americans only when they are in office. The rest of the time, they are too special to be constrained by democratic norms. After all, they are the real Americans and the rest of us are unwanted passengers on 'their' boat.

The widespread voting irregularities that threw the election in Florida last time out, have not been fixed. There was four years to do it in but it was not done and no one can make the Presidents brother or his Republican elections supervisor do something that might hurt the presidents chances. Something like fair unrestricted access to polls, even for blacks and possible Democrats.

Republican strategists have openly talked about suppressing the vote in Democratic strongholds, such as Detroit.

Michael Moore registers a hundred thousand voters in Michigan and the same Michigan Republican that wants to suppress votes, in Detroit, is trying to have Moore arrested to stop his registration campaign.

A so called 'private Voter Registration company' has systematically destroyed voters registrations from thousands of Democrats in three states. Those voters will show up to the polls only to find their right to vote has been stolen. Not by government incompetence but by thieves, working, it would appear, on behalf of the Republican election effort.

Electronic voting is only as secure and honest as the companies that will do the counting, on behalf of election officials. There is no paper trail for your vote. You can only have 'faith' that your vote will be counted, given that the Justice Department has recently admitted that it is not nearly ready for the expected flood of election fraud cases this election will generate. Who owns and controls the data collection companies hired to oversee a major part of the most important election in recent American history?

In that atmosphere, after the crippling of the electoral process in the last presidential race, I for one, do not trust electronic voting, as it is about to be used.

Everyone knows the president is a religious guy. Most politicians are but George admits to and has a well grounded reputation for bringing his religion into politics and government policy, in a big way.

Only recently are questions arising about the nature of the beliefs our President holds. Beliefs which, according to him, guide his policies, especially in regards to the Middle East.
The nature and specifics of those beliefs need to be understood by Americans.

George Bush is an adherent of a contemporary Christian cult that has recently superseded mainstream Christianity, in the United States. A cult that has reshaped God and Jesus into political icons. The Book of Revelations has become a foreign policy manual in the hands of cultists in important and powerfull government positions.

There are no non members of this cult represented in the Presidents inner circle of advisor's. Even Republicans who voice objective reality or mere questions are kept away from the President and the inner circle of decision making.

This president, who believes he was appointed to the Presidency by God himself, believes himself to have a role to play, in bringing about the Second Coming of Christ.

It is about time people began asking about exactly what this religious President believes and what role he has cast for himself in this dangerous role playing game that occupies the President and his inner circle.

One terrible question comes to mind: Does a man who believes he is on a mission for God, believe it is the will of his reshaped God, to disenfranchise and defraud non-believing voters?

This Presidents' intentions and motivations have never been completely on the table. The answers to some of the questions regarding the Presidents' religious beliefs, may explain why his intentions and motivations are never completely on view for all to see.

Sane, thinking people would never accept this mans' true intentions.

Registration fraud-

Michael Moore legal threats

Bush and his religious certainty