Once Again, the War on Terror

The entire War on Terror is founded upon an extremely dubious premise, namely, that you can kill an ideology with bombs and bullets. If anything, bombs and bullets help to keep an ideology alive, because they create martyrs for the cause.

The only weapon that has ever proved effective against an ideology is to show that the ideologue's interpretation of the world is fatally flawed. That requires constructive engagement with an ideology's proponents (where possible), but it also requires constructive engagement with the social and political conditions that make a given ideology attractive to potential recruits. If the pool of potential recruits evaporates, an ideology will eventually lose its influence and die a natural death.

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed what was then known as the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act, or Public Law 480. In 1961, the law got another name when President Kennedy expanded the program and renamed it "Food for Peace."

JFK set out the logic for the program saying, "Food is strength, and food is peace, and food is freedom, and food is a helping to people around the world whose good will and friendship we want."

Unfortunately, the sheer sanity of the Food for Peace program is no match for the greed of the corporate sponsors of the International Plutocratic War Party (IPWP). War is big business the world over and far more lucrative for weapons manufacturers than, say, wheat farming is for farmers or bread baking is for bakers. I fear that the wheat farmers and bread bakers do not have the ear of President-elect Obama. Worse, I fear that the weapons manufacturers and their allies in the Democan-Republicrat wing of the IPWP are already dug in deep among the President-elect's inner circle of advisors.

I voted for Barack, contributed to his campaign, and canvassed for him in Colorado. But I'll be damned if I'm going to spend the next four years waiting in vain for the promised "change" to come. I do realize, of course, that the Bush Administration is handing the Obama Administration an unmitigated disaster on almost every conceivable front (domestic and foreign). But surely the lesson of Mumbai is that more of the same on the terrorism front will simply yield...more of the same on the terrorism front.

The world deserves better than that, but we won't get it until we demand it.

CHANGE

While waiting for the "orderly transfer of power" in Washington, I think it appropriate that we do not sit on our hands. We can begin by committing ourselves to the proposition that the use of violence as a means of dispute resolution must come to an inglorious END. Consider joining me as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and/or the War Resisters League.

BHO cannot be expected to do it all. In fact, there is a lot of change that we need in this world but cannot expect the Obama administration to deliver.

WAR ISN'T WORKING.

JUST SAY "NO" TO WAR.

Take the IWNK (I Will Not Kill) pledge.

WAGE PEACE.

NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT

OBAMA HAS ACHIEVED AN ELECTORAL COLLEGE LANDSLIDE. CONGRATULATIONS, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING

and wondering if the U.S. is going to reclaim its place in the global imagination as the Land of Hope and Dreams or if it is going to continue its downward spiral as the Neo-Fascistic Land of Fear and Greed. I was out last night canvassing for Obama in Colorado and can only say: Let us pray....

The Real McCain

The war hero has something to hide.

McCain Promises U.S. Will "Win" In Iraq

I sure wish someone would remind the senescent Mr. McCain that, when it comes to winning wars, his track record leaves much to be desired.

McCain spent much of the one war that he participated in, the Viet Nam war, in the custody of the enemy. And, last time I checked, he didn't lead the U.S. to victory in Viet Nam. Indeed, no one did.

Whenever John McCain's war record is mentioned, or whenever McCain vows that he knows "how to win in Iraq," everyone genuflects. Nobody stops to think.

JOHN McCAIN DID NOT KNOW HOW TO WIN THE VIET NAM WAR; HE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO "WIN" THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS.

The fact of the matter is that no one who talks about "victory" in Iraq or Afghanistan ever articulates precisely what would count as a victory in these countries. Instead, they avoid interrogation on the matter by relying upon the warm feeling that Americans get in their pants whenever the words "win" and "war" are used in the same sentence.

Someone should have the guts to call McCain's "war hero" bluff; but no one ever does.

Titanic Corruption, Titanic Consequences

I can't help thinking about that scene from the film Titanic—right at the moment that the ship shudders as it grazes the iceberg and the people standing on deck pause and then pick up little slivers of ice to put in their drinks, not comprehending that, down below, the hull is torn and their fates are sealed. Has the crime syndicate of Bush-Cheney, Inc. booby-trapped our last best chance to break free from the consequences of the last eight years of orgiastic corruption?

I am baffled by the psychological state of those who would vote Republicans into the White House for another 4 years. Are they so busy performing self-colonoscopies that they are incapable of appreciating the present state of the nation? Or are they simply, as Richard Trumka has bravely pointed out, garden variety racists? Whatever the explanation, I find them analogous to those passengers on the Titanic who giggled as they were showered by splinters of ice on deck, and who blithely added the slivers to their drinks and returned to the ballroom.

Looks to me like we've got a date with Davey Jones.

Richard B. Cheney, MIA

As Sarah Pander would say, "Here's a shout out to all you people who voted for Bush-Cheney. Twice."

Where's your boy Dickie these days?

Remember how he was supposed to be the adult in the room? Remember how he was supposed to be the guy you could depend on to steer Brand-Name Bush in the right direction? You all said, "Look, we know monkey-boy can't think his way out of a paper bag. For Chrissakes, he can't even chew a pretzel and watch football at the same time. But don't you worry: when there's a crisis, Dick Cheney will be there to make the right decisions." Remember how you all said that? Hello? Remember?

OK, so, now that our economy is sliding off the cliff, and taking the rest of the world with it, where's the Dickster?

Having successfully spent the last eight years cashing in on his "public service" career to the tune of a multi-million dollar personal estate, while small fry homeowners are struggling to meet their mortgage payments, Dick Cheney has slunk back into the inky shadows.

Why aren't people howling for Cheney's head on a platter? He's done more damage to this country than Saddam Hussein ever did or ever could have dreamed of doing. Come to think of it, he's done more damage to Iraq than Saddam Hussein ever did or ever could have dreamed of doing.

Who in this nation's law enforcement establishment will stand tall and issue arrest warrants for George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney?

McShame's Shameless Pander

Just when you thought the Republican Party would look at the last 8 years and find within itself the decency of contrition and try to steer a fresh course for this country and the world, they unveil the so-called "sarahcuda". She now blames the "mainstream media" for making her look like an idiot. I never thought Katie Couric did anything besides softball journalism, and my opinion of her hasn't changed. I do not doubt that the McShame campaign agreed to an interview with Couric for that very reason. Sarah Pander came out of her interview with Couric looking like an idiot because she IS an idiot. And as she continues to attempt to cover the tracks she left in that interview, she reveals herself to be a disingenuous idiot.

If, in November, the American people don't send these creeps packing back to Alaska and Arizona, god help us all.

In Her Own Words

In her debate with Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Sarah Pander offered these observations on the Office of Vice-President and the Constitutional provisions governing that office:

"Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are...Our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president's agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we'll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation."

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Some Call It Treason

Last night, Vice-Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin survived her one and only scheduled debate with Sen. Joe Biden, her Democratic rival. In so doing, she put on full display her formidable repertoire of statesperson-like talents: she can manage to be cutsie to the point of cloying ("Gosh Darn it America sure is great!") while spouting talking-points and delivering carefully coached one-liners. Of course, anyone who watched Palin's speech at the Republican convention knew what she is capable of. What would have been nice to see was Palin speaking off-the-cuff in response to Biden's assertions. This is probably something that she is incapable of doing (one suspects that, behind the lipstick and eyeshadow, she is decidedly vacuous) and, no doubt, she was coached to avoid any sort of engagement in the debate that might lead her astray into that treacherous territory known as "independent thought." [b/t/w, repeating the mantra, "John McCain and I are mavericks" is NOT equivalent to independent thinking; indeed, is not even evidence that one is in fact a maverick].

The most telling part of last night's debate was watching the Alaska Governor resist every attempt on the part of moderator Gwen Ifill to force her to think on her feet. Palin would say, "Well, the answer to that is [yes/no, fill-in-the-blank], but I want to get back to talkingpointtalkingpointtalkingpointtalkingpoint..."

Also, her claim to the effect that our "Founding Fathers in their infinite wisdom" built in a great deal of flexibility in the role of Vice-President makes one wonder if she has ever actually bothered to read the US Constitution or if she has simply been content to genuflect before it.

Wow. I never thought I'd miss Hillary Clinton.

In my view, the attempt to install this bimbo in high office is tantamount to treason.

A Message From Michael Moore

The Rich Are Staging A

Coup This Morning...

A Message From Michael Moore

9-29-8

Friends,

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country

is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million

hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half

trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for

the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the

tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and

his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S.

Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the

silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are

up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and

keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first

four paragraphs of the lead story

(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22lobby.html ) in last Monday's

New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the

financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments

covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets

that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role

that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of

financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are

going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm

to be hired (and paid) (

<http://tinyurl.com/4rcd98>http://tinyurl.com/4rcd98 ) "consult" in the

bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even

Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is

needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head

of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he

explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession!

The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout

bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of

the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill

will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you

health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do

with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by

the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home

mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear

the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were

given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The

number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/business/02insure.html )

Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this

mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has

been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top

shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their

yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of

America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for

once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a

day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all

another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are

staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping

Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to

stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's

what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama ( http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/contact2

) . Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up

Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the

smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take.

Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage

we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a

move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to

be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons

of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate (

http://truemajority.wiredforchange.com/event/distributedEventCalendar.jsp )

in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking

place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (Go here to find

their phone numbers: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ ). Tell them what

you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you

reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your

actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one

set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set

of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on

a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,

Michael Moore

MMFlint@aol.com

MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know

you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden

parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will

make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top

managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under

this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for

the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to

receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going

to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO

guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems

are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads

and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start

blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class

constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But

this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have

witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over

to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign

country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug

on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the

crime of the century. You have to call them now (

<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/>http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ )and

say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get

anything good done when President Obama is in the White Ho

use. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL

CONGRESS NOW.

The Politics of Cowardice

Post-9/11, the Republican Party refashioned itself as the Party of Fear-Mongering. And for 7 long years, manufacturing fear of the Muslim Other has been its stock-in-trade.

But now, it looks as if fear--indeed panic--has started to overtake the GOP. The mortgage-banking crisis serves as a pre-text to use the Federal government to funnel a trillion dollars into the insatiable pockets of the Republican Party's Wall Street base. This amount is on top of the billions of dollars being poured each month into the Military Industrial Complex's Iraq and Afghanistan fiascos. Wall Street, K Street, and the Pentagon are the Bermuda Triangle upon which the Republican Party stands.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Now, even war-hero John McSame appears to be shaking in his boots. He wants to avoid debating Barack Obama and he sure as hell wants to find a pre-text to postpone indefinitely D-Day (Debate Day) for Sarah Palin. What an ill-considered act of pandering she has turned out to be.

It's down to Diebold, the Electoral College, and more Supreme Court shenanigans.

The real question is: have the American people finally had enough of being soaked by the Plutocratic War Party's fear-mongering Robber Barons, or will they dutifully line up once again, bent-over bare-assed, and chime in unison: "Thank you, Sir! May I have another?"

Like Tacitus Before Me...

I fear that Obama will win the popular vote and lose in the electoral college, like Gore and Kerry before him. The Republicans have the system down to a science.

In addition, the US remains a staunchly racist country. So people who are voting for McSame give totally irrational reasons for wanting to do so, i.e., Obama is a Muslim, Obama is a Socialist, Obama will take away their guns. No amount of evidence to the contrary will disabuse them of these notions, so they are clinging to them not because they truly believe them, but because saying “I won’t vote for a black man” would make them appear to be ignorant. Never mind the fact that the reasons that they profess make them look equally ignorant.

I don’t know how I could do another 4-8 years of Republican mis-rule. Sarah Palin makes W and Dan Quayle look like rocket scientists. She and McSame are refusing to talk to the media except in very brief and highly scripted sessions. This country is poised to be a “kinder, gentler” Third Reich, but a Third Reich nonetheless.

Like Tacitus before me, I long for the bad old days of the republic…

When You Hear "Palin"...

Think "Quayle."

When asked if she is ready to be "one heart-beat away" from the most powerful office in the world, Sarah Palin's reply runs something like, "I know that I am ready because I have that readiness that makes me ready."

Well, alright then. I guess that settles that.

As it was with Poppy Bush, so it is with Poppy McSame: it is reckless to choose clueless.

One Trillion Dollars for Wall Street

NPR reported today that, with the Federal government's seizure of AIG, the Bush Administration has now poured close to ONE TRILLION DOLLARS into Wall Street bailouts.

One trillion dollars for Wall Street, not one penny for health care!

Is this a great country or what? It's touching, really, to see how flexible those Bush Administration free marketeers can be when their cronies run into trouble. Just like with the savings and loan debacle under Poppy Bush. Like father like son.

I sure hope the Republican miracle continues for at least another four years under old man McSame. I'm a little worried though. I mean, the man's prostate has to be the size of a grapefruit by now. Thank God he had the foresight to choose as his running mate the moral and intellectual equivalent of Dan Quayle. OK, so she'd never heard of the Bush doctrine before her recent interview with Charlie Gibson. She's been busy these last six years! I mean, she's got herself a whole slew of kids and that big state of Alaska to look after--and she can look right across the Bering Strait and see the Commies lying in wait, hoping we'll blink! Ok, so maybe news travels slowly in the great white north...

ATTENTION! FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS! THIS ELECTION DAY, SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE AMERICANS ARE NOTHING IF NOT CONSISTENT! VOTE AGAINST YOUR OWN ECONOMIC SELF INTEREST AS YOU HAVE DONE ELECTION CYCLE AFTER ELECTION CYCLE! VOTE FOR THE 10% MAVERICK, JOHN MCSAME!

The "Apparent Suicide" of Dr. Bruce Ivans

After the Hatfill debacle, the Justice Department needed a patsy who couldn't fight back. They found one in Dr. Bruce Ivans, whose "apparent suicide" by prescription strength Tylenol allows the government to avoid the potential pitfalls of a criminal trial. Moreover, the case may now be declared closed and the files sealed. End of story.

DON'T YOU BELIEVE IT, DEAR READER.

Sound analysis by the WSWS.

DOJ = OJ

The Department of Justice is working to "solve" the 2001 anthrax attacks like O.J. Simpson is working to find the "true killer" of Nicole Brown Simpson.

Another Take on the 2001 Anthrax Attacks

The good people at the WSWS suggest that Hatfill is not just a patsy, but was justifiably a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax attacks. It was his right-wing connections that resulted in his recent Justice Department "settlement" (read: "reward"). The WSWS may well be on to something here.

Justice Dept. Negotiates Huge Settlement in Anthrax Patsy Case

From the NYT:

The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Stephen J. Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher intensively investigated as a "person of interest" in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.

The settlement called new attention to the fact that nearly seven years after the toxic letters were mailed, killing five people and sickening at least 17 others, the case has not been solved.

A Justice Department spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said in a statement that the government admitted no liability but decided settlement was "in the best interest of the United States."

"The government remains resolute in its investigation into the anthrax attacks, which killed five individuals and sickened others after lethal anthrax powder was sent through the United States mail," Mr. Roehrkasse said.

An F.B.I. spokesman, Jason Pack, said the anthrax investigation "is one of the largest and most complex investigations ever conducted by law enforcement" and is currently being pursued by more than 20 agents of the F.B.I. and the Postal Inspection Service.

"Solving this case is a top priority for the F.B.I. and for the family members of the victims who were killed," Mr. Pack said.

Uh-huh.

I would respectfully suggest that the size and complexity of the case could be made significantly more manageable if the FBI started looking for the likely culprit, rather than a patsy. The likely culprit is one (or more) members of a relatively small and easily identifiable population of researchers in the United States who have ready access to the requisite materials and the right training and experience to handle them.

He/she/they would no doubt have had extensive government background checks. The government should know where to find them in order to ask them to account for their whereabouts on the dates in question.

How hard could this be if the FBI really WANTED to find the person(s) responsible and not just a patsy?

ANTHRAX

Anybody still recall the anthrax attacks that took place in this country during the panic that ensued the week of 9/11/01? Remember those? Remember how the F.B.I. thought it had a fall guy in Steven J. Hatfill until it became obvious that Hatfill had no intention of taking the fall--and so they backed off in the glare of publicity and legal actions and appear to have buried the case? The Mazeppist doesn't know much about this sort of thing but, as a reasonably educated citizen of this former republic, I do have a few questions about that whole forgotten episode.

For example, just how many individuals are there in the United States (or the world for that matter) who have access to weapons grade anthrax and the requisite knowledge to produce and deliver it--without harming themselves in the process? I would have to imagine that we are talking about a discrete, finite, and easily identifiable community of individuals. So how is it possible that the case has gone unsolved? I have not joined the conspiracy theorists who contend that 9/11 was plotted by the Bush Administration, but I do wonder if the anthrax case might not hold the explosive key to government complicity in the 9/11 attacks at a very high level--and this is why the case quickly disappeared from public view...

I happened to be in the District of Columbia two Thanksgivings ago and found myself strolling by the FBI building. I had a notion to walk up the steps and exercise my right as a citizen to know the status of the case. But I decided that I didn't really want to wind up in the gitmo-gulag so I passed on by...Nothing like assigning the fox to watch the hen-house.

Yeah, we're the most free people on this earth; just ask our jailers...

I was reminded this morning that Monkey-Boy Bush, in his famous "Axis of Evil" address, accused Iraq of manufacturing weapons-grade anthrax. This leads me to a hypothesis: in 2002, the White House (mistakenly) believed that the national press would hold the federal government accountable for the investigation of the 9/11 anthrax attacks. Little did they suspect that the media in this country is so supine that they would allow this crime to drop off the radar--despite the fact that several "liberal" journalists were the targets of the attacks! So, in an attempt to create a false trail, the White House decided to blame it on Saddam. As it turns out, that particular falsehood wasn't necessary now that what passes for "investigative journalism" in the 21st century U.S. consists largely of journalists interviewing other journalists about their latest briefing by State Department officials.

White House anxiety over a REAL anthrax investigation (i.e., one NOT conducted by the Executive Branch) suggests inside knowledge of, and/or complicity in, the 9/11 anthrax attacks.

The place to begin asking questions would not be Monkey-Boy; one can be reasonably assured that he wouldn't know the difference between shit and shinola. The place to begin asking questions would be the Vice President's office--not that anyone there would do anything but stonewall. But if you look long and hard enough, someone with a conscience might just turn up. Or turn up dead.

After 8 Miserable Years of Monkey-Boy Bush...

I am almost allowing myself to hope that we might be entering a new era...

the era of Barack 'n Roll!

If Obama gets elected, he must do what Bill Clinton was always too bought to do...conduct a ruthless purge of Washington policy-wonk bureaucrats. No more neo-fascist sleeper cells of Wolfowitz's and Feith's. These people need to be finished in government. Let the pink slips rain down!

And the revolving door of government-big business- government that has made multi-millionaires of the Bush and Cheney families and countless others...NO MORE!

If I weren't a pacifist, I would urge show-trials and firing squads for the lot of them. We cannot do that; but we must make certain that they are driven back under the rocks from whence they came and NEVER, never EVER heard from again by decent folk.

And then we'll deal with Dobson and his Christo-Fascist ilk...

Let the spirit of the 1960's return! Let America be a place of possibility, of courage, of integrity. And let the Plutocratic War Party be disgraced from this time forward...

OK, OK, OK--one step at a time, one step at a time....

And Now a Word From Lao-Tzu

I make no secret of the fact that I detest George W. Bush and his criminal co-conspirators within and without the federal government. I detest their deep dishonesty towards the people that they claim to represent; their ignorance of the worlds of those whom they profess to care about and upon whom they have visited death, destruction, chaos; their self-righteous and supremacist version of Christianity--Christo-fascism, I call it. I never tire of ridiculing them. But today I think that I will offer them some wisdom...Not because I harbor the illusion that wisdom is something that Bush-Cheney, Inc. desires or has any use for...I offer it just because...

From the Tao te Ching:

When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting the Tao,
thus never needing to be defensive.

A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he himself casts.

If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn't meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.

--trans. by Stephen Mitchell

Still Waitin' To Hear From Smilin' Jay...

Yes, indeed. I'm still waiting for a response from the Senator from West Virginia as to whether the Senate Intelligence Committee (no doubt an oxymoron) intends to pursue the criminals who sold the Iraq war to the American people under false pretenses--as that Committee's published findings reveal.

The good Senator is a member of the Democratic Party wing of the PWP (Plutocratic War Party--fondly referred to by some simply as "the junta") that runs the federal government of the United States. The PWP is, however, an international organization--having "gone global" some time back.

Come to think of it, I'm also curious if anyone in the federal government is pursuing the anthrax attacks that took place in this country during the panic that ensued the week of 9/11/01. Remember those? Remember how the F.B.I. thought it had a fall guy in Steven J. Hatfill until it became obvious that Hatfill had no intention of taking the fall--and so they backed off in the glare of publicity and legal actions and appear to have buried the case? The Mazeppist doesn't know much about this sort of thing but, as a reasonably educated citizen of this former republic, I do have a few questions about that whole forgotten episode. For example, just how many individuals are there in the United States (or the world for that matter) who have access to weapons grade anthrax and the requisite knowledge to produce and deliver it--without harming themselves in the process? I would have to imagine that we are talking about a discrete, finite, and easily identifiable community of individuals. So how is it possible that the case has gone unsolved? I have not joined the conspiracy theorists who contend that 9/11 was plotted by the Bush Administration, but I do wonder if the anthrax case might not hold the explosive key to government complicity in the 9/11 attacks at a very high level--and this is why the case quickly disappeared from public view...

And by the same token, I don't expect to be hearing from Smilin' Jay about the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the circumstances surrounding the illegal and immoral U. S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The PWP protects its own. The republic of the people, by the people, for the people is no more.

Barack, Bobbie, and Jay

The first time I saw Barack Obama referred to as the "Black Bobbie Kennedy," I said to myself, "Self, let's not get caught up in wishful thinking." And I still say it. But I remain hopeful; with gasoline at $4.00/gallon, hope is just about all I can afford.

The PWP (Plutocratic War Party) that runs this country--that's right, the junta--is powerful and prone to violence. I do not trust Republicans or Democrats. I certainly do not trust the Clintons or Scarface McPain. But I hope against hope that the electorate has had more than enough of Bush-Cheney, Inc. and its criminality.

Speaking of which, I sent a message today to Sen. Rockefeller, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and asked him, now that his committee has made "official" what many of us have known for the last 5 years--that this country was taken into war with Iraq for reasons personal to the President of the United States and members of his inner circle--I asked him, "Jay, what will be the federal government's next move?" More reports or arrest and prosecution of the war criminals Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell (at the very least)? I anxiously await his reply...

In the immortal words of Bob Dylan: "Don't it make you feel ashamed/To live in a land/Where justice is a game?"

Farooq Hussaini

My friend Farooq Hussaini just passed away Sunday. He was a mere 50 years of age. Farooq suffered from kidney disease. And after two transplants failed, he contented himself with living with dialysis. And yet: I never saw him once depressed; never heard a word of self-pity pass his lips. Instead he was always positive, always excited about what each day had in store, always warm, always loving, full of good humor. In many ways he was an enigma to me. It was no front. He was genuinely filled with gratitude for every second of his life. And he loved me. If he knew how often I've cried since hearing the news, he would wag his finger at me. "Where's your faith, my friend?" Where indeed?

Please watch this, for Farooq:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9_8vwx2w8

And a Diamond Mercedes for Prince Walid...

This diamond encrusted Mercedes is allegedly the property of Saudi Prince Walid. The price tag: $ 4.8 million (U.S.).

As I write, George W. Bush is in Saudia Arabia at this very moment concluding a security agreement with the Saudi royal family: assuring them that, as far as the U. S. government (i.e., the plutocrats who own it) is concerned, their lives and lifestyle will be protected with American blood and treasure. Prince Walid is just a spoiled child. Three generations of the Bush family have used the powers of the legislative and executive branches of our "democracy" to act as the Saudi royal family's enablers. The Bush family (and their co-conspirators) have been richly rewarded for this "public service." The price of a gallon of gasoline in this country has more to do with the nest-feathering of oil men in U. S. corporations and government than with this particular bauble--as egregious as it is. At least the Saudis have the good taste not to pretend that they are anything but a fiefdom. We in the U.S., on the other hand, live under the delusion that we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The joke's on us.

The U. S. Prison System is an Integral Part of the Military Industrial Complex

Read This!

The connections between prison and the military are forged by means of the culture of violence that we produce and perpetuate and the fact that prison and the military are the institutions designed to catch those who fall to the lowest rungs of our race-based winner-take-all economic system.

Get Up, Stand Up...

Pentagon institute calls Iraq war 'a major debacle' with outcome 'in doubt'

By Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott

Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.

The report released by the National Defense University raises fresh doubts about President Bush's projections of a U.S. victory in Iraq just a week after Bush announced that he was suspending U.S. troop reductions.

The report carries considerable weight because it was written by Joseph Collins, a former senior Pentagon official, and was based in part on interviews with other former senior defense and intelligence officials who played roles in prewar preparations.

It was published by the university's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center.

"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," says the report's opening line.

At the time the report was written last fall, more than 4,000 U.S. and foreign troops, more than 7,500 Iraqi security forces and as many as 82,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed and tens of thousands of others wounded, while the cost of the war since March 2003 was estimated at $450 billion.

"No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel," wrote Collins, who was involved in planning post-invasion humanitarian operations.

The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts in the war on terror" and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

"Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East," the report continued.

The addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to Iraq last year to halt the country's descent into all-out civil war has improved security, but not enough to ensure that the country emerges as a stable democracy at peace with its neighbors, the report said.

"Despite impressive progress in security, the outcome of the war is in doubt," said the report. "Strong majorities of both Iraqis and Americans favor some sort of U.S. withdrawal. Intelligence analysts, however, remind us that the only thing worse than an Iraq with an American army may be an Iraq after a rapid withdrawal of that army."

"For many analysts (including this one), Iraq remains a 'must win,' but for many others, despite obvious progress under General David Petraeus and the surge, it now looks like a 'can't win.'"

The report lays much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. It says that in November 2001, before the war in Afghanistan was over, President Bush asked Rumsfeld "to begin planning in secret for potential military operations against Iraq."

Rumsfeld, who was closely allied with Vice President Dick Cheney, bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report says, and became "the direct supervisor of the combatant commanders."

" ... the aggressive, hands-on Rumsfeld," it continues, "cajoled and pushed his way toward a small force and a lightning fast operation." Later, he shut down the military's computerized deployment system, "questioning, delaying or deleting units on the numerous deployment orders that came across his desk."

In part because "long, costly, manpower-intensive post-combat operations were anathema to Rumsfeld," the report says, the U.S. was unprepared to fight what Collins calls "War B," the battle against insurgents and sectarian violence that began in mid-2003, shortly after "War A," the fight against Saddam Hussein's forces, ended.

Compounding the problem was a series of faulty assumptions made by Bush's top aides, among them an expectation fed by Iraqi exiles that Iraqis would be grateful to America for liberating them from Saddam's dictatorship. The administration also expected that "Iraq without Saddam could manage and fund its own reconstruction."

The report also singles out the Bush administration's national security apparatus and implicitly President Bush and both of his national security advisers, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley, saying that "senior national security officials exhibited in many instances an imperious attitude, exerting power and pressure where diplomacy and bargaining might have had a better effect."

Collins ends his report by quoting Winston Churchill, who said: "Let us learn our lessons. Never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. ... Always remember, however sure you are that you can easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think that he also had a chance."

A Livable Future

If the people of the world are going to enjoy a livable future (i.e., one in which peace and justice and environmental security are embraced as not only articulated goals but fundamental and achievable human rights), we must first rid ourselves of certain delusions.

First and foremost, we must recognize that the most formidable obstacle to a livable future is the Plutocratic War Party of the United States and its allies and proxies around the world.

The PWP is composed of BOTH Republicans and Democrats. Consequently, politics as usual will get us nowhere. The American political process is part of the problem where the PWP is concerned, not part of the solution.

Why? Because the U.S. electorate only represents a small portion of the world's population; we cannot continue to vote away the rights of others around the world while pretending that we are only attending to domestic business. The PWP may be headquartered in Washington and on Wall Street, but it is a global power elite.

Besides, the American political process, the so-called "two-party" system, obscures the reality of power distribution in the United States and, indeed, in the world. In other words, it is the PWP vs. the people of the world. We must learn to think outside the "box" (the trap, really) that is the "two-party" system.

Once we recognize that the true obstacle to peace, justice, and environmental security for all the world's people is the PWP, we must emphasize the fact that it is a WAR party. Warfare is NOT peacefare. Nor does it make the world a more just place. Nor does it protect the environment. Therefore, those who recognize the PWP as the true enemy of a livable future MUST embrace radical pacifism. By radical pacifism I mean a commitment to non-violent non-cooperation with all that the PWP promotes and stands for. In the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, the people of the world must learn to "Just Say No" to militarism of any kind.

We must not shrug and ask, "But what can I do?" We must be resolutely defiant and determined. We must begin by being vocal advocates of non-violent non-cooperation. We must complain. We must argue. We must protest. We must ridicule. We must pledge ourselves to the proposition that friends don't let friends join the military, and we must remember these words of Mahatma Gandhi: "It is contrary to our manhood if we obey laws repugnant to our conscience."

The Plutocratic War Party

Following the polls, the PWP has decided that it would be prudent to concede a slight (but tightly managed) shift to the left: we will see McCain "vs" Mrs. Clinton in the general election. It's like flipping a coin with two identical faces: Heads the PWP wins, tails the people lose.

Hey! Nice T-Shirt!

WHO SAID THE TRUTH
COULDN'T BE STYLISH?

Now I Remember...

... Why I've never liked either Ohio or Texas...

One thing that I have noticed about this year's Democratic primaries is that Shrillery does best in those states where the old line Dem Party machine is the most functional. Illinois is the exception that proves the rule because Illinois is Obama's home state.

If Pennsylvania's Dem Party Machine is what it was when I lived there (I left in 2001), then I think we can expect to see a double-digit victory for HRC (Her Royal Churlishness) there--as in Ohio.

The thing we must never lose sight of is the fact that the ruling party in this country is the PWP (Plutocratic War Party). The PWP adopts a "liberal" persona (the so-called "Democratic Party") to satisfy one portion of the electorate and a "conservative" persona (the so-called "Republican Party") to satisfy another portion of the electorate. Shrillery is deep into the PWP in many ways. I have not been able to satisfy myself as to where, exactly, Barack stands with regards to this group. I only know that any person of public stature that fails to adequately accomodate the agenda of the PWP receives a state funeral.

From Amnesty International

Gaza must not be cut off from the world

25 January 2008

The Egyptian authorities began efforts to reclose the country's border with Gaza on Friday morning. Their actions come three days after Palestinian militants blew open breaches in the Gaza-Egypt border wall, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to cross into Egypt to buy food, medicines, fuel and other basic necessities.

The Gaza-Egypt border had been sealed since June 2007, virtually imprisoning the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, most of them in abject poverty as a result of the stringent Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza.

Amnesty International said that Egypt has the right to secure its border, but a return to the situation whereby the Egypt-Gaza border, Gazans’ only means of passage to the outside world, is completely sealed, as it has been for the past seven months, is not acceptable.

"Whatever agreement about the management of the border is reached between the governments of Israel and Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza, it must respect fully the fundamental rights of the population of Gaza," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme. "Notably their right not to be subjected to collective punishment, including arbitrary restrictions on movement and their rights to health, an adequate standard of living and freedom of movement."

Amnesty International also called for patients in need of urgent medical treatment that is not available in Gaza to be allowed prompt passage out of Gaza — not left to die for lack of medical care. Some 40 patients died in recent months after having been refused passage out of Gaza by the Israeli authorities.

"Gazans should be allowed to leave by normal means, not have to rely on such extraordinary measures as the breach in the border wall to provide their only possible means of exit. They should not have to risk being denied the possibility to return home if the border is sealed again while they are abroad receiving desperately needed hospital treatment," added Malcolm Smart.

The wall was breached following the Israeli authorities' tightening last week of their already stifling blockade on Gaza, preventing the passage of even essential goods, such as fuel and humanitarian assistance. Medical supplies quickly started to run out and Gaza's only electricity generating plant was forced to close down on 20 January for lack of fuel.

As electricity supplies were cut, hospitals in Gaza were only able to keep functioning using back-up generators and had to cut most services. Health workers faced problems getting to work as petrol shortages curtailed transport.

Following the electricity plant's closure, the Israeli authorities allowed some fuel supplies into Gaza on Tuesday (22 January), enabling the power plant to resume operation, though at reduced capacity. However, the situation remains dire and power cuts are expected to continue.

Hospitals remain in a state of emergency due to the lack of and uncertainty about fuel supplies and their heavy reliance on back up generators during power cuts and shortages has increased generator breakdowns at a time when the blockade makes it difficult or impossible to get spare parts.

At the Gaza European Hospital and at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), all treatment has to be suspended except for emergencies and cases in Intensive Care Units (ICU) whenever there are electricity cuts.

"Hospitals need a constant power supply and adequate back-up contingency provisions — not a drip supply and the uncertainty that even that may be cut off at whim in retaliation for developments in unrelated sectors," said Malcolm Smart.

Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular illnesses. Amnesty International continues to urge the Israeli authorities to expedite access to medical care for patients in need of urgent medical treatment not available in Gaza.

The organization is also calling on the Palestinian Authority and the governments of Egypt and Jordan to help facilitate access to healthcare for these patients, and on the Egyptian authorities to ensure that the security forces deployed at the border do not use excessive force against the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip who pass or attempt to pass through the border.