"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Outlandish Josh

Published on Sat, 2003-04-12 14:52

Daily Optimism/Pessimism

It seems like more and more people in my age bracket are talking about a vision for out generation, something that's authentically different and authentically ours. As I was drifting off to sleep last night I entertained a breif fantasy of starting a simple discussion group, pulling in people with different skills and backgrounds, and doing some salon-style meetings to just get all the thinking out in the open. The notion kind of excites me.

We need something to hang our hats on, dammit. In case you hadn't heard the latest war news -- a telling bit of irony -- one of the only buildings being protected from looters in Baghdad is the Ministry of oil. From this Knight Ridder report:

At the Ministry of Oil, Marines had set up a machine gun and barbed wire to prevent further pillaging. A tank sat behind a steel fence. A handwritten sign next to a machine gun nest said "Looters Lane."

"Why do the Americans go to the Oil Ministry and not the hospital, not the college?" asked Khader Alias, 45, a musician. "They must do something. Believe me, all Iraqi people are not like this."

The Ministry of Industry burned as looters ran off with furniture.

Nice to see we've got our priorities straight. Congradulations liberated people! It's almost enough to make me feel like grumpy bear in this comic by my old friend Eric Murray, escept it's a real spring day and I had encredible brunch at Enids. It's remarkable how good the early brunch vibe is at that place in contrast to the snide hipster one-upmanship that reigns throughout the night. Little bohemian families with little bohemian cherubs, mismatched serving-ware, flowers on every table, copious coffee, good music and lots of freindly faces. Strawberry and Brie cheese pancakes...

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Fri, 2003-04-11 11:53

Another View

Here's another view on the Iraqi's pull down the statue thing the other day. I have to say, if this is an accurate arial shot, then the propaganda machine is in full swing. I was watching some live satelite feed from Baghdad with my oatmeal this morning, and part of what they had was footage of teenage boys running around smashing just about everything. One of the kids had an RPG launcher and was using it to break windows. Good thing he had no ammo, I suppose.

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Thu, 2003-04-10 17:38

Best. Rant. Ever.

This gem popped up in the comments over on Daily Kos in a thread about the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelling an event commemerating the anneversary of Bull Dhuram because Susan Sarandon's statements "endanger the troops."

What rankles me is the non-stop, continuous nature of this thing. If it's not the Halliburton scandal, the AWOL scandal, "with us or against us", "crusade", "axis of evil", "WMD", cutting veterans benefits on the first day of the war, nominating crazy super-loon judges to important positions, defunding the 911 commission, providing virtually no terror defense funds to blue states, fake rioting to stop vote counting, rewarding the fake rioters with government jobs, trying to drill in protected lands, the fucking patriot act, getting caught lying about the existence of patriot act II, gitmo, 'disappearing' of US citizens, the craven disappearance of any sort of trustable American video media, the hiring of Coulter + Hannity + Savage, the continuous lies of Ari Fleischer, the ties between Bush and Enron, "the free market has to work" (to punish California), the fact that we control about 400 square feet of Afghanistan, Ahmed fucking Chalabi, any sentence ever uttered by Donald Rumsfeld, a rainbow of stupid colored alerts just in case we can't understand English words, the Department of Homeland Security, the continued inability to kill one fucking 6 foot 5 inch crazy man who lives in a cave, the continued inability to find a one eyed muslim cleric who likes to rant loudly, the deforestation of our natural forests in the guise of 'forest fire prevention' by loggers, the loosening in 'acceptable levels' of arsenic in our drinking water, the part ownership of voting machine makers by Republican party hacks, fucking Clear Channel whipping up fake rallies in order to (successfully) buy off the partisan FCC, fucking Scalia suggesting that homosexual teachers are a threat and ought to be illegal because they'll indoctrinate our children, Enron and the rest of the evil bastards getting off scot free because they're Cheney's best friends, Cheney getting US$30,000 A DAY from Halliburton as a golden parachute, massive tax cuts for the rich as a way of forcing Congress to cut programs like Head Start and school lunches, 'No Child Left Behind' except those children who don't get to go to fucking private kindergartens because their daddy doesn't have million-dollar stockbroker connections to the guy who heads CitiBank, the covering up of failed missile tests followed by an attempt to secretly rush through a bill so that we don't have to run the embarrassing tests any more and Star Wars can proceed, the attempt to remove all responsibility for declaring war from Congress and concentrate power in the presidency, the attempts to make the patriot act permanent, our continued violation of the letter and the spirit of the Geneva Convention, our flouting of all international law and the attempted destruction of the United Nations and NATO, the crack about "old Europe" that miraculously didn't get Rumsfeld fired, "Fuck Saddam, we're going to take him out" -- even as Bush 'searched for a peaceful way to resolve the situation', "Mr President, Rumsfeld just threatened Syria and Iran on national television" "Good.", the fucking Project for a New American Century -- a concept so crazy that even Pat Buchanan turned pale, "Freedom Fries", pouring out French wine in protest after buying it, it's just a fucking non stop list of shit which not just Democrats, not just Libertarians, but any human being on this planet who hasn't been totally indoctrinated must LEAP out of their FUCKING CHAIRS AND UPON READING, MUST JUST SCREAM OUT THE GODDAMN WINDOW, "WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS COUNTRY GOING AND WHY DID IT GET HERE? AND WHAT IN THE NAME OF ANYTHING THAT IS EVEN REMOTELY IMPORTANT CAN WE DO TO STOP THIS SHIT FROM EVER HAPPENING AGAIN? WHY ARE MY GODDAMN POLITICAL LEADERS PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO A BUNCH OF INVISIBLE SUPERMEN WHO LIVE IN OUTER SPACE? IF THEY HAVE TO DO THAT, CAN'T THEY FUCKING READ THE BOOK THE INVISIBLE SUPERMEN ARE SAID TO HAVE LEFT BEHIND, THE ONE ABOUT HELPING THE POOR, NOT BEING BRUTALLY VENAL, YOU KNOW, THAT BOOK? IT'S NOT ABOUT SUSAN SARANDON, IT'S ABOUT THE ENTIRE DISGUSTING MELTING BALL OF PSYCHOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE CONTRADICTORY NONSENSICAL BULLSHIT WHICH JABBERS FORTH FROM THE MOUTHS AND MINDS OF THE MILLION-HEADED BEAST THAT EATS OUR FUCKING CIVIC SOUL AND SHITS OUT A NOISOME CONCOCTION OF MONEY, FALLACIES, PROPAGANDA AND LIES, LIES, ENOUGH FUCKING LIES TO FILL THE COFFERS OF A THOUSAND ENRONS, MAKE A THOUSAND VICE PRESIDENTS INTO LORDLY OLIGARCHIC GREY SARCASTIC PRINCES, AND HURL ANY CONCEPT OF REASONABLE PUBLIC DISCOURSE INTO THE SEWERS OF A DOZEN MURDOCHS.



when are we going to fucking wake up

wake up

WAKE UP

--Willhelm

Sounds like something my friend Nick might summon forth.

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Thu, 2003-04-10 10:27

Ah, Shit... Here We Go

It's hard not to be happy for the people in Iraq they show us on TV and talk about in the news. They're psyched, pulling down statues of the dictator, smacking his face in murals with their shoes -- I've seen this every time, but the specific meaning has never been explained (ohh! here it is! found by total accident...) -- and really greeting American GIs as liberators. On the one hand, it's hard not to be pumped about all of this, but it does give me the Fear. Two reasons. The first -- small -- reason is that we didn't kill all the bad men with guns. Maybe they just decided to give up. Maybe they're waiting for the Marines to let down their guard. Hard to say at this point.

Here's the second reason to be afraid. Conservative writers are already writing pieces with titles like "Syria and Iran Must Get Their Turn." This scares the living crap out of me. Anyone who thinks America can handle more of the liquor of empire than any other nation in history had better think again. We may be the fattest fucks around, but that shit packs a much bigger punch than Cuervo. Let's hope Team Bush has the sense to rein in this animal quick. On the other hand, since back home the economy is still in the crapper, another jolly war might look pretty enticing to Dr. Rove. Watch for some rehetoric about Iran/Syria (probably Syria as they're the softer target) supporting terrorists and maybe (*gasp*) having WMD. Maybe if we don't find any significant WMD in Iraq, they'll float the story that they bad juice was moved to Syria. Oh, shucks! It isn't here: must be in Iran...

Yeah, we need to stop. If the freedom of Iraq is for real, then let's just lead by example, ok?

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Tue, 2003-04-08 20:14

Globalize yr Thinking

I'm somewhat obsessed with the future, how things are going to be, how the world works and so forth. A reader sent me an invite to this free conference on Globalization, which due to Best Coast travel plans (monkey 4th of July and OCF) I cannot attend. But I pass the link along so anyone with an interest can take a gander. I'm seriously thinking about submitting an essay though. I like writing essays (nerd!) and I might win a few bucks while I'm at it.

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Tue, 2003-04-08 16:25

Poll Numbers

Tom Tomorrow brings to light some distressing poll numbers. Our informed citizenry. This is the sort of thing that really frightens me. It honestly does feel like we are starting to slip into some sort of Orwellian nightmare, where facts are completely mutable, controlled by the state, and the Memory Hole gobbles up whatever is inconvienent to the current Plan. This is largely the result of confluence of interestest between the government and the media since 9-11, and it raises serious questions (for me anyway) about the essential health of our democracy.

I hope everyone can see that the spread of disinformation and bullshit is a bad thing. It leads inexorably to widestpread corruption and retards progress, as people who are concerned with being 'on message' must in some way sacrafice their concern for telling the truth, for being honest. Just as scientists who serve an agenda (rather than science) do not produce worthwhile results, politicians who serve and agenda (rather than the people) similarly fail to make things better. The line between ideological kowtowing and honest pursuit of justice is much fuzzier in social contructs like politics, but there is still a line.

And then there's this: the International Hummer Owners Group: I-HOG, no kidding.

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Mon, 2003-04-07 08:45

War-Planner Idiocy

In case anyone needed further proof that the clowns who planned this war are completely unqualified to manage a Denny's, here this from yesterday's Meet The Press:

MR. RUSSERT: But why is it that we had 600,000 troops for the Persian Gulf War to remove Saddam from Kuwait, when we only have 300,000 to take over all of Iraq?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: It's a long and complicated answer, but I think the simplest part of it is what I have just said. If we had waited to put 600,000 troops in place, we would have lost all elements of surprise.

Yes. I'm sure the whole world was surprised by the invasion. Especially the Iraqis. Shocked and Awed, I hear they were. Yes sir. No matter that no actual military man would believe this in a hundred years. I'm glad we've got civilian ideologues running this show, and I'm sure the Iraqi's are too. Congradulations, liberated people.

Also, I may be trapped in Westcheaster by the storm.

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Fri, 2003-04-04 16:10

Amazing War Editorial

Here is one of the most worth-reading pieces of opinion/global criticism I've yet read in these troubled times, clever invokations and all there is to be bitter about, yet still some causes for hope. Arundhati Roy of the Guardian tells it like it is (fixed link!)

Also, for the more rational of heart and head, here's a quite interesting analaysis of metaphors and war. I especially like the conclusion:

First, the anti-war movement, properly understood, is not just, or even primarily, a movement against the war. It is a movement against the overall direction that the Bush administration is moving in. Second, such a movement, to be effective, needs to say clearly what it is for, not just what it is against.

Third, it must have a clearly articulated moral vision, with values rather than mere interests determining its political direction.

Amen to that, brother. Like I've been saying...

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Fri, 2003-04-04 10:05

Chris Is In

If you havn't read back-to-iraq lately, it's time to catch up. Christopher has made it to Iraqi Kurdistan. The acccount of the border crossing is a harrowing read!

As mom sez in the comment, english.aljazeera.net is online, though it appears only the headlines are working at this time. This is good news for fair and balanced meta-coverage.

Interesting update on the articles not appearing on aljazeera.net: the content is there (look at the page source) but it's not being displayed because of the craptacular MS html coding. My professional view looking at the HTML source for those pages... it's an abomination, renderable in Explorer, but not in Mozilla, Navagator or Safari. Looks like I'm back to using IE for a while. Score one for the bad guys!

Read More

Tags: 
politics
Published on Tue, 2003-04-01 14:26

Great Vengence and Furious Anger

Apparently, a dead Marine was being paraded around in Southern Iraq. Nasty business, but not unexpected in a time of war. What's very interesting is this conversation thread on this military discussion board. People are understandably pissed:


I can honestly say... that I have never been so pissed off in my life. I am on the verge of sh1ting nails right about now. I can't even see straight right now, damn them all to hell.

And of course there's the obligatory bigotry:


This is what the muslim faith is all about as for me ALL muslims are the enemy! there are no good ones! DEATH To ISLAM!

And finally, the desire to pull the nuclear trigger:

This is an outrage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We should make Iraq glow in the fu****G Dark!!!!!!!!!!




WTFO!!!!!!!!

Tell bleeding heart, liberal, peace loving Americans to suck it the F**K UP!!!!

We are no longer using ROE's. PERIOD!! If it anit American or British it's dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I highlight this now not to mock anyones anger or outrage, but to point out how quickly war gets out of control. You can bet the actual Marines on the ground are at lest as angry -- if not more so -- as the people posting the comments. You can also bet that your average Iraqi has about the same reaction when we blow up his/her loved ones by accident. For every American who's typing "DEATH TO ISLAM" on the web, there's a corrisponding Iraqi (or Syrian, or Iranian, or Saudi, or Egyptian, or Turk, or...) who's thinking "DEATH TO AMERICA" and getting ready to make trouble. This is how things escalate. Angry Marines get trigger-happy, make mistakes, mistakes mint more guerilla fighters, guerilla fighters pick off and futher infuriate the Marines, who retaliate in kind, and the world stands aghast as we sink into the horrible cycle of quagmirish violence. Why are we doing this again? Stop the train, I want to get off.

So that's depressing. But here's something that'll chase anyone's blues away: the Donald Rumsfeld Soundbyte Archive. BBC radio has apparently been airing a "Donald Rumsfeld Soundbyte of the Week" for some time. I suggest starting with the "Donald Rumsfeld soundbite competition" link. It gives you 10 of the best.

Read More

Tags: 
politics

Pages