Across the Aisle

We need to take a lesson from our Republocrat brothers and sisters. They have learned how to organize themselves from the top down and the ground up. They know how to drive a wedge between comrades, and leave faction where solidarity once was.

We need to cause factions within the Two-Headed-Beast-Party. The Republican Party is right now without leadership. They are a ship adrift, with no real vision of who they are and what they represent. They are viciously fighting over whether or not Rush Limbaugh is the Leader of the Party and the vision; they are desperately grabbing for women and people of color they can haul up to vindicate their assholery. Across the spectrum of elected Republicans and talking heads, there is no cohesion and no central loyalty.

The Democrats are likewise in a precarious position. They swept through the general elections in the autumn-with the legacy of their trillion dollar bail out for Wall Street. They now have a "Recovery Plan" that, like all else they do, will be scorned, manipulated and and rendered dangerous by Republican shenanigans. The bail out was, after Republican maneuvering, laden wit porkola...much like the Recovery Act. Even though they now dominate Congress and the Executive Branch, they are quite aware of their limitations, their lack of imagination and their fear of losing power to the Republicans in 2010. They took the Congress in '06-and instead of acting on their pledges, they suspended the Constitution and began campaigning for the '08 general election. Well-the campaign never stops-and Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, unemployment-they really stand a chance of continuing to be campaign rallying points.

These two parties play ball with our lives needlessly. The power struggles they engage in, not only with each other, but with the People and with all other Parties. The way that they attacked Ralph Nader, a man who has done more for this country than any other American, was accepted on the grounds of Ralph Nader being of the Green Party-and a nut. That is their game with us, those of us who will not accept their theft of our country. If you dare stand up and speak truth, even if you have been praised and lauded for it for forty years (like Mr Nader), if you stand up and speak the same truth while running for office, you are a fool, you are the other-not to be trusted. How can anyone who sees as clearly and with such dedication to equality before the law as a Nader or a McKinney, how can they be deemed crazy. The crazy are those who continually vote for these liars and thieves. The only way you will get a parties ear is by not voting for them-by proving you will vote for those who have the cajones to stand up and speak for you.

While the Demopublicans who have run for office for the last eight years have attacked anyone outside their fold, their hypocrisy has been excused and condoned by the press and the public. Obama or Bush may collaborate with whatever corporation or organization to bar the other candidates for the Presidency from debating. They may surveil these people; intimidate and threaten; smear, slander and degrade. Their mockery for anyone who seeks to attain that office without leaving behind the People is contempt for the People themselves. They preach, they intone their Gods, yet they turn and offer nothing of the love of their Lord to their worthy opponents.

Electoral politics are not the be all, end all...but they play a big role. If we want a society where we are truly free and equal, then we must drive wedges between these Republocrats. We must find the Progressives within, and strengthen them-show them how real their dreams can be. And the minority of assholes bent on owning all of us-well they will have no choice but to form a hideous coalition, and finally bed down for the long haul. That is how we seize power-that is how we take back Congress and the Legislatures; we divide and conquer. We dispel with idiocies like the electoral college and give to ourselves a world made new.

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"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of Patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
Herman Goering

Hear, Oh Israel-

My, my. The growing unrest around the world is becoming daily more tangible. The deterioration of the Middle East only one example. Since the institution of the State of Israel following WWII, we have, as a matter of US foreign policy, guaranteed a state of strife, genocide and constant war in the once fertile crescent.

For more than a year now, with the aid of America's never ending military might, Israel has kept Gaza under constant siege. As in our policy in Iraq, civilian targets make up the majority of casualties. Schools, mosques and hospitals are fair game, and no amount of misery is too much to inflict on the enemy. It is, after all, only through their misery that they will surrender.

Now Netanyahu is conflicted. He is Prime Minister designate-but what coalition will rule Israel? Should he continue with his hard right, proto-fascist path? Should he bring in some moderates? How much does he need to change to accomodate the Obama administration? The policy of genocide carried out on behalf of the Jewish state against Muslim and Jewish freedom seeker alike are beginning to draw far too much negative press. The pictures of dead children, blown apart in the school yard; the stories of families murdered by Israeli soldiers; the constant siege of terror on Palestine-this is reaching the rest of the world-and we are not pleased.

Chances are that even by bringing in Israeli moderates, the approach to domestic policy in Israel will continue as is-with our tacit approval. Obama has made clear that he supports the use of monumental force in the oppression of Palestine. He has made his token gesture to the "humanity" of the Palestinians, and then warned them not to resist. As long as our special relationship with Israel continues, so too shall the genocide of its inhabitants. And as long as American made artillery is used on the People of Palestine, they can look at the spent casings and know who's bullets killed their children.

As we continue to dawdle down the road to economic ruin, we need look at Israel (and Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan) seriously. We support states that use military rule to enforce their wishes. They willingly imprison, torture and murder their citizens and our leaders praise the actions. The fact that we have been passing legislation to do away with our Constitution and have begun deploying the Army on American soil expressly for containing civil unrest are signs we cannot ignore. As we draw closer to the razor's edge, the reaction of our government seems to be already decided in favor of military law. If we do not wish to live in a state of terror like that suffered in Israel, Iraq or any other dictatorship that survives with our aid, then we need to strike the heart of the beast while its vulnerable.

Chew on that for a moment. Then chew on what was going on in the Delta after Hurricane Katrina. Consider Guantanamo and the rapid building of detention centers all over the US. Consider the Patriot Act, and how many thousands of people WITHIN the United States have been disappeared under its auspices.

If we do not want to watch the rise of Big Brother-then we better get busy.

Pelosi-You Moron!

So, somehow this week, Madame Pelosi has somehow acknowledged crimes against the Constitution committed by the Bush regime. Now, not two months ago, this bitch was saying that there was no evidence that Bush had done anything wrong; if anyone happened to know of any, to please pass it along. Perhaps someone forwarded Lady Pelosi a link to youtube.

While she is not saying an investigation will take place, while she is not saying anything will happen, she is saying "possibly" this can happen. Possibly we can hold war criminals and people who have committed crimes against humanity accountable. Possibly.

The initial reaction is what you would expect. People saying "gee, whore, you could have started this process years ago. We know you are just as guilty as everyone else". And of course, there are millions of Americans who know that just as many Dems have dirtied their hands with their Republican war criminal buddies. And the Pelosis (Mr & Mrs) are pretty dirty!

We need accountability. In the first month of his administration, President Obama has said he will close Guantanamo, whilst continuing to render prisoners to other countries, to be tortured by our allies. His Attorney General, Eric Holder, has taken the Bushite position in defending the US government and allies from lawsuits pursuant to their collaboration in rendition missions, that ultimately led, of course, to torture. How is closing one prison, and saying we will not torture any change at all, when we are in fact continuing to send innocent civilians off to foreign lands to be tortured by our closest dictator-allies??

Anyone walkin' around still saying the Democrats are the party of progressives is clearly deluded. We are just as enmeshed in fighting the Corporate interests of the Democratic Party as we are fighting of fascist Republicans. The "New Direction Democrats" have sold every principle we hold dear down the river. Obama may stand for us on one or two issues-but We the People are still on our own.

The Faith of Obama

President-Elect Obama rode a wave of change and hope-all the way to the White House. Even when he and Biden came out openly against marriage equality, they promised change and hope. The election of our first President of color and the repeal by voters of other voters' civil rights in the same election offers startling insight into America.

Obama's mantra was as effective as any of the Bushite slogans. "Change! Change!" Even as Obama pushed for the bailout of the worst crooks and thieves-the people said "change". Obama pledges to take troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan-escalating costly military endeavors. "Change". Now, President-Elect Obama will have Rev. Rick Warren invoke divine blessings on his first term in the Oval Office.

And who is Rick Warren? Remmber the "cone of silence" debacle at Saddleback Church? That is where you find Rev Warren-that is where you can hear him preach in support of such political measures as Proposition 8.

Obama/Biden gleefully and proudly came out against marriage equality (but not against hospital visitations). Obama had no trouble, as the first "black" candidate of the Democratic Party standing up for hope and freedom and a united America. But his support does not travel far. After denying support to millions of Americans (who, let's face it, voted overwhelmingly for him) he invites Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. They seem to be oblivious to the hypocrisy of such a move.

If Obama is a Constitutional scholar, I would like to hear his rationale on this one. How do you support a piece of legislation "respecting an establishment of religion" that prohibits the "free excercise there of"? Not every faith supports marriage discrimination. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and many other faiths perform same sex marriages. The fact that a religiously motivated law can strip us of our rights and be supported by the President [Elect] is of grave concern to us all. This is not change-this is Bush policy, all over again. And how different is the support of Prop 8 and the pushing of anti-American legislation like the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, etc?

Obama's support of Warren is no different than Bush's support of the likes of Falwell and Robertson. Mixing politics and holy rollers leads only to fragmentation, inequality and fear driven policy. Bush committed himself to a strong relationship with Evangelical faiths, he committed himself to a War on "Terror" and to defending "traditional" values. If Obama is pledging to continue these Wars on "Terror", to support "traditional" values and to reach out to the Evangelical communities, where and when do We the People come into this administration's equation? If Obama is going to borrow from the Bush book on maintaining power in the US, is that not a clear indicator of the type of change Obama seeks?

If this "change"-then We are in for four more years of misery.

Robert Kagan: Mouthpiece for Empire

At the beginning of the week, I was invited to attend a World Affairs Council event, featuring Robert Kagan. A neo-con insider and founding member of the Project for a New American Century, Kagan spent the evening pandering to the ideals of freedom while promoting the ideals of empire.

The evening's talk was titled "The Future of Foreign Policy Challenges for the Obama Administration". Kagan led off the talk with glowing reviews of Hilary Clinton, who he deems "strong and principled" as our next top diplomat. In his glowing endorsement of the Obama nominations for cabinet, Kagan observed that two-thirds could have been chosen by Senator McCain. You're not going to see "a dramatic shift in choices" with Obama's administration, he informed us. This is going to be a "centrist" administration.

Talk quickly moved into "National Security" and the War on "Terror". Mr Kagan was quite excited that "some of the top leaders" of the Mumbai attacks had been arrested in Pakistan (so far, only "suspected terrorists" have been arrested and no charges issued-as usual). "Perhaps Mumbai will be enough to set Pakistan on the right course" he went on. This led, quite naturally, into talk of Afghanistan. Mr Kagan is proudly supporting a troop surge (over 20,000) into the region with the incoming Obama administration. He believes "Obama should go to Europe" and pursue alliances for the further occupation of Afghanistan. Apparently, if we have allies in the occupation, it will be less contentious.

When asked by Jane Wales (conducting the forum, and President of the World Affairs Council of Northern California) "how dangerous is Iran", Mr Kagan jumped immediately into "Iran will have a nuclear bomb within a year". He had no trouble leaping to such claims, and even conflated Iran and Iraq with "a kid coming out of an alley and pointing a toy gun at the Police", thereby excusing the Police gunning down the kid. He uses this analogy to condone leaving a residual force of 50-70 thousand troops in Iraq and taking the fight to Iran next.

As talk of "safety" continued, Kagan promoted "Humanitarian Interventions". He referenced our "humanitarian" efforts in Panama, Haiti, Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo and Bosnia. Never was American training of death squads, bombing of urban areas, recruitment, arming and training of "al-Qaeda" forces or use of depleted uranium in the bombs dropped mentioned. "America has a special roll to play, as many predecessors have believed" he explained. It is quite amazing how "little intervention exhaustion we have considering these two grinding wars". Mr Kagan was quite confident that America will get behind any future "humanitarian interventions" that may arise-say in Iran.

Through the rest of the interview, Mr Kagan expounded on Russia, which seeks to "regain its empire" and China, with whom we utilize "engagement and containment" policy. He truly presented himself as a competent mouthpiece for fascism. He used all the right phrases ("humanitarian intervention" instead of invasion and attack, "centrist economics" instead of "corporatocracy"), he stood behind the choices of the Democrat President-Elect and even took a few chides at the current regime. Through it all he was warm, friendly, charming. He was all glows and smiles at the mention of the Project for a New American Century and the need to expand the global War on "Terror".

The coup de gras was the horrid observation that Obama need not go on a listening tour, and that the American People do not care if Obama listens to us, because we only need him to lead-not listen. Ms Jane Wales, who had been handed stacks of cards with questions from the audience, found her way to asking three of them (all three being quite innocuous). I am not surprised that my question (why is American aid to dictatorships that sponsor terror never cited as a cause for global terrorism?) asked. I am surprised that the audience seemed duped by the rhetoric, and quite at ease with his predictions for the future of our foreign poicy.

If what Mr Kagan (and Mr Obama and Mrs Rodham-Clinton, et al) espouse is anything to go by, then we are indeed fucked.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Shades of Mumbai

When I was 19 I stood on a street corner in Manhattan and watched the twin towers fall. Through out the course of the day I could not get away from the sense that something bigger was brewing...and not in al Qaeda's cauldron. The launch of America's newest war (after our War on Poverty, our War on Drugs, our War on Violence, etc) harkens to another War on Terror-one launched by a little man remembered as Adolf Hitler.

With the attacks carried out in Mumbai over the weekend, I have a sickening sense that this is just propelling us faster into the ultimate police state. Of course it is no coincidence that Mumbai is financial capital of the Indian sub-continent. Nor that the attack was carried in such way that foreigners (among them Brits and Yanks) were killed. What is coincidental is that Pakistanis are being linked to the attacks in a time when we are looking for reason to spread our Empire into Pakistan, Iran and the greater Middle East.

In the same way that the "training" of al Qaeda alleged hijackers in Afghanistan has allowed us to bomb the fuck out of the Afghanis, there is (conveniently enough) cause to extend that fight now Pakistan. Oh, yes. The Pakistanis were our brothers in the Axis of the Willing-and sure we backed their dictator, Musharaf-but they need to feel the awesome power of freedom now too! The al Qaeda members hiding out in Pakistan need to be rooted out. We will accept no threat to our security.

Now, let's take a minute, shall we. When Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds of Northern Iraq, he did so with US support. When the dictators of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan (more allies of freedom) detain, render and torture people with American support, it is an act of defense. When the dictatorships of South America rendered, tortured and killed people, again with loud US support, they were defending freedom. When "insurgents" in Iraq attack military bases (with piddling mortars) or Palestinians throw rocks at Israeli driven US tanks, it is terrorism. If a Palestinian were to detain and torture an Israeli, it is a violation of convention-when Israel detains and tortures a Palestinian, it is policy.

Throughout the War on Terror, American and Allied forces have reported large amounts of missing money and materials. How do large amounts of materials, kept responsibly by the American military and Private Mercenaries just disappear? And what about the British and American citizens arrested after joy riding around, gunning down Iraqis, while dressed in robes and fake beards? What of our financial support and CIA training of agents like Osama bin Laden? Is it possible that the current Bush, like his grandfather Prescott, is funding both sides of this war? Is it possible that perhaps there is no real enemy, and that investors like Cheney and Prince Osama bin Laden are merely waging a "war" for the purpose of their own dividend checks?

The chief way to end terrorism is to stop endorsing it as Policy. The amount of military aid given by the American tax payer to dictatorships around the world is the largest amount of state sponsored terrorist money circling the globe. We do not need to fear "rogue regimes" like Iran. We need to fear our own rogue regime-the Military Industrial Complex, the Federal Reserve and the State Department. The leader of terrorism around the globe, hands down, is American foreign policy.

As the Obama emperorship is transitioning, we will see all of the hype of the coming "test" by terrorists. All of our domestic wiretapping, all of our preemptive invasion, and infiltration will surely not hit the mark and we will be subjected to more violence.

These "tests" don't pass the smell test. Why have the last eight years passed without investigation? Why have the last sixty years of Imperial American policy passed without oversight? Why are the Republocrats so convinced (almost gloating) that an attack is coming? Perhaps like other terrorist states we are witnessing state endorsed attacks. Perhaps by turning a blind eye (refer to the Downing Street Memo) we are forced to go along with assaults on the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions.

It is a frightening era in which we live. One in which the reigning superpower, like the British Empire before it, will rage around the globe unchecked, leaving behind a devastated planet, a raped and tortured populace and a legacy of shame to last the ages.

Socialism, anyone?

So, if the recent "elections" have taught us anything-it is that America does not cower before the word "Socialism" any longer. Through out the spectacular mud-slinging contest that is American elections, the People were not horrified by the idea that Obama might be a Socialist.

And why should Socialism frighten anyone. All of my European friends are quite comfortable with the aspects of Socialism that they live with. I have yet to hear an Austrian, Scandinavian or Frenchman say "my universal-non-profit health care is horrible". Nor have I heard "It is awful to have free university education. Just wretched. And the five weeks paid holiday a year is killing me!!"

If a Capitalist society is pre-occupied with CAPITAL, then its ability to secure a prosperous and healthy nation is going to diminish. The focus of our communities should not be to expand the capital held by the ruling few-as the current toilet that we are in suggests. Conversely, a Socialist society, with a pre-occupation with the SOCIETY, tends to turn out well adjusted, educated and healthy citizens.

Embracing a socialistic tax policy, that requires the richest to pay more in taxes, is embracing a Democratic Economic policy. That is what Socialism is-Democratic Economics. The poor and the working and middle classes cease to be the whipping boys of investors. The men at the top are required to offer up their fair share of sacrifice. They must drop up to forty percent of their billions into the common tax pool. It is this ethos that assures every man, woman and child has health care and access to education, training and the services necessary to keep oneself functioning as a part of the society. How else is one to rely on a workforce to turn out car parts, television sets and millions of restaurant meals a year?

If you ask the richest people in Sweden or Finland what they think about their high tax margins, they would say "it's fair". These financiers and developers are not willing to walk through cities that look like our cities here in America-swarming with homeless people, people lost to addiction and violence, roving gangs of directionless youth. The people of more socialist countries will not watch their fellow country men fall into despair and depravity because it is profitable for this disparity to exist. They bite the bullet and contribute to the preservation of their nation's health and freedom.

And if you think Socialism means giving up your freedom, you need to do some more research. When a choice in direction is before the nation, the people of countries like France, Norway, the UK, or Spain will step up and be heard. And if they are ignored-they will shut down the country and the government. Can you imagine what America would be like if we all had free health are? Or equal and free access to University? Or a guaranteed paid holiday that lasted a month every year? Can you imagine how much more dignified and happy all of would feel? Can you imagine our trade unions having the ability or chutzpah to shut down the highways of America in protest of wars for oil? Or price gouging?

Do you see why that would be so threatening? The people who still use "Socialist" as a bogey man are quite obviously people who profit from our poverty. Anyone who tells us that equal access to the necessities of life is communist is looking to line his own pockets-at our expense. I suggest it is the fervent capitalists who are the threat. Anyone who would put their profit margin above the health of their work force or the environment is a criminal-and a threat to freedom.