Polar Bears and whatnot

Carl nails it on the head...

So long and thanks for all the fish

Riverbend's End of Year Blog... You Know your country is in trouble when...

And Billmon.. RIP? Final Call at the Whiskey Bar has come and went.
Gone but never forgotten...

But although the bar is closed, the barflies remain, at Moon of Alabama

Unleash the Metal Gods of War

I know I shouldn't encourage him, But I feel that all Americans should be able to voice their views and opinions so that we may find a common ground.

(And- sometimes, maybe a LOT of the time, it can help us realize how batshit-crazy some of our fellow Americans are)

But kudos go to those among us, even the "leftest" haters like Caveman- when they help make the blogosphere aware of such Kick Ass methods of dealing with terror...

http://cavemenforequalrights.blogspot.com/2006/12/kill-terrorist.html

Woo Hoo! YES- Unleash the Metal Gods of War! Combined with violent Gangsta rappers in Impalas soon we will celebrate glorious victory against the Terrorists..
1-8-7 on a muthafuggin raghead, yo! Disrespect dat flag, fool? I be bitch-slapping Osama, word.

See, we should be giving GUNS to gang members and violent hippy-haired metal guitarists (along with some wicked camo pants that can be shredded for like, maximum radness).

...

I sometimes wonder why these YO-YOs on both sides don't see how much they look alike to the rest of us who have somehow managed to stay sane. And Caveman, before you wind up to call me a terrorist-lover for the umpteenth time- You betta recognize, fool.

Both sides of your bloody coin are donning camos, picking up rifles, dropping bombs and chanting nationalist rhetoric to justify killing. I watched your other video, and for the first few seconds, I wondered which type will it be- will it be soldiers blowing up Iraqis to the cheers of Caveman or will it be Iraqis blowing up soldiers to the chagrin (look it up) of Caveman... This time it was ied on US forces. They are hard to tell apart sometimes.

More assholes blowing up people. And for what? You don't even fucking know, do you?

Immigrants

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

.

Attn: Working Class America.

Don't wage wars against hard working decent immigrants who just want a new life.

.

Wage it against the men who HIRE these people so that they don't have to pay AMERICANS a decent wage. Wage it against the Union-Busters. Wage it against the men who tell blue-collar workers everywhere that they cannot afford to give them healthcare and proper safety measures because it's cheaper for them to give your job to an illegal immigrant who knows he can't complain about working too many hours in unsafe conditions for a dollar an hour.

.

Don't let these men in power USE you to fight against your own self-interests. These bastards throw parties with ice statues that piss Vodka and smoke $1000 cigars. Then they layoff 1000 men for a small percentage of savings compared to their daily waste.

.

There IS a group of people who deserve your scorn who are committing illegal acts in America every day. They are the CEO's, the Lobbyists, the Politicians, the Big Businessmen and their lawyers, the lowlife bought and paid for cunts like Larry Kudlow on CNBC who deny that America and its currency are going to hell in a handbasket because of the Corporate Pirate mentality.

.

Know your REAL enemies. They aren't dirt poor and starving. Their children aren't being held in detention centers in America right now for merely working to give their families a new life.

They are the men and women who sell out America and their own countrymen every single day.

And every day that they fool you into blaming each other for the madness they have intentionally wrought as they chase their own riches blindly= IT GETS WORSE.

.

Fight back. Speak out. Support Criminal Charges for the CEOs who move factories to other countries so that good Americans will lose their livelihoods. Support Fines that make it cost-efficient for them to keep manufacturing HERE in America. Help put these greedy bastards in jail so that normal Americans can become something besides indentured servants to Wal-Mart, Exxon and GE.

In Defense of Jimmy Carter

Must Read Link of the Day

http://tonykaron.com/2006/12/22/israel-and-apartheid-in-defense-of-jimmy-carter/

Peace on Earth

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuiut_mgm-cartoon-1939-peace-on-earth

Abortion- Is it a "right" or a wrong?

Should we be able to terminate pregnancies that we don't want? It's an old argument, but progressives have been steadily abandoning the fight in the past five to six years.

Digby's post got me thinking about this again. As "just a male" I have always automatically deferred to women in this matter. To be honest, in situations where the abortion question popped up, (as a young a-little-too-sexually-active-for-his-own-good man) I invariably handed off this question to the woman and secretly hoped that they would, indeed, go get an abortion. My main concern was how I was going to support the child, the marriage issue,etc - all the stereotypical things you would think a young punk would care about- myself.

I already had one son from having unprotected sex as a teenager in high school and I sure didn't want another. Not enough that I would start using condoms or tone down my aggressive quest to be a redneck Lothario of infamous proportions. I was a very big fool who didn't learn from one mistake, it generally took me three or four.

So, I had been party to more than one abortion that involved me as the would-be father. I am not proud of this fact, but it IS a fact. Then later, I have been the friend, in several situations that did not directly involve me, where women have made the decision to get an abortion, usually in situations that involved men who were simply not there once they were informed of the pregnancy. Men who were married, men who didn't give a shit. And there were two occasions when female friends chose to have abortions even though the father stood by them and said they would be supportive, and even wanted the babies. Still- it was the woman's decision, wasn't it? I have yet to recall even one of these men who were anything but relieved (in the end) at the abortion decision made by the women involved.

So, what's the point? Why has my perception changed, later in my life?

As a male, I deferred to the woman in all the cases. "Your body, your choice". I cannot imagine how it feels to physically experience those abortions, but I was there emotionally for the aftermath. I have watched in anguish what experiencing those abortions did to those women and how it forever altered them later.

Years later, maybe I am wiser, maybe I am more inclined to put in my two cents- But it sure seems to me a LOT more murkier now than being simply a "woman's right". It's invasive and has emotional effects on these women that sometimes haunt them for years. There is the emotional baggage I carry (even as just a simple male) that I have to live with every time I look at my children.

And why? Because for whatever reasons, the people I refer to didn't go to the extra effort for birth control. Why? 'Cause if accidents happen, we could go throw down $300-$400 and get an abortion, no harm no foul (we thought). But it's a lot more complex than just being a simple decision. No less so than the decision to suddenly get married. And even though I am a single parent who has custody of my daughters because their mom abandoned them- I still balk at 'men's rights' concerning a pregnancy. I still defer that it is only a woman's decision, but more and more I am wondering if even that "right" should be in her hands.

Hey- I am all for new technological advances that prevent pregnancy and think they should be sold in vending machines on every street corner. I know "abstinence" as birth control is a complete fucking fairy tale. I realize that every mother-to-be will not want a child in their life.

But can I support Abortion as a "right" anymore? Now that I have seen and experienced what I have directly with pregnancies and abortions, I don't think I can anymore. If a lot of hard core progressives are "abandoning" Abortion as a right, maybe it is because we have decided that taking responsibility for our actions is a little more important than simply wiping the slate clean.

And maybe knowing that we didn't have the ability to quickly wipe away our irresponsibilities would make every one of us a little more careful.

UPDATE: C&L just picked up the Digby post- the commentary just started- but something else I wanted to add that I commented there:

and while I still consider myself pro-choice, I am starting to think that there simply is NOT a beneficial way to frame abortion as a right.We should be promoting The Morning after pill, the pregnancy prevention options, not abortion. There's simply no way to win with that argument.New Way to Frame an old argument: Choose medications that PREVENT Abortions.The more legal options that Women have prior to 8 weeks into a pregnancy the more CHOICE they have.

Fighting Government Terror tactics

(hat tip - Jesus General)

The Unapologetic Mexican has a fired up post about what is going on with the mass arrests of illegal immigrants recently.

You hunt my people, you hunt me. You offer false reasons, and you wag your guns and keys. You corral my people into jails, begin to terrorize and remind everyone who is The Master. One more time. I hope you understand what you are starting. But I suppose you do, and that is why even as we speak, you are fully prepared to level Martial Law on us all. Call me paranoid, just keep your nose to the wind, 'mano. Keep your eyes up, and don't drop your chin.

I—like these men, women, and children you now lock up—hail from the Indians who came to this continent, farmed it, and lived on the land long ago. Thousands of years we've walked this continent. Not two hundred. Not five. Thousands. You now score the scars that are hardly cooled. You now deepen divisions you would do better to heal.

When you abuse these people, these faithful scapegoats, these hardworking humans who helped build your nation—as my family has—who have tirelessly fed your commerce engine; people who starve in the shadow of this American goliath, these people who help put food on your own table—when you turn and persecute them, shove them into concentration camps because it suits your fear, your notions of White Supremacy, or your hypocritical political opportunity—my blood boils, you see. My hot, hot, memory-steeped, Mexican blood boils within me.

And:

Fools. We are all living in the shadow of the crumbling empire, the falling dollar. You and I do not matter. Mostly, Mexicans don't matter right now. Unless they can be used. Used for their labor, for the symbolic value of locking us up, used to build fences to keep the rest out. While you suck up all the little pieces of culture that you find oh-so-tasty. I hope you choke on your next tamale, Nationalist.
And yet, you're not done.

How many enemies does America need? How many factions can the Bush administration split our country into? Our Government has decided that Americans ARE the enemy now. Divide and Conquer. They couldn't win against progressives by calling us unpatriotic and terrorist-lovers (no matter if that false line of reasoning does have a few fanatics that believe it, such as Caveman). So now they figure they can win back some of those white progressives by reminding us we - are -white.

I don't think these people know Mexican Americans OR Progressives very well. The backbone of our country, like it or not, rests on the working class. For the past 20 years, the powers that be have pimped the myth that THEY are the spine of America- developing new business, creating jobs and stirring the economy upward. We have been lied to. While these business suits make million dollar deals and throw thousands in the toilet over power lunches in Aspen, they attempt to shift the rest of us like pawns. Their money and their illusion of power have blinded them AND US to the truth. But the truth remains: We are the power in America. But if we fail to comprehend that, then we might as well put these shackles back on.

Their fat profits have ascended from the ranks of the working class. Their affluence is a direct result of our efforts, not their own. And the only thing that keeps making them rise while the common man falls is our failure to realize that the power IS ours to wield. It's time to take the whips from the masters and lash a little ourselves.

Our complacency has weakened us. Every time that we have allowed their divisive tactics to work, we have given up more ground. It's time to stand together and take back. There is no good reason why some silver spoon asshole deserves to make 100,000 a year cutting corners and moving manufacturing jobs to China from Decatur just because he doesn't want a paycut! It's not giving our workers healthcare that hinders profits- its' quarter of a million dollar bonuses to these despicable outsourcing cretins!

They are destroying America from within, all just so they can continue profitting off the American workers' losses. It will eventually be their own downfall. The long-term outlook is grim for the American economy, if we continue on the path that we are on. But I, for one, don't want to wait for THAT day, when Larry Kudlow comes on tv, penniless, to sigh stupidly, and claim, ala the neocons on Iraq- "Ooops. We were wrong. 100% wrong. Why didn't anyone do something?"

It's time for us all to come together as Americans and fight for the American people- NOT The bloodsuckers in the business world. Those stock market worshipping CEO/used car salesmen who are moving their money to China, India, and Russia, all the while claiming that the American worker is killing America!

Misdirection Is THEIR key to success. Standing together for TRUTH is ours. Our country is in bad shape, that much is true- but it's not because of hard working Americans. It's not because of hard working illegal immigrants. It is because the money grubbing elite can't stand to part with any of the money they have made on the backs of all of us. They will punish any number of us to hoard their ill-gotten gains. It's time to remind them what American is For. And low as it has fallen - I REFUSE to believe that America is just another tin-badge Sovietesque Empire with a hard on for free-market enterprise. If it ever becomes JUST that- then we are all lost.

The Death of the PNAC.

Ding Dong, the witch is dead.

BBC

May Every bloody handed bastard who ever had a hand in this venture be forever damned to whatever hells may exist.

No punishment is enough for these affluent ghouls who fed on the corpses of so many.

Among the signatories were many of the senior officials who would later determine policy under President George W Bush - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams and Lewis Libby - as well as thinkers including Francis Fukuyama, Norman Podheretz and Frank Gaffney.

The neo-conservatives were called that because they sought to re-establish what they felt were true conservative values in the Republican Party and the United States.

They wanted to stop what they felt were the isolationist tendencies that had developed under President Clinton, and even under the pragmatic President George Bush senior.

They saw the war in Iraq as their big chance of showing how the "New American Century" might work.

They predicted the development of democratic values in a region lacking in them and, in that way, the removal of any threat to the United States just as the democratisation of Germany and Japan after World War II had transformed Europe and the Pacific.

"Their plan has fallen on hard times. There were flaws in the conception and horrendously bad execution. The neo-cons have been undone by their own ideas and the incompetence of the Bush administration. "George Bush is about the last neo-conservative standing, Cheney as well maybe. Bush is not an analytical person so he just adopted the neo-cons' philosophy.

"It fitted into his Manichean, his black and white view of the world. After all, he gave up his dissolute youth and was born again as a new man, so it appealed to his character."

Here is more about the armchair quarterbacks who sold the Iraq War to the public. The marketing team for 650,000 dead Iraqis and 30,000 severely wounded American soldiers. They pawned off a shoddy little brass calf on America, and called it a Golden God.

Vanity Fair

If there was TRULY a hell, it would not be enough for these evil, self-serving worms.

Iraq is Viet Nam

Iraq is Vietnam and you'd better believe it - From A Liberal Dose

EXCERPT:

Sometime in 1969, the White House, faced with unrelenting facts on the ground and under siege from the public, had quietly made the decision that America couldn't win its war in Vietnam.

Nixon and Kissinger didn't put it that way, of course. America was a superpower, and it was inconceivable that it could lose a war to a third rate nation whose soldiers lived on rice and hid in holes in the ground. So the White House conceived an elaborate strategy that would mask the fact of an American defeat. The US would slowly withdraw its combat troops over a period of several years, while the mission of those who remained would change from fighting the North Vietnamese and Vietcong to training the South Vietnamese to carry on the fight on their own. At the same time, we would give the South Vietnamese a series of performance ultimatums which, if unmet, would trigger a total withdrawal and let us blame the South Vietnamese for the debacle that would follow. This strategy was called "Vietnamization." Implementing it cost at least 10,000 additional American and countless more Vietnamese lives, plus billions of dollars.

It was a rigged game from the start. All but the wildest zealots in Washington knew that the South Vietnamese would not and could not meet our ultimatums: an end to corrupt, revolving-door governments, an officer corps based on merit not cronyism, and the creation of a national state that enjoyed popular allegiance strong and broad enough to control the political and cultural rivalries that had ripped the country's fabric for a thousand years.

During the eighteen months I was in Vietnam, I met almost no Americans in the field who regarded Vietnamization as a serious military strategy with any chance of success. More years of American training could not possibly make a difference in the outcome of the war because what was lacking in the South Vietnamese Army was not just combat skills but belief in a cause worth fighting for.But none of that was the point. Vietnamization was not a military strategy. It was a public relations campaign.

The bigotry of Christians

Jeb Bush calls fellow Republican a Nut. Hehe. And in other news, the pot called the kettle black today... Juan Cole steps away from his usual play by play of violence in the Middle East to address the resurgence of Christian bigotry, both against Muslims and Mexicans.
Link

I suppose the bigotry of christians has never really gone away, but recently it appears that it is getting worse. The christian community is increasingly having their asses handed to them on a variety of issues. "Intelligent" Design has been thoroughly debunked by anyone with an IQ over 76. Mainstream christians are turning to focusing on the teachings of Christ and not blindly accepting every translated bit of Hebrew in the books of the bible as the specific word of god. On top of this, the christian leadership, has, quite frankly, gone to hell.

Not a group to rally around rationality, the put-upon flock has embraced their worst instincts. Emotion drives religion. Faith not facts, and what you believe is officially more important than little things, like, say-reality. Feeling a little battered by evolution, the fossil record and an American public that is better informed about the history of christianity, they have backed into a corner and lashed out against their new satanic boogie men- the gays. That worked for a little bit, until a lot of people started looking around their own families, and realizing, hey cousin Sally and Uncle Joe are kinda.. uh.. queer. And unlike the real fuckups in the family: Bob, who beats his wife, or Tina, the town slut, or Jim's kid whose in prison for drugs - that gay guy don't seem that bad anymore. Plus, they find themselves squirming on the pews during more liberal readings of the New Testament that focus on forgiveness and loving one another and letting he who is without sin cast the first stone...

So, losing the very important moral ground in the War against Fags, they push deeper into themselves and latch onto yet another emotionally charged hatred- Racism! Yay, can't go wrong with that. "Why don't I make more money at the factory?" It's not because management just outsourced two divisions to Taiwan and India. It's not because the CEO just got a million dollar bonus because he successfully lobbied a Republican Senator to push a bill that killed safety regulations for the plant. It's not because the union was disbanded this year. It's those damn Mexicans! How dare those bastards come in here and work harder than us for less pay. It's goddamn Unamerican, is what it is! Can't even understand a damn word they say. What's wrong with those people, popping out children and getting free healthcare?

What-the-fuck-Ever. But hey, here goes the "Christians" attacking the Mexicans. Which is pretty damn ignorant, because most Mexicans ARE Christians. But hey, that don't count because they are poor, smelly and brown and everyone knows Jesus was a nice white guy, even if he was in severe need of a haircut so he wouldn't look like some damn hippy.

Painting themselves into a corner, the American christian community further emasculates itself. With the "war on Christmas" bullshit being bandied around by the fustercluck of patreetodic Amerkuns, their insistence on attempting to prevent gay people from committing to monogamous relationships, and now vilifying America's fastest growing group- well, let's just say the future of Christianity ain't looking too good.

Take a quick look around. We can shut the borders today and not allow one more Mexican into America- but we will STILL end up with a hispanic majority. So, wake up and smell the menudo you crackers! It's a done deal. Play nice. Take it from a redneck who lives in the Mexican ghetto: It's not bad. The food's good and these people actually go out of their way to help a friend. For free. Imagine that? What would Christ say? I know, he'd probably move to the suburbs.

UPDATE: Ellison answers Prager and Goode

Democrats Healing America

Hat tip - Americablog

This article by Bob Geiger is more reason to believe that the Democratic majority can and WILL get America back on track. Reviewing the malicious acts of the Republican party shows us just how much harm has been done by letting Republicans run the country. GOP Senate

The Do-Nothing Senate of the past Republican Congress was more interested in blocking Democratic legislation and stuffing their own bills with pork than they were in serving their country.

Bob Geiger's article illuminates some of the valuable legislation that those Republicans blocked. With the Democratic party in full swing we will see how the playing field has changed. I don't imagine the Republican party will be offering much more of anything. In fact, they will most likely sponsor LESS legislation since they know they can't force any more Corporate Welfare bills past the new majority. Their time as a majority highlighted their contempt for the American people and their vast greed.

Payback is a bitch, but this is not about payback. It's about serving the best interests of the American people, not the American CEO. Their trickle-down theory was just them pissing on the backs of the American people. It's time for trickle up. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, our country is only as strong as our poorest members of society. We must strengthen the weak links and our country heals as a whole, grows stronger and is replenished and given new hope. I am not talking about "handouts" but real legistlation like raising working wages and rebuilding our underfunded Veterans administration.

The old way is a festering sore. It is time to heal our country. The Democratic Congress is a large step in the right direction.

No time to kill

Scarborough sees the light - Bush is delusional

A Soldiers perspective from the ground in Iraq

Blue Herald's Right Wing Cartoon Watch

Israel Apartheid

Saudis Snub Bush

Why Impeaching Bush is good for our species

Whoring for the blogs, whoring for the gods.

(Has Everyone switched to the Google version already? I am still holding out. Is there anything I should know?)

Navyswan probably thinks I forgot, or punked out on this = No, I was just going to grab the first book I could when I walked in my house, but of course, it slipped my mind= so I have to use the first book here in my office...

INTERNET CHAIN BLOG Dilly-bopper Thingamajig:

Well, here are the rules...1. Find the nearest book.2. Name the book and the author.3. Turn to page 123.4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.5. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.6. Tag three more folks.

Well, this is seriously it... It was this or my Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam book, so ...

From The Holy Bible, New Analytical Indexed Version : Author: Exodus (God, some random jewish priest?)

For a considerable period the mountain to which tradition has pointed is Jebel Mousa, "the hill of Moses". On its northern side is a great plain capable of holding the host of the Israelites, while on the southern side is another extensive plain. On the northern side the valley is flanked by high, mountains of dark granite- "stern, naked splintered peaks and ridges of indescribable grandeur, and it is terminated by the bold and awful front of Horeb, rising in frowning majesty from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred feet in perpendicular height".

Yeah, I know. Who invented this fricking game? Shouldn't you have picked out, like, the most interesting passage in a certain chapter? But no- we are forced to use random, most likely boring-as-hell excerpts. Ah, the internet. Time, it is - a'wasting...

And believe me, as boring as that passage was, it shines brightly in comparison to Investment law. Fuck it! I am breaking the damn rules on this game because- Well, I'm a rebel, damn it!

(yeah.. ooooh ahhh - you wild bastard...)

Best passage in the bible in Exodus (that I can find in 3 minutes or less) :

Exodus 34
14: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name IS
jealous, is a jealous God:

15: Lest thou make a convenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice:
16: And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

Wow, this bible shit is better than I thought. I can damn near find something to make a Christian TM cringe on every other page. Loverly.

Peace out. And if you have to go "A-Whoring", please do it for the Gods.

Oh hell- Forgot #6- Tag 3 other people- well, speaking of whores, here are my 3 favorites:

MegadoucheBrad, Bill Kristol, and ... hell, Caveman- you own a book, man?

High Ranking Marine dies escorting Newsweek/Fox team

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003523039

Friday 4pm Contemplation

A herd of buffalo can move only as fast as the slowest buffalo, and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular culling of the weakest members.In much the same way the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

I think that at 5 o'clock I will need to do some hands on experimentation...

Arrogant Bastard Ale

The NeoCon Backtrack

At this point in time, pretty much everyone with a brain agrees that Invading Iraq was a mistake. This NOW includes the Neocon think-tankers who pushed and pushed to Invade not only Iraq but ALL of the middle east.

Finally, even those men and those in the PNAC who are responsible for convincing the President and his cabinet to start a war in Iraq, are admitting that they were in fact, wrong.

The only people still chanting 'stay the course' are jilted brides (even though they haven't realized that their neocon groom has snuck out the back door of the church). That leaves these truly clueless twits floundering about. They are still repeating what FOX news tells them. They find hope that their two political heroes- McCain and Leiberman, are urging Bush to send 20,000 more troops to fix the civil war. These two "outlaws" to their parties are simply career politicians plying their trade (of Bullshit). They understand that it is over too. But they are banking their political careers on being able to say in the future that they never gave up. They didn't surrender.

Such false bravado should be seen for what it is. These two "patriots" don't give a damn how many American soldiers die in Iraq, or how much money is wasted there- as long as they can somehow spin themselves into a berth for the 2008 elections. These contemptible men are stepping gleefully over the bodies of our dead troops on the way to more political gain.

Stupidity. Pure stupidity. As if 20,000 more or even 40,000 soldiers would make a difference at all! And while the most ignorant among us still urge that we keep on fighting, they can't even tell you what we are SUPPOSED to be fighting for. Was it WMD? nope. To help the Iraqi people? nope. Democracy for Iraq? That didn't work out. Oil? Hell - even THAT idea is screwed now. OPEC cut production yesterday and the Saudis have read Cheney the riot act over the chaos in Iraq. Get ready for $5 gallon gas ...

Besides the military-industrial complex and Halliburton, only one group is happy with the events in Iraq. And that's the Hawks in Israel. They may not be so happy once they see how the Iraq war has changed global perceptions of both the U.S. and Israel. (Not to mention that American soon won't be able to afford to keep funneling money to Israel.)

America is more disliked and hated amongst Arab nations AND non-Arab nations alike- which will result in more terror. America has wasted 300 billion dollars in Iraq and our economy is only being kept afloat by sucking on the Chinese money teat. Our military is at a 30 year low in regards to readiness levels. Habeus Corpus is dead in America.

Is THIS Mission Accomplished? If someone keeps on screwing up, day in, day out, for years on end- DO YOU let them keep their jobs? Only if you are a fucking sucker. It's well past time to quit listening to the fools, sycophants, and incompetents and get our forces out of Iraq.

If you can name a GOOD Reason for our troops staying there, Feel free to illuminate me. But if all you are going to throw at me is "cut and run/weakling/coward/we can win if we try harder" don't bother. Because the Weakest and most cowardly men in our nation's history are the ones running America right now, like its some damn corporation. And they are failing. The Plan according to Bush is to make our country into the United States of Enron. Looks like he achieved that, more fool he.

EXCERPT from the Vanity Fair article:

For Kenneth Adelman, "the most dispiriting and awful moment of the whole administration was the day that Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to [former C.I.A. director] George Tenet, General Tommy Franks, and Jerry [Paul] Bremer—three of the most incompetent people who've ever served in such key spots. And they get the highest civilian honor a president can bestow on anyone! That was the day I checked out of this administration. It was then I thought, There's no seriousness here. These are not serious people. If he had been serious, the president would have realized that those three are each directly responsible for
the disaster of Iraq."

Yella Elephants to tha Rescue!

(Image courtesy of Thosebastards.com)

Malkin is going to Iraq to straighten out the Associated Press!

Who's playing Who? Malkin, who has slimed Jordan before? Or is Jordan going to publicly humiliate Psycho Princess Malkin who is in line to inherit the Coulter Crown as Queen Bitch of the Right Wing since Coulter is going to jail for illegal voting?

I say :

Take her ass to Iraq. I want 24/7 Live coverage of Malkin sans body armor outside the green zone, wearing a tight American flag tshirt and interviewing the Happy people of Baghdad on All the Good news. I want to see her visit the neighbors of Abeer Al-Janabi and ask them how they feel about the American occupation and if they believe that Barker really did it, or if it was all a hoax. I want her to march up to Al-Sadr's fortified compound and tell him to stop all his nonsense or Bush will blow him to kingdom come. I want to see her disarming roadside IEDs with a fork. Show us what you Got Malkin! She'll be the first of a GRAND CRUSADE of Right Wing Bloggers who prove they aren't Yellow Elephant Chickenhawks after all! I heartily salute her foray - and To any of those crazed Islamofascists who don't like Malkin going over there to prove that six Iraqis werent burned alive last week while 1000 others were murdered and kidnapped- I say: "Bring em' On"

And the Not-SO-Merry-GO-Round spins on... Take a Spin

Israel Blocks Palestinian Prime Minister from coming across Border - Hamas storms Egyptian border - Only Israel could get away with blocking money in this fashion. The Palestinians are starving, unemployed, beaten, taunted, murdered and toyed with. It's like the Israelis purposely churn them back and forth until something explodes outward at them. Then they wonder why.

Haaretz on the story

Key Points:

• Prime Minister Haniyeh was carrying $35 million in cash, aid raised for the Palestinian Government.
• Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the border closed, which he has no authority to do, under the agreement signed a year ago

And in other Israeli Apartheid Action- Israeli Court says targeted killings of Palestinians is legal under Israeli law. About 1/3rd of the 339 Palestinians killed in targeted killings were innocent bystanders. So Israeli court pretty much says the IDF can kill innocents with impunity.

Also, Israeli Plain clothesed soldiers infiltrate a West Bank Refugee camp and assassinate a Palestinian, wounding 4 others and a 12 year old girl at the same time. Israeli Operations . Who says that Israel can't send their agents into Gaza to gundown Hamas/Fatah operatives? And this was done despite under the flag of truce...

Here's an article by Jimmy Carter for the Guardian

What the ISG Forgot to Say about Palestine

UPDATE: Israel allows Haniyeh to enter, but confiscates the money to be placed into an Egyptian bank which will then be transferred to a Palestinian Authority account.

Edwards Firing up

Chuck, at Blues and Then Some, has a great video of John Edwards giving a short speech (at a blues club or some private venue...?) He's really fired up and like Chuck says-

"Edwards has something to say, and I like the way he says it."

Edwards: "This applies to all of us, every-single-one-of-us, We cannot wait for someone else to do this. We can't. There's too much at stake."

The leaders that we've been waiting for are us.

Check out the video!

Swift Boat Vets Get Fined $ 300,000

Here's a spot of good news for the 2008 elections...

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002141.php

Back to Basics

Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque has a must read article today... It reflects (more coherently and eloquently) my own post from yesterday and reiterates that our Constitution, in itself, contains all the elements that our nation needs to protect itself.

Presidential Tyranny Untamed by Election Defeat (also on Truthout )

What we, as the American people must do- is force our "Representatives" to fully realize this and take the necessary steps to take us back to, as Floyd puts it, "the double helix of law and power".

Like the two entwining strands of the double helix, law and power form the genetic structure of government. Law is nothing but empty verbiage without power to back it up, enforce it, embody it. And power without law is nothing but a mad ape, baring its teeth, thumping its chest, raping and beating where it pleases, taking what it wants: a bestial thing, born in the muddy swamp of our lowest, blindest, rawest biochemical impulses. Disconnect these strands and things fall apart, as Yeats says; the center literally cannot hold, and the blood-dimmed tide is loosed upon the world.

Please read and re-read the entire article. The most important piece of the puzzle (to me) is for us to understand that our nation has been threatened by far more in the past than we are now. In the time of civil war, our government, like today, removed Habeus Corpus, and dismantled our own rule of law in order to increase its power. Supposedly this was to help us defend our country, but in the end, it did not do so. And even then, in 1866, our courts ruled against a government that was overstepping the very important boundaries set forth in the constitution:

This is what the Court decided: "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence."

Last month many of us celebrated a great victory over the party who has so foolishly undermined our constitution once again. And, make no mistake- it was a great victory for the American people to show their discontent with the methods and the madness of the Republican party. But the victory- was just one battle, and not the war...

The hope of a return to at least a semblance of Constitutional government rests on the Democrats' newly-acquired majority. It is perhaps a mark of how very desperate the nation's condition has become that this particular group of national Democratic leaders could actually inspire hopes for substantial change. Their record over the past five years has been one of accommodation, cowardice, confusion and weakness.

Floyd makes some very important points, although sounding a little defeatist (in my opinion) at the close of the article.

Where then is the end of the downward spiral, the "widening gyre" as law and power spin farther and farther apart?

It is only simple sanity to ask. Glutted with our "victory", we temporarily took our eyes off the prize as some of the Democrats (Pelosi comes to mind) moved speedily not for justice or law, but for economy of movement into a Centrist stance. She (and the rest) need to understand that we will not settle for simply a changing of the guard in Washington! The end of the spiral is when those in the Democratic party realize that the American people did indeed give them the reins, but for a specific purpose- and that is to move us back to Constitutional law. We will not be pushed around by the right wing media as they try to downplay the need for accountability amongst the politicians who brought us low.

We stood strong against the Neocon machine. We will stand strong against the Democrats that we put in power. If they fail, they will be removed from office, just as we removed the Republicans. We, The People, have stopped the war against Iran (so far). We are not as powerless as some of these politicians like to believe. It is up to US- to drive our so-called representatives to do what needs to be done.

UPDATE: Welcome to everyone who came here Via Mike's Round-up and Crooks and Liars!

Get off YOUR Ass on ON to Theirs!

Iraq as a living Hell

The real story about what Iraq has become.

All the Right wingers were eagerly looking forward to the ISG report, from Pres Bush I's men. Once it came out, they revealed the Truth that you won't get on Television Media that those of us who are concerned, already know: The Violence in Iraq is NOT OVER-Reported, IT IS UNDER-Reported.

CNN reported 93 attacks in one day two days ago. The real number was 1100 attacks. And oh yeah, 10 more American troops were killed, sniped, and murdered while "patrolling" a civil war zone.

Everything I have emailed you for the past two years is revealed to have been the truth, all along- and now the situation is completely undone. It's time to for a complete redeployment. Everything that you hear from the Neocons turns out to be wrong. EVERYTHING.

My brother told me a while back, "It's a war. People are supposed to die." No, it's not a war. Combat operations were ended by President Bush over 2 years ago. This is simply an example of cowardly politicians who are too chickenshit to tell the public the truth and get our Military (Whose CURRENT strength level is lower than it has been in 30 years) the fk out of Iraq. I guess if you don't know anybody in the military then its okay for them to die uselessly while endangering the rest of our country for decades to come... ?

I don't think so. This is a fiasco. If we are going to salvage what's left of our military and our American honor (i know, i know) then we have to pull out now. A large majority of Iraqis demand it. A large majority of Americans demand it as well.

Who is stopping us? The Democrats, The Republicans, the fatass self-serving politicians who I am finding more and more= Know Less than I do about Iraq. These fools don't know Sunni from Shiite, The American Embassy in Iraq, which employs 1,000 people- ONLY HAVE SIX WHO CAN SPEAK FLUENT ARABIC.

There is a Pattern with Katrina, Iraq, Immigration bait and switch - and Hell YES- Even the Fucking Foley situation! IT is THIS: Cover your own ass, Pump up our side, and make some money on the side. There is no ACCOUNTABILITY. The people rose up and kicked the Repubs to the curb in November. But will these Democrats take notice and do what the American people demand? Not if they aren't dragged kicking and screaming the whole fucking way! Stop sitting on the sidelines. It may not be YOUR family member right now. But it could be soon enough. Or one of my kids. But I don't have to be personally related to a soldier stuck in the hell of Iraq to COMPREHEND That this situation hurts EVERY AMERICAN. Get off your ass and get ON your local Reps' ass! Keep them honest, because they damn sure won't keep THEMSELVES Honest!

Washing the blood from our hands

The solution to the violence in Israel/Palestine is so glaringly obvious and yet fear blinds the Israeli people. Some of them, anyway. What will it take for Israel to waken from its violence-glutted stupor? Will they, like the Koresh followers, end up creating their own armageddon by refusing to come to grips with reality? Will their continual acts of violence eventually lead Americans to give up on aiding them?

This is a new America. One that is in the process of waking to the blood on our OWN hands. It does not wash easily, but it is a task that must be done in 0rder to salvage our future. History is clear on this fact. An empire who rules by force alone eventually falls as a direct result of that abuse. A nation that can achieve peace lasts far longer. Americans, even the most simple of the pro-war crowd, are beginning to comprehend what our military might and our use of military power has "achieved" this past four years. Nothing.

We also watched Israel's failed excursion into Lebanon, lobbing stones through beehives. Some Israeli hardliners say the IDF didn't drop enough bombs, they didn't kill enough civilians to drive home "the point". It is these people who fail to see the real point. You cannot kill enough to achieve peace. Every child Israel kills is a blow to its own peace. Every innocent who dies from an IDF missle is another blackmark against them. No longer are they "defending" their country. And more and more of the world's community understand this. More and more Americans, fresh on the heels of our own "Peace by force" experiment- know how guilty we are for not doing more to stop our government's actions.

We strive in the ways that we each feel may be the most effective. Jewish peace activists wage their own battles, by voicing their concerns and speaking out against the self-destructive policies that the violently-inclined Israel government promotes. On Alternet today, Orit Weksler writes of her own tribulations, as she watches the government of her homeland commit atrocities that ultimately, only the people of Israel can stop...

War Crimes: How Israeli Soldiers Kill and Civilians Grow Numb

EXCERPT:

Then the war started. The way I saw it Israel was showering Lebanon with bombs, spraying it with artillery. My friend J said Hezbollah had too much ammunition. We had to destroy it sooner or later, this is as good a time as any, he said. Fine, I argued, I could see the need to destroy weapons that are aimed at civilian targets inside Israel, but why bomb Beirut? Why bomb civilians? Everyone does that, said J, the trick is to kill them three by three, not in big numbers. That way the world doesn't even notice. Israel's summer adventures in Lebanon left the region with more grief, vengeance and hate.

...

I know he thinks his service in the Israeli Intelligence saved lives. Perhaps it did. Still I think nothing can justify civilian killings- neither mass killings nor killings that are done one by one. For those families it really doesn't matter if their children were all killed on the same day or during a course of a whole month. Those of us who are lucky not to be living in fear, those of us who know this kind of life is possible, are obligated to stand up against war crimes that are committed in the name of fear and in abuse of peoples inability to see their neighbors' pain.

Image From Martini Republic

Republican Reflections...

As they hand over the reins of power, a few Republicans are speaking out against the actions of their own Party and President Bush.

(From John Amato at : Crooks and Liars.com )

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), a long-time supporter of the war, has turned on Bush's Iraq war policy and now openly asks if it's "criminal."

Sen. Smith: And I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes for supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal.

But no one blasted the Republican party as much as Sen. Gregg, (R-NH), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, as Republicans scurried at the last minute to rush through a sweeping tax cut bill as one of the final acts of the 109th Congress (surely doomed to go down in history as the most corrupt, lazy, and destructive Congress in American History).

"The American people took the reins of government away from the Republican Party relative to the Republican Congress in this last election," Gregg said in a speech on the Senate floor. "They did so, I think, in large part because they were tired of our hypocrisy as a party on the issue of fiscal responsibility. And it would appear that their concerns are justified. It is true, I guess."

Gregg went on to say that Democrats will also probably be irresponsible stewards of the nation's finances, "but at least they won't be hypocritical about it."

"You just have to ask yourself how we, as a party, got to this point, where we have a leadership which is going to ram down the throats of our party the biggest budget-buster in the history of the Congress under Republican leadership. Well, anyway, the American people figured it out, and I'm sorry we haven't figured it out yet.

It will take more time for the Republicans to finally come to grips with their failure to the American people. This failure is NOT a guiltless crime borne of ignorance. It was willful act after willful act to serve themselves, NOT their country. But we cannot wait for the Republicans to finally admit this reality and accept this truth. If we, as the people who the politicians are supposed to serve, will not hold them accountable then nothing will change- whether those in charge are Republicans or Democrats. Accountability is in very short supply in this dark day of American politics. We will better serve ourselves and our nation by administering some real punishment to those who abused our trust.

We can't wait for them to repent their vile ways. Sen. Smith is correct- To make our soldiers die on Iraqi streets day after day simply because the Politicians did not want to admit they were wrong IS CRIMINAL. And Sen. Smith, should know, because men like HIM are responsible for those troops dying there needlessly. As these cretins lose their power, they abruptly gain conscience. It is, however, far too late for the Americans, both in the military and the civilians whose lives have been destroyed by these men's power hungry ways.

Direct C&L Links: Sen Smith on the Iraq War, Republican Hypocrisy

MCCS1977 taking a breather

It looks like the MCCS1977 will be down for a bit, so I will resume posting here only for the time being. So I guess there will be less frivolity and more political stuff.

Here are some good links for the day:

Consumption has finally caught up with us

Iran, temporarily not labeled as evil as they were pre-ISG report, moves forward with their plan to use the Euro and not the U.S. Dollar. Devaluing American currency

This is what it's all about- here's an popular post I wrote on the subject just as the neocons were heating up to attack Iran - Iranian Oil Bourse

Note that the American People, not any Political force, STOPPED our Government from attacking Iran. Knowledge is Power- but the ability to disseminate that knowledge is infinitely more powerful.

Is Lebanon Next?

The Nation takes on the 9-11 Truth Movement. MIHOP vs LIHOP, Paranoia, and this little nugget of wisdom:

"The antidote, ultimately, to the Truth Movement is a press that refuses to allow the government to continue to lie."

(laughing) Yes, oh yes, the public would NOT be paranoid if the press did NOT let the Government lie all the time.... Oh, man - are these tears of laughter... or pain?

The War Against Yule!

Don't let the war against YULETIDE continue!

Celebrate Yule not Christmas- Don't be a sucker for the lies of Christianity!

Many of us know that Jesus wasn't born in Winter. Christians did what they did to every other people they subjugated- after murdering them wholesale and stealing their land- they set to converting these peoples, integrating their very holidays and religious days into "christian" holy days. Dec. 25 has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, EXCEPT for the fact that some enterprising christian cultist decided to overlap Saturnalia and the Winter solstice by moving the date of "christ's birth".

Does God Approve of our Yuletide Rituals?

Yule is truly a Pagan holiday, from the christmas tree to the mistletoe to Old Saint Nick. Christians had crushed the facts and distorted the truth to help convert everyone they possibly can to enrich their clergymen. And for over a thousand years, it has worked. But the facts have always been there, to be understood by anyone with a simple desire to know more and pay attention past the lies of the preachers, evangelists, and Holy water salesman of christian mythology.

It's a War against Yule! The TRUE REASON FOR THE SEASON. Christians have killed, lied, distorted and destroyed their way across the planet. It's time to acknowledge a little TRUTH this holiday.

Celebrate the Yule, Don't be a goddamn fool.

A Christian speaks out against Christmas and tells it like it is
(ow, that hurt my head, just wrapping my head around a Christian who actually ATTEMPTS to reconcile the facts with his faith...)

Some say : The War on Christmas doesn't exist?! Bullshit!

Onward Yuletide Soldiers! Spread the truth, not some 3rd world wet dream about 'pearly' gates and streets of gold! Let them keep their bullshit religion to themselves. Laugh at christians who place their little nativity scenes with SNOW- ha! next to their gaudy pagan Christmas trees! Snicker as these fools kiss under the mistletoe and trade presents (all in the name of the fallacy of the tale of the wise men's gifts). Lustfully laugh as they one-up each other by trading material possessions in disrespect of ALL christ's teachings, all under the veil of "Giving" when its really all about what you get to them...

But in the end, Don't let your healthy scorn for these hypocrites outweigh your respect for the power of a million clueless dolts. Dolts they are, truly, in every sense. But they are also the most bloodthirsty successful idiots on the planet. Steered by a few evil men, their masses can commit any murder, torture, rapine without flinching simply by moving you and your people into the "unsaved" column. When they rationalize that fairy tale demons will be malignantly roasting you for all eternity, it kind of shuts off what "morality" they have. No one wields immorality with the righteousness of Christian zealots.

So, Be Aware! This is what we are up against= a mass of superstitious cultists, who pray for an hour a week then spend the rest of their time glutting themselves on power, luxury, and greed! They will desecrate THEIR OWN RELIGION a thousand times in a week, then gleefully call YOU down for failing to mind the tenets of THEIR faith that they ignore.

But for every person that still has the capacity to THINK- we have a chance. By exposing the Vanity of their hypocrisy we still have battles to win.

If we lose, THEY will get their own Apocalyptic Fate- Because a world run by christians is surely doomed to self destruct.

Bush versus Bush

Something really big is happening.

Bush senior has stood aside for too long. He had high hopes, he gave a thousand second chances, but in the end, the father knows his final duty to his son, his country.

Baker was the first hammer blow. Dubya, losing on all fronts, finally went to his dad's men for help. What he got was Baker. Bush was led to believe that Baker's ISG was supposed to set the course for more illusions about Iraq. He was wrong.

Gates was the second hammer blow. But without any other options, Bush pushed Gates instead of another of his loyalist cronies, who were sure to be grilled much more than Gates ended up being. Gates was a thousand times more up front than ANY of the Republicans who we have seen expound on Bush's policies, as they repeated them verbatim.

I have been holding out on my judgement on Gates. My fellow liberals want to throw him to the wolves, but I have some good things from some people close to him. Gates holds no sense of loyalty to Shrub.

And the day after Gates attains his position, the ISG comes down hard on "staying the course"= which they had to. Bush senior knows what the entire Republican party (except perhaps Lincoln Chafee) does not- Iraq IS a Failure and Immediate withdrawal is necessary for all the reasons I have expounded upon before. Plus One: The House of Saud is no longer happy with Iraq. The seismic echoes from Baghdad are being felt more and more in Saudi Arabia. Bush Sr. knows what he has to do.

So the orders have come down from Daddy Bush- which is another reason he was crying in Jeb's arms the other day. He has just orchestrated the final nail in his own son's political coffin. But only after George jr had put so many nails in the Republican party's coffin.

Bush has ruined the Republican party for the next decade, maybe longer. Bush Sr. can't let his son drunkenly screw the pooch any longer. It's over for Dubya, and a father cries for a son that even he has to admit is a complete and utter failure.

It's about goddamn time Bush whipped his son's miserable ass.
It's about time.

A thousand failures.

The news of American government is often bleak and full of incompetence. Failures abound all around us, even as our corporate sponsored media puts happy faces on corpses.

American Government in ... "action".

It's a story of U.S. government officials letting people die, and refusing to lift a finger as the situation spirals downward because they are too worried about their own asses. It's a familiar tale these days.

This story is yet another microcosm of how inept our government has become. Anyone who is in charge is frozen in fear for themselves. Time and time again, they fail to perform their duties which rolls downhill in a domino effect of disaster. Our entire country is wallowing in selfish, cover-your-own-ass thinking that destroys Everything that America is supposed to be based on.
Everywhere you look there is failure after failure in this government's policies. The men who SHOULD be most outspoken about these failures are the men who have failed. And when they fail to acknowledge their failures - they fail to acknowledge a need to correct the many mistakes they have made. Nothing can be learned in their constant mental state of denial.

Katrina. Iraq. Global Warming. Terrorism. The major mistakes that are common knowledge to Americans, but yet still those who NEED to be held accountable have not been. Still they pass the buck and blame everyone but themselves.

Then there are: Work related Hazards. Immigration/Border control issues. Crime. Healthcare, housing, and pyschological care for our veterans. Living wages and healthcare for our poverty stricken citizenry, whose numbers increase every day. These "small" issues that affect the very heart of our nation in thousands of ways.

It starts with every last one of us- We are the stewards of our own future. How our country's destiny may wax and wane is in our own hands. Are the people of America up to the task?

This is not just some politician's job. It's not "out of my hands". No- it definitely IS NOT! When you surrender your rights like that you not only surrender yourselves- but your weaken all of your countrymen and women.

Pull up your sleeves and work for the common good and the betterment of America. That is Exactly how we can save our country from threats both without and within.

Again, I ask - I beseech you all to dig deep and ask YOURSELF:
"Am I going to sit here and do nothing or am I going to make a difference?"

Our Future is a shared one. Do your part.

Rain just turned six...

I don't post anything personal very often, but my youngest child just turned six years old. I thought I'd dote a little bit since "my baby" isn't a baby any longer.... (sigh) Here's a few pics from her Proud daddy.

Damn I am getting old. And meanwhile I am busting my ass right now getting the oldest's christmas present ready in time... He is 17 and I am rebuilding a hot rod for him. Just finished putting the paint on it Sat night. Rain (yes, Caveman, that is a pretty hippy name- her sister's name is Amy Sky - sue me) is already designing the car she wants me to build her... So far all that I know is that it has be "Blue, not pink-, NOT have a top, and have flames." I will get right on that...

Anyway- Everyone have a great day!

I wish they just didn't like my fucking pants

Friday Funked up Video
Enjoy.
Do something worthwhile with your life this weekend, you worthless bastardos!



www.thebastardfairies.com

Officers and Gentlemen..

Bill Moyers makes an impassioned speech in his lecture at the United States Military Academy to a group of our future military officers.

(from Common Dreams): The Entire speech is, like all of Moyer's lectures, inspiring, thoughtful and poetic.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1129-21.htm

An Excerpt:

We were warned of this by our founders. They had put themselves in jeopardy by signing the Declaration of Independence; if they had lost, that parchment could have been their death warrant, for they were traitors to the Crown and likely to be hanged. In the fight for freedom they had put themselves on the line—not just their fortunes and sacred honor but their very persons, their lives. After the war, forming a government and understanding both the nature of war and human nature, they determined to make it hard to go to war except to defend freedom; war for reasons save preserving the lives and liberty of your citizens should be made difficult to achieve, they argued. Here is John Jay’s passage in Federalist No. 4:

It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; nay, absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans. These and a variety of other motives, which affect only the mind of the sovereign, often lead him to engage in wars not sanctified by justice or the voice and interests of his people.

And here, a few years later, is James Madison, perhaps the most deliberative mind of that generation in assaying the dangers of an unfettered executive prone to war:

In war, a physical force is to be created, and it is the executive will which is to direct it. In war, the public treasures are to be unlocked, and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. In war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed. It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace.

I want to be clear on this: Vietnam did not make me a dove. Nor has Iraq; I am no pacifist. But they have made me study the Constitution more rigorously, both as journalist and citizen. Again, James Madison:

In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. Beside the objection to such a mixture to heterogeneous powers, the trust and the temptation would be too great for any one man.

Twice in 40 years we have now gone to war paying only lip service to those warnings; the first war we lost, the second is a bloody debacle, and both rank among the great blunders in our history. It is impossible for soldiers to sustain in the field what cannot be justified in the Constitution; asking them to do so puts America at war with itself. So when the Vice President of the United States says it doesn’t matter what the people think, he and the President intend to prosecute the war anyway, he is committing heresy against the fundamental tenets of the American political order.

The full article is an amazing trip through the history of our American military and the inherent duties of each officer. He concludes with this statement:

I know the final rule of the military Code of Conduct is already written in your hearts: “I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free...” The meaning of freedom begins with the still, small voice of conscience, when each of us decides what we will live, or die, for.

MCCS1977

Yo-
I am joining the Military Group-Blog MCCS1977 - Making Conservatives Cringe since 1977 headed by Frederick Bieling. That means my posts may be fewer and far between right here... I don't know yet. There's a great group of people over there that I am joining - Navyswan, Bacchus, and of course Fred, himself.

My weird mix of Ultra-Liberal, Extreme TRUE Conservative, Redneck Blue-Collar, Elite intellectualism will be tempered by their worthy perspectives.

So Check it out - Put it on your blogroll and comment away. I will probably still be posting my own fiery brand of West Texas tinged Political Turmoil here from time to time too...

http://www.mccs1977.com/

Here's my first post on MCCS- Where is RFK when you need him?

If not us, who. If not now, when

This is actually a reply to one of my longtime detractors, a fellow Texan, Caveman. It is response to his canned reply to yesterdays' post:

Caveman said:
"Fade do you belive everything the terrorist say?"

Fade said:
No, I hate everything the neocons stand for.

Seriously, How in the hell do you separate one of these terrorists from the other? How do you separate the men who sponsors kidnapping and torture on noncombatants, who has ordered clusterbombs dropped in civilian areas, (Rumsfeld,Bush) from the men who sends teens into civilian areas strapped with a suicide bomb (Hamas leaders)?

Both are evil men who use others to sow seeds of destruction. Both groups' acts do not Protect their peoples nor secure their holdings. The Iraq "War" is NOT a war. The Israel/Palestinian situation is NOT a war. A war is a battle between two organized sides for control. There are many on both sides of each of those situations that want only peace. But we are infiltrated by terrorists like YOU, Caveman, on every side; men like you who SPONSOR terror, murder, violence, mayhem and help fan the flames of hate towards their own people.

Do you want to know what a terrorist thinks, Caveman? Look in the mirror. Everytime you say that we need to kill them all, everytime you say it's okay to kill their children, everytime you turn a blind eye to yet another dead Palestinian family - You are condoning Terrorist activities. I don't cringe in fear of those who want to kill me. I don't want to kill their family members or their kids, or their entire nation in retribution for the hate of a few. I rise above the shit that you are wallowing in. I Hold out my hand in TRUE peace, in True Humanity to those who desire peace- and luckily for us all- there are more of US than there are of you bloodthirsty bastards.

I look at my kids, and I do have fears- Fears that my kids will live in a world of hate because people are too damn stubborn to give up their hates and find common ground in their humanity. Maybe one day, you can put your own humanity before your hate. I hope for ALL of our sakes, that everyone of you out there that believes that terror,murder,and torture is the answer can do so for the world's sake. It starts with each of us.

If not us, who? If not now, when?
Murdering each other endlessly is not an answer.

Israel's hypocrisy knows no bounds

"I hold out my hand in peace to our Palestinian neighbours in the hope that it won't be returned empty." Ehud Olmert, Nov.2006

Olmert calls for peace with Palestine (from the BBC). Do his words mean anything?
Full Article

On October 30th, Olmert gave a speech to the Knesset in which he equated that all Palestinian victims over the last few months were terrorists. Over 300 Palestinians have been killed in the past four months by the aggressive actions of the IDF. Most of those were women and children.

If Olmert's appalling reaction to the Hezbollah conflict is any indication, his idea of holding out his hand in peace is simply to allow Palestinian leaders to kiss his ring. This is simply a ploy to mollify world opinion at the prompting of Bush, who is at his lowest point politically. If Israel continues their slash and burn method of the so-called peace process then pretty soon they will lose any credibility they once held. After Olmert's horrendous handling of the Lebanon situation, he doesn't have any political capital to spare either.

Olmert claimed that Lebanon was at fault for not disarming Hezbollah, and he began their pre-planned campaign to punish Hezbollah (and ALL of Lebanon- christians and non-Hezbollah be damned). Lebanon was a tragic mistake. And it gave the world, who had grown tired and forgetful of the atrocities committed against the Palestinians, fresh perspective of just how damned callous and destructive that Israel's policies are: 1,000 Lebanese civilians dead, $500 million dollars worth of damage, millions of dollars worth of missles spent bombing every possible target (including UN peacekeepers) and Israel still lost- having to draw back in defeat as Hezbollah proved a wilier foe than they imagined.

Peacemaking efforts ARE the answer. I just don't know how much of Olmert's "Peace" the middle east can take. He's a liar and like most of the "Kill them before they kill us" crowd, he's a violent, immoral fool who justifies the deaths of hundreds of children as a necessity that will eventually save Israeli lives.

He is wrong. Comparing the actions and words of Israel's ruling neocons with those of America's ruling neocons reveals that under such leadership any peace process has been disastrously hindered. Both governments' are now guilty of tyrannical atrocities that will NEVER promote any serious peace. And as the world recognizes this more and more, the opinion of both the United States and Israel plummet. It then becomes harder and harder to talk of peace believably or even implement diplomacy seriously.

A recent American visitor to Israel speaks of the hypocrisy:
A Vision of Peace, a Reality of Hypocrisy

Will Israel eventually become a victim of its own hate and aggression? Can Israelis who want to live in peace EVER take back their country from the far right wing radicals, who love nothing so much as spilling blood in the name of their country?

And, as an American, just how close to Israel's self-destructive behavior is the United States moving?

Related articles:

Israeli Responsiblity

Laying mines in Lebanon:

Previous blogs I have written about the Israeli/Palestine Conflict
House of the Rising Sons I: Palestine

Thanksgiving Prayer

2006 Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanks for a nation of new brown people to punish and kill
Thanks for our main stream media, to whose lies we can thrill
Thanks for our President's attention deficit disorder,
Thanks for our constitution, even though it's now a bit shorter
Thanks for torture, extradition and the secret tucked away prison
Thanks for the American flag blindfolds, to block out our vision
Thanks for our troops dying over there and not here
Thanks for our Pundit overlords, who assure us they aren't queer
Thanks for a most Christian god, and America so uniquely blessed
Thanks for tax cuts for the rich and our minimum wage repressed
Thanks for $10,000 plates at Political fundraisers
Thanks for a patriotic line that we can tightrope like razors

But Thank you the most for showing us the truth of our democracy
and forcing us all to kneel, bow and scrape at the altar of hypocrisy.

My Thanks this Thanksgiving are for Americans like Hunter Thompson, William Burroughs, Keith Olbermann, Matt Taibbi, Navyswan, Actor212, Fred, John Amato, Mirth, Buck, QuestionGirl, Bacchus, Larry Johnson, Juan Cole, Amy Goodman, Johnathan Alter, Seymour Hersh, Ava Lowery, the crew at General de Jesus and the thousands of others out there who aren't afraid to tell it like it fucking is.

Salut!