The Grand Masturbation of the Non-Reformists

"Nothing you do matters! It's all for naught! I am above you because I quit trying! So there! Phbbbt!"

Of course, they throw around their defeatist logic in much more erudite terms, but that's basically the gist of it. I've got no other way to put it but this :

Fucking Cowards.

Sorry. That's you. That's those of you who whine that it doesn't matter. And THEN when we tell you to get off your fucking asses and help do something- you oh-so-smugly "educate" us that it's all some worthless endeavor. "There is nothing you can do to change anything, goddamnit, cuz we-are-Powerless! Don't you see?!" you scream as you pull your asshairs out in clumps-

"Don't you See ?!?!?"

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All I see is a crowd of losers who give up once everything doesn't go exactly their way. The worst of the worst of this ilk- is the Grand Masturbator himself, Ioz. The pseudo-intellectual poobah whom the disenfranchised flock to like a golden Nader idol. "We won't vote- We'll show you!"

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I have never seen such a smug apathy-selling blogger. Wallowing in his own shit, he passes down his judgement on all who would dare attempt to make a difference. Here, again, he restates what passes for his principles:

The Occasional Restatement of Principles

You know, most Americans are imperialists. One of the reasons--the reason--that it so amuses me to find the occasional commenter here ask me why I offer no practical solutions to "our" problems, why the closest I ever come to advocating for direct action is to propose minor acts of cultural vandalism. Being an anti-imperialist in America is like being a Zionist in the Third Reich. I am a fringe radical. If you agree with even a tenth of what you read on this site, you too are a fringe radical. Your beliefs and opinions are not reflective of those of your countrymen. The question, "How do we stop being imperialists?" bears as much practical import as, "How do we live without breathing?" We don't. The United States of America is an empire. Maybe you think it's on the downhill slide? I certainly hope so. But it is what it is, nevertheless. The notions that within the body of empire lurks the heart of an egalitarian, constitutional republic, or a libertarian minarchy, or a parliamentary social democracy are the purest forms of political self-flattery. The subjects here may be largely political, but the program is purely perceptual. I am not a reformist.

He'th Amuthed. Well, shit on me.

Look, you pawn shop Socrates- you can sell fiddles until Rome burns if you like, but don't try to pawn your bullshit on me that you are some kind of radical. "The closest I ever come to adovocating.." Jaysus fucking Christ. Spare me your master plan of breaking windows to stop Imperialism, mkay? "like a Zionist in the Third Reich" ... good fucking grief. While pissants like you were telling your neighbors you can't fight the Third Reich, this Imperialist power did indeed help the Jews win in the end. The Third Reich didn't last, for all the help nihilists like you are. The Neoconservative movement won't last either. Unless a lot of good people stand aside and let them run roughshod because they feel apathetic towards it all. .
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Within the body of THIS Empire, there ARE people like me- and there is the heart of a constitutional republic. We are NOT a minority in this country, although I do surely hope that if you are right about one thing it is that people with your mindset are a tiny, flaccid minority. Everything evolves. And if you haven't noticed, this Empire has actually steadily improved on all fronts- UNTIL the advent of the neoconservative radicals. So don't piss on my head and tell me it's a torrential downpour. There's work to be done. And our actions, and yes, even our votes can be used to shift the direction of this empire.

It's times like this that I actually miss certain things about being part of the Republican sheeple- as stupid as that may sound- I never ran into anyone crying in a corner saying they were ready to give up fighting. We need to rally around the Democratic candidate, whoever that might be- because that's the important battle before us. It isn't proving that some half ass huckster like Nader can make a few votes and pocket some change every four years. It isn't about showing the Dems that they you won't vote because they didn't cater as much to the left as you wanted.

It is about slowing down the Radical neo-conservative ultra Imperalists in our current government. And that battle is won by defeating the Republican party.

It is about winning the class war in America by defeating the Republican party.

It is about defanging the racist, sexist, corrupt Republican party and bringing our soldiers home. PERIOD

I just have ONE Question for you: Of all the legislation that Bush threatened to veto and came out swinging against the Dem party in speech after speech - How much would have passed if there would have been a Democrat, ANY Democrat in the oval office? That, I believe, is a valid question.

So, Ioz, spare some of us who are actually out here trying to improve the country, not help continue the Imperial Corporatocracy- Why don't you focus on something important like this
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And, I'll leave you with one more Warhol quote, useless bastard that he was:
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"I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment." "
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The Iozs of the world might as well have blank epitaths, because no one remembers the crybabies on the sidelines who champion the Imperialists by default. Nothing WILL change, while the country is populated with these impotent self-important folks who think they are above it all.
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They aren't. And by the time these people are forced into activity from their comfort zones- it will be too late. Don't be just another couch potato. Just because Ioz is intelligent, doesn't mean the sum of his inactions make him anything more than just another Homer Simpson, albeit one with a blog.

I shall conclude with a bit from The Sermon To The Hypocrite by Zos, who may be a spiritual ancestor to Ioz:

O, ye whose future is in other hands! This familiarity is permitted not of thy-but of my impotence. Know me as Zos the Goatherd, saviour of myself and of those things I have not yet regretted. Unbidden ye listen'd to my soliloquy. Endure then my Anathema.

Foul feeders! Slipped, are ye, on your own excrement?
Parasites! Having made the world lousy, imagine ye are of significance to Heaven?

Desiring to learn-think ye to escape hurt in the rape of your ignorance? For of what I put in, far more than innocence shall come out! Labouring not the harvest of my weakness, shall I your moral-fed desires satisfy?

I, who enjoy my body with unweary tread, would rather pack with wolves than enter your pest-houses.

Sensation . . Nutrition . . . Mastication . . . . Procreation . . . ! This
is your blind-worm cycle. Ye have made a curiously bloody world for love in desire. Shall nothing change except through your accusing diet?

IN THAT YE ARE CANNIBALS, what meat should I offer?
Having eaten of your dead selves savoured with every filth, ye now raven to glutton of my mind's motion?

In your conflict ye have obtained . . . ? Ye who believe your procreation is ultimate are the sweepings of creation manifest, returning again to early simplicity to hunger, to become, and realise-ye are not yet. Ye have muddled time and ego.

Think ye to curb the semen SENTIMENTALLY? Ye deny sexuality with tinsel ethics, live by slaughter, pray to greater idiots-that all things may be possible to ye WHO ARE IMPOSSIBLE.

For ye desire saviours useless to pleasure.

Verily, far easier for madmen to enter Heaven than moral Lepers. Of what difference is Life or Death? Of what difference is dream or reality? Know ye nothing further than you own stench? Know ye what ye think ye know for certain? Fain would I be silent. Yet too tolerant is this Sun that comethup to behold me, and my weakness comes of my dissatisfaction of you solicit. . . . but be ye damned before obtaining fresh excuses of me!
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Cursed are the Reformists! Cursed I say!.

UPDATE: Those defending the idea of that nothing Americans can do matters are working pretty hard to convince me. Not exactly the action I was hoping for, but at least they seem to be doing something to change others, even if they don't believe in it...

A final note (from the comments):

Party affiliation isn't the end-all, be-all. It's important to get in the individuals who will support the issues that you want. Yes, it seems hopeless. But what the Deconstructionists don't seem to realize is that you can get mired in your own complexity. I have no doubt that Ioz (and the rest of you guys, for that matter) are more intelligent than those who support the status quo.

HOWEVER, their continuance of power relies upon your "deconstruction". The less you do, the easier it is FOR THEM to maintain control. They may not be brainiacs, but they realize this simple strategy. The subtleties of the political spectrum are NOT Lost on me, I choose to step over them in order to implement a strategy that sets back the status quo elite. Yes, Hillary and Obama are not the candidate I want- but Change is not some Overnight sensation as some of you seem to feel- it is a gradual evolution.

You have to win small battles and get the most progressive choices you have into office over the worst of the worst. Unfortunately, if the "Ioz crowd" decides to sit this one out, in the name of apathy, or Deconstruction, or what have you- it's a win for the worst. There is a reason they (the status quo pimps) are winning. And it's because there are more people willing to sit out Democracy than participate- And whether you claim it's for some Deconstructionist purpose, or whether you are simply one of those people to lazy to vote, the end result is the same.

Defeat.

It's the Status Quo folks that PUT us down, but its the Ioz's who KEEP us down.

Watch this video

Montel Calls out Conservative

"Stop turning this into a political issue while I gotta man sitting there suffering. It's not a political issue"...

"This is not the time to get a soundbite. Tell me what you're gonna do about this man sitting here before you" ...

"Then let's get the President right now to take responsibility. He's the Commander in Chief- Quit turning his back on people who's doing his dirty work. Why not do that? "...

"I want a Republican and a Democrat to go tell that President- listen to me, you were a Reservist, you didn't even put your uniform on and do the real job-Why don't you now support the people who did?"

The truth is, if the President wanted to fix this, he could. And not ONE Democrat would vote against money for the healthcare of the troops.

So, the question is, Why doesn't the Decider do something?

I think we all know the answer.

There's plenty of money to finance Blackwater. But there is not a damn dime for troops that can't fight anymore. Once an American soldier is wounded beyond ability to serve in Iraq, the Republicans don't support them ANY LONGER.

UPDATE: Frederick has more on McCain and Veteran's Healthcare

Sunday, bloody Sunday

Easter letter from Michael Moore:

Friends,

It would have to happen on Easter Sunday, wouldn't it, that the 4,000th American soldier would die in Iraq. Play me that crazy preacher again, will you, about how maybe God, in all his infinite wisdom, may not exactly be blessing America these days. Is anyone surprised?

4,000 dead. Unofficial estimates are that there may be up to 100,000 wounded, injured, or mentally ruined by this war. And there could be up to a million Iraqi dead. We will pay the consequences of this for a long, long time. God will keep blessing America.

And where is Darth Vader in all this? A reporter from ABC News this week told Dick Cheney, in regards to Iraq, "two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting." Cheney cut her off with a one word answer: "So?"

"So?" As in, "So what?" As in, "F*** you. I could care less."

I would like every American to see Cheney flip the virtual bird at the them, the American people. Click here and pass it around. Then ask yourself why we haven't risen up and thrown him and his puppet out of the White House.

The Democrats have had the power to literally pull the plug on this war for the past 15 months -- and they have refused to do so. What are we to do about that? Continue to sink into our despair? Or get creative? Real creative. I know there are many of you reading this who have the chutzpah and ingenuity to confront your local congressperson. Will you? For me?

Cheney spent Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the war, not mourning the dead he killed, but fishing off the Sultan of Oman's royal yacht. So? Ask your favorite Republican what they think of that.

The Founding Fathers would never have uttered the presumptuous words, "God Bless America." That, to them, sounded like a command instead of a request, and one doesn't command God, even if they are America. In fact, they were worried God would punish America. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington feared that God would react unfavorably against his soldiers for the way they were behaving. John Adams wondered if God might punish America and cause it to lose the war, just to prove His point that America was not worthy. They and the others believed it would be arrogant on their part to assume that God would single out America for a blessing. What a long road we have traveled since then.

I see that Frontline on PBS this week has a documentary called "Bush's War." That's what I've been calling it for a long time. It's not the "Iraq War." Iraq did nothing. Iraq didn't plan 9/11. It didn't have weapons of mass destruction. It DID have movie theaters and bars and women wearing what they wanted and a significant Christian population and one of the few Arab capitals with an open synagogue.

But that's all gone now. Show a movie and you'll be shot in the head. Over a hundred women have been randomly executed for not wearing a scarf. I'm happy, as a blessed American, that I had a hand in all this. I just paid my taxes, so that means I helped to pay for this freedom we've brought to Baghdad. So? Will God bless me?

God bless all of you in this Easter Week as we begin the 6th year of Bush's War.

God help America. Please.
Michael Moore

They're still there, we're still here.

Polishifter posts about the antiwar protests at Huntington beach recently...
There's a lot of great pictures of patriotic Americans using their freedom to speak out.

How many more? lives, souls, dollars, years..?

And to those of you who have recently been championing Nader - A vote for Nader won't stop the war. It won't stop lives from being wasted in Iraq. The ONLY way to do that is to vote for whichever Democratic candidate ends up running for President and holding them to getting us out of Iraq. THIS ELECTION is it. War or No war? It's a simple enough choice to me.

I Link, therefore I am...

What about that oil?

What's in a name? Barack Hussein style

Dr. Ben Marble (the guy who told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself) sent me a link to his new music vid - Go FU Cheney music vid

Texas - the CO2 State

Israeli Minister threatens Palestine with Holocaust

Watching Bill Maher's program the other day, with Kingston and Frum, I really wanted to reach through the tv and knock the shit out of Kingston. The guy is a total lying sleazebag and the people he's really lying to the most are his own supporters, republicans. He was pimping the flag pin/pledge of allegiance bullshit. This video I found at Americablog pretty much refutes this new pile of steaming republican lies. I have noticed Dan Abrams has been taking it to the liars pretty well lately, ala Olbermann. He's like the anti-Joe Scarborough.

And last but not least, Olbermann dissects the Bushspeak ....

Random observation: Going through my sitemeter and reviewing some of the hits I got through google searches DOES NOT give me any faith in my fellow man... There are some sick fucks out there.

Can't kill everybody

After reading this account of our soldiers in Afghanistan, I am reminded that the situation there is no less fucked up than in Iraq.

Fixer at Alternate Brain , who like me, is not one to mince words, posts today that we could have already won in Afghanistan if we would've have been more merciless. I understand the sentiment, really I do, and I always felt that Afghanistan was different from Iraq. I believed they deserved it. Why? Because Osama was there right? He was in charge, with the Taliban, right? Well, whatever. But also, I thought Afghanistan deserved what they got because, if nothing else, they seemed to be celebrating the 9-11 attacks. So, fuck em, right? But years past that knee jerk kill em all feeling- the one that also told me that sending our troops there was justified- I don't seem to believe my simple minded revenge horseshit anymore. Alternate Brain is one of my favorite spots- and I respect Fixer and his opinion on this matter, even though I disagree. He certainly isn't some neocon gasbag postulating emptily on this matter. It's understandable to wish "the enemy" was all dead so our soldiers could come home and get some relief from the never-ending hell that the Republican party has inflicted on them.

Here's a brief excerpt from "Wanna go to war?"-

And thinking about it, I think I should explain.

According to the narrative we've heard since 11 September 2001, the nation of Afghanistan harbored Osama bin Laden and facilitated the attacks on the US. Fine. Why did we go in there saying 'we'll take out the Taliban, but we're gonna go over there and win hearts and minds'?

Let me explain something. You don't go to war worrying about winning hearts and minds. You go to war to break the enemy, pound him far enough so he surrenders. War is ugly, dirty, and a last resort but if you're gonna go, you have to go ugly and dirty. Why in Hell do you think they call it 'war'?

We should have blown Afghanistan to shit, period. Fuck the innocents, fuck everything and kill 'em all. Worry about building hearts and minds later. There should have been a horrible price exacted from them for attacking America. Instead, we have the mess we do now. We have guys in Hindu Kush getting killed using the same tactics the Mujaheddin used against the Russians. You don't go in to a war worrying about offending sensibilities. It's war for crying out loud.

full article

My reply in the comments there:

The sentiment that you can "kill them all" is some Neocon John Wayne Bullshit. You can't kill them all. You could send in fire missions til we run out of bombs, you can kill every civvie you see every day for the next year, and you won't Kill them all. The Afghani people didn't do 9-11. Saudis and Bin Ladin did. Going all Rambo/Ace of Spades wouldn't do anything but make America a genuine Nazi nation, and make us a hell of lot more subject to global ridicule and retaliation. As long as we have the benefit of the doubt, even the barest shred of illusion that we are doing the right thing, we won't be held accountable as much as we would if we went in with a true scorched earth policy. So, sorry, but I think that the notion of killing every woman and child in Afghanistan only does one thing: Gives the psychos their jollies. "Do we get to win this time?" It's pure bullshit. And the soldiers who came back from the mass slaughter of truly innocent villagers this would involve- would be forever fucked in the head. Be careful what you wish for.

(Update: To clarify- the reference to 'gives the psychos their jollies' is in no way directed at Fixer, but at the macho neocon chickenhawks that always use the kill 'em all argument)

And I recalled having posting on the Kill em all mindset before, at the Old House. Here is the full post from that day, July 14 2006 (during Israel's assault on Lebanon)

How many times have you heard your neighbor or co-worker say something along the lines of "We ought to kill them all!" ?

As much as Republicans want to distance themselves from any comparisons to Nazi-like tendencies- GENOCIDE - was a tool used by the Nazis. And to seriously discuss Genocide, as if it were some possibility or tactic- is to court the absolute worst crime of the 20th century and make yourself an easy target for comparisons to the Nazi party.

Since this topic was initiated by my employer, (an Ex Army Officer, veteran of two tours in Viet Nam, a helicopter pilot who was awarded several medals) I will address the genocide solution to Palestinians- whom he was blaming for all terror acts as we watched Israeli shells blowing Lebanon to bits while the Lebanese Army, hopelessly outmatched, stood aside and simply did damage control against the Israeli onslaught.

I noted to him that blowing up innocent civilians, whether you do it with a homemade bomb OR a shell from a tank that America sold Israel- was still an act of terror to the civilian population.

"One of these days, we're going to- have to kill them all, kill all of these ... Palestinians. Don't you think?" He asked, probably a little less forcefully than normal because he knows I have intricate opinions on world politics. Now I suppose the standard Texan's response is "Hell yes. Kill them before they kill us." But that's simplistic propaganda of the lowest common denominator.

I replied that I didn't think we can eradicate a "people". It's just not possible. And if it was, the results would be horrendous and America WOULD be considered the new Nazis around the globe. He quickly changed the subject to the price of oil, spiking during Israel's invasion. It was the end of the day and nothing more was discussed about it.

Later I thought about all the times I have seen some otherwise humane and thoughtful American spouting Genocidal nonsense as if it WERE A SOLUTION. It is not.

But, since this idea is constantly running through the backs of so many Americans' minds- let's take a look at the simple realities of those who supposedly love freedom and democracy to entertain the mass murder of millions:

"They all want to kill us". No. They don't. There are 1.5 billion adherents to Islam on the planet- If they all wanted to kill us, there would be MUCH MUCH More strife than what we see. Those jihadists, like American genocidists, are very much in the minority. And it's a good thing- because it is insanity to believe you can destroy billions of people in their entirety.

If we want to eradicate all the worshippers of Islam- that's a lot of killing. Short of a massive nuclear war that would kill more than two thirds of the people on the planet, it's NOT going to happen. And if you want it to, you belong in a loony bin.

Okay, you say, you're not advocating killing ALL the muslims- that's crazy. You KNOW that- but killing all the terrorists- Yeah, that's the ticket. Well, who are the terrorists? They are NOT Entire nations. We cannot label every Palestinian a jew-hating terrorist just like we can't label every Israeli a Haji-hating terrorist. I know pro-peace movement people on both sides- who have the hardest job of all- convincing their own people that the solution to unending violence is Not More Violence. Sounds like a no-brainer, but the hate stops brains from working properly.

Well, okay- I get it- but still, the Palestinians MAINLY hate us all and so we should kill them all, man,woman, and child. Then there would be no terror.

Okay- well let's examine it. Let's say in a joint Israeli/American operation we do just that. We kill every Palestinian in Israel/Palestine. Well that's 5.3 million. How we are expected to just kill them all, I will leave the details to the vivid imaginations of the Genocidists. Gas chambers perhaps? But after those 5 million are dead, theres another 4 million in other countries. I suppose we can root them out with the aid of the other countries.

Now once we have killed those 9 million "terrorists" we're good, right? That will solve everything? Do you think that the 1,491,000,000 muslims left in the global population would stand by and let America commit genocide? Would Christians stand by as 9 million of their people were systematically slaughtered?

No one would- The world would rise together, aghast, as we did in response to WWII and America would be finished as a world power.

So, please - PLEASE - put away your scorched earth armchair quarterback fantasies- because that mentality can lead to the ruin of America. And more to the point- this type of mentality allows the American people to tacitly approve of other evil useless insanity such as torture and secret prisons. This mindset is THAT OF THE JIHADISTS. Do you hate EVERYTHING the terrorists believe in and what they stand for? Then stop supporting it, in the guise of supporting America. It's wrong.

The only solution is diplomacy, peace and empathy. Oh you damn hippies!
That notion doesn't sit well with the scorched earth crowd who say that No peace-spouter ever solved anything. Is that true? Really?

Ghandi didn't? Jesus didn't? Jesus is a prophet to Muslims as well as christians. Bet the average christian doesn't know that. You might as well throw your bible away if you aren't going to at least attempt to follow Jesus' teachings. Countless others have fought against taking the easy path, to War- and persevered.

So if we can't kill everyone who disagrees with us, can we work to GET ALONG?
It's not as hard as some of the haters want you to believe.

Can't you stop bleeding from your bowels and start bleeding with your heart like some of us who realize the answer is PEACE?

We have seen the alternative in Ireland, in Palestine, In Iraq. In every country on the planet at one time or another. PEACE is the ONLY solution.

UPDATE: Taibbi has more on McCain and America's love of "the good wars"

Levels of Fucked up

Whiskey Dick


Beaver Enlightenment


Stuck Sober


Totally Fucking Wasted out of Your muthafucking gourd

Self consumption

Arthur Silber is back and with a little help from Matt Taibbi , tells us, again:

Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system.

I love Arthur's writing. I love his passion and his fire. After reading this article, however, I wondered if people sometimes read my rants and have the bitter taste left in their mouth that Arthur's rant left in mine-

Shorter Arthur: The system is fucked. All Progressives are fucked. You are probably a hypocrite for not noticing. But even if you do notice, you will still just eat shit and die.

Arthur's writings have had their own effect on me. I sometimes believe that if just enough people could see the truth or if they only believed what I do, that the country would change overnight. People would suddenly comprehend what Arthur says and what I say and what a thousand others are saying and we would rise up and force the politicians to change as a result.

I don't see Arthur leading a rebellion with his cats, his sickbed mounted on a tank. I don't see myself leading a crowd of veterans to storm the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys, even though I truly believe these lying, self-serving propagandists are destroying all that is truly patriotic in our country. I can't see Keith Olbermann calling Bush a traitor to his face. I cannot see the leader of a superchurch that says "Enough is Enough. Torture and murder is un-christian, we have sinned in this war". I can't see a few good millionaires standing up against the crowd in the whitehouse looting the treasury. I can't see a nation that rises up against a system that is self-destructing in a full rebellion against this 2 party corporatocracy.

That's a lot of pain to inflict upon ourselves for a nation that is still only partially broken. It will get worse before it gets better. It is bad now, but it hasn't quite fallen apart yet. We still do have options, even though they are not as pure, as perfect as we'd like them to be. From this high ground of self-awareness, nothing seems to be a good idea but to completely remove the ranks of politicians and fill it with our clones. Everyone else is just an appeaser to the system that has failed us.

At the end of Arthur's article, I get nothing but a world of eternal shit. It isn't that bad yet. It may get there. Arthur's writing has done me a service, over and over, by helping me understand the everyday hypocrisy that we all have had a hand in, as citizens of a nation that is responsible for a million deaths- and barring protests, have done nothing to stop it. Nothing really. We haven't sacrificed anything to stop it. Nor will we. Until it gets worse. Not for those damn Iraqis, of course, but worse for ourselves.

Arthur believes that Americans are fooling ourselves more than I believe we are. Look, we know the score, and deep inside, as a people, we just don't give a shit about those dead people half a planet away. Even the worst neocon anti-environmentalist understands that the world's resources are limited, and that we all will die, and that in order for some to prosper, others will have to die sooner. There is predator and there is prey. As long as the American people don't feel the full-fledged bite of the predator, then we will remain content. As long as we are the top predator in the food chain, we will not be overly concerned with the plight of the prey. We are animals. We are chattel, too.

If our "hope", in the form of Obama or Clinton, offers nothing in reality, then we will sink further into excrement. We will be one step closer to being prey instead of lead predator as a result of our gross depletion of everything in sight.

There is a place for balance. If we can find that balance, we can be self-sufficient and survive. In order to balance we must sacrifice efficiently and effectively against our consumption.

If not, the shit we eat and die from will be our own.

UPDATE: The link to Taibbi's piece has a lot of interesting comments as well.
UPDATE 2: Winter Patriot has a comprehensive post on Iraq

The Casual casualties

After reading this over at Unruly Mob, I just can't put up my usual Friday goof-off bullshit...

Semper Fi

Okay - The time of mourning is over

Well, now that Rush and the rest are going to be amping up to Re-label McCain a true conservative to the Republican base, I guess I'm going to have to take off my shroud of mourning for John Edwards and get on the Democratic bus. There will be no more bitching about Hillary or Obama, unless they really do something stupid. My vote will go to whichever is the nominee for the Democratic party, because there really is no alternative.

I will still be pimping Ron Paul for the "I ain't voting for no women, no minorities, and no damn liberals!" crowd. Because like it or not, he's a thousand miles ahead of the Bush crony alternatives. And a vote for Ron Paul is, effectively, a vote for the Democratic party in the end.

So all of you undecided Republicans- Vote your conservative conscience! Vote Paul. Or just don't vote at all, that will show America!

Paul does have his strong points- he's one of the few who understand monetary policy among the candidates. And here was his view on Iraq, stated in the House of Representatives in 2002

I sure like the way he talks about ending the war in Iraq, not because it is a failure, but because it is and has been a farce, from the get-go. Hillary can't do that, because she can't admit she was wrong to vote for the war. I don't mind a little flip-flop, if its under the impression that she was fooled by the corrupt Republicans who wanted this war so bad they broke several laws and traitorously exposed our own anti-terror personnel to our enemies...

Whoever speaks out the strongest against the occupation and getting us out of Iraq will get the nomination. I understand that they are worried about how to frame the withdrawal. For that, they could definitely take a page or two or three from Ron Paul's playbook-

I understand the need to play it safe, but with 70% of Americans wanting our troops home, and most of the remaining 30% being die hard Republican hawks, I think You are safe to say "Support the Troops. Bring them home" And by the way, when we bring them home, we will be saving the American taxpayer a Billion a month (a week?) ...

Iraq's Tragic Future

Common Dreams has an interesting article written by Scott Ritter...

EXCERPT
The continued ambivalence of the American population as a whole toward the war in Iraq, perhaps best manifested by the superficiality of the slogan “Support the Troops,” all the while remaining ignorant of what the troops are actually doing, has led to a similar amnesia among politicians all too willing to allow themselves to seek political advantage at the expense of American life and treasure. January 2008 cost the United States nearly 40 lives in Iraq. The current military budget is unprecedented in its size, and doesn’t even come close to paying for ongoing military operations in Iraq. The war in Iraq has bankrupted Americans morally and fiscally, and yet the American public continues to shake the hands of aspiring politicians who ignore Iraq, pretending that the blood which soaks the hands of these political aspirants hasn’t stained their own. In the sick kabuki dance that is American politics, this refusal to call a spade a spade is deserving of little more than disdain and sorrow.

Hope is all that's left, unfortunately

Polishifter - on another 5 dead soldiers in Iraq

More kids die
More Women die
More Iraqis die
More of everyone dying

"Hillary is a fighter"
"Obama has a voice I can relate to"

Neither matters if they settle into office with all the faux tsunamic force of a Pelosi.

Damn it! Why in the flying fuck do today's progressives choose style, sex and race over a candidate who is promising to get our troops out of there?? Do you people believe that Edwards is a liar? Because Hillary and Obama aren't even TALKING about getting us out of Iraq.

Hillary with all of her AIPAC ties, and Obama "Everything's on the table" with starting NEW wars in Iran. What part of "WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Do you not understand?

Fucking Hell! I just can't understand it. Wake the Fuck up.
Please.

A vote for Hillary, a vote for Obama- is a vote for MORE DEATH in Iraq. There will 5000 dead troops and god knows how many civilians before Bush steps down from office. And after another 4 years of Hillary or Obama there will be 5,000 more.

Goddamnit, wake up.

UPDATE: MSNBC says Edwards is dropping out of the race...
My heart sinks-

Listening to NPR this morning, they had two soundbites of average joes talking about Obama. These voters in Florida explained their support for Obama as being tied to his ability to bring the country together. Well, pardon me, but the country is together, except for the insane 23% of the racist, sexist, Republican base who thinks that George Bush is the greatest person in the world.

They are wrong. And they have been wrong from the get-go. Most of those who supported Bush in the beginning now have seen the error of their way and have come to the light. This has been a dark time in American history and we have yet to see the full ramifications of the Bush presidency. The recession is just beginning and our foreign policy is in shambles. And guess what? I have NO Desire to move to the middle at this point!

We, the far left, have been right over and over. People want change from the ridiculousness of the present system. We were on the cusp of great change. Returning to the middle only serves the ignorance of the Republican base, who are completely happy with the system as is. As radical as real change might be, it is desperately needed. We don't need to shake the hand of our dumb ass Uncle the racist over dinner and say "Agree to disagree." We need to get in his face and say "You stupid fuck- how many soldiers died because you couldn't open your damn eyes? How much will OUR Family suffer because of this recession? How many times have you called ME a traitor as you worshipped at the altar of corporate oil?"

These stupid fuckers don't deserve to have us move closer to their ignorant mindset. Each and every one of them needs to be held down, choking, as we force feed them the truth, no matter how much they don't want to take their medicine. The Right has NO accountability. They are a full blown minority at this point, EXCEPT in the halls of Congress. But that is changing. And Republicans will become less and less powerful in the coming years as a direct result of how wrong they have been on EVERYTHING.

I HOPE Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton do not back down as so many other Democrats have done in recent days. I HOPE that they understand that this country is in dire straits and needs to implement some real change. I HOPE that they will reverse their mealy mouthed stance on Iraq as soon as they are elected and get our troops out of there, post-haste.

The thing is, I didn't HAVE to HOPE that Edwards understood these matters and would take action to correct them. I knew. It am glad he was able to move Hillary and Obama closer to the left on all these issues. I can only hope they ditch their pollsters and their popularity contests and show some real spine and perseverence. Hope, unfortunately, is what the American people are counting on. And now, with the best candidate out of the race, it's all I have as well.

Blog comment of the day

found on one of the stock trading blogs...

(it may have gotten deleted... most of the comments on that thread are getting that way)

"No, shit-for-brains…I’m a military officer trying to keep our boys and girls alive in the midst of one of teh greatest foreign policy coups in our nation’s short history, while you sit on your overweight, fast-food-eating carcass of an arse in the US and act all indignant and patriotic and all that blah.

It’s ignorant citizens like you who let our politicians run afoul of international law and trash our credibility abroad, and then vote for them again so they can finish the job. And it’s citizens like you who put your little red, white and blue flags on your big shiny SUVs, while carefully placing your “No Dogs, Sailors or Soldiers on the Grass” sign on your front lawns.

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And your comment about beheadings is putting the cart before the horse, I’m afraid.
You make me sick. I hate the fact that I swore an oath to defend and die for you."

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GFY

The Totalitarian Mindset

This article by J.R. Nyquist "Alien Minds" seems to both condemn and condone the totalitarian thought process.

My response:

Your article is an interesting one, and with a very sound premise. However, I have to rebuke you for considering "the West" as being an exception to the rule. This is laughable. There are many of us in the West who do indeed wish for a world that is not in a constant state of conflict. But that sentiment is not shared by our current leaders in the United States, who do indeed, live by the thought of future (and present) world war. On one hand, you dismiss and bemoan the thought processes of the Hitlers and Stalins, on the other, you prop up Tocqueville's words to the effect that the opposite of these minds is weakness and capitulation.

Totalitarianism does not except this nation as it expands it conquest- however failed the efforts of our current government.

"History teaches that totalitarian regimes cheat when it comes to arms control." And indeed, the United States and Russia have. Our regime will never give up its nuclear arms, only a fool would suggest this. More's the pity. Everything that you write about our enemies supposed goals from the holier-than-thou attitude of a Westerner can be also be said of the United States. And with the added evidence that we have the been the only aggressor nation in the past 10 years.

The tone of your article, and the emphasis on fear and aggression have indeed have an effect on the regimes of the past. You fail to recognize that in the face of the world's history - in contrast to the major powers of the world, that America has risen to the apex of its power by a history of appeasement, diplomacy, and controlled aggression. We did not rise to power by conquest or invasion or reckless aggression.

Congratulating Moscow on their so-called "stunning achievement" is ridiculous. Of course they would not dismantle their nuclear armaments, not as long as they have plenty of men like Mr. Nyquist, on their side, who are loudly crying that the United States is Russia's most dangerous enemy.

Russia and America own 95% of the world's nuclear weapons. Other countries will slowly gain these same weapons; not out of Nyquist's knee-jerk fear that "they" drool and chomp at the bit to use them against "us" in a suicidal attack- but as bargaining chips that bring them higher up the food chain militarily. We have all the steel - so those around us are only too happy to trade up from their bronze.

The same men who are "worried" that nuclear weapons “could” fall into dangerous hands are the Kissingers who make back room deals to give these weapons to other countries in trade for oil, trade agreements, and enriching themselves.

Mr. Nyquist makes a big point of : "As alien as this way of thinking is to normal people, it is second nature to a man like Vladimir Putin." The sad truth is that the Bush's, the Putin's, the Kissingers ALL own the totalitarian mindset. And Nyquist himself seems to own this mindset, as evidenced by the entire article and his belittling of the opposite - the mindset of the normal people with their "bourgeois morality".

“One death is a tragedy,” Stalin once said, “but one million deaths is a statistic.” Of course, you'd have to prove to me that these shallow power brokers believe that any death but their own is a tragedy.

Progress = Ending the Occupation

Only One Top Dem will End Iraq Occupation

Guess Who that is ?

(from Alternet)
EXCERPT
"According to the National Journal, the Democratic candidates' "disputes over issues have almost completely evaporated in the campaign's final days." The leading Dems, according to the Journal, are beating each other up over who has the most effective "leadership style" or similar abstractions. The notion that the top candidates are virtually identical on the issues and vary only in "tone" -- with Clinton the voice of experience and pragmatism, Obama the feel-good "uniter" who can heal a divided country and John Edwards the aggressive economic populist -- has become, to some degree, the conventional wisdom of campaign 2008.

But, as is often the case, it's also simply wrong."

"While it's true that the big three have similar stances on a number of issues, on Iraq -- the one that Democrats and swing voters say is either their top concern, or No. 2 after the economy -- the top candidates' differences couldn't be more significant. In fact, only John Edwards among the top three Dems would effectively end the occupation of Iraq within a year of taking office."

Stopping the Occupation/"war" is the first step for any real progress in this country. And John Edwards is the only one who I believe will actually attempt to bring our troops home from Iraq as soon as he can.

Anyone who is fed up with the insanity of the neocons has only one real choice to stop more of our soldiers for dying in Iraq for the sake Billionaire War profiteers and neocon chickenhawks.

If you AREN'T Enraged at 4 years of our soldiers dying for lies by rich, fat fucking lowlife corporate slime powermongers like Dick Cheney and George Dubya, then you ARE the traitor to our country.

And waving your fucking little flags is a piss poor excuse for really supporting the troops as Dubya and his Saudi backroom oil buddies send our military into a meatgrinder, then take away their goddamn healthcare, pensions, and futures once they return crippled.

Shame on every one of you who has supported the anti-American policies of war, torture, and the murder of civilians that George Bush has brought us.

Shame.

This is a very important juncture in our nation's future - Don't Fuck It UP by voting for some corporate sycophant or some ineffective, insincere "Rock Star" who hasn't even done a good job as a Senator.

Military "Mutiny" against White House treason

The only ones who can stop the war now are the troops and their officers. The weak-willed servants of the almighty dollar in congress won't do it. Here are several articles and organizations that concern the military's growing rebellion against George Bush's occupation of Iraq...

Troops refuse to patrol

Courage to Resist

Winter Soldier

Generals Speak out against Iraq War

Appeal for Redress

Military Families Speak out

And here's a Mother Jones article that elaborates on the current situation in Iraq :
Awakening-Nightmare

Sun, set.

The Futility of Faith

This life so crippled that I can't stand,
And God on High, with no command
Angels futile and Devils impotent as well,
And to think that I was once afraid of Hell...

Seek not your soul, it does not exist-
Meaning and truth are ideas that do not persist
Each moments experience is its only reward-
Let passion be your shield, pleasure be thy sword.

And Love? That lofty goal so pure-
is no more than some charlatan's cure.
I realize now, and understand all too late
Faith in heart will not change your animals fate.

that is it, no moral here,
my search ends as my own worst fear.
I know of nothing more to say or write-
and these words- my life, no matter how slight...
Fade

.

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"Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedom."

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"Philosophy alone can boast (and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy), that her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly principle of fanaticism."

(from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)

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It appears the easiest way to destroy a nation of tyrants is to let the tyrants rule... I give "free market capitalism" 15 more years of shelf life at the rate which they are eviscerating the country's resources, manufacturing, and economy. A investment insider, and multi-millionaire entrepenuer told me this today:

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"It will be like the 1900's. The middle class will be gone, they will all be migrated into the ranks of the poor. The poor won't care. They've never had shit, not having shit then won't be any more painful than it is today. The wealthy will be fine. You want to survive? Get as much money as you possibly can, because you'll need it. Get it now and you can leave the country later."

- a sentiment that I am sure is shared by many of our wealthiest Americans.

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Hmmm. Maybe if the government collapses and the four horsemen ride on America, all the christians will rush to Israel to beg for Jesus to come save them? We can only hope. Isn't there some passage in the bible that will convince them that salvation lies in the land of Moses?

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Buy a gun. Buy two. Because with what I know of Christians, the ones who aren't chasing the rapture will be trying to steal what little is left here in America. I could live with a return to a less decadent, less greed-driven society. Maybe once there's nothing left to steal, rape, or destroy, they will move on to the next victim of "Democracy".

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also from Gibbon's Decline:

"A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism."

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related links (Updated occasionally):

America in the time of Empire

Amerikan Apathy Conspiracy

The Ants of Gaia

Infected America

In the What-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-these-people department, here's a story of one blogger taking on Big Media and the hate radio they sponsor...
Kos story

It's good to see individual Americans making a difference against Big Media. America has been infected by an rising number of bloodthirsty, dishonorable, sick bastards. For me to point this out DOES NOT Mean that I am weak. It means that I am strong enough to stand up against the sick people among us.

It DOES NOT mean that I haven't got the balls to "do what needs to be done". Killing first, blundering mindlessly into foreign countries with our guns blazing, is not an act of testicular fortitude. It is cowardly and ignorant. And looking around the middle east and the U.S. today, it is fairly obvious that this attitude has become a complete failure in dealing with Iraq. Did having Hitler make Germany more powerful? Did having Stalin make Russia invincible? For the briefest of moments, Hitler's kill everyone-but-us mentality brought them glory. For a little bit longer, Stalin's brand of fascist overlord rule gave them the appearance of strength.

But it was all an illusion, wasn't it? Hated, reviled, discredited... History now relegates these men, once loved by large groups of their countrymen, to the pile labeled monsters and madmen. To these men, the end justified the means. Surely this could not be further from the truth. Because the "end" that they foresaw was corrupted by the means itself.

The MEANS is all. It is not only how other countries see the United States of America, but it is also how we see ourselves. When I look and see, listen and hear American men and women on radio and television endorsing the worst kind of inhumanity, I see a weakened country. I see a sickness infecting our country, a disease that must be treated lest it spread. And it is not the righteous tone that is taken by these sick bastards that bothers me. It is the utter glee with which they speak when they fantasize graphically of stomping other Americans to death for their opinions, or hanging journalists they disagree with.

Fantasizing about killing people in the most painful ways imaginable is NOT healthy. It is the sign of a sick mind. It is a sign of psychotic imbalance. Someone whose mind, unhinged, races along these bloody roads cannot be reasoned with. They have lost their humanity, even if only momentarily. They have lost their ability to logically assess situations and make sane decisions.

This is Weakness. This is fallibility. This is a mental disorder that is keeping many Americans from being able to connect the dots- to put the facts together. They have lost their ability to comprehend what is going on. And so, I watch, horrified- as the men who are in control blindly and stupidly make mistake after mistake. Unable to grasp the reality of what he has done, President Bush continues to make the wrong decisions. Emotionally locked into his paranoid world view- he keeps lashing out. And his robotic followers, the acolytes of his cult of confusion, increasingly want to kill not only the enemy but also their own countrymen who are trying to wipe the fog from their minds.

When will it stop? Most of America understands that a temporary troop surge of 20,000 men just means 20,000 more targets in Iraq. Most of America understands that another 1500 American soldiers will die this year as Bush tries to hold onto the oil fields of Iraq. Most of America sees the dollar falling, the Euro rising, and even Bush's steadfast arab allies (Saudi Arabia) abandoning him, moving their investments from U.S. treasuries to European ones.

But as we are churning in quicksand, struggling to get ourselves out of the mire we are held down by the few sick bastards that are standing on our shoulders.

We will only rise when we can pull back the curtain on this illness and reveal to our fellow Americans that these hate-mongers are cancerous tumors on our society. We have to stop feeding the cancer. IT WILL take all of us working together to reach out to our neighbors and families and make them understand. It will take boycotts and expose's of the sick media talk show hosts and their murderous insanity.

We can make a difference. We already have, by the historical Democrat victory made in November, even though a majority of Americans are not in line with the actual Democratic party right now. Voting was and is important, but there is so much more to be done. Help prop up the spines of your representatives- Make sure they understand that they WILL lose their jobs (apparently the only thing most of them care about) if they do NOT help "wipe the fog" from Bush's mind. Impeachment or not- It is time to re-deploy out of a failed endeavor in Iraq. It will take the strongest Americans to defeat the corporations, the incumbents, the military-industrial complex and the neocon movement.

Find your strength. Find your honor. Find your red-blooded American sense of duty. It is time for the will of the people to be heard.

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.

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.