Happy New Year -- Save the Republic Before It is Too Late!

Nearly 150 years ago, a small slice of elite planters in the southern portion of the then United States convinced the majorities in their respective states that the people who lived in the states north of them were their enemies, and that those same fellow Americans were in some kind of conspiracy to threaten their freedom. Often stated privately but rarely in public, that allegedly threatened freedom was their perceived right to own human beings as slaves. But it was more than that. It was actually their insistence on expanding that right to transplant their slave institutions to territories in the United States, as well as the right to bring their slaves freely to other non-slave states without loss of their chattel property.
This slaveholding elite was so articulate and fervent in its oratory that they convinced the vast majority of non-slaveholding poor farmers to join in their cause to separate from the United States of America and form a self-styled slave-holding republic. Most of these political sermons were actually delivered in church from pulpits that preached the right and duty of black slavery. Southern science tried to demonstrate that blacks were an inferior race of humans. The reading of Northern newspapers and magazines that did not share this view was discouraged and sometimes banned from mail delivery.
There was in fact a Northern abolitionist movement, but it was small, poorly organized and disdained by most Northerners who held little interest in changing Southern institutions, even if there was a certain disapproval of the “peculiar institution”, as slavery was referred to at the time. There was opposition to the spread of slavery to the territories, but the objections were more economic than moral. It was the determination to limit the spread of slavery that Lincoln ran on, not its abolition. Yet the Southern elites used Lincoln’s election as the linchpin to launch a bloody war that over four years claimed the lives of more than 600, 000 Americans. And when it was over and the perverted Southern cause was crushed, the surviving elites fashioned a myth that claimed the war was never about slavery at all, but rather about states rights, the threat of Northern hegemony and the simple farmer versus the evil industrialist. Lies, all lies, but these legends and lies still live on in the south today and were resurrected quite nicely during the Civil Rights era to obstruct equal protection under the law.
What does this have to do with today, you might ask? More than you might think.
As the year 1861 dawned 145 years ago, the secession crisis was well underway, predicated by the lies underscored above.
As 2006 dawns for us, our nation has been hijacked by a set of latter day elites that have poisoned the minds and beliefs of a vast number of Americans. They have created an imaginary enemy (international terrorism, whatever that is), they have launched a war based upon deception (WMD’s, for example), they consistently re-name reality to suit their purposes (i.e. relax pollution standards and call it a “Clear Skies Act”), they decree that all media that does not echo their message is false and distorted (tainted with “liberal-bias”) and they routinely question the loyalty and patriotism of those who disagree. They invent conspiracies that do not exist (silly things like a liberal plot to abolish Christmas), they deny science (inventing “intelligent design” as a biology course, for example, or denying the reality of global warming) Their churches preach their dogma, and demonize those who see it another way, even attempting to turn the current battle against Al-Qaeda into some kind of Lord of the Rings style good vs. evil Biblical prophesy of Armageddon with the forces of Christ allied with Judaism against the Satanic might of a resurgent Islamic Caliphate – bullshit nonsense but they will sell it as fact!
That picture of George W. with a confederate flag is not real, but the true state of the union is far more disturbing. You might think you can enjoy your weekend and go back to your routine in 2006 with most aspects of your lives intact, but wake up: we have neo-fascists at the helm and they have their feet firmly on the pedal racing down the road to World War III – which, by the way, they think we can win! It’s a new year. At this rate it could be our last! Don’t be complacent. Speak up. Fight back. Oppose. Argue. Get punched in the nose if need be, but don’t be quiet.
Six hundred thousand Americans died in the 1860’s because a lot of Americans blindly followed a lie. With all due respect, open your eyes.

Great Last Minute Gift Idea

A sane and savvy entrepreneur has produced the perfect gift item for those of us who can hardly wait -- hardly wait till George W. Bush is heading back to Crawford Texas that is! The "George Bush Countdown Clock" is a beautiful decorative and practical addition to every freedom-loving American's home or office environment. Unfortunately, this nifty little stocking-stuffer is already back-ordered, so you can't get it in time for the holidays (they hate it when you say "holiday" instead of "Christmas", so I say: "HOLIDAY! HOLIDAY! HOLIDAY!" just to unnerve them even more!) But something this perfect is worth waiting for. Place your orders at:

http://www.georgebushcountdownclock.com

To keep the spirit alive, I have permanently added a countdown timer to this blog on the right sidebar, so all of us can each day take some solace in the fact that one day the nightmare will be over. Happy Holidays!

Distracted by Christmas Sale Flyers

Distracted by Christmas Sale Flyers

Just when you thought that things couldn’t get any worse in Iraq, the Bush Administration launched a “victory” PR tour to counter common sense: the Bushies are redefining victory (see “Rumsfeld Dances on the Edge of Reality”, Dec.6, below) the way they redefined environmentalism. You’ll recall that the “Clear Skies Act” rolled back a generation of air pollution safeguards and slurred opponents of its passage as being against clean air. The same kind of anti-logic is being applied here, but in this case it is just not sticking with the same success, despite the earnest and articulate Rumsfeld rhetoric: “To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks.” Hmmm…

For the second time (the first was when Americans saw forgotten bodies floating in the water in New Orleans) , dramatic numbers of Americans are wondering if their “liberal” friends might have been right all along – have the lunatics taken over the asylum?

Well, if you can’t sell ‘em, distract ‘em, right? The administration stepped out of the way and a horde of Christian rightists appeared as a plague upon the land loudly proclaiming their heartfelt moral indignation that … can you believe it? …. retail store flyers aren’t using the word “Christmas” in their advertising! Heresy, indeed, has smote our once sainted land of X-boxes and Ipods! Big box chains are spending millions of advertising dollars to market “holiday savings!” when every circular should proclaim “Christmas Sale,” according to these clowns. The whole campaign might be good for fifteen minutes of cruel ridicule on the stage of twisted millennium American culture if these guys weren’t so dead serious. (“Use the word Christmas in your ads, goddamn you, or we will boycott your stores!”)

I was planning on devoting a few hundred words to dispute the illogic behind their illogic when it suddenly struck me that the whole thing was a ludicrous smoke ring to obscure the Iraq War debacle that continues to spiral out of control, despite the fact that victory has been redefined to include daily terrorist attacks. Let’s not talk about Iraq. Let’s talk about how godless atheistic liberal traitors have tried to steal Christmas from a god-fearing nation that wants to get the best deal on a plasma TV from a flyer featuring Jesus with wrapped DVD’s under his arm. Just don’t talk about Iraq. Jesus, please don’t talk about Iraq …

Remember Pearl Harbor!

Sixty-four years ago today, a sneak attack by the Japanese military machine upon the American naval base at Pearl Harbor basically took out our fleet of battleships and killed some 2400 of our citizens, suddenly catapulting our nation into a great conflict with the two most powerful and malevolent nations of the time: Nazi Germany & the Empire of Japan.

Some things come to mind here of historical significance, especially in light of our current global war on terror that often appears to pervert the very ideals we claim to fight for.

Today’s right-wing -- which is ever so militaristic as well as preachy on the lessons of appeasement -- are the political descendants of the isolationists of the day who did everything they could to block American entry into a war that had already been in full swing for at least a couple of years; longer if you count Japanese imperialism that was already five years old by the time of Pearl Harbor.

The United States President back then was a remarkable man named Franklin Roosevelt, crippled yet undeterred by polio, who is considered by most historians the greatest President of the 20th century and among the top three presidents (along with Washington & Lincoln) in U.S. history. Roosevelt was unabashedly a liberal, a term which today has become almost a slur in the political lexicon. That disabled liberal came to power in an America in the midst of economic devastation, yet he inspired a nation to press on against all odds while behind the scenes he led the effort to aid Churchill’s desperate struggle against Hitler. When the war was finally thrust upon us irrevocably, he managed the war effort abroad and economic recovery at home in what was a truly epic battle of freedom vs. tyranny.

Most important in light of current conditions, we conducted a war that was without doubt the greatest threat to our survival as a nation since the Civil War without crushing civil liberties, while conducting open and fair elections, and without trampling upon human rights in order to prevail. Sure, there was some curtailment of democratic life, including a degree of press censorship, although it should be noted that the media cooperated willingly in the war effort because the threat was real, not propaganda. There was also the national shame of interring Japanese-Americans, which has left an indelible blot upon American history. And there were some atrocities of war that cannot be excused.

But at the same time we were the incontestable heroes of global human rights, the champions of international law and the Geneva Convention, the nation that held all others – including ourselves – accountable to a higher law. We showed our collective disdain for those who violated the rights of man and when the war was done we subjected the guilty to an international conscience by civilized and restrained war crimes trials that held the monsters accountable for their actions and punished them accordingly.

We didn’t advertise torture as an option. We didn’t abuse prisoners of war. We didn’t announce to the world that we were above international law.

Franklin Roosevelt was dead by then, but when his successor made the peace he did so in Roosevelt’s spirit and the United Nations, with all of its flaws, was our gift to the international community. We dreamed of an international court of justice, we dreamed of universal human rights. Today’s American foreign policy is a mockery of that dream, so as we honor the Greatest Generation that sacrificed for our freedom some sixty-odd years ago, let us dedicate ourselves to renewing the promise of the dream that the current powers-that-be have so determinedly abandoned.

Rumsfeld Dances on the Edge of Reality

In one of the most remarkable distortions of reality and the English language – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday blamed the press for focusing on bad news in Iraq and said: “To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks.” Yes, he really said that! I have read the line over and over, both as stated, and in context with his other remarks, and I must say I can only respond with: “What??”

I realize that the administration is devoting all of its energies these days to waging a veritable PR war to prove to the American people that contrary to everything we see and hear in the news (and we have Google News so we can read 10,000 newspapers across the globe) the war in Iraq is actually going very well, despite the insurgency, and we are determined to achieve “VICTORY”. Oh, that’s right; I forgot to mention that one of the critical phases of this PR campaign is to redefine victory from what we claimed it was a year or so ago. Given this, I suppose Rumsfeld’s comments are just a logical extension of the current spin – victory can be achieved while daily terrorist attacks occur, such as the one today in Baghdad at the main police academy that killed 43 and wounded at least 70 others.

The Bush Administration continues to count on the basic ignorance of Americans about foreign policy and the widespread blind patriotism inspired by 9-11: the feeling is that most people will buy into this bullshit and trust the guys at the top to do the right thing.

Of course, they just can’t get the more educated layer of our intelligentsia to go along, so President Bush’s speech tomorrow to the Council on Foreign Relations – “an august group of scholars, policymakers and journalists” – will break with tradition and permit no questions from the audience at the conclusion of his nearly one hour long address about the current status of the Iraq War. I guess that is a smart move, since the President, as well as the more intellectual members of the administration, are clearly unable to respond to questions that target the real situation on the ground in Iraq, like why it is really not all coming apart at the seams when it sure as hell looks that way to anybody with a brain.

Better to blame the media for reporting the bad news – perhaps they should look harder for pretty, happy stories to report. Maybe they could just step over the bodies of those 43 dead Iraqis and the 10 marines that died the other day and find a nice human interest story about somebody in Iraq who was happy to have us there. These days, I bet a story like that might make front page news …

Honor the Dead & Oppose the War!

A blog reader noted today that I was getting “meaner” with my comments. Perhaps so. People are dying, after all. This is not simply an intellectual argument.

The ten marines that died yesterday were once young men with futures that came to abrupt ends because of decisions made by old men in Washington. Regardless of how we may feel about the war we must not forget to honor the memories of these young men. They did not ask to die there on that day: they were doing their duty to their country and no matter how angry we become with those politicians who sent them to their deaths, we must never forsake those who died under our flag. To that end, I have added a permanent link on the right side of this page to “Faces of the Fallen”, the Washington Post tribute – many with photographs – of the more than 2000 American dead in the Iraqi war so far.

Having said that, don’t permit our collective tribute to the dead to dull our resolve to get those still living the hell out of there!

A lot of right-wingers would call you unpatriotic and accuse you of betraying the dead for opposing the war. Familiar stuff from the Vietnam days. As the rationale for the war grows murkier, as the strategy gets confused, as friend and enemy start to look a lot alike, as the body count grows – there’s always some guy wrapped in a flag waving a bloody shirt demanding we go forward lest we dishonor the fallen. They would have us give more lives, rather than risk acknowledging those who died may have died for nothing.

We’re not stupid. We’ve heard this crap before. We will not be shamed, we will not be brainwashed, we will not be silenced. There are things worth dying for. A flawed policy based upon lies, faulty intelligence and twisted ideology is not one of those things.

I am able to present this photo of flag-draped coffins here only because of a man named Russ Kick who filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain these. Why would he have to file a Freedom of Information Act request to see these images? Because this administration does not want to acknowledge the consequences of our Iraqi adventure. “Since March 2003, a newly-enforced military regulation has forbidden taking or distributing images of caskets or body tubes containing the remains of soldiers who died overseas…”They don’t want you to see the gory details. They don’t want to distract you from your job, your weekends in the country, your shopping days at the mall, your moments of mirth and merry with something so dreary as pictures of coffins draped in flags that contain what’s left of a young man or woman who took an oath to defend our freedom and wound up a roadside casualty in places like Baghdad or Fallujah because George W. Bush and his right-wing cronies had an off-course plan to remake the Middle East – over those dead bodies that lie in those flag-draped coffins above.

We owe it to the everyday heroes that wear our uniform and fight for our flag to keep them safe and get them home before they end up the same way.

More Dead Marines: But the Beat Goes On ...

Ten marines died in Iraq today in the latest of what has become a commonplace act of violence in a country teetering on the brink of _________. Go ahead and fill in the blank with any word that you believe describes the current day-after-tomorrow scenario: anarchy, civil war, dissolution.

It wasn’t too long ago that the architects of this off-course steamship-into-an-iceberg war proclaimed the certainty of victory and roundly condemned those who warned against the potential for disaster that now not only looms but seems inevitable. These days they are scrambling to define the “unconditional victory” that is just around the corner, and “standing tall” not only against the enemy they still cannot fathom but the opposition at home they slander as somehow unpatriotic.

I consider myself a patriot. And I consider war an option that is sometimes the best or the only alternative. This Iraqi adventure was never more than a series of lies peddled to a frightened audience in the wake of 9-11, and those of us who did not buy into these lies have always been somehow suspect, on one level or another.

On the Bush-Cheney planet, if you are not with them you are a terrorist, a supporter of terrorism or unpatriotic. If you are famous, or a combat veteran, then you might get away with simply being “misled”. In any case, your position is not really legitimate. And just badmouthing this Iraqi debacle is actually a betrayal of those ten dead marines, a five-time-deferment guy like Cheney might pointedly insist. Instead of speaking out against it, you should “support the troops” and be sure to affix your yellow ribbon sticker to the back of your SUV.

Bullshit.

Those dead marines are hanging by the yellow ribbons of our collective national soul, where people who know better are afraid to open their mouths and yell: “I protest!”

This kind of war is a betrayal of America and the young men and women we have sent there to die for some kind of ivory tower white paper neo-cons like Paul Wolfowitz and “Scooter” Libby prepared when they were exiled in the political wilderness a decade ago. Once in power, they ignored geopolitical realities in order to advance their ideology, and this hubris has not only cost American lives but jeopardized our position as a global power for years to come.

If you dare to point out the calamity of their misguided foreign policy debacle they would have you crucified as abetting the enemy. And as we go forward we gradually become the enemy we claim to oppose. Over two thousand Americans – including those ten marines today – (and who knows how many thousands of Iraqis) have given their lives for faulty intelligence, faulty ideology, faulty strategy and faulty leadership on our side – I can’t imagine that will be much consolation for the families of those who lay cold and dead in the wake of our stubborn campaign to christen this disaster with any other name than the debacle it has proved to be.

(PS: A bit of recent history: -- From the New York Times 9/20/01:”Some senior administration officials, led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, and I. Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, are pressing for the earliest and broadest military campaign against not only the Osama bin Laden network in Afghanistan, but also against other suspected terrorist bases in Iraq … These officials are seeking to include Iraq on the target list with the aim of toppling President Saddam Hussein, a step long advocated by conservatives who support Mr. Bush. A number of conservatives circulated a new letter today calling on the president to "make a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power" even if he cannot be linked to the terrorists who struck New York and Washington last week.”)