WHY DO THEY HATE US?

This Christmas holiday season was an unusually busy news time for mainstream media but they were still able to overcome the usual distractions like last minute Christmas shopping, participating in some other holiday related activity or event or watching somebody’s kid play a game with a ball in order to perform the role of the press in an oligarchy posing as a democracy by shaping another message that will not threaten the status quo.

The newest latest message being manufactured was that the flight arriving in Detroit from Amsterdam was “an attack against the homeland” in order to manipulate the public into accepting the argument that an attack against the homeland needs to be addressed before any other issues facing our nation including those facing a numberless number of people who lost their jobs and their homes on Main St. and those who are hanging on from pay check to pay check. Banks have all the luck. They were bailed out before the attack.

Things changed since 12/25 just like things changed since 9/11 yet the more things change the more they stayed the same. It still only takes a few fear mongering politicians or their supporters in power to play the fear card and motivate enough people to be that afraid to accept anything the dominant paradigm presents as long as it projected to be perceived as necessary to protect us from America’s most recent enemy, “radicalized Islamic terrorists”.

One thing that noticeably and unfortunately did change without remaining the same however was that the talking heads are longer asking why that hate us nor is mainstream media inviting any “political policy analysts” who would dare ask a question the answer to which would result in the beginning of the end to a state of perpetual war that serves and protects the status quo at the expense of the common good. The awareness that the antidote is contained within the condition would be the first step outside the box and the first step toward real safety and security.

On 9/11 when we asked “why do they hate us “ our politicians said “they” hated our values, hated our freedom, and hated our way of life and the press printed the rhetoric this rubbish from our fear mongering selected leaders without checking any of the facts about those “values” which were only to be presumed because they never really were described and facts like as a result of our War on Drugs we actually had less freedom well before 9/11 as a people as such we were ripe for accepting the Patriot Act that further diluted the “freedom” they allegedly hated.

In essence we were being told that nearly 3,000 people were killed on 9/11 because “radical Islamic terrorists” hated our freedoms which in reality existed only on paper for our politicians to recite on the appropriate holiday. They were not to be exercised by anyone who opposed the status quo without penalty of prosecution that most from or formally from Main St. can afford.

As for explanation that “they” hate because of “our way of life” with the whole world watching we recently presented the perception that “our way of life” reflects an arrogance of power and a shameless hypocrisy that not only permits people to commit murder but pays them to do it without fear of accountability from a legal system in which justice really isn’t blind it’s bought and paid for by those who can afford it.

On 9/16/07 in Nisoor Square Iraq Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Dustin Heard, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn., and Paul Slough, an Army veteran from Keller, Texas murdered 17 innocent men, women and children in cold blood. Any idea how many people were influenced by that slaughter to pursue “radical Islamic terrorism” as a way to get revenge in the name of justice?

The former troops decided to get the big bucks from the private security firm Blackwater which didn’t have to follow any rules of engagement during the occupation of a sovereign nation because all they needed was a government contract to among other things permitted them to commit murder with immunity.

Missed is the irony that our politicians, the media, and our entertainers remind us ad nauseam to “support the troops” in the belief that they are defending the nation meanwhile the nation is being destroyed from within by our domestic enemies like Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater who aside from being born into a wealthy family believes in the same imaginary friend that told George Bush also born into wealth to invade Iraq making a hefty profit for Mr. Prince’s company.

The irony is doubly rich given that a self proclaimed Christian nation certainly understands that 30 pieces of silver bought the execution of the Prince of Peace whose birthday these murderers just celebrated a week earlier as they now celebrate the New Year invigorated by their belief in our court system.

On the last day of 2009 we gave the world the right to better understand why someone would pursue the path of a “radical Islamic terrorist” when U.S. District judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed all charges against the defendants because in a transparent display of incompetence whether by accident or design George Bush’s Justice Dept. built their case on sworn statements that were given under a promise of immunity.

How many more Abdulmutallbs do you now think hate us for our way of life which permits innocent people to be murdered while their killers are exonerated on a technicality and how many more are willing to become “radical Islamic terrorists” in the war against the “state sponsored terrorism” of a rogue state posing as the leader of the free world?

This week our government will be concerned with addressing “how” did the alleged attack on 12/25 take place rather than “why” it occurred at all. Republicans will do their usual fear mongering actually it’s all they’ve done as a party for the last 40 years and Democrats will once again feebly play that game by trying to defend themselves against charges of being soft of terrorism. The media will play its role of repeating as they pass it off as reporting.

At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter “how” Abdulmutallb managed to board a plane with explosives sewn into his underwear what really matters is “why” someone hates us enough to attempt to kill at almost 300 innocent people and until we understand that we will continue to live in fear and hate because more attacks against America are in our future until we do.

The sad reality is that the ruling elite of the American oligarchy doesn’t give a shit about “why they hate us” because in “our way of life” the bottom line is that profit and not political, social or economic justice serves the status quo and there is no profit in ending the perpetual war on terrorism for people like Eric Prince, his hired killers, fear mongering Republican politicians or spineless Democrats who talk the talk about change but lack the courage to walk the walk of change because it is “our way of life” that requires a new way of living.

OUR ATTACHMENT TO THE COMFORTABLE LIE

I continue to be fascinated by our hysterical response to what is now being described as “an attack” on the homeland by a 20 year old rich kid so frustrated by the perception that his way of life was “under attack” by a Christian America that he would actually conceal explosive chemicals which may or may not have been lethal in his underwear. How desperate is that for a young guy to destroy his Mr. Johnson in the process. This is now what passes for “an attack”.

Though in his defense I can see how he would be radicalized after all when the commander-in-chief of the Great Satan, George Bush, claimed on the eve of his fabricated war with Iraq that this was a “crusade against terrorism” the term wasn’t lost on the lunatic fringe of the Moslem world. Indeed even our own national security assessments concluded that the war on Iraq increased al Qaeda recruitment and activities around the world. Seems like our “state sponsored terrorism” only resulted in more group and individual acts of terrorism.

The American people responded not with outrage by being mislead but by buying little American flags that they stuck on their gas guzzling cars while their political leaders hid behind the red, white and blue of the phony patriotism where all scoundrels find their last refuge . You don’t see many flag wavers driving around today but there is still no end to shameless politicians wrapping themselves in the flag.

In 09 the aptly name “tea baggers” marched around with signs claiming President Obama was at the same time a communist, a socialist and a fascist totally unfamiliar with the distinctions between these political ideologies and unfortunately for the Republic unaware of Sinclair Lewis’ observation: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross” and its implications for the future of democracy.

That the so-called “attack” happened on Christmas day only gave fodder to the true believers who claimed it to be proof of a “holy war” failing to remember our own history of the Christmas Day bombings of Southeast Asia that killed a numberless number of people during Operation Linebacker II. You gotta love the reference to America’s gladiator games and appreciate the hypocrisy that it’s okay for us to bomb the non-believers but cry foul decades later when what goes around comes around.

No longer hiding in an “undisclosed location” Amerika’s number 1 draft dodging war criminal, Dick Cheney, crawls out from under a rock to claim President Obama doesn’t know we are at war with terrorism thus perpetuating the same bullshit that the War Party has been pushing for decades and the sheeple have been buying i.e. that the Democrats are weak. It won’t be long for the sugar and spice progeny that got him his fifth and final deferment from Vietnam starts shooting her mouth off.

Meanwhile in another shameless display of sheer and rank hypocrisy the rest of the so-called Republican leadership is demanding an investigation into the failure of homeland security without acknowledging that it is the obstructionist policies of these pathetic politicians that are stopping the appointment of a head for the TSA as well as its funding.

The stench of shit from Cheney’s breath is sanitized by the so-called “liberal media” that repeats the ruminations of a delusional mind without ever fact checking his statements. Here’s hoping that 2010 brings Spain closer to prosecuting that embarrassing pant load for war crimes because the U.S. is incapable of prosecuting its own war criminals. Seems like only “other” countries commit war crimes and we feel it is out duty to bring “them” to justice while our war criminals are free to castigate our current commander-in-chief and commit treason in the process by aiding and abetting the enemy with such scurrilous and irresponsible speech.

For its part in this sad period of our nation’s history the Democrats for the most part haven’t exposed the bullshit by reminding the public that it was George Bush who stayed on vacation and ignored the threat of an imminent attack by al Qaeda and then proceeded to fabricate the grounds for an unjust, immoral and illegal war against Iraq thereby leaving the facts open to a continuing debate which should have been concluded long ago if only the Democrats had the guts to speak truth to power that was never democratically elected at the beginning of this decade.

Heading into the new year we might be better served by remembering that it was Osama bin-Laden who four days before the 04 reelection of that phony cowboy from Crawford TX said“All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.”

We can no longer afford to base our domestic or foreign policy on the ignorance and fear peddled by Republican ideologues to a public who knows little or nothing about our history, a spineless silent Democratic Party that has nothing to fear but fear itself and a media satisfied with repeating the rhetoric that is about to bankrupt the Republic rather than reporting about the reality of The Big Lie of American dominance based on the notion that “God is on our side” because that “God” doesn’t exist. That is the truth which shall set us free and unfortunately that is the uncomfortable truth which we cannot handle because we continue to prefer the comfortable lie that we’re number 1.

MUCH ‘ADO ABOUT NOTHING

After the War on Drugs began in earnest in the 1980s and the Patriot Act from earlier this decade we should already know we are not the “land of the free” and now it seems that another myth i.e. that we are the “land of the brave has been exposed by this much ‘ado about nothing attempt to blow up a plane headed for Detroit. Turns out we are really the land of the frightened.

Talk about over reacting. The White House and Congress claiming this was an act of terror against the U.S. Did Abdulmutallab get by U.S. transportation security? No he actually boarded a plane in Nigeria then boarded another plane in Amsterdam where apparently security isn’t as secure as the name implies. Bet he would have been busted for a bag of righteous herb.

So his name wasn’t on the “no fly” list. Should it have been merely because his father was concerned about his religious extremism?
So he paid cash and didn’t have any luggage. These are issues that are easily corrected without trying to kill the fly with an elephant gun. I mean to say full body scanning devices at all airports in the U.S. because of Abdulmutallab?

Even the Republicans are looking to fire someone in the Obama Administration and blame President Obama for this haphazard attempt to commit an act of terror. These are the same Republicans who didn’t and still don’t have the guts or the good sense to hold anyone responsible in the Bush Administration for being on vacation and asleep at the wheel on this pathetic ship of state for their gross negligence and incompetence on 9/11 and now they’re hell bent over much ‘ado about nothing.

This morning I heard the local Siena college graduate, Paul Vandenberg, actually stoked the fires and claim that this is “a holy war against white Christians on their holiest of days”. Say what??? A holy war against white Christians on their holiest of days? Give me a break. Aren’t there also non-white Christians? All those efforts at converting non-believers at the point of a gun were and still are directed at non-whites but the so-called “holy war” is directed against white Christians only?

Vandenberg presents an excellent reason to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Idiots like that shouldn’t be allowed to exercise their freedom of speech unless someone has the equal time to expose their malicious hysteria as pure unadulterated fear mongering.

Land of the free, home of the brave is the kind of bullshit rhetoric that gets us in a lot of trouble when we start believing such crap. The reality is we neither free or brave rather we are indeed a people easily manipulated by fear and ignorance.

CHRISTMAS/GIFTMAS

I remember decades ago like it was just yesterday sitting on the top steps of our staircase with my little brother in our pajamas waiting to catch a glimpse Santa Claus determined that this would be the year we would see him. It never happened. With the best of intentions we always fell asleep before he came down the chimney and left us 2 toys, 3 if we were extremely lucky.

In the afternoon we would visit with our extended family – I still remember the aroma of the food that the women were cooking in the kitchen while the men were watching a game of football in another room. Aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins would all sit down to eat. I’d have a large bowl of my Uncle Joe’s cheese, onion and garlic potatoes while for dessert I’d have my own loaf of Aunt Sophie’s home made raisin bread which she made en masse, without a written recipe and which not one of her daughters can duplicate today.

At the end of the day the women would be singing Polish Christmas carols while cleaning up in the kitchen. In the next room the men smoked cigars, drank beer, and had discussions about the politics of the 50s which sometimes became heated until the women reminded them it was Christmas. Wasn’t too many years later that I realized it was a scam and I don’t think I’ve been the same ever since.

The reality is that it’s just another pagan holiday that organized religion took over, declared as its own then proceeded to debase and finally destroy the significance. The winter solstice was celebrated by those who preceded the believers in the monotheistic religions that rose up in the deserts of doubt and delusion and were spread throughout the known world by the sword – onward Christian soldiers.

In fact things I’ve read indicate that the historic Jesus was born in March or April and the Roman church “decided” to use December 25 because people already referred to that date as the birth of different Gods e.g. Dionysus, Osiris, et al

This year Christmas was especially enjoyable for a cynic like me. The Catholics moved mid-night mass to 10:00pm because the Pope allegedly needed rest. Couldn’t he catch up on his holy sleep after mass or free up his schedule a couple of days before Christmas? I mean really how absurd. Bad enough the Catholic Church went to a Saturday night mass so the flock could sleep in on Sunday morning.

Yet the highlight came when a woman knocked over the 83 year old pontiff on his way to perpetuate a Christmas ritual that began nearly 400 hundreds after the baby Jesus was born. Italian authorities claimed she was “unstable” without mentioning that perhaps it was the religious ritual that was unstable.

After all this time I’m fed up with people asking “Are you ready for Christmas?” What does that really mean? What does “Christmas/christmas” really mean to those who ask? Perhaps gluttony of gifts and alcohol. And you hear it in the question” “Did you do all your shopping? No longer even asking about your “Christmas” shopping? It’s understood to be for “Christmas”.

In memories of Christmas past my mother would hand notes to friends and family. A tradition I continued until this year because I finally tired of receiving Christmas cards from people too lazy to do more than sign their names to a sentiment expressed by someone else.

The state of the retail/retale industry makes the news daily thereby defining whether or not it’s a “good” Christmas for the economy i.e. for them. Their bottom line insofar as “Christmas” is “profit” and the media plays the role of reminding the viewer you how many days they have left.

What an opportunity for the ultimate ponzi scam to occur – convince the people that the day they celebrate the birth of their savior should be done so by “giving” and repeating ad nauseam that “it’s better to give than receive” begging the question: “what should I give?” while advertising execs are all too eager to provide the answer to that set up question – “gifts” to be given for a price.

The public goes into more plastic card debt to take advantage of those “Christmas sales” that now start after Halloween and buy their “Christmas” presents early. Besides there aren’t many people who can pass up “a sale” buying something they really didn’t need but “sold” to them that they “needed it” that’s why they call it “a sale” and better yet “a Christmas sale” because after all it’s about “giving”, “giving gifts” in particular as if “giving” only has merit if there is a monetary denomination involved.

Christmas is in fact Giftmas and it’s nothing but a scam – socialize the children into believing there is a over weight white man in a red suit who travels around the world in 24 hours on a sled driven by flying reindeer, then over indulge the child with a boat load of toys that get broken, forgotten or lost before next year’s frenzy and when the child is old enough then indoctrinate them into believing yet another myth – the one where the baby Jesus was born and celebrate the birth once a year to perpetuate the fraud.

More disappointing though is that once again Pope will pray for peace yet another year to a God that isn’t answering. Perhaps we’re putting all our faith in a God that just doesn’t exist outside of the minds of the lazy who prefer to get on their knees and beg for something rather than accept responsibility for their actions – how intellectually dishonest and lazy to create an imaginary friend that doesn’t demand more of his creation.

At the end of the day I guess we prefer symbol over substance, fabrication over fact and myth to reality. Indeed these preferences appear in our everyday social and political interactions. Why bother to have peace on earth, good will toward all men if it only applies to the day of the birthday party when the guests all seemed to remember to buy something for somebody else but have forgotten all about the birthday boy and a message of hope for a better world.

A MESSAGE TO SEN. BORRASSO (R-WY)

Last night while watching the Rachel Maddow news program she provided me with a segment about Senator Barrasso from WY who was on the Senate floor citing President Kennedy’s book “Profile in Courage” while imploring that at least one Democratic Senator have the courage to vote “No” on the Health Care Reform legislation. The story compelled me to write the following to Senator Barrasso and while I don’t expect a reply perhaps it’s time for people with a better understanding of history to share that information with those in a position of power who should know better.

“I noticed in your bio that you’re from my home state of Pa. You’re now a U.S. Senator and I am not yet after I saw you citing JFK’s “Profiles in Courage” while asking just one Democrat to have the courage to vote “no” to health care reform I was perplexed at how someone so removed from the facts could be in a position of making laws that affect those who are more in touch with reality.

I wish you have the courage to admit you didn’t know that JFK was “for” universal health care, I wish you have the courage to admit that you prefer partisan rancor to actually doing something for the American people, and I wished you had the courage to vote in favor of health care reform instead of marching in lock step with an increasingly irrelevant political party.

You’re against health care reform, against a jobs stimulus, against addressing global warming. Indeed Senator what do you have the courage to stand for? Get some backbone Senator and get your facts straight before demanding someone else reflects the courage which you yourself clearly lack.”

HEALTH CARE REFORM – A RANT

It appears that come the Christian celebration of Christmas Eve the United States Senate will have passed a Health Care Reform bill so diluted of any semblance of universal health care that it actually seems to favor the health insurance industry and big pharma and yet the only value in this watered down version of “health care reform” just be might in the fact that anything was done to change a system that was clearly broken.

Personally I think we could have avoided all the aggravation and grand standing by just extending Medicare to all citizens and the hell with the insurance company and big pharma. At best with regard to health care the present legislation is an indication that we took the first step to catching up with the rest of the industrialized world but it may be too little too late.

Aside from the legislation itself the haggling and posturing cast a light on the fact that our political system is broken and risks a state of stagnation whereby our problems continue to grow and finally wear us down while this two party system fails to address anything but their own fragile egos and this goes double for that moronic group of politics that claim to be Republicans who ruled for 28 of the last 41 years and didn’t do a damn thing about health care except playing the usual fear and ignorance card with “socialized medicine” and “death panels”. And people actually support these fear mongering idiots??

During these last few days of debate I’ve made some of the following observations:

Finally – some semblance of health care reform. Amazing that it took over 60 years to actually put the health of the American public at the forefront. Imagine how much better the legislation could have been if we had a political system that wasn’t held hostage by independent Senator from Aetna whoring for the insurance industry.

That pathetic little creep with an ego full of pettiness from Connecticut deserves nothing but contempt and a righteous kick in the ass off all Senate Committees. At least the newest Senator, Al Franken, had the balls that Obama and the Clintonistas lacked to tell him he objected to one more minute of his mealy mouthed meanderings. A message to Joe Lieberman – eat shit and die. And that goes for Ben Nelson of Nebrasks as well – who the hell is that pant load to legislate discrimination against a woman’s right to choose?

And what’s with President Obama calling Sen. Snowe in an attempt to get her to vote for Health Care Reform so he can claim bi-partisan support? Are you kiddin’ me? One Republican vote in favor would constitute bi-partisanship? Really??? If he wants bi-partisanship he’s already got it with Sen. Sanders from Vermont who claims to be a Social-Democrat while others refer to him as a member of the Socialist Party. Now that’s real bi-partisanship as Sen. Sanders support a bill that does not contain a public option. Why doesn’t President Obama claim bi-partisanship citing Sen. Sanders’ support? I mean really to hell with the obstructionism of the Party of No.

As for the Republicans I can’t believe President Obama is that stupid because “stupid” would be an apt description of anyone looking for support from an irrelevant political party that not only brings absolutely nothing to the table because they believe we already have the best health care system in the world but actually tips their position by opposing anything offered by the Democratic Party. Our system risks paralysis if the Party of No continues its obstructionism in lock step and the Democratic Party doesn’t hold them accountable.

President Obama better wake up. Time to tell the American public in the simplest of terms why we needed health care reform, exactly what he proposed to successfully address those needs and describe the consequences of doing nothing in graphic detail. Remind the public he reached out and not one member of the opposition party reached out in return to extend a hand as fellow Americans to address the very real problems facing this country – together – because that is the only way the Republic will survive much further into the 21st Century when we will have no choice but to accept the consequences of the actions or inactions we take today. Then President Obama can apologize to the public for having to wait decades before putting the health of our people before the profits of our corporations and admit it’s but a small first step to making things right for Main St.

The media was all over Senator Reid, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson et al but said nothing about the obstructionist games played by the Party of No willing to do anything and everything to let 45,000 Americans die each year due to the lack of health care. Shame on this so-called liberal media for not holding the anti-American party accountable for their outrageous behavior while letting that dottering dithering fool from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell claim on national news that passage of the bill was “outrageous”. Mitch McConnell can eat shit and die as well. He and his band of country club first Republicans brings nothing to the table for the American people.

Speaking of really slimy characters Jim DeMint from South Carolina expressed the Republican party line about health care for Americans by claiming his sole purpose in the Senate was to insure this would be Obama’s Waterloo. He had no other solution to address the health care problems facing this country. In fact like Mitch McIdiot from Kentucky he offered no suggestions to make ours the best health care system in reality and not just the empty rhetoric of those still convinced that repeating a lie long enough will make it the truth. Just the other day I heard that pathetic sleeze bag claiming that “the American people didn’t want to change the best health care system in the world” thereby epitomizing the absolute detachment from reality that these deranged little creatures possess.

Yet the last in a list too long to mention of pathetic creatures who are supposed to be putting was Sen. Coburn’s speech on the Senate floor saying that the American people should be praying that one of the 60 in favor of this bill doesn’t show up for the final vote. And there you have it – no doubt this sorry excuse for a human being will be wishing the true believers of his church a Merry Christmas making one painfully aware of all the bullshit that goes on during the holidays. That simple minded son-of-a-bitch so-called Christian exposing the hypocrisy so foul as to destroy the olfactory senses of anyone getting close enough to smell the shit on his breath.

THE DEFEAT OF GAY MARRIAGE IN NEW YORK STATE

It wasn’t too long ago that I was woken up abruptly from a dream about a better world when I heard the morning news telling me and everyone else who was listening that the New York State Senate voted against gay marriage 38 to 24 which promptly brought me back to the reality that a better world doesn’t exist for those who have a different sexual preference and the unavoidable conclusion was that no one is free when others are oppressed.

Thirty members of the party of no that lays claim to “less government” but prefers to legislate morality cast their objection without any reason expressed. They were joined by a handful of Democrats suffering from the same terminal righteousness reached across the aisle to deny someone the right to marriage claiming the sanctity of an social institution with a fifty percent rate of success and a fifty percent of failure depending on one’s view of the glass being half full or half empty.

Seems like the anti-gay movement influenced by the same monotheistic religions that were spawned in the deserts of the Middle East or the bastard ideological paternalistic offspring preached by Martin Luther or the fables of the Book of Mormon somehow crosses the line of the First Amendment to the constitution of my country which begins with the words “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion….”

That same Constitution contains a 14th Amendment that claims in section 1 “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

It seems quite clear that “all persons” in this country are entitled to both the due process of law and the equal protection of those laws against any state which tries to enforce a law that abridges the privileges of any citizen. Yet it is equally clear that our freedoms exist only on paper.

Thanks to the involvement of American Christian evangelicals the African nation of Uganda legislation is pending which calls for the death penalty if one has a sexual preference which differs from the mindset of irresponsible breeders. In this country self absorbed with it’s claim to a more civilized people we don’t execute someone for their sexual preference we just deny them the liberty to pursue a happiness that monotheistic religious bigots oppose because they have an imaginary friend on their side.

When state governments are denying the equal rights of its citizens are they not in fact doing so in the name of “established religions” and thereby giving organized superstition the right to determine who shall and who shall not marry and rendering the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution meaningless?

Since organized religion wants to impose it’s morality on the public perhaps it’s time for government to start taxing them for the privilege of trying to affect public policy and holding them criminally negligent for protecting the serial pedophiles in their midst. Isn’t it time to end tax free bigotry when forming public policy?

Finally the lunatic fringe which is now the Republican Party recently began a campaign claiming it’s time to address the loss of jobs in this country. Do they have any idea about the jobs that will be created in the hotel industry, catering, flowers, etc when we finally follow the Constitution by accepting gay marriage not to mention the legal community that will be there to dissolve the unions which suffer the same irreparable differences that now afflicts half of the breeding community in the sanctity of their marriages.

AFGHANISTAN – A MORAL JUSTIFICATION FOR AN IMMORAL WAR

Nearly three weeks ago I realized that I couldn’t listen to President Obama’s speech at West Point when he was scheduled to announce his Afghanistan strategy because I was already experiencing a serious episode of profound disappointment with a government that claimed a moral high ground which did not exist. Besides during the campaign of change Sen. Obama did say it was “the right war” thereby implying his continued support of this occupation.

I risked total synapse collapse if I tempted to tune in to a foregone conclusion. Anything short of President Obama claiming that he was pulling all our forces out of Afghanistan, out of Iraq and out of most of the other hundred or more countries where U.S. forces are stationed would have pushed me over the edge and into the abyss.

Upon further reflection and given the observation of Socrates that an unexamined life isn’t worth living I suppose I just didn’t have what it takes to experience the hypocrisy spoken by the voice of change that I remembered from just last year claiming to challenge and end the “politics as usual in Washington” but that same voice is that of just another politician whose “politics as usual” rhetoric reveals an attachment to that which is ignorant of the fact that violence begets violence. The disappointment would have been devastating. Violence never produces peace it results only in more violence.

Ten days later President Obama would provide the absurdity missing from my state of disappointment by accepting the Noble Prize for peace while claiming a justification for his Afghanistan policy. There is indeed something interesting about the relationship between the winner of the Noble Prize for Peace accepting the award by speaking about “a just war” and using our military presence i.e. our military “occupation” in Afghanistan as an example of that “just war”

My understanding is that the concept of “a just war” is influenced by Roman philosophy and the Catholic Church. According to the cruelty of Roman Rule toward those who weren’t Roman and the Church that tortured those who didn’t believe as determined by the Inquisition have the following criteria meet their definition of “a just war”:

1 – the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

2 – all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

3 – there must be serious prospects of success; and

4 – the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

While we can certainly rationalize the existence of meeting the first two criteria we seem to dismiss the other two and seem content to talk about “a just war” as defined by these barbaric and ignorant institutions taking place in Afghanistan while conveniently ignoring the fact that these very same criteria were not met when we invaded Iraq.

I prefer Murray Rothbard’s explanation that “a just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them”

Afghanistan is not “a just war”. Indeed by Rothbard’s definition seems like we’re perpetuating another “unjust war”. An extension of Bush’s “unjust war” in Iraq based on outright lies and deceit. At least he had a self serving pretext already written in the Project for a New American Century to invade Afghanistan.

At the end of the day I just couldn’t listen to a shameful speech of betrayal by the person I thought represented change telling the world about “a just war” without acknowledging that we were accepting our responsibility for conducting an “unjust war” by holding those accountable for committing that “unjust war” in Iraq.

Indeed in this Alice in Wonderland country we have war criminals and their progeny going on public television chastising President Obama for projecting weakness as if daring this President to let the Justice Dept pursue the crimes of a five time draft dodger.

That wasn’t the “change” I thought Obama represented. I could no longer endure the disappointment that President Obama generating by practicing the “politics as usual” when responding to violence with more violence and expecting peace to occur. As Kafka once observed “there is hope but not for us” certainly not when we ignore the history of past foreign invasions and attempted occupations of Afghanistan by claiming ours is “a just war”.

PACKAGING BULLSHI

When I was informed by Nora O’Donnell of MSNBC news this afternoon that there were nearly a thousand requests for Sarah Palin to speak for 6 figured salaries a speech I was reminded of something my father told me decades ago. He said that Americans would buy shit in a pretty package wrapped with a bow.

After listening to her speeches during the 2008 presidential campaign right through her resignation speech as Governor of Alaska I must say that in the last 50 years no presidential candidate or vice-presidential running mate has consistently sounded so utterly stupid, so ignorant of the world in which we live than Sarah Palin.

Seems like the old man was right Americans indeed will indeed buy shit or in Sarah Palin case – bullshit as long as it packaged right. Doesn’t say much for the future of the Republic when stupid people like Sarah Palin are paid 6 figure salaries to ramble and rant about that which they know so little

WHO WILL SHUT UP DICK CHENEY?

Once again America’s most infamous war criminal, Dick Cheney shot his mouth off stating that President Obama’s investigation into CIA practices against terrorism suspects “calls into doubt the Obama administration’s ability to handle national security” begs the question: When will Dick Cheney shut up?

With all the advance intelligence warnings of an attack by al Qaeda this five time draft dodging war criminal couldn’t protect the United States on 9/11 but he now questions President Obama’s creditentials on national security.

Perhaps Pogo was right when the cartoon character said “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us” because unless and until Dick Cheney is prosecuted for war crimes and justice served by his incarceration for violating international law and the Constitution of the United States politics as usual will continue much to our detriment as a nation of laws.

The pundits pretend outrage but when Dennis Kucinich offered up articles of impeachment against Cheney in 2007 he was ignored. Even the patron saint of journalists and worshipped by those he left behind at MSNBC, Tim Russert, ridiculed Kucinich during a Democratic debate by asking him if he believed in UFOs instead of asking him “If elected, would he investigate and prosecute those in the Bush Administration for committing war crimes?”

We’ve known for far too long that the previous administration subverted the rule of law and no one was held accountable. The current investigation appears headed in the same direction wherein a few bad apples at the bottom of the barrel might be charged with crimes but the authors of those crimes will be free to spread the lie that terrorism works thus reducing the Republic to the role of a rogue state where our “terrorism” is acceptable while the “terrorism” of other nations is not.

It is time for the Obama Administration to change the “politics as usual” that he claimed during the primaries and the 2008 election by recognizing that if we truly are a nation of laws any investigation include the people at the top, especially war criminals like Dick Cheney are prosecuted to the fullest for their role in the crimes against humanity that occured under the Cheney Administration.

It is time for the press to remind the public especially the ignorant among us that we are a nation of laws and it is time for President Obama to get a backbone and understand that we cannot move forward unless and until we address our recent past so that we will not repeat a history that will ultimately destroy the Republic.

It is time for America to realize that “the enemy is us” and our war criminals should spend the rest of their lives behind bars with their fellow terrorists without the press providing a platform for their message of fear and ignorance. While Michelle Obama may finally be proud to be an American given our current state of failure to admit we committed war crimes and our continued failure to hold anyone accountable for those crimes I must remain disappointed, ashamed and embarrassed. Only the Obama Adminstration can shut up Dick Cheney by charging him as an American terrorist and proving to the rest of the civilized world that we are indeed a nation of laws.