Just some kid from the Chicago suburbs that moved to the southwest, went to law school, and ended up confronted with shifting ideals. My thoughts...boring and unedited.

Monday, May 28, 2007

history is mocking us...

I woke up to check the news this morning and found myself so incredibly disillusioned I could not even bring myself to shake my head in disbelief...nothing seems too ludicrous anymore.

the harsh realities of history are laughing at us...the ghosts of many a fallen "liberal" empire are preparing another spot around the fire for lady liberty and her entourage. we now exist in a frightening netherworld where "Republicans" support the advancement of tyranny at home and abroad, berating any attempt at representative government and "Democrats" dive into the fracas in an attempt to show they too can subvert the popular demands of the public. if you are still supporting either of these two parties there are only two possible explanations...(1) you are filthy rich and have a vested interested in perpetual warfare and the shaky economy it supports; or (2) you are a fool. if you are reading this...my guess is that the later is more likely to apply.

if you still believe that republicanism is supported by "Republicans" former Senator Wayne Morse (a one-time Republican) would like to remind you that "History will record that we have made a great mistake in subverting and circumventing the Constitution of the United States [by giving the president] warmaking powers in the abscense of a declaration of war. What is wrong with letting the Constitution operate as written by our constitutional fathers? Why should we give arbitrary discretion to mere men who happen to hold office at a given time, when the American people and their lives are at the mercy of those mere men?" apparently nothing says republican government like one-man tyranny disguised as "the rule of law."

"the rule of law" - that old trusty stalwart of republicanism...no longer applies. this latest "Republican" administration has finally fully transformed the "rule of law" into the "party line." few things will destroy a republican form of government quicker than ignoring the rule of law and subverting those ideals to "safety" and "security."

and for those "Democrats" out there that still think the aptly-symbolized donkeys are representing democracy and liberal government...your favorite perjured president has some words for you..."There is nothing patriotic about pretending that you can love your country but despise your government" and my favorite "We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans." and so keeping in mine with avoiding a fixation on the rights of man and democratic dissent...the "Democrats" have now folded up camp and moved in with tyranny. "Send us to Washington" they cried..."let us be your voice" they asked...only to once again prove everything I have ever said about their desire to maintain the status quo and all the worldly benefits they derive from a faux-democracy hell-bent on war at all costs (because someone has to be on the receiving end of those payments).

I am sick of waiting for a savior from within the system...it will never happen. Obama made me hopeful, but turned out to be just another politician who found his way to Washington and promptly lost his moral compass. our country is broken, and unless we stand up and hold the shop-owners responsible for wrecking the inventory history will not remember us kindly. you don't have to put up with this...they cannot make you choose between two equally evil entities as your representation unless you aquiesce in the hijacking of your ideals.

throw the bums out...anyone but in 2008.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Big Business getting Bigger, war for wages, and another "no shit" moment...

little wannabe-corporate types who have studied "business" and "economics" (read - worship blindly at the alter of all things friedman and unrestricted capitalistic without ever stopping to assess how reality has been over the centuries) are telling us how wonderful things are...how the stock market is high, the housing market won't fall apart, and the dollar won't collapse because the world needs it just too much. but while they were studying their failed economic theories they apparently missed their western history classes...because one of the most blatant indicators of an economy in serious relative decline is getting worse by the day. executive pay is already insanely out of whack with average worker pay...we all knew that...and we all know that every time that has happened in history, the economy which supports it has taken a nosedive. of course the richest of the richest were not satisfied with sharing with the richest of the rich...and so now top executive pay is out of control compared to not-quite-so-top executive pay. there was a time (when the economy was solid...albeit under a war footing) when top executive pay was approximately 40 times that of the average worker...now it is ten times that. in the meantime, top executive pay has jumped over 2nd tier executive pay over threefold where it was a mere 30 years ago. so if you had hopes of joining the upper class...i sure hope you realize you damn well be THE upper class...because one tiny step below and you too will get screwed.

congress turned tail and ran. they are sending money to continue a war that they were sent to end because they were scared of one of the least intelligent men ever to lead this nation. but don't fret...while billions of your tax dollars are going to support death and destruction and a war that anyone with half a brain knew was a really bad fucking idea you will get a pay raise. the minimum wage will increase to $7.25 an hour. woot. never mind that all the social services you once could count on will be gone because the funding for them is being pumped into high-tech weaponry for iraq...just wag your tail and lap up the tiny bone like a good little eletorate...

speaking of the useless war in iraq...turns out the CIA actually did inform the white house that it was a bad idea. get this...big shocker coming...estimates before the war indicated without saddam the place would descend into nasty civil war, splinter the country, and become a haven for international terrorism along with a breeding ground of hatred to be turned on the United States. gee...who would have thunk it...it isn't like the brits didn't already go through all this for us (and then oddly jumped back in for round 2). it isn't like we didn't know iraq was a faux-country made up by westerners carving up the middle east. it isn't like we weren't aware of the warnings of T.E. Lawrence regarding the disaster that awaited trying to tame mesopotamia. it isn't like we didn't notice that the only time iraq was stable was under brutal dictatorship. it just didn't matter...three cheers for millenialism, exceptionalism and ignorance.

what, pray tell, will save you now?

Thursday, May 24, 2007

one hold out for humanity, another useless "bargain", and the non-vietnam...

when I was a kid I panicked for awhile and started double checking the doors at night. there had been a nasty hold-up of a browns chicken in the town next door that left those unfortunate souls who were working that night executed. with nobody getting arrested, and me being a young kid, I worried. well, they finally caught the guys (last year I think) when one of their old girlfriends came forward with information. after a confession a trial of one went forward with the state of illinois seeking death. with the horrific details, and the age-old american love for a good execution, this one seemed like it was destined to test the moratorium on executions in the state...but for one hold out. one of the jury members apparently recognized what most of the civilized world already has...killing people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong is just plain idiotic...especially when the crime was committed when the defendant was all of 18 years old. with this verdict, capital punishment in illinois may effectively be put to an end...because if they couldn't get it there, it ain't going to happen in other cases. whoever that juror was...for all of humanity, thank you.

trent lott is calling for passage of the "grand bargain" that is the latest draft of the immigration bill. he claims we cannot just do nothing...because we are in crisis. unfortunately...sometimes doing something isn't the best way to go. just look at no child left behind...yea, at least they tried something, but they so fucked up education that our children are becoming drones incapable of critical thought. just as now, destroying families and creating a legal under-class of citizens isn't going to help anything...it won't change a damn thing, except that employers will get a pass on treating immigrants like shit. which makes you wonder who really is behind this bill. either way...I don't trust compromises in government anymore...they tend to legitimize the immoral...just ask folks south of the mason-dixon line.

the boy king is on the attack to his critics. iraq, he says, is nothing like vietnam. because see, in iraq they have the desire and capability to hit us at home, the vietnamese did not. (an interesting quasi-admission that our venture in vietnam was horribly imperialistic and violative of self-determination). and just as always, whenever this fool opens his mouth his ignorance becomes increasingly clear. the story now: if we don't fight them in iraq we will fight them here...which is why we needed to draw them to iraq by toppling the only regime that has ever been able to hold the place together and keep it from turning into a haven for international militant groups. the story then: if we don't fight them in vietnam we will wake up tomorrow and find california has been overrun by the reds...if we don't fight them over there, we will be fighting them in our cities. so no...it is nothing like vietnam...countless dead civilians, attrocities committed under our flag, the horrible destruction of modern warfare against a people using macgyver methods, mounting american casualties and disenchantment at home and within the military...nothing like vietnam...not at all.

you can count on me to split...

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

upstaging anti-americans, the last senate, and the truth about the commander in chief...

in case you had any doubt left that the Republican party is desperately trying to upstage all others in a race to the bottom, continually further from the lofty ideals they claim to represent...welcome to the primary debates. unless I missed something along the line...I always thought that, if not in practice, at least in rhetoric America was a nation that did not torture. apparently that hope died with the republic (see below). Republican candidates were asked how they would react to a hypothetical scenario which would make a great movie...but tends not to ever happen in real life. each and every one of them, but for the man who actually had endured torture, was roundly applauded for declaring that any and all means should be used on detainees in that situation. hell, romney - "man of god" - went so far as to say gitmo isn't big enough (nevermind that a recent study showed that less than one in 10 of gitmo detainees are classified as al queda - by government records - and about one in 20 were "picked up on the battlefield") and should be doubled. and apparently some of them had issues with the definition of torture...seeing as how folks like rudy giuliani pushed for water-boarding, but not torture. last time I checked, instilling the fear of imminent death in a person repeatedly clearly satisfies the definition of torture in the US code...but then the Republicans have been ignoring the laws for quite some time. so there you have it...one of the major names on the ballot will get there by upping the ante on torture in an effort to upstage his cohorts. I hear the RNC is going to feature a gladiatorial fight between "a-rabs"...

remember a few months ago when you thought that maybe, just maybe, things might be looking up. the Republicans (an ironic name for a party that will go down as gleefully destroying the republican ideals of the united states in favor of imperial hubris and dictatorship) got a sound ass-whooping and candidates that called a spade a spade, and the war a bunch of bullshit got support. well...jokes on you. the Democrats don't want things to change...they have too much to lose if it does. they have too much invested in the war economy that has been pushing us foward since the Depression, they have too much contribution coming from weapons manufacturers, and they are showing their true stripes now. rather than assert their constitutional authority to decide when a war is happening, they have shrunk from the task that history gave them...they have cowered before a mental midget playing king and refused to used the greatest power the legislature has, the power of the purse, to make sure that its power to declare war has some meaning. now they will talk a big talk...they will tell you they are doing it for the troops...because in a militarized society, all that matters is who can thump their chests the hardest and send the most people to die gloriously in battle. this may have been the last chance...this may be the last senate.

the excuse of the back-the-boy-king-at-all-costs crowd will be that he is commander in chief, and so he gets to make all the decisions about the military and cannot be hampered in that during "war" (conveniently the presidency has started its own wars for decades). but then history was never a good subject for them. see...the truth about the president's role as commander in chief is truly simple...and it is nothing like they would like you to believe. congress has the power to declare war, congress has the power to raise an army and navy, or not. congress has the power to tax and spend, or not. the president has the power to be civilian control over the military...that is it, nothing more. see...the founders were no fools, they were students of history (a shame no leader of ours today is). they were well aware that a military on its own causes big problems, that when there is not civilian control of the military, the rubicon will inevitably be crossed. and so in an effort to prevent this, they plopped a person in charge that was not connected with the military (of course, this was before the militarization of american society and politics). and they did so for one simple reason...to protect the republican government they established from being overrun by militarism. so much for that idea...

again...on behalf of history and the american people...sorry Mr. Franklin...we couldn't keep it. but please know...some of us tried...

we're just a million little gods...causing rain storms, turning every good thing to rust...

Monday, May 21, 2007

rejoining the world...exhausted, bruised and still royally pissed off...

with a month of trials in the rearview mirror, and one man still with his family (including his adopted children) and another forced to leave his one year old son without a father based on the unsupported word of one shaky witness...I am ready to rejoin the real world - as unfortunate of a horrific mess as it may be - and vent my anger through my fingertips while being amazed at watching the fall of yet another grand republican experiment happen before my very eyes...

so with that in mind...here is some of what is on my mind...

the christian right is such good folk that their bigotry led a homeless woman in chicago to be denied access to a shelter because she happens to be attracted to other women. the beautiful legacy of folks like jerry falwell - withhold charity from human beings in desperate need due to bigotry...the big guy upstairs must be proud.

the boy king continues to show just how much he respects and honors the hundreds of thousands he has ordered to war...their return home is still ignored after they have given their lives and those that return home alive get to live in squalor and receive sub-standard medical care. this of course after ordering them into combat without so much as the tools necessary or a plan. nothing says "support our troops" like ignoring them at every step of the road.

the white house is mad at jimmy carter because he dared offer some critical comments of their almighty leader. a spokesman called him "irrelevant" with his "reckless and personal criticism." once again, the administration has shown how incredibly tapped into history it is...seems they just forgot that it is a doctrine bearing carter's namesake which has developed into preemptive war in the middle east. so if carter is irrelevant...what does that say about the policies of the boy king in the middle east?

word on the street is the attorney general may quit before the "representatives" of the people can express officially that he is a useless bag of shit. funny how it took this long to figure out that a guy who wrote the book for the boy king on how the law did not apply to anything the drunken speed freak might do might not exactly be the best guy to be in charge of little things like upholding the laws and the constitution. I don't know about you...but I feel much better knowing that congress figured that one out...even if it took years.

the fanatical right wing is having a rough go of it - I would enjoy watching them falter so very much more if they hadn't already destroyed all that is good in the world. poor hitler-esque jerry falwell finally found out if there is a hell (where he no doubt joins all the gays) and wolfy got the demotion previously reserved for such failed right-wing schmucks as mcnamara. of course we then found out just how much "respect" and "dignity" the right wing brought back to washington with it...as he used that position to assist him in getting someone's panties off.

the brits have plenty of openly gay folks in their military...does that mean we cannot use them as allies anymore?

bill clinton is still one of the worst presidents in history...unless you are a right-wing Big Business asshole out to line only your pockets with child labor and the like.

of course when followed up by the worst president in history...one with absolutely no knowledge of history...he comes out looking pretty damn good.

you would think after a few hundred years of trying to subvert the middle east and turn it into a little america we might have figured out that it just isn't working.

don't look now...but the green zone was just hit again. good thing the mission was accomplished or a less secure baghdad might be somewhat of a concern...but then, freedom is messy...fight rummy? by the way...how's retirement? and one more thing...falwell sends his regards...he says it actually is pretty damn hot, but he'll see you soon.

while we've been busy killing middle eastern folks africa continues to wilt.

so does latin america.

and parts of asia.

not to mention your neighborhood.

for a nation that was founded partly on a fear of the tyranny that standing armies inevitably support...we sure have been on a war footing for a hell of a long time.

for a party that loves to talk about american ideals...the republican party sure has been flouting all that the founders said for a hell of a long time.

mccain is going to push efficiency and ethics in government...which makes one wonder what the republicans have been doing all this time. didn't they sweep into office in the mid-90's promising to bring efficiency and ethics to government?

if you were really conservative...you abandoned the republican party long ago.

if you were really liberal...you abandoned the democratic party long ago.

if you are a mindless drone...you probably haven't left either.

michael moore is a shitbag.

with the world going to shit and this country falling apart...why are those that are supposedly the best and brightest busy campaigning for an election still years away? even more proof that this place is seriously broken.

john brown doesn't seem so crazy anymore does he?

I have the greatest plan involving everyone else...

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

the police state expands, be like israel, ending the dream, and grieving families...

a high school kid in illinois was asked to write a stream of consciousness journal for his creative writing class...just start writing. well, he wrote some pretty terrible shit...he wrote about killing everyone and some little necrophylic fantasies afterwards. he wrote about the possibility that the teacher would inspire the first shooting at his high school. and he was arrested for it. I know this is going to be a very unpopular stance, especially since 32 were recently gunned down at virginia tech (which we mourned oh so fully while ignoring the news that another 50 had been killed in iraq - pretty standard one day total there these days)...but arresting this kid for what he wrote in a journal as stream of consciousness is a frightening prospect. I know, I know...this is where all those that would give up invaluable liberty for the comfort of false security tell me "what if he carried out those threats"...to which I say this, he didn't. this kid has been arrested and charged with a crime for his thoughts. think about that for a minute. think about how many times you have thought about committing a criminal act. now imagine you were arrested for that. this long ago got out of control...apparently liberty and freedom don't mean anything in this country anymore. again...I welcome you to the largest police state the world has ever seen.

never thought I would say this...but this country could take a lesson from israel. a government commission chastised that nation's leader for rushing to war against lebanon last summer without so much as a plan on how exactly to pull it off, and finish it off. sound familiar? in israel, one of the most militaristic nations in the world, they at least admit their leader was a fool for going to war without a real plan. in this country, also one of the most militaristic nations in the world...we re-elect people for such boneheaded endeavors. woot.

remember when you were a child and they liked to tell you about the "american dream" and the rags to riches possibilities of alger. remember when you were a child and you were told to celebrate the heritage of this nation, and the opportunity it offered to people all over the world. well...throw that out the window. instead we have a nation hell-bent on destroying families and getting rid of brown-skinned-english-as-a-second-language-speaking-hard-working- climbing-the-ladder-better-life-for-their-kids people. why? they don't have a piece of paper that says "we, the old white men running this place, approve of your presence" (nevermind that these days just about the only way for a brown person to get that paper is to ship themselves out to die shooting at other brown folks while the old white men sit in their tower and laugh). so we have young children without mothers and/or fathers. we have families that came here for a better life for their children...only to find themselves in the federal holding tank. we have hard working people earning a living (well...not a living, but trying). and these are the ones we are deporting. and they will tell you it is because so many of these folks are involved in such despicable behavior as selling marijuana. nevermind that they are now raiding places where people are working legitimate jobs. funny...they never seem to catch the big drug dealing illegals...only the living in a shack, working their ass off to make it illegals. don't know about you, but I feel much safer knowing the guy working a shit job for sub-human wages is being sent back home...at least I can still get my drugs. don't be worried about people coming to this country...be worried when they stop.

yesterday and today I got a reminder of what the boy king's actions have really meant. a man, his wife and daughter-in-law are on their way to germany at this very moment in the hopes of catching their son and husband before he passes. an attack in the green zone left him with head trauma and in critical condition...then grave condition. I hate to even think it, but I doubt they will make it in time. and all for the boy king's bullshit attempt at subverting the middle east...something that history has taught us is a really, really bad idea. so now another family will grieve...another family will join the over 4,000 other american families mourning the loss of their loved ones.

fuck what you heard...you were lied to.