SATURDAY
11.13.04
/ 8:04 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Red states are as dirty
as blue states
In the distant past some neanderthal P.T. Barnum of marketing
figured out that sex sells. This was a brilliant epiphany that
reached its apotheosis in American culture. The grand vision
of U.S. free market moguls is distilled in the image of Britney
Spears with her pants almost off. And according
to Frank Rich of the NY Times, everybody --and he means everybody,
blue and red alike-- loves Brintney Spears with her pants
almost off. Except for a certain 22 or 23% who fall way outside
the red/blue heavy-breathing mainstream that is.
Rich cites these odd folks as the "... voters who told pollsters
that 'moral values' were their top election issue - 79 percent
of whom voted for Bush-Cheney." He points out that this
"...corresponds almost exactly to the number of voters who
describe themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians."
To say that the right wing ideologists in today's driver's seat
thrive on political hypocrisy more than most is like calling
the sun hot. Some things really shouldn't need to be pointed
out. Yet, many Americans still must not know the sun is hot.
In fact, though Republican's salivating for power talk "moral
values" and "God's will", their money makes a
lucerative bee-line into the red light district at every opportunity
and reproduces itself a millionfold in the sex fantasy business.
To learn more about the sun being as hot as the U.S. citizens
in all states, red and blue alike, read Rich's article. It's
good.
TOP
11.13.04 / 7:06 AM /
LINK
/ COMMENT
Terrorists continue to
attack the dollar
What do the dollar and the World Trade Center towers have in
common? Falling caused by terrorist attacks.
Have you been watching the dollar plummet? Down 30% against the
euro since Bush took office. This week it fell to a record low.
The terrorists in this case operate out of the famous Whited
Sepulcher and are as strapped to blind ideology as Mohammed Atta
was to his, or Ahab was to his white whale. The only difference
is that the dollar terrorists won't be perishing with their decisions,
they'll be living to enjoy their fruits.
An editorial
in the NY Times takes issue with the administration's apparent
decision to let the dollar drop (the Bush line is, it has invisible
bungie cords attached). The Times is not so sure this is good
fiscal strategy. It says, "The underlying problem is that
deficits in America's global transactions are at record levels,
putting Americans at risk of either a slow deterioration in living
standards or abrupt spikes in inflation and interest rates. There
are three ways to get that deficit down: America can reduce the
federal budget deficit, thus lowering the amount of interest
we pay foreign countries to finance that deficit; trading partners
like Europe and Japan can expand their economies, increasing
their demand for American goods; or America can allow its dollar
to fall to increase its exports."
NOTE: When the Times says living standards will deteriorate
they don't mean the living standards of the Bush's prime constituency,
the wealthy. They mean yours and mine. Now you know why this
is not a problem for the administration.
TOP
THURSDAY 11.11.04 / 8:17 PM / LINK / COMMENT
I ate with the devil and
now I have right wing indigestion
Senator Arlen Spector, having supped with the devil, is now crying
that the devil wants him for dessert. This ought to be a warning
of things to come for all voters of modest means who opted for
George Bush so they'd feel both safe and moral, even though Bush
has been raking them over the coals and bleeding them dry for
the past four years.
As noted at Rittenhouse
Review, "Conservatives, including some in the White
House, are concerned about Sen. Specter's potential treatment
of pro-life judicial nominations and raising alarums at the prospect
of his taking the top committee spot."
The senator, after years of riding the wave and living as a Republican
mute while his party got wierder and wierder, is now trying to
sell his "moderate" credentials. Rittenhouse says,
"Sen. Specter's latest tactic is stake out, and stake claim
to, the withering political force known as 'moderate Republicanism',
claiming he has been under assult all year from his party's dominant
right wing: 'You saw it all during the primary. That was their
mantra, their bugle call. The same people that are after me now
were after me in the primary.' "
They're after him! They're after him!
No shit Dick Tracy, they're after all of us.
TOP
11.11.04 / 7:45 PM /
LINK / COMMENT
Euthanasia is a crime, but mercy killing
is ok?
As reported
by the LA Times on Nov. 5th, US soldiers blew up a garbage
truck in August because "insurgents" were using dump
trucks to set bombs to blow up Americans. But after detroying
the truck with a round from a Bradley fighting vehicle all they
found inside and strewn around the burning truck were a bunch
of dead and wounded Iraqi teenagers. They'd been working for
5 bucks a night cleaning up trash.
One of them who was severely injured lay moaning. As medics treated
other wounded an American soldier shot the moaning man dead.
Immediately after, another soldier shot him again.
The Times report says, "U.S. officials have since characterized
the shooting as a 'mercy killing,' citing statements by Staff
Sgt. Cardenas Alban and Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr. that they
shot the wounded Iraqi 'to put him out of his misery.' "
Besides "mercy killing", this is called "winning
the hearts and minds of Iraqis". I thought we learned something
in Viet Nam.
I wonder if they would have shot their brothers under similar
circumstances? No, it's a fair question.
But war is hell and non-American life is cheap, so why even ask?
TOP
11.11.04 / 7:35 PM /
LINK
/ COMMENT
Tell me we don't have
a looming religious problem:
Probably nothing
to worry about though, these are only blue shirts.
This might be a good time to read the Beatitudes. Then follow-up with
the Bushattitudes. It's an eye-opener.
TOP
11.11.04
/ 6:42 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Sanctityville, USA
Mullah Dobson
James Dobson, who Josh Marshall is calling Mullah Dobson, is out spreading his "christian"
message to the masses. He's amping-up his rhetoric in light of
the morality talk that's oozed from the election and it's talking-head
followups. One of Dobson's late quotes, which I posted at the
top of this page, is just a glimpse of where Dobson hails from
--Sanctityville., USA.
Dobson is a talk-radio personality who founded Focus on the
Family, which is fine, families need some focus. But
when Dobson says "family", he means something very
specific. Very narrow: a man and a woman (married) with kids,
that's it. He's not talking about the loving, closely-bound,
emotionally and morally fulfilling relationships that many Americans
believe is their family. He's talking about codified family
...Christian family to be exact. He's pushing for family
as recognized by government. Many Americans would be surprised
to find that if Dobson had his way their family might be illegal
--for all practical purposes.
Anyway, this is just someone else to keep your eye on.
James
Dobson's War on America
More
TOP
WEDNESDAY
11.10.04 / 1:27
AM /
LINK /
COMMENT
Trust Me, I'm Absolutely
Certain
Now what? you ask.
This is always an appropriate
question, and it became even more appropriate with the election.
Like everyone else on the coastal fringes, I've been walking
around thinking about it, bumping into lamposts, trying to sort
it out. My biggest fear is it can't be sorted out --that we’ve
gone too far around a sharp right bend. But I’m not going
there. What's the point? You can't stare down a hurricane. So
what I’d rather focus on is morality. And why not, it’s
all over the news lately? I might as well be distracted too.
The big bone of contention being
munched by the great political thinkers of the day is "Who’s
more moral than whom?" What I want to know is first is,
how did it happen? I turn my back for one minute and everything's
become so ... mediaeval. All of a sudden it’s, who know’s
God’s will best? Whose faith-vision is truer and bluer?
Who’s most snuggly with the Lord? Yes, these are the burning
questions consuming American politics in early 21st century America
-- all the "moral issues". As if universal health care
was not a moral issue.
But while certain moral issues
are the calculated preoccupation of some, the real national moral
backslide to which we've acquiesced during the past four years
has transformed our traditional aspiration to be a righteous
nation to that of being a religious one. A fundamentalist
Christian one to be exact. Biblically based. Dogmatic and
democratic all-at-once, some fools say.
"Oh great!" you answer,
"What our forefather’s took such great pains to avoid
is upon us anyway, looming like one of their worst nightmares.
The confluence of chruch and state. In fact it was a big enough
worry for them that they enshrined their concerns about its dangers
in the constitution. Were they smart, or what? Smarter than us
apparently.
I can hear them now, "Oh,
sure. First it’s just the Ten Commandments engraved on a
3 ton bolder in the middle of a courthouse lobby --it always
starts small. But pretty soon you’ve got religious wars
breaking out from Hackensack to Hawaii over conflicting doctrines
about who should be taxed more, Presbyterians or Scientologists.
It’s a jungle out there. As if regular wars weren’t
horrific enough, everyone’s running around beating everybody
else over the head with bible belts and other sectarian cudgels.
Jockying for position: who’ll control congress this year,
the Mormons or the Manicheans? I don’t know, how rich are
their lobbiests?
And here’s another question
governmental faith-thinking eventually inspires: Is the pope
the head of the church or is the president? This is a big one.
Who’s got more planes? Does the pope have an aircraft carrier?
Will he be able to count on Muslim backup? Will the president
try to forge a "coalition of the willing" with the
Swiss Guards? I don’t know. But we’ve got to get this
stuff sorted out before we can move on. First things first. Why
worry about global warming if we’re all headed to hell in
a handbasket anyway? It's probably better to get used to the
heat. Bring it on (as some testosterone junkies say).
The ironic thing is, religions,
which are supposedly up to their eyeballs in mysteries, always
wind up pitching certainties. And while that may work well for
religion, metaphysical certainty is a disaster in government,
and it’s particularly incompatible with democracy. Can you
imagine a fundamentalist agreeing to vote to ammend the Bible?
But democracies are different.
In this democracy, for instance, things have been designed to
deal with change, the system’s set up for it. A thriving
democracy is never certain and is always in flux. It’s like
life in that way. It’s never sure and it always doubts because
it recognizes the whims of human nature and the endless motions
of nature itself. It always questions, it always probes, it always
investigates –you might even say that in politics --especially
in democracies-- it’s not certainty that keeps us free,
it's doubt. We screw around with this notion at our peril.
But who doesn't wish for certainty?
We all do. It's a widespread delusional impulse from the lazy
side. Yet God demands more work than that. If God didn't expect
us to embrace change, why would we be stuck with so much of it?
"Certainty's a funny thing
...or not," someone must have said. And, being canny (like
an authenticold-fashioned American), they must have added, "The
people in this world who are most morally certain are also the
most dangerous. In light of the constant flux of the universe,
to be certain is to run counter to life. And things running counter
to life are dangerous.
Trust me on this. I'm absolutely certain."
TOP
11.09.04
/6:57 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
No suck-up news ...and on tv even!
Believe
it or not MSNBC ran a news report that was actually an example
of journalism. On TV even! Journalism, reportage ...on tv ...what
a concept.
I didn't see it because I've pretty much given up on tv news
which, for the most part has sucked up to the resident of the
Whited Sepulcher and his dead end vision. But a trusted friend
sent me this email, so I have to be astonded vicariously.
Friends,
The first segment of tonight "Countdown with Keith Olbermann,"
on MSNBC,was an extraordinary piece of TV journalism. It was
a vivid and hard-hitting exposé of the whole pattern of
electoral fraud, as represented especially in Ohio and Florida.
It wasn't just a summary of others' stories, moreover, but included
some amazing scoops. KO also had Rep. John Conyers on, to talk
about the glaring need for a full-scale investigation by the
GAO. (Three more congressmen recently have signed on to the petition,
which now has six signatories.)
It was a glorious moment for the First Amendment, and a powerful
blow for the reclamation of American democracy.
Olbermann is going to stay on the story. We must therefore
support him loudly, thank the network ostentatiously, and pointedly
urge other congressmen and -women to sign on as well. We want
to make sure that MSNBC does not decide to fire him, and that
all Democrats, and all honorable Republicans (there are still
some in office), add their names to the list of righteous signatories.
E-mail Olbermann at KOlbermann@msnbc.com.
E-mail MSNBC news at World@msnbc.com.
And check out Olbermann's blog at http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/
|
TOP
11.08.04 / 8:40 PM /
LINK / COMMENT
Red state, blue state
Republicans
are running around saying what a national mandate this election
has been for George Bush. They say, look at the map! Look at
the huge area of red states, and those skimpy little blue states
there around the edges. Lookit that!
Well, that might mean something if corn voted, or soybeans, or
prairie grass, because there's more corn, soybeans, and prairie
grass --and trees, and dirt-- in those red states than there
are people. And it's people who count. People vote.
So, as Josh
Marshall points out, if the map were drawn to show population it would
look more like this:
And if you rolled those state up
into a couple of balls those circles would represent the areas
of red and blue states in a more compact form.
See. No mandate. Still split just about down the middle. Almost
exactly half the country thinks George Bush is a big mistake
(unless you count corn and soybeans). And that's no mandate.
But the administration will swear it is because ...well, just
because.
TOP
MONDAY
11.08.04 / 6:16
AM /
LINK /
COMMENT
We'll fight the terrorists
in Iraq so our children won't have to suffer. Let Iraqi children
suffer instead. We need oil.
I just received
this email from Galen:
Jim,
these pictures are very graphic. Please forgive me for sending
them but I thought that with the worst bombing since the war
began going on in Fallujah today, that maybe we need to feel
the pain of looking at them. Feel free to post. Hope I didn't
offend.
Do the screams
of children undergoing amputation with minimal anesthetic qualify
as Iraqi "sounds of freedom"?
"Can you help get my
arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of
hands?" Abbas asked. "If I don't get a pair of hands
I will commit suicide," he said with tears spilling down
his cheeks. -- Iraq hospital
child war victim
Other pictures
here.
..............................................
---and, yes,
I know that 3000 Americans died on 9/11, but no matter how many
times Dick Cheney says "Fuck You!" to Patrick Leahy,
Iraq had nothing to do with that.
TOP
SUNDAY
11.07.04 / 8:43
PM / LINK / COMMENT
When somebody figures
out what God is doing to the USA, will they please fill in the
rest of us
Apparently
the American left is not the only world faction seeing the dark
side of another four years of George Bush. According to this
report
at FT.com the dollar, which is already down, could fall still
further in currency markets.
The report says, "The dollar could slide still further,
in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week
in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election, currency traders
have said."
The man does not inspire confidence in any but barely half of
the voting U.S. electorate and corporate powers. When somebody
figures out what God is doing to the USA, will they please fill
in the rest of us.
My guess is if George is God's choice for leadership it's as
a form of penance for our abdication of responsibilty as an enlightened
world leader. We get what we deserve.
..............................................
For Atrios' comment on this go
here.
All you Bush-voting fiscal conservatives out there should note
particularly the remark about the Chinese not being interested
in financing our budget deficit...
By the way, Atrios is a Phd. in economics at Brown or Princton,,
I'm told. -Thanks
Harry
TOP
11.07.04
/ 4:59 PM / LINK
/ COMMENT
What are you gonna do
from Canada, lob insults across the border?
Can we
please stop this talk of moving to Canada? You can't fight U.S.
corruption from Canada. You've got to be here in it's face. You've
gotta be resolute. Stay for the fireworks. Watch the Bush policy
meltdown. Don't be chickenhawks like the bulk of the Republican
leadership --the Bushes, the Cheneys, the Ashcrofts-- You have
to actually serve your country. Wrench it from the fists
of these carpetbaggers.
Just keep in mind what this president stands for and be pissed.
Molly Ivins lays out what George Bush governance is about in
this
piece.
But we knew that. Still, read it and stay incensed. Get your
back up. Stay alert. Every time they pull something even worse,
be there to say No.
...........................................
George Bush and the American people following the election (couched
in a Dylan lyric):
"Othello told Desdemona,
'I'm cold, cover me with a blanket.
By the way, what happened to that poison wine?'
She says, 'I gave it to you, you drank it.' "
|
Guess who's who.
TOP
11.07.04
/ 8:19 AM / LINK
/ COMMENT
Sermon on the Mound &
The Bushattitudes
In another
exclusive scoop NoUtopia got it's hands on what we think is an
important religious document, but we're not sure. You'll have
to read
it yourself
and decide if its 
authentic and/or particularly
sacred. You guys were pretty good at picking apart that report
by Dan Rather, maybe you can give this the once-over and let
us know what you think.
It's especially important to understand certain religious views
in the current political climate. They seem to have affected
the election. It's not like the old days when Americans viscerally
understood what happens when you mix religion and politics. We
seem to have forgotten the dangers of this. A little more than
half of us now seem willing to continue our uncritical descent,
full bore, into unreason and join history's fearful but faithful
hasbeens.
The
Sermon on the Mound & the Bushattitudes
TOP
