SUNDAY
12.7.03 / 7:31 AM / LINK
If Apes Could Talk

I surfed into two talking heads on Fox news last night. They were moaning about the large sums of money Hollywood types were contributing to unseat George Bush.
Their argument seemed to be, what do these glamorous fools know about politics and world events? As usual with anything you see on Fox, they seemed to be mouthpieces for the White House.

While George Bush is out amassing another 200 million dollar war chest from business types who may or may not know anything more about politics than where to place their money for the best return, what were these two high-priced, media call-boys doing whining about Hollywood money?

If apes could talk two of them would be Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes, the guy he was spouting off with.

But here's a story about another man with lot's of money who wants to unseat George Bush, and he's not even a second tier silver-screen celebrity. He wants to bring Bush down because he says it's a "matter of life and death".

Now see the right-wing evoke campaign finance laws, see those necons hyperventilate, listen to them hypocritilate...

Maybe (as the elite that perpetrated the great depression said of FDR) George Soros is a betrayer of his class ...which is never something that could be said of the president.

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FRIDAY
12.5.03/5:49 AM / LINK
If they were stealing TVs they'd be arrested

If we survive these four years of the Bush administration (or possible eight) it won't be because we deserve it, it'll be the closest thing to a miracle since the disappearance of all those weapons of mass destruction Saddam had.

While it's true we didn't vote George Bush in, we have sustained him throughout his disastrous administration. We've sacrificed the national future on outright lies and calculated deception as if we were throwing away a few bucks at a rigged carnival game. But what our kids will face in the way of payback will not be fun. As Paul Krugman in today's NY Times column says, "...the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress are leading the looting party."

"In the early months of the Bush administration, one often heard that "the grown-ups are back in charge." But if being a grown-up means planning for the future — in fact, if it means anything beyond marital fidelity — then this is the least grown-up administration in American history. It governs like there's no tomorrow."

If you are a grown up, do something. You can start by reading Krugman.

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TUESDAY
12.2.03 / 12:51 AM / LINK
The Most Sacred Day of the Year

And you thought we were a Christian nation. Or is it Judeo-Christian? Silly you. In fact, the most sacred day of the year in these parts is the day after Thanksgiving: The biggest shopping day of the year!

This is the day millions of Americans head for our nearest free-market temple (mall) and sacrifice our sweat-equity (a day's pay) at those little bar-code-reading altars (check-out counters) distributed far and wide among the splendid offerings of the Gee-Gaw God under banners offering special indulgences (SALE! DISCOUNT!) --and all the while being led by the ring through our brains to the promise of high-tech-gizmo bliss and state-of-the-art- appliance happiness.

We can do without Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, or Judaism, but God knows we can't make it without Consumerism. With the loss of those first four only a part of the soul suffers. However, eliminate the latter and our glitzy, glittering house of cards collapses into a heap making the Great Depression seem like an extended holiday complete with illegal booze and cheap gas.

You don’t believe it? Consider this: in the past, in times of national crisis, the nation girded itself with prayer and called upon all citizens to sacrifice. But here in twenty-first century America (where --no matter how much we deny it-- prayer takes a back seat to ad pitches and sacred music bows to commerical jingles) the president told us that in the aftermath of the security-shaking moment of 9/11, the best thing we could do for the country was to go out and buy something! Go out and buy a Chinese or Indonesian-made pair of Nikes and spit in a terrorist’s face! I don’t know about you, but for me that was a very empty moment.

As an article at IndyMedia.org reports “The importance of participating in the capitalist economy has been presented by government leaders, since September 11th, as the best way to fight terrorism. Following the tragedies in New York, Mayor Rudy Guiliani urged citizens, ‘Show you're not afraid. Go to restaurants. Go shopping.’ United States President George W. Bush towed the same line by stating, ‘We cannot let the terrorists achieve their objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't conduct business, where people don't shop.’

We’ve reached the point as a mighty nation when launching a shopping spree is the fundamental imperative. It’s the best way the average Jack or Jill can show backbone. Is this good or bad? You tell me; either way, it sure is humbling.

How deflating to imagine modern adaptations of some of the great and resolute words spoken in the past to stoke the spirit of those times. For instance here’s Abraham Lincoln, during the civil war edited for our peculiar moment:

Having chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts ...to purchase a passle of new CDs and a palm pilot or two Or how about this from Ulysses S. Grant, General, U.S. Army: I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer ...or until Wal-mart closes. Or (to get really classic), Cicero: It is the charcater of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post ...but to line up his credit cards in ranks and files and march them to the nearest big box store and spend his way to national security --or oblivion, whichever comes first.

But what are we to do? Well, how about buying nothing? Interesting idea. In fact, according to IndyMedia, the idea has been celebrated in Europe since 1993, “ ..people in at least 55 countries will celebrate "International Buy Nothing Day ...In Europe, International Buy Nothing Day.
(BND) is celebrated the last Saturday in November (the 29th) while in the United States and Canada the event has coincided with the day after Thanksgiving. The latter date was chosen in response to the fact that the last Friday of November has become, due to intentional marketing strategies, the "biggest shopping day of the year" in the United States. BND was conceived as a protest against the religion of consumerism, and the multiple ways in which the imperative to shop is implicated in systematic violence throughout the world. In its positive aspects, BND is a celebration of life, community and local autonomy.”

Wacky idea? No more wacky than war, but war we do over and over again. Personally, a celebration of life, community and local autonomy has an appeal I don’t find in any of the bags I unload from the car in anticipation of, say, Christmas.

But maybe we’re so far gone at this point that gestures such as No Buy Day are silly and futile. Then again, maybe not. Great religions sometimes start with futile gestures such as turning over the tables of the money-changers in the temple. Maybe we should start a new tradition. We've done worse.

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MONDAY

12.1.03 / 11:16 PM / LINK

Is there a Republican lurking inside your voting machine?

The question is, does Diebold just manufacture voting machines, or will it manufacture votes as well? This is not an insignificant concern in an age of computer bugs and hackers, and people like Tom DeLay.

It's one thing to give the internet a virus, it's quite another to give our democracy a terminal illness.

As reported at the Independent Media Center, "Growing concern in the U.S. about the potential for one's vote to be changed without their knowledge in the upcoming 2004 presidential elections has sparked a rapidly expanding movement to correct the course of events."

After Florida 2000 you can't trust the system out of hand. Vigilance is a smart idea.

The Indy Media article observes, "Growing concern in the U.S. about the potential for one's vote to be changed without their knowledge in the upcoming 2004 presidential elections has sparked a rapidly expanding movement to correct the course of events. The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003 (H.R. 2239), represents one such response, but Rep. Robert Ney, chairman of the House committee that would propose the bill, opposes it, so its future is in doubt. Interestingly, Ney is a Republican representing Ohio, the home state of Diebold.

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12.1.03 / 10:28 PM / LINK
When Republicans yell "Foul!" there must be something good going on

Joe Conason comments on the contributions made to the liberal side of the equation by deep pockets, George Soros, and on certain money-oozing Republicans who are squealing like stuck pigs at the affront.

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