Paranoia in Rogers Park

It’s the night before Halloween and for some reason I am wandering around north Rodgers Park stoned and completely disoriented.

I had tried to take the train to avoid this kind of a mess but in the terminal I had dropped my phone, my wallet, walked up to the wrong platform, then retreated in disgrace. There was no way on Earth that I could possibly board a train in this condition. So I decided to just walk north.

My fingers fumble inside my jacket to see if the shake is still secure, still hidden. It is.

The last time that I had wandered aimlessly in Rogers Park for 4 hours I had seen many things, discovered whole new micro-neighborhoods, eaten exotic foods like Subway. Every time a man passed me on the sidewalk I had withdrawn into my coat; certain that he would snap his fingers to signal a gang of hoodlum ninjas to attack me all at once. But the blows never came. The ninjas remained hidden in their dark fantasy shadows.

Now I at least have a destination, but it requires me to walk through the 7th gate to Hell.

The original plan was to walk along the lakefront until I reached home in the suburbs. Who goes on long walks along the lake for no particular reason on the night before Halloween? I do. Earlier in the day I was tempted to chase a squirrel. Not to catch him or to eat him or anything a werewolf might do, just to enjoy the chase, the purity of the hunt, the joy of the pursuit. Now I can’t find a squirrel anywhere. Even they don’t come out in this neighborhood at night.

Glowing skulls in the bushes to my right.

Old Glory beaming in florescent light in a shop window.

A softball game! At last something to write about! This is the real purpose of this excursion: this random odyssey into urbania: to find a story to write about for Halloween. But the light to cross Broadway is so long that the game is over before I am able to reach the park. The teams lined up on the field to say “Good Game” several dozen times, then packed up their gear to leave.

Turn north once again.

Obama signs on many bumpers.

Have to remember not to get completely useless at tomorrow’s party. Have to be in good condition to report on the party in Grant Park, the celebration all over the city, the riots, the beatings, all the terrifying and thrilling possibilities that pass through my mind’s eye every time I see another poster.

I begin to think about all of the things I’ve written this election season, and that’s when I truly begin to succumb to the fear.

When it’s just you ranting about the wickedness of George W. for a dozen or so friends, there’s no risk. When it’s you saying we need to hang the last two Presidents and Federal Reserve Chairs in front of a daily audience of 1,000 readers, it’s a whole different ball game.

But the ball game in the park is over, the World Series has come to an end, and I don’t want to begin to entertain the morbid paranoid fantasies that come to mind when I think about the National Security Agency and what they will do to me if they ever get a hold of the things I’ve written. They already have it, I’m certain. It’s locked away in file in a warehouse full of file cabinets, buried in a bunker somewhere a mile beneath Washington D.C.

These are the kinds of things that make it hard for me to sleep.

Is this fear self-perpetuating? Or is there something in this crisp autumn air that drives people to dream about their innermost fears? Is north Rogers Park more than just a pocket of poverty and despair? Is it possible that some negative energy, some malign spirit has this area within its grasp? People have told me that it’s haunted. People have told me that the lake does strange things to the invisible energy fields in Rogers Park. These people did too many mushrooms during puberty.

Some people would say that it’s just a natural by-product of a society that feeds on terror and greed the way that I feed on Tostitos with a hint of Lime.

I’m hungry and thirsty but I’m too terrified to stop walking.

More Obama signs in my peripheral vision.

Some people would say that this man we are about to elect is the Antichrist. Maybe that’s why I’m scared. Maybe it’s just that it’s the night before Halloween and I have an overactive imagination. Maybe it’s the fact that no sane person should walk through north Rogers Park if you don’t live here on any night, let alone October 30th. Maybe it’s the fact that I had a job interview in the morning, wrote a scene with a woman overdosing on heroin in the afternoon, and smoked in the evening before wandering through this desolation.

i cannot say for sure.

How long have I been walking now? A mile and a half by the number of blocks. This usually takes me about 20 minutes, but I have no watch, and even if I had one it would do no good because time is meaningless to me in this state. I also have no clue how fast I’m walking.

Four police cars have passed me in the last minute or so. Three squad cars, one undercover. Each time they passed I felt a little jolt in my right side that must be my liver because I hear that’s where we all store our worries and our fears.

I have been very productive in the fall historically. I will finish my book before November 11th. This date has some significance but I don’t know what it is.

Left on Howard. Almost there. Just keep your head down.

A giant painting on a wall reads God Bless America in Spanish.

Someone runs past me, coming from behind. He was a blur of baggy pants, hoodies and gym shoes, all black. A wraith in human form, running from some unseen terror. As he passes by me his head turns and he looks into my eyes and instantly we are bonded: I can see the fear in his eyes, and he can see the fear in mine. What we are running from or running to, we do not know. He ducks into an alley to my left and disappears into the darkness of the night.

I hear police sirens somewhere behind me, but I don’t know which direction they’re coming from.

Something big is happening here, but I don’t know what it is.

I round the corner and finally find the entrance to the newly build L platform complete with bright lights, security cameras, and passengers. Under the glow of these lamps I finally start to feel safe. After I board my northbound train I start to breathe normally again. My reflection looks less like a caged animal and more like a burnt out college kid, but there’s still a lingering scent of terror in the air.

A newspaper is on the floor and I pick it up after dousing my hands in alcoholic gel. Keeps the germs away. Keeps me safe and healthy for 4 months running now, the longest streak that I can remember. After struggling with the sports section for 60 seconds I decide that one day I would like to read a newspaper, but first I need to learn how to unfold the damned things.

I should be comforted by the fact that I’ll be home in front of a large screen TV in 15 minutes, but I’m not. I shouldn’t be this afraid, but I am.

In less than a few hours, it will be midnight. It will be Halloween.

Red vs. Blue

Violence is coming.

Political violence, to be exact.

Back when Barack Obama was just a funny name and Hillary Clinton was the inevitable Democratic candidate, the racial tensions of election 2008 were just road-bumps on the road to the White House.

Today we stand less than one week away from the very real and very likely possibility that Barack Obama will be elected the first black President of the United States. This truth is starting to sink into American consciousness, and it’s a truth that many of us can’t handle.

This is only the beginning.

- A McCain-Palin volunteer was robbed, beaten and had a “B” carved into her cheek recently.

- Two neo-nazis were arrested last week for plotting to assassinate Barack Obama. (These weren’t the first people arrested for this, and they won’t be the last.)

There have been dozens of reports of muggings and politically charged vandalism all over the country over the last couple of weeks, with increasing severity and frequency. The culture war is very real, and becoming very dangerous.

I can’t help but feel a little bit responsible. This political climate was here before I was even born, but I have contributed to the rancor with increasingly bitter attacks on conservative bloggers, idealogues, radio hosts, TV pundits, and writers over the last several months. Sometimes I have been wrong, and I am usually the second or third person to admit it.

It’s very easy to get swept up and become emotionally charged by political discussions and arguments. So in the name of taming some of this hate, I would like to apologize to the conservative bloggers that I have made personal attacks on, rather than on their politics. (Everyone except for this lunatic anyway, who insulted victims of Hurricane Katrina.)

On Tuesday, November 4th Barack Obama is going to hold a huge victory party in Grant Park. The city expects over a million people to attend, and I hope that I can be one of them. (Tickets are free, but I sincerely doubt they can allow everyone to participate.) I am not going because I want to celebrate Obama’s victory (voting for Nader) but because I want to see what happens firsthand, be able to say I was there, and to write about it more effectively.

But now, I worry.

This is not just any election year, folks. Regardless of who we elect next Tuesday, the way that our country reacts is going to say a whole lot about racial relations in America. If Senator Obama or Senator McCain were to be victims of assassination, we stand the very real risk of seeing race riots in many parts of the nation, and that’s unacceptable. I don’t think that will happen, but we still may see a great deal of unrest, looting, and violence before it’s all said and done.

I am going to a party to watch the results, get drunk, and then take the train downtown to survey the enormous rally in Grant Park. I hope that it will not resemble anything like the DNC convention in 1968, but every day it is becoming more and more of a possibility.

For guidance during these tumultuous times, we should listen to universally respected voices of American past:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” -Abraham Lincoln

This nation cannot endure, permanently half Red and half Blue, or half Black and half White. Despite what some people might tell you, we are all Americans, and we all want the best for this country.

Save the Country. Stop the Empire.

Fiscal Conservatives, take heart! I have a plan to end wasteful government spending and wipe out the national debt!

The national debt stands today at roughly 10 and a half TRILLION dollars.

What are we going to do? We need to dramatically change the way that we act, and the quickest way to do that is to stop wasting money to fight things that we needn’t be afraid of.

For the year 2009 the U.S. will spend over $700 Billion dollars on “defense.”

This amount is almost as much as the rest of the world spends on defense combined. If you were to ask me to find a word to describe that, it would be absurd. The U.S. still has tens of thousands of troops in countries that we have fought major wars in over the last century. What are they defending? The national security interests of OTHER countries, not ours.

My proposal is that we cut our military spending to $200 Billion per year. This means that we will have to close permanent bases in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, and bring home hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops stationed around the world. This requires immediate withdrawal of every soldier and contractor from Iraq. Even with this dramatic reduction in spending, we would still spend more money on defense than any other nation on earth. In short, we would still be quite safe.

Now, we take that extra $500,000,000,000 per year and use it to pay off our debts. If you combine all of those savings, the National Debt would be wiped out by the year 2030.

If we do not stop funding our global military empire, the United States will fail.

America now faces a critical choice. We can either maintain our expansive global empire and die, or we can have a reasonable military and a reasonable country and live.

Who is Responsible for the Mortgage Meltdown?

There are a whole host of villains responsible for our market meltdown which originated in the credit markets, primarily due to people defaulting on their mortgage payments.

Conservatives blame government interference in the free market. Liberals blame greedy businesses and predator lenders.

They’re both right, but not how you may think.

Conservatives are correct in their assertion that government regulation is at least partially responsible for the meltdown. They did this in a number of ways.

1. Cutting rates constantly

2. Easing credit guideline restrictions

Now the GOP and its followers say that this was naive and a lilly-livered Liberal move to help middle class Americans own homes who have no business owning a home in the first place. I actually agree with them in one respect: I don’t think owning a home should be guaranteed, and I don’t think it’s necessarily part of the American dream, if there is such a thing.

However, to say that the government did this to help poor homeowners is to show a fundamental ignorance about the motives of the government. Jimmy Carter may have legitimately wanted to help minorities own their homes, but the Fed and the Treasury, who are responsible for regulating the financial industry had other ideas in mind.

In a truly free market, the Feds would not set rates in the first place. Lenders could charge borrowers whatever interest they pleased: the entire system would operate by the law of the jungle.

Yes, government interference is largely to blame. But the interference was done to DECREASE regulation! If the government had kept proper checks against predatory lending and not encouraged a free-for-all market in the industry, this collapse would never have occurred.

Those in the financial industry calling for less regulation now are hypocritical to the core.

I have worked for mortgage companies for the last 3 years and each time news came out that the Fed cut the rates, I heard whooping and hollaring from the loan officers. People who believe that it was entirely the fault of the government and the borrowers obviously have never worked in the mortgage industry, and prove how little they know about how the system really works.

Revelations, Obama, and Apocalyptaphobia

The second most popular post that I have written on this blog is my article examining the possibility that Barack Obama is the Antichrist that was prophesied in the book of Revelations.

When I first wrote it, there was little reaction. But as the election campaign has drawn on, it has consistently been the top search term pull that I’ve seen. Here are some search terms for the last 30 days:

- Barack Obama Antichrist Prophecy- 1,181 views

- is barack obama the antichrist – 17 views

- 2008 obama china antichrist bible prophecy – 4 views

- can it be that senator barack obama is the antichrist – 3 views
There are a number of similar searches with more results, but you get the idea. Since it’s a topic that my readers are so interested in, and I have no doubt the question will become even more prevalent if Barack Obama wins the election, let’s take another look.

4 reals?

Part of the problem is that the book of Revelations itself is an account of dreams and visions related to the apostle John by an angel. As such, the stories and ideas expressed therein can be confusing, vague, and highly metaphorical and therefore open to all kinds of interpretation.

They center around a series of cataclysmic events and wars that will eventually culminate with the return of the son of God, Jesus Christ to earth. An extremely popular book series about Revelations, called Left Behind, has brought the story to millions of readers. It’s a spreading phenomenon. Not a day goes by when you won’t see a Discovery or History channel special on the End of Days, or find a new apocalyptic movie in the theaters. (The latest is Blindness starring Julianne Moore, which I highly recommend, whether you’re interested in such things or not.)

In recent years I have termed a worldwide trend called Apocalyptaphobia: the fear of the end of the world. Much of this has to do with current events including climate change, wars in the middle east, and the state of Israel being re-established. I have suffered from Apocalyptaphobia myself- in the summer of 2006 during the war between Lebanon and Israel I started having peroidic panic attacks and couldn’t sleep for days at a time. I nearly had a nervous breakdown, but got into therapy, and have been fine since.

Why was I so nervous?

I believe that the events described in Revelations will really happen one day, and in August of 2006, I thought it would begin any day.

Apparently, I’m not alone. Go back to those search terms- I got over 1,000 people searching this month alone for evidence that Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. Now, take into account that my blog has only been focusing on politics for a year now, and my readership is pretty slim. I went and investigated to see where my article was in the Google rankings for the search “barack obama antichrist prophecy.” I could not find it.

What this means is that a minimum of tens of thousands of people are scouring the internet every day for information on this topic, and they’re digging into dozens of google pages to find answers. That’s just in English speaking areas with access to the internet. How many Apocalyptophobes can there be worldwide? I have no idea. But they’re out there, and my guess is that it’s somewhere in the millions.

Is Barack Obama the Antichrist? I don’t think so. Of course, I could be wrong.

The greatest evidence that I can come up with is a matter of character- what strikes me most about Obama is the humility that he shows, at least in public spaces. Revelations clearly depicts the Antichrist as egomaniacal: he demands that a statue be built of him and that people worship it, he declares himself to be God, and sets himself on a throne in Jerusalem.

If Barack Obama does any of these things in the future, then you can say I was wrong. Until then, I have a hard time seeing BHO as the Abomination, because he’s shown humility and has openly talked about his Christian faith.

Let me clarify this, in case you think I’m trying to insult people who believe this is a possibility. I sympathize with you, really. I know what it’s like to be fearful and to worry about how many days we have left on this Earth. It’s something that I struggle with more often than I care to admit. I can’t recommend that you start taking anti-depressants or find a good cognitive therapist. What I can recommend is that you take a word of comfort from the same book that could be turning your hair white as we speak. This verse became my mantra when my face went numb, my heart was racing, and I was completely engulfed by fear:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5

Folks, we are not in control. Even if you are terrified and 100% convinced that Obama is indeed the Antichrist, you can take heart in knowing that it’s all part of the plan.

Republicans Hate America

The culture war continues as Sarah Palin and other McCain staffers have started calling portions of the country who don’t respond well to McCain’s message as anti-American. One congresswoman wants a media investigation into every member of congress to determine which ones are pro-American and anti-American.

“We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.” -Sarah Palin

These are not the actions and the words of patriots. These are the actions and the words of a group of people who clearly disdain American principles.

What a joke.

Each time they make the accusation that anyone who doesn’t vote for a Republican is somehow unpatriotic, they’re showing just how much they hate America.

If it were as simple as elitism and cultural warfare baiting, that would be bad enough. But Republicans go much further with their anti-Americanism. They actively support policies that are aimed at exploiting average Americans wallets, lives, and faith.

1. Republicans cut taxes for the wealthiest corporations and individuals in the country- as a result social services have been cut.

2. Republicans brought us a war that serves to enrich oil companies, weapons manufacturers, and kill lower and middle-class Americans who make up the bulk of our armed forces.

3. Republicans have exploited the cultural virtues of America for political gain. They claim to be the party that has Christian interests at heart, but they show nothing but greed and contempt for the work of Jesus Christ. Moral crusaders in the GOP have been caught in sex scandals and corruption scandals, but have been protected in the name of preserving political power, rather than doing what’s right.

The Republican party has used Joe the Plumber as a tool to make the lives of all Joe the Plumbers that much harder. How long are you going to keep eating this bile?

How long are we going to put up with charges of anti-Americanism? How long are we going to let them insult decent Americans in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York? America’s cities are the front lines in the war on terror: do not pretend to call them anything less than patriotic.

The next time you hear a Republican say that only people from small towns and rural areas are real Americans, you can tell them to stick that elitist, slanderous elephant shit right back where it came from.

Barack Obama is Not a Socialist

With 2 weeks to go before the buzzer sounds John McCain, The Wall Street Journal, and a plethora of desperate, influential conservatives have whipped up a new batch of Koolaid for the voters, one that makes the claim Barack Obama is a socialist.

That’s right. The Republicans are calling Barack Obama and his ideas socialist.

That sound that you just heard? It was every real socialist in the country choking on their bong water because they’re so upset at the mischaracterization. If you actually do some research you might discover that Barack Obama bears almost no resemblance to radical liberals in history. These attempts to paint him as a new Che Guevarra are so wildly off-base that it’s laughable to anyone who understands what radical liberalism is really about.

Barack Obama is at best a left-center Clintonite politician. I know plenty of liberal leaning voters, including myself, who consider him far too conservative in the grand scale of things. Consider this story:

In 1969 Hunter S. Thompson organized a political movement in Aspen, Colorado with the intention of drastically changing the town. The Freak Power movement, as he termed it, had several key goals:

1. Tear up all of the roads and lay grass down

2. Fire every police officer in town and make them perform maintenance on a fleet of bicycles

3. Scrap a plan to build a 4 lane highway near town

4. Tax every interested developer out of the area so as to prevent taller buildings from blocking the natural beauty of Aspen.

The Freaks chose a 29-year old pothead motorcycle racer as their candidate for Mayor, and they came within 6 votes of winning.

Now if you’re one of those people who are worried about a Democratic/Obama socialist agenda, just think about that story for a moment. Ponder it. Ponder it. Put the Koolaid down. I said put it down. I know it’s delicious, just trust me on this one. Put it down and think for a moment. Just think about the things that Barack Obama wants to do to the country, and think about the things that Hunter Thompson wanted to do with Aspen.

Think about the language of Joseph Stalin, Hugo Chavez, and Fidel Castro. Then listen to Barack Obama.

Now, do you really think he’s all that radical? Srsly?

Barack Obama is not a communist, socialist, or liberal radical by any stretch of the imagination. He is not going to enforce a single-payer health care system. He is not going to dismantle the military. He is not going to confiscate the funds of the rich and redistribute them to everyone else. He is not going to legalize marijuana or give amnesty to illegal immigrants. He is not going to tear up your roads and drive business out of town. He is not going to raise everybody’s taxes.

Compared to the mostly conservative Presidents of our recent history, Obama might seem like a dangerous leftist to some.

The problem is that if you’ve only seen Reagans and Nixons your entire life, you might think that a real liberal President is a threat to your livelihood and the American way of life, when that’s just not true. The last “liberal” President was a centrist, at best. If you were horrified by Clinton’s demonic socialist agenda like dismantling welfare, opening up free trade agreements, and deregulating the financial industry, then you’re in for some real culture shock. If you don’t adjust your expectations, read up on liberal history, and calm the hell down, you might end up having periodic seizures after November the 4th.

Conservative America, things are about to change.

I can understand your anxiety, but if you relax, stop the hysteria, and turn off Fox News for a few minutes, you might learn that liberals are in fact very different from Communists, Socialists, and acid-freaks, and that they might have some good ideas after all.

Barack Obama has Too Much Money

Today after watching Devin Harris get thoroughly embarassed by a Brit- a Brit? Srsly? in a street game, ESPN scrolled a headline that said that Game 1 of the World Series was going to be pushed back a half an hour, in order to make room for a 30 minute infomercial from the Barack Obama campaign.

This comes 24 hours after the story broke that Obama purchased ads in upcoming video games.

Can somebody say over-exposure?

Can somebody else say too much money?

I don’t know how much a half an hour of air-time just prior to the World Series costs, but I know I’ll never be able to afford it.

Yes, Barack Obama has run a terrific campaign and his ad people will find themselves working at some of the most prestigious agencies in the world after the election. But, I can’t help but wonder if this is too much. My guess is that only about 3-4% of the voters have yet to make their decision. Buying up all that air-time is sure to annoy a few of them.

Especially when you pre-empt the World Series.

Newsflash: in Philadelphia the shit will start at 8:30, meaning they’ll be lucky if the game finishes before midnight.

Do you really want to annoy an entire coast of voters?

Last night just before the debate I wondered about the kind of tone that Obama would take once the inevitable McCain attacks came. Either he would play it cool, parry the blows, and make his points, or go for a knockout blow, which was well within his reach when he was asked if Sarah Palin was qualified to be the President of the United States.

I decided that it was not in Obama’s style to go for a knock-out blow when he’s leading this late in the game: he’s cautious and calculating- not maniacal.

However, I think the same final blow might come in the form of these ridiculously expensive TV spots. If you haven’t heard Obama’s position on Health Care by now, you obviously don’t have access to the internet, radio, or TV, so I don’t know who he’s trying to reach.

Save that money. We’ll need it for the deficit.

Watch and Become Stupid

The American Theater of the Absurd continued in earnest last night.

I watched the Presidential “debate” on WTTW, but afterwards I felt compelled to watch the commentary and wrap-up on Fox News.

On every other station, the polls that asked who won the debate favored Obama by around 55%.

The viewers on Fox News must have seen something entirely different, because 87% of them think that John McCain won.

Where do these people come from? Are they willfully ignorant? Do they automatically assume that because their candidate did not foam at the mouth or say that we should nuke China that this means he won, hands down? Why so thoroughly biased? Even the “LIBERAL” news networks favored Obama by 20-30 percent at most.

The American Theater of the Absurd

I’m not even going to say that Barack Obama won the debate. All I’m saying is that if you think McCain won by an 8 to 1 margin in this entirely objective contest, you obviously were not listening to the debate and had decided in your mind beforehand that no matter what was said, John McCain would win.

Nevermind the fact that this whole format is ridiculous. You have 5 minutes to come up with a comprehensive solution to the world’s energy crisis, and GO!

Is it any wonder why we elect such brilliant people who are so good at lying?

Folks, they’re not talking about us. They’re talking down to us. Obama just happens to be much, much, much, much better at it than his opponent. What do I mean? One of the Fox pundits remarked that he thought John McCain scored big points with his Joe the Plumber metaphor.

Joe the Plumber is not a metaphor. He is a real person with real concerns, and I’m sure he’s dumbfounded by the way he was used by both candidates, tossed back and forth, then discarded like a sullied sock at the end of the night once their points had been made.

This is the level of political discourse in this country: we are not even people to them anymore.

The media wizards, spinmeisters, and wordsmiths skated around any conceivable notion of objectivity, and refused to entertain the idea that human beings who have not made their decision yet might be watching.

On every channel covering the aftermath, we saw madness spewing from the mouths of political insiders, campaign managers, and lifetime politicians, all completely incapable of telling the truth, even if it happened to be dick-smacking them across the face when they appeared on camera.

I sent a helpful e-mail to National Review correspondent Mona Charen yesterday about the different ways that voters seek out their news. In her column, Mona bemoaned the idea that a Democratic administration would re-instate the fairness doctrine, which would force equal time for political ideas. The legislation is supposedly meant to target conservative talk radio, which has done so much for democracy in this country. Just last week, two conservative commentators accused Magic Johnson of faking his AIDS, in order to gain sympathy. What boldness! What a wonderful way to use the first amendment! Bravo, gentleman! You are a credit to your species, and I hope some day you fulfill the dream of learning to breathe without gills.

Charen noted that liberal talk radio has never caught on. I had to tell her that liberals and independents tend to READ about politics, rather than listen to the radio.

I guess that’s the only point I can make through all of this mindless horseshit.

Don’t watch Fox News. Don’t watch CNN. Don’t watch MSNBC. Don’t even watch PBS. Don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh or Dennis Miller.

We’re never going to get smart if we keep getting our news from the TV or radio. Please, no matter what your party affiliation, find something to read. If you’re going to get pompous, biased manure shoveled into your brain, at least do it through a medium that requires a little bit of effort on your part to understand.

Fuck the Market

In pledging to inject $250 billion dollars directly into financial institutions today, President Bush remarked that the move was done: “not to take over the market, but to preserve it.”

Preserve it? Why? Because if we do not preserve the free market we might have a catastrophic financial collapse?

I came out originally and defended the bailout plan. But the more I read about this thing, the less I like it, and the more I think it’s going to act as de-facto socialism for the rich. This bastardized process of privatizing profits and socialising losses is just completely out of hand and it needs to stop right now.

I was wrong about the bailout because I was naive enough to think that the government would actually do more to protect consumers than the mysterious market forces that brought us this calamity in the first place.

Fuck the market.

I don’t care about the market, I don’t care about the size of the pie.

All I care about is the fact that my medication costs too damn much, the job I got a week ago evaporated on Friday when the company lost 75% of its value, and I don’t know how I’m going to pay my cell phone bill at the end of the month.

Pardon me if I don’t give a flying fuck about the larger state of the market.

If we should have learned anything in the last month, it’s that market’s don’t need a protector: they need a watchdog.

The system has failed you. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

Personally, I think we should start by hanging Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Alan Greenspan, then string them up from the tallest skyscrapers we can find. But that’s just me.

I am becoming insolvent. I am falling deeper into debt. I can’t get credit. My financial prospects are grim for both the near future and the long term.

I want a bailout package and I want it now, and if I don’t get it, I want to see some heads roll.

How the West was Lost

After reading an article about Al Qaeda in the Economist recently I realized that there is no conceivable way that the United States and its allies can win the war on terror.

While the term “victory” was never really an accurate way to describe any possible outcome, our understanding of the Jihad movement itself is so inherently flawed that even the most rudimentary goals in our the battle with Islamic extremism can never be achieved. Here’s the quote from the Economist:

“To explain the movement, many experts draw parallels with globalisation. Some describe it as a venture-capital firm that invests in promising terrorist projects. Others speak of it as a global “brand” maintained by its leaders through their propaganda, with its growing number of “franchises” carrying out attacks…”

This is actually a very insightful way to describe Al Qaeda. The problem is that the description is reached through a thought process that represents a world-view completely alien to these terrorists.

Globalisation, venture capitalism, brand marketing are all western ideas that aim to make the world a better place. (How’s that going, by the way?) By labeling any factions or arms within the Jihadist movement in these terms, we fail to grasp the geopolitical reality that created the likes of bin Laden and Zawahiri in the first place. This makes the task of winning hearts and minds in fringe Islamic communities impossible.

Before we get into the heavy philosophical discussion- let’s look at the actual historical roots of Al Qeada.

To say that the United States created this enemy is true in a number of ways: beyond the obvious occupation of Islamic lands breeding an inevitable backlash, the U.S. actually gave political, financial, and logistical support to the same “freedom fighters” in Afghanistan that we are fighting today. Before we were stuck in our current quagmire in this God-forsaken wasteland, the Soviet Union was the occupying force. From 1978 to 1989 the Soviets fought in Afghanistan. Their original intention was to support Marxist forces in their struggle against the ruling Islamic parties.

Because we were absolutely determined to stop the expansion of Communism at all costs, the U.S. decided to lend its support to the mujahideen. CIA operatives were sent in to provide training and weapons to the Muslims, including one Osama bin Laden, in order to prevent the Soviet sphere of influence from growing. Eventually, the USSR was forced to withdraw in disgrace after a long war that shattered their aura of invincibility and drained vital funds and resources from the empire.

The Islamic parties maintained their hold of Afghanistan, and the country became a base for an assortment of Jihadist groups that would eventually seek to destroy their enemies beyond the region. At the same time this was happening, the U.S. was backing Saddam Hussein and Iraq in their long and bloody war with the Iranians. Thanks to our support, Hussein was able to beat back the extremist nation that had been taken over by radical Shiites. Iraq won the war and went on to live a peaceful existence free from the threats of radical Islam, living happily ever after for the rest of its days.

The lesson to be learned is that by overreacting to ideological opponents, the United States creates far greater threats than the ones they were made to fight.

Think of the U.S. as the mob in the Dark Knight, and Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein as the Joker:

“In their desperation, they turned to a man they did not fully understand.”

That one phrase is perhaps the most poignant description of our foreign policy since World War 2. All over the globe, we have lent our support to groups with common enemies: be it Communist, terrorist, or otherwise. To this day we still provide weapons and funds to corrupt regimes, dictators, and (gasp!) terrorists in the name of battling our perceived threats.

But we do not fully understand. Not by a long shot. Another quote about another hopeless war comes to mind: during an episode of the Wire, two cops watch and do nothing while rival gangs beat each other over drug turf:

Carver: You know, I think this is why we can’t win this.

Hauk: How come?

Carver: They screw up, they get beaten. We screw up, we get a pension.

The point is that the young men growing up in Baltimore and Kabul live in an entirely different world than the one that politicians and generals live in, and until we realize it, we stand no chance of winning either war.

We describe terrorists groups in terms of venture capitalism and globalisation because we assume that these are universal values and interests. American policy makers seem to believe if given the chance for a decent education and a career, none of these young men would choose to blow themselves up in the name of Jihad. Perhaps they don’t realize that bin Laden himself comes from a very wealthy and reputable Saudi family. Perhaps they don’t realize that some people aren’t interested in Democracy, or heaven forbid the thought, making lots of money.

Which is worse? A world with a growing sphere of Communist influence? Or a world filled with loosely connected terrorist groups whose goal is to destroy western civilization entirely?

Whoever said that the enemy of my enemy is my friend was clearly unqualified to direct foreign policy, which is why, even with the economy the way it is, they have a great chance of finding a job in the U.S. government.

Liberal Sissy, David Brooks

Today arch-liberal, Communist pansy columnist for the New York Times, David Brooks examined the Republican party’s alienation of educated voters.

Brooks laments the GOP’s unfortunate decision to play the culture warfare card so consistently and so poorly that it has cost them an entire generation of key constituents. Sarah Palin is the most recent and most enthusiastic soldier fighting for the common values of small-town Americans.

The Republicans have played this card well for thirty years- and due to a crippled Democratic machine that has been completely ineffective in convincing working class voters that they represent their best interests, until very recently- it has worked.

The politics of resentment can be very powerful, but the key figure in the GOP’s recent history represented a different kind of strategy: one of hope and optimism. Although I think his legacy is greatly overrated, I think Reagan would be profoundly disappointed with today’s Republican strategies.

It will cost them. Dearly.

Today Barack Obama has a near double-digit lead in the polls. John Mccain must close the gap with only 3 weeks and one debate leftover. The Mccain campaign’s idea seems to be that their only chance to win is the kitchen sink approach- by tying Obama to Bill Ayers they hope to make him look like a terrorist sympathizer.

Somebody needs to tell them that Hillary Clinton tried this already.

How did that work out again?

Sarah Palin Previews the ALCS and NLCS

Well hello there, I’m Sarah Palin and like many of you I’m just real excited about the upcoming championship league series games for the major league baseball teams that will play in October.

I’m just as comfortable sitting on the couch, and kicking back while drinking a six-pack with my hubbie Todd while we watch a good old American past time game of baseball and I enjoy it, with the joy, very much and I know you will too, so I thought I’d share some thoughts that I’ve been thinking about for the playoffs with you.

Well, we’ve got a good old-fashioned Cinderella story this year with the Tampa Bay Rays, who managed to turn their team around from worst to first by doing a couple of key things to really change their team:

Like for one, they dropped the “Devil” from their team name- which their fans, and I too, as a fan, not of their team necessarily, but of a baseball fan who is a fan of the game, thinks that this was a major part of their success.

Second of all, they fixed their bullpen- because the Rays know, just like I know, that when you have a tired pitcher out there, who’s been throwing hard and working for his team for a good 20 years or 6 innings, whichever, with the timeframe, that you need to have a solid bullpen and backup pitchers to step in and be ready to take over. The Rays lowered their ERA a whole lot since 2007 by golly, and that’s just been a huge part of their winning ways and changing the culture of the team, and it’s important to remember, because having a substitute who is ready to take charge right away is oh-so important in baseball, just in case, God forbid anything should happen to your starting pitcher.

So the Rays are gonna go in and face the champion Boston Red Sox, who I just love to death! I mean, these Red Sox were the underdogs for so long, they just kept getting beat up time and again by those big city New York Yankees, but did they quit? You betcha they didn’t.

Those Red Sox kept right on fighting like a pitbull renegage hockey mom and now they can win a 3rd world series in 5 years, so you know I’m real excited to see them come this far, from where they were all those years at the bottom, they’ve really, the changes they’ve made, and the persistence that they showed is just wonderful, so you know I’m pulling for them too a little bit.

And then of course over there in the National League you have the Brooklyn Dodgers going in to face the Philadelphia Phillies. Now this is just a real gosh darn interesting matchup, and I honestly don’t have a clue who’s gonna win it, when it all comes down to it, in the end, because these two teams are just so alike and I like them so much.

The Dodgers got their outfielder Manny Ramirez late in the season, and even though everybody said it couldn’t be done, by golly, they just went out there and played their little hearts out and they squeaked into the playoffs! So I’m real proud of them, being from Alaska, as I am, when I was mayor and then the Governor of Alaska, to see this team representing the Western part of the United States- because the other 3 teams leftover are all from out east- and you gotta remember that- the election, just like in baseball, it’s important to represent all parts of America, not just the east coast people, and that’s what the Dodgers are all about, and that’s what I’m all about too for the Dodgers.

And so now at the end there you have the Phillies who are just splendid. They’re so well balanced, they remind me of me, and my work that I have done for the election but like in baseball you know that sometimes you just have to show the fans and the American people that you’re not just a one-trick pony!

So, there you have it. You have some wonderful teams playing the game of baseball on a nice, cozy, warm October stage, and it’s just real exciting and I’m really looking forward to watching it all while I make peanut butter sandwiches for the kids, because it’s reallly a family game, when you get down to it, the baseball in October, for the World Series and the championship, and that’s what the Sarah Palin ticket believes in at the end of the day.

Who’s gonna win? Oh boy. I just wish that they all could.

Class Warfare Is Upon You

Gwen Ifill wondered aloud at the Vice Presidential debate how Barack Obama’s plan to raise taxes on people earning more than $250,000 per year was not class warfare.

I have news for you, Gwen Ifill. I have news for you, America.

Class warfare is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.

Do I support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans? Hell Yes I do. Is it fair to tax one group of people more than another? Of course not. Ask me if I really care. Go ahead, Ask me. I’m waiting.

What’s what you say? Do I care if rich people get taxed more than I do?

No. I do not.

I care that the American people- and I’m talking about the 95 percent of us who are unfortunate enough to not own our own yacht, has seen its wages systematically degraded while the cost of living has risen exponentially for the last 4 decades. At a rally this morning, Sarah Palin blamed this on the rising costs of energy, but she’s only half right.

Just because they’re not using guns, bombs, tanks, and nukes, doesn’t mean that there isn’t violence going on in America today.

I’m talking about class warfare: I’m talking about the purposeful humiliation, degradation, and elimination of people who are not obscenely rich. I’m talking about our poorest citizens sacrificing their lives in the army for a war that serves only to benefit a handful of evil- that’s right- you can quote me- EVIL individuals who pull the strings in our country.

I’m talking about a government that takes $800 billion of our dollars to selectively choose which rich people will get to thrive in the coming financial meltdown.

(I told you it had only just begun.)

Today on C-SPAN, the chairman of Lehman brothers was asked why his company was singled out, and was denied a bailout package that was given to other similar companies. His response?

“Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder.”

But he needn’t wonder, and neither do we.

The consolidation and monopolization of our financial system is occuring right before our very eyes. Before the end of this crisis, you will see Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan becoming perhaps the most powerful banks that the world has ever seen. Why is this a bad thing? Because I know at very least, firsthand, the kind of business that J.P. Morgan is- and you can ask any other Chase customer the same.

To answer your charge, dear conservatives- why don’t you just put your money in another bank?

A) I never put it in Chase in the first place- when I opened my account, it was called Bank One- which was bought out by J.P. Morgan a few years ago.

B) Chase has a virtual monopoly on ATMs in the Chicago area. If you don’t want to pay a hand, arm, leg, and a foot to withdraw, you MUST bank with them.

C) As I informed the Chase customer service reps this afternoon, there is no where else to turn. WAMU was large enough to collapsed, Lehman was not connected enough to be bailed out, but J.P. Morgan is going to be around for a long, long time because it has friends in the right places. (Or the wrong ones, considering that the Saudi royal family owns a huge stake of the company.)

Friends, we are sparring over apples and oranges, but both of them are rotten.

If we do not find a legitimate independent candidate to tear down this wicked system soon, then the class warfare encompassing our culture will be the end of us.

John Mccain Wants You Dead

Under John Mccain’s health care plan, millions of Americans may end up dead.

For all his talk about lowering taxes and making insurance more affordable, Mccain’s plan to revise the tax code is in fact an act of class warfare. Here’s how it works:

Up until now, the healthcare coverage that Americans get from their employers has been tax exempt. But John Mccain wants to do away with that. If elected, Mccain plans to count the coverage that companies provide for their employees as taxable income. Meaning, if you make 40,000 dollars per year, and you have a 10,000 dollar insurance policy, you get taxed as if you have a 50,000 dollar income.

This is from a conservative who believes in lower taxes?

This is from a maverick who wants to put the Country First instead of special interests (see: insurance companies.)

John Mccain’s health care plan proves he is a liar, a fraud, and a son of a bitch.

What effect will this have?

- For starters, many employers will decide to stop providing health care for their employees

- This will force millions of Americans to buy their own private insurance coverage

- Because insurance companies don’t want to cover patients with pre-existing conditions, this means that many Americans who were covered by their employers won’t be able to get any insurance at all.

- In order to offset the change, Mccain plans to give individuals a $2500 tax credit to help them buy insurance

What good does more money to buy insurance do when nobody will sell you it in the first place? John Mccain’s healthcare plan will hurt everyone who isn’t wealthy and in good health. Some people will call this realistic fiscal policy, I call it inhumane and criminal.

If you’re lucky enough to be in perfect health and can afford a quality insurance plan, then good for you. The rest of us should start praying that John Mccain never becomes President.