An affluent neighborhood on Chicago’s north side on a porch outside former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s residence. The disgraced pol calls for a press conference in his ongoing effort to clear his name.
Three reporters and one camera-man have assembled for this gathering. Two of them are interns working for the Chicago Reader hoping to get class credit at their community colleges. They wait anxiously in the bitter winter cold for their former governor to arrive.
Finally, after fifteen minutes of waiting, Rod Blagojevich appears on the porch. He is wearing a skin-tight jogging suit and it appears that he is smuggling grapes in his underwear. His hair has grown down into a mullet that extends to his shoulders and covers his right eye.
Hot Rod: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here tonight. I called this press conference because I believe that it’s important for the good people of Illinois to know how I’m doing and how my ongoing efforts to clear my good name are progressing.
Ladies and gentlemen, wait… there don’t appear to be any ladies here at this moment, so gentlemen, I want to once again thank you for attending this press conference. It’s important that the media understands what is going on and reports the truth.
Because, as the great poet named the Apostle John once said, you should know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.
Well, the truth is, la.. gentlemen, that I am the victim of a vast conspiracy at the highest levels of government and business. That’s right. They have formed an unholy alliance in an effort to systematically undermine and slander my name for the last two years. Why have they done this? Well, because during my 6 years as serving the people of Illinois as governor, and before that my 6 years as a state congressman, and before that my years as a prosecutor, and before that the 2 weeks I spent in junior high volunteering for the Chicago Works program, and before that the afternoon I cleaned out my neighbor Mrs. Dugandzic’s gutters when I was eleven years old…
I have always served the people of Illinois and not the entrenched business interests of this community. For my entire life, I served this fair state and its fair people, who I love more than my own flesh and blood, more than my own wife Patti, who has since left me for a commercial mortgage lender from the Gold Coast, Patti- if you’re watching this, if you see this, I want you to know that I still love you too-
I love the people of Illinois and because of that the corrupt politicians here decided to throw me out two years ago; they tossed me out on the street because I was a threat to them.
Because I refused to play their little games of law and due process, because I was a reformer, I was kicked out of the governorship and crucified publicly.
I was crucified just like Jesus was crucified. Because I loved the people of Illinois just as much as Jesus loved, and still loves the people of Illinois, we were sacrificed by Pontius Pilate and the State Senate because we both believed in a vision of a beautiful, utopian state.
At this time I would also like to extend my sincerest regards to former Senator Roland Burris, who was also crucified in an unholy and unfair election process that stacked the deck against him by only allowing him one vote per voter. The election laws in Illinois were used against him because he was my chosen replacement, he was my choice to replace Barack Obama.
By the way, Mr. President? I would like to take this chance to say hello to you. My secretary sent you several letters and e-mails over the last eighteen months, but as of yet, you haven’t gotten back to me. I even left you a voicemail last week on the oval office line. I know you’re very busy being President and everything, but I really hope that you can get back to me as soon as possible. Because I hope that perhaps you can see it in your heart to pardon me, because, like Jesus, I am an innocent man who has never been proven wrong of doing anything wrong.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say at this time. So right now I would like to open up the floor for any questions that you might have.
The three reporters shuffle their feet and after several moments of horribly akward silence, a reporter raises his hand.
Rod: Yes, you with the notepad?
Reporter: Right. Mr. uh, former Governor sir, are you feeling alright? You appear to be a little bit disheveled.
Rod: Well, thank you for asking. And well, I have to be honest, I mean it hasn’t been easy since January of 2009 when I was unceremoniously and illegally removed from my rightfully appointed and God-given office. I have been looking for work for some time, but nobody seems to want to hire me. I mean, I have a stellar resume- but it appears that I have been blacklisted by every employer in the state. Nobody wants to hire a former governor with decades of public service and fundraising experience? I mean, that’s just, I mean that’s just not fair. I’ve had some financial problems. By the way, I have this pen here. Do you see it?
Reporter: Yes I see it.
Rod: This is a blue ball point pen from Bic- and I mean, it’s a pretty fuckin valuable thing, this pen. Do you want to buy it?
Reporter: No, no I really don’t need it. I don’t want to pay for it.
Rod: Well, I’m not gonna just give it away. This pen is a fuckin valuable thing, I’m not just gonna give it away for nothing.
Reporter: Sorry sir. Is there anything else you have to say?
Rod: Yes. I would like to read a part of a poem that was written by W.B. Yeats a long time ago, and I feel it’s very appropriate for this occasion.
Rod pulls out a piece of crumpled paper and begins to read:
“And blessedness goes where the wind goes, And when it is gone we are dead;
I see the blessedest soul in the world And he nods a drunken head. ‘Oblessedness comes in the night and the day And whither the wise heart knows; And one has seen in the redness of wine, The Incorruptible Rose…”
I watched more of the House of Representatives’ deliberation on the $819 billion recovery bill than I will admit in public.
I was hoping, rather foolishly, that one single Republican would have the courage to defy his or her party, and to vote for the legislation that is desperately needed to help our economy. After it was all said and done, there was not one voice of dissent on the right side of the aisle.
They were defeated thankfully, but after an inspiring election season filled with promises of renewed bipartisanship, the GOP returned to its hive-mind mentality.
And we’re supposed to believe that these people put the Country First?
On the other side, 11 Democrats voted against the bill. I commend them for this, because they clearly did it based on a philosophical ground. But the 177 Republicans who voted down the bill even though there was substantial compromises given to them showed their true colors.
Because Republicans seem to believe that only tax cuts can create any economic incentives, the Democrats and President Obama decided to throw them a bone so that they could get behind the measure as well.
250 Billion dollars in tax cuts were included in this bill, even though Trickle Down economics has been proven to be the massive pyramid scheme that it is and the last 8 years of tax cuts have gotten us nothing but disaster.
But not ONE single Republican congressperson voted for the bill.
Why? Because they fear that if the bill passes, and is successful, it will help the Democrats to win future elections.
Nevermind the fact that we urgently need to create jobs, fix our infrastructure, and lower the cost of health care. They don’t care about these things. All they care about are their own careers.
The eleven Democrats had the guts to stand up to their own party and vote against a piece of legislation that they opposed, for one reason or another. They did this because they believed that voting their conscience was more important than towing the party line.
But not one single Republican was willing to defy their party for the good of the nation.
Let’s remember this, America. Let’s remember this for a long time. Let’s remember it in 2010, 2012, 2014, and in a dozen elections thereafter, that when the American people were standing in food pantries and unemployment lines, while our jobs were being taken out from under us, the Republican Party stood by and refused to help because they were more interested in their political careers than in helping us.
Most of my generation came to political consciousness during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Before that we were too busy being kids to care too much about politics, and the whole business got us all more interested in blowjobs than anything else.
It wasn’t until the Iraq War in 2003 that I really became politically active. For the first time I saw my country doing something that I truly did not approve of, and with my own money. For the next 6 years I didn’t see anything from President Bush that made me proud to be an American.
So, this week marks the first time during my political life that I feel like I really have a President, and I’ve felt a surge of patriotism that I haven’t experienced since watching fireworks on the 4th of July when I was too young to know what an Executive Gag order is.
Since taking the oath of office one week ago, President Obama has accomplished more for America than George W. Bush did in his entire tenure in office.
What a Relief
1. Closing down the prison at Guantanamo Bay (which will take a year) has made the United States far more safe than at any other time during the Bush years, because it has been one of Al Qaeda’s most effective recruiting tools.
2. Officially announcing that the United States will not torture combatants in the war on terror. This undoes a great deal of damage to America’s reputation and will help us to fulfill our future foreign policy goals.
3. Letting the states choose their own emissions standards. This is probably the biggest coupe for environmentalism in a decade, and it will help US automakers become more competitive in the global economy.
4. Lifting President Bush’s global gag order. While I don’t condone abortion personally, witholding vital international aid over the issue is a serious moral fault. Women and children use family planning services for more than just abortions, and now they will get much more of the help that they need.
5. Talking to the Muslim community: when President Obama (FUCK man, doesn’t that sound good to hear?) chose an Arab station for his first televised interview, he sent a clear signal to this population: the United States is not their enemy.
So there you have it.
After just one week, President Obama has made America more safe, has restored our global image, boosted the economy, and made strides towards curbing climate change.
It’s not been a perfect week. I have been disappointed that Obama and Congressional Democrats have given so much ground to the Republicans on the stimulus bill. The nutjobs in the House GOP have insisted on forcing more useless tax cuts into this legislation, taking precious dollars away from public spending. I understand that President Obama wants to strike a bipartisan tone right off the bat, but this is too important to cave in on.
The Republicans have shown absolutely no interest in bipartisanship since 1994, and the country has suffered greatly.
President Obama has more political capital than anyone since Reagan’s first term: he should use it to help the American people, whether the Republicans like it or not.
Overall though, I’m very pleased with Obama’s actions so far.
This week, Seth Cropsey of The Weekly Standard wrote this:
“Even without the likelihood that China’s next large step in developing its navy is the addition of aircraft carriers, the United States needed to increase its combatant fleet. Continued missteps that result in a diminishing U.S. Navy at the same time that China’s naval force grows are an invitation to change the balance of power in Asia, the Pacific, and the world…”
Cropsey goes on later to suggest that the economic stimulus package should include a “naval restoration program” that would keep the United States competitive on the high seas.
After reading the article, I can only come to one conclusion, and I’ll try to phrase it as politely as I can. Seth Cropsey is definitely a warmonger, and is quite possibly mentally retarded.
Where do these military-minded uber-nerds come from?
Does the DoD recruit them right out of a Dungeons and Dragons convention?
Do conservative think tanks comb the ranks of online RPG games for the most brilliant minds in strategic skullfuckery?
Cropsey is obviously intelligent enough to understand military strategy in an end-game scenario, but has a clearly misguided notion of how the real world works, and therefore some terrifyingly stupid notions about how it should.
Newsflash, Seth Cropsey, and all of you conservative command and conquer champions:
We are already in debt to China for billions upon billions of dollars, primarily because we have decided to remain a permanently militarized nation: what people on the other side of the world call an empire.
China understandably uses some of these dollars to build a couple of aircraft carriers so that it can expand its sphere of influence.
In the real world, pragmatic politicians and sane people would shrug their shoulders and go back to working on improving their own lives. But in the Wargame fantasy that the neoconservatives live in, any time a nation not called the United States increases military spending, it’s a threat to our very lives!
“Uh oh! China is building up on naval power! We’d better multiply our naval reserves by 7 and pump up our Wizard’s intellect another few levels in order to keep pace!”
Newsflash, Seth Cropsey and you crop of dimwitted, four-eyed, sweater-vested Republicans:
The world is not one gigantic game of global conquest!
If you understood this, and the fact that our bloated navy, army, marine core, and air force actually contribute to our national debt, and therefore to our debt to China, then you wouldn’t wet your Dockers every time that a regional power goes on a spending spree.
This would all be harmless if Cropsey and his ilk were kept shuttered away in their parents basements for all time, but they are actively recruited by the conservative establishment! This guy served in major Navy positions under both the Reagan and Bush I administrations!
Our economic stimulus plan would never have been necessary if Republican leaders hadn’t gutted the middle class and organized labor with their pro-corporate policies in the first place. Those AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS need to be used to put AMERICANS back to work, so that they can pay for medicine, food, infrastructure and a quality education.
For the good of all the world, let’s banish these board game genius virgins back to the closets from which they came, and keep them out of the United States government.
In just a matter of hours Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.
This is a momentous occasion that has generated an unprecedented amount of excitement here in America, and all over the world. Obama’s inauguration is inspiring to a global audience in part because he is now the most powerful man in the entire world.
The Key is We
Even though I did not vote for Barack Obama, I wish him well and sincerely hope that he can restore our image and repair our broken economy.
The key phrase during Obama’s campaign was “Yes We Can.” The key word there is We. This is not about one man, this is not about one party. This is about the American people deciding how we want to live our lives.
What’s more important than Barack Obama are the ideas that he was elected upon. In 4 years or 8 years time, we will have a new President, and eventually the impact of Obama’s policies may fade: so it’s vitally important that we continue the work towards a more progressive society, long after Obama hands off power to his successor.
Unlike the mainstream media, I believe that this is a liberal nation that values human rights and equality more than rugged individualism and wealth.
Barack Obama has galvanized the silent progressive majority to stand up and to vote. If these same groups stay active politically (middle-class workers, African Americans, women, the poor, Latinos, and the educated) then America will see itself transformed into a beacon of prosperity and liberty the likes of which our founding fathers envisioned.
In order for that to happen, we must realize that one man does not make a revolution. One man, even if he’s the most powerful man in the world has only a limited amount of time and tools to get things done.
Like I said, I did not vote for Barack Obama on the grounds that he is not progressive enough for my taste, but I do believe that Obama is a first step in the right direction.
Obama will not be able to solve all of our problems in 8 short years.
-More than likely in 2016, we will still see health care as an industry rather than a personal right.
- We will still see our taxes being used to finance a military empire rather than improving our education and infrastructure.
- We will see climate change continue to accelerate while oil conglomerates fight against progress at every turn.
One President is not going to save our planet. It’s up to us to continue the work that we have begun in 2008. So let’s not get caught up in a cult of personality, let’s hold Barack Obama accountable, let’s make him keep his campaign promises.
We can no longer afford to project our hopes for a future greater good onto one individual: the margin for error in history has gotten too thin. If we do not hold Barack Obama and his successors to our standards, then we run the risk of allowing greed to destroy our civilization.
During the last eight years it may have become easy to forget just who is in charge in this country. The United States of America is a government run by the people for the people. And those people have raised up in a united voice and declared that we do not accept or condone the way our nation has been run of late, and that we demand a lasting, comprehensive change.
The only question is how long we will hold that note.
In the treatment of poverty nationally, one fact stands out: There are twice as many white poor as Negro poor in the United States. Therefore I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike.
Up to recently we have proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils: lack of education restricting job opportunities; poor housing which stultified home life and suppressed initiative; fragile family relationships which distorted personality development. The logic of this approach suggested that each of these causes be attacked one by one. Hence a housing program to transform living conditions, improved educational facilities to furnish tools for better job opportunities, and family counseling to create better personal adjustments were designed. In combination these measures were intended to remove the causes of poverty.
While none of these remedies in itself is unsound, all have a fatal disadvantage. The programs have never proceeded on a coordinated basis or at a similar rate of development. Housing measures have fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies. They have been piecemeal and pygmy. Educational reforms have been even more sluggish and entangled in bureaucratic stalling and economy-dominated decisions. Family assistance stagnated in neglect and then suddenly was discovered to be the central issue on the basis of hasty and superficial studies. At no time has a total, coordinated and fully adequate program been conceived. As a consequence, fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.
In addition to the absence of coordination and sufficiency, the programs of the past all have another common failing — they are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else.
I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
Earlier in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual’s abilities and talents. In the simplistic thinking of that day the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber.
We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty.
We have come to the point where we must make the nonproducer a consumer or we will find ourselves drowning in a sea of consumer goods. We have so energetically mastered production that we now must give attention to distribution. Though there have been increases in purchasing power, they have lagged behind increases in production. Those at the lowest economic level, the poor white and Negro, the aged and chronically ill, are traditionally unorganized and therefore have little ability to force the necessary growth in their income. They stagnate or become even poorer in relation to the larger society.
The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available.
In 1879 Henry George anticipated this state of affairs when he wrote, in Progress and Poverty:
“The fact is that the work which improves the condition of mankind, the work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature, and elevates thought, is not done to secure a living. It is not the work of slaves, driven to their task either by the lash of a master or by animal necessities. It is the work of men who perform it for their own sake, and not that they may get more to eat or drink, or wear, or display. In a state of society where want is abolished, work of this sort could be enormously increased.”
We are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished. The poor transformed into purchasers will do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay. Negroes, who have a double disability, will have a greater effect on discrimination when they have the additional weapon of cash to use in their struggle.
Beyond these advantages, a host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security. The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life and in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is stable and certain, and when he know that he has the means to seek self-improvement. Personal conflicts between husband, wife and children will diminish when the unjust measurement of human worth on a scale of dollars is eliminated.
Two conditions are indispensable if we are to ensure that the guaranteed income operates as a consistently progressive measure. First, it must be pegged to the median income of society, not the lowest levels of income. To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions. Second, the guaranteed income must be dynamic; it must automatically increase as the total social income grows. Were it permitted to remain static under growth conditions, the recipients would suffer a relative decline. If periodic reviews disclose that the whole national income has risen, then the guaranteed income would have to be adjusted upward by the same percentage. Without these safeguards a creeping retrogression would occur, nullifying the gains of security and stability.
This proposal is not a “civil rights” program, in the sense that that term is currently used. The program would benefit all the poor, including the two-thirds of them who are white. I hope that both Negro and white will act in coalition to effect this change, because their combined strength will be necessary to overcome the fierce opposition we must realistically anticipate.
Our nation’s adjustment to a new mode of thinking will be facilitated if we realize that for nearly forty years two groups in our society have already been enjoying a guaranteed income. Indeed, it is a symptom of our confused social values that these two groups turn out to be the richest and the poorest. The wealthy who own securities have always had an assured income; and their polar opposite, the relief client, has been guaranteed an income, however miniscule, through welfare benefits.
John Kenneth Galbraith has estimated that $20 billion a year would effect a guaranteed income, which he describes as “not much more than we will spend the next fiscal year to rescue freedom and democracy and religious liberty as these are defined by ‘experts’ in Vietnam.”
The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.
The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.
Yesterday it was cold. Colder than cold. In fact it was the coldest day in the city in more than a decade. It has snowed more days in a row than at any other time since they started recording consecutive snow days.
During the train ride into town I saw icicles hanging from balconies in shapes and sizes that I’ve never seen before.
Stalactites taller than me, millions of slender knives, stabbing downward at the ground, ice twisted and turned in ways that seem unnatural. Wherever the water dripped, and in whatever direction, it froze.
The vapid, useless sack of flesh who runs the net’s biggest collection of headlines implies that these icicles are proof that man-made global warming is a hoax on par with crop circles or the Illuminati.
Where did these people go to school? Even my low-grade junior high Chicago Public School education made climate change an important part of any science curriculum. Did they go to school at all? If so, did they bother to learn anything?
A more enlightened society than ours would have jettisoned Matt Drudge into space in a tiny capsule a long time ago, along with Ann Coulter and everyone else who takes special satisfaction in profiting from spreading dangerous lies. But even then they would peer through their circular viewing window and point towards their former home and say they still see no evidence of this climate change garbage.
Their brain-dead readers who greet any idea that challenges their pathetic, white picket fences view of the world with a shotgun and a shout to get off their property should all be put on an island near the Equator so that the rising sea will swallow them up.
Even then, as they are choking on salt water they will gurgle something about it all being just punishment from God, and that there’s no proof carbon emissions had anything to do with it.
Laissez fair capitalism has been thoroughly discredited over the last several months. Yet Republican lawmakers and business interests are still clinging to their religion in the same way that astronomers during the Enlightenment were insisting that the world is flat, and the Sun revolves around the Earth.
We can trace the economic downturn to several key trends:
1. The deregulation of our financial markets, especially in the mortgage industry. The government intervened to make it easier for people to obtain mortgages: a move that allowed business MORE freedom to operate, not less. But free market fundamentalists say that too much regulation is to blame. It’s a logical fallacy that’s laughable to anyone with an understanding of the industry; YES, the government interfered in the business, but the motive was to lax regulation, not strengthen it.
2. Rising health care costs that have made the middle class obsolete. Even though a single-payer system would save employers more money than any other economic initiative, the conservative business lobby (aided by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries) insist that any step towards single payer health care is a step towards Godless communism and it must be stopped at all costs.
Doctors want it, patients need it, employers need it, America needs it, but any government program is seen as heresy by the free-market fundamentalists, and therefore is evil, even if it saves money.
3. The systematic degradation of the American labor force. This is the true source of our economic woes due to several decades of anti-labor legislation, free trade agreements, and unscrupulous business who exploit immigrant labor.
Companies who ship factories overseas to take advantage of the slave wages in 3rd world countries have essentially shot the American economy in the foot. By sending jobs to other countries, they have gutted American buying power and have destroyed their consumer markets.
Illegal immigrants who have come to the US to work have been taken advantage of by companies looking to exploit cheap labor without the hastle of sending production overseas. This is essentially outsourcing in reverse. Paying poor immigrants below minimum wage under the table takes money out of the government’s coiffers in the form of income tax, and destroys jobs that Americans use to be paid a decent wage for.
Ronald Reagan may be remembered for winning the Cold War (however ridiculous that idea may be) and for restoring national prestige, but his true legacy is in the crushing of organized labor. During the 3 decades of this holy war on unions, American wages have remained stagnant while inflation and living costs have risen exponentially.
Now the Reaganites are opposing Card Check on the grounds that it would impede democracy in the work place. This is a lie. Workers still have the rights to a special election, this just gives one more option for unionizing.
Employers and big businesses have won the battle so handily over their employees that the American worker no longer has the power to buy anymore, and that’s going to hurt employers as well now.
Single payer health care, stringent government regulation, and healthy labor unions are not, as they will tell you, socialist menaces to be feared. They are in fact the last best hope of saving American capitalism as we know it.
I am inspired by this brave man who has gone out into a war zone and braved rockets and gunfire to bring the true story of what is going on to the readers of whatever nutjob website hired him. Wurzenferzenbacher is a bold man, with bold, fresh ideas:
“You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity, well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”
I’ll tell you something. I’ve read a great deal about wars in my time, and I’ve followed media coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan and Lebanon and Gaza very closely, and Joe Wurzenflazenbaker is the first journalist who has had the gumption to just come right out and say that war is hell.
I mean, all this time I was under the impression that war is just generally unpleasant.
Joe is right. If it’s true that war really is HELL on EARTH then the media has no right to cover war. I also miss the good old days when progress on the war was broadcast in theaters and everybody stood up and cheered our boys on as they bravely marched through the little town of _____________ to free the little people of __________ .
These things don’t concern Joe Witzelshnitzel, and they shouldn’t concern you either. Whatever Israel’s mili… whatever OUR military chooses to do with OUR tax dollars on the ground as they go after vile terrorists in ____________ in order to protect our freedoms is none of our business.
Joe Wantsapopple has the vision and the leadership that our country needs right now. Somebody needs to elect this man to Congress! Or even better, maybe a governor can hand-pick him for a Senate seat!
For the fools who voted in the Democrats in 2006 and Obama in 2008, it may take a while longer before their dissolution sets in. I on the other hand never had any faith in these fugazzi Progressives in the first place.
The people of the United States elected a Democratic Congress in 2006 in the hope that they would end the war in Iraq, or at least cut back on funding for the operations, and restore the rule of law. They failed.
During that same election the people of Illinois re-elected Rod Blagojevich. I don’t know what we were looking for in him, but we certainly have been disappointed.
The entire Democratic party is rife with corporate cronies, criminals, corruption, and Clintonista centrists who have no interest in changing the status quo and have no ideas for fixing our problems.
1. Barack Obama’s tax cut plan is a waste of time and precious money. $500 dollars in less taxes is not going to help anybody. Tax rebates are a tired idea that won’t get anybody back to work, won’t get us any closer to energy dependence, won’t cut health care costs, and won’t get credit flowing in the financial sector again.
This legislation is a bone the new President is throwing to prove that he’s serious about bipartisanship. I can’t imagine why he thinks that a Republican party that has forgotten the meaning of the word will appreciate the gesture.
2. The Democratic leadership in Congress was standing firm in their pledge not to seat Roland Burris in the Senate. Now it appears that they’re going to roll over and let him represent the people of Illinois. Nevermind the fact that it’s illegal for a governor to fill Senate vacancies like this, (whether he’s corrupt or not) the Democrats are not interested in due process or the law. They’re more concerned with having precious votes to pass their diet Liberal nonsense.
3. Bill Richardson and other members of Obama’s team have been either cast out or tainted because of conflicts of interest. Do they really expect us to believe that Rahm Emanuel has no fault in this Blagojevich fiasco?
4. Despite all the fretting coming out of the far right wing media, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and co. have no plans for adopting a radical liberal agenda. There is no conspiracy to change business as usual for American policy. Case in point: today the House of Representatives is set to vote on a resolution supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza, and it will pass by an overwhelming majority.
And how do they get away with this farce?
Because year after year, election after election, stupid, lilly-livered liberals shrug, drop their standards, and hope for the best when they pull the lever for the Donkey Party.
The last time I checked, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
The growing political blogosphere is a growing phenomenon that can have a major impact on the political process here and all over the world. Recently, the people at Pakistani Spectator interviewed me about blogging:
PS: What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?
TW: Maybe I’m being selfish in saying this, but I think the political blogosphere is changing the face of politics as we know it. Barack Obama made great use of social media and text messaging during the campaign, but the millions of young writers who got actively engaged in writing about politics recently are going to be around for a much longer time. Decentralization in the media is one of the most important factors in effecting change.
PS: Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?
TW: Certainly. I feel like people are much more aware of what’s going on in the news and politics, and that’s a very good thing.
PS: What do you think sets Your site apart from others?
TW: Well I can’t say that I’m uniquely candid, because there are a hundred thousand other opinionated people out there telling it like it is. I think what sets my site apart is the even-handed way I approach the political parties. During the campaign I was one of a very small minority of liberal bloggers who was willing to critisize Barack Obama. That dissent is essential. You have to call out both sides when they are wrong…
This column is a rejoinder to Bill Kristol’s piece “Why Israel Fights” in today’s New York Times.
Kristol believes that the Israeli campaign in Gaza can be a success, unlike the brief war with Lebanon two years ago. He says this because he believes the Israeli leadership has learned the mistakes of that conflict militarily, politically, and strategically and will correct them this time around.
That’s 3 strikes, but unfortunately Kristol is still swinging away at reason like a one-eyed switch hitter in a stadium with no lights.
1. Militarily Israel cannot succeed because it has no tangible objectives in Gaza. It seeks to punish Hamas and look tough after the loss to Hezbollah. The idea that they can stop rockets being fired into Israel is akin to the U.S. invading Mexico to stop Mexicans from firing their handguns into Texas. It can’t be done.
2. Politically Israel is alienating just about every other nation on Earth, save the United States. This war will make it more, not less difficult for them to achieve future political objectives in the region.
3. Strategy is the biggest failure here. The stated objective is to stop the rocket fire and terrorism in southern Israel in general. For every Hamas fighter that the IDF takes out today, they are creating 3 new terrorists down the road.
But of course Kristol doesn’t even really care about the individual conflict in Gaza: he sees it as just one tiny part of the greater war with the true enemy of Iran. It never occurs to him that perhaps Hamas came into power as a reaction to Israeli actions rather than just one more devious plot hatched by the super-villains in Iran.
The great threat for the neocons and their columnists is not that Hamas will strike back at Israel or the United States, it’s that Iran will be emboldened.
Emboldened to support terrorist networks in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, and anywhere else U.S. soldiers are.
Emboldened to develop a nuclear weapon- because we absolutely must not allow any Muslim nations to have even one nuclear weapon…
What’s that?
Pakistan has one, you say?
Several, you say?
Oh SHIT!
Well, in any case, Iran cannot be emboldened to do anything except force exasperated bloggers to embolden certain words.
Why Bill Kristol or anybody else thinks they know why Israel fights is beyond me.
Why Palestinians continue to die is because the incredibly incompetent Israeli government believes that murdering their next door neighbors somehow makes them more safe at night.
I grew up like many kids my age watching the old Christopher Reeve series and reading comic books, so I was thrilled to get the entire collection from my girlfriend for Christmas.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this:
Apparently this only made number 79 on the top 100 list of product placements of all time. Absurd as the shameless ads are, I was shocked that I didn’t even remember them being a part of the film as I was growing up.
Superman, for those of you who don’t know, is not a human being: he is an alien from an ice planet, but he prides himself on being the defender of “truth, justice, and the American way.” Strange concept for someone who was born 3 light-years away and would be labeled as an dangerous illegal immigrant today. Border fence in space, anyone?
The film came out in 1980, during the Cold War and the Reagan Revolution: otherwise known as the Capitalist Re-Awakening. So the American Way that he’s referring to has more to do with protecting us from the devious Soviet ideal of shared wealth than anything else.
“Come son of Jor-El! Kneel before Marx!”
The villainous General Zod made no such declaration, but is it a stretch to think that this totalitarian caricature is a commentary on Soviet czars? I have no illusions about Puzo’s politics. In The Last Don, he made a vehement declaration of his support for tobacco companies and their rights to pursue profit at all costs. It was a prevalent theme in his work that he supported big business.
As far as All-American brands go, it doesn’t get any better than Coca-Cola or Marlboro, who through brilliant marketing campaigns have become synonymous with their respective industries. But are their industries synonymous with our country? Should they be? It’s too late to call Puzo on it now, unfortunately.
It’s very revealing to see the way that media powers perceive the United States. Whereas most Americans see our nation as a beacon of hope, democracy, and human rights, (however diluted that may be) the movers and shakers within advertising, film, and politics seem to see America as the greatest shopping mall in all of history. Is this the legacy that we want to leave on our planet? Is that the way you see it?
Considering that I drank a glass of Coke while watching the movie, it might be hypocritical to point out that the company abuses cheap labor all over the world, and the product itself does terrible things to your body, but it’s still worth asking if this glorified sugar water is really worth all of that.
I’m not going to waste the key strokes to comment on the cigarette industry: enough ink has been wasted on those human pirranhas already. I’ll leave it to my market fundamentalist friends to defend those companies and their contributions to society.
I’m not even saying that product placement is an inherently evil thing: I’m only saying that as an American, I don’t want others to believe that we care more about products, consuming, and capitalism than we do about democracy, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our art imitates our life, but the Superman that I remember would not hesitate to throw the CEOs of Marlboro and Coca-Cola in the same cell next to Lex Luthor and his bumbling accomplice.
Maybe I’m entirely naive about the principles that this country was founded upon in the first place, but I like to believe that there is more to the American Way than just cheap goods and free markets.
As one giant elephant is about to leave the room (W), it’s time that we took a serious look at the far bigger elephant that has been standing right next to him for the last 8 years, and will stand right next to Barack Obama for at least the next 4.
I’m speaking of the American military industrial complex: the single greatest impediment to democracy, economic development and human rights on the entire planet. Liberal wuss and flower power spokesperson, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about it when he left office:
“Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together…”
The key words I wanted to paste here are “alert and knowledgeable citizenry.”
As a nation, we know far too little about what is being done with our tax dollars, and the profound effects that it has on the rest of the world.
Do you know how many permanent military bases the United States has worldwide?
Do you know how many billions of dollars are spent every year as part of the “Defense” budget?
Do you know how many wars we are currently involved in? Where?
If you can’t answer these questions with a reasonable ball-park answer, then you’re not doing your part to be informed. The most vital lifeblood of a strong democracy is freedom of information: it’s OUT there. The government has to account for every single penny of OUR money that it spends.
You cannot learn how to better the world by watching reality TV- you cannot expext to be informed when you get all of your news from one source- especially if it’s your local news.
The old saying goes that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. I think it needs to go one further: if you’re not paying attention, then you’re contributing to the problem.
Until we hold ourselves accountable for staying informed, then we can never expect to hold our government responsible for its actions.
I care about individual rights like drug use, gay marriage, and immigration as much as anybody, but all of these issues are utterly trivial compared to the use and misuse of our military.
Find out the real cost of our military empire, and then decide if you still want to vote for a candidate who isn’t willing to address the problem.
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Posted by Tim Weaver 
Posted by Tim Weaver 
Posted by Tim Weaver 
