Here's a Doozy

Kerry says "I lost the election because of the Bin Laden tape. Are you sure it had nothing to do with standing for nothing, getting out organized in Ohio, Iowa (two strong labor states) and the West, standing for nothing, having 15 poistions on Iraq, standing for nothing? Quick think of two issues Kerry stood for during the election.

My Friends

Los Amigos Invisibles in Chicago this Saturday!

Gary Wills

The Day the Enlightement Went Out. Gary Wills is, next to Eric Foner, probably my favorite historian. Although a Catholic and a "conservative" (this means something much different to him than the ruling yahoos) he's just down right honest and a good writer to boot.

Church goers more intolerant.

Now here's a suprise? Not! Have you read the Bible, Torah or Koran? Smiting yes! Tolerance no.

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Psalm 137:9

“(As for) the fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them, (giving) a hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you in the matter of obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the last day, and let a party of believers witness their chastisement” (Koran 24:2).

How many more?

Take a look at the casualties below the US helicopter dead. This is one day of the conflict. With liberation like this...

In Poland: Criticize Papa and Get Fined $6,500

Jerzy Urban, editor and writer, is fined because he wrote a satirical piece on the Pope.

King George

Uri Avnery on the second Bush term, Israel, and the neo-cons.

Mess O' Potamia

Two items in today's news 1) lot's of people are being tortured in Iraq by the US and their lackeys. If they are admitting this imagine what else is going on? 2) Bush is asking for $80 BILLION more for the war. When Larry Lindsey, his old Economic Advisor, suggested that the war might cost between $100 and $200 BILLION he was fired. The "official" price is now $280 BILLION. This is to say nothing of the costs for Iraq in infrastructure, lives, opportunity costs, and on a lesser scale the same for the US.

Thousands march in Caracas in defense of sovereignty.

A serious dispute is developing between Columbia and Venezuela over the kidnapping of a FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia) leader. It seems that the unofficial Foreign Minister of the FARC, Rodrigo Granda, was in Venezuela and was abducted by Columbian (and US?) forces. A clear violation of international law, but so was Iraq. Washington says they support the action 100%.

Does Al-Queda Exist?

One of those unthinkable thoughts out there. Robert Scheer thinks the unthinkable in this article on today's post-modern bogeyman. Yes, there are political Islamists who want secularism, capitalism and American Idol to burn in Jahannam-OK, I looked that one up, but does this mean that it is well organized? Does this mean it has a centralized organization? Does this mean it even has a core ideology? Questions rather not asked or answers given in the current miasma.

Freedom's Marchers

Bush talked a lot about freedom yesterday. In Argentina in the 70's and early 80's, just to name one grisly example, when Rumsfeld and Cheney were watching freedom's gate, the torture chambers were open for business with US cover and support. Here's some of the detail from a trial currently running in Spain.

The lack of an historical memory is one of the problems of the current regime (political and social). Our past crimes, Guatemala, El Salvador, Iraq, Indonesia, Zaire, etc... Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al can make any claim about their support for democracy or freedom and their past actions or current one's in say Saudi Arabia or Pakistan are not examined. Pitiful.

Landover Baptist Church

One of the funniest websites I have ever seen. Take a look at the letters! Sad indeed, lots of these people are humor impaired secularists.

Sponge Bob is Gay!

These are the kind of fanatics that Bush hangs out with. These moralists understand politics, they take on controversy to make their points. The Democrats do the opposite, they accommodate to the right and then they wonder why they lose power.

For a gay Sponge Bob! Out of the closet now! We are all gay today! And for my favorite slogan of all time (besides Piss on Drug Tests Because the Fascist Crackdon is Worse Than Crack-RCP); We're here, we're queer, get used to it.

Puritanism and the US, like Bush, do as I say not as I do.

Saul Landau on the the anti-sex crowd in the US.

Rice indignant that anyone would call her a liar.

"I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity."

Even after consistantly lying about Iraq for at least a year the media can buy this line? Take a look at the radical
BBC on the "grilling" given by moderate Barbara Boxer (Democratic Senator from California).

Nano-technology Lives

Living machines in one's body. Bio-tech is here. Engineers create machine in body from muscle tissue. I hope they don't get too hungry.

The Cure for Alcoholism? Hallucinogens.

Researchers at the University of California (of course) have conducted a study. The study has found that by taking the drug Ibogaine one's cravings for alcohol decline. Kesey lives!

Electoral College

What is the smallest number of states that you could win to become president of the United States? Answer.

Really?

Iraq is now a training ground for those who want to kill infidels and particularly United States infidels like you and me. Lowly high school students and teachers and street people could have, and did, make this prediction before the war. This goes to the question whether or not they care about "terrorism" as such? Is the safety of me and you their first priority? I think not, I think oil industry profits, strategic access to them and political gain far out weigh the desire of this ruling elite to protect us plebes.

The Great Liberal Woodrow Wilson

Here's a quote from Woodrow Wilson in his "History of the American People." D.W. Griffith used the quote in his 1915 version of Birth of a Nation.

"Adventurers swarmed out of the North, as much the enemies of the one race as of the other, to cozen, beguile, and use the negroes...In the villages the negroes were the office holders, men who knew none of the uses of authority, except its insolences."

"The policy of the congressional leaders wrought...a veritable overthrow of civilization in the South...in their determination to 'put the white South under the heel of the black South.'"

"The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation....ubtil at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country."

Tipper

Tipper's at it again. The guardian of virtue, Tipper Gore-who started a witch hunt against such purveyors of smut as Prince and Jello Biafra, is out of the closet again. Warning parents about the evils of boobs and swearing, Tipper, it seems is running for office again.
Actually what I find offensive is how the Gore's have used their personal stories (92 convention/son's car accident, 96 convention/sister's cancer)and phony moralism to further their political careers! Oh yeah and then there's that volunteering for Vietnam thing.

I Thought NAZIs Hated Royals?

Royals dressing up in wacky NAZI outfits.

Fascist Le Pen Censored

I never thought I would say this but, Le Pen (French neo-fascist) is correct. He should be able to say what ever he wants about the NAZI occupation of France, regardless how reprehensible. Here's the problem:

"Anti-racism laws in France make denying the Holocaust a crime, punishable by either fines or prison - although it remains unclear whether Mr Le Pen could be prosecuted under such legislation on the basis of these remarks."

These laws are idiotic. Pushing hate speach, or whatever you want to call it, under the rug only denies the problem. Let it out in the open and exose it for what it is. The same should be said for the Belling affair in Milwaukee.

Here's the story on Le Pen and what he said.

The El Salvador Solution

Unfortunately history repeats. Again and again one hears in the media,and in the Vice-Presidential debate, the idea of an El Salvador solution in Iraq. It seems in the mainstream this is a good thing. A little "revisionism" is in order here. In the late 1970's peasants, workers, students and lots of other folks stated to organize against the dreadful lives and government of El Salvador. This was met with repression, death squads organized by the military and the CIA, that killed tens of thousands. Revolutionary forces then grew and merged because of a lack of democratic alternatives. The Carter administration was afraid that revolutionary change might occur like they had in 1979 in Nicaragua so they rushed tons of aid to a miltary junta that slaughtered tens of thousands in the name of anti-communism. Then came "reform:" both economic and democratic. This means they try to buy people off and hold elections that prove that the people rule.

Today the talking heads see this plan as positive and they want to re-produce a version in Iraq. Allan Nairn explains the El Salvador solution.

Land Reform Moves Forward in Venezuela

Hugo Chavez signs land reform decree.

(Area?) Man Auctions Space on Forehead

Unfortunately not an Onion headline!

The Crime of Neglect

Nelson Mandela's son dies of AIDS. I bring up the individual case to make a broader point. The AIDS pandemic has been mishandled. In its early days the US government wanted to marginalize those who had the disease and the result was a rapid spread of the disease throughout the populace.
Even more of a crime has been the South African goverments, the ANC-even under Nelson Mandela's regime, denial (until very recently) of the problem. South Africa now has one of the highest rates od AIDS in the world and solely because of the neglect of the ANC leadership. This is one of the great crimes of the last 50 years.

Metro of North Korea

Here's an odd website. The Pyongyang Metro website (unofficial). At first I thought it was a gag. It's not, take a look.

The Left and Hugo Chavez

Many on the left are in a quandary about events in Venezuela these days. Hugo Chavez the left/populist leader has significantly altered the state away from the traditional elites, including privileged trade unions in the oil industry, towards the brown and poor mass of Venezuelan society. He has done this in a decidedly top down way. The question for many leftists: do authoritarian regimes like Chavez's deserve support or should principles on popular democracy send us into the opposition? Chavez is actually changing institutions so that wealth is being re-distributed. Are we part of the problem if we are in opposition or should he get qualified support? Here's the latest on agrarian reform.

My Favorite Films of 2004

Sideways
Eternal Sunhine of the Spotless Mind
I Heart Huckabees
Capturing the Friedmans
Motorcycle Diaries
Control Room
Open Water
Super Size Me

Water in California

Over the last 2 weeks I traveled in California. On the coast and in the valley, north and south. One thing you notice, like in Japan, water is a resource that is managed for humans, particularly rich humans. I know there has been a lot written on the subject, and at least one great film, Chinatown, I stumbled on this article in Counterpunch about the Ca water wars.

"In 2002, the largest 10 percent of the farms received 67 percent of the water, for an average subsidy worth up to $349,000 each at market rates for replacement water, according to the study. Twenty-seven large farms each received subsidies each worth $1 million or more at market rates, compared to a median subsidy for all recipients of $7,076."

Here's the entire article.

2004 Said Awards

Books in 2004 that opposed the empire.

The Clinton Democrats

On my flight back from CA I sat next to a crazy person. She ranted the entire 3 and a half hours about god, Johnny Cochran, hospitals, suicide, and the greatest president in US history; Bill Clinton. I hear this a lot, particularly among my black students, Clinton was the best.
Clinton was a disaster for this country. He actually implemented much of the Reagan revolution, deregulation, welfare "reform," NAFTA, GATT, and a unilateral foreign policy not unlike Bush jr's.
Here's a good article on the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and their latest analysis of US politics.