Bring The Troops Home, Goddammit

A little reminder for all the Fortunate Sons:



Bring them back, goddammit, and not in body bags, either.

Stumble It!

In Memoriam: Veterans' Day 2010

Forever young, all those who fell. Forever wounded, all those who returned.

If you haven't already, do something today to honour your brothers and sisters in uniform. They have freely chosen to give their service to the nation. Many have lost their lives in doing so. Others have lost limbs, or minds.

Today, we have 6,500 homeless female veterans on the streets. That's double the number from a mere decade ago. What's worse is, they represent a mere ten per cent of homeless veterans. There are 65,000 people out there who risked life and limb to serve, and this is how we thank them?

Today, we here at La Casa de Los Gatos want to thank all those who served, in whatever capacity. Special mention to VoteVets founder Jon Soltz, relentless critic of the Iraq War, who learned today that he has been called up for military service. He will be part of the last contingent of American troops in Iraq, closing down our military presence there. Special mention to Roger Greenan, VN vet, now at Fiddlers' Green. Special mention to Pat Tillman, a modern-day Renaissance man cut down by supposedly "friendly" fire. Special mention to Louis Rochat, VN vet, also at Fiddlers' Green, no doubt telling tall tales to the men whose lives he tried so hard to save. Special mention to Warren Leeder, a conscientious objector who nevertheless served as a medic. He didn't carry a gun, nor did he sit on his ass at home. No, he carried his medic's bag into foxholes as bombs rained down around him. Thanks to him, at least a dozen came back who would otherwise be fertilizing some foreign field. RIP, Warren.

Those of you not named here, and you know who you are, you're too precious and important to be named in public. So there.

Stumble It!

Politics: Supporting The Troops

You know how we're always shooting off our mouth here at La Casa de Los Gatos, about how we should be doing more for our troops?

Because, you know, it's like the conservatives, ReUglycans, and teabaggers seem to have co-opted that issue right out from under us.

And we don't like that one fucking bit. All kinds of people end up in the military. Some of them are very rightwing, some of them are pretty fucking leftwing. As far as we here at La Casa de Los Gatos are concerned, their politics ain't the issue. Face it, you can't get most people to whistle a tune in fucking harmony, how the hell are you going to get an entire fucking military to have a single point of view on politics?

No, for us, the issue is, when you ask someone to go get killed because their Commander-in-Chief said so, then you owe them something. Maybe you don't need to wipe their fucking ass for the rest of their natural-born days. But you sure as hell don't kick them to the curb and treat them like bumwad, either.

Because once these guys join the military, the only way they can disobey orders (regardless about how they might feel about the righteousness or justice of those orders) is to risk the loss of their career, their benefits, few as they are, and jail time.

And you know how anxious the world is to hire a jailbird, especially these days when you're lucky to be underemployed, at best.

So it turns out that there's an organization that builds homes for vets who are severely injured in the line of duty.

And it warms the cockles of our shriveled black heart to hear that they're doing this for one Frank Pierson, who lost one leg and a significant part of another in Iraq. And the most touching part?

"Many people who volunteer to work on these homes are Vietnam veterans," Thomas said. "They said they've sworn that they wouldn't have another war where veterans were treated as they were when they returned from Vietnam."

Kudos to those VN vets who, after all they went through, still found room in their hearts to help their fellow soldiers out.



You know we don't support the war in Afghanistan, we didn't support the war in Iraq, we were opposed to the bombing of Serbia, and we utterly despised, resisted, and demonstrated against the war in Vietnam. But these guys who get their asses blown off and their heads fucked up? They're not the ones who are getting rich off any of this. They're not the ones making the decisions. Just like the rest of us working stiffs, they got hired into this organization which pays them in "pride" and "honour" rather than, you know, filthy lucre, aka money.

It suckers them into this whole ethos of "serving the nation" (even though that hasn't been an issue since WW II, the last "righteous war"), and then pays them squat to go out and be cannon fodder. It imposes a strict training system that creates lifelong bonds between these people who, depending for their very lives on their comrades, are more tightly tied to them because of shared danger and trauma than most people are to their spouses and children.

If they make it back less than whole, it does its best to deny them care for any suffering they might have undergone.

And those same assholes of the rightwing who scream the loudest about "Supporting Teh Troops" are the same motherfucking pig-diddlers who vote against any funding for the VA, for educational opportunities for vets, for any improvement in servicemembers' lives. They're the assholes who won't volunteer, who find ways to vote for every war that every existed and ways to avoid getting their own worthless asses shot up. Those are the same dicksuckers who piss and moan about how "the troops volunteered, they need to suck it up."

Well, suck this, assholes.



As for the rest of youse, if you want to lend a hand, donate money, supplies, or labour, get your ass over there and do your thang. You'll find them here.

Stumble It!

Politics: Forgotten "Heroes" of a Forgotten War

It's heartwarming, to say the least, that despite the unpopularity of both the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars, the troops who are doing the fighting have not faced anything like the hostility and condemnation that Vietnam veterans faced when they returned from that unfortunate military episode. Despite the fact that the Vietnam "war" was never actually a war (that is, Congress never actually declared war) and that it was originally sold to the public and the military as a noble attempt to "contain" the "communists," it was, at least initially, quite popular with the American public.

It was not until later in the prosecution of this terrible adoration of Moloch that the American public, seeing their sons come home in body bags, turned against the war that was not a war. Some 58,000 dead sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, and friends later.

The legacy of that military orgy remain with us today. It'll be gone soon enough, when we sweep the last of the bodies under the rug and continue with the foolish militarism that Eisenhower's warned-of "military-industrial complex" continues to indulge in, at the expense of minds and bodies worldwide.

In the interim, what we have are incidents like these:



The elderly man in this clip is one Thomas Bruso, known throughout the Bay Area as "Tom Slick," or "Vietnam Tom." He is apparently well known throughout the Bay Area, having been involved in at least one other videotaped altercation. He swears like a fucking longshoreman, and as you visitors and friends at this fine blog can testify, that makes him exceedingly popular with los gatos de mi casa, given as we are to the fine art of fucking swearing.

Mr. Bruso is, some say, 62 years old, or perhaps 67. Nobody seems to know exactly. The other incident that brought him to the attention of the authorities involved an A's game. Mr. Bruso apparently brought his own alcohol to the game and sat in a seat that he was not entitled to deposit his arse in. Some irate motherfucker or the other called the police, and multiple pigs descended on this elderly gentleman and proceeded to taser the fuck out of him.

To the credit of the fine people of Oakland who were watching the game, the crowd pretty universally booed the pigs, and they have been forced to defend their use of a taser on an elderly man whose only apparent crime was to flip them a finger for interrupting his enjoyment of the game.

Of course, Mr. Bruso may be elderly but he is a motherfucking big guy, and apparently scares the shit out of a lot of people when he starts cussing. Buncha fucking pussies, if you ask me. Actually, los gatos de mi casa would like to repudiate the use of that term and refer you, our fine readers, to cats of your own acquaintance who, in the middle of a fight, have been known to call each other things that would make a longshoreman faint dead away.

In the event, it is not clear to us that Mr. Bruso actually *is* a vet, or actually served in Vietnam, but it appears to be the case, and we take the man at his word. As for his encounter with this dumbass, some people — a lot of people, sadly — are trying to make this about race.

To that, and to those people, let me just say a hearty "Fuck you." Black, brown, and white, all of us who saw this saw an idiot messing with a guy that he should have left alone. And he got his fucking ass kicked, and that's fine by me, and, apparently, by a huge honkin' slice of Oakland's nonwhite community. So don't try to make this about no white people's shit, because it ain't. Kudos to the black lady who tried to calm everyone down and keep the situation from escalating. And a heartfelt kick in the ass to the bitches who kept egging the parties on.

It's about acting tough and trying to fuck people over and getting what you deserve.

The people who videotaped this whole escapade apparently stole (as seen on the video clip) Mr. Bruso's bag, and although police returned it to him some time later, it was missing the money that had been it. I hope the thief develops the world's worst case of crotch rot that will only be alleviated by returning the money.

The upshot of this little incident is that Mr. Bruso was taken by the police to a psychiatric facility to be evaluated. Apparently, he had gone off his medication.

In the event, it ended reasonably well for Mr. Bruso. He was released, and his assailant has refused to press charges. I guess it's just too embarrassing to admit that someone your granddad's age fucking kicked your ass even though you were armed with a knife. It should keep the idiot, at least temporarily, from pulling knives on elderly bus riders.

Here is Mr. Bruso telling his story:



You can tell from listening to him that something is not quite right with Mr. Bruso. He might be developmentally disabled or delayed; he might be mentally ill. Nothing has been confirmed as yet. But there was no call for that bratty little thug to treat him the way he did, and I'm glad that Mr. Bruso escaped unhurt.

In the meantime, he's become an Internet sensation. Apparently, a lot of people are really really pissed off about the thug shit they see going down every day, and the unfortunate characters involved in this YouTube episode have attained the status of a meme. Mr. Bruso is now Epic Beard Man, although I'm not sure he understands any of it. Whatthefuckever, yaknow?

Just please note that if he actually is a Vietnam vet, Mr. Bruso represents a generation — some 3 million young men (mostly) and a few young women — who answered their country's call and (mostly) volunteered to serve in Vietnam because their leaders told them that they were protecting America and keeping her safe. And many of those who fought in that "war that was not a war" came home to a lukewarm welcome at best. More to the point, many of them came home severely fucked up, to a country that did not seem to want to address what they had gone through.

It's too late, probably, to fix whatever went wrong with most of the boys who were shipped over there with their young heads stuffed full of lies. But it's not too late to help the men they have become. If you know a vet who served in that war, thank them for their service. Give them a little respect. Understand that they've seen things, and lived through things, that would have you screaming from nightmares for the rest of your life. They didn't ask for it and they didn't know, but they and their families have had to deal with all kinds of toxic fallout — physical, mental, and emotional — for decades. So give them the kindness of your attention and your respect.

Note: As always, the jackals and vultures are already hovering. Someone's selling "I Am A Motherfucker" teeshirts and advertising it via YouTube, claiming they'll give some of the money to Mr. Bruso. I kind of doubt that. But who knows? We'll try to follow up on Mr. Bruso's story. In the meantime, if anybody tells you this is about race and white people kicking black folks' ass, or black "thugs" owning public transportation, please tell them to just go fuck themselves. The man is not quite right and I hope no one takes advantage of him.

That is all.

Stumble It!

War Crimes: Never Forget

Ishii Shiro

If you want to know why this Cat hasn't posted much of late, you should read about Ishii Shiro. Who, you might ask, is Ishii Shiro? And why should he keep a Cat from blogging politics?

WARNING: Graphic subject matter.

The preceding link takes you to a Wikipedia entry on Ishii. The information there is scant, and only linked so that you, should you choose to follow the link, will know who this man is. However, the article glosses over the fact that Ishii Shiro was a monster equalling any the world has ever known, in depth of depravity if not scope. He may not have murdered as many people as Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot, but that was for lack of opportunity, not intent.

For those who don't want to click the link, here are a few basic facts: Ishii Shiro was a microbiologist who joined the Japanese Imperial Army before its criminal aggressions in World War II. He was ultimately promoted to the rank of General. He started a military unit tasked with bacteriological and chemical warfare. In the course of his tenure at this unit (the infamous Unit 731), Ishii authorized and conducted experiments on living human beings, including babies. These experiments included bombing live humans, then observing their sufferings for weeks as the shrapnel from such bombs infected the test subjects with various bacteria, including plague, cholera, typhus, and the like. He authorized and performed vivisection on political prisoners and prisoners of war and unfortunate people seized for various reasons, or for no reason at all, by the Kempeitai, that group of sadists and malign misanthropes often miscalled "the Japanese military police."

Vivisection at Unit 731

Note the unfortunate subject's hands, bound, as he is being cut open while still alive and conscious.

You will ask why I chose to read about Unit 731. Quite honestly, I put off reading the book as long as I could. It was not pleasant reading. However, I highly recommend that anyone who would claim the label of pacifist, anyone who believes in non-violence, or ahimsa, anyone who opposes war, do the same.

We cannot fight a thing if we don't know what it is. Saying "war is evil" without knowing anything about war is mere bloviation.

War has been part of the human condition since the first proto-human brained his brother (literal or otherwise) with a rock as they fought over access to scarce resources.

Today our capacity to make war threatens every living thing on this planet. We could destroy our entire planet many times over, although it only needs destroying once to make the issue moot.

It bothers me that, of late, nearly every article on astronomy I read in scientific publications seems to contain the assumption that we are looking for a new home, a new planet to house our discordant species. Are we so close to the destruction of this, our home? Is there some plan afoot about which we, the labouring masses, know nothing and guess little? And, should we find it necessary to leave this planet, are we only taking with us the seeds of our future destruction?

We are still involved in two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we elected Barack Obama to the highest office in the land, he promised us that the troops would be coming home soon.

I have plenty of respect and admiration for President Obama. He's doing a great job, given the mess he inherited. But while we are drawing down troops in Iraq, and finally bringing them home; while we are closing for good that monument to the fall from grace of America The Once-Beautiful, the torture chambers of Guantanamo Bay Prison; while we have finally resolved the amorphous and overly-broad scope of the "War Against Terror" into a mission to seek and destroy Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, his evil stepchild — I cannot but be troubled over our sending more troops to Afghanistan.

I understand that in order to safeguard itself and attain its objective, the US/NATO force currently in Afghanistan does require reinforcements. And it will be no easy task to finally clean up the mess that our Former Dear Leader Dick "they call me Dick for a reason" Cheney/Gee, Dumb? Yeah! Bouchebag and that ambulatory purulence, Donald Rumsfeld, left behind in Afghanistan.

I understand we can't just pull our military out all over the world and "bring the troops home" en masse, no matter how much we want to. We must ensure that those troops have something to come home to — jobs, or opportunities therefor, at least; the rescaling and restructuring of the military; training that will allow members of the military to do something very different than what they've been doing for the past X years. Medical issues, contract issues, benefits, all have to be managed, and with minimum disruption.

Most importantly, I believe that, although a standing army is pretty much required of any nation in this day and age, we need — we all need — to learn how to be a nation at peace. The military budget is destroying this country. We are spending millions on machines that have only one purpose: to kill or maim other human beings.

Most of us find the thought of killing and injuring other people distasteful. If we did not, there would be no need to demonize the enemy. Apparently, we don't find it distasteful enough to stop our country from becoming a vast military-industrial Moloch that grinds our own children to death in its jaws. We sacrifice the best of ourselves, our humanity, our health, our lives, and the lives of others, casually, to feed the beast. And the same people who support the burgeoning military budget complain at having to spend less than one-fifth of that amount to ensure the nation's health. (FYI: 2009 military budget: $515 billion. Estimated yearly expenditure on the public option: $90 billion annually.)

The time has come for that to end. This means we all need to learn, to see, to feel, to think, without equivocation, without flinching, about war. About exactly what it is.

And this is what it is. Torture, sadism, cruelty, inhumane acts, evil. War represents the worst in the human spirit, that allows us to justify killing old men, blowing up pregnant women, blowing limbs off little children.

Could you cut open a living human being? Dr. Ishii could. He did. He ordered his subordinates to, as well. You might say, "But I am not responsible for Dr. Ishii. This happened many years ago, and I was not even alive, at the time."

This is why you cannot plead that defense: Dr. Ishii and the scientists of Unit 731 were never prosecuted for their crimes. In return for access to their research on live human subjects — experiments forbidden by any code of ethics — Douglas MacArthur, and through him the United States of America, offered these war criminals full immunity from prosecution.

What Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, and their cohorts authorized in Iraq and Afghanistan bears plenty of resemblance (perhaps they didn't go as far as vivisection, although we don't yet know) to what was done by Unit 731. And these war criminals continue to walk among us, scot-free.

Here, for your delectation, some excerpts from this exceptional chronicling of Unit 731, Japan's Secret Biological Warfare in World War II, by Peter Williams and David Wallace:

The unit was referred to under a number of different names at different times: Ishii Unit; Manchuria 25202 Unit; Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit.

...

One of Ishii's dreams could come true — doctors in combat alongside the glorious infantry.

Doctors in combat. Those who take an oath to preserve health and life, serving alongside, and assisting, those sworn to take both health and life from anyone they, or their superiors, identify as "the enemy." Ishii set up his headquarters at P'ing Fan, in Manchuria. It was by order of the Japanese Emperor of the time, Hirohito, that the size of the detachment was fixed at 3,000 personnel.

Ever since his trip to Europe, plague had fascinated Ishii. ... Plague could create casualties often out of all proportion to the number of bacteria disseminated. Ishii deduced, therefore, that it would make an efficient weapon and set about preparing the most dangerous strains. He looked to history, to the great plagues that had ravaged continents and delighted in the chaos that such a weapon would create. ...

Plague had another advantage for Ishii. Its origins could be concealed.

...

Russians from Hogoin were only one source of human guinea pigs. Most, around 70 per cent, were Chinese soldiers, intellectuals and local worker agitators apprehended by the Kenpeitai and Secret Service throughout Manchuria.

Such human experimental material included those designated as

suspected spy, saboteur, or ideological criminal, perhaps an opium smoker, pro-Soviet and anti-Japanese, "disloyal," of no value for "enlistment," unwilling for "re-education," of no fixed abode, or simply whose release was "undesirable."

...

Unsuspecting and innocent people were also tricked into the clutches of Unit 731. Some were lured by the prospect of employment. Young boys, mothers and children, even pregnant women were trapped.

Prisoners were referred to as "maruta," which is the Japanese word for a log of wood.

Talk about dehumanization!

A maruta was just a number, a piece of experimental material. They were not even regarded as human beings.

...

The prison was a vision of hell. Through the spyhole cut in the steel doors of each cell, the plight of the chained marutas could be seen. Some had rotting limbs, bits of bone protruding through skin blackened by necrosis. Others were sweating in high fever, writhing in agony or moaning in pain. ... An infected person would be put with healthy marutas to see how easily diseases spread.

...

Marutas were "used up" at the rate of two or three per day.

Among the prisoners on whom such inhumane tests were performed were 88,000 American and Filipino PoWs captured during the fall of Bataan and Corregidor. Some of these, together with Australian, British, and New Zealand PoWs (a total of 1,485) were sent to Manchuria. How many White Russians perished at P'ing Fan is not clear. At least the Chinese and the Allies have some record of how many of their people died.

The Soviet Union prosecuted those members of Unit 731 that they captured for war crimes. They were sentenced to lengthy terms but not put to death. Eventually, they were released and repatriated to Japan. Those who evaded capture by the Soviets ended up under the military authority of the United States. In exchange for their experimental data, Douglas MacArthur and, through him, the United States Government, shielded these war criminals from prosecution, essentially giving them a free pass. Many of them went on to win high honours in their quickly-resumed professional lives.

And the U.S. government took the data from Unit 731 and conducted bacteriological warfare against the North Koreans. Uninformed Americans wonder why the North Koreans are so paranoid. In their place, wouldn't you be? Information has only now, 50+ years later, begun to surface about war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Korea. But the truth about bacterial weapons used against the Koreans is not yet common knowledge even in the U.S.

While civilian Japanese paid with their lives and health at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ishii Shiro and his cohorts lived in comparative wealth and splendour to the end of their days. While his countrymen starved and suffered, Ishii Shiro and the commanders of Unit 731 lived well. Some of these monsters — perhaps all of them, by now — are dead. But their crimes must never die.

Chinese and Japanese protest war crimes of Unit 731

We must never forget that we human beings are capable of doing such things to each other. We invoke war as our excuse to dispel the last shreds of our humanity. It has often been said of humankind that we are "midway between angel and ape." The deeds of Unit 731 put the lie to that claim. No ape could, or would, cause such suffering to its fellow apes, and justify it so disingenuously.

In all honesty, although this book took weeks to read, and more weeks to recover from, this Cat has actually also been occupied with the monumental task of editing several books. That task is now drawing to a close, and this blog will resume its regular assault upon your consciousness.

Thank you for your attention.

Stumble It!

Politics: War Atrocities

Goya, War

Because, as you know, this blog is dedicated to peace, to the end of war and its atrocities, to the hope of a brighter tomorrow when we will no longer throw our children — and everyone else's — into the gaping maw of Moloch.

The combat soldier, as an absolutely deprived person, responds to direct situational exigencies. [...] Deadening fear intermingles with acts of bravery. [...]

If enemy prisoners are taken, they may be subjected to atrocities in the rage of the battle or its immediate aftermath. The soldier's distaste of endangering civilians may be overcome by his fear that [the enemy], of any age or sex, can be responsible for his own death (Ed: Or the death of those of his comrades whom he has been trained to think of as his best and only friends.) Where the opportunity arises, looting often occurs. War souvenirs are frequently collected either to be kept personally or later sold to rear-echelon servicemen. (Italics added. Editorial note from ThePoliticalCat.)

— Charles C. Moskos, as cited inMalaya and Singapore During The Japanese Occupation

The "absolutely deprived person" status that is inflicted on servicemen as part of their basic training has the effect of deadening them to all that is human and humane. Apparently, such deadening no longer has the desired effect, for even these poor, pitiful humans retain some vestige of conscience and feeling. They come back from their war crimes with PTSD, and inflict upon their loved ones, neighbours, families, and society in general, the cost of rehabilitating them and dealing with their costly and painful suffering.

Thus, our armies now seek robots, "unmanned drones," that do not, and cannot, suffer any twinge of conscience about killing the innocent, the unarmed, the civilians who are so unfortunate as to live in a zone of war.

It is stated as a matter of fact in many of the memoirs written by PoWs in the Pacific Theater during WW II that their Korean and Taiwanese guards were often more brutal and inhumane than even the Japanese soldiers, who committed unparalleled war crimes in their imperialist expansion into Southeast Asia. Upon reading at greater length of the treatment meted out to these unfortunate "Imperial subjects" of Korea and Taiwan, it becomes clear that the dehumanization process to which these unfortunate "subjects" were subjected could only be remedied or stalled by inflicting upon their helpless prisoners torments that were at least as unpleasant as those that they themselves suffered.

Thus the cycle continues. Each person one rung up on the ladder of abuse directs their kicks and blows to those one rung below. Those at the very bottom of that ladder have no one upon whom to vent their frustrations and rage, and so turn them inward and punish each other and themselves, as they have been taught and shown to do.

Picasso, Guernica

When will humanity emerge from these dark ages? When will we evolve beyond the need of war? It must come soon, or we will surely destroy ourselves and all we hold dear. Iran announced the existence of a hidden uranium-refining facility, and everywhere, the neocons have crawled out of the woodwork demanding an immediate attack upon that unfortunate nation. Why? Because the government of the State of Israel, a bunch of neocon hacks and hawks to the last man, are "afraid" of the possibility that Iran might soon have nuclear weapons. Earliest estimates of this happening range from one to five years. Not that facts should get in the way of hysteria, of course.

Israel possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, but will neither confirm nor deny that it does so. Israel is not a signatory to the NNPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty). Iran is. Iran has notified the IAEA, as required by its membership in the IAEA, of its "secret" facility. Iran has also agreed to permit IAEA inspectors to assess its nuclear sites. Israel, not being a signatory to this, most important treaty, refuses to release any information whatsoever about what its doing with nuclear power. Israel is a hawkish state, constantly engaging in acts of hostility against its neighbours, supported by the U.S. to the tune of $10 million in taxpayer money PER DAY. In addition to obscene yearly quantities of military aid. Just this year, despite our own horrendous economic situation, we gave Israel nearly $3 billion in military aid.

The interests of the Israeli people are not being represented by their government, which prefers to use its own civilians as an excuse for further armament rather than negotiate peaceful solutions with its neighbours. Children of Abraham, of Hagar and Sarah, the time has come to beat your swords into plowshares. If you do not, then you will all be obliterated when the Third World War begins, because there are too many people who want it to begin on your doorstep. It is not a war that anyone will survive.

As Tom Lehrer sang, "We'll all go together when we go." Rather than contemplate the death of every living being on this planet, let us work together to a just solution. It can be done, if we all insist on it. Those Christian Dominionists who want Armageddon and The Rapture, do you think that teacher who said "Love thy neighbour as thyself; there is no greater commandment than [this]" would care for your efforts to create Armageddon?

Crossposted over at The Peace Tree

Stumble It!

World: Afghanistan

Welp, it looks like more and more Dems are coming around to Senator Russ Feingold's point of view on Afghanistan. And none too soon, given the recent news of rowdy fratboy misbehaviour by U.S. citizens in this deeply conservative Islamic nation.

What the hell are we doing in Afghanistan, anyway? It's a pointless war. The idea was to go in, get bin Laden and whoever else is in charge in al-Qaeda, and get the fuck out. But now, General Stanley McChrystal, top American commander in Afghanistan, is asking for more U.S. troops. And NATO is purportedly planning to increase its commitment to Afghanistan, according to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary-general of NATO. "As long as it takes," says Rasmussen. As long as WHAT takes, sir? What are you hoping to accomplish?

Afghanistan is a pathetically poor nation, historically torn by fighting. Everyone seems to want a piece of that poverty-stricken land, beginning with Sikandar (Alexander the Great to you Greco-Romanists), and moving through Britain and Russia to the United States, and now an alliance of Western powers fronted by NATO. So far, no one's had much luck winning a war there. The British gave up after multiple defeats. The defeat of the Russians occurred within our own lifetimes. And now the US/NATO Coalition of Teh Stupid is getting ground to dust.

Clausewitz has this, among other things, to say about war:

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

Given that Clausewitz is somewhat of an authority on war, it would behoove both NATO and the US to remember that. And what are the politics of Afghanistan?

Historically, Afghanistan has been a land of warring tribes, fierce and intransigent, deeply committed to a harsh version of the Muslim faith it adopted circa 650 AD. United for a little over a century into a kingdom comprising multiple dynasties and tribal alliances, these tribes have long resisted any semblance of comity, being more likely to invest their energies in settling grievances with each other by whatever means and having long since grown adept at manipulating foreigners against each other for their own survival and vengeance.

Thus, the question restates itself: What are the political aims of the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan? Uniting the country? That seems laughable. There is no "country of Afghanistan," only a series of tribes that have fought each other for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years and will continue to fight each other long after the latest in a series of invaders has been crushed into exhaustion by the hostile climate, terrain, and natives.

Alleviating the lot of the natives? Well, war is the worst possible way to go about that. We appear to be killing lots of innocent, and possibly also not-so-innocent, civilians. In the event, a country torn by war, poverty, corruption, crime, and suffering does not allow democracy to take root in its bitter soil. Democracy requires the active participation of informed people. The people of Afghanistan are too busy fleeing bombs, being killed and maimed, and attempting to stay alive to spend time gathering information. And our presence there, far from alleviating their lot, is killing them.



It doesn't help to have the examples of other failed wars in Asia: Japan's war in China, and the U.S. involvement in Korea, and VietNam. To quote Bernard Viscount Montgomery,

[...] Rule 2 of war [...] is: "Do not go fighting with your land armies in China". It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.
In the House of Lords, 30 May 1962 (Hansard, Col. 227)

And subsequently, upon the involvement of the U.S. in the VietNam conflict:

The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. [...]

As is always the case, corruption is rife in a land torn by war. No one seems to care about what the Afghanis themselves think about the Taliban, or the puppet dictator, Hamid Karzai, that we have foisted on them.

What exactly are we hoping to achieve in Afghanistan? Because if our aim is to ensure that natural gas flows from the rich fields around the Caspian Sea to ports where it can be transhipped to countries hungry for this rich natural resource, then perhaps we ought to be less hypocritical about it and either sterilize the entire nation of its inhabitants, or just buy it outright and pay the Afghanis to settle elsewhere.

Inhumane, you say? Of course it's inhumane. But how humane is it to prop up a corrupt, American-owned dictator who watches and pockets our riches anyway even as little girls and boys have their arms and legs blown off?

This is a problem that requires a political, not a military solution. So far, 21,000 troops have been sent there to fight and kill and be killed.

Photo by Julie Jacobson, AP

No more. Let's bring them home, people. Supporting the troops means not using them in the Gee, Dumb? Yeah! war of convenience. The Afghanis don't want us there. They want us to give them the training to become adept at defending themselves and then get the fuck out. What the fuck are we waiting for?

Stumble It!

World: No Regrets?

No, it's not the Billie Holliday song. It's what's happening in the trials of the Khmer Rouge criminals right now.

Prisoner at Tuol Sleng, Pol Pot's notorious S-21 prison

No, my knowledge of Kampuchean history is not great. I know something about the early history of the Khmer and other peoples of that part of Southeast Asia, the Funanese empire, the Dong Son bronzes, but almost nothing about their modern history, except that my parents greatly respected and admired Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

I am about to begin my historical explorations of that deeply wretched nation.

However, today's report from Reuters does not bode well for my virtual travels thereto. According to Reuters, one Mam Nay, aka Chan, who served for a time as an interrogator under Pol Pot's head jailor, Duch (real name Kaing Guek Eav) testified in court today that he has no regrets for

what happened at the Tuol Sleng prison, where more than 14,000 men, women and children were killed, [...].

Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, is the infamous prison referred to in "The Killing Fields."

No regrets for this, Mr. Chan? Or Mam Nay, if you prefer?

Tortured Prisoner, one of 6,000 photographs left behind when Khmer Rouge jailors evicted Tuol Sleng prison in advance of invading VietNamese troops

Mam Nay, who is appearing as a witness for the prosecution in the joint Kampuchean-UN war crimes trials, has denied any part in torture or killings of prisoners and blamed the United States and Vietnam for undermining his country.

"My only regret was our country was invaded," he told the joint Cambodian-U.N. tribunal. "Frankly speaking, the Americans invaded us then Vietnam invaded us. That is my regret."

[...]

"I did not use torture in my interrogation. I believed I would not get a true confession."

Asked about the deaths of innocent people, Nay, 76, said: "None of them was innocent -- those people committed offences, either minor or serious.

"This was the reason for their arrest. How serious or how minor, I don't know."

Note: This guy was a schoolteacher. Maybe he was a brainwashed cadre turned schoolteacher. But how do you become a schoolteacher if you cannot empathize with frightened children? And some of the 14-20,000 imprisoned at Tuol Sleng were children. Ony six people survived that prison. The remaining 13,994 — or 19,994, no one really knows — died as a result of torture.

There is no denying that the US bombing of Kampuchea and various associated military actions led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge. But who thought they would be so inhumane as to kill between 1 and 3 million of their own people? Between the U.S. bombing and the NVA attempts to escape U.S. military actions by slipping over the border into Kampuchean territory, evicting Kampucheans, and training members of the Khmer Rouge, Kampuchea's attempts at neutrality and Sihanouk's heroic efforts in that direction were virtually worthless. Here is a brief background on these aspects of Kampuchean history.

Mam Nay, or Mr. Chan, or whatever you call yourself, should a "minor" offense warrant waterboarding? Or, as Americans and other Westerners used to refer to it, "Chinese" or "Japanese" water torture?

Picture taken by Jonah Blank in 2005 at the Tuol Sleng Museum. Published on the Web by David Corn.*

Oh, well. I guess now that it's come to light that we waterboarded mentally ill or innocent or possibly innocent people ourselves, repeatedly, I guess we're in no position to quibble about anyone else's crimes.

Ain't torture egalitarian?

*See here for copyright/licensing information on this picture.

Incidentally, the still-adored ex-partner made a trip to those parts some years ago, and opined that "the whole place seemed haunted. It was like going to a ghost town. Even the people's faces look haunted." The ex is a tough businessperson who has had plenty of occasion to mock and deride my own claims of sensitivity and queasiness and unexplained oojie-woojies, so to hear those words from such a person, well. Virtual trips to Kampuchea is all I'm up to for now.

Stumble It!

Politics: War Crimes

When do these war criminals go to trial?
As we've mentioned before, a Class A war criminal is anyone who participated in "the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging" of aggressive war, or violated the laws and customs of war. Like, for example, the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Which Convention would certainly apply to Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and possibly also David Addington, Condoleeza Rice, George Dumbya Bush, and a score of their immediate underlings, highly placed officials all.

Today, I'm reading a fine book on the Kempeitai and their crimes in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, by Raymond Lamont-Brown. Mr. Lamont-Brown's father was a PoW, captured by the Japanese in Shanghai, China, and subjected to the tender ministries of the Kempeitai, who, as brutal torturers go, might rank higher than any other similar body heretofore known.



Here, a little excerpt for your — I can't say entertainment, it certainly isn't entertaining — perusal:

You are a man of education, of intelligence, even in a sense of culture. Yours is the cunning brain under whose direction your instruments of torture performed their evil task. You were well aware of all the moral implications of your policy. In these last six weary years many men have willingly suffered and died in the hope and belief that out of their sacrifice would arise a higher morality in dealings of one nation with another, an international morality soaring above the narrow bonds of patriotism and blind obedience. If, as I believe, some of your victims, Sumida, were amongst those who made their sacrifice in that hope and belief, let this be their epitaph, that they died for an undying cause. To those of us who survive falls the supreme and difficult task of establishing and maintaining that higher morality between nations, of supplanting the rule of force and fear by the rule of law, of ensuring that they did not make their sacrifice in vain.

You, Sumida, have shown by all that you did, ordered, and willingly allowed, that to you there is nothing of higher consequence than domination by brute force and fear.

You were prepared, for the glorification, as you thought, of your country, to reduce men and women below the level of beasts and to send them without pity or compunction to an agonizing death. You did not realize that your actions have not glorified, they have degraded, your country. As in the past, so in the future, you would always be the implacable enemy of that great cause for which so many made their sacrifice. You and men like you cannot be allowed to hinder the fulfilment of that cause. Accordingly it is in no spirit of vengeance upon a fallen foe, no desire to have an eye for an eye, a life for a life, that this Court has solemnly decided that you must die. Nor is it merely to rid the world — and your country now preparing for its moral rebirth — of one man who is a danger to all moral progress. Rather it is a stern example to all who would willingly support the powers of evil and brute force against the rule of law, justice, and humanity.

— Lt.-Col S.C. Silkin, R.A., barrister, at War Crimes Trial of Chusa Haruzo Sumida, Supreme Court Building, Singapore, 18 March 1946

It is my sincere and heartfelt hope to hear words of similar import being spoken one day soon at the trial of those who "planned, prepared, initiated, or waged" the war of aggression against Iraq which is only now winding down.

Stumble It!

Health Care: I Ain't Feelin' Too Good Myself, Now

People, I guess we don't have to remind y'all that the suicide rate among our troops, whom we all support more than god or corned beef, or whatever the Republicans are flapping their gums about this week, has, like, seriously increased? We're talkin' this is the highest it's been in thirty years. (Thanks to nunya at ThePolitickyBitch for the ears-up on this. She has some good questions, so treat yourself to a worthwhile read.)

What, you thought Georgie Porgie was guilty of ordering some 200,000 troops into the field based on lies, and that's where it all ended?

It hasn't ended yet. Dumbya knocked the shit out of this country nine ways to Sunday. He destroyed it, as we all have been saying since, oh, about 2003 and Hurricane Katrina. Some of us were saying it way before, but most of us tried to rally behind the little shit for the sake of national unity. It wasn't until we say the bloated, floating corpses of Katrina that we finally lost all faith in the fucker.

Over at OOIBC, Anti-War, and other such sites, people with more energy and dedication than I have been keeping track of the numbers. Over 4,000 American troops dead, over 150,000 injured, some of them grievously maimed. Over 1 million Iraqis dead, uncounted numbers wounded and maimed (one assumes the injuries are proportionate to those of our troops). Between 3 and 5 million Iraqi refugees, internal and external. Entire neighbourhoods "ethnically cleansed," or to put it more accurately, relieved of any ethnic variety by open, genocidal killings. "Ethnically cleansed" sounds too much like a sanitary procedure, and there's nothing sanitary about pools of blood rotting in the hot desert sun.


We don't know how many Iraqis and Afghanis have committed suicide, other than by blowing themselves up. We don't know how many might be suffering from mental and emotional problems due to the stresses of living in a war zone. What we do know is that our own troops, upon returning home, are not doing so well. In fact, they're doing rather badly. Has anyone heard of anything that our bold Republican leaders and legislators, so quick to approve this war and to threaten anyone who argued against it, have done to take care of our suffering people?

Frankly, I'm feeling pretty shitty myself, today, and it's not just the depressing news. Did you know that certain kinds of medication can eat holes in your gut? That aside. This is a foodie household and when the chief Foodie In Charge can't eat none of that smackalicious pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage and all kinds of tasty stuff, ain't no one here gonna be happy. Not if I can help it. Two days of chicken soup is fucking enough.

So, people are killing themselves. No news there, you say. We're in a recession, you say. It's to be expected, you say. Yeah, I guess. I wish it weren't happening, I wish there was something I could do, or you could do, or we could all do, to fix it, but if there's one thing we learned surviving the mendacious Bushistas, it's that everything takes lots of hard work and the results are never immediate.

Here's a little gratuitous depressionism for those of you as are having just too fucking good a day. Please watch it right through to the end.



We need to do something about this. I can't do anything today. My body is on strike, and I get that. (I'm not as look as I dumb, OK?) But I can resolve to do something tomorrow, and hopefully, the day after, and the day after. One foot after another.

I found this story over at DailyKos, courtesy of nyceve, who has done more to enlighten me (and many others, I'm sure) about the state of health care in the US. We don't need more or better or diferent health insurance. We need health care.

In the interim, if time is weighing heavy on your hands, consider oozing on over to Care2's petition site, and signing a petition to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the Bushifarious crimes of the recent era. I'm not sure petitions are entirely helpful but it's a throwaway gesture that does help assess the current mood of the populace.

I'm gonna have to create a torches-and-pitchforks icon for various action items, yaknow?

Finally, a little humour to leaven the endless depression of this post. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully in better shape. The fight goes on!

Obama Reads Bush's Letter - watch more funny videos

He may not look like Our President, but he sure has the voice and mannerisms down, don't he?

Stumble It!

World: Enough!

Image from AliyaAllZionists

Enough of what's going on in the Gaza strip. For all of you upset by the Israeli military action against the mostly civilian population of Gaza, we have to come up with something to do. It's useless wringing our hands and moaning and mourning. Israel has gone too far, this time.

Today, the Israeli military bombed the UN headquarters in the Gaza strip,

[...] engulfing the compound and a warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees.

It was bad enough that, after the ceasefire ended in late December of 2008, Israel attacked Gaza which has suffered for nearly two years under an Israeli embargo that has prevented basic supplies like fuel, food, water, medicine, even concrete for the burial of bodies, from reaching the Palestinians of Gaza.

Despite the fact that the so-called "free and fair" elections held in Palestine resulted in the election of Hamas, Israel and its supporter and military paymaster the United States have refused to recognize Hamas as legitimately elected political leaders of Palestine. Had the US not pressed for the elections at the time that they were held, it is quite possible that Hamas would have lost the elections. However, once they were held, Hamas became the legitimately elected government and, as such, should have been accorded the basic courtesy extended to every elected government.

Why is it that we are willing to sit down with murderous dictators like Mugabe and Ferdinand "we love your adherence to democratic principles" Marcos, but refuse to negotiate with a fairly elected democratic government just because we don't like them?



For the record, I know quite well that Hamas once held the view that the State of Israel had no right to exist. But that State of Israel is long since gone, having gorged and bloated itself on Palestinian territory and squeezing the Palestinians into two tiny corners of what was once their land. At this point, Hamas is not capable of wiping out the State of Israel, and the more pragmatic among their leaders recognize that fact. These people SHOULD be courted and given a seat at the table while all the countries of that region sit down with the funders of this ludicrous and soul-destroying conflict to determine how to best effect a peace. There is no question of being unable to do this because the alternative is to murder every Palestinian alive no matter where they are to be found, and that is not a viable course of action.

Regardless of the willingness of Israel to engage in such acts, we can no longer afford to, financially, morally, intellectually, or socially, support such acts. Firstly, we don't have the money to keep paying the Israelis billions every year in social welfare and military supplies. Israel cannot survive without American taxpayer dollars at this point because a wartime economy does not thrive. The state of Israel needs to find a peacetime footing in which currency can be stabilized, economic prospects realized, jobs created, and monies exchanged. Then it can safely get off the American dole because heaven knows, Americans need their money to start repairing the damage that has been done to their own country. We would like, for example, to have a health care system just like Israel's. But we can't afford it because a lot of our money is paying for Israel's excellent medical system. Which I don't begrudge, unless it's at our expense.

Worse yet, our dollars are paying for bombs that blow up Palestinian babies, guns to shoot them, concrete walls and armed soldiers that forbid humanitarian assistance to them, checkpoints that harass and humiliate them multiple times daily as they walk to work or school. Jobs don't exist any more in Gaza. If we were to stop paying for these murderous crimes, we would have more money to repair our broken bridges and roads and give our own children health care. The Israelis could then be forced to negotiate with the Palestinians. Instead of financing the building of luxury homes for Israelis in land unlawfully seized from Palestinians, we could finance our own homeowners who are losing their homes.

We could make aid to Palestine and Israel conditional upon a peace settlement, a two-state solution, acceptance by Israel of multiple world court decisions that were preceded by free and fair trials and findings of fact and that have found against Israel and for the Palestinians. It is not too much to ask that Israel be a law-abiding member of the international community instead of a gangster, thug, and murderer that only gets away with these horrible crimes because we are playing their bully enforcer.

The process has begun in the EU. The EU is Israel's largest trading partner, and activists in European nations are calling upon their governments to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement (petition here). We here in the US can do the same.

Please take a moment or more to write, call, email, or fax your Congresscritters, both in the House and in the Senate, and tell them that you want them to ensure that your tax dollars do not go to Israel until Israel agrees to abide by the law and ceases bombing civilians, the UN, the Red Cross, schools housing only refugees, humanitarian aid stockpiles, ambulances, and the like.

Here is a list, compiled by activists in the UK, of brands that are either made in Israel or made by companies that unquestioningly supply Israel. Here is another that appears to focus on American companies and brands. Adbusters is calling on citizens and consumers to join in the boycott, pointing to the ever-inspiring Naomi Klein's call as a fine example. Professor Ilan Pappe has also said that the only way to stop this humanitarian crisis is to impose financial sanctions on the Israeli State. If anyone knows of any other information that should be widely distributed, please, pass it on to us and one of us will try to spread it around on this blog and in other fora.

The Global BDS Movement is calling on everyone to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel for its violations of human rights laws in Palestine. I believe firmly in wallet pains as an instructive action. People who don't give a fuck about human rights suddenly care a lot if they start losing money as a result. We managed to overcome apartheid in South Africa through a combination of boycott, divest, and sanction. We can bring peace to Palestine/Israel the same way. As a consumer, please boycott anything made in Israel, or by companies that have ties to Israel. Check with your local manufacturers whether they support Israel. Not Israel's right to exist, which we at this fine blog support wholeheartedly, but Israel's current and past violations of the precepts of international law and human rights.


Note: Look for the digits 729 at the beginning of the bar code on any products you buy. 729 indicates that the product was manufactured in Israel. Talk to your local grocery store or deli if they carry such products. Do not buy them and tell your store why you will not buy them. Tell your friends to look out for this barcode as well.

Here are many other sites involved in the boycott, with helpful hints about how to go about registering your feelings about the Gaza situation.

Once again, I want to say — no, not that some of my best friends are Jewish — that I have been pro-Israel all my life from the time I was a child, when I first heard about the Holocaust from my father, who told me that it was my moral obligation to ensure that such a thing would never happen again. I cannot support what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, but that does not change my support for the right to existence of the Israeli state. I cannot condone crimes against Israel or against Jews based on what the criminals in the IDF and the government of Israel are doing. Many Jews and many Israelis are also protesting and calling for a boycott. Please do not direct your anger at Jewish people, whether religious or secular. That helps no one, and especially not the Palestinians. What we need is to do something. We need to do it in a peaceable and law-abiding manner, but we also need to let the Israeli government and its puppets in the United States know that we are neither blind nor stupid and we want an end to the conflict in Gaza and to the flagrant murder of civilians.

Stumble It!

World: Gaza Brings Out Teh Stupid

Wherever they've been hiding. Although, being stupid, most of them are publicly flaunting their stupid in great revolting gobs.



For those of you who just can't bear to read the depressing news, we have Serious Cute at the end of this post. Go ahead. Skip to the video. See if I care.

Here, for example, walking dildo and successful Zippy the Pinhead impersonator Bill Kristol, a Wingnut Welfare recipient if I ever saw one, bleats about how Israel's invasion of Gaza is a great favour to Obama. I mean, c'mon, you worthless impostor of humanity. Why not pull off the mask and bodysuit and tell us all about relationships on your planet, someplace far, far away from our galaxy (I fervently hope)? Because by all that's holy you haven't a fucking compassionate bone in your body to come up with shite like this.

"If you care about the peace process you should want Israel to embarrass and humiliate Hamas. That's the only chance -- there would be no peace process if Hamas were governing Gaza.

You pathetic little pig. I can't wait for you and Bush and Dick and all of you worthless ambulatory turds to fall off the world stage. Break a leg, fella. In fact, break all of them. Jeeze!

People are dying in their hundreds and you and your fellow Neocons are burping up this crap. Meanwhile, your associates in the halls of power have used their remaining muscle to prevent an immediate ceasefire, preferring to turn a blind eye to reports of Israel firing on Red Cross personnel and vehicles, of Israel refusing to allow medical aid to reach the victims of their bombings, many of them little children.



Even as your other dirtbag friends are running ads on American TV networks begging for aid to Israel, which is the major recipient of US taxpayer money. Which they're using to bomb little children, pregnant women, sick, elderly, and disabled people. Meanwhile, protohuman slime molds named Jack Abramoff and Xtianist pastor Hagee are behind this whole ad scam. Knowing the two of them and their dubious associations, chances are if you send them any money it's going directly into their own bank accounts. People like Hagee could care less if the Jewish people are wiped out in a second holocaust, since that will bring them closer to the Rapture they all work towards and pray for.

Even as our 401(k)s are turning into 101(k)s, Raw Story reports that

The administration of President George W. Bush alone has provided over 21 billion dollars in U.S. security assistance over the last eight years, including 19 billion dollars in direct military aid as freebies.

So while we, the taxpayers, are cutting back on all our expenses, begrudging money for the movies or dinner out, forgoing new clothes, selling stuff we don't need or use, putting off vacations and needed home repairs, and even our goddamned health care — the Israeli government is getting billions of OUR dollars and! AND! using our latest and greatest military offerings to slaughter others in our names.

They're using our top-notch military hardware to retaliate against home-made rockets and bombs that "traumatize" people. Their response to these pitiful weapons, which are the epitome of FAIL, is to kill. For every Israeli killed so far, over 100 Palestinians have paid with their lives. The entire country is being punished for the acts of a few.

And you wonder why there is an al Qaeda. The article also states that while the U.S. military gives the latest weapons and weapons technology to Israel, it also sells such weapons (after they're tested on the Palestinians and the Lebanese by Israel) at hugely inflated prices to the Arab nations. That's a bitter pill to swallow, eh, knowing that you're subsidizing the killing of your co-religionists, or tribe, or fellow ethnics, or whatever you want to call them?

We don't even need to remind ourselves of the Israeli military's readiness and willingness to attack American troops, unarmed American protestors, and humanitarian aid workers and medical teams.

Meanwhile, malcontents in Lebanon have begun firing rockets into Northern Israel. Holy quacking duckshit. I can't entirely blame them, it's gotta be a small group or even random individuals who are sick of seeing what's happening to Gaza. The Israeli elections will be held in a month and the leaders are trying to terrify the people and play on their fears to win by outdoing each other in killing Palestinians. I guess some Lebanese feel strongly enough to do something about it. Hezbollah was quick to distance themselves from these acts, as was Hamas. Given the fact that in the last encounter between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah conducted a very disciplined campaign, I tend to believe them. Besides, it's a lousy three fucking shells, yaknow?

Meanwhile, our Congresscritters strive to prove that they have but one neuron between the lot of them, by offering "staunch and unwavering support for Israel [...] recognizing its "inalienable right" to defend itself from attacks by Hamas."

Give it a rest, you feeble fucks. You can't even take care of the shitload of business that's been dumped on your workdesk, and now you're all fighting to get up on the nearest table so you can wave your teenie weenies at the press. Shut the fuck up already. Get ready to prosecute Bush, Cheney, and the entire criminal cabal. Figure out what to do about the totally fucked military situation. Come up with green alternatives to the transport money cities and states are demanding. Figure out how more of us can get decent fucking health care. Close the tax loopholes that allow these fucking CEOs to assrape us all without the benefit of lube even as they send our jobs overseas in the fucking hundreds of thousands. Jesus fucking J.H. Christ and his black brother Harry! You've got me so fucking mad I can't even stop to take my pain meds. You worthless POS just voted your own selves a sweet fucking pay raise out of our pockets. Work for our goddamned money, you louts. The free ride is SO over.

That limpdick closeted fairy queen Mitch McConnell is prancing around on the stage allowing as how the war and deaths are all the fault of those nasty nasty Hamas Islamists. WTF is that about? Can't someone put a cork in him? Mitch, you ambulatory rectum, don't you have enough work to do?

Meanwhile, that motherfucking asshole (man, I'd love to put HIS dick in a box. I'd throw the rest of him into the compactor and mail the box to his Mrs.) Richard "Dick" Cheney has the outright fucking GALL to tell us that Bush's actions are not illegal because if they were he would've been impeached. What kind of circular logic is THAT, you infernal spawn of Satan? Wipe the blood off your chin before giving us your answer. Foul, ancient, walking rottenness. He demeans everything good, noble, admirable, and beautiful about humanity just by his existence. Dick, you and your rotten brood should be swept aside, root and branch, into the dustheap of history.

But wait, here's the best part: Darth has the unmitigated gall to tell us that he's a "warm, lovable" sort of guy who had hardly any influence at all in the WH. Georgie made all the decisions, he says now. Remember, this is the guy who admitted authorizing torture. Somebody must've put acid in his metamucil.

And as the number of Palestinians, mostly children, killed in Gaza climbs over 700, Tom Cruise had this to say about the death of Jett Travolta, son of his friend John Travolta. All death is horrific. Why aren't more people speaking out about the parents in Palestine who have to bury their children? Not to take away anything from Mr. Travolta's pain, I'm sure he's a terrific father and absolutely loves and adores his children, but are American children more valuable than Palestinian children? Where are all those "pro-life" people now when babies are being slaughtered halfway across the world? Starved to death, denied medical care, torn apart by bombs. Won't you people speak up? Or are only some children deserving of life?

Enough with ranting. Here's a cute chick we can all ogle:

Stumble It!

Politics: Who Knew Condi Was So Popular

with our friends in New Zealand?

Banner reads "War Criminal Wish You Weren't Here"

Not a single major media outlet in the U.S. reported on this enchanting display of respect and affection for our Esteemed ChevronTanker-in-Chief, Condoleeza Rice. Even as our Saudi Arabian Overlords were showering Bootsie Ferragamo with expensive jewels — $316,000 worth of them, which our bootlickers in the professional media are describing as "Foreigners take(ing) a shine to" Rice — not a single one of them bothered to report that students in NZ had put a price on Rice's head.

Auckland University Students Association had to withdraw the bounty it placed on the head of Condoleezza Rice two days earlier, under threat of legal action. However, the students association at Victoria University in Wellington doubled the price, offering $10,000 for a successful citizen's arrest. Although several people turned up to the demo with handcuffs, the chance to nab Rice didn't present itself. Police refused to cooperate in the arrest of this war criminal, giving the irrelevant excuse that she is a visiting dignitary.

Much more newsworthy in my opinion. The degree to which our media shapes the information we receive is not lost upon the hoi polloi, you media jackals. There's a reason your circulation is dropping faster than Bush's approval rates (or lack thereof).

A third of a million dollars worth of jewelry gifted to the Secretary of State. Doesn't that look — and smell — bad? As one more famous than our humble self would say, "It stinks in my nostrils." Didn't anyone tell you, Condi, that Caesar's wife must be above suspicion?

Fortunately, our laws say that Condi can't keep the glitter for herself. It's all been turned over to the GSA, along with the mere $100,000 or so of gifts these same people gave to Boosh. It does make you wonder why these wealthy monarchs would give such expensive gifts to the Shoe Queen, though, doesn't it?

From the New Zealand Protest

Thanks, New Zealanders, for showing us what we should have been doing from the first moment this warmongering lunatic began spouting her bullshit about war and torture and Terra. Thanks for standing up for human rights and human(e) conscience.

Photographs of this fine event are available at this link.

Stumble It!

Big bonuses a help in military recruiting

Another misuse of *our* tax dollars. There's a short item in today's SF Chronicle:

The Army and Marine Corps doled out nearly $640 million in the past year in bonuses to entice recruits to join the military...

... The money has proved to be a strong recruiting tool. As a result, the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force all met their recruiting goals for the fiscal year that ended Tuesday.

Reminds me of that bumper sticker:

IT WILL BE A GREAT DAY WHEN OUR SCHOOLS GET ALL THE MONEY THEY NEED AND THE AIR FORCE HAS TO HOLD A BAKE SALE TO BUY A BOMBER

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: Inspiration

Just watch:



These are not Likudnik hawks or AIPAC bots. These are real genuine living breathing Israelis and Jews from different parts of the world who see that Obama represents a genuine hope for peace in the Middle-East. Something all sane people desire. They know that a vote for McCain is a vote for more war, horror, dissension, turmoil, death. They know that Barack (Baruch, in Hebrew, which means Blessed) has the calm demeanor, the rational, cool, collected temperament, the ability to see the goal and work towards it in logical, reasoned, incremental steps.

Remember that when you go into the booth to cast your vote. The fate of your nation, and many other nations, rests in your hands.

Stumble It!

World: South Ossetia

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey thinks the Deciderer really ought to zip his festering gob on this one:

President Bush,

Why don’t you shut up? Suppose Russia for instance declares that Georgia has weapons of mass destruction? And that Russia knows where these WMD are, namely in Tblisi and Poti and north, south, east and west of there? And that it must be true because there is “magnificent foreign intelligence” such as satellite photos of milk powder factories and baby cereals producing chemical weapons and which are currently being “driven around the country in vehicles”? Suppose Russia declares for instance that “Saakashvili stiffed the world” and it is “time for regime change”?

Yaknow, they could do that. They could. Hell, we did.

The time has come to acknowledge that grievous human rights violations occurred in South Ossetia, and that Russia and the U.S. have been planning this little elbowing contest for some time. Saakashvili allowed his country to be used as the catspaw to provoke the conflict.

Let us be clear that nobody wants war except for a small group of crazy people who expect to profit from it one way or the other. Among them, Cheney (Halliburton); other war profiteers, like KBR and Blackhawk; the neocon lunatics who are well paid to trumpet pro-war propaganda (Bill Kristol, Mickey Kaus, Fred Kagan, and their ilk); the arms merchants who will enjoy short but wealthy lives if the next stage of war is set in motion; and, of course, fundamentalist godbag loonies of every stripe who believe/hope/pray that their Deity will take them off to someplace where they will not have to gasp their lives out as a result of radiation poisoning or extreme damage inflicted by guns, bombs, and other such weapons in our arsenal.

Perish the thought. If a Deity existed, it would not have permitted the bombing of hospitals and churches in Tskhinvali. CJR describes Russian citizen-journalists' eyewitness reports from the frontlines.

One last thing: Those why clamour to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war are usually those who have never actually served or seen war. Watching people blown up or hacked apart is a most unlovely, traumatising, terrifying sight. The stink of death is no misnomer.

John McCain was a fighter pilot. He unleashed death and destruction from miles above with no knowledge of his targets. Ask any vet who has actually served in the military, who has actually participated in hand-to-hand combat or had to encounter injured and dying, whether civilian or military.

Now Dick "Five Deferments, I had other priorities" Cheney and John McCain are both making noises about a military response to the events which occurred in South Ossetia and Georgia. Perhaps a USAF plane could drop the two of them on the front lines for some first-hand experience of armed conflict? It would save those soldiers who don't want to be there, while simultaneously getting rid of two of the loudest pro-war voices.

Meanwhile, we have to ask, together with commenter SFAW, over at Matt Yglesias' blog:

Something’s been tickling the back of my mind for awhile, maybe someone can help me with it …

The Georgia/Russia conflict seems to have been building for awhile. Russia sticking its thumb in Georgia’s eye in a non-violent-but-highly-provocative-way, Georgia finally attempting to exert its manhood, but whoops! Russia wanted that to happen and so was massing troops on the border. But what’s a little puzzling is that no one in the Administration - say, someone thought of by Bush/Cheney as an expert regarding Russian/Soviet affairs and their whole world outlook, etc. - raised a red flag awhile ago. Something like “This conflict is going to happen in the next 3-6 months; here’s what we should do to prevent Russia from annexing the Sudetenland (so to speak)” and so forth.

Yeah. What's with that? As far as we can tell, Bootsie Ferragamo is an expert on Russia, the former USSR, Eastern Europe, blah, blah, blah-beddy-blah. How comes it that this eminent scholar did not notice or predict that things were going to blow up in a big ugly stinky mess of poo?

Or did she just think to herself, "Hell, let Jor Jee twist in the wind for this one"?

The astute reader might note that we have not included the Powers That Be in Russia among those who want war. We beg to be excused on the grounds that, unlike the Emperor Jor Jee, we are unable to look into the eyes of Putin or Medvedev, for that matter, and determine the quality of their souls, if any.

Stumble It!