Category: Politix

The U.S. is dodging its responsibility to work for peace in the world.

In spite of the Bush administration’s dimwitted foreign policy over the past six years, the United States remains the only country with the right combination of moral authority and actual muscle to talk some sense into the various factions that threaten the security of the world. Maybe it’s just my hippie penchant for trying to get along, but it seems to me that with those attributes comes the reponsibility not to look the other way.

It’s a very small world these days, and everybody’s got rockets and bombs and people who don’t mind dying for the cause, and hey – we’ve seen what a bunch of fanatic amateur pilots can do with a jetliner, so maybe it’s in our best interest to at least ask for restraint when a couple of hotheaded youngsters start going at it. We could get smacked in the back of the head while we are looking the other way.

For a week now, Israel has been bombing Lebanon, and Hizbollah has been shooting rockets into Israel. 300 people are dead, ninety percent of them civilians, the Lebanese infrastructure is being destroyed and the largest emergency evacuation since Dunkirk is under way, and there is no American diplomat over there knocking on the door saying “Hey! What are you guys doing?”

In fact, our President, the Compassionate Decider, was heard to say today “Sometimes it requires tragic situations to help bring clarity in the international community.” This nincompoop, this international laughingstock, this wannabe cowboy has actually mistaken himself for a wise elder statesman, and he is dispensing his wisdom to the world, while real leaders everywhere plead desperately for calm.

I wonder how tragic he wants it to get. In his soon-to-be-famous Mouthful-of-Dinner-Roll speech the other day, he told the Prime Minister of Great Britain (“Blair”) “…I think Condi’s going over there soon.” Today she said she’s not going until there is a chance of a long-term solution. Or when pigs fly, whichever occurs first. Maybe there’s a number they are considering, of deaths and dismemberments. Maybe there’s a dollar figure for rebuilding Lebanon, and they don’t want to act until that magic number is achieved.

Bush and Rice need to speak quickly and forcefully, to let the factions know this is unacceptable behavior, and the United States is willing to help broker a cease-fire. Tell the victims’ family members that we’re waiting for things to get real tragic, so we can have clarity. There is no time in the future that will be better than right now to start trying to heal the current mess in the middle east.

TODAY’S BONUS LINK: President Bush gropes German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Hey, chicks love this stuff, right?

I saw a short clip of Bill Clinton on The Today Show this morning.

Remember when we had a real President? I looked on the NBC site, and I couldn’t find the exact video, so I’m paraphrasing here, but this is pretty accurate. He was talking about the current conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border:

I am not one of those who thinks we should not be engaged in the Middle East because “they can’t make a deal” and we don’t want to be associated with failure. I just don’t define it that way. As far as I’m concerned, the more involved we are there, the fewer people die.

Imagine that. Despite the crippling and humiliating efforts of the Republican Party which probably doomed Clinton’s efforts as President to bring about an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, he is still more interested in diplomacy and saving lives than in looking good (even if he does wear the red-and-white checkered cowboy shirt better than President Howdy Doody).

In the mean time, here is how our current simpleminded forceful and direct president assesses the situation, speaking through a mouthful of buttered roll:

See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.

As if I needed more evidence that the world has gone upside down.

UPDATE: Sky News has the Bush video here.

So I was freaked out that the voters in San Diego apparently haven’t had enough political corruption.

I wrote about it right after the June 6 election in California. It seems that noted Republican bribe-taker Randy “Duke” Cunningham was unable to serve as their congressional representative any longer because he was in prison – hello? – and I was hoping the voters down there would send a message to the Republican Party that the fun was coming to an end. I thought they could send that message by not electing another Republican, but to my surprise, on the morning of June 7, the Republican won it in a close race.

So the guy (Brian Bilbray) is already sworn in, which I’m sure must be some kind of a record for swearing people in – isn’t there supposed to be some waiting period, for certification or something? – but now it turns out that the whole election was a sham! Imagine this: a Republican wins a close race, has a quickie swearing in and marches off to Washington, only now it turns out that the voting machines they used were severely compromised, and no one knows for sure if the vote count was accurate, or even close! Does any of this sound familiar?

According to Brad Friedman (BradBlog):

The election was run on highly hackable Diebold voting machines that were sent home overnight and unsecurely with poll workers for days prior to the election which rendered the machines both illegal and uncertified for use in the election under both federal and state laws, requirements and statutes. The GOP has since rushed to swear-in Bilbray before the votes were counted, or the election even certified by the state of California.

In case you don’t want to track down all of these links, allow me to summarize: The Diebold voting machines have been examined by computer experts, who say they would have no trouble changing the software and the operating system in two minutes without a password. In light of this vulnerability, the State of California has a bunch of rules about securing the “chain of custody” of these machines prior to and following any election. Mainly, the idea is to ensure that the machines are not tampered with. But the San Diego registrar of voters, needing some temporary storage in the week preceding this past election, sent a number of the voting machines home with volunteer poll workers, to be stored in their spare bedrooms, garages, back porches, etc., and completely without official supervision.

This is against state and federal law, and it completely invalidates the results of the election as reported so far. The only way to know who won is to do a hand recount. I don’t know if this is even possible, but a complication might be that the newly “elected” official is already sworn in.

I’m not going to say that the Republicans are pulling a fast one here, but this is symbolically a very important election, and there is considerable evidence that the GOP is willing to do anything to stay in power (see Florida, 2000 and Ohio, 2004). Will Democrats roll over again, not wanting to be perceived as sore losers? At what point will the American voters say “Enough!”?

Personally, I’ve had enough. I think today maybe I will officially join the conspiracy theorists. Just because I have a crazy look in my eyes doesn’t mean I’m wrong about this. Elections have been and are being stolen, people. Get a good laugh at my expense if you like, but if you don’t think the power structure in this or any other country won’t do what it takes to stay in power and keep you out, take a look at some newsreel footage of the 1968 Chicago police attacks on demonstrators at the Democratic National Convention. The radical right wingnuts in this administration have done all they can to subdue the population short of shooting us.

Are we going to wait for that to start again?

If, like me, you are a little concerned about this, here’s something you can do: There is an online petition at Velvet Revolution. The form will be sent to the Busby campaign, the San Diego registrar’s office and California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s office. You may also send your personal comments only to your nearest daily local newspaper as well if you select that option. A recount might not change the outcome of this election, but we must defend the integrity of our electoral system. If we lose our faith in it we’re in for a rough ride.

Note: For the time being, the main page of The Brad Blog will be a good place to read about this story. If you happen to be reading this post at some time in the future, after President Jeb Bush has declared blogs illegal, relevant information can probably be found here.

I have been listening online to Neil Young’s powerful new CD “Living With War,” and I am deeply moved.

Since “For What It’s Worth” and “Four Dead in Ohio,” Neil Young has always been there speaking his mind, putting his career and his reputation on the line to say what needs to be said, what so many believe and what a lot of his peers are too busy or too afraid to say. Thank God for men like him, and to hell with the Republican attack dogs who will try to diminish this statement by saying Neil was born in Canada, so he has no right to protest. (What bullshit!!) Listening to this music is inspiring, and I hope a lot of people start now getting inspired. There is a lot of work to be done to clean up the horrible mess our “leaders” have created in the past six years, and it’s going to take a whole lot of inspiration, energy, focus and, yes, anger.

“Living With War” is an exhilarating experience. Old guys like me remember what power can be generated with music. Now you’ll get to feel it too.

Is everybody ready for the “Iranian threat?”

The Republicans are getting indicted right and left, and voters are disgusted with their corruption. The Bush Administration has been exposed over and over again as incompetent, from their bumbling Iraq war “strategy” to their inept response to Hurricane Katrina. Republican members of congress up for reelection are running for the hills, the White House staff is getting the hell out of town and President Bush, who claims he pays no attention to opinion polls, surely must be aware that opinion polls are saying that two out of three people have a very low opinion of his performance in office, even as regards his only strong suit, blasting the living daylights out of other countries. What’s a committed right-wing Christian fundamentalist neocon puppet president to do?

How about scaring the pants off everyone in the country with another imaginary threat from a middle eastern country?

That’s right, folks, THE IRANIANS ARE COMING, and they’ll keep on coming until the elections in November. Rove, Cheney and Bush know that most Americans do not agree with their radical right-wing agenda, but one thing we can all agree on: We don’t want any third-world Islamist countries waggling their nucular programs in our faces. Next thing you know they will have The Bomb and we all know they’re evil enough to use it. We might have to act preemptively, because we don’t want our wakeup call to be in the shape of a mushroom cloud, do we?

I know if you’re reading this that you won’t be fooled by such crap. It was not true in Iraq, and it’s not true now. The Administration’s own experts admit that Iran is at least five years away from getting an atomic bomb. But it’s your responsibility not to let your friends, family and neighbors fall for it, either. Talk to them and make sure they understand what a load of bullsh*t this is, and how it has no purpose but to scare us into voting Republican again. Remind them of how all the justifications for attacking Iraq turned out to be phony, and ask them if they’re ready to believe the same wacky stories from the same people a second time in three years. Would they want to pay — with their money, their descendants’ money and the lives of their children — for the staggering cost of a new war with Iran? Suggest that Iran is not much of a threat, and certainly if our government has any brains or any diplomatic skills at all they ought to be able to negotiate something with Iran in five freakin’ years. Point out the quagmire that Bush’s Iraq adventure has turned into and ask what the benefits have been. Three dollar gasoline? How would they like to pay ten dollars? The president of Iran thinks oil prices, which are reaching new record levels every day now, are too low.

In short, can we just agree that the Republicans have screwed up and screwed us, and can we stay focused on the important task of getting them away from the rudder as soon as the polls open this November? We can be patriotic without being pro-Bush. We can be safe without being psychotically paranoid.

The Rove-Cheney-Bush Administration has got nothing left but fear and hatred. Get ready for the Iranian threat, a constant flow of hints, warnings, leaks, posturings and public statements calculated to make you think that Iran will be lobbing nuclear warheads at you by Christmas.

And don’t believe a word of it.

Forgive me. I know this is cheap and lazy.

Here’s a referral for your reading pleasure: Go and read Jane Smiley’s article Notes For Converts on The Huffington Post. Make sure you have a half hour or so to spare before you start, because you are going to want to read the whole thing.

In it Ms. Smiley attempts to explain to confused former Bush supporters exactly how they have been betrayed by their hero, and how they have unwittingly taken part in their own betrayal. Jane’s eloquent outrage almost made me stand up and shout.

Whether your sentiments lie with the Left or the Right, you should read this article. That’s all.

I won’t bother to crank up an indignant rant about this.

The Bush Administration has started something in Iraq that has gotten completely out of control. Tens of thousands of human lives have been ended (including a couple thousand of our own), many many more crippled and maimed. The financial burden stands at over 350 billion dollars, at the same time that ill-advised tax cuts for the wealthy make it unlikely that we’ll be able to pay the bill. And the reasons given for the attack have proven to be untrue, if not outright lies.

Americans are fed up. No one believes President Bush any more, but he persists in his folly, staging photo-op maneuvers in Iraq and mounting PR campaigns to convince us that this adventure is worthwhile, or even important.

A basketball coach who screwed up this badly – assuming he didn’t get fired – would be rethinking, regrouping and reorganizing the team and the strategy. Why is Bush so stubborn in the face of all the evidence? Is he in it for the oil and war profits that he and his family and his friends are gaining? Does he really think he can force Western-style democracy on the Middle East? Or is he just plain stupid?

Whatever it is, this is one anniversary I hope I don’t see again.

If today’s “neoconservatives” spoke in plain English and said right out loud what their real agenda is,

most of us would recoil in horror, and the Republicans wouldn’t be able to win an election for dog catcher for the next fifty years. The last right-winger who tried this was Barry Goldwater in the presidential election of 1964, and the voters handed him his butt by a landslide margin of two to one. So near and yet so far, eh, Republicans?

But the Repubs/Neocons are a crafty bunch, and to prevent this kind of embarrassment in the future they decided to modify – just a bit – the words they used to describe their vision for the U.S. and the world, to sort of, um, obscure their true intentions and meanings, while making sure “the base” can figure out what they are talking about. In fact, over the decades what they have done for all practical purposes is create a new language altogether, a language so twisted and arcane that it only seems like English.

For example, you may think you know what is meant by the phrase “class warfare.” Revolution, anarchy, cities burning, unwashed masses mindlessly slaughtering the wealthy with machetes and looting their homes, right? Uh-uh. The new meaning of class warfare is “…any attempt to raise the minimum wage.”

Since the neocons are in charge now and we have to listen to them and their new language all day on Fox, I looked up The Republican-to-English Dictionary on the internet, so I could keep up. This thing first started appearing in late 2001, as nearly as I can tell, back when Democrats/liberals/progressives still had a sense of humor. It exists all over the place in various permutations, and I take no credit for it.

Here are a few entries:

bipartisanship: Sometimes also seen as “spirit of compromise.” Willingness by Congressional Democratic leaders to support, accept or fail to oppose public policy proposals from President Bush and the Republican Congressional leaders despite the mutual understanding that the proposals are not supported by a clear majority of the American people. When used by Republican leaders this term is synonymous with capitulation.

big government: Any attempt by a duly constituted public authority to regulate or put limits on the power of private corporations or make them responsible for the consequences of their actions, with the exception of the gaming or entertainment industries.

compassionate conservatism: Consists of smiling while cheating women, minorities and the working class out of their share of the nation’s productive output. Replaces the term friendly fascism.

death tax: New Republican term used to replace the traditional term “estate tax,” one of the traditional mechanisms in a democracy to ensure that a self-perpetuating aristocracy is unable to establish itself then capture and subvert democratic institutions. Fully 98% of the U.S. population is unaffected by the estate tax, which primarily burdens the 200 families in the U.S. with a net worth greater than $1 billion.

fair and balanced: Republican term meaning archconservative news source serving as a tool of corporate interests while masquerading as impartial. Examples include Fox News, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc.

get over it: Warning to the listener that questioning the legitimacy of George W. Bush’s claim to the presidency will not be tolerated as a topic for American citizens to discuss. As a threat it recognizes the vulnerability of the Bush regime to the growing popularity of the observation that Bush won fewer votes than his opponent in Florida as well as nationwide. Please note, you may also hear this idea expressed as “Stop your whining” and/or “Deal with it.” [Also, “We won. Shut up.” – Editor]

illegal vote: Any ballot in which the voter did not precisely follow the exact requirements as set forth in the voting instructions, and in the case where the voting instructions were erroneous or unclear any vote for a non-Republican. Note: this rule does not apply to military ballots. (See related term, legal vote.)

legal vote: Any ballot in which a Republican’s name can be interpreted as having been indicated by the voter. (See related term, illegal vote.)

liberal: Once commonly used to mean “one who is open minded,” Republicans have successfully redefined this word to mean dangerous, irresponsible and unpatriotic fanatic.

partisan: In common Republican usage is now defined as any mean-spirited, illegitimate and unpatriotic attempt by non-Republicans to question the current administration’s goals or methods, or to call for debate, or to ask for consideration of alternatives.

patriot: Anyone proud to be a Christian, God-fearing Republican, who believes strongly in the immutability of the status quo. See traitor.

property rights: Laws designed to protect the interests of the oil, timber, mining and livestock industries and enable them to exploit public lands to secure private profits.

special interest: Formerly this phrase was reserved for economic interests who sought special privilege. In common Republican usage however it has come to mean any citizen or group of citizens who petition their government to respond to their concerns.

traitor: Godless humanists who may either be domestic enemies of the state (Democrats) or foreign enemies (Communists), and who continuously question the legitimacy of the Bush presidency even after patriots have clearly instructed them to “Get Over It.” (Please see Get Over It.)

unconstitutional: Any action that is not favorable to the Republican agenda.

welfare reform: Forced reintroduction of uneducated and unskilled workers into the job force to exert downward pressure on wage demands, undercut job training programs and ensure that corporate lobbyists continue to call for an easing of immigration restrictions rather than for improved education and training for American citizens.

Oh, wait. We don’t have to watch Fox News all day, do we?

I don’t want to be sucked into an endless war.

I’m referring to the social and political divide in the United States that seems to be getting wider every year, and its’ participants – you and me – ever more strident and intolerant. I’m old, and I don’t want to have to fight again for the rights and freedoms that I thought we had won: education, opportunity, privacy.

I don’t want to fight, but I am cornered.

As I wrote yesterday, the Supreme Court has shifted far to the right, and is getting ready to have another look at law which they have already declared unconstitutional by a one-vote majority. The factors are:

• The law in question bans many mid- to late-term abortions.
• A moderate justice – a woman – and a conservative justice have been replaced by two conservative guys, one of them them an outspoken critic of abortion rights, and…
• The Supreme Court answers to no one.

We have to hope that the lawyers arguing in favor of a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own reproductive system are smart, dedicated, well-researched and lucky. Even then we must face the reality that this Court has been stacked specifically to take away this hard-won right, the right to a safe abortion if that is your choice. My opinion is that this process will begin now.

The court is primed to say that abortion is illegal, but the upcoming decision won’t be the last word. It will only be one of many skirmishes that have been fought over this turf in recent years. The case the Court has decided to hear affects only a small percentage of medical situations that might involve abortion, so it will not be the end of the war.

But it will be a chip taken out of our rights, and the forces that support this move will then go on to the next level, and the next, until they have returned this country to the barbarian days of back-alley coat-hanger abortions and government intrusion into the most private areas of our lives.

Or until they are stopped.

Most opponents of abortion rights are sincere, and I respect them for acting on their beliefs, working for decades and electing guys like Bush, who has appointed guys like Roberts and Alito, who have passed the right-wing abortion litmus test. I respect them, but I have to oppose them.

I’m not sure if anything can be done about the case in question. We closed our eyes for a moments’ rest, and when we woke up, Howdy Doody was president and the Supreme Court was packed. Our bad.

The Court will do what it wants this time, but let’s get started now reversing the drift to the right that has led to this state of affairs. Letters to your elected representatives in Washington are helpful in the long run, even if they don’t seem to have any effect today or tomorrow.

And we have to be thinking about the long run. Today, for example, the state of South Dakota passed a law effectively banning all abortions. This law will be fought all the way to the Supreme Court. It will take years, but when it gets there, don’t you want everyone in Washington to know unequivocally where you stand? Do you want to take the chance that Bush (or someone like him) will have appointed another right-wing fundamental idealogue to the Court?

The majority of Americans favor a woman’s right to choose, and lawmakers need to hear this, so they will know how we want them to vote on future laws that are proposed, so they will stand up and support moderate court appointees and so they will propose legislation that protects our precious rights. Right now all they are hearing is the anti- point of view.

We must educate ourselves on this issue, and not assume that our rights are safe, because hey, they’re not! Not all of us can take it to the streets, not all of us can run for office, not all of us can afford to donate money, but everyone who wants to can do something. If you want to see what action you can take you might want to start here.

This is not just about abortion. Women and men struggled through much of the twentieth century to achieve a just level of personal privacy and freedom. The tolerance expressed in the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision came about as a result of the battle for those rights and freedoms. Now those rights and freedoms are threatened again. We must read, learn, educate, demonstrate, donate and agitate to create an environment in which no president, no legislator, and no judge will ever again be able to consider revoking them.

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UPDATE: For more horrifying Supreme Court shenannigans, see this article posted today by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This is not a political blog.

Seriously, I have written in the past about how I don’t want to focus on politics here. But I am interested in politics, and it’s hard for me to ignore certain events, when theory intersects with reality. Like today, for example.

The New Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case based on the Federal law prohibiting mid-term and late-term abortions, called by opponents “partial birth abortions.” What’s interesting about this is that the Old Supreme Court struck down an identical Nebraska law five years ago, and has since declined to hear any cases on the subject. The reason they struck down the law in the first place is that it made no exception for protecting the health of the mother, thus the government could have used it to force pregnant women and girls to risk their lives. The vote was five to four, with Sandra Day O’Conner voting in the majority. In any case, you’d think that would be that, and the Supremes would start looking around for other constitutional issues to consider.

But now John Roberts is in charge and setting the Court’s agenda, and Samuel Alito has replaced Sandra Day O’Conner. Roberts has agreed to revisit the Court’s position on a law that has been unconstitutional for the past five years, and I don’t think there’s much doubt how he and Alito will vote next year when this comes before the Court. After all, Alito is on record as saying that the landmark Roe v. Wade is bad law, and that it can be reversed by chipping away at it a little bit at a time. What a perfect opportunity for him to strike the first blow.

When Al Gore ran for President, and when John Kerry ran for President, we could have done something. We could have voted instead of staying home. Only a few popular votes would have made a difference. But in 2000 we were apparently overwhelmed by the evildoing of President Clinton, and by 2004 we were terribly frightened, so in both cases we had to elect the honorable and brave George W. Bush.

So Bush appointed these new guys, and there’s nothing we can do about them. They don’t have to pay any attention to what we want. Letter-writing and threatening to vote against them is useless, since they are not elected. Even throwing out the bums who appointed them won’t make any difference, since they have been appointed for life. They get to stay, for about thirty more years. We have to let them hear the case, deliberate, and vote on it, while we do what we seem to do best: Sit on our hands.

If Alito’s stated agenda of reversing abortion rights in this country a little bit at a time is successful, I think I’ll go into the abortion business. I’m not a doctor, but then if I were, I wouldn’t be allowed to perform abortions in our fundamentalist conservative future. I have a nice supply of coat hangers, sterilized with rum and a Bic lighter, so I think I’m qualified.

God forbid your little girl ever needs this service. If you’re wealthy, of course, you’ll always have access to safe, legal abortions overseas. If you’re not, get ready to send me your daughters.

Next: What can we do?