Hello, fellow "suckers". I couldn't resist pasting in the below news story to demonstrate what a fraud the "coalition" is.


War Money Accidentally Offered to Peaceful Slovenia
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - The United States mistakenly named Slovenia as a partner in its war against Iraq (news - web sites) and even offered it a share of the money budgeted for the conflict, the tiny Alpine nation said on Thursday.
One day after hundreds of Slovenians hit the streets to protest the inclusion of their nation in Tuesday's U.S. war budget, Prime Minister Anton Rop said Washington goofed.
"When we asked for an explanation, the State Department told us we were named in the document by mistake as we are not a member of the coalition against Iraq," Rop told a hastily arranged news conference.
Slovenia was one of the states named in the $75 billion U.S. war budget which must be approved by Congress and includes grants to partners in the U.S.-led military action. Slovenia was slated to get $4.5 million from the budget, which Rop said will not be forthcoming.
"We are a part of no such coalition. We are a part of a coalition for peace," Rop said.
Slovenia also said on Thursday it had granted a U.S. request to allow airplanes with humanitarian aid, refugees and wounded fly over the country to and from Iraq.
But it stuck to an earlier decision to hold off a U.S. request to transport military equipment through the country, until the U.N. Security Council authorized force against Iraq.
Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the east and Croatia to the south.

PS to Slovenia: Next time take the money first!

- Other Michael 10:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Catching up with some posts, but I've got a lot more coming soon.... (maybe Monday?)

- rob 7:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It scares me that when finally a large news site covers the fears many have about computerized voting, it seems to poo poo the concern. It is easy to end an argument by saying someone is paranoid. But folks, given the past two years, when exactly does paranoia turn in to simple observation.

- rob 7:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oh, and while we constantly complain about how Bush has brought us to an ill conceived war and horribly damaged our nation's international standing; it is easy to forget about how wrong he is on other issues. Like the California energy crisis. It wasn’t environmental laws that cause the crisis. It was his friends. Some companies laid people off, and some went under, because of the energy crisis there. Where is the jail time for these people? Why is one sent to jail for stealing from one person’s house, but it is fine to steal from the homes of an entire state?

- rob 6:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Though Buzzflash is a biased site (but with great coverage), they do have a nice list here of all the Bush Lies (I feel I should put a tm after that term) that have brought us here to war. And good footnotes too.

- rob 6:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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There is a very geeky movie site called AintitCoolNews.com, here you can catch endless arguments about Star Wars, Buffy, etc. It rarely moves into anything that could be considered political. The people who run the site seem to skew liberal, but the talkback of fans often seems to skew conservative if politics come up at all. Today they had a review of Grand Canyon, an excellent 12-year-old film, and the talkback was completely political. It is interesting to see how the news of the world has permeated even a movie fan site. The talkback is somewhat enjoyable (though out of order), with its sometimes miss-informed and always passionate posts. My favorite being someone defending his statement comparing Bush to Hitler (still an extreme comparison I think, but less so with each appalling decision of his). Oh, and the discussion strongly skews anti-Bush and war. Where is the support I hear Bush has? Support for the troops is huge, support for him? Don’t see it (that often).

- rob 6:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Trying to make sense out of war is like staring at sand and trying to imagine the rock it came from -- that is, as one definable thing with a recognizable shape now as an infinite number of imperceptible grains. I could go on with this metaphor.
I also think that selling a rock is a lot easier than selling sand at the beach.
Following the threads of this war, you realize that the United States has lied about everything from the beginning, lied inconsistently, will continue to lie, and that none of it matters. I've actually seen the lies diagrammed on huge spreadsheets, with timelines. I believe this is a pointless activity, ill-suited to the study of history; rather look into the dark heart of the planners. Iraq is clearly a pitstop, only this one and all subsequent Arab wars for years to come will erase entirely any benefit this administration claims in behalf of its actions. Why most Americans can't -- or refuse -- to acknowledge that this war is being fought for private companies' private (and sole) enrichment is maybe not so much a mystery as an infuriating irrational native response. It reminds me of all the steelworkers wrapping themselves up in Ronald Reagan's flag as their jobs disappeared and their families broke up and their towns died -- and then they went out and voted for Reagan again overwhelmingly, pumping their fists in the air and shouting jingoistic cant. None of it makes sense. I always hear, "People vote their pocketbooks." Bullshit, they do not. I saw a recent photograph of an old Russian man kissing a portrait of Stalin, and I thought, That's us, that's who we are right now. I knew we were in trouble ten years ago when everybody in New York fell at Giuliani's knees and sucked his dick during his entire autocratic regime. I knew then that a nationwide wave of tyranny was coming. Last night after reading the paper and listening to the news and finishing my e-mails and considering the events of the day, I came to the gut realization that what we're witnessing now is the rise of dictatorship in the United States, that this war(s) serves a host of purposes, not the least of which is to consolidate power at breathtaking speed into the hands of four or five conscienceless men who are by all accounts mad. Donald Rumsfeld is insane. When you look at what happened to Germany under Hitler, you have to ask, How could it come to pass that an entire nation handed itself over to a madman? Well, now you know.
We acknowledge no one, and have little grasp of history. The rest of the world will align itself against the United States, and this is of no consternation to most Americans; the possibility is hardly considered. It's floating out there on the airwaves but quickly gets lost in the clutter and babble. Inevitably, though, Europe will ally itself with Asia and within the next 30 years power will shift to that part of the world. This is as clear to me as the coming wars with Iran and Syria. When something horrible happens in New York and Washington (I can't really see it not happening, can you?), Bush will declare War Powers and martial law could take effect, maybe not. Either way, the next election won't be like anything we ever witnessed in this country before.
It always bothered me that Bush acts as though he will never pay a political price, that the rules don't apply, that he doesn't need to curry favor with the electorate, apart from a photo op and happy talk. That nothing will come to haunt him, that he has no obligation to his political base. I keep thinking, What does he know that the rest of us don't?

- Michael 2:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This week's New Yorker has too many good articles, but the one that got to me was Jon Lee Anderson's. I found myself realizing that, to me, the concept of Baghdad was of an amorphous blob, populated by faceless grey people on nameless grey streets. But the world isn't like that. If you have traveled anywhere in the world, you are continually greeted by the amazing shock and awe that is Humanity.

- jer 9:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Though I've thought long about Greek philosophers, never before have I been so drawn to Democritus and Heraclitus, whom you may know as being represented as the laughing mask and the tragic mask of drama, portrayed most memorably in the Three Stooges opening credits when Shemp was the third Stooge (accompanied by the Swing-era speeded-up version of "Three Blind Mice" when the Stooges were already past their prime, early in their career). In other words, never before have I been so torn about whether to laugh or cry. The satirical view gets you over life's meaninglessness (Democritus, The Laughing Philosopher ca. BC 460-362), but in the end, if you truly embrace it, you end up either killing yourself or becoming Samuel Beckett. The other, the tragic, leaves you forever with the burden of care, sorrow, an imbalance of the humours, what the ancients described as Melancholia, which can drag you down just as quickly. The Jews sort of blended the two: you should never be too happy, which is why we dance with tears in our eyes, and contrariwise, that you should never be too sad, because life is short and we have everything to be thankful for and we should never forget what the dead mean to us, their sacrifice and purpose, even in purposelessness. Neither the Greeks' nor the Jews' philosophy helps me right now. All of them lead to a form of insanity, which is to say, a deranged state of mind, unconnected to reality. Reality is too much to bear, which is the main attraction of a consolatory philosophy or religion: these create a never-never land, where with enough fortitude and strength of spirit one is capable of dealing with any of life's injustices and phantom punches. This is fine if you belong to the ancient polis or a like-minded community of the traditionally persecuted, or if you believe in Heaven and Hell. It's not so good when you belong to a modern cosmopolis that operates in a permanent state of denial, comprised of disparate groups and enterprises competing selfishly and immorally and unethically with irreconcilable differences, whose goals are implicitly corrupt and in whose corridors of power the welfare of all is conducted in secret tribunal, among the moneyed and the privileged. The best laid plan of mice and men works out really well for the top 1 percent, and to hell with the future and the rest of us. I don't find this view in the philosophy of the Greeks, I don't find it in existentialism, I don't find it in organized religion but I find it everywhere in history and the ending is always the same. Someone once said that History may be nothing more than what a handful of harebrains have done in their rage and their wrath. Add to that Greed, Arrogance, and everything Freud ever wrote about Eros and Thanatos.

- Michael 6:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey, but at least our international standing is improving!

- rob 5:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I am of the believe that the biggest threat to American's freedom that we face to day is Ashcroft. Though you've probably read much of this elsewhere. Here's a good update on a very scary thing, an evil thing, that's known by the name: Patriot Act II This Time Its Personal!

- rob 5:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over
I mentioned this Onion article in a post about a Krugman article and with the wonder of "search" I found the original. Folks, this article was originally posted in January 18, 2001. Eerie how accurate it is. Really. I thought the article was funny when I first read it. I didn't realize that it wasn't actually a joke but an accurate channeling of the future.

- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Though this Guardian article isn’t as good as many this past week, it does echo my sentiments with its closing paragraph:

To have reached such a position against an adversary who is demonstrably one of the world's most disgusting tyrants, to have transformed him into a hero figure, and to have transformed the American flag into a symbol of oppression, is not only unfortunate but reeks of political incompetence.

I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t want this war who actually thinks Saddam is anything but an evil dictator who is getting what he deserves. The problem is most of the world (as well as I) feel that he could have been rendered useless and powerless without this war.

And now that we are at war, it is time to reflect on the man who led this nation to war. George W. Bush, who avoided service in Vietnam by joining the Texas National Guard. He was accepted immediately despite a long waiting list, and in the end didn’t even bother showing up for at least a year. In fact almost all of the Bush administration seems to have avoided that war. Here is the famous list of all the prominent folks pushing for battle, who managed to avoid it themselves. And you know what, if I was 18 in 1968 I’d have tried to avoid it too, but if I later became President (don’t hold your breath) I would continue to try to avoid war, for the sake of the soldiers who would die fighting in it. True some wars are unavoidable, but honestly, doesn't anyone think this one was?

For a fun take on all this, there is this famous Chicken Hawk flash piece. “what is it about combat that makes generals so cautious.”

Reading all the above does make you wonder what anger management class Colin Powell took, as he seems to be dealing with his anger quite well considering who he works with these days: "I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country." (Colin Powell’s autobiography, My American Journey, p. 148)

- rob 6:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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While we are at war, please don’t pay attention to that deficit behind the curtain. It seems to be getting larger yes, but we are at war, that is expected. True we are cutting taxes despite a deficit that is growing at a record pace (not even including the cost of the war), but you know, anytime is a good time for a tax break. Bill Gates’ Dad has something to say about all this. As well as Paul Krugman (who mentions my favorite Onion headline of all time.)

Even wonder why you the only liberal voices you hear on the radio are on Pacifica or NPR, surely a liberal could generate ratings too. Well they can but for some reason, their shows don’t get distributed. You see the radio today is just another arm of the Republican party. Krugman (again) has a great write up of this phenomenon. If you want more info on this subject just let me know (use the comments below).

Oh and again folks, remember, this is about Weapons of Mass Destruction and the freedom of Iraqi people.

- rob 6:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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We've expanded our store! You know, if you stop being frightened, you start thinking of the problems Bush isn't really doing anything to fix.

Well Stop That!

With our new shirt you'll always remember at what level of fear you should be at (as long as we are at Orange Alert, of course):

- rob 2:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Yesterday I bought an old couch from a nice man in his sixties. In his garage, proudly displayed, was a bumper sticker that said "Annoy a Liberal: Work Hard and Smile." I'm not sure if that meant Liberals are supposed to be lazy, or that they are always angry. Well I've met many liberals that were that, of course, but like all generalizations, it is about as accurate as this site's common belief that all neo-conservatives are scary right wing nut cases. hmmm... maybe less acurate. Anyway, as I was paying for the couch I asked him if he was enjoying the beautiful day, and he said he was, but was annoyed that his choices on television were "this stupid war" or basketball. I said what scared me about this war was that I was feeling as if this was one of many already in the queue. I was scared this was all planned ahead of time. "Oh it was," he says. "You are right. They played this one all right." I mention this because if asked I'm sure he would say he supports the war and the president. I think he would feel it was his duty, but he doesn't. What is Bush's support really?

- rob 6:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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