BIG DAY

...and oh yeah, today is also MY BIRTHDAY. Gifts and letters of congratulation can be sent to the usual address.

Things To Forget About 2005

Arianna Huffington's whimsical but deadly serious posting contains a list of news items that should have you holding your head in disbelief. Read it here. Although Huff says she wants to forget these things, in truth we should remember all these things for next year when the Dems and Republican$ will have the Clash Of The Titans over impeaching Bush. Impeachment. What a beautiful word.

Keane Keen On Celtic
Roy Keane, the legendary Irish footballer has just made the switch to Glasgow's Celtic Football Club. After captaining Manchester United for 13 years, the 34 year old, infamous for his full-blooded challenges and pushing around punkasses like Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, Keane had a spectacular falling out with United boss Alex Ferguson. Now all is well, as Keane will be playing for his boyhood heroes, Celtic. Read more here, from Fox Soccer.

Mystery Object Orbits Sun
In this article, from Reuters, details of a distant object orbiting the sun in a near perfect circle at twice the distance of Neptune are revealed. Unlike most solar objects, this object (nicknamed "Buffy") does not orbit in an http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifelipse and is tilted at 47* from the plane. It's clear that this Kuiper belt object is really a monitoring device installed by ancient alien visitors to our solar system. As detailed in "VALIS" by Philip K. Dick, this object could also be contacting humans with ancient knowledge.

Sounds a little farfetched? Recall that almost since recorded human history various humans have been contacted and received "holy visions" or communications from "higher beings," not limited to the Old Testament prophets but also including Aleister Crowley, WB Yeats, and Carl Jung.

Senate Blocks Patriot Act
Friday morning the Senate dealt a stinging defeat to the Bush White House and Congressional Republicans who sought to reauthorize many of the most controversial aspects of the Patriot Act and also to make other portions permanent. Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Larry Craig lead the fight (and Craig's a Republican!) Thank you guys!

More examples of how much the GOP sucks.

1. Republicans succeed in cutting funding for education. Read it here.

2. Bush administration wants to change EPA rules so that factories won't have to report how much they are polluting. Read it here.

3. Bush knows CIA leak source, according to Bob Novak. Read it here. After 2 years of investigation, after saying "anyone involved" in leaking Plame's name would be fired, it looks like Bush knew all along. How shocking.

Eugene Robinson on Tookie Williams

Op/Ed columnist Eugene Robinson says Williams does not deserve special treatment in his appeal to avoid the death penalty on Dec 13. Read his piece here, from Washington Post. In a nutshell, Robinson argues that no one should be killed by the state because the death penalty is applied inequally and is fraught with errors, yet Williams' case is no different from anyone else on death row, except that he has celebrities to promote his cause. Is it any wonder that Snoop Dogg is in his corner, as Snoop himself was a crip and narrowly avoided going to prison for shooting a guy? Or that Jamie Fuxx is bloviating on his behalf, since Foxx appeared in a TV movie about Williams' "conversion"? There are some cases, when the perpetrator of the crime has confessed, there is absolutely no question about their guilt, and it's open and shut. In those cases, the death penalty might be the just desserts, but in every other case, the death penalty is an anachronism that puts us in the company of Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, and a bunch of other non-western theocratic hellholes. Time to evolve, America. Tookie Williams created the Crips, the gang that got to play real life Axis & Allies in Southern California before spreading the gang disease to other cities. Thousands are dead, thousands of lives torn apart and destroyed. Thousands more are in prison, paid for by the good citizens of this great state, and Tookie is responsible. The fact that he is now sorry about it means little, as he's been in prison for 27 years, you'd think at some point every prisoner would wrap their head around the magnitude of their crime. I still believe that he owes the State for 27 years' worth of incarceration, which is about $45,000 per year X 27 = $1,215,000 so far. Tookie maintains his innocence, and since it's been proved that there were innocent people on death row, his life should be spared. But Williams is no martyr or hero, or anyone for duplicitous dipshit celebrities to wrap their arms around.

Texas Gerrymandering Seen As Illegal

A story in today's Washington Post shows that there was a unanimous decision against the redistricting shenannigans of Tom DeLay, but that the Justice Department lawyers were overruled by political appointees. The fact that all six lawyers and both analysts were unanimous should be cause enough to toss out the DeLay redistricting. And don't forget that the current legal woes DeLay is in stem from his efforts to raise money for this redistricting scam. The Texas Republicans gained 5 seats from the redistricting, giving them a firm hold on Congress. Those 5 seats were crowed about as if the country and state had taken a harder turn to the political right, when in reality, these 5 seats were manufactured out of thin air. Corruption. The document detailing these behind the scenes was leaked at last, after having been suppressed by the Republicans. The case will now go before the Supreme Court. Republicans and Tom DeLay: you're on notice. (apologies to The Colbert Report).

UPDATES!!!

We have updated the site today. Added tons of new reviews, a new Events listing, and 8 new tracks on the Culture Bunker Jukebox. Now rocking tunes by: Super Furry Animals, The Rifles, Aberdeen City, Ben Krieger, The Exit, The Sock Angels, 100 Flowers, and The Sun.

FASCISM

There's a great commentary on Fascism - Then And Now at the Common Dreams website, check 'er out. It dispels the myth that fascism is something that drops down from above and instead examines the root causes. Some easy Monday reading for you.


GEORGE BEST 1946 - 2005

Football legend George Best passed away last Friday. Best received a liver transplant a year ago but could not stop his alcoholism, which eventually led to his death. Best, a Northern Ireland boy, became a worldwide hero for his brilliance on the pitch, and in particular became a legend for the Manchester United club. He famously left football at the top of his game and proceeded to party like a rock star, with sports cars, famous models, and copious amounts of alcohol. One story has it, that a bellboy was summoned to a hotel room Best was in, and when he walked inside found the footballer sprawled on the bed, the room in total disarray, the current Miss Universe in bed with George, and 20,000 pounds in cash strewn about the bedroom. The bellboy famously asked, "George, where did it all go wrong?" So we honor his memory and his style, his gifts he brought to the game.

Iraq Fact

There have been 2,073 US soldiers killed in this Iraq pacification scheme. More than 16,000 US soldiers have been wounded. Thanks to better in the field medical response, better medevac times, and body armor, these wounded soldiers are still alive. If we were still using Vietnam-era technology today, it's a safe bet that those 16,000 wounded would be listed KIA. To put it into perspective, the US lost about 25,000 troops in Vietnam while Johnson was still in office, this number is less than half of the eventual 58,000 who were killed. These 25,000 deaths happened in about 4 years (1964 - 1968), averaging 6,250 deaths per year. We have been in Iraq two years and our mortality rate (assuming many of those wounded would have been killed) is 2,073 + 16,000= 18,073, for a per year average of 9,000. So don't buy that line that the situation in Iraq is less dangerous than it was in Vietnam, or that we're winning this war. See "The Fog Of War" to be reminded how those in power refuse to admit defeat.

Angry Monkey Alert!

Bush's press conference today, where he "blasted" Democrats for calling bullshit on him, looks more like a frightened, confused little monkey hurling its own feces from its cage. The photos of Bush only need a banana or two Photo Shopped in to complete the effect. Is this finally the turning point? New reports in the press hint that Cheney is now on the outs with Chimpy. The BBC reported that because Cheney had set up his own apparatus independent of Bush, the disgrace of Scooter "Leaky" Libby has brought the other Bush aides in line against Cheney. So Chimpy is out there almost all by himself, only Condi is by his side. You should read the recent article in the Atlantic about Brent Scowcroft, former mentor to Rice, in much the same way that Dr. Frankenstein was the "mentor" to the Monster. Still, one can only hope that the wheels are finally coming off the Bush(it) Express. Next stop? Impeachment!

LA Galaxy

Tonight the LA Galaxy drew 1-1 with the San Hoser Earthquakes, sending the 'Quakes crashing out of the competition. The Galaxy win on aggregate 4-2 and will next face the Colorado Rapids in the Western Conference finals. They will face either DC United and their spoiled little brat bitch Freddie Adu, or the New England Revolution. I personally hope the final is Galaxy v Revs.

Indicted

Scooter Libby's reign of terror appears to just about be finished. Hopefully more indictments are to follow, as Fitzgerald continues to follow the strands of the web all the way back to the spider. Much spin has been devoted to somehow havering over the issue of whether prosecuting Libby for lying about something that is not a crime, is worthwhile, as if Libby is somehow being unfairly hounded. Shall we remind everyone what the Clinton investigation brought to light, how it hamstrung the Clinton administration, cost Gore the election, and led to this sorry state of affairs where Chimpy is in charge? If for no other reason than to send the cockroaches and sewer rats running back to their holes, we need Fitzgerald to pursue this thing to its bitter (or sweet) end. Rove's head is on the chopping block, and we hope the ax falls. Can anyone deny that Rove's brand of political viciousness, where every issue is a winner take all game where no compromise can be brooked, has tarnished and damaged America's political system? Any advisor whose advice is that a barely elected president should immediately and without restraint seek to ramrod the most controversial elements of his party's platform regardless of any bipartisan support, should be removed from office. Nearly half the country has always been against Bush and his policies, so how can this president pretend that he has a mandate? How can any leader automatically ignore half his constituents? Clinton ruled from the center, Bush rules from he extremist wing. With each passing month, Bush's presidency is more riddled with incompetence, cronyism, malfeasance, fraud, and contempt for America. Come on Mr Fitzgerald, hand out those indictments!

Judy Miller

By now it should be fairly clear to everyone that NY Times reporter Judy Miller has been more or less a cheerleader for the Bush administration, their desire to go to war with Iraq, and that she has sacrificed journalistic integrity to protect her sources (who have probably committed some crimes). The following media advisory from FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) really lays bare the facts against Miller.

Miller's Tale
Can the reporter--or the New York Times--be trusted?

10/21/05

The New York Times editorial page told readers over and over again that Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for 85 days for a noble cause--the protection of confidential sources. But to many outside observers, the principles that Miller went to jail for were far from clear, with many fundamental questions left unanswered. Readers and media watchers were eager to hear Miller's side of the story, and to see the newspaper devote its considerable journalistic energy to investigating a crucial political story that its reporter was in the middle of: the efforts of Bush administration officials to punish a critic by leaking the covert identity of Valerie Plame Wilson to the media.

But neither the October 16 report written by a team of Times reporters, nor the accompanying first-person tale written by Miller herself, answered the questions posed by critics. In fact, those questions have only multiplied.

The first--and arguably the most important--question is how Miller came to know Valerie Wilson's identity. Wilson was a covert CIA employee married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed called into question the integrity of the Bush administration's handling of intelligence about Iraqi WMDs; when she was outed as a CIA operative by Robert Novak (Washington Post, 7/14/03), seemingly in retaliation for her husband's criticism, it sparked the current investigation into who revealed her identity to journalists.

So where did Miller first hear about Valerie Plame Wilson? She claims she cannot remember. She can only surmise--according to her own vague notes--that the name "Valerie Flame" appeared in her notes based not on her conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to vice president Dick Cheney, but "from another source" whom she "could not recall." Miller's conversations with Libby are apparently of significant importance to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who had her jailed for contempt when she would not testify about them to a grand jury.

Miller's inability to recall pertinent information extended to her conversations with Libby. One talk occurred on July 8, 2003, two days after Wilson's op-ed had caused significant turmoil for the White House and its allies.

Miller reported that she "almost certainly began this interview by asking about Mr. Wilson's essay, which appeared to have agitated Mr. Libby." Their conversation turned to Wilson's wife, and Miller's notes suggest Libby told her that Wilson worked at the WINPAC unit of the CIA (Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control). But Miller again drew a blank, this time on the significance of this information: "I said I couldn't be certain whether I had known Ms. Plame's identity before this meeting, and I had no clear memory of the context of our conversation that resulted in this notation."

Miller's inability to remember details of her conversations beyond the words written in her notebook--an unusual memory deficit for a professional journalist, to say the least--is a striking feature of her account. Later in her article, she states: "Mr. Fitzgerald asked if I could recall discussing the Wilson-Plame connection with other sources. I said I had, though I could not recall any by name or when those conversations occurred." Later, she says that after her second conversation with Libby, she "might have called others about Mr. Wilson's wife"--but apparently can't be sure.

The first-person account written by Miller, combined with the Times reporters' own investigation, raises several intriguing questions. Among them:


--Miller was plainly deceptive in her dealings with newsroom colleagues. The Times reported that once it became known at least six Washington journalists had talked to White House officials about Wilson's CIA identity, Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman asked Miller if she was one of those journalists. Miller denied it.

Miller also claimed to have ''made a strong recommendation" to her editor about doing a story about Wilson's CIA role, but was told no. The Times' Washington bureau chief at the time, Jill Abramson, "said Ms. Miller never made any such recommendation." The article does not follow up on this remarkable contradiction, but it seems likely that if any of Miller's editors had received such a suggestion, they would have come forward to back up her story.

Why Miller didn't provide the name of the editor she talked to is another mystery. It's certainly difficult to square the idea that she asked to do a story on Valerie Wilson's identity with the fact that she denied receiving this information.


--In her own account, Miller strongly suggests that she possessed a special security clearance: "During the Iraq war, the Pentagon had given me clearance to see secret information as part of my assignment 'embedded' with a special military unit hunting for unconventional weapons."

Miller also suggested that "Libby might have thought I still had security clearance," and that during one of their meetings "I might have expressed frustration to Mr. Libby that I was not permitted to discuss with editors some of the more sensitive information about Iraq. Mr. Fitzgerald asked me if I knew whether I was cleared to discuss classified information at the time of my meetings with Mr. Libby. I said I did not know."

This would be a highly unusual arrangement. NBC Pentagon reporter Jim Miklasziewski was unable to find confirmation of Miller's supposed clearance from Pentagon or CIA sources (MSNBC.com, 10/17/05). Former CBS correspondent Bill Lynch suggested (Poynter.org, 10/16/05) that such a deal would be "as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists, and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised."

On October 20, the Times was able to get more information from Miller, reporting that she had signed a standard non-disclosure form for embedded reporters "with some modifications, adding that what she had meant to say in her published account was that she had had temporary access to classified information under rules set by her unit."

Why Miller couldn't say what she meant in a first-person account is unclear. When the Times asked her if "she had ever left the impression with sources, including Mr. Libby, that she had access to classified information after leaving her assignment in Iraq, Ms. Miller said she could not recall." As Miller put it, "I don't remember if I ever told him I was disembedded.... I might not have." The term "embedded" is usually used to mean "traveling with a military unit"; Miller seems to be using it in a much broader sense.


--Miller and her defenders have long claimed that that Miller was unwavering on the principle of not revealing a confidential source. But Miller's refusal to testify doesn't in the end seem as principled as either she or her paper originally claimed. As the Times reported, Miller was seeking a suitable waiver from Libby from the start, and eventually based her decision not to testify "in part because she thought that Mr. Libby's lawyer might be signaling to keep her quiet unless she would exonerate his client."

According to Miller, that "signaling" was the suggestion that Libby had testified about their conversations in ways that in Miller's view were false. In other words, she refused to testify because she believed her testimony would expose her source as a perjurer. When your reason for not testifying is a belief that your source has committed a crime, then "journalistic privilege" begins to look more like obstruction of justice.


--During the course of one of her interviews with Libby, Miller revealed that she agreed to change his identification from "senior administration official" to "former Hill staffer." Miller reported that she "agreed to the new ground rules because I knew that Mr. Libby had once worked on Capitol Hill." He did not explain why he made this request, but Miller "assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson." This passage is extremely incriminating; not only does she acknowledge that she was willing to cooperate with a source to mislead readers, but she admits that the purpose of this deception was to conceal the White House's attack on a critic. Such partisan attacks, under New York Times ethics rules, are not to be made anonymously at all, let alone with a blatantly misleading identification.


--The Times report raises serious questions about the paper's management of Miller's reporting, and of the reporting about Miller's case. Times executive editor Bill Keller expressed the wish that "it had been a clear-cut whistle-blower case. I wish it had been a reporter who came with less public baggage."

The paper did not spend much time dwelling upon what this might mean, but their readers deserve better. Miller's reporting on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was embarrassingly wrong. Even after the Times had to publicly apologize for several of her articles, Miller moved on to write several misleading or erroneous articles about the investigation into the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

But this should not have come as a surprise, since serious complaints about Miller's work had circulated for years--sometimes within the paper itself. The Washington Post recalled (10/17/05) that in 2000 Times reporter Craig Pyes wrote in a memo:


"I'm not willing to work further on this project with Judy Miller.... I do not trust her work, her judgment, or her conduct. She is an advocate, and her actions threaten the integrity of the enterprise, and of everyone who works with her.... She has turned in a draft of a story of a collective enterprise that is little more than dictation from government sources over several days, filled with unproven assertions and factual inaccuracies... [and] tried to stampede it into the paper."


More recently, a dispute erupted between Miller and then Baghdad bureau chief John Burns, who was angry that Miller was writing stories from Iraq without his oversight. The subject of the reporting was Ahmed Chalabi, who Miller claimed "provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD to our paper." Chalabi's information on Iraqi weapons was notoriously flawed.

One would think that a reporter with such a track record would be monitored carefully--presuming they were still employed. But to hear the Times tell it, Miller set her own rules. Though Keller had removed Miller from the Iraq weapons beat, "she kept kind of drifting on her own back into the national security realm." If Keller and the Times editors do not control what their reporters are doing, then who does?

Barbara Crossette, a former U.N. bureau chief at the Times who says she unsuccessfully tried to supervise Miller's oil-for-food reporting, wrote in a letter to Poynter Online (10/17/05) that Miller "had at least one very highly placed friend at the paper, and many Timespeople were afraid to tangle with her because of that." The only person more highly placed at the paper than Keller is publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who reportedly has a friendship with Miller going back to the late '70s, when they were reporters together at the Times' Washington Bureau. As New York magazine noted in a profile of Miller (6/7/04), "Fairly or unfairly, there's a sense that Miller has protection at the absolute top--and that fear reportedly deters some editors from challenging her."

When the Times published a report on how the Jayson Blair fiasco was allowed to happen, much of the article discussed the personal contacts that Blair had developed that allowed him to get away with errors and eventual fabrications. The fact that the piece on Miller did not examine the office culture that allowed her to escape supervision suggests a disturbing double standard.

Once Miller went off to jail, it became clear that Keller and others at the Times were able to exercise control over what was written about Miller and her case. "Some reporters said editors seemed reluctant to publish articles about other aspects of the case as well, like how it was being investigated by Mr. Fitzgerald," the Times reported. When one such article was not published, one Times reporter said, "It was taken pretty clearly among us as a signal that we were cutting too close to the bone, that we were getting into an area that could complicate Judy's situation."

Two other Times reporters were rebuffed after offering potential story ideas about the case. According to Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman, "Mr. Keller did not want them pursued because of the risk of provoking Mr. Fitzgerald or exposing Mr. Libby while Ms. Miller was in jail." The fact that the Times would make journalistic decisions based on how they might affect Miller's legal status--putting her personal interests above the public interest--is unconscionable.

After her release from jail, Miller told CNN's Lou Dobbs (10/4/05), "I didn't want to be in jail, but I knew that the principle of confidentiality was so important that I had to, because if people can't trust us to come to us to tell us the things that government and powerful corporations don't want us to know, we're dead in the water. The public won't know. That's why I was sitting in jail. For the public's right to know."

But neither the Times or Miller has offered the public any explanation of how her conduct lives up to such lofty rhetoric. In this case, Miller seems to have worked to opposite ends--to shield the public from things that a powerful government didn't want us to know.

22 Indictments Possible In Bush CIA Scandal

The ex-CIA Larry Johnson reports on his No Quarter site that Fitzgerald is looking at 22 files for potential indictments, including Stephen Hadley, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, and Mary Matalin. Why isn't Bush's name among those 22, and why isn't Condi Rice's name high on the list?

Wilsons May Sue Bush & Cheney

IN this article from Bloomberg by Richard Keil, the Valeria Plame-Wilson scandal and the criminals involved is discussed at length. The final two paragraphs are exceptionally delicious, which are:

In an interview yesterday, Wilson said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame's career.

If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed -- and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath -- while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against then- President Bill Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time.

Remember how Conservatives wet themselves over having Clinton testify under oath? Can you imagine how Bush will do in similar circumstances? Remember that the last time Bush testified, it was not under oath, reporters were barred, and he had his puppet master Dick Cheney at his side the entire time. All of this looks like the comeuppance deserved by a gang of self-righteous, intellectual light-weights who have shown no hesitancy in trampling the Bill of Rights in pursuit of their goals. Thank God for Patrick Fitzgerald.

Secret Code In Color Printers

Your color printer is going to be the one who rats you out to the authorities. IN this article, from Electronic Frontier Foundation, they detail how the EFF team cracked the code on these nearly invisible yellow dots that Xerox, Canon and other manufacturers secretly print on every document that lists the serial number of the machine that printed it.

Transparent Aluminum

The Air Force is testing a new kind of armor - it's see through but made from aluminum. Read about it here, from the Air Force Link website. Funny enough, in one of the Star Trek movies, Scotty negotiates a deal for transparent aluminum. Wonder what we could come up with if we spent that 400 Billion we're blowing on Iraq on some real projects.

Mozilla Firefox 1, Apple Safari 0

I couldnt' figure out why several of the dashboard icons had disappeared on this site. Turns out, Safari can't support several types of java, and that those icons never disappeared at all. So it's back to Firefox. Nice one, you MacAsses!

To The Stars

An Austrian scientist has created the first magnetohydrodynamic rocket drive. This new type of engine will result in about 90% greater thrust while using 50% as much fuel. This Magnetic Field Thruster delivers as much hope for revolutionizing space travel as a nuclear reactor space drive would. Read about it here, from poorly translated German, in the Die Presse online magazine.

On a side note, Blogger does not fully support the Safari browser platform. That is why recently there are no BOLDFACE texts, why the html links are all visible, and why we haven't been posting very much. Fuck you very much, Apple Computers.

Gravity Probe B Returns

After gathering data for 50 months, Gravity Probe B's mission is at an end. In the next 15 months, physicists will analyze the data to determine if Einstein was right, all the way back in 1916 when he posited the existence of "spacetime." How much farther can spacedrives be at this point? Read about the GP-B, here: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gravity-05p.html

Homo Sapiens And Neanderthals Coexisted For 1000 Years

At least they did in France. New evidence provides fairly conclusive proof that Homo Sapiens coexisted with their shorter, squatter relatives, the Neanderthal. And then suddenly Neanderthal disappeared, and genetic work has shown that little if any intermingling between the two subspecies happened. So what happened? Read about this story here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1450949.htm, but everyone knows that the Neanderthal were the non-manipulated humans on Earth before the Space Beings landed. The Space Beings, Nefilim, Anunaki, Angels, whatever you want to call them, spliced their DNA into Neanderthal to create Homo Sapiens. I think.

Dragons Found In China

Well, the remains of two new flying reptile species have been recently unearthed. They look like dragons. Read about it here: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=52698

Vive La Resistance!

A group of French pranksters knowns as the Deflated have gone around wealthy Paris neighborhoods and wages a campaign against SUVs. Their methods include letting the air out of tires, pasting handbills on the windshields that decry the SUV as a caricature of a car with no business in Paris, and smearing mud on the doors. Read about it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051010/ts_latimes/suvdriversinparisgetwindknockedoutofthem

Okay, okay, we're back. A few things on the K_L_T_R_B_N_K_R tip have been left unused for a few weeks now, we apologize. We have completed our site redesign and have moved everything that we're tinkering with from PC to Mac, so it's also been a bit of a struggle. Expect lots of new content shortly.

In the meantime, everyone please make a contribution to the RED CROSS to help with relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. Instead of buying 1 CD or 1 movie ticket, just give that amount, at least. In the televised fundraiser after the 9/11 attacks, over 90 million people watched the broadcast but only $100 million was raised, meaning that each person watching gave only about $1.10, on average, but we know that really what happened is that lots of people gave $20, $30 or more, so most people gave NOTHING.

And where were all the celebrities and rich fuckers either time? Bill Gates alone could have given a cool $1 BILLION if he felt like it. $100 million in a country as rich as ours is a shameful amount. This hurricane has crippled an entire city. Hundreds of thousands of people are directly affected by this. Any celebrity in America had better be writing giant checks right now, because all of you are only "famous" because we the people have given our hard-earned cash to make you famous and rich. Give it back.

Lastly, don't anyone forget the massive, colossal, shockingly inept governance of Bush & Co. in the wake of this hurricane. Bush buzzed New Orleans from 1700 feet and then continued on to San Diego to attend a fundraiser and PLAY GOLF. While people were descending into total anarchy, bodies in the river, children being raped and murdered, police and rescue workers being shot, our President was eyeing the back 9. Could we have any clearer example of how out of touch he is and how he needs to be IMPEACHED immediately?

Fuel Cell Motorbike

A British company will begin selling their fuel cell powered motorcycle in 2006. It's called ENV ("envy") and is nearly silent, emits nothing but air and water, can range for 100 miles on one tank that costs under $4 to fill up, and looks pretty bad-ass to boot. Check it out here, from National Geographic.

Nuclear War

August 6 marks the 60th anniversary of the date the Allies dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. We should all spend a few minutes contemplating this history.

When Germans and Italians began bombing civilians in Ethiopia and in Spain during the opening phases of WWII, the world was outraged. In these attacks, tens and even hundreds of people died. After the Allied leaders met at Casablanca in July 1943, under Churchill's urgings, a plan was agreed upon to destroy the German military, economy, and people's morale through a program of bombing civilian cities and targets without pretense to their military value. Churchill convinced the others that the best way to do this was to drop bombs on workers housing and factories.

We went from feeling horror at the atrocities of our Axis enemies to not only adopting their tactics but also greatly amplifying them. The RAF flew their missions at night and released their bombs at 6 miles, while the US planes flew bombing raids in the daytime to at least, ostensibly, avoid "civilian" casualties. In the bombings of Hamburg, Essen, Cologne, Frankfurt and other cities, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, culminating in the firebombing of Dresden (which was chronicled by Kurt Vonnegut in "Slaughterhouse Five") resulting in the immediate immolation of at least 100,000 civilians.

There were similar bombing campaigns on Tokyo, with sorties of 400 and 450 bombers dropping munitions from several miles above the targets, negating any pretense of "aiming" or avoiding civilian deaths. On March 10, 1945, Tokyo was bombed by 300 B29s which killed an estimated 100,000 people instantly.

There are several facts one should remember about the nuclear attacks on Japan. First, there has been repeated assertions that the Allies dropped leaflets on the Japanese cities prior to the attacks urging the population to flee. This has been proven to be demonstrably false. The leaflets were dropped after the second bombing. Also, Hiroshima and Nagasaki hardly qualified as "military" targets in the traditional sense of having troops, armaments, bases, or factories creating munitions. Hiroshima deaths numbered around 140,000. Another 130,000 died within 5 years from radiation poisoning and cancer. In the smaller city of Nagasaki, 70,000 people were killed. There were even Allied POWs north of Hiroshima, a fact known to the military brass. The oft-repeated phrase that the attacks "saved a million Allied lives" was created by a newspaper columnist who admitted later to pulling that number out of the air.

WWII was supposed to be a war to end Fascism and as such is viewed as a just war, a moral war. Is it possible to pursue a just cause (the end of Fascist aggression) using techniques that we abhor in our enemies? No one asserts to question the fact that the German Nazis needed to be stopped and that their program of exterminating Jews was incompatible with the world as we want it. Over time, the story of WWII has been told that there were no other option and that any enemy deserves whatever retaliation or revenge we can give them. I would advance the argument that if we are in pursuit of a moral justification that we need to make moral choices ourselves. Torturing prisoners, bombing civilians, rape, public executions - all these things and more can be useful in prosecuting a war, in bringing about a hastened end to the conflict, but should be abhorred by all humanity, not the least being those who profess a belief in Christianity or in any god.

Think about what it means when armies intentionally try to kill large numbers of civilians to weaken the enemy's morale. Instead of Frankfurt and Cologne and Essen, imagine if Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle were firebombed by an army opposed to Bush's war party in Iraq. Recall how in this country the rhetoric has been "if you don't support Bush's war you're a traitor" - sentiments echoed by Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and countless others hectoring people on talk radio. We are not even technically at war and are not allowed to voice dissent or question tactics like torturing prisoners, bombing neighborhoods, and so on. The average American today is as powerless to stop the Bush juggernaut as the average German was to stop the Nazis. Killing civilians is an atrocity, period.

The argument in favor of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki runs something like, we were attacked and so we are justified in visiting whatever death and destruction upon our attackers as was necessary to bring about the end of the war. Are those assertions really true? If we had invaded Japan and rounded up 140,000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and then lined them up and shot them, would those civilian deaths be any less abhorrent than the 140,000 killed by flicking a button and releasing an atomic bomb? Those were not 140,000 soldiers, but ordinary men, women, and children. The technology allows us some remove, some distance from the actual killing, and the further we can get away the more palatable the killing becomes. We now have unmanned aerial drones flown via remote by soldiers back in the USA. We had already participated in bombing non-military cities, so it was a short step to dropping one really great big bomb instead of the thousands of little ones. How did we incrementally step towards such a fate? Perhaps the surrender of the Japanese would only have happened after a long, bloody, casualty-ridden battle for mainland Japan. It's academic, but worth considering.

What happens now, when an enemy of the USA, or of one of our allies, decides that they want a quick end to whatever grievance (real or imagined) they have, and they decide to use a nuclear bomb on an American city? Will we be able to claim that nuclear weapons should not be used on civilians? Will we use the caveat that they should not be used "in wartime," or will we split even more hairs?

So here we are 60 years later, marking the date when the only country to ever use nuclear weapons in war used them on civilian targets. Yes, the war ended but Japan was already suing for peace (albeit with conditions). What did we unleash, what new paradigm did we create by showing the world that political and military goals can be achieved through nuclear war, through attacking cities? The nuclear arsenal we maintain today at a cost of billions of dollars every year has weapons at least 2,000 times as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Who are we going to use these on and why were they created? We saved Allied lives by not invading Japan but we inherited a world where nuclear war is considered moral and just. Maybe it's time to again question the validity of nuclear weapons ever being used in a "just" war, especially in light of the fact that the Bush administration has started new programs to develop smaller tactical nuclear weapons to be used on battlefields.

The actor Richard Burton once wrote a column in The New York Times about his experience playing Winston Churchill in a BBC drama. He wrote:

"In the course of preparing myself... I realized afresh that I hate Churchill and all of his kind. I hate them virulently. They have stalked down the corridors of endless power all through history... What man of sanity would say on hearing of the atrocities committed by the Japanese against British and Anzac prisoners of war, 'We shall wipe them out, everyone one of them, men, women, and children. There shall not be a Japanese left on the face of the earth'? Such simple-minded cravings for revenge leave me with a horrified but reluctant awe for such single-minded and merciless ferocity."

For more information on this, please refer to Howard Zinn's chapter "Just And Unjust War," pp. 229-266, in The Howard Zinn Reader. Note: Zinn himself was a bombardier in WWII and bombed cities himself.

Man Exonerated After 26 Years In Prison

Imagine spending 26 years in prison and being innocent. This happened to a Cuban-American who just got sprung when DNA tests conclusively proved he was not the "Bird Road Rapist." Read his story here. Over 160 people have been exonerated so far through the work of the Innocence Project. Innocent people are sent to prison all the time.

Know When To Shut Up
In Fresno, CA, an 11 year old girl threw a 5.5 inch X 3.5 inch rock at an 8 year old boy who had earlier hit her with a water balloon. Read it here. The boy's forehead was gashed open and required stitches. A deal was made whereby the girl did not have to admit guilt to a felony crime, which is good news for the state of California in that we don't have to shell out $45,000 per year to incarcerate this little nitwit. The girl's parents and supporters chanted "we shall overcome" at the courthouse, which demands that someone tell these people: shut the fuck up.

The girl's father claimed she was "acting in self-defense," and so for this dimwit shitweasel I would also like to tell him to shut his hole and learn that a water balloon is a popular summer pasttime among children, and it is harmless. Throwing a two pound rock at some kid's head for this is irrational. Teach your kids to roll with it, people. Like that little fucker who killed an older boy with a baseball bat because he was teased. When did parents start teaching their kids to not be able to stand a little teasing, a little water balloon shelling, and to resort to catastrophic violence? Further examples of shitty parenting.

Dept of Lies
Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, and Bush's advisor Karl Rove, leaked Valeria Plame's name to several reporters in an attempt to smear her husband's report that thoroughly debunked the Bush assertion Iraq had pursued nuclear weapons. Read about some more of this, here. The Bush White House has been lying about this for 2 years. Reporters have repeatedly asked and repeatedly been chastened/abused for even insinuating that high moral characters like Rove and Libby could even tangentially be involved. Well now the truth is becoming known. They lied. Rove and Libby did it. Don't listen to the right wing fascists, this is not simply the matter of a CIA agent's name being made public, by their disclosure, several CIA front companies were exposed, their employees exposed, and all their contacts exposed. It was not done to help censure a bogus report filed by Ambassador Wilson, as Rove claims, but rather, to enable the Bush people to continue to claim that the Nigerian yellow cake fraud was real, so that we could justify the war in Iraq.

Rove and Libby need to be fired, now, and prosecuted, soon.

Religions And Murder

IN the aftermath of the London commuter bombings last week, the Muslim community has been shocking the world with their loud, adamant condemnations of these vicious murders, the murderers' philosophy, and the very idea that any Muslim anywhere would support this type of murder... Except of course, they did not, they are silent, as ever. Where is the outrage? Where are the millions of Muslims who are rising up, indignant and scandalized that a group of 4 assholes could attempt to sully their image and religion with callous murder? Where?

I'm a California Christian, and if a group of California Christians were involved in horrific murders, you can bet your ass I would be making damn sure to distance myself from them, to lambast them, to disavow their bullshit ideology.

The asshole who bombed a women's health care clinic and set off the bomb during the Atlanta Olypics is going to be sentenced soon, read about it here. He gave his reasons for killing these people, and you guessed it, it's because he's "a devout Christian." Guess what? He is not a Christian. Christians don't murder people in the name of Jesus. There are probably a million Americans right now who are secretly (or not so secretly) chuffed that Rudolph blew up the "abortion" clinic, that he's taking "a stand" against the "immoral" government that "allows" abortions. Where is the Christian indignation? For the record, this asshole Rudolph is not a Christian and has nothing in common with the beliefs of those who actually are Christians. Real Christians should disown him and whatever diseased ideas come from him.

Christians and Muslims, speak out against this violence, do it NOW!

The American Dream

A report on TomPaine today shows that the connection between productivity and pay has been severed. Since 2002, 70% of economic growth has gone directly into the corporate executives' pockets, when in the past, workers were rewarded with higher wages. In fact, if workers' pay had kept pace with productivity, the minimum wage would be $19.12. Think about that. This makes for some good reading for everyone who seeks to counter the notion that the economy is doing fine.

Benefit Auction


Just wanted to let everyone know that The Death Scene Recording Co.
have begun listing items that have been donated to help aid Keith
Watton. If you do not know the story, Keith (Drummer of Halfwayhome)
was seriously injured in an accident at the end of May that has left
him paralyzed from the chest down. He has a long road ahead him in
terms of recovery and his treatment is very expensive.

So we have established an Ebay account and are selling off various
items that have been donated by friends, bands, labels etc. Please
check out the auctions here and bookmark this page as we will be
adding lots more and even cooler items over the coming days and weeks:

">Auctions to
benefit keith

Right now there are tons of CD's, and DVD's listed. We will have lots
of signed and limited items coming up from bands such as Taking Back
Sunday, Circa Survie, Copeland, Armor For Sleep, etc. So please keep
checking back and please bid knowing that your money will be going to
help out someone who really needs the help.

You can also make a donation to:
International Leadership
707 Magnolia Dr.
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701

Iraq Madness Continues

So much for Cheney and Rumsfeld asserting that the insurgency was in its last throes, it doesn't get much more evil than this: a car bomber drove up to a group of US soldiers handing candy out to Iraqi children and murdered them. Read it here. At least a dozen children were killed and at least one US soldier.

Ebbers Gets 25 Years
Don't cry for this guy, cry for the people he ripped off, the pensions wiped out, the financial chaos he wrought on normal people. These sociopaths are not above the law, CEO or no. Read about the former WorldCom boss here, from MyWay.

HEY, HO, ROVE HAS GOT TO GO!
From MyWay news, this article on Bush's advisor Karl Rove at least shows Bush not giving his Dr Strangelove friend a tongue bath, as he has done every other time an Administration figure has fucked up in a colossal fashion. Hopefully the heat will continue on Rove, as there is no doubt in any sane person's mind that Karl Rove intentionally leaked Ambassador Wilson's wife's name to the press to discredit the report saying Iraq had not in fact sought to purchase Nigerian yellow cake. Is this the most corrupt Admin ever, or will Bush finally give someone the ax?

It's A Beautiful World

Recent headlines have had me really depressed. The level of evil and depravity in the world seems to have no bottom limit, no floor through which some other act of evil will not gladly plunge. But first, a decent headline:

Archbishop Tutu Celebrates 50 Years of Marriage. If Tutu does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for anything else, 50 years of marriage surely clinches it. The world needs more voices like his, those willing to speak out against injustice.

Another good story, albeit involving bloodshed, is that Al Quaida's Leader In Saudi Arabia Is Killed. Any cunt that advocates blowing people up really has no place on this earth. Focus on this life, forget the 72 virgins and all that bullshit that "awaits" you in the afterlife.

Now to some of the fucked up things I've seen lately that have shaken my faith in not only Americans in particular but humans in general. These stories are excellent arguments in favor of turning the planet over to the birds and having all humans sent to the moon.

Christian, Church Deacon, Boy Scout Leader, Husband, Father Of Two = Serial Killer. Yes, a poster boy for Bush's America has confessed to being the "BTK" murderer, BTK standing for Bind, Torture and Kill. BTK killed 10 people in rural Kansas, the heartland of America. He started his killing 30 years ago when he strangled a family and their children. Dennis Rader is a sick fucker, but isn't it a bit more than chiling that this asshole was a "pillar" of the community, has 2 children of his own, was a leader in his church? Okay, time for Rove or Frist or Bush himself to come out and support this guy, since they're all Christians.

Next item:

Karla Homolka, The Most Notorious Female Killer In Canada, is being released from prison after serving 12 years. This story is fucked up for two reasons: first is the nature of Homolka's crimes, second is how her incarceration played out. You can click on that link and see picturs of Homolka in prison, having b-day cakes, modelling black dresses with other murderers, and having a laugh. It's sick. Homolka went to prison for offering her 15 year old sister as a "present" to her boyfriend. Homolka drugged her sister and then performed oral sex on her, and held her sister while her boyfriend raped her. Her sister choked to death on her own vomit. Homolka lured another teen, a 14 year old, to their place where the crime was repeated. Homolka and her boyfriend videotaped the events, which adds a new level of sickness. And now, after 12 easy years, she's out. Her light sentence came out because she testified against her boyfriend. Gosh, I wish Homolka would move to my neighborhood, I bet she's a real swingin' gal, a ton of fun. Canadians are pissed.

And one story that splits the difference between being fucked up and being something to be thankful for.

Shasta Groene Found Alive. (From the estimable Kootenai Valley News). Shasta (8) and her brother Dylan (9) went missing after her mother, brother and mother's boyfriend were found bludgeoned to death on May 15. Well, a convicted child rapist was found with Shasta at a Denny's. She's fine. Dylan is still missing. At least two positives from this story: Shasta is back and a child molester is going to prison.

So anyway it is difficult to write news items when there are so many shitty things like this going on. Hope you understand the absence lately.

Have a good Fourth Of July, don't blow your fingers off.

Europe's Oldest Civilization Found

Ruins beneath Germany, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic show a network of dozens of temples built about 2,000 years before the Egyptian pyramids. This will substantially cause a reevaluation of megalithic cultures. Read it here, from The Independent. These highly organized settlements were abandoned after perhaps 200 years and these types of megalithic structures were not built again for around 3,000 years.

Downing Street Memo II

Further evidence that the Bushies knew they were in violation of international law in their trumped-up rush to war in Iraq. Read it here, from TomPaine.org.

G8 Debt Relief For Africa = $1 A Day

The G8 nations just agreed on forgiving 40 billion USD in debt incurred by various African nations. In this analysis in Forbes.com, Dan Ackman shows that this is really mostly a wilted olive branch. The US forgives more debt for itself every year, and about half of the money in direct aid to Africa is spent on salaries of US consultants. In other words, we will pay one of our top CEO goons a couple million dollars to fly to Africa and meet with their corrupt leaders, that's our "aid" package.

68 Cents Of Every Dollar On Defense

That's right, folks, 68 cents out of every dollar our gov't spends is used for defense. Read the analysis here, from TomPaine. The way it is commonly reported does not take into account the monies spent on interest or on nuclear weapons or VA costs. That's like if you buy a car for $30,000 and get a loan for 15%, you can't say the car only costs $30K, but that is exactly how the figure of 19 cents per dollar (the number normally quoted) is derived.

Are we safe? Who the fuck is our enemy? For us to be committing that much of our resources to war, I want to see some fucking 7 foot tall Ivans armed to the teeth on the outskirts of Peoria, not this never-ending state of perpetual war (prophesied by Orwell). Two-thirds of our money blown on war ("defense") when everyone knows violence begets violence. Revenge creates revenge. War and violence are a pendulum, and it will always swing back.

DESERT CITY SOUNDTRACK / SETTLEFISH - US TOUR!
09 June - 17 July

JUN 09 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry w/ CLAIR DE LUNE!
JUN 10 - Elk Grove Village, IL @ Elk Grove VFW
JUN 11 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
JUN 12 - Flint, MI @ Flint Local 432
JUN 16 - Montreal, QC, Canada @ Bar Hemisphere Gauche
JUN 17 - St Bruno, Quebec, Canada @ St Bruno Pub
JUN 18 - Nashua, NH @ Drifters
JUN 19 - Biddeford, ME @ Club Voltiguer
JUN 20 - Lewiston, ME @ Legends
JUN 21 - Allston, MA @ Great Scott w/ LOCK AND KEY
JUN 23 - Brooklyn, NY @ Asterisk Art Gallery
JUN 24 - Washington, DC @ Warehouse Next Door / Exotic Fever Fest
JUN 26 - Knoxville, TN @ Old City Java
JUN 27 - Birmingham, AL @ Disciple's Fellowship
JUN 29 - Benton, AR @ House Show
JUN 30 - Monroe, LA @ Olive Street Dance Hall
JUL 01 - Shreveport, LA @ Lil' Joe's Tavern
JUL 02 - Denton, TX @ Hailey's Club
JUL 05 - Tucson, AZ @ Skrappy's
JUL 06 - Havasu City, AZ @ Havasu Underground
JUL 07 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
JUL 09 - Pomona, CA @ The Tiki Room
JUL 10 - Silverlake, CA @ Zen Sushi
JUL 13 - San Luis Obispo, CA @ Boo Boo Records
JUL 15 - Petaluma, CA @ The Phoenix Theatre
JUL 17 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill

Carter Says: Close Gitmo!

Former President Carter has urged Bush to close Guantanamo Bay's detention facility for the worldwide shameful crime it is, in the NY Times today.
One scary sentence in this report is:
"In addition to closing Guantánamo Bay and two dozen other secret detention facilities, Mr. Carter said, the United States needs to make sure no detainees are held incommunicado and that they all be told the charges against them."

Think about that. Two dozen secret prisons we have never even heard of. Think of the things that went down in the prisons we know about. It makes you shudder. Come on America, get it together. Stop this abuse.

For Once, Please, Just Admit It

The NY Times has an article today, here, detailing how a White House lackey systematically altered reports on global warming, often after the reports had already been approved for publication. The thing (sorry, "humans" have souls) in question, Phil Cooney, was a former oil industry lobbyist and led the (unsuccessful) fight to have no limitations on green house gas emissions. So, did the White House say a "mea culpa" and admit that one of theirs had actually done something wrong/unethical/morally repugnant/intellectually indefensible/fiendishly craven and self-serving/criminally treacherous? No. Sorry. Not in this White House. They're the same people who feted Tom DeLay as he racked up more ethics violations and Federal investigations. They still support Trent Lott even after he was shown to be a closet racist. Sometimes it makes you sick, but sometimes it just makes you want to never have to hear anything more about our government ever again because they only let you down and break your heart.

GM To Slash 25,000 Jobs

Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, announced today that 25,000 jobs are going to be eliminated to "restore profitability." Read about it here. The problem with Wagoner, aside from the fact that he's a dissembling cunt, is that he, like corporate America, does not see the relationship between the nebulous term "workers" versus the reality of "people." For the suits, workers are expendable widgets that get in the way of yachts and Carribbean vacations. Those workers are America, and when they are unemployed they are not going to be buying much of anything. He talks about slashing jobs like it's trimming fat off a steak, instead of a very real indicator that his leadership has been an utter and total failure, that GM is heading and has been heading straight onto a reef for years, and now that the Good Ship GM has foundered and is split in half, the executives can only think of closing plants. A little searching finds this info on Wagoner:

Salary = $2,200,000 per year
Bonus = $2,460,000 per year
Short term comp = $157,000
Stock options = 2,738,878 for a value of $5,000
-----------------------------

Grand total = $4,817,020 This info on Wagoner is taken from Forbes, here.

So Wagoner can pocket nearly 5 million dollars a year for his "expert leadership" which has seen GM's share drop from 28% to 24%. How many $35,000 /year workers does his salary equal? Approximately 150. This is what's wrong with corporate America. In a word, EVERYTHING.

To what does this genius Wagoner attribute GM's moribund sales? To health care of its workers, of course. He says $1500 of every car's selling price is eaten up by health care costs. He also wants to increase profitability of the GM truck and SUV lines, with an Orwellian nod to the fact that rising gas prices are keeping buyers away from this guzzling monsters.

Here's a thought, Rick, and get a pen to write this down: GM is dying because of its reliance on trucks and SUVs that are incompatible with a diminishing world oil reserve owned by terrorist-loving dictatorships. Got it? It ain't health costs, you asshole. If you want GM to ever regain market share (it once had 50% of the US market) you will need to innovate. That means alternate fuel vehicles, vast improvements in fuel economy, and a conscious decision to turn away from the rock guitar bearded redneck enviro-destroying shitweasel your TV ads show as the GM kind of buyer. Stop pandering to the 14 year old boy mentality of doing donuts in a big truck in the dirt, and come up with realistic transpo for the 21 century.

Impeach Bush.

Those two ordinary words form a glorious sentence, but turning the "dream" into reality is another story. Despite ample evidence of impeachable offenses the movement to impeach Bush remains relatively small. In TomPaine today, Norman Solomon discusses the need to get serious about it. The pivotal evidence, as described by Democrat Conyers, is

"First, the memo appears to directly contradict the administration's assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq."

"Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."

But do not get your hopes up. War crimes have virtually no impact on the American consciousness. In 1974 when the Judiciary committee voted 27-11 to impeach Nixon, only 12 members included Nixon's illegal bombing of Cambodia and subsequent lying about it as a reason for impeachment. Likewise, Reagan's dirty wars in Central America resulted in one lone Texan, Henry Gonzalez, calling for Reagan and Bush to be impeached.

It is disgusting that Republicans would get in a holy rage over Clinton's affair, yet they remain silent when Bush's lies have gotten us into a war where 1700 US soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died. It goes to show you that the Republicans really did not care about the pecadilloes of Clinton, they wanted to crucify him at any cost and that was just a convenient method. The defense of Bush's war is usually stated along the lines of, "it is transforming the Middle East." If Nixon had been allowed to use nuclear bombs on Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos), that would have transformed the region as well. The point is that Bush did not offer that reason to the world, instead, he assured us Hussein had nuclear and chemical weapons that could be launched against Britain and Israel within 45 minutes.

Memorial Day

The Twin Towers Memorial site, Republican shamelessness/opportunism/hypocrisy, and the way Americans are turning their attention away from Iraq and Afghanistan, are all discussed with lacerating clarity by Frank Rich, in today's New York Times. For many, it's simply disgusting that Bush has the nerve to lay a wreath on the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, as if this display of false piety to the sacrifices our soldiers make for the blunders of politics, is enough balm for those families of the 1700 Americans who died in Iraq. And that does not mention the nearly 10,000 soldiers invalided out of the war with missing eyes and legs and arms or worse. And no one, certainly, seems to be giving a second thought to the 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians (as in, they weren't soldiers) who died as a result of our ham-handed tactics. Frank Rich, as usual, is scathing in his criticisms, withering in his attacks, and totally focused and on topic like a laser beam of truth.

From the article: Tom Ridge, now retired as homeland security czar, recently went on "The Daily Show" and joined in the yuks about the color-coded alerts. (He also told USA Today this month that orange alerts were sometimes ordered by the administration - as election year approached, anyway - on flimsy grounds and over his objections.) In February, the Office of Management and Budget found that "only four of the 33 homeland security programs it examined were 'effective,' " according to The Washington Post.

Warren Beatty Knocks Out Schwarzendufus

Warren Beatty's speech to the graduating class of UC Berkeley calls bullshit on Schwarzenegger's phony centrist Republicanism. Read the speech here, from TomPaine. Does it get on anyone else's nerves when a clown like Schwarzie dismisses comments from Beatty, an actor for 40 years and a political activist for nearly the same span, a personal friend of Jack Kennedy, with a supposedly "funny" quip like: "if he doesn't give me advice on politics I won't give him advice on acting." Well, Arnie, you are not qualified to give him advice on either. Arnie needs to go.

Iraq: More Dead
Put down your Bud Lights and Big Macs, turn off American Idol, stop waxing your SUV, and stop using Jesus as divisive tool for a few moments, and be reminded that many are still dying in Iraq. The latest, from AP: a car bomb outside a restaurant killed 7, wounded 82, a top security official was assassinated, 5 US soldiers were killed by an IED, 10 people killed and 30 wounded outside a Mosque in an explosion, in

"...part of an ongoing terror campaign that has killed more than 550 people in less than a month.

Since April 27, insurgents have targeted government and military officials in a campaign of assassinations and kidnappings. There have been at least 28 such incidents, including 18 assassinations, six attempted assassinations, three kidnappings and assassinations, and one kidnapping, according to an Associated Press count."

The Senate & The "Nuclear Option"

Today the Senate will embark on a marathon discussion of the practices surrounding confirmation of judicial nominees. Read about it here, from the Associated Press via MyWay News. As you have heard, the Republicans in the Senate are trying to change the rules so that a filibuster can not be used to block nominees from being voted on. The Senate, known as "the cooling saucer" where bipartisanship and comity across the aisles has long been the practice, has quickly become as rancorous and disputational as the House, now that over 50 former House members are in the Senate, bringing their brand of politics with them. The rights of the minority party are protected through the option of filibuster, whereby a vote is stalled until the issue or person is withdrawn. This served the Republicans well when they were the minority. Now that they are in the majority they claim to want "straight up or down votes," meaning, if the nominee gets to the Senate floor a strictly party-line vote will confirm these judges. Bill Frist, among others, has charged the Democrats of impeding the will of the people, although more judges have been confirmed under Bush so far than during Clinton's entire 8 years. Also, there has been a higher percentage of nominees confirmed than under Clinton. So when you hear a Republican foaming at the mouth over how "unfair" it all is, ask them if they would consider it a fair bargain if Democrats agreed to confirm as many as the Republicans did under Clinton. If they answer "yes," you can respond that to make things equal about 70 judges will have to be removed from their posts, to reduce the number and make it equal to the rough treatment Clinton's choices were given.

The really scary part of this is that the Republicans are changing the rules forever, as if they will never again find themselves in the minority. It gives credence to the observation that Republicans are no longer interested in hammering out agreements but rather are intent on crushing opposition. The flow of history is clearly against the Republicans and conservatism. The flow is the empowerment of minorities, equal rights applied across the entire spectrum, and the free exchange of ideas and beliefs. This is anathema to conservatives. In time, gay rights will be folded into the concept of human rights, women's rights will also be championed and seen as obvious as "giving" women the right to vote in 1920, drug laws will be rewritten, racism will decline, and the environment will no longer be seen as something to fear, rape, and exploit as it done now through Bush's Orwellian programs of "Healthy Forests" and "Clear Skies." History will bury them, and as is said in every revenge movie, payback is a bitch.

Genomics & Universal Health Coverage

Celebrated author of medically-themed novels, Robin Cook, writes a provocative opinion in the New York Times about the inevitability of universal health care. With the human genome being mapped in 1999, the miracle cures and treatments are in the offing. Because a person's gene markers can easily be decoded through a microarray, everyone will now have what was known as "a pre-existing condition." This negates the actuarial practice of managing risks in various population pools: we will all be risks. Therefore, only a government run, not for profit, universal health system is the solution, as concluded by Mr Cook. The interesting thing is that Cook himself says as a doctor, he has always been against health coverage except in cases of indigence or emergency care. He now has changed his mind. It is possible, friends, to convert stalwarts of the "America is business" mentality.

Charities & Organizations To Avoid

We advise you to avoid the following list of charities and organizations. Some have names that sound deceptively progressive, but reading the list you will discover their common background as tentacles from the same creature. We support religious freedoms here at the Missile Test Range, but we also support the free speech right to denounce various aspects of a "religion."

# Hollywood Education And Literacy Project (HELP)
# Kids On Stage For A Better World
# The Happiness Kids
# Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education
# Youth for Human Rights International
# the Committee To Defend The First Amendment
# the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation
# the Citizens Commission On Human Rights
# Narconon
# the Committee On Public Health And Safety
# the Task Force On Mental Retardation
# the Gerus Society
# the Dianetic Information Group
# the Committee To Re-involve Ex-offenders
# the National Commission for Law Enforcement And Social Justice
# the Foundation For The Communication of Culture International
# Doctors For Religious Liberty
# Vanguard, April, (a pseudo anti cult organization)
# Alliance To Protect Religious Liberty
# Committee For A Safe Environment
# American Citizens For Honesty in Government
# the Way to Happiness Foundation
# the Whistle Blowers
# Health Med
# Criminon
# Applied Scholastics
# Concerned Businessman's Association of America
# Sterling Management

In addition, visit this link to see a list of schools that preach this similar concept and should be avoided: http://members.chello.nl/mgormez/childabuse/schools.html#can .

Anti-Gravity, Bob Lazar & Galileo

If you believe some fringe reports, infamous UFO figure Bob Lazar might have just had his stories about S4 bolstered. Scientists claim they have created an anti-gravity machine, similar to the one Lazar claims he used during his tenure at the Area 51 research facility known as S4, where he reverse-engineered flying saucers for the government's Galileo program. Read about the new anti-gravity machine here, from Unexplained Mysteries. The original report is here, in the Guardian UK. And click here to read a more detailed comparison of Lazar's project and the new machine, with an archival interview with Lazar himself, from Virtually Strange.

Have Some Deformed Salmon
Remember that 3 eyed fish on The Simpsons? Well salmon raised in factory farms in Norway are now deformed at a rate between 1 and 5 per cent. Some farms report up to 25% of the fish are deformed, while others balance the rate out to a lower figure. Read about it here, from Reuters. Two great facts I'd like to share from this piece:

Deformed fish can be sold for human consumption, for instance as fillets or in pate.

and

Separately, some U.S. research has suggested that eating farm-raised salmon poses greater health risks from dioxins, known to cause cancer.

English Premier League
Although there is still one match to be played for each time, this year's title race has already been decided. The south west London club Chelsea have gained top spot this year for the first time in 50 years. 2nd spot is firmly in the grip of north London's Arsenal, and 3rd is in the hands of Manchester United. Today Chelsea visited Man Utd to play a mostly ceremonial match that had only bragging rights at stake. The result? 3-1 to Chelsea and a clear signal that Man Utd are no longer to be feared. There still remains the FA Cup final on May 21 between Arsenal and Man Utd, which should produce sparks, knowing the intense rivalry that exists between the sides. My friend Chris backs Arsenal and although they're ahead of my Man Utd, I think we're going to beat Arsenal for the 4th time this year and hoist the FA Cup!

Social Security Flash Animation
This amazing 30 second flash animation explodes the Bush fools' case that their plan will help or save Social Security. Check out the animation and pass it on. Brought to you through a MoveOn.org campaign.

The Raveonettes at Spaceland
The Danish fuzz-fi rockers The Raveonettes are playing three shows at Silverlake's Spaceland club. Get tickets through TicketWeb. For the show with Amusement Parks On Fire, go here. For the show with She Wants Revenge, go here. The Gram Rabbit show is sold out.

Daniel Gross Shows Our Economy Is In Huge Trouble
Forget the GOP spin, this economy is poised on a knife's edge. Our massive deficit spending and our increasing thrall to China's currency buying has opened the USA to vulnerabilities that could be every bit as calamitous as a war, without a shot being fired. Read it here from the NY Times.

Joe Conason on the GOP Takeover of Public Broadcasting
In this scary article, Conason details the appointment to oversea the CPB of several GOP cronies, proteges of Karl Rove, and former party bosses. That is how Bush expects "balanced" broadcasting. Read it here, New York Observer.

Alkaline Trio

Tour dates have been announced.

June 16 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Quest
June 17 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
June 18 - Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater
June 19 - Detroit, MI @ Clutch Cargos
June 20 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
June 21 - Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
June 23 - Boston, MA @ Avalon
June 24 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
June 25 - Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
June 26 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
June 27 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
June 29 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
June 30 - Norfolk, VA @ NorVa
July 1 - Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall

Thomas Paine On Religion

James Wolcott has a good quote from Thomas Paine in his Sermonette today, read it here. Here is a snippet for you:

"All national institutions of churches... appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

Religion And Those Who Practice It

A confluence of recent headlines has pushed religion to the forefront of politics yet again. The passing of Pope John Paul II has caused millions to collectively bow their heads, and, it can be hoped, engage in a few minutes of introspection and prayer. Any time people have their heads bowed and are praying is good because they at least won't be out in the streets running checkpoints in vehicles weighed down with explosives, or getting on buses with dynamite under their robes, or taking shots at security guards and receptionists at women's health centers, or attempting to storm into hospices to thwart the wishes of a very gravely injured woman and her husband. Religion is best when practiced quietly.

For the reported "1 billion" people who look to the Pope for guidance (according to a news story I heard last night), the death of God's emissary on earth must be a trying and unsettling time. I'm no Catholic, nor fan of organized religion, and so by extension I view the entire Catholic apparatus as a curiousity held over from the Dark Ages (note: not Middle Ages, I mean dark ages). While it is no doubt true that certain monks in the 10th through 14th centuries (nontably in Ireland) saved a large part of philosophical thought by hoarding books then being burned like logpiles on the Continent, in the modern world the need for such a monolithic entity escapes me. In addition to saving the works of Aristotle, Petrarch, Thucydides and others, the Catholic church also gave us 300 years of absolute terror and retrogression of the advancement of mankind with their Spanish Inquisition. It is hard to imagine now how a church could have so much power that anyone outside of it could be deprived of not only their property but also their lives. The Church even anointed rulers, holding commoner and king in its "tender" grip.

Current events in the Terri Schiavo circus would have one thinking that a certain white, Protestant swath of America wants us to return to the fond embrace of a church that dictates all manner of life. Tom DeLay recently threatened that Congress is "contemplating impeaching" the judges involved with keeping Jeb Bush from declaring himself Terri Schiavo's guardian, among other atrocities. These same folks want what they call "prayer in schools," which is a slightly disingenuous way of saying they want Jesus prayed to at recess. They cover this up by saying the child will be free to "worship" whomever they choose. But we all don't worship in the same way, do we? There is no such thing as a non-denominational group lead prayer. Forget about Muslims and Jews and Buddhists for a moment, and consider Mormons, Scientologists, Zoroastrians, and Raelians (to prove a point). What do they propose, a rotating day by day switch in which type of worship? Okay, kids, it's Mormon Monday so we're all going to put on our sacred underwear and pray to the Angel Moroni. (Or something, not being a Mormon, I'm using broad strokes.) The point is, these same WWJD people would be outraged. Imagine if we gave equal treatment to all religions at elementary schools. I personally would love the week where we psychically contact our space alien brothers, a la French racecar driver Claude Vorhillon (aka "Rael").

For President Bush to issue such a dimbulb statement as, "we should always seek to err on the side of life" is an insult to any thinking American, religious or not. If there was a concerted effort to prevent the real issue here, abortion, the church groups would embrace birth control. The easiest, surest, simplest way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies. There is a ridiculous program in many churches that lines up their vestal virgins and has them take a pledge to remain chaste and pure until marriage, often culminating in a promise ring type of ceremony. Of course, studies have revealed that the girls who do take these promises are 6 times more likely to give blow jobs and 4 times more likely to have anal sex than their classmates who do not take the pledge. That is one of those facts that the religious politicos find so discomforting, and so they choose to ignore it.

The other event that has religion on many radars is the release of the new album by Beck. Beck is a Scientologist. Apparently this is not a religion that one can be a total slacker in, which could be considered a saving grace of Protestant and Catholic churches. I don't know much about Scientology but it, like all other organized efforts at indoctrination and dogmatic thought, I don't particularly like. I've heard it said that Scientology is not even a religion per se, it's a philosophical technique. And this from a friend of mine, Megan, who is a Scientologist. I don't think Beck has any sort of Scientological messages in his music and he's a musician I greatly admire, but the fact that he's so popular will inevitably draw his fans to the "church" of Scientology (again, another disingenous bit of semantics.) But in America, is not that his right? To attack Beck on his religious beliefs, no matter what we think of them, is no better than attacking him on his selection of a mate. Which many people find no problem doing, always sticking their noses in other people's bedrooms when there are "mixed" couples, be it color, gender, religious preference, whatever. If Beck actually sang any songs about L. Ron Hubbard, then perhaps a warning bulletin might be in order. But how many people get their panties in a twist when Bono says something about Catholicism? At least the Scientologists didn't terrorize free thought for centuries and burn dissenters at the stake.

So which is worse? Bono the devout Catholic must therefore support the fondling of little boys by priests, must tacitly agree to the draconian tactics of the Inquisition, must really believe that you can be "voted" into being a holy being incapable of doing wrong, must accept all the dogma about saints and purgatory and communion and transubstantiation, etcetera ad infinitum. Who is attacking Bono? Or Ben Stiller must really believe that only his fellow Jews are chosen by God, everyone else is "goyim" which means, "cattle." Get those placards ready! So maybe Beck and Travolta and Anne Archer and Kirstie Alley believe in a space being named Xenu and that all illnesses can be prevented with mental concentration - the point is, all of it sounds ridiculous. But this is America and we have to let people believe whatever they want to believe. When the Tom DeLays and Bill Frists and Jeb Bushes get together and try to muscle their form of religion into our private lives, every single American, of any religious faith or creed, even Atheists, should be outraged. It's a fundamental principle of this nation that the government does not have the right to dictate religion.

There has been lame efforts to ally the Founding Fathers with some sort of Christian Identity movement, claiming them as forefathers to a theory that white, gun-loving Protestants seem to favor. The argument is that the Founding Fathers came over to practice a form of Christianity that is exclusive, evangelical, and more and more intolerant. These arguments are great for anyone who has no knowledge of history and who has no interest in learning any. The Puritans, who are being lauded as a righteous group who lead us from darkness, were in fact more in line with what we'd consider a David Koresh type of cult. They believed, along with Barkers and Levellers, that the world was coming to an end in 1666 and that they alone would be saved. The Puritans were an incredibly backwards sect, mocked and ridiculed by not only the English but also the French and Dutch. They're like a group that doesn't believe in electricity. Any person who tries to wed the Puritans to the Founding Fathers, is guilty of a heinous crime against logic, reason, history and the truth. The Puritan way may have been preferrable to being Catholic, or to belonging to the Church of England (and it's influence) but the Founding Fathers were desperately trying to establish an almost secular form of Christianity, one that would allow them to be slackers if they wanted and that would be forever protected from small-minded efforts to impose consensus through governmental apparati.

Yes, the Constitution can be amended, and yes, it is a "living" document that has been bent and shaped to follow the thinking of the times, with many obvious improvements like outlawing slavery and extending the right to vote to women, among other actions. The Founding Fathers wanted this to be the case but were under no illusion that every effort to amend the Constitution would be a greater good. In essence, they enabled us to play out as much rope as we like, and we are free to collectively hang ourselves, if that is our desire. Many GOP-ers seem to think that because it is possible, it proves it is right. They want their beliefs cast in iron, whether it is mandating prayer in schools, or forcing the 10 Commandments to be displayed in court rooms, or outlawing medical practices because they don't like them, and more. Imagine if instead of DeLay and Frist, if some Christian Scientists were at the helm of this SS Crazy Ship. They would seek to outlaw all medical intervention, and we'd be left with buildings specialising in laying of hands, not medicine. Imagine having your case decided in a court, where you are fighting for your life, and as you walk in the front doors there is a giant marble depiction of Mohammed dictating the Koran to the masses, and you yourself are "guilty" of something that is forbidden in the Koran, yet you are a Christian. Would you feel you were going to get a fair trial, and more importantly, would it even be possible to get a fair trial under those circumstances? These same politicians are moved by a religious zeal that clouds their minds to the possibility of a world they have made but dominated by a religious faction they disagree with. That is why we need walls keeping church and state forever separate.

Countries that live under religious law, which is termed Sharia in Islam, are places like Iran, Yemen, and other countries which we are busy invading and bombing. So which is it? Do we want freedom or religious law? The fact that the Bush people are the same ones pushing their rabid Christianity at home and denying people in other countries their right to live under a Spanish Inquisition type of government, is rich with comedic inconsistencies. It would be funny, but we are living under a government that has repeatedly sought to extend their influence into religion, one of the most personal areas, and they want you to believe what they believe. That is un-American, and everyone should vigorously oppose such efforts, especially conservative Christians because you have the most to lose.

Do Not Call Registry

If you want to stop telemarketers from calling you at all hours, it is really easy to get on the National Do Not Call Directory by visiting this link, https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx . You can enter 3 phone numbers, and there is an easy Complaint section to use to report those motherfuckers when they do call.

Schiavo, The Political Football

As Jon Stewart so adroitly pointed out last night, nothing has previously been able to disturb Bush from his sacrosanct vacations: not the "blinking red" warnings that Al Quaeda was planning to hijack airplanes back in summer of 2001, not the colossal death dealt out by the recent tsunami, nothing. But hold the phone! Bush suddenly cut short his vacation to rush to Washington to sign a bill ordering Terry Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. Why? ABC News reported on a memo that Republican strategists had been passing around saying this was an easy way to excite the GOP base, to exploit the Schiavo tragedy for political gain. Shame on the Republicans, and shame on their nominal leader, Bush.

What Gun Problem?

Splashed across the newspapers this morning is the story of a high school nutjob killing his grandparents and then 6 students and a teacher at his school in Minnesota. Read it here, BBC News. Where's Marilyn Manson? Surely we're going to pin this one on him too, and not do any soul-searching concerning our obsession with guns and violence. True, this kid's grandfather was a cop (and that's likely where he obtained both weapons) but that does not explain the gleeful choice to being slaying classmates. America, we have a problem.

Shame Of The Nation

For those who have not been following the news lately, it's been a truly disgraceful few weeks. No, not talking about the celebrity trials (Peterson, Blake, Jackson) nor the phony hearings on steroid use in baseball. I would bet, however, that most Americans could tell you something about those news stories without being able to tell you what has been going on in our Congress and Senate. Last week the House voted to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. One reason the Republicans were so ready to do this is because Democrats set aside this land intentionally to protect. The oil reserves in the ANWR will take 10 years to get to market if we started fully exploiting them today, and will provide a whopping 4 months supply of oil. That's it. So how does this square with "protecting our vital interests?" It does not. The point is, the Republicans have chosen to dismantle everything sacred to liberal America just because they can.

The budget that was just passed in the Senate would have contained enormous cuts in funding to environmental cleanup programs, education, and farm subsidies. Environmental cleanup is another way to say "getting rid of toxins that will kill you and/or give you cancer." Industry has polluted the earth, the air and the water, and cancer is at a record high. By allocating money to detoxify the earth it is a tacit admission that the problem exists, which the polluters refuse to allow. Pollution causes health issues that kill more people every year than handguns do. More people die from cancer in America every year than in all our wars combined. The education cuts come mainly in the form of gutting financial aid. This also seems inherently evil. People who cannot afford education are going to be cut off, meaning they will not complete their degrees, will not earn higher wages, and will not become more productive in society. This is forcing them back into poverty, ignorance, and their corollary: crime.

Despite running up the hugest deficit in history, current Republicans are crying for more "tax cuts." They want to dismantle all "entitlements" because to them that word is a dirty word meaning their hard-earned dollars are being given to freeloaders. In reality, the "entitlement" of Medicaid keeps state medical costs down because if people have access to medicine they will be healthier and frequent emergency rooms less often. Medicine should not be an exclusive right of the well-to-do. It's a human right. Republicans seek to punish those who disagree with them not by debating them in open discussion in Congress, but by punishing their children. Removing all help for children of the economically depressed (who are more likely to be Democrat) just exacerbates the cycle of ill health, poverty, poor education, unemployment, crime, and inner city deterioration that we have seen happen from the 60s onwards.

As Americans we need to see beyond our fences. The street you live on, the neighborhood, the city, the county - we are all connected. If you have a problem with your taxes building a new roof on a school in Compton, consider this: if those children of gang members stay in school and learn something, they might go on to college and decide not to carjack you or mug you at the ATM. They will get better jobs and have more money to spend to lift the economy. They will want to improve the ghetto or leave it all together. This is in your blatant self-interest. But if you want a higher mandate, consider that no religion on earth promotes accumulation of wealth and material things. All religions preach helping the less fortunate, and in American, that means Jesus is telling all of you rich Republicans that you, in fact, do not know Him. What would Jesus do? He probably would start by destroying the sanctimonious snakes who rob and exploit and pollute in His name. Jesus would likely have a thing to say to those who heedlessly allow animals to extinct in the name of cheaper prices at the gas station. For anyone who claims Christianity but is a Republican, ask them if they've read the Bible lately. Jesus and his followers advocated poverty (abandoning worldly items), communitarianism (sharing things equally), vegetarianism (the Essenes of Qumran were all vegetarians), and a merciful kindness to the downtrodden. Christians today are fixated on abortion but won't allow contraceptives or sex education to be used to stop unwanted pregnancies. How does that work? They also blocked the RU486 pill which floods a dose of estrogen through a woman so that any eggs which might be in transit will not fertilize. If they are so concerned about abortion, stopping pregnancies would go a long way to stopping abortion. But, not to put too fine a point on it: anyone who claims to be Christian in government is a liar.

There was also news today of Afghanis longing for the Taleban to return. The US installed whichever local warlord was most powerful as the local ruler. This is not democracy. We don't want the Afghanis to become self-sufficient, we want them to remain dependant upon American aid. We don't want other nations like France and Germany that can veto our ideas, we want compliant bitches. If Afghanistan becomes a democracy, we can forget about them voting to be in our camp. The war in Iraq is still raging at 1 billion dollars per week. What would our country look like now if we had suddenly, as a people, decided to attack our shortcomings, our inequalities, our injustices with 1 billion dollars per week for the last 2 years? Problem with that is the "wrong" people would get the money. This way, all of the Republican donors are lining their pockets. The USA's largest export is weapons. We sell death. This goes back to George Orwell, who in his seemingly non-fiction work "1984" foretold a society that used all of the surplus labor of it's people to make armaments. This way, the people are put on a heavier yoke, they work more, and they see less of the fruits. All of their labor goes to things that will be blown up or destroyed. They are asked to give up more and more as the economy shifts to a permanent war-based system. This is what we have now, citizens. Twenty years late, but it finally arrived.