thanks for what???

In a Paul Craig Roberts essay published today, i find myself and my thoughts being echoed. There will not be anything to be thankful for until we are done with Bushco. And we cannot be done with Bushco until they are all, every single one of them (legislators, political appointees, hired staffers, justices, all of them) out of government service and their leadership in prisons around the world. If, as a nation, we are unable to do this, accepting the trite and petty bullshit that bygones shall be bygones, and that can go into the past, well then we won't be done with them. They will still be in power, manipulating and controlling the future of the country and the planet. PCR writes:

George Orwell warned us, but what American would have expected that in the opening years of the 21st century the United States would become a country in which lies and deception by the President and Vice President were the basis for a foreign policy of war and aggression, and in which indefinite detention without charges, torture, and spying on citizens without warrants have displaced the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution?

If anyone had predicted that the election of George W. Bush to the presidency would result in an American police state and illegal wars of aggression, he would have been dismissed as a lunatic.

What American ever would have thought that any US president and attorney general would defend torture or that a Republican Congress would pass a bill legalizing torture by the executive branch and exempting the executive branch from the Geneva Conventions?

What American ever would have expected the US Congress to accept the president's claim that he is above the law?

What American could have imagined that if such crimes and travesties occurred, nothing would be done about them and that the media and opposition party would be largely silent?

Except for a few columnists, who are denounced by "conservatives" as traitors for defending the Bill of Rights, the defense of US civil liberty has been limited to the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. The few federal judges who have refused to genuflect before the Bush police state are denounced by attorney general Alberto Gonzales as a "grave threat" to US security. Vice president Richard Cheney called a federal judge's ruling against the Bush regime's illegal and unconstitutional warrantless surveillance program "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching."

But, alas, "law and order conservatives" have been brainwashed for decades that civil liberties are unnecessary interferences with the ability of police to protect us from criminals. Americans have forgot that we need protection from government more than we need protection from criminals. Once we cut down civil liberty so that police may better pursue criminals and terrorists, where do we stand when government turns on us?

Americans should be roused to fury that attorney general Alberto Gonzales and vice president Cheney have condemned the defense of American civil liberty as "a grave threat to US security." This blatant use of an orchestrated and propagandistic fear to create a "national security" wedge against the Bill of Rights is an impeachable offense.

Mark my words, the future of civil liberty in the US depends on the impeachment and conviction of Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales.

We must stand together and renounce this national nightmare. We must undo the more than one thousand edicts and orders that are destroying the environment of the planet and space. We must retake our own institutions, especially schools and other public commons, freeing ourselves of the fascism that has become endemic to the core beliefs of most citizens. Too many of you are accepting too much, stop it!

what threats?? ooohhh i get it.

The top U.S. general in the Middle East, Army Gen. John Abizaid, said on Friday that if the world fails to stop the escalation of military crisis in Middle East, it will face a third world war. Among the major problems tearing up the Middle East region Abizaid named Arab-Israeli tensions, militant extremism, and Iran's nuclear program. However, dealing with Iraq is number one priority, according to Abizaid, who thinks that al Qaeda ideology is dangerously similar to fascist ideology in 1930s that led to World War II.

"If we don't have guts enough to confront this ideology today, we'll go through World War Three tomorrow," Abizaid said speaking at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge. "The sacrifice that is necessary to stabilize Iraq, in my view, must be sustained in order for the region itself to become more resilient." Abizaid earlier in the week warned U.S. Congress against setting up a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. Abizaid's comments came only a week after President George W. Bush's Republicans lost the congressional elections largely because of growing angst in the American society over the 4-year-long Iraq war.

Shall we read between the lines then?? Okay. What we got here is the military version of three card monte. First the shark shows you the threat, in this case al Qaeda terrorism. Then he hides Iraq under the threat as Iraq is a breeding ground for al Qaeda. Then Iraq gets covers the Middle East in general, and finally all of that covers the planet and there we have it. What?? You don't get it?? Then you weren't following the threat, but rather the facts, and we all know that facts ruin a perfectly good attempt at propaganda.

You see, the US invaded Iraq to control the water and oil resources (Israel needs the water, and the US needs the oil to be sold in US dollars). Then the US claims that Iraq is liberated, but secretly supports the insurgency through fundings contracts without controls. The insurgency then becomes a breeding ground for terrorists, and that allows the US to claim that we must continue this war in perpetuity. Iraq is Iran (since Iran is a threat to Israel and to the US dollar) and therefore we need to attack Iraq/Iran to stop it/them from becoming powerful. Because if we allow them (you know, we have all this power to let them do whatever we want see) to get stronger and have more weapons and non-US dollars, they will fund more terrorists. And then we need to expand the war on many horizons, since other countries (like Venzuela, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Sudan) won't sell us our oil cheap. That way the world is at war. But it will always be there fault, for not just bending over and being screwed like the citizens of the US have been doing so wonderfully up until a couple of weeks ago. Which means that a world war is necessary to get the US population to lay back down on their stomachs and let the military/security/police corporate fascist state screw them where they lie.

Because, we have so much power, we get to change the name of things, and therefore those that oppose our institution of a US global fascist imperial regime must be the real fascists (this of course assumes that the word no longer means anything other than a dysphemic label). The only real fascists must call those that oppose them fascists in order to foment the spread of war further and farther than before.

the election sheen is scratched and dirty

Now that the politicians have settled back into their regular activities, the stain of fascism is still showing through in this country. The behavior of the White House and the GOP particularly do not bode well for the planet and the future. I was thinking about how a core cabal of national leaders, agreeing to set in motion fixed plans to facilitate the creation of a US militarized security state, that uses nuclear weapons to dominate the rest of the world and its resources, is not something outside of possibility. It is likely, given the election results, the resistance of the media to accept and project a view that people might not think as they do, and the ongoing behavior of the leaders, we are well on the way to not having a 2008 election at all. And unfortunately, as the ravages of global climate change and its accompanying diseases and other natural catastrophic problems fall upon the citizens, most of them will happily allow their government to keep them living in the best possible status quo. Talking with seemingly reasonable people locally reveals that they are in fact quite accepting of doing whatever it takes to control the planet's resources just for the citizens of the US. That ain't cool, and can only represent the ongoing thinking among the rich and powerful that they have an open season on the Constitution, the nations of the world, the expansion of a US gulag, and the repression of dissent.

I can't see how people here will avoid the same human thought processes that have led whole nations to blindly follow Alexander, Moghul Shah, Genghis Kahn, Saladin, Julius and Augustus Caesar's, Holy Roman Emperors, Napolean, Victoria, Kaiser Bismark, Mussolini, Hitler, et all throughout human history. Why shouldn't we imagine that Cheney and his fellow clan of elitist Straussian/Randian objectivist libertarians see the entire planet at their beck and call. There are numerous philosophical rationales for such behavior. And from what i can see, there isn't much in the way to stop them at this point.

wtf happened???

There was this election the other day, and a few things changed. But why do i keep thinking that things didn't really change at all??? Well it could be the fight over who is Chairperson of the House Intelligence Committee. Harmon, one of the more corrupt and centrist DLC Dems wants the job, so she can continue to cover up the malfeasance of her corporate contributors. And Doc Hastings wants the job, so he can help his previously corrupt contributors continue to bribe him some more. If these are the two choices, we haven't moved at all towards a better country. Promise goes up in flames of stupid again.

I think we all need a Dylan refresher course

They're selling postcards of the hanging -/- Saddam
They're painting the passports brown -/- Detain citizens as enemy combatants
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors -/-
Fashion is more important than global climate change
The circus is in town -/- General Election of 2006
Here comes the blind commissioner -/-
Can you say inspector generals relieved of duties
They've got him in a trance -/-
Listen to Kerry's joke, pay no attention to the GOP House members
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker -/- Congressmen Sweeney and Hastert
The other is in his pants -/- Foley and Haggard
And the riot squad they're restless -/-
Call out the private security forces to protect the hacking of machines
They need somewhere to go -/- Out of Iraq and Afghanistan?
As Lady and I look out tonight -/- Liberty and Justice
From Desolation Row -/- the USA

Cinderella, she seems so easy -/- Angelina Jolie
"It takes one to know one," she smiles -/- Nicole Kidman
And puts her hands in her back pockets -/- Jennifer Aniston
Bette Davis style -/- Renee Zellwegger
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning -/- Brad Pitt
"You Belong to Me I Believe" -/- Tom Cruise
And someone says," You're in the wrong place, my friend
You had better leave" -/- George Clooney
And the only sound that's left -/- Hear those cameras click
After the ambulances go -/- Keith Urban
Is Cinderella sweeping up -/- Angelina in the third world
On Desolation Row -/- the USA

Now the moon is almost hidden -/- Hope for a better planet
The stars are beginning to hide -/- Global climate change killing species
The fortunetelling lady -/- Gaia's corporate-government enemies
Has even taken all her things inside -/- Document shredding begins in DC
All except for Cain and Abel -/- Dick in Bush
And the hunchback of Notre Dame -/- Roman Catholic pedophelia
Everybody is making love -/-
Conservative Christian anti-homosexual but still gay leadership
Or else expecting rain -/- ACLU
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing -/-
Entertainment infotainment celebrity attention span diversions
He's getting ready for the show -/- Follow the bouncing celebrity tits and ass
He's going to the carnival tonight -/- Main Streaming media
On Desolation Row -/- the USA

Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window -/- Marisa Hargitay
For her I feel so afraid -/- Nicole Ritchie
On her twenty-second birthday -/- Lindsey Lohan
She already is an old maid -/- Paris Hilton
To her, death is quite romantic -/- Winona Ryder
She wears an iron vest -/- Gweneth Paltrow
Her profession's her religion -/- Madonna
Her sin is her lifelessness -/- Micha Barton
And though her eyes are fixed upon -/- Scarlet Johansson
Noah's great rainbow -/- the Kate/Cate/Kathryn/Kirsten
She spends her time peeking -/- Reese Witherspoon
Into Desolation Row -/- the USA

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood -/- Affleck and Damon
With his memories in a trunk -/- Another set of films
Passed this way an hour ago -/- Trying to open a dialog
With his friend, a jealous monk -/- Ferrell or Willis or Kutcher
He looked so immaculately frightful -/- Schwarzenegger
As he bummed a cigarette -/- Martin Sheen
Then he went off sniffing drainpipes -/- Sean Penn
And reciting the alphabet -/- Denzell and Samuel L
Now you would not think to look at him -/- Fishburne or Whittaker
But he was famous long ago -/- Hoffman and Newman
For playing the electric violin -/- Stephan G et Jean Luc P
On Desolation Row -/- the USA

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world -/- Cheney
Inside of a leather cup -/- Hadley and Addington
But all his sexless patients -/- Hastert and Frist
They're trying to blow it up -/- Foley is Haggard
Now his nurse, some local loser -/- Rove
She's in charge of the cyanide hole -/- Card
And she also keeps the cards that read -/- Dobson & Falwell
"Have Mercy on His Soul" -/- W or DeLay?
They all play on penny whistles -/- Boehner and the boys
You can hear them blow -/- Rumsfeld
If you lean your head out far enough -/- Capitol nor Pentagon
From Desolation Row -/- the USA

Across the street they've nailed the curtains -/- NASA, EPA, FDA
They're getting ready for the feast -/- corporate dinner donor lists
The Phantom of the Opera -/- DeLay of the K Street
A perfect image of a priest -/- Norquist
They're spoonfeeding Casanova -/- the citizens of the USA
To get him to feel more assured -/- celebrity news and the new TV season
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence -/- ignore all science for political pursuits
After poisoning him with words -/- what won't kill you won't hurt you too much
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls -/- food industry's GMO and other increased fats
"Get Outa Here If You Don't Know -/- choking on global climate change
Casanova is just being punished for going -/- you people are all on your own
To Desolation Row" -/- the USA

Now at midnight all the agents -/-
DHS, FBI, DOJ, NSA, CIA, DOD, NCIS, ACID
And the superhuman crew -/-
all local militarized law enforcement
Come out and round up everyone -/-
the Constitution is in shreds
That knows more than they do -/-
pretty much most of the Earth's human population
Then they bring them to the factory -/-
the heart of the matrix of TV, iPod, Internets, media mind control central
Where the heart-attack machine -/-
overeating, over indulgence, over stimulation, over stress
Is strapped across their shoulders -/-
wage slavery fails to keep up with standard of survivable living
And then the kerosene -/-
disparity of the rich becoming ever richer and healthier
Is brought down from the castles -/-
increasing world poverty, more diseases, more catastrophes
By insurance men who go -/-
globalization of remaining capital assets
Check to see that nobody is escaping -/-
militarizing all foreign policy, a nuclear weapon is necessary
To Desolation Row -/- the USA

Praise be to Nero's Neptune -/- Rumsfeld
The Titanic sails at dawn -/- FoxNews
And everybody's shouting -/- Hannity, O'Reilly, Limbaugh
"Which Side Are You On?" you are all terrorists
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot -/- Berube and Brayton
Fighting in the captain's tower -/- blogsphere expanding trope
While calypso singers laugh at them -/- 50¢, Eminem, JayZ, Snoopp
And fishermen hold flowers -/- commentors and posts on threads
Between the windows of the sea -/-
NYRB or Newsweek; Moyers or Blitzer; Olberman or Gibson
Where lovely mermaids flow -/- Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue
And nobody has to think too much -/- hours of celebrity infotainment
About Desolation Row -/- the USA

Yes, I received your letter yesterday -/- the ballot came in my mail
(About the time the door knob broke) -/- it could easily not be counted
When you asked how I was doing -/- i vote the bottom up anyway
Was that some kind of joke? -/- submit it to be counted
All these people that you mention -/-
the candidates, their supporters, and the corporations who run the machine
Yes, I know them, they're quite lame -/-
they are mostly scum who are zealously selfish about their own interests
I had to rearrange their faces -/-
evolution provided wonderful alkaloids for this purpose
And give them all another name -/-
changing the labels on the same old bottles of wine
Right now I can't read too good -/-
damn those alkaloids, all i see are geometric pattern fluctuations
Don't send me no more letters no -/- the voting processes are void of verifiability
Not unless you mail them -/- with NCR paper trail record keeping
From Desolation Row -/- the USA

either they are insane

or they really believe that lying to you is necessary? Of course that syllogistic interrogative may not be and either/or proposition, rather just a cause/effect one. All i can discern is that the leadership of the GOP is spewing some of the most disingenuous and vile propaganda ever. The lies and deceits are becoming legendary going into the final days of the campaign. Here are just a few, culled from the headlines.

A male prostitute alleges that he had a three-year relationship with prominent right-wing evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who has said that homosexuality is a sin; every Monday, Haggard participates in a conference call with members of the Bush administration. He has stated, “I’m a right-wing religious conservative..."

Representative and GOP House Majority Leader Boehner says:
"Let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld… the generals on the ground are in charge."
"to beat John Kerry to death if he doesn’t apologize for his comments on Iraq"
"There are a lot of people who want to blame what’s happening in Iraq on Donald Rumsfeld. But when you look at the transformation that our military has been through, it’s nothing short of remarkable. And I think there’s only person in America who could have brought about that transformation and that’s Donald Rumsfeld"

Bush says:
“I really don’t think it’s fitting for the president to drag the presidency into that kind of a mudslinging.”(is this not a classic Nixon redux?)
"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses"
"I’ve never really resorted to name-calling. And I’m not trying to say, well, you know, I’m innocent and everybody else is guilty. That’s not what I’m trying to say."

“President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most-criticized members of his team.”

Inspectors general from NASA and the Commerce Department will investigate if Bush’s “political appointees have prevented climate researchers at from conveying their findings to the public.