Response to Rick Horowitz in Wisc State Journal

Yes, Rick, you're right about one thing: Obama did indeed wage a campaign that included in its platform a promise to significantly escalate the war in Afghanistan. But you go too far in implying "we" were all clamoring for more intervention in that tormented, much-destroyed country. I, for one, was not. True, armchair imperialists and reflexively militaristic personalities behave as if they have the right, nay the "duty" to intervene militarily in the affairs of other countries. They do so with or without cause, and whether or not they possess the constitutionally required declaration of war. Obviously, in the case of our current wars of aggression, they do not have such a mandate. They have lacked it since World War Two ended in 1945.

BTW, according to the official story released by the members of the 911 Commission, the group that crashed planes into the WTC and Pentagon included 15 Saudi citizens. Should we have therefore bombed Riyadh in retaliation, Rick? I guess not, since they have "our" oil under that faraway sand, right?

And the sad fact remains, Barack Obama plans to send 30,000 more Americans, 30,000 more sacrificial soldiers, to Afghanistan. Don't say I failed to warn him, Congress, and the American people. This is a fiasco of historic dimensions! Going along with General McChrystal and his "strategic" plan is a recipe for disaster. McChrystal is a General annoyance and a fool who is doing a major dis-service to the United States. I guess the new Commander-in-Chief feels he has to act like one "ought to act." Whatever the Joint Chiefs of Staff want, they always get, right? Does it always have to be so? Of course not, if "we" try a different approach, one that isn't creating more enemies than "we" can kill. How about some humanitarian aid? Oh, that's right, such an idea is now unthinkable, given our current economic predicament. Yet we can waste another $30 billion at a crack trying to "pacify" a country populated by people who cannot stand us. "We" are illegal invaders and occupiers, after all.

Escalating this quagmire now is an affront to the entire global community. The unmanned aerial drone attacks are a reckless, cowardly way of waging a "war on the cheap." And as far as "our" troop commitments, the New York Times reported in November that it now costs $1,000,000 annually to put one US soldier on the ground over there. Would you care to pay that cost yourself, Rick? Such generosity on your part would spare the rest of us, or at least those of us opposed to America's permanent war economy, a big expense!

USS New York

Today's blip has to be about the USS New York, whose bow was forged utilizing 7.5 tons of steel from the 9/11 rubble. I have to admit even I can't assimilate all the psycho-social implications. Have we become a nation of morbid obsessives, preoccupied with the symbolism of death and destruction? Well, duh. Furthermore, Afghanistan is landlocked. So just how useful is this new, and indeed very ugly, warship going to be as a weapon during the probable, impending escalation over there? Oh, that's right, the so-called "War on Terror" (an oxymoron if ever I heard one!) is endless AND boundless. The USS NEW YORK will come in very handy any time or any place there are "bad guys" lurking out there in the world. Un-Americans who don't venerate our alleged way of life. Jeez, couldn't we do better in the world and at home than always building yet ANOTHER warship!?!

Fraudulent Afghan election, courtesy of Wash. D.C.

President Karzai didn't win the election in Afghanistan. There was widepread fraud. Who knew? How could we have known? Even though it was already widespread knowledge that war-lords, women-oppressors and other criminals possessed the reigns of power for years after the US invasion of 2001. Even though those same war-lords, woman-oppressors and various other criminals were often essentially appointed by US officials? Tolerated by Washington, anyway, at the very least. WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN? I did. I knew that the so-called "legitimate, democratically elected government," composed of US stooges, thugs and toadies was a criminal enterprise. I knew because I cared enough about the issue to investigate it at some length! And I also that Karzai & Co. were the scum of the earth because I knew quite well the sociopathic and criminal nature of the Afghan government's patrons in Washington D.C. So who still wants to send 40,000 more American soldiers over there, to die for the LIES? Anyone, besides General McChrystal and his ilk? Can you present a reasonable case for escalation? One based on FACTS, rather than emotion, jingoistic sword rattling, and vengeance for 9/11? Even though 15 of the 19 hijakers were SAUDI citizens, according to the seriously questionable and flawed conclusions of the "official 9/11 commission" report from 2004. Even though BUSH (or at least Condi Rice) WAS WARNED on Aug 4, 2001 that "Al Qaeda is planning to strike targets in United States?"

The New Rings

Turns out Saturn has rings "we" never even saw before, even when the Voyager probe visited the planet back in 1980-'81. They are not "visible." If you could see 'em , these Saturnian rings would appear in the night sky as big as your little-finger's fingernail. That is a HUGE area in astronomical terms. Stay tuned for New Horizons' Plutonian visit in 2016! What, MY Pluto is not a planet, "they" say!?!?!?! HA!!!!!!!!

Eighth Anniversary

on the 8th anniversary of a senseless, insane, unjustifiable war: Bring the troops home - we need them to rebuild New Orleans and Cedar Rapids. Hell, we're paying them to destroy a country - let's pay them to rebuild two cities, instead! We have the answers!

Thanks for checkin' in.

Thanks for checkin' in, Kathy. I needed the input! Was starting to run out of air, in fact I have. I am now deflated, but thanks to you and others I am not on Facebook de-activated. Was considering it before. But I had to comeback 'cause I've a number of people to thank. Thanks to Weird Al Yankovich (praise be unto his ergonomic rice-paddy!) "oh-gah-ging-ga-go-gongag/" OOOps, back to the hereandnow, the all encompassing then. "Earth to Dan...!"Thanks to Boris Karloff and the Pips, thanks especially to Jack Kerouac, the French Impressionists, Kukla Fran & Ollie, Albert Schweitzer and Harry Houdini. Wow, I haven't had so much fun since I comandeered that chatroom back in '99!

I'll Shut Up..."

I asked before if I am bothering "YOU;" - why, hell, I should have asked if I'm bothering ME. My problem, as they say, is obvious. "Twenty-First Century Schizoid Man," "Reality's" Angry Man, Wall Street Man, Strom Thurmond's Chilihood, "Desperately Seeking Detachment" "Distracting Oneself to Death" Praise the Crimson King to Kingdon Come - YIKES, ... what about YOU? The "You - you places" of "Ill shut up, from Mr. M_LOK." Your're the screen, being projected upon. "You must be ready to accept the possibility that there are an infinite range of a awarenesses, for which we now have no words... Tune in, Turn on and Drop out..." I appreciate you having taken the time, Dr. Leary. "You have been the recipient of an experiment..."

Cold Hard Creep

I'm the cold hard creep who don't give a peep - I love people -at a safe distance - I can achieve Nirvana tonight drinking cinnamon tea. I am not a potted plant, I am a LAWYER, Because I say so. My Libra Rising in the first house is said to lend a cerain primacy to the emotions - "It's all a buncha bullshit and I just wanna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.." Thanks Jim Morrison, Pink Floyd, Marshall McLuhan ( I want to praise him ) From Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451:"Drink deep, or taste not the Pieran Spring...There shallow drafts largely intoxicate the brain, while drinking deeply sobers us again.." But ENOuGH about ME!

The Human Be-In of 2009!

There is this pulsating sense of total depth involvement that transcends conventional notions of civilized society - I feel it here on FB - it is new and unharnessed, electronic synesthesia gone metamorphic - I am not in control of my emothions - "I AM IN CONTROL OF MY EMOTIONS." "Mind your Own Business Mr. Spock, I'm sick of your half-breed interference!" I am a half-breed - I am an englishman - a rumanian jew - a swiss watchmaker - a global caretaker and one who once wanted to burn down the world - and a Pennsylvania Deutschman, but am certainly not in control of my emotions:) I meditae upon the word "therapy." I am none of the aforementioned, goddamnit! Such a hypocrite, me, my name means "Judge," I cannot see to help myself - I have a notable defect; I care, I care, I care I WISH TO BOB I DIDN"T CARE! This is the happening, the human-be-in, 2009!

Motor Tremens

Who are we, what have we become? This is a powerful thing, this placing of our central nervous systems outside of ourselves, this having our pulse on the lifeblood of millions of electric lives, the influence of that, the effects of that, fascinating to experience, but makes my hands tremble pounding this keyboard. We are now inalterable caught up in the affairs of "everybody else," we are living in the global village again in the most extravagant way

UNMUTUAL, Number 21363 is UNMUTUAL

I'm too mad - I'm too impatient -I'm too UNMUTUAL. I'm too provocative - I'm on a roll - I'm unique - I'm mundane I - I am sociable - I 'm reclusive - I am expansive I''m living too much in the ego-selfish thing a mah johng. I trust me, I am leery of me. What are my intentions!?!?! I know me - I am but a stranger to myself, a stranger in a strange land - I cannot call me proud to be the flag - I am arrived! I AM ME?

Thanks You

Thanks to you all for weighing in here, you sustain me... damn I'm typing fast - this is good - we shall evolve the human race yet, it will take a billion eons but we shall not mind the crayola crayon melting o'er the Dominics not-so-sunny Third and Halsted.. We are the this for passing progress is agonizingly slow but progress is inevitable. There are good religious people, I did not mean to imply otherwise. They give many free meals that I don't give. I'm not being entirely fair also not including "us Jews" in my criticism - it seems we "Chosen People" can be a bit too choosy! Ouch touche!

Not Very Nice

Hey, I already know I am not very nice. Maybe that has something to do with existing in this ignorant anti-culture, this demographic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It's a dirty, lousy job, but who better to do it than me? And no, I didn't go off my psychotropic drugs, oh, excuse me "meds" this morning. Never was on them to begin with. And no, I am not Manic today; such labels were invented by a psychiatric gestapo intent on diagnosing, suggesting and above all, CONTROLLING. I don't mean to come off as being sancitmonious either. I once was as indifferent, narcissisitic, complacent and intransigent as any "Average American," but over the agonizing years I got wise, wise enough in any case.

Iggy Me

Iggy me, cut to commercial, talk to your fellows about the Cat that Ate Danish Modern. If you're a "Christian," prepare for the return of Christ; he plans to kick down your door at 4:00 Sunday morning. He is going to kick your very hypocritical hand-covering ass, hard! If you're "Muslim" (I better take a relatively moderate tone here - for some ... incomprehensible reason I value my "life") I only hope you are practicing the Zakat dictated to you by the Quran. If you're "Buddhist," meditate on this, you purveyors of escapist panaceas. If you're into the child's game played by grown men called football, pay for your own goddamn Roman Coliseum. Panem et Circencis! Well, like I said to you "don't give a shits" before, ignore me, cut to commercial, IGGY, IGGY, Iggy Pop, who said "I'll give you television, I'll give you eyes of blue, I'll give you men who want to rule the world!"

Fuck you very much, Apethoids!

Dan Goldstein
has a message for all the apathetics out there: History doesn't give a shit about YOU, either. You will be forgotten, and justifiably so. Of course, you will be remembered in a kind of generalized way, for sitting on your hands while ONE BILLION of your fellow humans went malnourished today. Am I bothering you? AM I BOTHERING YOU? Iggy Me!

Snarky James, blorchdroid at largesse

Dan Goldstein and his Roger-plated "it-friend" Snarky James is, through means of the electrolytic liposuctive process, in direct communion with Boris Karloff's polonium doorknob recepticalling Snoopy-themed historic lunchbox. If this means you, so be it! Don't worry, be happy, give us an ambivalent song and dance! Thanks Gourd for the Weak End!

My trip to El Yunque, Feb. 2001

It is one of the most fantastic places I've ever been. Had to get up real early, get down to Old San Juan and get a van driver to take me up there. He had no other passengers that A.M., so it was a bit costly for me but I have no regrets whatsoever. It was clearly worth the price! You can see Fajardo, Vieques (or was it Culebra, or both?) and even the big volcano across the passage on St Thomas on a clear day...

Tripping on the escalator

17,000 US troops to Afghanistan then, another 40,000 now... pretty soon this adds up to maybe, uh, 550,000, troops. A real holy hell of a Viet-Nam scale escalation! Well, we've done it before, so we do it again! You know the classic therapeutic definition of insanity, "doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result!" It's now obvious that US policy makers and shakers are forking insane!

Capitalism

Call it "Capitalism," or "Corporatism," or the "Free Market." One thing's for sure - the system of unbridled, predatory profit for the very few that we have in the United States today has an innate tendency to periodically crash and burn. Lacking effective regulation, a progressive taxation system and an educated, organized work force, it seems destined eventually to self-destruct in a spectacular way.

Historic preservation

I recently passed through downtown Waukesha on a bike ride between Madison & Milwaukee. Unlike Madison, they have done a good job in Waukesha keeping their charming old buildings intact. With that in mind, isn't it ironic that many of the same people who rave about how wonderful and charming the old streets of European cities are don't give a second thought to the tragic, senseless and needless destruction of our historical legacy here in the USA?

Printed by Isthmus, Madison WI Aug. 28, 2009

Make that Barrett's alleged assailant

I couldn't help but notice a regrettable bit of journalistic carelessness in your Aug. 21 issue. It appeared in "The Week in Review" column dealing with the Aug. 15 attack on Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Describing the assault at the Wisconsin State Fair, the writer referred to Barrett's "20-year-old assailant." Based on a cross-reference of other media sources, it was easy for me to figure out you were referring to the suspect, Anthony J. Peters. Peters has not been convicted of this offense, at least not yet.
I'm not an unabashed fan of the United States' "criminal justice system." However, one thing that is positive about our common law tradition, in contrast to a number of other legal codes in use worldwide, is its presumption of innocence. Wouldn't it have been more prudent to describe Mr. Peters as Barrett's "alleged assailant"?

Even in the most heinous crimes, the suspect should be extended all the protections of due process.
Dan A. Goldstein

Vs. Repubs & Blue Dogs, Autumn 2008. Still valid!

It took me a while to locate this pre-eminent, prurient profane protestation from the last presidential election cycle:


This is for all the heedless, brainless maniacs who fell for the repubnican-democrap line about WMD's in Iraq. You pugnacious, pernicious, pugilistic pukes have displayed a surprising bit of touching concern for the recent recipients of American largess, generously distributed as it has been of late by the War Secretary's F-16's and B-52's. I just heared those nattering nabobs on the News Hour deliver a short blip about Robert Gates crying crocodile tears over ninety "accidental" victims of US bombing in Afghanistan. Also reported in the Buffalo News and elsewhere: http://www.buffalonews.com/260/story/441630.html Such protestations of remorse bring to mind the wise old saying: "The butcher with the sharpest knife has the warmest heart." You know, it hardly suffices that charnel-house operators like Gates have been the absolute ruin of Afghanistan and Iraq, those two unfortunate countries that were already so widely ruined before the latest US interventions. It seems increasingly certain these days that the mindless, gung-ho automatons have graduated to bigger and better things. They've done far more than their share of destroying the good old USA, that insecure homeland of ours they claim to love so interminably.

Got a little problem of collapsing infrastructure, the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis fell down? Solution: Flush another $130 for perpetual slaughter in Iraq down the national sewer pipe! Galveston wiped off the map, Houston torn to shreds and SE Texas without power for as long as a month? Solution: Waste yet more billions on idiotic interventions in Afghanistan, maybe even Pakistan. BTW, it just won't do to ignore Pakistan's nuclear arsenal while engaging in those daring, demented, demonic cross-border raids. Not too smart, going along for the ride on this score, Obama! Lehman Bros. and AIG gone under, and the Dow drops about 900 points in a couple days? Solution: Well, how about more tax breaks for the richest 2% of Americans! McCain, you really ARE insane. And your PTSD clearly disqualifies you for executive office. Sweet Jesus, why don't you shoot the entire wad, you FOOLS! The fiscally treasonous bastards in the White House and Congress bestow a calmitous and ubiquitous war of terror upon us all that will likely cost at least $3 trillion before it's done, if indeed it ever DOES end. And while I'm extremely "grateful" to the Chinese banks for their indulgence thus far in financing this genocidal spectacle, the bill is finally coming due. The fit has most definitely hit the shan. I don't think for one damn minute the present economic mayhem on Wall Street and Main Street is unrelated to America's latest seven-year shopping spree of death.

So Fuck you very much, you meatheaded, moronic, militaristic morons of mass mendacity. You beligerent bone-breaking bozos and your chicken-hawk overlords have finally succeeded in the grotesque goal of destroying these, "my" United States! Yes, I do have a penchant for understatement, but a reserved tone must be employed in order that the rectally-oriented retrogrades mired so relentlessly in Republican recession might take a break from wanking their withering wangs' wargasms long enough to comprehend the almost limitless damage they have wrought. Those superficially sadistic schmuckos need me, by way of enlightening their sick and sorry asses on a broad range of topics, to intelligently illuminate the IMPACT of their inhuman wars of inanity even on ignoramouses like themselves. They will not escape the hell that is to be paid, either. And just as they have been throughout the course of human events, their vile wars have served as the enabler par excellance of Tyranny.

I'm simply not able to stomach the cavalcade of cretinous crap from the credulous creeping-crud creators of destructive inequality anymore. Not without at least offering mild objections like those above, and those below: GUANTANAMO must be CLOSED, YESTERDAY!!! The Military Commissions Act must be repealed, the day before!!! As a proud member of the ACLU, I am forced to wonder what these fanatically flag-flying Fuckheads have against James Madison, our fine city's namesake and the "Father of the Constitution???" How did Thomas Jefferson, who penned those magnificent words extolling the virtues of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" ever end up on their shit-list??? Why do these altogether aberrated authoritarian assholes, on the Supreme Court and elsewhere, so despise those two affluent, aristocratic, slave-owning dead Virginians? Fervently fecund, ferociously fornicating founding fathers like them did at least enumerate SOME human rights for SOME people; I suppose THAT is the very reason Madison and Jefferson must now be disowned by the dismally dictatorial dickheads of doom. To them I SCREAM: Let's Restore Our Lost Liberties!!! What this country really needs are PRAGMATISTS, instead of "patriots," the latter creature so eminently worthy of Ben Franklin's loquacious loathing. For freedom's sake we must overturn the putrid "PATRIOT Act." It must be obvious after all these unctious, undulating utterances and asinine alliteration that it has been most disagreeable and stressful for me to attempt to educate them on these complicated matters in so charitable a fashion. I leave it to somebody else now, someone else less intrinsically inclined to mince words.

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." - Howard Zinn

For Three Mile Island Meltdown's 30th anniversary.

"Gee, ma, why are so many folks so scared of nuclear power?"

Well, for example back during the March/April 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, we "bit the nuclear bullet," chomped down hard! I remember those dark days quite well, and it's very fortunate for the eastern United States and Canada that the (well-documented) explosion of a hydrogen build-up which took place in Three Mile Island's #2's containment during the first few days of the meltdown didn't rupture that dome! This was a MAJOR worry for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials on-and off-site at the time. If the containment HAD been breached, (a not at all improbable outcome) the resulting release of about a billion curies of radioactive gases and particles (roughly equivalent to the fission by-products spread by a one-megaton nuclear blast) would certainly have been more than merely devastating!

More recently, the ongoning miserable safety record of the US nuclear industry has spoken loudly enough for intelligent people to comprehend the awful truth. For example, on February 15, 2000, radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere at the Indian Point reactor #2, located in New York state's Lower Hudson Valley region. The leak was caused by a breach in an aging steam generator. At first, the NRC claimed there was no release of radioactivity; the NRC later admitted that there was a leak, but said, as it almost always does, that the discharge posed no threat to public safety. Then there is the Vermont Yankee plant. As reported in a July 26, 2008 Rutland Herald article, headlined: "Study: Yankee Radiation up 30 percent," the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant is indeed releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it increased energy output by 20% in 2006. Vermont Yankee also experienced an "embarassing" partial collapse of one of its cooling towers in 2007, even though that same tower had been inspected earlier in the year. And there have been several "near-misses" in the last thirty years, for example at Davis-Besse near Toledo, Ohio:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0307/S00060.htm

Not to mention the recent leakages of radioactive tritium at the Braidwood Generating Station in Braceville, Illinois and also at the aforementioned Indian Point Reactor # 2 located in Westchester Co., New York:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/national/17nuke.html

I hope these recent examples of environmental harm caused by nuclear fission powered recklessness will suffice as proof we should retain Wisconsin's construction moratorium! BTW, I deliberately focus on Three Mile Island because it was a PARTIAL CORE MELTDOWN right there in "river city," USA. A partial meltdown that led to the release of substantial radioactivity into the Harrisburg area's atmosphere and into the Susquehanna River. A near catastrophe that almost eradicated many thousands of lives in 1979, and may be responsible for causing thousands of cancers, up to this very day.

Nuclear fission reactors are a potential environmental calamity that could happen at any time. Consider the fact that many US reactors are nearing the end of their intended lifespans, and many appear to be lacking the necessary modifications and continual (and very expensive) maintenance required to make them even remotely safe. Nuke plants are enormously expensive to build and maintain and extremely dangerous to operate. Not to mention the almost insurmountable difficulties posed by the disposal of their radioactive waste. Such waste remains lethal for tens of thousands of years. It's in Wisconsinites' best interest to pressure Jim Doyle and the Legislature not to overturn our state's sensible 25-year moratorium on building new commercial atomic reactors. Anyway, how absurd and suicidal it is to think we need MORE nukes when solar, wind, geo-thermal and biomass are the safer, saner way to meet our reliable, renewable energy needs! America (and the world) need to stop playing around with the "nuclear-roulette revolver" before we experience yet another Three Mile Island disaster or Chernobyl catastrophe.

Check out: http://solartopia.org

It isn't so much about Obama, it's the SYSTEM

Been giving it some more thought - and I think it really comes down to this:

1. Obama is a militarist - he was not hiding this when he made escalating the war in Afghanistan one of his election platforms.

2. Obama, just like the vast majority of US citizens, was born and raised into a society permeated with imperialistic attitudes. He may not have even been consciously aware of these in his early life, but now he has to act in an imperialistic manner in order to keep his job. Just look at the way his secretary of state Hillary Clinton is describing Manuel Zelaya's totally legitimate attempt to re-gain his job as Honduras' president as "irresponsible." No mention by her that some of the military officers involved in overthrowing Zelaya were trained at the "School of the Americas," that training ground for death squads, in Fort Benning Georgia.

3. Obama has basically become a political coward. He's just like the vast majority of politicians who rise to the top levels. They have to renege on the promises that get them elected, for reasons I stated above, in Paragraph #2. Most people who achieve maximum power wish to remain in power, it's just human nature.

RELTEPHLEN from PSYCHOPHARM

Flimsy Wagner:

"I'm not an actress, but I played one on T.V. So what's been making you sick? Thanks to clandestine subcutaneous implants, we know you have felt lousy for years. Well, RELTEPHLEN can help! Painstakingly developed over a period of ten long days by PSYCHOPHARM, RELTEPHLEN has been approved by the American Simian Society. Direct effects include vomiting, cirrhosis, shingles, fine motor tremors, credulity, leukemia, toe-jam and death. Posthumous effects include resuscitation, resurrection, and tautological phenomena. Ask your horse doctor if RELTEPHLEN is right for you. If he says 'no,' please report him so we can cancel the contract. Good Night, and Good Luck."

Anyone else seen this commercial on latenight T.V.?

Where were the Tea Partiers in 2003?

July 22, 2009:

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimated in 2008 that the Iraq war will cost the treasury at least three trillion dollars before it ends. Where were all the "tea partiers" in early 2003, when they had the opportunity to oppose this calamitous war? They weren't so concerned about balanced budgets then, were they? Well, I guess the Limbaugh-clones are unable to understand complex truths of any kind...