Frikkin' amazing! No US war in Syria!

I think one of the most important & surprising developments of 2013 was Barack Obama's failed attempt to intervene militarily in Syria, in the wake of September's chemical weapons attack over there. I can't list enough reasons why I opposed the prospective bombing, strafing, "humanitarian" intervention that the gung-ho among us desired, even while I agree that that what's happening in Syria every day is absolutely ATROCIOUS. But beware, I said, and say today: The slippery slope of full-fledged war, which has been a frequent consequence of "limited" US interventions during years past. All Obama's guarantees that there would be no American boots on the ground notwithstanding. Yet I wouldn't romanticize the American public's opposition - they reacted the way they did for a variety of reasons - wrong war, wrong time, dislike of Obama, and above all, simple war weariness in a country that's been in a state of permanent battle every single day since 9/11/2001. My own disdain for the idea of bombing Damascus stems mainly from a strong mistrust of US intentions, and a pretty thorough knowledge of US military history. This country MUST STOP acting as if it's obliged to get entangled in every humanitarian crisis or civil war taking place on the globe. "Our" interventions just since WW2 can be counted by the score, and have been overwhelmingly negative in their impact. USA only tends to exacerbate any crisis, anywhere, through the liberal application of its own chemical and radiological weapons - including depleted uranium and white phosphorous - as was done in Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. To say nothing of all the other lethal toys in its arsenal. So I was pleased most of the US public opposed yet another likely, prolonged war, and also gratified that Syria's chemical weapons are apparently being successfully destroyed as a result of diplomatic efforts. Even if the destruction process itself will cause further ecological harm; it would have been even worse if Syrian storage facilities had been struck by bombs or missiles. Remember Gulf War Syndrome! Of course I regret that the atrocities being committed by the Damascus regime continue unhindered; I DON'T have the answer, DON'T know what the solution might be.... but I don't think it lies in further bankrupting an already bankrupt USA. Happy 2014, and so long 2013. Most observers I've read or heard agree on one thing - 2013 was a HELL of a year. A year with a lot of startling news, most of it negative, IMHO. Let's hope, pray even if that's your bag, that 2014 turns out to be "...a good one, without any fear."

Bangladesh

I've been agonizing lately over what a beautiful blue planet this is, at least when one can view it from say, the moon. When you get close-up and "down-to-Earth" though, the injustice, poverty and suffering that prevails in virtually every country are almost too much to contemplate, let alone reconcile oneself to live with. I watched a "Globe Trekker" episode today that showed people in Bangladesh working in almost unimaginable, toxic, potentially deadly conditions. It showed barefoot workers dismantling huge ships that are docked off Chittagong for that purpose. If I were one of the wealthiest who walk this planet... well, I have to wonder how I could ever sleep. Still, Happy New Year to you all, friends. I may not get to my laptop tomorrow, so I thought I should voice my sentiments today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQnCpZga1M

Let Gaza Live!

Read about this in the latest Z Magazine - Israeli military strikes against Gaza have targeted both it's electric grid and sewage treatment facilities. There is a term for this type of assault - "war crime." Yet another clear indication that Israeli policy harms both Arab and Jew (and anyone else who wants the Mediterranean to remain accessible). The massive sewage spill that's taking place off Gaza now is certain to negatively affect the Israeli coast as well. This stubborn insistence in waging perpetual war against the Palestinians, and the current, fraudulent "peace process" that isn't really intended to secure peace, none of these are in the best interest of the Israeli people. But hey, whoever said most Israelis value self-interest over sadism, cruelty and vengeance, anyway? It sure as hell wasn't me! http://livefromoccupiedpalestine.blogspot.com/2013/11/in-photos-gaza-without-electricity.html

What I said when Mandela died

.I need not add anything about the loss of a truly great and brave man who has been widely eulogized by some of those who were no doubt once opposed to him. I've been listening: BBC, CBC, US Public Radio have all chimed in in Mandela's honor - yet that is actually, in the final analysis, a good thing, I suppose. So I'll just keep it simple: !Nelson Mandela Presente!

Happy XMAS

Had a hekuva Christmas! Ate like a pig; shoveled tons (literally, over the Christmas season) of snow; hauled, sawed and split multiple cords of firewood; emptied the ash bucket; visited with a few good friends; drank coffee today, even though I've "quit" and switched to caffeine tea - you probably know how jitterbugging a good strong cup o' joe is after a hiatus from that powerful drug; Hit Santa Claus and his reindeer with a long-distance slingshot that fires lethal iceballs; Ran around my hometown seeking to get important errands done; Shivered in the back of an unheated pick-up truck going 45 MPH (AIN'T I a TOUGH COOKIE!); Made damn sure to post some positive stories on Farcebook (You noticed:) and also updated a buncha FB stuff that nobody really cares about but me, Ho Ho Ho!; Went to the dollar store instead of the MALL of the AMERICAS; Would have drank red wine, but I'm not "allowed;" Listened to endless reams of Christmas music - even those FM stations you might have thought know better committed the psychic crime of blasting us all with Yuletide MUZAK!; Saw the doctor, or better yet, his Registered Nurse; Watched "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer," just to see if it hypnotizes me like it did 40 years ago - alas, not QUITE; And did a whole lotta other things, fun, pun, shun, sun, and run, run, run! "It's the MOST WONDERFUL TIME... Er, Reeeeeaaaalllly, the MOST BUSY TIME of the YEAR." So ENJOY, each and every one of youse. (Not necessarily CHRISTMAS, but being alive and awake, in and around all those beautiful snowbanks.) Above all, send me pics when you've built that igloo you been talkin' about constructin' for sooooo long....

Bob Ford's crack attack

I LIKE the Mayor of Toronto, as do 44% of Torontonians; in fact, his approval rating is up five points since he was exposed as a crackhead. Bob Ford's got spunk. I know that the old-line, traditional Toronto Blue Bloods find his conduct sho...cking - after all, this is a city where one has to buy beer at the provincial government outlet, or at least that was the case last time I visited. Anyway, the (WASP) Toronto country-club elite's not used to (American) politicians a la Marion Berry. OK, OK, I know Mayor Ford is a herculean hypocrite. And a criminal, technically speaking. But he's an elected official, so what else is new? I guess Toronto folk better get accustomed to all things American - they're "too far from God and too close to the United States" to emerge from the 21st Century unscathed. I admire his drunken stupors, too. Things will return to ostensible Dullsville when he's forced to resign. It's just a matter of time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjlNNsChZ4

Greed is good, need is shameful

Republicans make it pretty evident that they opposes providing a pittance in nutritional assistance to the truly needy. They emphasizes the need for self-reliance and responsibility. I wonder, would they favor getting rid of multi-billion dollar, taxpayer-funded assistance to agribusiness? How about a reduction, if not the outright elimination of hundreds of billions of dollars in annual tax breaks to the big oil companies? Or the elimination of grotesquely unfair tax loopholes enjoyed by various other billionaires? Or doing away with the very lucrative incentives given large corporations to move American jobs overseas Republicans and their Blue Dog pals only consider poor people as sponges, never mind that the poor receive a tiny amount in subsidies, compared to the enormous gifts bestowed upon American plutocrats through US taxation policy. That's the standard Republican attitude: use government as an instrument to give massively to those who already have much, and take away as much as possible from those who are struggling to survive. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2013/03/12/56240/meet-the-new-oil-tax-breaks-same-as-the-old-oil-tax-breaks/

Questions of Chinese

With only 400 discrete syllables, Mandarin manages, through the adroit use of syntax and its four tones, to express all those concepts every modern language needs to articulate. At least I'm pretty sure it does... http://books.google.com/books?id=ChyVgZMAiUoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=questions+of+chinese+language&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WV95Uq2wCaWGyAGVooDoCw&ved=0CGEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=questions%20of%20chinese%20language&f=false

All Hail Human Selection

Natural Selection has been irrevocably replaced with "Human Selection." This arrogant, suicidal new alignment of Homo Sapiens' priorities has led to Global Warming, widespread toxic waste Superfund sites, and enough radioisotopes being emitted from Fukushima Dai'ichi to kill all the life in the Pacific Ocean, if not on the globe. In the Long Run, it hardly matters much what we humanoids do anymore - it's too late to change the shape of things to come. You can see I'm overly optimistic today. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/science/earth/science-panel-warns-of-risks-to-food-supply-from-climate-change.html?partner=rss&%3Bemc=rss

Ever seen a kid with rickets?

My dad, who did a lot of civil rights work and humanitarian activities in Mississippi during the late '60s and early '70s, remembers a time when little kids in the Delta region displayed the distended bellies and listless attitude symptomatic of rickets, a syndrome caused by malnutrition. Is this what we're headed towards again in this land of plenty? Once thing that's certain: Starvation in America is a wholly preventable disease! http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-republicans-war-on-the-poor-20131024

Poor people suffer from a sense of entitlement

The trouble with poor people? They're so self-indulgent and unreasonable that instead of eating only once a week, they feel themselves entitled to eat every day. Now that's a privilege that in these times of austerity must be strictly reserved for the middle and upper classes! http://www.timesunion.com/news/politics/article/Food-stamp-cuts-kick-in-as-Congress-debates-more-4941355.php

The Bottle

I once drank a bottle of wine every day for two weeks. It was kind of weird, as alcohol was hardly my drug of choice. When I stopped, I felt a bit shaky. But I'm lucky - I got past it. Nowadays, I just don't feel the "need" to consume red wine anymore. Others aren't so lucky. Humans have, since before the dawn of recorded history, sought medicines to alleviate the symptoms of unbearable pain, psychic as well as physical. No kind of prohibition will ever change that. North American society, steeped in punitive, puritanical attitudes, seems unable to compromise when it comes to the brutal criminalization of substance use it has, for whatever supposedly good reasons, stigmatized. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKsTCKYm4E

Eye in the Sky

Optical Intrusion indeed. The deterrent effect of this kind of massive surveillance may be effective in preventing conscientious, law abiding citizens from jaywalking too brazenly, I suppose. But the people who have nowhere else to go? The people who literally sleep on the sidewalk? The people who lack any income whatsoever, or receive just enough to keep them (perhaps) one step above abject poverty? Who among us really believes desperate people are about to stop and think about Big Brother's ubiquitous cameras before slinging an 8-ball of rock cocaine? Who really thinks the "Eye in the Sky" will stop some poor, uneducated dude from beating someone up in the heat of passion? Oh, right. The real motivation behind installing more and more spycams isn't to PREVENT street crime; it's to utilize the ever-increasing capabilities of the technology, which is now more than ever able to capture images for analysis by facial recognition software, in real time. Not to mention the potential intimidation of political activists alluded to in this article. Our startlingly authoritarian authorities will relish each new opportunity to use the footage obtained against prospective defendants in a court of law. Consider: Dane County's sherriff recently informed the community that he's interested in building a new jail. Consider: Dane County has taken some positive steps toward reducing the incarcerated population here; it's now down to about 800, from a high a few years back of over 1100. Build a new jail? If we do, enough new inmates to overpopulate the place will surely be enthusiastically sought after by local law enforcement. But taking genuine, positive steps to enhance public safety would require more, much more than implementing additional "1984" strategies. Taking into account all that's been done to benefit the privileged Downtown, and how little has been accomplished to help those in true and dire need... I'll simply quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking at his 1936 inaugural: "... the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/optical-intrusion-footage-from-surveillance-cameras-downtown-may-end-up/article_cc180d66-1fcc-59cc-a198-4b9f6aa6be01.html?comment_form=true

Hi! from Picnic Point!

Picnic Point protrudes half a mile out into Madison's Lake Mendota. It was always kind of neat - you had to ride, jog or walk a certain distance, and it was worth it. The Point is located only a few miles from downtown - it used to be a surprisingly natural setting. Sadly, "They" really butchered the actual "Point." They being the University of Wisconsin's grounds keepers, landscape architects, whatever they in their supreme vanity call themselves. Oh, they really gouged it - they put a big concrete and stone memorial at the tip of the peninsula, where before there had only been a gravel recreational path, a rustic way that wrapped around a notable promontory, then looped easily back towards Campus. But now, one is rather overcome by that expensive, terribly overbuilt monument to some "important person." (It's actually a small amphitheatre.) Or perhaps it's not so new - I hadn't visited the park for a few years, and was more than a little shocked. There was no need at all to lay down more cement where before existed a really quaint setting. The whole character of the place has been upset - the traditional balance formerly struck between nature and humans has been garishly tilted firmly in the direction of the latter. While it's true that for the last couple decades one experienced heavier bike and pedestrian traffic that changed the character of the place somewhat, the UW's "solution" significantly detracts from the immense charm of earlier times. On the bright side, I should note that nearly all of the of the woodlands flanking the new build-up to the west have been preserved. But the most striking view of all has been crudely curtailed. A unique spot. Pretty much ruined. I know that in general, I complain too much. But "Western Civilization" shows itself to be most uncivilized when it takes a basically natural place left pretty much intact for centuries, and destroys it, explicitly in the name of some weirdly and brutally envisioned destiny. Sadly, nothing really IS sacred. There are two cool aerial view photos at the top of the page I'm posting - they show the Point as it appeared some years back, unscathed by the ravages of UW's hack job: http://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/visit/picnicpoint.htm

Republicans shut down their brains first

And so here we are, a despicable and demented but highly influential Republican minority (within their own pathological party, even!) having shut down the federal government. I'd have to say the down side outweighs the positive, by a substantial margin: 1. EPA has had to furlough pesticide regulators, a possible matter of life and death. 2. Department of Energy had to furlough renewable energy regulators. 3. Department of Transportation had to furlough inspectors who work on automobile recalls, another possible life-and-death issue. 4. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has furloughed inspectors who oversee atomic power plants, who, among other things, helped prevent a potentially catastrophic accident at Ohio's Davis Bessie reactor in 2003. 5. National Parks are closed from coast to coast. 6. Further damage to the already beleaguered Head Start program. One positive development is that the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management has had to temporarily stop issuing permits allowing new oil drilling operations on federal lands. But that hardly seems consolation enough for the damage that's being done to the US economy, or for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of a paycheck for the indefinite future. All this to try to harm Barack Obama's lame duck presidency. And to further shred the remaining safety net. The ultimate irony is the Affordable Care Act is being implemented on schedule. It won't even be significantly affected, near as I can determine. I frankly hope that hundreds of thousands of Tea Party idiots are being harmed by this shutdown; they certainly deserve it. But the rest of the country, arguably at least, doesn't. There may exist a decent Republican somewhere; as a group they really are the Scum of the Earth. May the GOP pay heavily at the polls in elections to come!

Back to Iraq!

Considering the wide-spread and rather surprising resistance to the idea of US intervention in Syria, an opposition that spans a wide spectrum of American political affinity from Left to Right, it's looking increasingly doubtful that the US will get involved there anytime soon. This is a good sign. Basically, it makes just as much sense to support rebel elements there as it did for the US to support the Afghani Mujahadeen beginning in 1980. The tendency for unintended consequences, like the attacks of 9/11, for instance, is a real peril. (Unless you believe of course, that it was the Bush Regime acting alone that brought down the Twin Towers, which is a rather remote possibility). And as far as simply arming the more palatable Syrian rebels, there is no assurance that any weapons sent would remain in democratic, secular hands. Maybe we should send a large number of US troops back to Iraq, where various Sunni and Shi'ite factions have stepped up their explosive attacks, resulting in the death and injury of scores of people daily. I'm kidding, of course.

Time for America to mind its own damn business

To extend the interventionist argument to its ultimate level of absurdity.... If I oppose the idea of pouring more gasoline on the fire by sending arms to the Muslim insurgency in Mindanao, I'm a de-facto supporter of the vile and corrupt Filipino government. If I'm against arming the sundry bands of rapists and murderers in the DR Congo, where over a million have died during the last decade, I'm an appeaser, and no doubt I aid and abet the equally criminal government over there. How about supplying the Maoist revolutionaries fighting the Nepalese regime? Was it our moral duty to equip the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2010? Where does our supposed obligation to support every band of "Freedom Fighters" begin, and where the hell does it finally leave off? Where it comes to the international situation, the believers in American exceptionalism get quite carried away. You may recall that Republicans are preparing to shut down the federal government AGAIN, and the sequester that's resulted in tens of thousands of pre-schoolers losing their Head Start enrollment is looking to become a permanent fixture. How about working to get our own extremely f*cked up house in order before sticking our national proboscis into yet another foreign entanglement? Isn't it bad enough that USA already has 800 military bases in 140 countries without further exacerbating our budgetary woes by sending arms to a lot of people who are now openly declaring their intention to impose Sharia Law, should they prevail in Syria?

So long suckers, and thanks for all the caviar

Republican congressmen and women are so "patriotic" they love to shut down the federal government in a desperate ploy to defund the admittedly flawed Affordable Care Act. They express their "love" by massive cuts to the precious food stamp program that helps keep poor and working families just above starvation level. All this as they enjoy luxurious trips overseas, paid for by the taxpayers. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/food-stamps-steak-vodka_n_3964695.html http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/2011-09-05/haleys-trip-paris-air-show-costs-taxpayers-more-127000 Whereas several Democratic mayors express THEIR tender concern for retired municipal workers by cheating them out of their hard earned retirement income. Or by closing 50 public schools, as Rahm Emanuel did in Chicago. This in a country where the richest 400 individuals "earn" as much as the poorest 150,000,000 Americans COMBINED. Too bad we can't achieve the obvious solution to all these fiscal crises; raise income and capital gains taxes on the filthy rich who refuse to pay their fair share. http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/2011-09-05/haleys-trip-paris-air-show-costs-taxpayers-more-127000

From time spent arguing with an interventionist on a web forum

H______, in my last post I wasn't so much positing a moral case as trying to reiterate the plain and obvious fact that post-industrial America is a nation so hooked on war and its concomitant military-industrial complex that we are now disastrously dependent on military spending. You yourself demonstrate that Americans are quite ideologically habituated to war-making in the extreme, with an accompanying de-emphasis on conducting diplomacy and other forms of conflict-resolution in the world arena. Your praise of the Bosnian intervention is a case in point. You manifest a knee-jerk assumption that it was America's "God-given" duty to impose our will in the former Yugoslavia. You appear to be a passionate practicioner of Manifest Destiny, come hell, high water or national insolvency. Really, such an attitude has as its logical outcome a moral imperative to get involved militarily everywhere from Nepal to Sri Lanka, Congo and Colombia; as a practical matter, we just can't afford to do that. I think we needed to stay out of Bosnia, and focus on promoting the relative economic prosperity of the Clinton era. A relative prosperity that you know as well as I was shortly squandered on an insane $3 trillion+ war of corporate greed in Iraq. If the situation in the Balkans was as dire as you assert (and I believe it was, though of course the Serbs weren't the sole transgressors), then the European community should have dealt with it, not the US. After all, the Bosnia conflict fell decisively in their geographic domain, and Germany had the money to bankroll any supposedly necessary intervention. USA was preoccupied at the time with Iraq, where we had imposed a no-fly zone and criminally brutal sanctions that resulted in the death of 500,000 children. And where, to bring us back to the use of chemical weapons, we had already utilized only god knows how much Depleted Uranium weaponry. Some estimates are that the USA had already spent a colossal TEN TRILLION DOLLARS on the Pentagon's largess by 1985. Our addiction to throwing away incalculable amounts of money on belligerent activities world-wide is one certain way among many to effectively destroy our civilian economy. And we have pretty much done just that by our preposterous habit of sticking our noses where they don't belong planet-wide, and wasting vast amounts of blood and treasure. But my moral case centers mainly around my firm conviction Americans, yourself included to a significant extent, are mindlessly enamored of the idea that "American Exceptionalism" requires us to perpetually shoulder the unreasonable imperialist burden of intervening practically everywhere there is a civil war, humanitarian crisis, or perceived need to secure vital US interests. That attitude has cost millions of lives and whatever fiscal stability we as a country could ever hope for. Just heard the other day our national debt has passed the $17 trillion mark; if you and yours want to strike Syria so urgently, how about finding a way to pay for it yourselves, rather than getting us even further in hock to Beijing? Anyway, it seems that you've gotten your wish granted already, partially at least, as the Pentagon is now sending additional materiel to the Syrian rebels, a grouping which includes any number of murderers, cannibals and other human rights abusers. What sort of Blowback do you suppose we're in for, now that we've sent guns and money to "Al Qaeda in Syria?"

The "game" of war has grown stale and ultimately, unprofitable

We Americans can't play that "game" anymore. The game of US world hegemony that is, enforced by US diktat, armaments and intervention. That very tired and destructive habit has grown stale. To put it mildly. We've been virtually bankrupted by constantly sending the Marines to every corner of the planet, whenever our supposed national interests have been threatened. A sizeable portion of our humongous, multi-trilion dollar national debt has been incurred by just such entanglements: Iraq, Afghanistan, and now maybe Syria. To say nothing of the maimed and wasted lives. I just don't believe we can realistically contribute to peace-making efforts in Syria by shipping over more items of death and destruction. It's a matter of public record now that several of the "rebel" groupings have committed atrocities of their own, on a considerable scale. I don't champion them, and can't see any compelling reason why I should. I'm sorry if it seems callous, but we're in a rather serious predicament over here, a predicament that renders these calamitous armed adventures more glaringly inappropriate than ever. We need the money to shore up our anemic economic "recovery." It's as if Barack Obama and the more militaristic members of Congress have determined that "We do war." That is, we here in the United States, having outsourced millions of decent jobs, now have no meaningful civilian manufacturing sector, and all we're left with as a significant economic stimulant is the war machine, with its obviously wasteful and profligate spending on items of death and destruction that are obsolete the moment they are produced. We in this country are beholden to a bankrupt social order, in multiple ways. To wit: The way our president and most of Congress insist military intervention is a perennial "must," always understood as something indispensable in the matter of relations between nations. Yes, we do have those 800 or so military bases in about 140 countries world-wide. Yes, the most dynamic manufacturing sector here in Wisconsin appears to be the US Navy's shipbuilding facility along Lake Michigan. But this is NOT the way things SHOULD be, and we desperately need an administration that is willing to "grab the bull by the horns." We need, but will probably never have, a president who is willing to contravene the status quo. Of course it's true that a person can only be elected to the highest office if he/she acquiesces to each and every insane foreign policy imperative dictated by those who pull the president's strings. But we must at least TRY to return to that long-forgotten era when we made things for human use, intended to enhance human dignity. You know - things like washing machines and computer hardware, lol. Until Americans get passed the idiotic notion that we must ceaselessly promote human obliteration, we'll be stuck in this terrible rut. Americans need jobs, schools and housing. But alas, it seems there's always another convenient pretext for launching airstrikes. Isn't it the case that each and every cruise missile costs one million dollars? Even one million dollars could buy a lot of hot lunches for low income kids in say, the Milwaukee Public School System. But every airstrike we launch robs those same kids, in effect. Every shipment of lethal equipment to Syria represents a wasted opportunity to get our own messed-up house in order. Tough choices are required, to be sure. But I have no major problem asserting America's own infrastructure and social welfare needs have to come first.

Another Western War Waged Under False Pretenses?

If you loved the genocidal, seemingly interminable 2003-2013 slaughter of Iraqis waged by USA under false pretenses, you'll LOVE the impending intervention in Syria. I grieve for the Syrian people, but US intervention is almost always exclusively military in nature, and always serves to worsen a bad situation. It's a fascinating exercise in double-speak that US Secretary of State John Kerry insists the Syrian government destroyed the evidence proving it committed a chemical attack, but now, precisely because the West is lacking such evidence, it's finally time to intervene. Maybe even with boots on the ground, who knows. OK, Kerry didn't exactly put it like I did, but that's the sense I'm getting. I was pleased thus far that President Obie at least had enough sense to say the hell out, but it looks like the American Pentagon-Prison-Industrial Complex, so disastrouly dependent on military spending and intervention, is itching for yet ANOTHER wretched war. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-heir-to-blair-david-cameron-makes-moral-case-for-attack-on-syria-in-echo-of-defence-for-iraq-war-8786783.html

Mucho BULLSHIT-o

"There'll be Pie in the Sky When you Die" is Mucho Bullshito, concocted for the "benefit" of the gullible by a bunch of Apostles who wanted people to still talk about them after they were gone. So SKIP that next lame-ass meeting you've got scheduled and take ACTION now.

NO, I Don't think so

NObama, NOBiden, NORomney, NORyan. NOBODY for President, 2016. NOWalker, NOScott, NOPerry, NOCuomo. Absolutely not. NOGovernor - would be better than what we've got. NOPutin, NOCameron, NOMerkel, NOAssad, NONetanyahu, NOKim. NOCarlos Slim! No way, Jose. NOBill Gates, NOWarren Buffet, NOGeorge Soros, NOMark Zuckerberg, NOSheryl Sandberg. NORockefellers of any age. KEINE und NICHTS. Locally speaking: NOSoglin, NOVerveer, NOFrautschi, NOGorman, NOAlexander, NOParisi. Oh my my, think I'm becoming an Anarchist. And, Just for Today, which happens to be Sunday: NOGod, NOJesus, NOMother Mary, NOFather Murphy, NOAllah, NOMuhammad, NOMessiah. NOSaint Paul, NOSaint Augustine. To "Hell" with the whole rotten bunch, and their ruinous SYSTEM. If they're not already there, that is, like most of us forced by unenviable circumstance to reside in this Inferno - they will be soon. Nein, Nee, Nyet, Nao, Negative. Frick them all, and C'est la Vie.

Good Luck, Laura

Best of luck to Laura Poitras, who has worked with Edward Snowden AND Glenn Greenwald, in the tireless cause of trying to preserve what little freedom is left in this sick and sorry society! Laura Poitras also has a remarkable history of exposing the war crimes of the US military; no surprise she's been persistently, outrageously harassed at numerous international airports for the last six or seven years. The article, by the supremely talented author Peter Maass is FAR better than anything I would have expected to see in the Sunday New York Times Magazine: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/laura-poitras-snowden.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Phuck-You- Shima Dai'ichi Disaster

Alarming to be sure! What's interesting about virtually all exposures to radioactive waste is that there's NO safe dosage. The only distinctions to be drawn are between LESS harmful and MORE harmful exposures. The leakage into the sea of 300+ tons of highly lethal Strontium-90 and Cesium-137 contaminated water from the three damaged/destroyed Fukushima Dai'ichi reactors represents a global calamity with no apparent solution. To say nothing of the much more dangerous Plutonium-239 contained in deadly abundance within the reactor cores, and no doubt still being widely emitted into the atmosphere. The overall ecological impact is much like what happened at Chernobyl in 1986 and afterward. Thus, there's no need to worry, since worry, in the absence of a potential solution, is the most futile of all emotions. Best to just wait for eventual radiation sickness, eat a lot of miso, and smile at Death as he makes his gradual way across the Pacific. And oh, make sure to stay away from that Pacific blue-fin tuna. Anybody who tries to tell me that nuclear fission generated electric power is an indispensable part of our energy equation has, figuratively speaking of course, a corpse in his/her mouth. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/08/22/national/rate-of-radioactive-flow-to-pacific-alarming/ https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/10-0

Air Raid Extra Dry for Ronald McDonald

During the past 45 years, I’ve been intensively, “personally” indoctrinated into the most cynical brainwashing scheme ever conceived by Big Advertising – and that’s only what I can consciously recollect. Yet in the final analysis, gauging skeptically as I do the campaign’s penultimate results, my teeth aren’t as shiny as "Madison Avenue’s" frenetic come-ons suggest they should be. Who among YOU can sincerely claim YOUR whites are as white as inhumanly possible!? Have you ever REALLY purchased the softest roll of toilet paper to ever be extruded from a mill? Has Body Odor been utterly vanquished, as we ALL understandably, passionately desire? If North Americans are so squeaky clean as their hearts and minds demand, why do they continue the forlorn obsession with how they smell!? I’m inclined to think that by now we’d have WON the glorious victory over all manner of unpleasant aromas. Billions have been spent in this tireless effort. I certainly sympathize with the obvious imperative to shower daily – but why then the overstated need to apply anti perspirant? Just what is there left to blot out!? Then there’s that tragic indignity of persistent acid reflux. I don’t know about YOU all, but I want MY money back! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K722Mer0ow

Media Seduction

"Clip this coupon, Spread Grey Poupon!" "Artie, did you see THAT?" "I SAW it, Bob!" "You're definitely the man who ALMOST thought for himself!" ("There's no need at all to PANIC- Now's the time to eat Organic! ") "Do you think the war will begin tonight? I gotta say - that's Outta Sight!" "Tomorrow would be good enough - please be patient - I know it's tough!" ("Eat Doritos - KILL Mosquitoes... Eat Doritos... KILL... KILL...KILL!") "Did you hear!? Kim Kardashian BUSTED out! It's really TRENDing, dramatically. UpENDing the HOLE World Wide Web." ("Click here, Click here... Drink Blotz Beer, Drink BLOTZ...") "Don't TOUCH that remote - 'Facelift The Nation' is COMEing Right UP! BUTT first, these massages." "...Americans love their dogs, That's SLEAZY to FINGER out - they spend almost $40 billion per year on pet food..." ("It's not illegal to love your Beagle! It's not illegal...") "Click! PIC! Bing! BANG! IN! OUT! All ABOUT! BOOM! Doom! Breath! DEATH! Here, there and Everywhere!" "Isn't it long past the WHEN we needed to comprehend the inner workings of our Culture World?" "What the HELL are you talking about, Artie?" "Oh, sorry Bob; I must have had a brain-sprain." ("You're a Clown, if you turn us Down... You're a CLOWN... so have a HEARTY night out on the Town!") ."...I'll WAIT, till your love COMES down - I'm aiming straight for the BALLS! No way you can stop me NOW - as FINE as you Are!!!" ("Tastes Great! Less Filling! Tastes Great! Less...") "RUB it, don't FLUB it, Artie! "Aggh, Bob - you're such a SLOB." There hadn't been a single SOLITARY night Bob didn't ride that Radio-Ear-Phonic highway down to sleep, not for the PISSED three years. Surprised? Ya shouldn't be! http://books.google.com/books?id=5docQQAACAAJ&dq=media+sexploitation&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fCgRUu2gFYnF2wWp04Aw&ved=0CDAQ6wEwAA

Subliminal Sexploitation

"Hey KENT, you TWIT: haven't I told you SIX times it's a dirty TRICK to SNATCH words off the DOCK, words that closely resemble various subliminal trigger words, differing perhaps by only one or two letters? You know, words used by several economically important SECTS?" "FORK off," he replied, "you and your CLUCK POSSE have gone too FUR this time. If I need to sell more soda online, I can be as FICKLE as I want with every TWEET. Might even play something erotic on my alto SAX." ("Drink Mountain Dew, Drink Mountain Dew...." "After all, there's no DEARTH of bon mots - the White SOX may even win the Series this year." ("Drink more beer, Drink more beer...") COME on, take it EASY. This underhanded technique has been used by Ad FOLK for several DICK-Aids, now, and how! Backwards tracking, post-hypnotic FRACKing, Mad Media CONTent. So don't be SUCK a DINK - take a refreshing drink!" "Well, lots of LUCK with your psycho nip-TUCK! ("Watch 'Cash Cab,' Watch 'Cash Cab,' Watch..." Remember, you can never get enough of that embedded MUFF. Add the odd PHUCK for extra PLUCK. ("INSERT here, don't be queer, INSERT here...") "Very PENETRATING ANALysis, to be sure, utilizing such a devious lure." ("Drive a Chevy, Buy a Bevy, Drive a Chevy, Buy a Bevy...") "HIT me with your best SHOT, fire away! Don't delay - don't be a CHUMP - take that big JUMP. Get off your RUMP, today! No need to be upTIGHT - DIG into one for dinner tonight! Now's the time to work off being a major JERKOFF. ("View 700 Club, at the pub. It's not odd - Believe in God!") http://books.google.com/books?id=B4dfAAAACAAJ&dq=subliminal+seduction&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-B0RUtyoMcrx2AXG_4FY&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA

Was it REALLY worth it?

The US deliberately targeted Iraqi water purification systems, beginning in 1991. The 2003 bombing killed untold thousands of civilians. The vicious sanctions imposed in the wake of the first Gulf War resulted in the death of at least 500,000 Iraqi children, a toll that Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, described as being "worth it" in a 1996 interview with CBS' Leslie Stahl. All of those war crimes were especially despicable considering Iraq never posed any threat to the USA. But hey, don't let my unpleasant statements of fact prevent anyone in America from enjoying the latest Kim Kardashian gossip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANv0e7gBXQA

"I don't need your War Machine.."

America must have perfected the most perfect death machine ever to blight Planet Earth. Well, Nazi Germany was a close runner-up, but the Thousand Year Reich didn't persist long enough to kill as many tens of millions. Well, then again... it's probably a close tie. Hey- at least our GIs prevented the North Vietnamese from storming the beaches of San Diego in their formidable PT boats, right, LOL!? America had no business even being there, except to enrich Lyndon Johnson's pals at Root & Brown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InRDF_0lfHk&list=PLEGpqH40P5rzxglJU0I6bKwnOnoDHd8uO

Washington's faithful, murderous clients in Cairo

Oh Wow! American officials HAVE announced they will suspend impending joint military exercises with the interim Egyptian regime. But $1.3 billion in military aid to the latest Egyptian dictatorship is merely to be "reviewed." It will not be suspended or least of all terminated, as should happen, because of course, Egypt controls the Suez Canal and Washington needs to vouchsafe its "vital national interests." The White House and State Department also need to keep the "Peace Treaty," dating back to the original Camp David accords of 1978, in effect. It hardly matters which brutal autocrats retain power in Cairo. Our notorious client state Israel, whose $4 billion annual allocation of military aid - which dwarfs that received by Egypt - must be assured that their southwestern neighbor will remain a compliant presence on the Sinai border. Of course, Egypt also receives more than $12 billion in aid every year from nearby Arab states, so even if Washington did interrupt the pipeline of death to Cairo, it wouldn't change things drastically. America's influence is considerably less than it used to be. But at least cutting off the lethal supply would send an important message from this side, that for once, Obama really does object to the routine murder and mayhem perpetrated by USA's faithful client regimes. Needless to say, a more enlightened policy is almost certainly never going to be imposed. BTW, in case anyone didn't already figure this out - I am NO fan of the Muslim Brotherhood. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35859.htm

My First Catholic Mass

Went to my first Catholic Mass ever, in Madison last month. Not much to do, really, Sundays being so dull, in no small part thanks to Christianity. Anyway, I decided to attend at a small chapel, what the HELL, heh heh. The priest was an old guy, didn't seem from outward appearances to be a practicing or former child molester, but you never can tell with those guys. He was fairly dull as far as his sermon went, but I'll give him credit where credit's due - he correctly attributed to the ancient Hebrews their proper heritage, when reading from the Old Testament. Sillest part was all the "now we stand, now we sit," ritualistic nonsense. Best part was some of the music - the organ player (really more like a synthesizer of sorts) utilized a "chorus" feature, the sound of which was truly etheral. The Catholic Church as an institution has a LOT to answer for, including the Vatican's vile collaboration with Nazi Germany. Hitler himself, as you may already know, was never ex-communicated. But individual Catholics can be well-meaning people, no doubt about that. In the interest of fairness, next week, I'll bash the Protestants, and the following week, the Jews. But at least those latter two groupings sensibly allow their clerics to get married!

Ride that Cash Cab to Oblivion!

What with the American Public's usual levels of ignorance, indolence and narcissistic abandon adhered to daily, we can expect the Powers That Be to push us all to the precipice, basically unhindered. And the saddest part is, we don't have the luxury of waiting for a fix to our increasingly lethal global situation. The newest craze on Television is something called "Cash Cab." My friends watch it, too. Viewers seem to think it's a "good show," merely because the participants are called upon to answer a few possibly minimally challenging questions. Any time the slightest bit of informed resistance to the Establishment's cynical plans rears its tiny head, the Infotainment Culture springs into action with another "Fear Factor," "American Idol" or similar fare. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a Republican, utilizing a strategy of massive voter suppression, re-takes the White House in 2016. Not that any of the Dems are any better.

"It was worth it."

Been re-reading Chalmers Johnson's "Nemesis; The Last Days of the American Republic." It never ceases to amaze me how the United States has waged war against the poor and undefended people of the WORLD. Against Planet Earth ITSELF. How USA deliberately targeted Iraqi water purification systems, with the deliberate intention of propagating water-borne illness. Spread Depleted Uranium in Former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, knowing full well this would cause only Gawd knows how many additional cancers. Even IF the World Trade Center was really attacked by 19 hijackers (15 of whom were supposedly Saudi nationals) in 2001 - and there is MUCH reason to doubt the official story - if there actually were any Afghani peasants hiding for dear life on these summits, they had NOTHING to do with 9/11. And the Iraqi people, whose country has been literally destroyed by the 2003-2011 Amerikan juggernaut also posed us no threat whatsoever. Yet people like Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama want us to believe we need to bankrupt our nation, conducting perpetual war ostensibly in order to achieve perpetual peace. And to keep us safe from "The Terrorists." What, you mean they are protecting us from THEMSELVES? I WISH! And Obama has the unmitigated Chutzpah to point his blood-stained fingers at Edward Snowden! Well, at least Bill Clinton's former secretary of state Madeline Albright, in a rare, unscripted moment of candor in May 1996, admitted to Leslie Stahl of CBS' "60 Minutes" that the killing of at least 500,000 Iraqi children from 1991-2003, through the most vicious and heartless administration of sanctions in history, was "worth it." In her twisted imagination, anyway, it was "Worth it." Above all, how sick, and how very disheartening indeed, to live among a largely bunch of lobotomized, sanitized, deodorized androids -otherwise known as "Average Americans." How utterly disappointing and disgusting it is, to exist in a country where most people are more concerned about Justin Bieber, Honey Boo-Boo and Brad Pitt than they are about Human Rights, Peace on Earth, the administration of true JUSTICE and the rule of international law. Free Bradley Manning!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDBKU74VjtQ

For the Born-again Crustaceans

THIS is the Church, THIS is the steeple: Open 'em up, and see all the SHEEPLE!

Capitalism Hits The Fan

Example of Capitalism hitting the fan: In the 1950s, Detroit was a powerhouse, an industrial behemoth that had over 3000,000 manufacturing jobs. It has about 30,000 now. (Source: PBS News Hour, 8/9/2013). Now the ruling class is looking to cheat Detroit's municipal retirees out of their hard-earned pensions. But the reactionaries and racists - on the web and elsewhere - are busy blaming Detroit residents for their plight. Never mind the lion's share of the onus, which should be properly directly at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. http://books.google.com/books?id=36fAB5cfyKwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=capitalism+hits+the+fan&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gYoGUoqxFoKRygHvoYBA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=capitalism%20hits%20the%20fan&f=false

Nagasaki

What a truly awful anniversary. The US remains the only nation to have used atomic bombs against a civilian population. And USA also declines to renounce a "First-strike policy" regarding nuclear weapons. http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=fp-tts-745&va=Nagasaki+bombing

Chevron really cares

Aren't these Corporate Criminals par exellence generous? That would be like me tying down 15,000 innocent people, choking them and spraying mustard gas in their faces, then settling for the hefty sum of $0.20 cents. "Chevron to pay $2 million for refinery fire:" http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Chevron-to-pay-2-million-for-refinery-fire-4707675.php

House Republicans de-fund the Hapsburgs!

Word from several Left-wing talk radio hosts is that House Republicans are also poised to cut off military aid to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, soon. "House GOP Weighs Defunding ACORN In 13th Vote To Block Funds To Defunct Organization:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/gop-acorn-defunding_n_3690753.html

Textbook case of police overkill in Miami Beach

Say what you will about my media choices. I first heard about this police-atrocity from the Sunday New York Times, today. I have ways of getting it for free. That's helpful; I hardly ever read the Miami Herald or Palm Beach Post these days, since I don't spend time in Florida any more. And that's no doubt a good thing:) Miami Beach/Hialeah cops hit this guy 16 times, killing him, and they shot four innocent bystanders as well. Shades of the 2006 Queens, NY "Sean Bell Insane Overkill Episode!" http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/us/2-years-after-116-police-bullets-flew-few-answers.html?_r=0

"Getting Up."

"Got a black magic marker.. got a black magic marker..." Been thinking a good deal about my (mostly juvenile) career as a "tagger." Amazing to consider I started when I was at the ripe old age of 11, unless you count the time I was eight when I inscribed "poo-poo" in Mean old neighbor Mrs. Hartmann's new piece of freshly laid sidewalk, and she chased me down the street with a rake in her long-widowed hands. So my real graffiti penchant began back in 1974, when I went under the old Olin Avenue bridge with a can of lovely purple. Can't actually remember what I wrote, but it was a blast, pun intended. Got explicitly political around 1979, if you include scrawling "Gabba Gabba Hey!" and "Rocket to Russia" on the sides of State Street buildings. (Hmmm, do I owe The Ramones any royalties?) To say nothing of stirring things up at the three different high schools I proudly dropped out of. Oh, wait, I was expelled from the one, partly on account of my incorrigible "literary" habits. By 1983, I had gone truly "political" in my focus, which brings to mind a number of regrets. 1. It's really tough not to have a brain-freeze when you're standing there with a can of flat black, poised to strike a wall with 2' high letters, and worrying overmuch about the cops who might at any time roll up on your paint or ink-stained person. It even got boring; "Stop the Contras!" isn't the most original slogan. Much better was "Nuke Reagan, Not Russia!" But I digress. And speling errors are just totaly embarassing. 2. My chosen vocation came to an abrupt halt in 1984, a most appropriate year, if you think about it. You can imagine why, and I got off easy that memorable night. Hell, I'm just glad there is still a statute of limitations in effect. Well, I sure hope to Goddamn Sweet Baby Jesus there is such a limit on bringing charges! Am I ever going to have Sharpie stains, er, I mean egg on my face if I'm sorely mistaken. 3. Spray paint is just too damn toxic, and wearing a respirator is taking matters a bit too far, as a practical matter. Remember - inhaling toluene and other serious poisons cause can mental serious damaje. Some markers were intoxicating as holy heck, too. Rubber gloves helped protect the hands, but made "working" a bit cumbersome. Then there was the harm to the greater environment. Using cattle markers made me a more eco-friendly writer. 4. Some of the businesses I targeted really didn't deserve it; others, specifically the fat, contented Asspiring Yup-and-comers, certainly DID. These days, I don't do it any more. Thanks to the quasi-legal status of chalking, however, I don't do it any less, either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDLLXUaqZxg P.S: 'Course I was writing this in jest, but historically speaking, it's not a joking matter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stewart_(graffiti_artist)

Illinois becomes the 20th state to legalize medical marijuana

I always knew there were many decent, sane people in Illinois. Now those Flatlanders have made Wisconsin look like our motto is actually "Backwards." If the hemp-fiber shoe fits, wear it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/illinois-medical-marijuana_n_3690323.html

Private Dick hired to investigate Weiner?

Now I understand as well as the next little prick that the whole Anthony Weiner sexting scandal is a major diversion from the REAL issues - cruel "Sequestration" cuts to Meals on Wheels, massive Arctic ice melt, endless wars for coprporate profit. But if I lived in New York City, I'd vote for Weiner! True, I disagree with his vehemently pro-Israel stance, and a few other, ahem, positions. The fact remains - Anthony Weiner's personal peckerdillos aren't a genuine concern. I LIKE a man who's so cocksure of himself. Finally, New York gets a candidate with NOTHING to hide!

Bradley Manning punished in cruel and usual style

Heard this morning Bradley Manning has been acquitted on one very serious charge - "aiding the enemy." Now I see he's been convicted on a host of other charges. So this heroic individual will probably be sentenced to only 150 years behind bars, as opposed to 250 years. I'm not kidding. American "Military Justice" is a contradiction in terms. http://www.bradleymanning.org/

Go back to where you came from!

I'm guessing these (white) Iron County board members would like it if ALL Native Americans would "go back to where they came from!" What are American Indians doing on "Public Land?" Geez, what a bunch of intruders upon the hallowed ground of White Privilege! http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/iron-county-officials-start-push-to-evict-tribal-harvest-camp/article_70df4a43-21d2-5637-9f56-f126ad494cd4.html

Belarus, here we come!

I'm so fed up with us people exercising our First Amendment rights. America, and particularly Wisconsin, are so much better off when we emulate the type of democratic governments the Republicans admire - like Belarus, China and Colombia. http://www.channel3000.com/news/crowd-larger-citations-issued-during-singalong-at-capitol/-/1648/21163670/-/awtlw0z/-/index.html

Concrete and landfills fill my heart with joy.

What's so damn GREAT about these five puddles anyway!? Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario.... so what? If we filled 'em in with urban garbage, then paved 'em over, it would provide the real estate community with thousands of square miles of prime development land. Nowadays, we can desalinate the oceans and pipe 'em this-a-way, so there's no more need for bodies of "fresh water." And let's frikkin' Frack the forkin' farmland till we can't furtively frolick there no more. Trees? Who needs 'em!? President Reagan taught us they pollute the air with CO2, and just clutter up the view of the big buildings downtown. Meadowlands? Just a kind of highly-evolved swamp, really. Fertile fields? Smell too much like decaying leaves - much better to cover 'em up with little boxes, little boxes, far as the eye can see. Then apply the pesticides, toute suite! As far as the Arctic's Tundra goes, I can't wait till more of it melts away so we can more easily build a four-lane highway to Barrow, Alaska. The Countryside is annoying, and the Great White North will look much better when it's all stained a delightful shade of brown. I really, truly hate "Nature," and that should be the attitude of each and every patriotic Americorn. Got a minute? Go to the Mall! http://www.michiganradio.org/post/us-house-bill-will-cut-great-lakes-restoration-initiative-funding-80

What's Good for the Goose....

Since ALMOST NOBODY in the USA appears to give a rat's ass that Rolling Stone magazine recklessly, pre-emptively declared Dzhokhtar Tsarnaev GUILTY last week, I propose more convenient tactics of that kind. Oh yes indeed, there's no need, no need whatsoever for that quaint, obsolete precept that USED TO presume a defendant innocent until PROVEN guilty. Examples abound: George W. Bush is so TRANSPARENTLY guilty of having lied us into unjustified war against Iraq that we don't need no stinking trial regarding W's unspeakable crimes against humanity. He's directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who posed America no threat at all. Let's just toss him into Leavenworth, and throw away the key. Hell, I'd go even further - I'll let the viewers of this blog determine what Bush's appropriate punishment should be... no need, no need for a jury of Bush's peers, and some silly goddamn magistrate to pass sentence. Ronald Reagan was OBVIOUSLY culpable of trading weapons for hostages in the Iran-Contra affair - he should have been INSTANTLY punished - preferably by a howling MOB, to the utmost! Never mind any type of judicial process. Barack Obama should be removed from office immediately! Why? For his rampant violations of international law, like waging - even escalating - an unconstitutional, undeclared war against Afghanistan. Not to mention the fact the president meets with his equally bloodthirsty advisors in the White House every Tuesday Morning, to decide which American citizens/foreigners need to be added to his obscene "Kill List." No need, no need at all for impeachment proceedings: we all know he's guilty as hell of tossing lethal drones against unarmed civilians. We Americans are so superior to the rest of Humanity, we NEED NOT BOTHER with trials, hearings, or any other type of procedure to ferret out and definitively establish the actual TRUTH. Yeah, RIGHT! And the Constitution is nothing more than a lousy scrap of paper.

In Madison, only the homeless are honorable

I am indeed generalizing excessively right now. So allow me to continue in that style. The trouble these days, especially in ultra-authoritarian, hyper-privileged, intellectually-warped, informer-enamored Madison: Far too many people call the police at the drop of a pin. In this sick, thoroughly gentrified town, scarcely an eyebrow is raised when "good neighbors" call the cops after having spotted a homeless person sitting on a milk crate, holding a sign soliciting a few bucks. There's got to be a better way to achieve a mutually-satisfactory degree of conflict resolution. It seems there's some sort of unholy competition going on here to see who can be the biggest, most prolific "Judas." And the worst part? Many of these cringing, cowardly, demented "Good Citizens" are actually proud of their sordid selves. Perhaps I exaggerate; if so, not by much. Makes me want to seek out a more honorable populace... maybe somewhere better, like... Schenectady NY, Muskogee Oklahoma or Benton Harbor Michigan...

Florida jury issues race-based hunting licence!

I can only say: This realy amounts to a minimally-veiled declaration - or rather a reiteration - of an "open season" on Black Americans. There seems to have been a sort of "hunting licence" issued tonight, describing an entire ethnicity as being unworthy of life itself. The young man was MURDERED, and for what? For walking back from a nearby convenience store after he purchaced some skittles?! I am not particularly proud to be a white American at the moment. Actually, that's a serious understatement. The Seminole County jury's decision reflects the extreme, violent, pathological sickness that has infected the alleged heart of so many Americans who happen to share my complexion. It makes me feel ill, and worse. Much worse.

What would Dr. King think?

I got to hand it to the five reactionary maniacs on the Supreme Court; by "invalidating" Section Four, the most important provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, they definitively told Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. what he can do with it. "Doc," as Reverend Ralph Abernathy and others called him, must be rolling in his grave. Half a century ago, scores, if not hundreds of people, mostly black, died just to secure their constitutionally-guaranteed right to cast a ballot. Hundreds, even thousands were beaten and tear-gassed. Congress should do something, right? Ah, but didn't 1803's "Marbury v. Madison" Supreme Court ruling confer upon that very same High Court the status of final arbiter of US Laws? You tell me - I'm no lawyer, I just play one on TV. But I DO know that the majority of "justices" on the nations's highest court are WRONG, so WRONG. And I sure as hell don't trust their motives. This is a transparent maneuver to preserve all those unconstitutional "Voter ID" laws, that have sprung up like noxious weeds on America's civil rights landscape. And to enable several states, mostly in Dixie, to continue unimpeded racial discrimination at the polling stations. Yes indeed, the Old South has morphed into the New South, with contemptible servitude and disenfranchisement for millions. It's time to drive a stake into the heart of the "New Confederacy." And don't even get me started on Arizona... http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/27/pelosi-mulling-john-lewis-voting-rights-act-to-overturn-supreme-court-decision/

Putin won't co-operate - I wonder WHY?

Tsk Tsk. President Putin, that grotesque violator of human rights and dear friend of every Russkie oligarch, refuses to hand over heroic Edward Snowden to the United States' National Security Gestapo. Now don't misapprehend my sentiment: I'm no fan of "Vlad the Impaler," (google him) Putin, but maybe, just maybe Russia has valid, historically-based reasons to respond in a petulant manner. After all, it was the USA that intervened, at the cost of thousands of Russian lives, in Soviet Russia's circa-1920 Civil War. Naturally, America took the side of the Czarist "White Russians." While true that Franklin Roosevelt finally recognized the existence of the Soviet Union in 1933, that was a bit late in the game. In World War II, that much-beloved-by-Nixon Genocidal General from Dixie, slap-happy George Patton intended to continue thrusting eastward, toward the USSR. In the aftermath of Nazi Germany's May 1945 defeat, Patton knew the "Commies" were our "true and perpetual enemy," and must be eradicated. Did you know that Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay was chomping at the bit during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis to turn Moscow into a pile of glowing embers? Only the relative sanity displayed by Kennedy and Khruschev managed to save Humanity - for a time, anyway. More recently, George W. Bush abrogated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, in order to more "legitimately" install an extremely provocative "Star Wars" type "Missile Defense System" in Poland. And while I don't condone Russia's 2008 bombing of the Georgian capital Tblisi, it didn't help matters diplomatically for the US to actively side against Russia, even going so far as sending US warships into the Black Sea, resulting in a potentially catastrophic confrontation. No, I don't like, nor do I defend the misdeeds of the Russian hierarchy. The "Pussy Riot" women should be released immediately. But Russia does indeed have cause to snub the United States' efforts to seize and punish "Fast Eddie Snowden." Ah, the wily Mr. Snowden, who pretty much only revealed things we American already knew - or at least suspected. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/vladimir-putin-confirms-edward-snowden-is-still-in-moscow-airport-and-blocks-us-extradition-demands-as-venezuela-says-it-would-consider-asylum-request-8672580.html

Is Fast Eddie Really in Moscow? That's not the MAIN issue!

An American talk-show host, Randi Rhodes, joked on June 24 that "...he's escaped to Communist countries, no matter how you slice it." But Edward Snowden seems to have amazingly - considering he apparently lacks a passport - gotten the assistance of various governments that are obviously reluctant to co-operate with the United States' extradition requests. The very brave and heroic "Fast Eddie" seems to be directing himself, wisely, through and toward several countries that are fed up with the US President, State Department and Congress continually pointing out other nations' spying and "Human Rights Violations." Some very chubby American fingers have been pointed at China, condemning Beijing for hacking America's national security apparatus. But it takes a lot of nerve to demonize China, when the NSA has targeted EVERY "wired" American's electronic transmissions, and probably the emails, land-line and cell phone calls of every "wired" human being on earth! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/24/senators-nsa-letter-inaccurate-information-privacy

Insider Threat!

"Insider Threat!" As if things weren't repressive enough, now it turns out, Federal employees have been instructed to act as Professional Judases against their fellow workers. Social Security staff, for instance, are obliged to report to the Security Apparat if their colleagues are reading dangerous material like "The Onion" on their lunch hour. Gawd help anyone in the Federal bureaucracy who burned his toast that morning or argued with her husband - their irritability may be considered "suspicious." When Fascism came to America, we were apparently a bit distracted. I know I love my "Perry Mason;" it comes on every night at 10:30. But I disgracefully digress - wasn't "Insider Threat" just the sort of treacherous, back-stabbing, paranoid behavior that so disgusted the American Public, it ended up bringing down the notorious, red-baiting Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954? What's next, mandatory swearing to "Loyalty Oaths" of the type that President Harry Truman signed into law on March 21, 1947? "...With Liberty and Justice for All." Yeah, sure! These days - actually for a long time now - you can obtain just as much freedom and fairness as you can afford to PURCHASE! http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/25/insider_threat_government_employees_urged_to

"I left my hearburn in San Francisco..."

"I left my heartburn in San Francisco." I was last there, April 2002. Got off the Greyhound from Vancouver at 4:00 AM - Market Street and the Tenderloin were both a kind of howling Wilderness at that hour. Deranged characters wailing into the night sidewalk near the Trans-Bay Terminal. City Hall Plaza was as far out as ever - those weird trees that grow there. Some decent guy warned me as to my safety. Then I headed up those steep, steep hills to the Haight - with all my damned luggage in tow. The Sun was coming up when I reached that Mythical Corner: Haight-Ashbury, and I had coffee. It was still too early to see all the runaways with their feet in the gutter, and various other street people; the kind of people I had loosely associated with back in 1990. I went down to the Cala Grocery (or is it Safeway, now, or Ralph's?) and "borrowed" one of their shopping carts. That took a helluva load off my tortured feet. Had an ecstatic promenade through ever-beautiful Golden Gate Park - what a masterpiece of landscape design. Backtracked, took in the view from on top of Buena Vista Park - took strategic measures to avoid the aggressive "cruisers." To each his own, but I swear they very nearly jump out of the bushes at you. From that park, the view across the Golden Gate of Marin County is awesome. I ended up walking down to that Catholic church on Market Street, near the Tenderloin again, and had a free meal. Finally checked out the Embarcadero - it's much nicer, lined with really fantastic palm trees now that they took the Embarcadero Freeway down. Strolled on back to the Trans-Bay terminal, and headed East, to Reno, Denver, Omaha, Rockford and Madison. I'll always love the place, but after about 10,000 miles in two weeks riding the Greyhound (West Palm Beach - Madison - Minneapolis - Winnipeg - Vancouver - Medford Oregon, then Southbound and and all the rest)... I can truly sing: "I left my Heartburn in San Francisco!" To think I may never eat at "Jack-in-the-Box" again... sighs. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.funcheap.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F04%2Fbuena-vista-park.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsf.funcheap.com%2Fbuena-vista-park-trails-celebration-sf%2F&h=382&w=575&sz=73&tbnid=4piTfZWWHHD5AM%3A&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&zoom=1&usg=__g_B7hzDChM9_OiKs-bZErK7jw6Y%3D&docid=ftG4UkSHA-qA7M&sa=X&ei=NajHUfPLMsmsqQHkxoC4Ag&ved=0CDAQ9QEwAQ&dur=1505 http://www.aviewoncities.com/sf/goldengatepark.htm

Righteously embedded

Things are totally different today. We've come a LONG WAY, BABY! The level of precision targeting is astonishing. US Boys and Girls in Khaki camouflage never miss a heartbeat, all the better to extinguish it. Noxious nattering nabobs of negativism, otherwise known as "Journalists" (Hrrrmph!) are damn silly for inserting themselves into an Undeclared War Zone. Unless, of course, they go through proper channels and get their foolish asses righteously EMBEDDED! In any event, is it OUR fault if they hide like civilians, who don't have the sense to get out from under the neighborhood's "legitmate military targets?" You know, like Serbian water-treatment plants, Sudanese aspirin factories and Iraqi fallout shelters? Like the Israelis, we drop tons of leaflets warning them to GET THE FUCK OUT! And of course, they'd BETTER NOT attempt to burn oil wells! http://vimeo.com/63389575

What I love about America

What I LOVE about Amerika and Amerikans? We're TENACIOUS about achieving our GOALS. We don't stop until the Whole Shithouse goes up in FLAMES. So, even though these methods from 1967 were rather crude, rudimentary and quaint, we Amerikans continue to EVOLVE. We're WAY past depositing little GIFTS, Santa Claus-style, consisting of a little soap and gasoline, or NAPALM. Nowadays, DEPLETED URANIUM gets the LITTLE PEOPLE much HIGHER, and brings HEARTS and MINDS over to OUR SIDE, the RIGHT SIDE! We Amerikans love TECHNOLOGY, and will stop at nothing until we have evolved beyond the status of mere mortals. Our Men and Women in uniform play GOD every single day, sending hundreds of thousands - even MILLIONS - of bewildered SOULS to a BETTER WORLD. It's interesting when human beings are, in the stroke of an instant, transmuted into RED MIST! So thank the vigilant PILOTS, soaring majestically in OUR Wild Blue Yonder, EVERYWHERE and ALWAYS. The intrepid UEBERMENSCHEN of the United States Air Force keep us SAFE, while simultaneously displaying their bravery to the entire WORLD. Yes, Our SCREAMING EAGLES are COMPLETELY FEARLESS - from 35,000 feet above the COLLATERAL DAMAGE inflicted. US FOREIGN POLICY IS A B*MB! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY02BGxy4xM

Coup D'etat in Wisconsin

Wow. This can't be good. Wisconsin is now, to cite just one negative development since the Republican takeover of 2011, dead last among all 50 states in job creation. I too have been deficient in the amount of anti-Scott Walker chalking I'v...e been doing on the outer Capitol Square, and in many other respects. But I do hope to see all Wisconsinites of conscience later today/tonight, in Downtown Madison Wiscsonsin. After all, we wouldn't want to miss the unspeakable "budget butchery" that is about to take place. Of course, it isn't just the continued loss of local jobs which is at issue -there are the doomed Penokee Hills, about to be destroyed by a 4.5 mile open-pit long iron sulfide mine. There is the prospect of "Dog The Bounty Hunter" setting up shop in the Badger State. Women seeking Supreme Court-sanctioned abortion procedures face actual rape by trans-vaginal ultrasound, another Republican travesty. How about $650 million additional dollars in tax cuts, overwhelmingly to benefit the wealthy, who don't need them? Then there are those 85,000 Wisconsin residents who will be kicked off Badger Care/Medicaid, due to Legislative Republicans' and Scott Walker's vicious callousness. If nothing else, let's get down to the Square tonight, to witness history in the making. Today, and the days soon to follow, are not completely unlike that terrible day in September 1973 when Pinochet violently took power in Chile. Not as bloody, by a long shot, of course. But entirely destructive of the social fabric so far left intact. Make no mistake: Wisconsin's Republicans share an important characteristic with their partisans nation-wide: They are FASCISTS! We must at least protest these impending legislative atrocities. "Let History Judge." http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/jessica_vanegeren/little-public-opposition-to-assembly-s-passage-of-budget-unlike/article_6b023d2c-d916-11e2-9d2d-0019bb2963f4.html

Good Ruling. Rare kind of Decision

I am not a legal expert, so I cannot comment on whether this ruling will have an overlapping, positive effect - putting the brakes on all those highly discriminatory "Voter-ID" measures implemented by numerous states in recent years. Including the one imposed right here in Wisconsin. But I sure hope all "Voter-ID" requirements are struck down from coast to coast! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/us/justices-reject-arizona-voting-law-requiring-proof-of-citizenship.html?hp&_r=1&

Why I oppose US intervention in Syria, continued

I've been accused of being "callous" by somebody who supports arming the Syrian rebels, so I better clarify: I'm primarily opposed to the United States acting unilaterally, and insanely intervening in yet another Mid-eastern nation. For the USA to arm the rebels and/or impose a no-fly zone is one hell of a slippery slope. It's playing with fire in the worst possible way. Iraq stands out as the most salient example, where the US armed the notoriously corrupt Ahmed Chalabi prior to 2003. Not to mention the hand the West had in providing the chemical weapons used against Iraq's Kurds in 1988. Really, it's highly dubious any American intervention would be characterized by Humanitarian traits, nor that it would be limited to sending arms. That wasn't the case in the Former Yugoslavia, where NATO bombed water treatment plants and spread Depleted Uranium. So I seriously doubt whether US military action would have a beneficial effect in Damascus. It doesn't follow that I deny the Syrian rebels every potential opportunity to acquire arms. And the Israeli factor in this equation? Don't even get me started! I don't support Russian policy in this area, nor Vladimir Putin, nor Assad. But where is it written in stone that the United States MUST get involved in EVERY civil war, or "Revolution," as it were? Habitual aggressors like US Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain no doubt condemn everyone like me; we believe the imperitive that the US mind its OWN, REAL strategic business outweighs America's SUPPOSED "Humanitarian Impulse." Their bellicose rhetoric is quite tacky, and the idea that ALL those who rebel against Assad deserve American weapons is questionable, at best. Seems to me there are some very uncouth elements within the insurgency. The enemy of my enemy isn't always my friend. Doubtless Senators Graham and McCain propose that I must be on the side of the Syrian regime. Nonsense. The United States always being assigned the role of "International Savior" isn't logical, legal, sustainable or sensible. Especially considering its recent history.

Go, "Fast Eddie!"

Best of luck to you, Edward Snowden. I can't thank you enough for the incredible public service you've done on behalf of all conscious Americans, and citizens of the world. Not to say anything of your courage. Did they ever call you "Fast Eddie" in High School? Run, Eddie, RUN!

I stand with Tom Hayden: No US war in Syria.

I have no sympathy for the neo-imperialist, ultra-interventionist 11% of Americans who favor the prospect of a truly insane intervention in Syria. Wasn't the Iraq War, and the false pretenses under which it was waged a severe enough lesson for people like that? Once you arm the rebels and impose the no-fly-zone, the presence of US troops on the ground becomes a distinct possibility. Mr. Obama, are you really willing to risk another Neocon-grade American catastrophe in the Mid-east!?! God I HOPE NOT! I'm truly sorry for the suffering of the Syrian people - really! I just don't think the USA should, could, make things any better. I know America's record of militarisitic adventurism, especially since 1945. It's neither justifiable, nor helpful.The de-facto role the USA plays as World Police Officer is an illegitimate one. http://tomhayden.com/home/can-public-opinion-stop-us-war-in-syria-1.html

Through a PRISM, darkly

Me? Surprised by "PRISM?" Hardly. I remember the 1970s, when hearings were held on Capitol Hill, in "response" to revelations that the National Security Agency had been eavesdropping like crazy on Americans' phone calls and surreptitiously opening and reading our letters for more than two decades. Not to mention the malfeasance of the CIA and other agencies. One result of the nation-wide outrage was the 1978 establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, supposedly as a guard against warrentless spying by the "Intelligence Community." Well, the FISA Court has served as a kind of star chamber all along; its real function was only to facilitate these monstrous invasions of privacy. During the Bush years, things went from bad to worse, with FISA's 11-judge panel meeting regularly in a vault at the "Justice Department" (it still does) to approve extensive wiretapping. It's such a goddamn "Kangaroo Court!" According to FISA provisions, in order to spy on American citizens, a warrant of sorts is required - 72 hours AFTER the surveillance begins! During the George W. Bush regime, the FISA Court turned down a mere FIVE requests to spy on the citizenry, to the best of my knowledge. So I was disgusted, of course, when reports of the latest enormous "monitoring" were made public on Wednesday and Thursday. But shocked I was not. And I cannot believe anything is going to improve anytime soon, what with Obama's spirited defense of the indefensible. And the underwhelming apathy, overall, of the American citizenry. Still, I'm in complete awe of Glenn Greenwald for bravely publicizing this. I only hope he manages to emerge unscathed; he currently lives in Brazil most of the time - but that may not be nearly far enough away! Most Americans, apparently, aren't too worried about giving up more of their liberties. Most Americans are extremely happy to exchange what's left of their rights for that most elusive and illusory state of affairs. The tens of millions of severely misguided among us call it "Security."

Time for a rational cannabis policy

This development is of course, not surprising, considering the absurd and offensive campaign waged in the 1920s and '30s to scapegoat pot-smoking blacks and their "pernicious" Jazz music for causing egregious levels of "street crime." There is a solution for this type of violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause - it's called LEGALIZATION, and it should be extended to the 48 other states besides Washington and Colorado. http://blog.norml.org/2013/06/04/minorities-disproportionately-arrested-in-u-s-for-marijuana/

EMERGENCY in the Badger State

EMERGENCY. A done deal, but still a loud and insistent SOS. Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature have, for the most part, passed their vile and punitive budget, including multiple measures that make Austerity look like a good time. Where are the 175,000 incensed protesters we had on just one fine day in Winter/Spring 2011, surounding that GOP Hall of Shame, OUR State Capitol? We have no choice, in moral terms, but to rally against the ruin of the Badger State. Even if it IS too late, we MUST return to the burdensome business of saying: "This Shall Not, Can Not Pass!" You're needed NOW. http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=40092

Fast and Furious

It's all coming down so fast and furious, and is so odious, even the Republican-leaning Wisconsin State Journal editorial board had to take notice: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/don-t-boot-center-from-campus/article_e8db3a8c-573e-5aeb-8966-da06e8f9984f.html

Wisconsin 49th in economic forecast

Did you notice when you looked at the map in this article, all the states with the lowest/negative forecasts have Republican Governors? We MUST return to the streets, en masse. We can possibly endure, in physical terms, the destruction of our beloved home state. For a while. But if we don't MASSIVELY demonstrate and simply make it IMPOSSIBLE for Repubs to go about their evil business, all we're gonna be left with is our tears. Crying might make us feel a little better, but it's not very constructive. http://www.jsonline.com/business/fed-index-ranks-wisconsin-49th-in-economic-outlook-b9927135z1-210333771.html

SWOONING

The sheer, unadulterated level of GOP corruption is literally making me swoon as I type these words. The Repubs, with some significant level of enabling on the part of select Democrats, are undoing a social contract that dates back not just to the the Eisenhower and FDR administrations. Some of what has been lost is a century old and more, like the right for state workers to collecrtively bargain in any meaningful sense. Ah, but I digress; this particular link concerns the unspeakable, institutionalized graft that is being written into law this spring. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/bail-bondsmen-lake-michigan-among-special-interest-items-in-budget-plan-b9927006z1-210231371.html

I REMEMBER

Obviously, profound loss is an inevitable and normal part of the human experience, and those of us who dwell excessively on that which is missing - for instance, obsessing upon those who have gone before and are now beyond - should, in the simplistic sense, Get Over It. But often I find myself unable to do just that. Yes, we are justifiably criticized for living in the past. On the other hand, extreme neurotics who are hopelessly out of touch with the times, and who REMEMBER things others have blessedly been able to forget, are an indispensable resource for historians. I know this is very Un-American, this life-long remembrance of previous people and events. Examples abound: How many Americans now recall NIXON's use of the IRS to target those on HIS enemies list? Yes, I'm mixing metaphors today; probably the major point I have in mind is how very INTERESTING clinical depression and other psychic pathologies can be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4O0MC5HQwI

I'd like a lemon-flavored preemptive swab!

You are presumed guilty if ever arrested for a serious offense. Go ahead, swab me down, Supremes! I don't mind relinquishing what little freedom I had - I never used it enough, anyway. And who'd have ever guessed Antonin Scalia had any qualms about preemptive DNA testing? It's a wonderful world, this Maximum Security Utopia of ours! http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Maryland_v_King_No_12207_2013_BL_143974_US_June_03_2013_Court_Opi

Social Security has a $2.8 trillion SURPLUS

Wall Street is salivating at the prospect of expropriating this, just as the One Percent has gleefully stolen nearly every other public surplus they could get their vile and greedy hands on: https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/05/31-7

Dissociative in Chief

I've come to think that someone who continually talks up the need for peace, then goes right ahead with his interminable war plans and actions... well, let me just say I believe Barack Obama is now in a dissociative state. You can't preach peace so frequently, then casually add more names to each week's "Tuesday Morning kill list" without experiencing some level of mental aberration. A disorder that was perhaps already latent, but is now fully blown in his presidential life. Seek professional help, Mr. Obama!

The Medea

Well, it turns out Barack Obama doesn't have the Secret Service keep the door barred against Medea Benjamin's entrance. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise that powerhouse of truth and justice would not have gained admittance to the President's latest press briefing - wherein Obama newly informed us - and I'd be absolutely shocked if he really MEANT it - that the 2001 Authorization Of Force enabling apparently permanent "war on terror" needs to end SOME DAY. And Guantanamo must close. And there needs to be SOME level of restraint on unmanned aerial drone warfare. Wow - many of these are positions President-elect Obama maintained... in 2009! And so, Mr. President... we just need to know now that you are really SINCERE. Oh, shucks, never mind. This must be one of Obama's famous tantalizing, tentative verbalisms, nothing more. Still, three cheers for Medea Benjamin, who helped bring about this wondrous change - temporary, of course, just like all those previous about-faces. At least she got Barack Obama to issue forth some relatively positive, progressive, RHETORIC. I doubt, however, that this will result in serious policy transformation. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/code-pink-activist-medea-benjamin-heckles-obama-195521792.html

"Where's my Meals on Wheels?"

I suppose I've seen everything now! Will Barack Obama actually Roll Over And Die for the likes of John Boner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell? Nothing along those lines would surprise me now, here in post-Sequester Amerika. That terrible Sequester, the one that Obama has notably contributed to, with his ceaseless concessions every time Congressional Repubs roll out their chopping block! Still, what the fork just happened? I admit I took a while off of Farcebook, and was kind of away from the bulk of the digital news. Especially after learning Mark Zuckerberg has a new PAC that supports a bunch of bad things, including the Keystone XL Pipeline. I must be dreaming. I mean, Benghazi? Might as well dredge up Teapot Dome, for all that. Hell, at least THAT was a REAL scandal! And remember, RepublicCONs like Darrell Issa and Jason Chaffetz were the ones who cut the State Department's security budget! It's all a big set-up, apparently - Obama appears to be some kind of a "plant," a right-wing operative in Dem's clothing called upon to "take a fall." Even Jimmy Carter fought harder to maintain his pathetic sinecure! OK, this is just too disgusting to watch, and I'll shut up, but not before asking: Did you notice how many more grey hairs Obama seems to have got on his somewhat pointy head just within the last few weeks? "DUDE, what happened to my Meals on Wheels!?!"

Wisconsin Gulag revisited

This is one of those subjects that can't help but annoy. What's so particularly frustrating about Wisconsin's exceedingly racist, punitive policies? First of all... it doesn't need to be this way! Any number of possible solutions are being... ignored! Amazingly enough, during the Doyle administration, a few promising reforms were proposed. The tone employed within statistically limited but important governing (Dem) sectors was a good sign: "We can't keep on acting as if we're going to lock up the whole state... can we?" That was just a minor evolution from the bad old days of Republican Tommy Thompson and his 1998 "Truth in Sentencing" Craze. It was gratifying to perceive growing recognition among thoughtful individuals that our draconian law enforcement priorities must be altered. Interesting and persistent fact: When our Gulag is discussed at all, one quickly encounters a widely shared belief that this odious "discrepancy" is ONE nation-wide distiction we should seek immediately to change. Change needs to happen where it most matters, at the county level. Simply stop locking people up for victimless crimes, for economic crimes. It's true we need restructuring at a more fundamental socio-economic level; that argument is for another day. For now, just incarcerate fewer people! Culmination? A lot of words were spoken and a lot of meetings held. Certain measures were passed around that time enabling the release of (far too few) non-violent inmates. Doing so would have made sense from the point of view of proportionality, of comon sense. Some of us even believed it was actually gonna happen! Then... in 2011 we got saddled with the de facto racist Scott Walker Regime. A regime that from the very beginning insisted the corrupt and vile Status Quo must not yield. No early release, no mercy, no sanity. Only the peculiar prospect, not easily confronted, of further years inhabiting that most imprisoned society... Ours! Whether inside the Walls or out, no getting away from that disturbing reality. Above all, no Human Decency - least of all from the sick and twisted GOP majority in both Houses. Republicans - with some significant Dem complicity - go on implementing policies that insure the public will continue to subsidize an exorbitant Wisconsin Gulag, at the expense of the Wisconsin Idea. http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/24/178817911/wisconsin-locks-up-

All the way with EPA

If sacrosanct Private Enterprise works so well all the time, why did it take Dwight Eisenhower's personal intervention to get the Interstate Highway System off the ground? The Free Enterprise System (a total misnomer; it's neither free nor a system - more like a patchwork) wasn't ever going to get those roads constructed. If "Free Markets" are ALWAYS so blasted successful in the realm of public transportation, why did privately-owned passenger rail go bankrupt just before the "Gub'mint" stepped in and created Amtrak? (Pennsylvania Road, for instance; it filed for bankruptcy June 21, 1970). Why did Chrysler get government bailouts in 1979 and again in 2008-2009? Why did GM also need to be rescued by taxpayers four years ago? And I seriously doubt it was the good will of America's greed-obsessed CEOs, ratther than a vigorous regulatory regime (EPA established by Nixon, 1970) coupled with decades of de-industrialization, that changed the look and smell of the skies over our big cities. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/12/smog-photos-1970s-america

One milimeter's distance

On the one hand, you have the virulent GOP mouth-breathers: Rand Paul, who wants to obliterate bank robbers with drone technology, and Ann Coulter, the dragon lady of the Reprehensible Right. On the other, you have the Obama adminstration, which only wants to forgo reading Dzhokhtar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights, claiming a Public Safety Exception. All in all, a pretty good indication of the difference of opinion with respect to civil liberties between our nations's "tough liberals" and "apeshit-crazy extremists." There is a clear distinction to be made. If you hold your thumb one milimeter distant from your index finger, you'll perceive the aforementioned ideological chasm. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/23/ann-coulter-on-bombing-suspects-wife-she-ought-to-be-in-prison-for-wearing-a-hijab-and/

Terror, if not Terrorism

Here's a kind of terror, if not Terrorism, that few Americans seem to concern themselves with. Not making any commentary on the propriety of joining the military. Certainly not making any critique of the loss of foreign lives as a result of our military adventurism - I've come to recognize a "Non-issue," where it exists, in the minds of most of my fellow countrymen and women. But for Hell's sake, these victims are suffering - next time folks want to obsess overmuch about the deplorable bombings in Copley Square, maybe they should keep in mind what goes on, largely unreported and unpunished, in the ranks of our supposedly heroic, and very peculiar institutions. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-rape-of-petty-officer-blumer-20130214 "The Rape of Petty Officer Blumer Inside the military's culture of sex abuse, denial and cover-up" P.S: Not trying to draw a DIRECT parallel. Just had to comment in some meaningful way on this sick and sickening phenomenon.

KRUD-FM

I've listened to this exactly 12,428 times, just in the last two years. They play it pretty frequently on KRUD-FM. I do love the song. I tried, and tried, time and again, to "Be the Change." Then I got completely sick of trying to be something I ain't, stuck my head out the 1974 Ford Galaxie's (with rust all over the body) window, and jeered at a power walker all decked out in spandex as he shimmied by. Forgive me Jesus! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtzIWPeun7c Styx Fooling Yourself Lyrics Written by tommy shaw Lead vocals by tommy shaw You see the world through your cynical eyes You're a troubled young man i can tell You've got it all in the palm of your hand But your hand's wet with sweat and your head needs a rest And you're fooling yourself if you don't believe it You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it How can you be such an angry young man When your future looks quite bright to me How can there be such a sinister plan That could hide such a lamb, such a caring young man You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it Get up, get back on your feet You're the one they can't beat and you know it Come on, let's see what you've got Just take your best shot and don't blow it You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it You're killing yourself if you don't believe it Get up, get back on your feet You're the one they can't beat and you know it Come on, let's see what you've got Just take your best shot and don't blow it

"What's With The Weather!?!"

"Sunday Telegraph, August 28, 1977: WEATHER MEN AT A LOSS... 'What is happening to the British weather? That seemingly innocuous question has suddenly become a major question for research. Even the meteorologists are cautiously echoing the man in the street's opinion that something distinctly odd has been affecting our climate to give us the extremes of the past two years... Many countries have experienced strange weather phenomena over the same period. Mr. Edwin P. Weigel of the United States Weather Bureau in Washington told me: - We don't know what's hit us. California and other western states have had two years of drought which have smashed all-time records. Water is being rationed in some parts... There are several shades of opinion on how ominous it all is and there is only a very shaky consensus on how unusual such extremities really are...' The official attitude, however, was still guarded. Experts who knew the real truth were anxious not to provoke mass panic. Kevin Miles of the Meteorological Office's 40-strong climatic research team at Bracknell, Berkshire, was quoted in this Sunday Telegraph article as saying: 'We must agree that what we have been experiencing is unusual. Reports from all over the world have confirmed our own picture of increased variability. But we have learned not to over-react to what might be seen as odd in several small parts of the globe.'" (P. 103) http://www.amazon.com/Alternative-003-3-Leslie-Watkins/dp/0380446774/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1366591604&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=alternative+three+leslie+watkins+1978

Clear as an Azure Sky but Questions Remain

IT would seem some clarification is in order after things I've written recently. The hyper-militarization of American police agencies, coupled with a draconian intensification of statutory law, makes me uneasy. My sense of the current attitude prevailing toward the present US civil liberties climate, is this: "Hey, go ahead and take away our freedom; we weren't really using it much, anyway." And so you wouldn't have found me on the streets of Watertown, cheerleading and applauding the SWAT teams that took the young man into custody. He's still supposed to receive the presumption of innocence, BTW; yet all the media sources I saw/heard yesterday instantly jumped on the opportunity to shout: "They got him - we're safe now!" I really doubt the entire Boston Metropolitan Area needed to be locked down during the manhunt; that seems grossly disproportionate to the actual threat. I also dread that eventuality becoming a commonplace and shiver a little when I imagine that strategy migrating from The Coast to our Heartland. Actually, Chicago was locked down a couple years ago in anticipation of peaceful protests when the NATO Summit met there. I am enough of a realist to recognize it's just a matter of time before even a relative backwater like Madison gets equal treatment. Yet it wouldn't do not to add: I'm appalled, and yes, angered by the bombing at the Boston Marathon. No doubt I haven't done enough to mourn the loss of three innocent lives, and the wounding of 180. But I can't help but wonder why a couple of young Chechen brothers, one of whom, anyway, whose friends and acquaintances described as an affable, low-key individual, would target such an innocuous event. The typical "terrorist profile" all too often just doesn't hold water these days and many times it seems the FBI has gone far out of their way to entrap an unsophisticated young person. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/20/boston-marathon-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-mirnada-rights

Downtown Madison, and its Bright White Exurbs too

I'm on a roll tonight, had multiple cups of caffeinated bliss earlier. So here's an extension of an earlier theme, re-christened: "Downtown Madison, and its Bright White Exurbs too:" A free-speech violating "anti-panhandling ordinance" in effect that covers all of State Street and the Capitol Square. A formerly liberal mayor who proposes buying Madtown's homeless a bunch of one-way bus tickets to anywhere else. A popular frat-boy pastime: kicking and yelling at people sleeping on cardboard boxes just after bartime. And thousands of understandably insecure college students, mostly looking over their shoulders with a worried expression, lest they should commit the slightest transgression against the new National Security Paradise we all inhabit. Or, to end up right where we started from, anticipating someone may be lurking in an alley or bus shelter, with sinister thoughts of stealing your I-Phone. Other than that, a pretty civil place. And of course, the homeless aren't even left in peace when they occupy our frozen tundra county parks, miles from the nearest bus stop, or the privately-owned cornfield of a good man, threatened with $17,000 in fines merely for trying to help out people in need. Then there are those upstanding, respectable multitudes of well-scrubbed, law-abiding, "grown-up" working stiffs, who know better than before that if you "work hard and play by the rules," all will be well. That's what Bill Clinton told us. But keep in mind: All the Rules. All the Time. Never stretch the slightest little regulation, and if so, be prepared to suffer the gravest consequences. In your scared little mind, at least. After all, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Not even The PATRIOT Act. You, unlike the Congress who passed it, actually read it; you bend over backwards daily to abide by its terms. When you get out there in the Upscale World, make damn certain you limit your socio-political agitation to that which receives total judicial approval, and will, as far as can be presently envisaged, never be legally proscribed. Portray yourself as the Great Humanitarian during your Sunday prayers or nightly Yoga session. They don't break down your door in the middle of the night for THAT kind of escapist engagement. Hesitate not to call the Police at the slightest hint economic discord may be breaking bottles in a street near you, Oh Ye of the formerly anti-authoritarian persuasion. Ms. Officer Friendly is now YOUR friend, since you've come to comprehend that your own personal safety is the ultimate measure of what creates a livable, breathable Culture World. Snug as a bug in a gated community's Rug, you feel ecstatic, euphoric. Mr. Assistant District Attorney is no longer "The Enemy," but rather, "On The Other Side." That is, if truth be told, YOUR side. And what could be more natural, now that you've used his High Office as a political weapon against those of just a tad lower Monetary or Academic Class than you conveniently find yourself these days. This is directed at Everyone in particular and No one in General. Goodbye forever, Mifflin Street Block Party; I loved you.

"Yusef! Yusef!" "Central Park! Central Park!"

I was in New York City on Hitler's 100th birthday, April 20, 1989. I woke up, and it was like at least 50% of white New York had become one vast electronic-media directed lynch mob. This is why the presumption of innocence is so vital to maintaining the last vestiges of our phony democracy. http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/ Then, as if in response that August: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Yusef_Hawkins

Hasta la Vista Hotmail

Hotmail is no more, and all the stuff I wrote and all the pictures I took and a whole lot more besides I had stored "there" are now down the memory hole without a trace. So long Hotmail. RIP. Thanks for all the free clicks.

Zimmerman's Warning

Oh sure, I like to jest. But there ARE witches, the Zimmerman Telegram was genuine, and the Lord of Hosts is REAL, right down to his generous application of fire and brimstone. HE is every bit as authentic as Santa Claus, The Boogeyman and Bigfoot. Fear God, follow God and remember Tituba!

Fewer Wars, More Peter Sellers

I LOVE Boston. Some people I know grew up there, and had unhappy childhoods. I didn't, and both my visits were superb. And MEMORABLE. But I must add... and I feel bad about having to say it... On the way to the library I was wondering... "Well, what new repressive measures will be implemented as a result of these deplorable acts?" Most of us are inclined to remember April 1995 and September 2001 - how could we forget? Especially the (apparently) permanent negative impact of those events. "Dude, where's my Bill of Rights?" Let us travel no further in the wrong direction. We need more democracy, not less. Fewer wars, and more Peter Sellers movies. (I'd say "No War," but in America the very idea is preposterous). We need more Linus Paulings, Fannie Lou Hamers, Benjamin Spocks, Cindy Sheehans and Medea Benjamins. No more Lyndon Johnsons, Hillary Clintons, Richard Nixons, Ronald Reagans and Barack Obamas. Yes, I now favor impeaching the incumbent, but not for the same reasons the Right Wing Nuts do. Mr. Obama has become a fully naturalized war criminal. I regret, but do not disown, this digression. But I am sorry anyway.

Arsewipe

Toilet paper, napkin and paper towel pilferage - the last frontier of the essentially risk-free five-finger discount. Just DO IT.

Murk David Chumpman

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first—rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." John Lennon, 1966 Here's a look back in anger, for me. Read it in two nights, up till dawn both times. A somewhat amateurish effort, but it brought back a day I'd never forgot anyway. And I learned a few choice facts I didn't before. http://books.google.com/books?id=7UKCnjSx5dAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dec+8+1980+the+day+john+lennon+dies+google+books&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MQ9rUcr3JOLh4APeiYCAAg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Fearsome Freitag; I would like this but I hate it. I LOVE it.

Today is a haughty GRIM and DIM, with much GLOOM and DOOM. A floundered Fiend's reeking Redoubt, made impossible by Din and Sin. In Cheapskate Marshes, our Laddy of the mean and lean, Ultra-Gothic Wisconsin. I rode a reedy ride out to Goodland County Part; everythang was so untoward it was as a trip to Alucard's Castle of the High Carpathians. Then I stooped into my favorite Jesus Store, but it was closed for the up-and-coming Apo-Calypso Festival. So allow me to share with all and sundry my Motto in the Grotto: Welcome to the Sourpuss Memorial Library Theme Park, home to the Super-Dooper-Long-Faced Lesbian Thespian. Or, as Judas Priest would have it, "Any Port-a-Potty in a Shitstorm!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8TGVMYfxk