American Realistan

Just the other day, Cindy Sheehan announced that she’s had enough and isn’t going to play in the jungle known as the American political scene anymore. She was quite harsh in her comments, saying among other things:

“I’ve been wondering why I’m killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush”

The lame excuses offered by the Democrats for doing so can be sampled here.

Sheehan also added this scathing observation:

“I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the ‘left’ started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used.”

I’ve been in her shoes, trying to lead those who are too busy, or have “other priorities” which prevent them from doing the heavy lifting necessary to achieve common goals which they claim to desire. But fail to realize these wishes, and you have become the lowest of the low, lower even than those who cause delayed gratification, and you discover who your friends really are. It isn’t a long list.

In addition, Cindy Sheehan had this assessment of her fellow Americans:

“Casey did indeed die for nothing … killed by his own country, which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. You are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now.”

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If there is one thing that can be said to characterize the White population of the United States, that one thing might be defined as a sense of entitlement, an innate belief that Whites DESERVE the prosperity enjoyed since the end of World War II as the reward for three centuries of conquering all that stood in the way of the progress of the self-appointed superior race. After all, did White Americans not gain a vast territory to exploit at the expense of the Red Natives and their Brown cousins? Was not the first measure of agricultural abundance and prosperity for the elites created through the enslavement of African Blacks to provide almost-free labor? Did not the early modern American Industrial Revolution (in the form of the railroad) benefit greatly from the exploitation of the Yellow men of Asia?The one problem for the White population of the United States is that if one race seeks and achieves dominance, one must also accept the fact that the other races will seek to become the replacement dominant. Such an effort on the part of perceived inferiors would create the fear-driven imperative in the existing dominant portion of the society to maintain a privileged position and a superior status lest they suffer the fate that they themselves inflicted on the others to become dominant. In other words, when one enslaves another, one is himself enslaved. One cannot ever let down as Master lest Slave take over and reverse the roles to be played.

Such is the case today. The exploiters of the many for the benefit the few (read: the wealthy and racist elements of the Republican Party) are facing the growing likelihood that their days as top dog are numbered and dwindling. Nothing strikes more fear into their hearts than the idea that they soon won’t be Number One.

Eventually, they won’t even be Numero Dos.

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As time passes, it’s becoming clear to me that much of what is occurring politically in this nation today is motivated by a desire to reestablish white supremacy in this nation. I’m going to document this in coming posts, but I had to get the topic framed in my own mind in order to get organized about my presentation. I hardly know where to begin.

Perhaps the place to start is in the assertion of investigative reporter Greg Palast that the coming 2008 presidential election is already in the process of being stolen. Palast tells BuzzFlash that

When I say the 2008 race has already been stolen, about a million and a half voter registrations have been turned down. Even though there have been massive voter registration drives among Hispanics and African Americans, as the churches fill up the bucket, there’s a hole in the bucket where the registrations are being dumped.

If you’re reading this and you’re white, you don’t know what a provisional ballot is. If you’re reading this and you’re black, you were the ones that got one. It’s that simple. We have one ballot for black folk, one ballot for white folk. And the black ballot is a provisional ballot and it does not get counted. And that’s how it was coming down in the United States of America.

Vote theft is mainly a racial issue in America, and it’s a class issue. …it’s the millionaires versus us. The last thing that they want is poor people to vote.

The prosecutor firings were 100% about influencing elections… Karl Rove directed a guy named Tim Griffin to target suppressing the votes of African American students, homeless men, and soldiers. White voters better start thinking about the need to protect the black vote, because your vote ain’t safe if it gets cancelled out by Karl Rove when they take away a Hispanic voter’s right to vote. You can have a nice, neat paper ballot they will count, but they’re laughing at you because they just purged fifteen Hispanics.

I mentioned something about this to one of my Black coworkers, and he said “It’s alright. I’ve still got my gun.” It’s an attitude that is matched across the race divide, and that is only the beginning.

Time does not allow me to continue this further, but I will return to this topic. I have much more that indicates we are headed in the direction that will destroy what’s left of the republic, and that the people are being subtly massaged by stories in the so-called liberal media and by emotional appeals to “reason” emanating from the Republican Party.

Guardian photographer Sean Smith is on his fifth trip to Iraq, embedded with the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division near Baghdad. He describes the massive disparity between White House happy talk and the reality in Iraq:

I am seeing the country through the eyes of the occupiers. There is no way I can tell the whole story. It reminds you of John Boorman’s film Deliverance; you never know what will be around the next corner.

The only contact the soldiers have with the local population is in stress situations - when a search is being conducted or IDs checked. Mostly, the locals know what to do when they are confronted by a patrol - stop whatever they’re doing, get out of their car, explain who they are. And do it quickly - or you run the risk of being shot.

This isn’t about governing Iraq; it’s just trying to demonstrate nowhere is out of bounds. There is no effective administration here and the Iraqi army is a fiction. I can’t emphasise enough what a slog this is for the troops. They’re good soldiers, sent to do an impossible political job, so at the moment it’s not much more than putting one foot in front of the other and showing they are there.

Showing they are there is about all the Congressional Republicans are managing to accomplish in their dealings with the White House. “There are a lot of people on the Republican side who are not happy with the situation,” said Trent Lott.

Don’t stop there, Helmet Hair!

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This is America, the land of free speech - as long as it isn’t attempted on private property or intended to reach a disconnected public official. George W Bush likes to proclaim that America’s soldiers are fighting to protect our freedoms, and yet he and his administration officials are doing all that they can to limit or destroy these very rights. They are now again assaulting free speech rights.
Our nations soldiers do not surrender all of their citizenship rights when they enlist. They can still vote. They still have - with certain understandable and logical exceptions - most of their free speech rights. The Universal Code of Military Justice clearly defines the circumstances when their free speech rights don’t apply.

But that isn’t good enough for The Commander Guy. He has had one of his lackeys in the Pentagon - Robert L. Wilkie - issue “guidelines” restricting Congressional testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by President Bush.

The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents.

He will fail in this attempt as he had every other in his life:

[V]eterans of the legislative process — who say they have never heard of such guidelines before — maintain that the Pentagon has no authority to set such ground rules. The guidelines would not affect congressional subpoenas, which can compel anyone to appear before lawmakers. As a result, several lawmakers have pledged privately to use that power if the Pentagon’s guidelines stymie their efforts to get information from specific sectors of the military.

His insane little world is falling apart.
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Earth to George the Commander Guy! There comes a time when that’s all you can stands, and you can’t stands no more! That time is now!

Just the other day, the US “Government” of Iraq was chided by the US “Government” of the US over plans to take two months off. “For the Iraqi parliament to take a two-month vacation in the middle of summer is impossible to understand,” said U.S. Ambassador in Iraq Ryan Crocker.

Let’s see - no power 99% of the time thanks to Shock & Awe, and summer in Baghdad being when it’s needed most as the temperatures reach 55 degrees Celcius (that’s 131 degress Fahrenheit for all of you Yellow Elephant Wimps-First-Class of the 101st Fighting Keyboards - hotter than Death Valley, Ca. ever got!) - now just WHY would a puppet deliberative body with many issues among themselves (and between them and their American petroleum Strombolis) decide that maybe it was time to seek a cooler clime? Have they forgotten that they have yet to finish passing that law which donates much of their known oil reserves to American companies? The nerve! How much higher do the oil companies need to raise the pump price of gas in the United States in order to stay in business long enough for those Baghdad Bagmen to see the light and do their duty for Texas and the Republican Party?

Sometimes the applied pressure proves to be excessive. Rather than give away their natural resources through legal chicanery before they took a break, the Iraqi Parliament instead passed a motion calling for the Yankees to go home.

It only took two years for the puppets to unstopper their ears and hear the voice of the Iraqi people!

Here’s what the Iraqi people had to say to their “government”:

For at least two years, poll after poll has shown that large majorities of Iraqis of all ethnicities and sects want the United States to set a timeline for withdrawal, even though (in the case of Baghdad residents), they expect the security situation to deteriorate in the short term as a result.

Maybe it’s time for George to cease nation building in Iraq and start nation rebuilding in the United States of America. But then rebuilding doesn’t appear to be in his plans. Immediately after releasing wanted-in-three-nations airplane bomber and hotel terror murderer Luis Posada Carriles (AKA “Terrorista Cubana”), Bush ordered federal agencies to plan for a surprise, “decapitating” attack.

Is the pressure from the Congressional investigations, and the increasing numbers of Republicans opposing his war plans, and many more openly calling for the impeachment decapitation of the Bush regime, finally getting to the Son King-ster?

Maybe! With 58% of Americans “personally wishing that George W. Bush’s presidency was over” and 39% of Americans wanting Bush and Cheney to be impeached, one cannot meekly submit to the will of those mere humans over which one rules triumphant! Better to give them a hot time in that quaint ol’ DC town and flash them out of His misery with a glorious atomic martyrdom!

Such an act of ‘terrism’ - decapitating the federal government by drowning it’s cradle in a bath of radioactive Hell - would give the Commander Guy all the justification he needs to stop pretending that he’s the leader of a democratic republic, and also would facilitate his transformation into the true world tyrant he was born to be. As was said in Blazing Saddles, he needs to demonstrate that “he’s just crazy enough to do it!” How else would anyone take his claim to solitary world rule seriously?

Besides - with even Latin American cocaine traffickers preferring the euro over the dollar, it’s time to grab total power and abandon plans of vast decadent wealth before the value of the buck stops lower than George’s approval rating.

Götterdämnitt!!!

NOTE: I didn’t create the post title. It comes from a song composed by Don Davis for the film The Matrix Revolutions. No connection between the song and my post is implied or intended. The song title just worked well for my post’s purposes.

“Nobody loves me but my mommie
- and she could be jivin’ me too!”

It’s hard for a Deciderer inside the Beltway these days, what with no one understanding why it was necessary to release wanted terrorist Luis Posada Carilles from custody after all those years of spouting voluminous aphorisms such as “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

As the book George claims to revere more than any other says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16 )

And where is the respect for the Edjimikashun Predzidint? Not only is Kansas abandoning their rigid adherence to his treasured “Abstinence Is All You Need” program, but when George speaks in Latrobe, Pa. at the Benedictine-run Saint Vincent College, which is headed by his handmaiden, the former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives program - Jim Towey - why, there will actually be a protest against George, the Commander Guy!

Has the National Guard forgotten how to deal with protesters? Oh, wait! They’re all in Iraq or Afghanistan, with the remaining few cleaning up Greensburg, Kansas right now. No time for predzidents!

And what of his ability to reach out to the American people for love and understanding? That seems not to be working too well right now either. Viewers are abandoning the “mainstream” media in droves, especially from the ill-considered Glenn Beck of Official Oval Office Offal Eater CNN. As a result, it’s so much harder to get the American people to see the necessity for the veto of the oil war funding bill, a vital act necessary for the White House to reverse the lie that his approval rating is emptier than a $4/gal. gas tank in a suburban Humvee.

But what of his inner circle of Bushies? They are True Red and loyal, aren’t they? Maybe not. At least 20 have abandoned him in the last six months worth of his hour of need. Few are banging on the front doors of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to apply for the many vacant positions for vacant partisan minds.

Will he be able to draw replacements from the business community from which most of them sprang? Not if the National Association of Manufacturers is any indication. David Sirota reports that the membership of said business group are tired of their leadership sucking Republican big toes like Dick Morris during a visit by the DC Madam’s girls, and want to pressure the Congress to cease “lobbyist-written trade policies” which are “hurting domestic manufacturers (aka. NAM members).” Money talks, and the Bushitter walks!

But is this not the group which contains the Havemores, George’s base? How could they be thinking of their own welfare at a time when their leader needs their assistance? It’s an outrage! It’s mutiny! Why, he should call out the Praetorian Guard, er, the military!

(Psssst! Don’t look now, George, but the retired generals are taking up the cause of those generals still on active duty, those who cannot act against you due to the oath they swore upon commission as officers. The retirees - Generals Wesley Clarke, John Batiste, and Paul Eaton - are buying media time for an ad campaign [Watch it!] intended to further erode public support for your failed oil war in order to save what remains of the American military. May the Freeway Blogger add this topic to his efforts to impeach George!!)

Don’t think George is completely without friends! There’s always the broad shoulder of Wealthy Texas to cry on. But as Jon Ponder of Pensito Review puts it, “There’s no hope George Bush will learn anything from his failed presidency.” Not even to rely upon crooked Texans like Tom DeLay, who will be too busy covering his own sorry hide to worry about George’s.

It’s a good thing George already knows how to pose with a guitar, for then we’ll all understand when he sings:

“Now you see why I act funny baby,
When I do the things I do”

Only we won’t be laughing.

[Abundant obsequious apologies to BB King for abusing his famous lyric for political purposes!]

When disaster strikes a community, as it did Greensburg, Kansas, one expects that the president will offer aid to the recovery effort.

But prior to this, Bush has done everything in his power to prevent aid from reaching American citizens in need due to local natural disaster. For example, The Kansas National Guard only has about 40 percent of the equipment it is allotted available to use in the recovery because much of it is in Iraq.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Kansas lacked about half of their dump trucks and front loaders necessary for recovery efforts and debris removal. More than 20 percent of its Humvees and 15 of 19 helicopters were sent to Iraq, the governor added. Kansas Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson said because of the shortage of National Guard equipment, the state was rushing to hire contractors to help clear debris.

To make matters worse, a second deadly tornado hit another area of the state, leaving Gov. Sebelius to lament, “We have the need for National Guard in two different parts of our state now.” Unfortunately, Iraq and Afghanistan have more of them than does Kansas. only about 70 Kansas National Guard troops were available to supplement about 40 troops already in Greensburg.

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I have a hard time listening to Republican blowhards who present themselves as the answer to all of our problems, so forcing myself to listen to the entire Republican debate took a lot of effort.One thing I have to note is that MSNBC sent up softball pitcher Chris Mathews over fireballer Brian Williams, who threw heat against the Democrats. If MSNBC had a real sense that presenting the news is much more important than making it, they would have the honesty to reverse the order and send up the softballer to moderate the Democrats and sic Williams on the Republicans. Then we might get a real sense of where the Republican candidatess stand on the issues.

As it stands, Brent Budowsky considered the debates “a waste”:

In neither debate did any of the candidates saying anything important, or memorable, or relevant to the outcome. What we heard, in the Democratic debate, and now the Republican debate, was a feast of gaseous emissions in a political discourse already too polluted. None of the Democrats were JFK; none of the Republicans were Reagan; none of this was a surprise; and none of it mattered either to the quality of our national discussion, the standings of the candidates, or the verdict of history, will which remember none of this.

We will not get that debate from a leadership class that is obsessed with the politics of its own advancement and lacks the courage, clarity and honor to make the hard decisions of life, death and blood that the situation urgently calls for, and our people urgently pray for.

I agree.

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A tisket, a tasket,
Impeachment if we ask it…

Two of my regular readers (they know who they are!) independently sent me certain details concerning Nancy Pelosi reversing her declaration that Impeachment was “off the table” due to the huge outcry to do so by the delegates to the California Democratic Convention.

This comes hard on the heels of Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s call for impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Kucinich was supported by Mayors Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City and John Shields of Nyack, NY; Washington State Senator Eric Oemig; Arcata [CA] City Councilman Dave Meserve; and former government officials, including Daniel Ellsberg; David MacMichael, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency and a member of the steering committee of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright, a career diplomat who quit in protest the day the war began.

Much more on the flip side.

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