Howie Hawkins for SenateThe mid-term elections are real; the United States will do its best to keep up the pretense of democracy this fall, if only to satisfy the UN inspectors and to show the world we still know how it’s done. We’re 0-2 (keep messing up the clean landing) in the last two and our much-(self)-vaunted efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have failed to impress.

The midterms are so called because they come in the middle of a presidential term and offer only senators and congressmen instead of the big... [More]

World leaders recently gathered at the U.N. headquarters in New York City to exchange ideas on how to move forward into the 21st century. The speeches of Bush, Ahmadinejad and Chavez were given the most coverage, though not necessarily for the right reasons. Morales of Bolivia tried to upstage Chavez by smuggling in a coca leaf; this gimmick was drowned in angry replies to Chavez’s correlation of president Bush with a whiff of brimstone. As usual, the media made the most noise about the least... [More]

Our corpulent body of state awoke from an uneasy slumber this week, heaving its bulk upward and exposing long-neglected folds to the harsh glare of sunlight, emitting a noxious stench that caused many a man to quail and many a gorge to rise. This flabby, pale underbelly represents America’s long love affair with ignoring the golden rule and with having its cake and eating it too. We need, in a word, torture. And we need it bad.

George Bush[1] is our undisputed champion, striding confidently... [More]

Keith Olbermann has been given quite a bit of leeway to pound the drum for the overtly liberal media. His most recent work is this 8 minute speech—quite erudite and extremely critical of the president—demanding an apology from George Bush.

’Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ for Sept. 11 by Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) is the full transcript (search about 75% of the way down the page). He lambastes the Bush administration—in particular Bush and Cheney—for daring to deem everyone who doesn’t kowtow before them as “soft... [More]

November Prognostication by Ben Tripp (CounterPunch) has an ironclad list of reasons for why the Republicans will not be swept from power this November, as so many in the liberal media are predicting. Hint: they’re the same reasons that they won the last two national elections and enjoy a majority in all three branches of government. Not much has changed, so there’s no need to change tactics—tactics that only have to work on the small minority of Americans that can ever be bothered to vote in a mid-term election anyway.... [More]

Manuel II PaleologusDo not be alarmed. Though the pope has been in headlines lately, he has not been kidnapped, conceived a child with Britney Spears or baptized Suri Cruise (which would be awesome). It must be a slow news week, because the global media monster heaved its noisome bulk in a slightly different direction, using the Pope’s pointy hat to poke at the hornet’s nest of Islamofascism. With news of terror on the wane, it was about time we had our fears squarely refocused on the 21st century’s answer to... [More]

Mahmoud Talkin' TrashIn the article, Iran TV debate challenge to Bush (BBC), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad throws down the gauntlet and challenges Bush to a live televised debate to “let both sides air their views uncensored”. Uncensored in Iran, maybe. But if Americans aren’t allowed to see Janet Jackson’s pierced nipple, you can bet your ass they won’t be seeing George Bush get his ass handed to him by a the president of Iran. No worries there, though, as the US pooh-poohed the suggestion, calling it a “diversion from global... [More]”

Even the most clear-thinking among us—those used to examining every last assumption and idea implicit in their attitudes and opinions—fall occasionally into the trap of widely held prograndistic notions. Crime and Punishment by Billmon (Whiskey Bar) has an excellent article on the recent Supreme Court decision—5–4, of course—which firmly applied the Geneva conventions to all prisoners, including enemy combatants and any other fantastical definions invented by the ruling plutarchy to deceive themselves and... [More]

Totally Fake PictureThough it’s almost certain that the article, Chinese observers watch U.S. wargames, is supposed to grab the reader’s eye because those sneaky yellow bastards will stop at nothing to learn the secret to our military might. What’s far more shocking is what a truly mighty military it is. The numbers for the pentagon budget are often bandied around—by this site as well as any other lefty rag worth its salt—but it’s hard to wrap one’s head around what 500 billion dollars really buys. Take this... [More]

While the Europeans are actually talking to Iran, as discussed in the article Iran nuclear talks continue (Guardian Unlimited), the US is deeply involved with an issue of similar earth-shattering import: the official language of the United States. To whit, they’ve decided that English is ‘national language’ (Indianapolis Star). So, while the Europeans are once again taking the pussy’s way out, the Americans are navel-gazing and pandering to the lowest common denominator while they wait for the bombs to start dropping.

Way to go... [More]

The article Bush Tells West Point Graduates Terror War Is in Early Stages (Bloomberg) covers Bush’s commencement speech this year, in which he lifted everyone’s spirits with zingers like the one about how the Global War on Terror “will rival the Cold War in its length and difficulty”. It sound like his customary wit must have had them all in stitches. In a rare show of honesty, Bush acknowledged his tendency to not finish what he started by noting further that “[t]he war began on my watch, but it’s going to... [More]”

The State Department recently said that it “was concerned about the reports on a special clothing rule for Iranian minorities”. This was in reference to a recent report in the Canadian National Post about a new law proposed by the “conservative-dominated parliament” in Iran. The Post, seemingly lacking either an Arabic translator, journalistic ethics or both, made up the details of the story from whole cloth. The law would require:

“Iran’s roughly 25,000 Jews…to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the... [More]”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently made a very public attempt to officially open diplomatic channels with the United States after a lapse of almost 30 years. Response in the US has ranged from complete dismissal to lukewarm acknowledgement to braying laughter. Why the Iranians will be Rebuffed by William Blum (CounterPunch) provides a summary of similar efforts from the last century when leaders noticed that their sovereignty was in danger of being shoveled into the slavering maw of American empire.

These include the... [More]

Press This! No News is Good News by Ben Tripp (Counterpunch) idly ponders the complete and utter failure of the fourth estate. As proof, he offers a long—but woefully incomplete—list of scandals currently flitting from loose lip to loose lip in Washington. It could be argued that the collapse of the press is not complete, else we wouldn’t know of the scandals in the first place. That is purely wishful thinking, however, as it is far easier to report these obvious scandals but not press the issue to conclusion than it... [More]

Bush's Approval Ratings since 2001Professor Poolkatz’s Pool of Polls is a decidedly fanatical approach to making sense of polling data—specifically, the polls associated with Bush’s approval ratings. The one to the left is a straight representation with standard deviation; note the spikes at 9/11, the start of the 2003 attack on Iraq, and the 2004 elections—all followed by steady downward trends, indicating how artificial the support was. Flush Bush offers another interesting look at the same numbers. For those whose... [More]

It’s been how long? (Uggabugga) reports on a recent column, Would Bush Rather Be Fishing? by Daniel Froomkin (Washington Post) that covered a recent, short question and answer session with George Bush. Right near the beginning, he writes:

“Remember when he was asked to name his biggest mistake and what he’d learned from it—and he couldn’t name any? (He hasn’t held a prime-time press conference since.)”

The DeciderThat president Bush falls somewhat shy of the average number of press conferences for sitting presidents is pretty well-known[1]. He’s not so... [More]

In a hectic world filled with pressing issues, most people don’t have the time to examine issues and come to their own conclusions about them. Or so they’re told. To that end, mass media is only too happy to further impart the opinions that were imparted on them. With the aforementioned public already pressed for time and, most likely, attention span, what better way to get a point across than through the magic of pictures? Cartoonists are only too happy to fill this void. The samples below... [More]

Stephen Colbert

Tom Brokaw Discusses Politics and Society at Hamilton covers a recent speech he gave at Hamilton College. One of the many topics he covered was the divisiveness of national politics in America:

“The ethos of national politics today is one of division between red and blue states in which the national parties seek to divide and conquer the nation by turning people’s views against each other. There is little tolerance for intermediate or unorthodox views, Brokaw said, citing examples of orthodoxy... [More]”

Serious Sam Suicide BomberThe commuter rag[1] on the Swiss train today ran a small article about Iran’s army of suicide bombers, which was recently on display in a military parade. They marched by with their dynamite wrapped about their torsos and their detonators held high. 40,000 strong they are. These lethal forces are poised to deploy to 29 key points in Britain and the US if Iran’s nuclear facilities were to be bombed. Fully 1,300 bombers per attack point—they’d be kind of hard to miss, no? Anyone who’s played one... [More]

With his approval ratings swirling down a deeper and darker hole every day, president Bush’s handlers have decided to address at least one perceived weakness in his persona: his lack of outside input. Meeting and talking to live audiences is “an innovation for a leader who until recently stuck to scripted meetings with screened audiences”. His handlers feel that, even in a non-election settings, he needs to “show he is not afraid of criticism.” It’s the first time in five years that he has stooped... [More]

Bush is Laughing at YouIn a move that was stunning on many levels, Bush finally vetoed a bill that the Congress had sent on for his approval. After letting over five years of pork legislation ooze its way across his desk without being in any danger whatsoever, Bush finally unleashed the mighty power of his pen to hold back a piece of legislation that was roundly viewed as a senseless waste of taxpayer money and precious time for all parties involved.

I’ll give you three guesses what it was … and the first two... [More]

Last week, president Bush’s approval rating slipped below 35%. One might take heart that Americans, after having elected[1] him not once, but twice, are finally coming around. One might also wonder what took so bloody long and further wonder what’s wrong with the other 35%. How can they be so foolish? Those “red staters”. Those “Republicans”. It’s not so simple. The fingers of propoganda grasp far and wide and reach deep into the unwary mind. Thanks to sufficient propaganda, a lot of people live... [More]

The article We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire (Democracy Now!) is an interview with “Self-Described Economic Hit Man” John Perkins. He’s a former NSA employee who spent a couple of dozen years of his life playing loan shark to various countries around the world.

“We economic hit men, during the last 30 or 40 years, have really created the world’s first truly global empire, and we’ve done this primarily through economics, and the military only coming in as a last resort. Therefore, it’s been... [More]”

This draft was buried, nearly complete in the earthli archives. It has been published now … well because it’s still relevant.

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

Bush Views New Orleans from Air Force OneWhy doesn’t Bush come up with a better persona for the Katrina aftermath? Americans don’t really have high standards for veracity in reporting, a fact that he’s used often before. What’s... [More]

US citizens not interested in Freedom (Slashdot) started off a conversation on Slashdot recently that aired some common arguments for and against the libertarian political system.

Libertarians want a world with as little government regulation as possible, including drug and weapons use. The basic philosophy goes along the lines of “if it only affects your own self, you should be able to do it”. No more laws imposing a morality inherited from religion or from less enlightened systems. If you want to smoke... [More]

Cartoons Worse than Torture?

This is the Real Outrage by Tariq Ali (Common Dreams) slices through the nonsense over the non-issue of the recent cartoons of Muhammed published in newspapers[1] recently. He acknowledges that the right to free speech is paramount, but neither can a speaker assume that everyone will react calmly and reasonably, regardless of the message.

“[T]he cartoon depicting Muhammad as a terrorist is a crude racist stereotype. The implication is that every Muslim is a potential terrorist. This is the sort... [More]”

As George Bush mentioned at the beginning of his State of the Union speech, Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, died last week. She was almost 80 years old and had been in poor health after suffering a stroke and heart attack last summer. Throughout her life, she was a champion of civil rights for minorities—especially the poor—and was an outspoken pacifist. She was laid to rest with a six hour funeral ceremony during which “almost three dozen people spoke”, according to the... [More]

It’s been five years now since the President stopped caring whether we knew he was lying to us. It’s been five years since the office dropped the facade of caring what the American people think of what it does. It was harsh when it first happened, but by now it’s really hard to work up a good batch of indignation about it. So, yeah, you kind of just get used to it. It’s an attitude that is eminently manipulable by supporters of this president, this desire to ignore news of his repeated... [More]

Piss Christ by Andres SerranoAt least one embassy has been brought to the ground because of some childish cartoons published in a newspaper in Denmark. Or, shall we say, ostensibly because of these cartoons. The causal nature of the publishing of the cartoons and the burning of a Danish embassy is as plain as the nose on your face, most would say. Is that really so? A quick recap is probably in order for those that have only heard bits and pieces of fact mixed in with hyperbole from all sides, describing typical behavior... [More]