Your browser may have trouble rendering this page. See supported browsers for more information.

Contents

714 Articles
79 Comments

Search

20 years Ago

Jesus Christ! Come on Down!

Published by marco on

 If you listen carefully, you can hear the voices of alarm as 48% of America continue to nurse their wounds and seek to understand what happened. It’s called the End Times and it’s all the rage. Battlefield Earth* by Bill Moyers (AlterNet) describes the method to the madness gripping the US. Once you learn the reasoning, you don’t feel much better about it. For a little taste of the numbers that most interest our leadership in this, the most secular of countries, with its treasured separation of church and state and so... [More]

Generosity by the Numbers

Published by marco on

Weighing in with The Victims of the Tsunami Pay the Price of War on Iraq by George Monbiot (Common Dreams), another staunch camp (2)* resident delivers some personal experiences of the generosity of the people of England when faced with images of destruction from Southeast Asia. “The response to the tsunami shows that, however we might seek to suppress it, we cannot destroy our capacity for empathy.”

*See Want to Buy Some DDT?

He asks the same questions as Mickey Z:

“Why, when extreme poverty could be made history with a minor... [More]”

Want to Buy Some DDT?

Published by marco on

Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out by Mickey Z (CounterPunch) offers another lession in identifying the underlying problem instead of being satisfied with having offered a solution for a symptom.

It may be unfair to pick on Nicholas Kristoff, of the New York Times, since he often offers only shallow interpretations of issues for his reading public. He’s still employed, so he must be doing something right. He still calls himself a journalist, so he’s fair game. In response to the massive need that became impossible to ignore... [More]

Social Security is broken

Published by marco on

The Sell (Fantasy Land)

Another big buzzword coming from the PR/marketing machine that is the US government is the fact that the Social Security program needs to be “fixed”. In fact, you won’t believe it, but the panacea that has improved American life in so many other ways is also a perfect fit for Social Security: privatization.

What a tremendous deal: rescue a broken social program that has been run into the ground by touchy-feely, non-business-savvy liberals and bolster the US economy at... [More]

Donald Rumsfeld – Man of Steel

Published by marco on

Rummy performs black magic on the voices of dissent

If everybody’s gotta be right some time, there’s a man who’s long past due. He’s invincible; bulletproof; he can do no wrong; he’s the second coming.

That this guy is still employed in any form whatsoever is a historical/cultural/social curiousity that will be studied millenia from now when our relatives of the future look back on this period of human existence with the same pity that we have in regarding our own ancestors before they... [More]

Is douche-baggy a word?

Published by marco on

I had some trouble writing about this article,The incompetent or the incoherent? (The Economist), because I couldn’t decide whether “douche-baggy” was a word. It’s really way better than “pompous”, which also fits, but feels far to weak. Pretentious also sounds too friendly.

This opinion piece, which succinctly showcases every reason you should never, ever read the Economist sober, starts off humbly:

“With a heavy heart, we think American readers should vote for John Kerry on November 2nd”

Then, just when... [More]

Let’s Secede!

Published by marco on

It seems the blue states have started to realize who really won the civil war. I heard on NPR (National Public Radio, a left-leaning public radio station in the US, for the international readers) that the Canadian immigration website got 6 times as much traffic in the days following the election as they usually do. Most of the visits were to the job qualifications pages.

These folks might be on to something. To offer them a grain of hope that they might not even have to move, here’s a picture... [More]

Anatomy of a Bush Voter

Published by marco on

 Who is this creature that has condemned us to four more years of Bush? The Bush Voter is the end result of decades of work by our media system. He/she is a perfect example of a brainwashed American. Not all are perfectly brainwashed; some even suspect that something is wrong with their worldview — they just can’t put their finger on it. There are 58 million of these folks, and, because he is one of them, they have elected that fucking chimp back into office.

He’s always right

Bush never... [More]

Buckle up.

Published by marco on

Well, folks … meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I was going to say that when Kerry got elected, to cleverly point up the irony of choosing between two war presidents. Now, well … it’s just literally true.

Let these five words you never wanted to hear roll over your tongue:

“George Bush. Two term President.”

What happened? Well, democracy happened. Carefully controlled, media-massaged, corporate-guided democracy. Issues carefully weeded, candidates carefully groomed. As America... [More] (Something Awful)

Countdown to Civil War

Published by marco on

Cobra CommanderWe are approaching launch for the three-month quadrennial extravaganza known as the US elections. If you’re a concerned citizen, you’re letting yourself get whipsawed by Electoral Vote as it updates itself daily with more and more data from the “meaningless” polls, grinding your psyche as your favorite teeters on the brink of ruin, only to come storming back and take a commanding 50-point lead.

It’s like pro wrestling, in a way.

Since both parties have already sworn to challenge the results... [More]

Bush v. Kerry − head to head

Published by marco on

This is the last installment of “stuff I learned during the debates”. Unattributed quotes below are straight from the transcripts, found at Debate #2 (“Rage in the Cage”) and Debate #3 (“Bloodmatch — back for more Blood”).

Head to Head

Patriot Act
  • Kerry says he supports the Patriot Act. He also says it needs to be pretty much massively rewritten, but he doesn’t have the gonads to say it’s a piece of crap, because that offends too many of the wrong people.
  • Bush doesn’t think the Patriot... [More]

Bush’s fantasy world

Published by marco on

Bush is clearly not living in the world we live in. He doesn’t lie; it’s just that, when he talks, he’s not describing the world we live in. In fact, he welcomes us all to join him in his fervent worship of a simplistic black-and-white world where saying something makes it true. A few examples:

Al Qaeda
Apparently, the war on terror is going unbelievably well: it’s a catastrophic success. Bush noted in the second debate that “we’re bringing Al Qaida to justice. Seventy five percent of them... [More]”

Paying taxes is for chumps

Published by marco on

Bush often derides Kerry’s plan for taxing the rich; claims it’s not possible to do so. Why? Well, according to him, the rich won’t pay them, so why bother? Might as well tax chumps that actually pay taxes, otherwise the government ends up with no cash with which to run important programs, like the military. Here’s how Bush sees it:

“[Kerry] says he’s going to tax the rich. The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason − to stick you with the bill.”

Fascinating logic. So, since the rich... [More]

War as the American way

Published by marco on

Kerry still won’t shut up about his “faith” and about finding and killing terrorists. Simplistic pablum that he seems to believe. As Our War on Terrorism by Howard Zinn (Common Dreams) point out:

“[What] Bush’s war on terrorism, and … Sharon’s, and … Putin’s … have in common is that they are based on an enormous deception: persuading the people of their countries that you can deal with terrorism by war. These rulers say you can end our fear of terrorism—of sudden, deadly, vicious attacks, a fear new to Americans—by... [More]”

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Published by marco on

As if we needed more proof that Jon Stewart is one of the only guys fighting the good fight for us, here’s a transcript of his appearance on Crossfire (CNN). I downloaded the full video via BitTorrent (download BitTorrent software). You can find a link to a video download by searching “Jon Stewart Crossfire” in Google. I found one at this blog pretty easily.

The two idiots who run the show were prepared for a standup routine; Stewart came to discuss a serious issue: the way mainstream media is “hurting... [More]”

How could he forget Poland?

Published by marco on

Doesn’t John Kerry know who are real friends are? What kind of an American is he?

Answer: not the kind of American we want running the White House, that’s for sure.

As anyone who caught the debates the other night surely knows by now, John Kerry is the kind of namby pamby who puts passing some sort of “global test” before the safety of the nation, whereas George Bush does whatever he likes, as long as he has the support of the globe’s moral compass: “Poland”.

The Race so Far

My gut reaction?... [More]

Campaign Videos You’re Not Seeing

Published by marco on

Here’s another edition of “fun videos to watch that make fun of George Bush and you will laugh because he’s a fool and you will cry because, somehow, he will be President for the next four years”. This time there are even a couple not from the Daily Show.

Please note. All videos are in Windows Media Player format. The Daily Show ones need version 9 to play.

”Unprotected” (GeorgeWBush.Org)
See the two candidates’ respective military careers from a different angle. An angle that may not have occurred to you,... [More]

A Michael Moore Speech

Published by marco on

In My Plea to John Kerry by Michael Moore, Moore’s take on Nader, for whom he worked in the 2000 campaign is this:

“And what I and others try to explain to Ralph before he decided to run is that you already did your job. The Democratic Party of 2004 is not the Democratic Party of 2000. the threat, the threat that you posed in 2000, they got the message. And it was carried on by Howard dean and Dennis Kucinich and others in this year. And they helped push the Democrats toward where the majority of Americans that... [More]”

Rules for Being Republican

Published by marco on

Rules for Being Republican (Democracy Means You)

It’s a cheap shot, but what the hell.

Since the author’s unknown, I figure the site just copy/pasted from an email. So I reprinted it in its entirety.

  1. You must believe that being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are millionaire conservative radio jock, which makes it an “illness” and requires our prayers for your “recovery”.
  2. You have to truly believe that people, who are privileged from birth, achieve success all on their own.
  3. You have to... [More]

Daily Show roundup

Published by marco on

Here’s a collection of my favorite Daily Show clips from the last couple of weeks. Each one has a link to the clip (Real Player) and list of my favorite quotes from it underneath.

Conventional Wisdom

Conventional Wisdom, Talking Points, Acquired Opinions: it’s how you learn stuff in today’s magical media age. Why think? Regurgitating thoughts other people had is easier.

“Conventional wisdom is the agreed-upon interpretation by the media: it’s not important that it’s true, just that it’s... [More]”

Theresa Heinz Kerry

Published by marco on

In Praise of Unruly Women by Arianna Huffington (AlterNet) talks about Theresa Heinz Kerry, who sounds far more interesting than her husband. In it, she hammers the patriarchal attitude of American media, most starkly pointed up in Newsweek’s cover: “Is John Kerry’s Heiress Wife a Loose Cannon or Crazy Like a Fox?”

The pre-approved talking points about her are either about her hair or about how she pretty much forgets a woman’s place.

Right now you’re probably relatively familiary with her response to a journalist of “Shove it!”.... [More]

Babbling Bush

Published by marco on

Wouldn’t it be great to catch Bush on TV, finally, as a poster to Bush Delivers Speech On Iraq − Solutions Or Politics?

“You know, just once I’d like to hear the guy thank us for paying for all of this.”

One of the comments to the Plastic article, Pronunciation of Abu Ghraib starts off:

“Okay, it’s not exactly a national secret that George W. Bush doesn’t have the greatest diction. … Furthermore, there are rarely hard and fast rules about the proper pronunciation in English of words and names... [More]”

Reagan’s Body’s Casket’s 747

Published by marco on

So I’d found that I’d stayed up late enough the other night to catch the Daily Show International Edition (CNN pushed it out to 1:30 here) and I saw about 5 minutes of headlines, before CNN broke in with breaking news.

The breaking news was watching the 747 carrying Reagan’s casket trundle up a runway. For ten minutes. Approximately every 2 minutes, the female announcer would let us know that “you are watching the plane carrying former President Ronald Reagan’s body taxi up the runway” as if it... [More]

But why is Kerry better?

Published by marco on

The Anybody-but-Bush/Kerry campaign is getting more strident and acquiring more adherents with each passing day. The core question that they seem to think doesn’t even need answering (on account of how evil Bush is) is: ‘Is Kerry going to be a better President for the majority of Americans?’ That’s the difficult question tackled by With Friends Like These by Mickey Z (CounterPunch).

Kerry’s not Nader

If he is, then you should vote for him, right? I mean, there are people who are more than just mentally suffering under... [More]

Expert historians

Published by marco on

US Historians are so adorable when they talk about world history. So, How Do We Get Out Of Iraq, Guys? addresses a “novel idea” for withdrawing from Iraq, proposed by John Kiesling. It basically involves picking the guy we want to rule Iraq and pulling him into power by “ced[ing] him tactical, positional victories while denying them to his competitors”. Propping up dictators is something we’ve done dozens of times before — usually we aren’t directly in competition though. Usually, this is the... [More]

USA Today’s idea of American history

Published by marco on

I was asked recently for my impressions of Of memory and our democracy by Colin Powell (USA Today). I presume the person asking wanted to know how I would react to such obviously cogent and convincing arguments put forth by such a preeminent thinking such as Mr. Powell. The thing is, once you read it objectively, you have to wonder whether he even wrote the damned thing at all. Or if it matters.

The article itself is a puff-piece mouthing oft-quoted myths that are readily absorbed by a cowed, brainwashed public. This is... [More]

Myth-making and image-management (Abu Ghraib wrapup)

Published by marco on

The undying myth of the forefathers

Do You Recognize Bush’s America? by Arriana Huffington (AlterNet) contains a lot of good, hard information about the Bush administration, covering the massive contradictions in policy versus pablum that should be evident to any 10-year-old, but evidently escapes most Americans (though, to be fair, they miss it because of the paucity of real information provided by criminally negligent media).

Then she ends the article with:

“The guiding principle behind George Bush’s rebooted Democracy is... [More]”

The Super Bowl of war

Published by marco on

So in Iraq the US has what many call a Vietnam. There are a lot of parallels you can draw between the two wars and a lot of people are doing so. They’re the ones using the word “quagmire” a lot. It’s a detrimental term meant to reflect poorly on the one caught in the “quagmire” (the US). It also serves to dehumanize the opponent as a sucking force from which the US should disentangle itself before more harm comes to it. The harm inflicted on the country being called the quagmire is implicitly... [More]

Look…over there…something shiny and bright!

Published by marco on

Please note the incredible coincidence, once again, of news heating up at home and a coup abroad. Qusay and Uday have been killed. DNA verification came within hours. Let’s stop talking about what the President said or didn’t say; ok, he said it, but let’s stop talking about what it meant; ok, it was crystal clear what it meant, let’s stop talking about whether it was true; ok, it was definitely not true, let’s stop talking about whether the President was aware it wasn’t true …

Qusay and... [More]

Grand Facade

Published by marco on

Ari Fleischer is leaving the administration and his massively disengenuous efforts will be sorely missed. Ari & I (AlterNet) has an interview with the master disseminator. We live in times, however, where I feel that many will sympathize with poor Ari in this short inteview as he does his best to avoid making a commitment when he’s not sure; the reporter in this case is simply hectoring and badgering him unnecessarily.

The question he asks is extremely simple, but it is difficult to answer, because the... [More]