STAND AND FIGHT!

[samtzu]

shithead wrote

...LIAR such a Kerry who claimed to have been in Cambodia on X-Mas eve when that was an impossibility.

Hey, Dickweed, I was in Cambodia all through October, November, and December of 1969. Am I a liar as well?

[geekster]

Cali ... that crap cuts both ways. You are NOT doing the Republicans any favors by talking like that. It feels good and gets a lot of "amens" from your core but it pretty much reinforces the belief many people have of knucklehead conservatives and doesn't win your party any new friends.

[stuart]

The populace does not want the socialized medicine that the left is intent on providing.

uh, actually, when the populace is polled neutrally they tend to go for single payer



CaliC, you never answered my question regarding hatred of queers and baby killers. I will accept your recent post regarding the supreme court as an affirmative. Now that you are a confirmed bigot, no suprise there, I can more easily understand your ranting. Thanks for the help.

[cowboyangel]

listen to this for some understanding about why some people voted the wat they did...as usual it is top quality stuff from Ira Glass

http://www.thislife.org/

click on "Swing Set"


it's a great show

[samtzu]

Cali ... that crap cuts both ways. You are NOT doing the Republicans any favors by talking like that. It feels good and gets a lot of "amens" from your core but it pretty much reinforces the belief many people have of knucklehead conservatives and doesn't win your party any new friends.

I don't think it is 'his' party, Geekster. I've read enough of this troll to realize that he is a shit disturber of the highest magnatude, Dude. He'll appear as a liberal shit disturber if the mood strikes him... or a ranch owner from Gerlach... or a sweet young thing from Santa Barbara... his only delight is in making 'fools' of people who actually respond to his drivel.

I respond, like others, because his crap bothers me... but I know what the hell is going on... or my paranoia does... I can't tell which sometimes. But, as blyslv wrote on another thread:

Could you tell us what you re REALLY angry about? I'm guessing it's lack of validation as a youngster, but I'm willing to be schooled.

Either that, or he is still a youngster wishing he could have real conversations with real people, just like adults. *sigh* Back to the bar...

[Discosybil]

Soapbox stance ---
I had wanted to familiarize a group of friends on non-california soil outside Reno prior to this year's BM and was told by BM office in Gerlach that even if I had my firearms securely locked in a case in my vehicle's trunk, I would be evicted if caught. I asked Gerlach BLM, and the Washoe county sheriff what their stance was. Both said come back up the week after BM and shoot on the playa to my heart's content, but not during the event. I wasn't interested in shooting at BM, but wanted to before getting close and then pack 'em away for the event.

When you recieve the Blackrock Gazette with the rules for Burning Man, #10 is No Firearms. Gerlach BLM and the Washoe County Sheriff realize that there are alot of us that are responsible with firearms. My boys and I shoot out there regularly, whether target shooting or chuckar. They are enforcing the the rules for Burningman. You may responsible but it only takes one that is not to ruin it all for all of us.

[Simply Joel]

You may be responsible but it only takes one that is not to ruin it all for all of us."

no truer words could be said, and they apply everywhere beyond the playa

[thinkcooper]

You may responsible but it only takes one that is not to ruin it all for all of us.

I agree. That's why I accepted and obeyed that rule after asking my questions.

[TheMuse]

http://notmypresident.tribe.net/

[Simply Joel]

http://notmypresident.tribe.net/

i find it hard to get real excited about something posted over 6 different threads... let me see, what should my reaction be... oh yeah...

<yawn>

[DVD Burner]

http://notmypresident.tribe.net/

i find it hard to get real excited about something posted over 6 different threads... let me see, what should my reaction be... oh yeah...

<yawn>

You're so bored you should leave eplaya........



(I've been finding it kinda boring also.)

[Simply Joel]

http://notmypresident.tribe.net/

i find it hard to get real excited about something posted over 6 different threads... let me see, what should my reaction be... oh yeah...

<yawn>

You're so bored you should leave eplaya........

actually, i am bored with all the anti-bush rhetoric, it seems so passe'

(I've been finding it kinda boring also.)

as if you are looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection?

i find your opinons and posts boring, if not tiresome, as well.

[DVD Burner]

i find it hard to get real excited about something posted over 6 different threads... let me see, what should my reaction be... oh yeah...

<yawn>

You're so bored you should leave eplaya........

actually, i am bored with all the anti-bush rhetoric, it seems so passe'

(I've been finding it kinda boring also.)

as if you are looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection?

i find your opinons and posts boring, if not tiresome, as well.

Boring enough to leave? Please say yes.

[DVD Burner]

Oh....wait a minute. The name of this thread is"STAND AND FIGHT! "

Are u fighting me? I know what I'm fighting. Do you?

[Simply Joel]

Oh....wait a minute. The name of this thread is"STAND AND FIGHT! "

Are u fighting me? I know what I'm fighting. Do you?

yes, ignorance is my foe.

[cowboyangel]

now wait here you two...this is not the Joel Vs DVD thread.....let's keep it civil ok?

[DVD Burner]

now wait here you two...this is not the Joel Vs DVD thread.....let's keep it civil ok?

Dood!

you have no idea what kind of people Bush & Co. are.
I can tell you first hand that they are not civil.

you can do the "turn the other cheek" if you like and get fucked up the ass.

That is not the world we live in.

(sorry dood...I'm from the old N.Y. and my ancestry has been here long before the Europeans.)

[DVD Burner]

And you can look that up on eplaya if you dont know what I mean.

[Simply Joel]

And you can look that up on eplaya if you dont know what I mean.

DVD, trying to go through the e-playa to decifer what you mean is tatamount to sifting through tons of horsehit to find a pony.

and i doubt there was ever a pony, and in your case a "meaingful point to be made"

[Simply Joel]

civil enough, CA?

[DVD Burner]

And you can look that up on eplaya if you dont know what I mean.

DVD, trying to go through the e-playa to decifer what you mean is tatamount to sifting through tons of horsehit to find a pony.

and i doubt there was ever a pony, and in your case a "meaingful point to be made"

Not my problem if you are not smart enough to be able to do your search right. I posted it. You thought the socks were stupid and funny huh? Figures coming from you.

You can't decipher it huh....it's to be expected. You ignored the truth and you wanted to go along with the "Bring it on" thingie didn’t ya. I told you it wouldn’t be a religious war.

And you spelled decipher wrong.

[Simply Joel]

decipher, honest spelling error... unlike ignoring grammar and spelling throughout a couple thousand posts...

anyway....

November 7, 2004
The Election's Over. Are You Still Losing It?
By DAMIEN CAVE

STEVEN STOSNY, a psychologist and anger specialist in Washington, began treating patients with political rage problems during the battle over President Bill Clinton's impeachment. After the presidential election on Tuesday, he started receiving calls once again from livid Democrats, including a Kerry campaign staff member who said she was furious with George W. Bush, and was taking it out on her husband.

"These political families are collapsing at the finish line," said Dr. Stosny, the author of self-help books like "The Powerful Self." "They just can't take it anymore."

Both political parties could probably use a little time on the couch just now: therapists say the 2004 campaign was one of the most disturbing, hate-filled contests on record. Voters on the left frequently admitted to fighting for Senator John Kerry's election simply because they wanted "anybody but Bush." Conservatives, on television and on Web sites, regularly impugned Mr. Kerry's patriotism and what they saw as his lack of core beliefs.

Now, however, might be the time to kiss and make up. After all, medical studies have shown that anger can lead to heart disease. And it's hard to get anything done if you hate the people you work with. Who wants to live in a country filled with road-raging Volvo peaceniks and gay-marriage opponents who think "Will & Grace" recruits people to homosexuality?

"If we just stay in this negative place, it will take a toll," said Dr. Redford B. Williams, director of the behavioral medicine research center at Duke University. "There's been a trauma here, and if we don't recover — if we continue to ruminate about it — there will be health and social consequences."

Dr. Williams, an author of "Lifeskills," a guide to conflict prevention, offered a handful of ways to deal with negative emotion. Hitting a pillow is out; deep breathing is in. Suggestions for redirecting negative emotion toward constructive action — even writing a letter to Congress, as feeble as it may seem — now dominate the therapeutic literature.

But such solutions may require an epic force of will. For some, the frustration has been building since the 1960's. Fred Siegel, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist research center, said many Democrats were still reeling from the party's losses to Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Many felt last week as if they were overdue for a win, after the Clinton impeachment fight, Mr. Bush's victory in 2000 and the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The latest loss, he said, has given Democrats a sense of injustice bordering on the biblical.

"This is Jacob and Esau," he said, citing the Old Testament story of the competing sons of Isaac. "Esau's sense of himself as the rightful heir was in some ways legitimate, and yet he didn't get the prize. How is that kind of resentment slaked?"

The partisan divide tends to make the anger especially intractable. Consider the word "polarization."

"It has two definitions," said Jonathan Lear, a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago, "One is the standard idea that both sides of the country have gone out to further extremes. But `polarized' sunglasses let in less of what's outside. Part of polarization is not taking in certain things."

This blinding tendency tends to make the anger self-perpetuating. Each side bores in on the other's failures. Emotions are stirred to fever pitch; self-examination is lost.

No one, apparently, is immune. Peter Wolson, a psychoanalyst in Beverly Hills, Calif., said that several colleagues at a recent conference accused the Bush administration of being intolerant and fascistic while "they themselves were vilifying the Republican Party en masse."

"It was irrational black-and-white splitting," he said. "The good and bad guys. For the Democrats the `evildoers' became the Republicans."

Anger may feel justified and to a degree righteous after a political loss. But consider the health consequences. Several studies have connected anger with an increase in the risk of heart disease. One landmark report that tracked 13,000 patients, published in the journal Circulation in 2000, found that participants with high anger traits were nearly three times more likely to suffer heart attacks or require bypass surgery than those with less.

"If any election had the potential to activate this health-damaging tendency," said Dr. Williams of Duke, "this would be it."

Luckily for the Incredible Hulks in the population, who could explode at any moment with comic-book intensity, there are ways to manage anger. Therapists vary their focus, but all seem to agree on what not to do.

Forget throwing darts at a picture of the candidate you loathe, for example, or punching a pillow. Studies show that such violent actions "create a habit of being aggressive," Dr. Stosny said. "You're training your brain to be more offensive."

Nor will it do any good to obsess about mistakes made by those outside your control, be they Mr. Kerry or the young voters who failed to turn out as expected. Alcohol, a depressant, will not help either.

Rather, anger specialists said, Democrats ought to redirect their rage toward constructive action. Phil Towle, a performance coach whose intervention with the warring members of Metallica was the subject of a documentary film this year, said that emotional intensity can be valuable only when correctly focused.

"One of the things we did with Metallica was help them understand that they could create music that had the edge but that was motivated by love and passion as opposed to disrespect or hate of each other," Mr. Towle said. "The people who lost or won — both parties really — need to take their energy and find a way to keep the anger alive through passion, through conviction, through belief."

A first step: expanding the focus beyond electoral politics. "What you do is write letters to Congress," Mr. Towle said. "You change your own behavior. You change your own environment. You can take any of the issues that you care about and find a way to do something."

Dr. Williams, in "Lifeskills," describes conversational tactics that can prevent conflicts that lead to outbursts. "The first is speaking clearly in ways that increase the likelihood your message will be heard," he said. "Wrong: `You just want to give a big tax break to your rich friends.' Better: `I'm concerned that giving 40 percent of the tax break to people making over $200,000 per year is unlikely to produce increased spending that we need to help the economy.' "

Listening skills, he said, also help defuse ticking tempers. People should keep quiet till the other person finishes, "something Ann Coulter is constitutionally unable to do," he said, after admitting that he is a bit peeved himself about the election.

Angry partisans should also appear interested in what those on the other side are saying. "When they finish, tell them what you have heard," he said, and stay open to opposing arguments. "Be prepared — only open to the possibility, you don't have to be changed — to be changed by what you hear."

This of course assumes that furious Democrats want to talk politics at all. That may not be the case. Matt Aydelott, an academic administrator in Southern California, said he first started to feel the anger rise like bile when Florida's vote total tipped toward Mr. Bush. And by the next afternoon, despair and disbelief had curdled into rage.

As he put it in an e-mail message during Mr. Kerry's concession speech, "I can't decide whether to cry or punch somebody in the face."



Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[cowboyangel]

Political capital my ass


AP Poll: Stable Iraq Tops Voter Priorities


56 minutes ago


By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - As President Bush (news - web sites) mulls what to do after winning re-election, voters say his first priority should be resolving the situation in Iraq (news - web sites), where the fighting is growing more intense. They also want Bush to cut the deficit, which ballooned under his watch, rather than pushing for more tax cuts, according to an Associated Press poll taken right after the election.






The voters' concerns stood in contrast to the priorities Bush cited after he defeated Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites). Bush pledged to aggressively pursue major changes in Social Security (news - web sites), tax laws and medical malpractice awards. Terrorism was a chief concern both for Bush and many voters in the poll.

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it," Bush said a day after becoming the first president in 68 years to win re-election and gain seats in both the

House and Senate.

Some 27 percent of respondents named Iraq as the top priority for the president's second term, ahead of issues such as terrorism, the economy and health care.

Only 2 percent named taxes as a priority. By more than a 2-1 margin, voters said they preferred that the president balance the budget rather than reduce taxes further.

After a campaign dominated by discussion of Iraq and terrorism, national security issues are at the top of voters' concerns along with the economy. Voters were asked to pick from a list of issues in the AP poll that included Iraq, terrorism, the economy, unemployment, health care, education and taxes.

Many voters on Election Day indicated they were also concerned about "moral values" — a broader concern than specific issues such as health care and education.

Republicans ranked terrorism first on the list, followed by Iraq and the economy as priorities for Bush. Democrats were most likely to name Iraq, followed by the economy and health care while independents picked Iraq and then terrorism, according to the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.

"He has to go 500 percent in Iraq," said Ruth Shoemaker, an independent and a retiree from Chula Vista, Calif. "That's why I voted for the president."

Seven in 10 voters, including a majority of Democrats, would prefer that U.S. troops to stay in Iraq until the country is stable, instead of having them leave immediately.

U.S. troops are preparing for assaults on insurgent strongholds used as havens for those mounting increased attacks against coalition forces.

"There has got to be some kind of resolution in Iraq," said Erwin Neighbors, a Republican and a community college teacher from Moberly, Mo. "We can't fold our tent without accomplishing our goals."

On the domestic front, Bush says his plans to overhaul the tax laws would be "revenue-neutral" and would not cut taxes. Throughout the past year, however, he has urged Congress to make earlier tax cuts permanent.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites) now sees $2.3 trillion in accumulated deficits over the next 10 years. That does not include the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Given the choice between balancing the budget and cutting taxes, voters chose balancing the budget by 66 percent to 31 percent. Just over half of Republicans as well as most Democrats and independents felt that way.

When the choice is between balancing the budget and spending more on education, health care and economic development, voters were divided. Slightly more wanted the additional domestic spending, 55 percent, than chose balancing the budget, 44 percent.

During his second term, Bush is likely to have an opening on the Supreme Court; Chief Justice William Rehnquist (news - web sites) is seriously ill with cancer.



Six in 10 voters say they are comfortable that the president will nominate the right kind of person to serve on the court. Bush has sidestepped questions about who he would name if there were an opening.

But three-fourths of Democrats are uncomfortable with a potential Bush nomination to the high court.

"I'm very worried," said Carla Matlin, a Democrat and a marketing manager from the San Francisco area. "I'm afraid that, rather than mainstream judges, Bush will appoint judges that are way over on the right."

Asked whether Bush should appoint a justice who will uphold or overturn the Roe v. Wade (news - web sites) decision that protected a woman's right to abortions, six in 10 said they want a justice who will uphold the landmark ruling.

Voters seem generally accepting of the election.

A majority, 54 percent, said the election results improved their confidence in the electoral system. Six in 10, including one-third of Democrats, said they felt "hopeful" after the election.

But more than eight in 10 Democrats, 84 percent, acknowledged their disappointment about the election results.

The AP-Ipsos poll of 844 registered voters was taken Nov. 3-5 and has a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.

[cowboyangel]

taken from Attention Conservatives thread>>>

Neo-Con Agenda: Iran, China, Russia, Latin America ...

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (IPS) - An influential foreign-policy neo-conservative with longstanding ties to top hawks in the administration of President George W Bush has laid out what he calls ''a checklist of the work the world will demand of this president and his subordinates in a second term.''

The list, which begins with the destruction of Fallujah in Iraq and ends with the development of ''appropriate strategies'' for dealing with threats posed by China, Russia and ''the emergence of a number of aggressively anti-American regimes in Latin America,'' also calls for ''regime change'' in Iran and North Korea.

The list's author, Frank Gaffney, the founder and president of the Centre for Security Policy (CSP), also warns that Bush should resist any pressure arising from the anticipated demise of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to resume peace talks that could result in Israel's giving up ''defensible boundaries.''

While all seven steps listed by Gaffney in an article published Friday morning in the 'National Review Online' have long been favoured by prominent neo-cons, the article itself, 'Worldwide Value', is the first comprehensive compilation to emerge since Bush's re-election Tuesday.

It is also sure to be contested, not just by Democrats who, with the election behind them, are poised to take a more anti-war position on Iraq, but by many conservative Republicans in Congress. They blame the neo-cons for failing to anticipate the quagmire in Iraq and worry their grander ambitions, like those expounded by Gaffney, will bankrupt the Treasury and break an already-overextended military.

Yet its importance as a road map of where neo-conservatives -- who, with the critical help of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, dominated Bush's foreign policy after the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon -- want U.S. policy to go, was underlined by Gaffney's listing of the names of his friends in the administration who he said, ''helped the president imprint moral values on American security policy in a way and to an extent not seen since Ronald Reagan's first term.''

In addition to Cheney and Rumsfeld, he cited the most clearly identified -- and controversial -- neo-conservatives serving in the administration: Cheney's chief of staff, I Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby; his top Middle East advisors, John Hannah and David Wurmser; weapons proliferation specialist Robert Joseph and top Mideast aide Elliott Abrams, on the National Security Council (NSC).

Also on the roster are: Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith; Feith's top Mideast aide William Luti, in the Pentagon; Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, and for global issues, Paula Dobriansky at the State Department.

Virtually all of the same individuals have been cited by critics of the Iraq War, including Democratic lawmakers and retired senior foreign service and military officials, as responsible for hijacking the policy and intelligence process that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Indeed, in a lengthy interview about the war on the most-watched public-affairs TV programme, '60 Minutes', last May, the former head of the U.S. Central Command and Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief Middle East envoy until 2003, retired Gen Anthony Zinni, called for the resignation of Libby, Abrams, Wolfowitz and Feith, as well as Rumsfeld, for their roles in the attack.

Zinni also cited former Defence Policy Board (DPB) chairman, Richard Perle, who has been close to Gaffney since both of them served, along with Abrams, in the office of Washington State Senator Henry M Jackson in the early 1970s.

When Perle became an assistant secretary of defence under Reagan he brought Gaffney along as his deputy. When Perle left in 1987, Gaffney succeeded him before setting up CSP in 1989.

As Perle's long-time protege and associate, Gaffney sits at the centre of a network of interlocking think tanks, foundations, lobby groups, arms manufacturers and individuals that constitute the coalition of neo-conservatives, aggressive nationalists like Cheney and Rumsfeld and Christian Right activists responsible for the unilateralist trajectory of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11.

Included among CSP's board of advisers over the years have been Rumsfeld, Perle, Feith, Christian moralist William Bennett, Abrams, Feith, Joseph, former United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Navy Undersecretary John Lehman and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director James Woolsey.

Woolsey also co-chairs the new Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), another prominent neo-con-led lobby group that argues Washington is now engaged in ''World War IV'' against ''Islamo-fascism.''

Also serving on its advisory council are executives from some of the country's largest military contractors, which -- along with wealthy individuals sympathetic to Israel's governing Likud Party, such as prominent New York investor Lawrence Kadish and California casino king Irving Moskowitz, and right-wing bodies, such as the Bradley, Sarah Scaife and Olin Foundations -- finance CSP's work.

Gaffney, a ubiquitous ''talking head'' on TV in the run-up to the war in Iraq, sits on the boards of CPD's parent organisations, the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) and Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT). He was a charter associate, with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Wolfowitz and Abrams, of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), another prominent neo-conservative-led group that offered up a similar checklist of what Bush should do in the ''war on terrorism'' just nine days after the 9/11 attacks.

His article opens by trying to pre-empt an argument that is already being heard on the right against expanding Bush's ''war on terrorism'': that since a plurality of Bush voters identified ''moral values'' as their chief concern, the president should stick to his social conservative agenda rather than expand the war.

''The reality is that the same moral principles that underpinned the Bush appeal on 'values' issues like gay marriage, stem-cell research and the right to life were central to his vision of U.S. war aims and foreign policy,'' according to Gaffney.

''Indeed, the president laid claim squarely to the ultimate moral value -- freedom -- as the cornerstone of his strategy for defeating our Islamofascist enemies and their state sponsors, for whom that concept is utterly (sic) anathema.''

To be true to that commitment, policy in the second administration must be directed toward seven priorities, according to Gaffney, beginning with the ''reduction in detail of Fallujah and other safe havens utilised by freedom's enemies in Iraq''; followed by ''regime change -- one way or another -- in Iran and North Korea, the only hope for preventing these remaining 'Axis of Evil' states from fully realising their terrorist and nuclear ambitions.''

Third, the administration must provide ''the substantially increased resources needed to re-equip a transforming military and rebuild human-intelligence capabilities (minus, if at all possible, the sorts of intelligence 'reforms' contemplated pre-election that would make matters worse on this and other scores) while we fight World War IV, followed by enhancing ''protection of our homeland, including deploying effective missile defences at sea and in space, as well as ashore.”

Fifth, Washington must keep ''faith with Israel, whose destruction remains a priority for the same people who want to destroy us (and ... for our shared 'moral values) especially in the face of Yasser Arafat's demise and the inevitable, post-election pressure to 'solve' the Middle East problem by forcing the Israelis to abandon defensible boundaries.''

Sixth, the administration must deal with France and Germany and the dynamic that made them ''so problematic in the first term: namely, their willingness to make common cause with our enemies for profit and their desire to employ a united Europe and its new constitution -- as well as other international institutions and mechanisms -- to thwart the expansion and application of American power where deemed necessary by Washington.''

Finally, writes Gaffney, Bush must adapt ''appropriate strategies for contending with China's increasingly fascistic trade and military policies, (Russian President) Vladimir Putin's accelerating authoritarianism at home and aggressiveness toward the former Soviet republics, the worldwide spread of Islamofascism, and the emergence of a number of aggressively anti-American regimes in Latin America'', which he does not identify.

''These items do not represent some sort of neo-con 'imperialist' game plan'', Gaffney stressed. ''Rather, they constitute a checklist of the work the world will demand of this president and his subordinates in a second term.'' (END/2004) :

Copyright © 2004 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

[cowboyangel]

Arma-geddon Sick of You



World to US as Americans prepare to level Fallujah



Daniel Patrick Welch



11/07/04 "ICH" Bush's Sword of Damocles is poised above the people and city of Fallujah , ready to wreak the pent-up wrath his addled brain thinks his tainted election victory permits. This is the bizarre world-in-a-bubble in which most Americans reside. With a chorus of Onward, Christian Soldiers and a vapid, cheerleading press, the crusade continues unabated, as the world's revulsion continues to grow.



True, Americans do have elections, and candidates often take different stances on important issues. But forget the blue state, red state diversion, an artifact of the US ' antiquated, slavery-era electoral system. In this winner-take-all distortion, geography itself is given animus, allowing for a host of mini-nationalisms to permeate fallacies about the American mentality. The fact is that Americans in “blue states” are also quite likely to have voted for Bush, and almost as many in “red states” will have voted for Kerry, the “left” candidate. Does this change anything? Well, add to this soup the fact that a hundred extra votes are sprinkled onto the electoral college recipe because of representation in the Senate, note that Wyoming and California both get two votes in this medieval “democracy,” and the distortion is complete. American Conservatism, albeit profound, is exaggerated, and Cheney's Corporate Crusaders march triumphantly on to a new wave of destruction.



Of course it is important not to forget the stench wafting from this rotten election. The American fascists, who already thought they had a mandate from God, now think they have one from the American people. Not that any true believer needs any imprimatur other than the former, but hey, it can't hurt. Fortunately, this emphasis on what The American People want is an obsession which all parties to the electoral sham have in common. For better and for worse, a mandate from the American People is tantamount to a call from God, so they are now free to level Fallujah and tick off the other targets on their wish list.



However, like true warriors, the election for these crazies is no more than a blip on the screen, a hiccup on the road to world domination. What is the true fascist reaction to the recent news that your invasion has killed 100,000? Why, to prepare to kill another hundred thousand, of course. Remember Kissinger's chilling exchange on the Nixon tapes where they casually discussed how many would die if they ordered the bombing of the dikes in the north of Vietnam : “…a few hundred thousand… That's a lot of people.”



So, while American voters fret and fuss over the tiny problem of whether or not the will of the people actually matters, plans are on track to snuff out the breath of the people by the thousands oh-so-far away. The indifference to this coming massacre is as brutal as it is astounding. It's no wonder that the more “esoteric” issue of depleted uranium dust doesn't register on the radar screens. Most Americans cant even muster the courage to say that the pending Fallujah massacre is wrong. A recent segment on NPR, that bastion of liberal media, had pundits discussing how best to incinerate a city of 300,000. Would air power be most efficient, or would house-to-house combat be necessary? Hmmm..now that's a puzzler!



Deaf to the coming terror for the residents of Fallujah, and blind to its inevitable consequences, we watch (or mostly, don't) as air strikes reduce the small Nazzal Emergency Hospital , run by a Saudi charity, to rubble. Insurgents strike back with a range of attacks across a wide swath of central Iraq , killing more than 30 and wounding almost 60 others, among them over 20 Americans.



A nervous habit of mine is to replay a song over and over in my head, like a musical worry stone. The past couple days it has been Bob Dylan's God On Our Side. And not for nothing. Some of the troops poised to pounce on Fallujah were praying to Jesus and playing Christian rock. Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented: 'The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him.'



The sheer terrifying stupidity of these commanders is reflected in the mentality of those up the chain (obviously—hence Gitmo and Abu Ghraib). A recent eye opener came from an interview of a Bush aide by Ron Suskind. The aide waxed philosophical about the great divide between those who make reality (Bush and his angels, I suppose), and those who simply study it. He actually used the term “reality-based community,” which I find pretty fitting and ironic in a strange way. I have always considered the fascist core of the Bush junta to be on the other side of a reality divide—I just didn't mean it in quite the same way.



It isn't really that funny, when you think about it. This is psychosis, a sort of mass hysteria which has sucked in tens of millions of Americans. The election, the votes, the campaign--it's all largely irrelevant anyway, to be perfectly honest—a colossal waste of time and money. Before a single vote was cast, the future of the US for the next generation had already been determined, not by the outcome of an election, but by the war in Iraq . This is still the focus of evil in the modern world, as Ronald Reagan might whisper from beyond the grave. Of course fraud matters. But we have to brace ourselves for the reality that the onslaught against Fallujah would be ready to go no matter who won. Majority and mandate are powerful weapons in the hands of the bullies; but how many fascists is few enough? Hitler only needed 30% to begin his slide into Armageddon.



And the Americans are already on their way. The slaughter at Fallujah will be a watershed event in the collapse of the American empire, echoing across the next hundred years. This is hardly hyperbole; the world is already sick of US arrogance and bullying. And it's about to get immeasurably worse….



Sometimes my habit goes into overdrive, and the songs form a medley in my head. Dylan asks “how many deaths will it take ‘til he knows…” An upswell of hope convinces me that we might still avoid the slide into hell that seems our due, and the Sandinista hymn reminds me: “Nuestro pueblo es el dueño de su historia/Architecto de su liberación.” It doesn't last long, and Paul Simon's cynical ballad brings me back to the “reality-based” community: “God bless the goods we were given/And God bless the US of A/God bless our standard of living/--Let's keep it that way/ Have a good tiiiiiime…”



© 2004 Daniel Patrick Welch. Reprint permission granted with credit and link to danielpwelch.com. Writer, singer, linguist and activist Daniel Patrick Welch lives and writes in Salem , Massachusetts , with his wife, Julia Nambalirwa-Lugudde. Together they run The Greenhouse School, www.greenhouseschool.org. Some of his articles have been broadcast on radio, and translations are available in up to 20 languages. Links to the website are appreciated at http://danielpwelch.com.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

[Apollonaris Zeus]

Oh how true these words have rung!

Someday I'll finish all of cowboys posts and the rest

Oh how bush should have liquidated that capital when he had the chance


AIIZ

[helitack]

Are you bored or something? This is the BM board. It's all about peace and green and love and ?art? and freedom. There is no room here for the real world...

[cowboyangel]

did I post all that shit? who am I? What is real anyway? Where's route 66?

[Green Wood]

You must fight for your Art and Freedom!

the clowns are coming

Don't shoot till you see the red of their noses

[BAS]

"Stand and fight!"?

Can't we do a sit down strike?

Much easier.






B.