Frightening

I just read an observation (a comment on the BBC website) that chilled me to the bones: "Remember, the American voters were imbecilic enough to re-elect Bush in 2004 by a larger margin than they elected him four years earlier; and this after he'd displayed unsurpassed incompetence and arrogance for his entire first term. Don't be surprised, therefore, if they demonstrate that same idiocy in 2008 by electing McCain to continue Bush's presidency. Someone once said 'stupid is as stupid does.' I'm not certain what that means, but let's hope it doesn't mean McCain will likely win election."

Letter to the editor

To the editor:

Here's a letter I wrote yesterday to the SB News-Press. I'll let you know if it gets published.

Update: It was published in the News-Press on Saturday, 7/11/08.

Let's see... The majority of Iraqis want the US to end its occupation of their nation. The "sovereign" government of Iraq demands a timeline for our departure. The strong majority of Americans desire an orderly withdrawal of US troops, as does the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

So, one is compelled to ask: Who is it that continues to insist that our troops remain in Iraq, with continuing exposure to violent death and injury due to hostile fire, and further alienating Iraqis and incurring the disdain of peoples around the world?

The answer is of course obvious. There are three powerful people--three men--whose continued militant defiance flaunts the urgent demands of billions of other citizens of the planet: Bush, Cheney and their desired
replacement--indeed, their surrogate--Senator John McCain.

A day in the life

of a student in Baghdad. What misery, with razor wire and concrete barriers, hour-long carpools to take an entrance exam, armed protection at the test site. This is Bush's legacy: a wrecked nation.

On the question of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq

Another country heard from.

Movie plots

Something completely different. In this report of audience and critical reaction to a mid-movie plot twist in the recently-released "Hancock," the writer lists other movies with significant twists. Many are my favorites, like "The Usual Suspects," "Chinatown" and, of course, "Psycho."

Your favorites?

I have drunk the Kool-Aid

The media--leftist, rightist and corporate (the latter two being duplicative)--have struck a chorus recently criticizing Obama for "moving to the right" or "becoming nuanced" in his pronouncements about the Iraq occupation, the FISA amendments, gun control and so forth. Indeed, I've joined the chorus in my private discussions. But now, on reflection, I've decided: I'm supporting Obama, ardently, by activism as well as monetary contributions to his campaign. He may not be perfect in his positions, maybe not in his person, either. But he surely is the finest candidate for president that has come along in a long time, perhaps in my lifetime. I've decided I'll forgive him everything (well, almost everything) between now and November, and go to the barricades for his election. Why? Because I must.

I'm in good company

I've always--that is, since I was socially aware--believed that socialism is the proper method by which to organize modern society. That is, I've never fully supported a rigorous communism, but I'm also skeptical of the benefits of unbridled capitalism. It's good to know I'm not alone in these beliefs, and that a man with a bright mind agrees with me, and for largely the same reasons.

After all those negative signs about the economy

it's heartening finally to see some good news.

It's not just US

the economies of the entire world's nations are crumbling.

At the bottom of the article, the suggestion is made that our fellow "rich" nations will express concern about the weak US dollar, namely, that it's causing the rise in oil prices, priced of course in "petrodollars." Of course, that's true, and in part explains the increasing price of oil. But what can the US do? If it decides to "strengthen" the dollar by, for example, increasing interest rates on borrowing, its economy, already in the tank will drop even deeper. If it does nothing, inflation--derived from high oil prices, mostly--will continue to spiral out of control.

Thanks, George.

Where's the outrage?

The stories of two MS patients.

Rebuilding the world

I just watched some mid-range State Department official under the Bush Administration on C-Span. He was talking about supporting and rebuilding Pakistan so that it would be able to suppress terrorists in its midst. Pakistan? Afghanistan? Iraq? Isn't this rebuilding-the-planet thing getting a bit old, and expensive?

Nader's remarks about Obama

As a die-hard Ralph Nader fan--I voted for him in 2000 and don't blame him, not one whit, for Gore's losing the election--I'm compelled to say that Nader's statements today about "white guilt" and Obama's failure to address inner-city poverty issues are, to be generous, poorly articulated. I agree with the thrust of Nader's intent, which was, I think, to point out that Obama's positions as the Democratic nominee for President are no different from the articulations of such nominees in the past, namely, nonthreatening pap about hope and change and equality. If Nader had stopped there, I'd agree wholeheartedly, because I've now come to see Obama as "merely a politician," whereas I'd heretofore seen him as a transformative historical figure.

But my support of Obama's candidacy isn't out of "white guilt," nor do I think Obama has appealed to that. True, he hasn't adopted the rhetoric of "black candidates" who've championed the economic and social plight of lower-income, city-dwelling blacks. But he's not running for Congress from a ghetto district, he's running for President of all Americans, and his rhetoric reflects that. I believe Obama's the best candidate in a long time--perhaps since our nation's founding--from the standpoint of representing the interests and aspirations of poor and middle-class Americans. And that's not because I feel guilty, but because I feel, finally, vindicated and hopeful that at long last our politics and our culture can address that burning issue.

Nader's remarks were, I think, too abrasive a means to convey--to remind us--that is that we still have a long way to go before any candidate may point out, as directly as Nader repeatedly does, what ails America--its rampant consumerism, its evil gap between rich and poor, its corporate-dominated culture and economic system. John Edwards (whom Nader endorsed) said some of these things, and look where that got him.

So, I agree with much of the content of what Nader said about Obama's campaign and about the state of the major parties' nomination process generally. I just wish he'd said it with a bit more aplomb.

A repeat of a story

I seem to recall blogging about San Francisco's referendum to name its sewage plant after Bush, but this article is so amusing, as are the comments, that it deserves another post.

("He's done so much for the affluent that he deserves to have effluent named after him." Priceless.)

What a piece of crap

This article by AP writers, including its headline, is so misleading as to be fraudulent. When--not until the middle of the article--the poll numbers are finally disclosed, it may be seen that the difference in responders' attitudes toward the candidates' handling of the Iraq occupation isn't dramatic at all, the difference of six percentage points (39% to 33%). The entire article, however, is canted toward the headline's assertion that McCain is seen as more capable of handling Iraq, even though the percentages don't bear that out, less than half of the responders being of that opinion.

That's biased reporting if I ever saw it.

What's worse than recession?

What we're entering now: Stagflation.

I hate when that happens

A pro-Coalition city councilman opens fire on American troops, killing two. Will the corporate media carry this story?

The "Brandeis brief"

In law school, we learned that Justice Louis Brandeis, one of the most potent minds ever to sit on the Supreme Court, would buttress his legal arguments with factual recitations--extensive statistical data that overwhelmingly bore out his opinions.

Compare that to Scalia's recent factual fart.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-cohn/scalia-cites-false-inform_b_108682.html

Says alot about the state of the Supreme Court, and for that matter, the state of the nation, eh?

Now tell me something I don't know

about network television coverage of the US occupation of Iraq.

Turn out the lights

the party's over--so says a Texas Congressman, whose remarks about light bulbs are right on. Video.

The state of Iraq

Here's Juan Cole's calculation of what the last twenty years have done to Iraq. Read it and weep.