George Lucas's dream come true

Doesn't "the breacher" remind you of some of those machines that the evil empire wielded against Hans Solo and his rebel friends?

War isn't just hell...

it's madness. Check out this analysis of the imminent assault by massive numbers of US Marines (with some NATO and Afghan forces) on the Afghan city of Marjah. Note that our forces number 15,000 while the opposition's one-tenth of that amount. Note that we're advertising our attack in advance so the civilians can leave or barricade themselves. Note that it's likely the Taliban fighters will leave before we attack in any event, to live to fight another day. And note the cruel irony, buried in the article, that because of all the attention, money and investment that NATO intends to devote to Marjah after the attack to win the "hearts and minds" of its residents, other Afghan towns are likely to invite the Taliban to their areas so they too can receive an influx of funds and projects. It all sounds rather like the satirical Peter Sellers movie, "The Mouse that Roared," doesn't it?

Super Bowl ad

The Focus on the Family television ad that caused all the ruckus for having been shown during the Super Bowl is here. To me, the problem isn't with the ad itself--I don't find it worthy of so much grousing, indeed, I find it pleasant--but with the fact that it was the first "advocacy" ad that CBS had agreed to air, and that at the end of the rather lighthearted, inoffensive ad, a referral appeared, guiding viewers to the Focus website, where much more strident anti-abortion messages appeared. Although I am of the mind that thinks there are much greater problems with America--and America's media--I can't get over how a national network, using public airwaves, is granted the power to air the Focus ad while refusing to show ads that focus, with similar decorum, on a woman's right to attend to personal medical conditions.

To my fellow writers...

Read this and weep.

There's just no accounting for taste

I mean, to some, I suppose this is just peachy. To me, it's a bit extreme, especially the part about the soil in the girl's lungs.

Extra, extra!

Here, finally, is some important news.

Gutsy people

These two doctors have more guts than I do. Very effective, too.

What's in a word?

Check out Rasmussen's daily tracking poll of Obama's job performance. This page shows the numbers (strong approval percentage minus strong disapproval percentage), going back to Obama's first day as president, and, as Rasmussen notes, the -4% as of the poll dated 2/1/10 is the highest number for months, rising sharply from the depths in the last two days, following Obama's SOTU address. Amazing how fickle the American public is, how gullible and susceptible to being swayed by good oratory.

Scary, actually.

Too much to bear?

Losing Zinn and Salinger. I suppose they had to die sometime, but during the same week?

Why they hate us...

Check out the last line of this brief news story. Doesn't it say all there is to say about the callousness of our presence in these foreign places?

In case you missed it...

Nigeria, which over the past decade has become a nightmare of death and destruction, isn't some tiny African outpost. It has a population almost half of that of the United States, even with all the killing.

If I were living in Caracas...

I'd be holding my ears, because "shock and awe" are on the way.

Wait and see

Obama is going to deliver his first State of the Union Address on January 27. We're told it's going to be a "no more Mr. Nice Guy" speech. He's just rehired David Plouffe, who was so important in his successful Presidential campaign, to bring some potency to his administration. Well, we can get a glimpse of what Plouffe has in mind from this recent essay by Plouffe, and I must tell you I don't see very much to be hopeful about. To be sure, Plouffe says some good things, but I see no spark, no truly populist venting--certainly no significant policy suggestions--in the essay.

I'll be listening to Obama's speech with heightened interest. (I haven't watched a SOU address for years, for obvious reasons.) There's had better be some fire and brimstone--and some serious effective "change"--in Obama's speech or else he'll be guilty of what I despised so much about the Bush administration: repackaging instead of rethinking.

Obama should propose an increase in income tax on the wealthy; a re-imposition of the estate tax (since its going to go back into effect soon anyway, Obama need not suggest an enactment by Congress, but simply inaction, which Congress seems capable of doing nowadays, if nothing else); a vigorous jobs program, including federal money for job-creation, particularly in green industries and green energy efforts; strict controls and limits on lending and banking; ending both wars (certainly ending the Iraq occupation), and something bold and decisive I haven't included above. This last I'll leave to Obama and his folks--that's why they get the big bucks.

Actions, not words, Mr. President. Words don't work anymore. If you've learned anything in this first year, it's that.

The long road home

With the recent election of a reactionary to the Senate from Massachusetts, our most liberal state, the message was clear: The power of monied advertising can create the message, spread the message and indoctrinate the electorate against the force of reality, truth, decency. And now, in today's opinion, the Supreme Court (5-4) has overturned decades of precedent to allow unlimited corporate influence in elections. It's all over now but the shouting--from TV sets, Internet sites, everywhere big money reigns.

A vital question

that's rarely asked; and the answer to which seems obvious to this writer. Your answer(s)?

Before you suicide...

read this.

Ah! Now we've got him!

The following is a slightly-revised version of a letter I sent to the NewsPress yesterday. I'll update this blog if/when it's published.

Update: It turns out the photo the Feds used to show an aged bin Laden wasn't of bin Laden at all, but of a Spanish official--and he's pissed off. Can this saga of the pursuit of bin Laden get any weirder?

Further update: The letter was published in the SB NewsPress on/about January 19, 2010.

To the editor:

Extra! Extra!

Using the highest-tech digital methodology, the Feds have now updated the Wanted-Dead-or-Alive photos of bin Laden to show his aging during the many years we've been hunting him. (It's been way more than a decade, folks; he's been wanted at least since 1998, for the US embassy bombings in Africa).

Well, there's no doubt now: bin Laden's days as a free man are surely numbered. Those folks in the AfPak mountains are sure to finger him for us, now that they recognize him. For years they've been uncertain about the identity of that six-foot-four Arab living amongst them with his arsenal of weapons and teams of bodyguards, some of whom may be hauling along a kidney-dialasis machine for their boss. The locals no doubt have been hesitant to claim the $25,000,000 reward because of this uncertainty. But now, with the CIA's new PhotoShop effort, the data will come streaming in and the Predator Drones will soar, their target firmly fixed.

At long last, a serious question at a news conference

Hurrah for Helen Thomas.

For the video, go here.

The good news just keeps pouring in

Like this LA Times article about the prospects of making a living as a freelance writer.

Bravo!

In in-depth articulation of the cruelty/madness that is American foreign policy, now and for the last one hundred years.