End-Of-Year Stuff

These are the news items that will be covered in the next edition of The Joey Joe Joe Show. I usually wait until the show has aired, but I figured what the hell. It's New Year's, after all.

Two out of three Americans believe it's prudent to hold off on more tax cuts, a centerpiece of George W Bush's domestic policy agenda, according to an Associated Press poll. They greet the new year more cautious about their personal spending yet somewhat optimistic that their financial situation will improve. "It couldn't get much worse," said one respondent. "Could it?"

In a NY Times editorial, US Rep Charles B. Rangel of New York, a Democrat, says he is planning to introduce legislation next week to reinstate the draft, which was halted in the seventies. In the editorial, Rangel reasoned: "I believe that if those calling for war knew that their children were likely to be required to serve - and to be placed in harm's way - there would be more caution and a greater willingness to work with the international community in dealing with Iraq. A renewed draft will help bring a greater appreciation of the consequences of decisions to go to war. Service in our nation's armed forces is no longer a common experience. A disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military, while the most privileged Americans are underrepresented or absent." Republican political advisor Karl Rove was delighted with the statement, saying that since a Democrat brought the whole thing up, they could blame anything that happened on them and absolve themselves, yet again, of any responsibility. "It's not as if anyone I know will be sending their kids off to die," said Rove. "And as always, we'll make a ton of dough on the deal. I'm gonna send Rangel some flowers, if I can find some on sale."

Two U.N. nuclear inspectors expelled by North Korea arrived in China early Tuesday, leaving the communist nation's nuclear program increasingly isolated from international scrutiny. The two inspectors emerged from the arrival hall at Beijing's Capital Airport on a flight from Pyongyang. When asked by the mob of reporters who surrounded them what they would do after their report to the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna, they said: "We're going to Euro Disney!!"

A gunman slipped past guards at a Southern Baptist hospital in Yemen and killed three American missionaries. Officials said he may be part of an Islamic militant cell targeting foreigners and secular-minded politicians in Yemen, which is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden's family and a front line in the U.S. war on terrorism. A reporter who was trying to ask GW Bush why America is so friendly with nations such as Yemen and Saudi Arabia who harbor terrorists was shot in the head by an overzealous security guard as Mr. Bush, on yet another vacation, continued on to the ninth tee.

The manager of an Iraqi missile factory was visibly upset after U.N. arms inspectors made their fifth visit. Hussein Mohammed, manager of the al-Samood factory, said inspectors stormed into his plant "like gangs." The two chief inspectors of the plant, Riff and Bernardo, said that if the Sharks and the Jets could learn to get along, then so could the inspectors and the Iraqis. It turned out the Mr. Mohammed had just sat down to lunch and everyone knows that baklava tastes like crap when it gets cold.

Tyco International Inc. said Monday that an exhaustive internal investigation into its accounting revealed no "systemic or significant fraud." A long-awaited report to the Securities and Exchange Commission concluded that managers bent - but didn't break - accounting rules to inflate profits. "Aggressive accounting is not necessarily improper accounting," it said. In an ironic story, a poor black youth who later mugged Tyco's spokesman was executed minutes after a quick trial. In his defense, the young man claimed he had merely bent the executive's wallet and not broken it.

The administration's top budget official estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, a figure that is well below earlier estimates from White House officials. In a telephone interview today, the official, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, also said there was likely to be a deficit in the fiscal 2004 budget, though he declined to specify how large it would be. Joyous citizens took to the streets to celebrate the happy news, knowing that they will only be horrendously suffering the effects of this administrations misguided and immoral policies, and not be completely devastated, as they were expecting.

President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea said today current US policy towards North Korea would not persuade it to end its nuclear arms program, pointing up the South's differences with the United States. "Pressure and isolation have never been successful with Communist countries; Cuba is one example," Mr. Kim told his cabinet, in remarks tailored for an American audience. In response, a spokesman for the US, Retired Lt. Colonel Dr. Frank Burns, said "Let me tell you something. These godless communists have run their own countries into the ground, while we've been building the highest standard of living in the world. Half of these people over here never even saw a bathroom, and believe you me, they want one!"

As further proof that the "long national nightmare" of the Clinton economy is truly over, welfare rolls grew in three-quarters of states last summer and the national total crept up, too, as low-wage jobs became scarcer. GW Bush responded to the news by claiming that once he and his friends had all the money, things would get better. "Hey, it takes time to suck all the life out of people, you know? I mean, I know it would be quicker if we just killed all of 'em, but if we do, who's gonna dig all those holes? Not me!"

More people have been injured in street clashes in Venezuela between government and opposition supporters, the latest unrest to stem from the month-long strike that was instigated by the Bush administration in order to oust the popular but Communist President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Venezuelan opposition leaders demanded early elections, despite the fact that such a move was in clear violation of Venezuela's Constitution. "Like we care about the law." Said an unnamed CIA operative involved with the opposition movement.

And finally, the US broke its own record last year for corporate bankruptcies. The combination of massive accounting fraud and free spending brought down 186 public companies and cost a combined $368 billion in assets, dwarfing last year's then all-time record of $259 billion. Jubilant corporate executives and Bush administration officials, naturally unaffected by the collapse despite their part in causing them, celebrated by going to a local McDonald's and shouting WE'RE NUMBER ONE! WE'RE NUMBER ONE! to the low-paid workers.

Things That Piss Me Off

I just discovered that Charles B. Rangel, U.S. Congressional Representative from New York, is planning on introducing legislation that will bring back the draft.

Rangel is a Democrat.

What the hell is wrong with the Democratic Party?

Rangel describes his reasoning thusly:

Carrying out the administration's policy toward Iraq will require long-term sacrifices by the American people, particularly those who have sons and daughters in the military. Yet the Congress that voted overwhelmingly to allow the use of force in Iraq includes only one member who has a child in the enlisted ranks of the military — just a few more have children who are officers.

I believe that if those calling for war knew that their children were likely to be required to serve — and to be placed in harm's way — there would be more caution and a greater willingness to work with the international community in dealing with Iraq. A renewed draft will help bring a greater appreciation of the consequences of decisions to go to war.

Rangel's logic is simple: force the American public (including Congressmen and Senators) to take a better look at this whole business by making it affect them personally.

The problem is, this gives the GOP leadership a free hand:

-If they decide to reject the bill, they can start making the case that the Dems want to force people to go to war.

-If they pass it, they can claim not to be held accountable because a Democrat started it.

I know Rangel voted against the war, so I'm willing to give him some slack for that. But damn it, if you're against the war you ought to be against the draft, too. Putting people in harm's way is only gonna piss them off. It's the Republicans who want this war, let THEM introduce the draft or deal with the consequences of pissing off the all-volunteer military. And you KNOW that the rich and the privileged elite like W's family and like the bulk of the thug leadership will find ways of keeping their own kids out of harm's way.

The Dem leadership, such as it is, should have been corralling everyone in the party and getting them to stand firm on the issue. This phony war is wrong and it needs to be opposed by people who have some real power, not guys like me who can't do anything more than type out stuff on a blog.

Damn, I'm pissed.

It's bad enough having to watch what you say in the era of the Total Information Awareness Act, it's even more difficult when you talk about how other nations might sue you for what you write on a website. As of now, the world's different judiciaries are taking different opinions on it. From the linked article:

The Australian court held that Dow Jones & Co. could be sued in the state of Victoria for allegedly libelous statements published in Barron's Online magazine because they - like all information on the World Wide Web - were accessible in Australia. The court was unmoved by the fact that the offending article was written in New York and published (that is, stored on Dow Jones' servers) in New Jersey.

Just three days later and much closer to home, the U.S. Court of Appeals based in Richmond, Va., held that two Connecticut newspapers could not be sued in Virginia, since they did not post articles on the Internet with the intent to target Virginia readers. Although the online publications criticized a Virginia resident and could be downloaded in that state, the court found that the newspapers were published for a Connecticut audience and therefore could not reasonably expect to be haled into court in Virginia.

This is yet another reason for a global community: in an age where public communication can reach billions in an instant, regardless of national borders, we need a single authority to rule on these issues, just as the USA has a federal government that rules on disputes between states. This is also why libertarians are dead wrong: not in principle so much as in application. How does a group of individuals enforce law without a central authority of any kind? A global, centralized government is the best entity to deal with these situations. Yeah I know, there's always a possibility for abuse by a global version of TIA, that's why when the new order comes into being we make it and keep it as open as possible. Yeah I know, I'm a naive dreamer. But ya gotta start somewhere.

By the way, I noticed they got rid of that logo...wonder if they just keep it hidden.

Someone on the bartcop forum linked this article to the Onion. Sad when satire is no match for the real thing.


I was going through the news this afternoon to see if there was anything new that was of interest and I came across the story about the guy who had just won the lottery and is tithing a bunch of it to his local church. Now since I don't play the lottery myself, I can't bitch about why I never win it...but dammit, why can't I at least KNOW someone who's won it? In the Bible, Job asks God why the evil prosper, myself, I wonder why the people who don't need the money get more of it. I mean, this guy was a millionaire already, and I'm sure the churches he's giving some of the money to aren't exactly in danger of falling apart for lack of dough. According to the article, the church he gave the money to considers gambling to be a sin. "If God wants to take the devil's money and give it to us, that's fine," said the pastor of the church. I always worry when I hear stuff like that.

It looks like the Voter News Service, the organization that conducts exit polls during elections, will probably be disbanded. This'll open up whole new areas of voter fraud and make it more and more difficult for Americans to trust our political institutions, which of course is what the Republican leadership wants. I don't know how much more bad news we can take in this country before people start waking up to what's going on...

I saw an interesting article on the BBC site about the EU considering heading up a manned mission to Mars. What's happened to the US Space program? I'll tell you what happened to it. Republicans happened to it. They're great at suckering people out of their money but they have no imaginations and don't give a damn about the future, unless it involves new and better ways to sucker people out of their money. Now the Europeans are making moves we should have been making fifteen years ago, and what are we doing? We're airing specials that say we never even went to the moon in the first place.

What these idiots don't realize is how much money there is to be made in outer space. Do you know that there's more raw material in just one of the smaller asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter than the human race has used in its entire history? And there's thousands of those asteroids out there. We've had the technology to establish and maintain a Moon base since the 1980's but instead we had Reagan dicking around with a missile defense program that won't work and sending Marines to Beirut to get killed. THEN they put Dan Quayle, of ALL people, in charge of NASA. I wonder if he ever asked if he could light the fuse to a rocket.

It's our own fault for getting bored with the space program and bitching about the cost, even when the spinoff technology we got from the Moon mission was changing the world.

If we get through the mess this administration is gonna leave us in alive, we need to re-focus our efforts in outer space. In the article I linked it talked about global cooperation, and that's exactly how I feel about it. One world, one peace, one people. And that's how we should begin the process of moving out into space.

I know, I know, I'm changing font styles as often as I'm changing my underwear. I prefer a serif style because for longer text it's easier to read, but that style is bad if the text is small. So I made it just a bit bigger to make it easier to read. I think this'll be the final change, though.

I always wind up doing these pages very early in the morning. mostly because I'm an insomniac, and it's also very quiet, which makes it easy for me to concentrate. I don't like noise when I'm writing because thoughts fly very quickly out of my head (for my detractors, you can insert your own joke here) and noise makes me forget what I was thinking about a lot easier.

It also may seem early for the news, but usually my sources have their headlines for the next day up by then, so unless there's important breaking news it makes little difference whether I go through the sources at 2 am or at 7. As you've probably noticed, my main sources are the three I have listed in my links: the NY Times, the BBC, and the AP. I also highly recommend the Buzzflash links, that's a great site offering a great service to blogs like this to make it seem more professional than it really is.

Speaking of the news, at this point it appears to be a pretty slow news day. The usual suspects are still out there: Iraq and Korea, Afghanistan, etc.There was an interesting article about John Edwards and how he's planning on announcing his candidacy soon. On the Joey Joe Joe Show we've talked about a Kerry/Edwards ticket, I think it's a good combination: the GOP would have trouble with Kerry, who was a war hero, and Edwards would be way better getting the Southern vote than Gore was.

I was angered by Colin Powell's remarks that the situation in Korea was "inherited." Will right-wingers EVER stop blaming Clinton for anything? I used to have some respect for Powell, now I keep thinking Belafonte was right.

Beginnings

Note: This is the first official post for Pax Liberalis. Items before this are articles I wrote before I began blogging.

When I chose the name Pax Liberalis for this blog I did so because, rather than just bitching about the Republicans and the Libertarians and the other assorted meatballs of the right, I wanted to make more of a presentation of what vision I have for the world of the future. There have been other stages of so-called peace in history: the "Pax Romana" of Rome, for example, which didn't last because it wasn't so much of a true peace but rather a suppression of all other violence under a single entity, in this case, Rome. There are those in this country who want to enforce their own version of that, in fact it was part of a policy paper put out by the current administration under the name "Pax Americana". But that, too, would be doomed eventually to fail, despite our overwhelming military might. Force of arms is only one kind of force in this world, and in any event is only temporary. President Clinton is right when he talks about how human progress has been defined as a struggle different versions of "us" versus "them" and how we need to expand the definition of who is ''us'' and shrink the definition of who is ''them".

Under Pax Liberalis the entire human race would be "us", a people unified by what brings us together as opposed to what pulls us apart. It's a big step considering the continued, festering hatred in the world today, even in the US, but it's a step that has to be taken, because the alternative is endless war with little or no hope for the future. As this blog goes along, I will add to the definition of Pax Liberalis.

So far not much in the news today. More crap about Korea and Iraq, we're still losing soldiers in Afghanistan, and the economy continues to go straight to hell while the unemployed get screwed over, but hey that's what we've come to expect from a Bush economy. Not that we'll be thinking about that much, since W's re-election will keep us focused on whoever we'll be at war with in the coming two years.

I watched the Falcons lose today, though they still made the playoffs because New Orleans lost...much as I like the Falcons, I know they're not really a playoff-caliber team, but then again, having lost to both Cincinnati (2-14 on the year) and today to Carolina, the Saints deserved to get knocked out. I wasn't surprised the Falcons lost to Cleveland, who were fighting to win a playoff spot of their own (which they did, since the Jets won), though they should have beaten Seattle week before last. The Falcons finished with as many wins as I said they would (I said they'd go 9-7, and I have witnesses), that damn tie screwed up a perfect prediction. As of this writing I don't know who they're going to play in the first round of the playoffs, but I doubt they'll go any further than that. If they can get a decent receiver and strengthen the defense up the middle, they should do well next year. Also, as much as I like and respect Dan Reeves, I think it's time he retired. He's been a great coach, but I think the game has passed him by. If it wasn't for Vick, and for some good work by defensive coach Wade Phillips, the Falcons might have gone 3-13.

By the way, for any freepers reading this, yes, it's possible for a liberal to like football, you brain-dead schmuck. Go back to Free Republic and masturbate with the rest of the losers.

I wrote the following to Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for the New York Times Magazine. I know the words sound pretty hypocritical following the verbal assault I just issued against right-wingers, but frankly I'm not in a very charitable mood.

Being a fan of your column, I sympathize with your views on writing an advice column, and on how you are perceived by the right. I, too, have been called a communist and worse by people whose undersized intellect is matched only by their overinflated egos. Under normal circumstances, it's best just to ignore these people; unfortunately, they're the ones now running the country.

I used to read Ms. Landers and Dear Abby even as a young man in the service because their advice seemed honest and reasonable, never judgmental and always willing to admit when they had been misinformed, misled, or just plain wrong. Those are rare qualities in any era, and practically unheard of today.

The country has changed in the last quarter century. We live in a society that values confrontation and competition over compassion and cooperation, and any deviation from that is labeled as socialism or communism by a well-oiled right wing hate machine. We've gone, in short, from Ann Landers to Dr. Laura, from Walter Cronkite to Rush Limbaugh. God help us all.

I can't say enough about Kurt Nimmo's website Another Day In The Empire. I only just found out about the guy a few days ago from someone in the bartcop forum who ran across him, and I'm wondering why I haven't heard of him before. He kicks ass on multiple levels, and the site looks great, too. If only we had a moneybags like Scaife to fund people like Kurt, we'd be doing a lot better. Does anyone reading this know anything about fundraising? If so, email me and maybe we can get a plan together for raising money to help fund some of these blogs, or to channel our energy more efficiently.