Family Business
I was in the midst of writing a long article about Bush's photo op in Iraq when my wife, who has been in pain the last few days for medical reasons too lengthy to mention here, told me that the pain was getting worse. She was due for a checkup on Thursday in preparation for some future surgery (long-planned), but I had her call her doctor, who recommended she go to the hospital. Since I don't have a car, I had to call an ambulance, which arrived immediately.

She is in the hospital now, and will remain there for at least another day while they determine how serious her condition is, and therefore I will likely not be posting for a day or so, as I plan on being with her in the hospital as much as possible. I would be there now but I am not allowed to stay there overnight. If they can help her, I will be back posting in a day or so, if not, it may be longer. I will do my best to keep you all informed.

-Joe

Open Thread: Show 13
Since I'll be busy today with Thanksgiving stuff, I'll just let you all speak out on the latest show. Have a happy holiday everyone!

To Fight Or Not To Fight?
A discussion has come up among the various members of the League Of Liberals about how to react to right-wingers. Some advocate a more direct approach, others prefer to only use peaceful methods.

Me? Hey, I'm just a lower-middle class kinda guy, you know? My family has never had a lot of money and I personally have never made more than $23,500 a year. I am, in short, very much affected by the anti-worker policies of the GOP in general and the current administration in particular. And I'm the kind of guy who believes, when push comes to shove, that there is a time and a place for the occasional skull-bashing. But, in my opinion, it hasn't reached that point yet. Peaceful, political solutions are still available to us and we should make use of them. Remember, conditions for working people a century ago were far worse than they are now, and they faced even greater opposition, but they still managed to win the rights we take for granted, and they did so by a combination of methods, both peaceful and violent.

I believe in fighting, and I don't necessarily even believe in fighting fair. But at this stage of the game there's no need for getting out the baseball bats. The hardcore right began by using legitimate means to take over the GOP, we can do the same with the Democratic Party, and we can win back all we have lost. But we have to know when and how to fight, and we have to learn to be patient, just as they had to be patient.

Republicans Hate Soldiers
For years, the Republican Party has talked about how much they love the military and how they support the troops, and they're so good at these lies that many people believe them. But those of us in the working class, many of whom (like myself and Jessica Lynch) joined because the Republicans wrecked the economy, know that the truth is that, to Republicans, soldiers are just fodder for their wars. Republicans use soldiers for photo ops and propaganda, but when it comes down to doing things for the soldiers, they can't be bothered.

The US spends more on defense, almost, than the rest of the world combined, over a billion dollars a day. Where does all that money go? It sure as hell doesn't go to the soldiers, who languish in underfunded hospitals, or have their combat pay lowered or their veteran's benefits reduced. And why should they care? It's not like their kids are going to be affected by it. In fact, only one member of Congress (House and Senate combined) has a child in the service, you can bet your ass that that soldier isn't going to be anywhere near danger.

With more and more reports of attacks on US soldiers in Iraq, and as the Taliban slowly regains control of Afghanistan, it's going to be harder and harder for Rove to get away with the spin. The soldiers are beginning to question, not just whether the civilian leadership knows what they're doing, but whether they even care about them. Bush will show off his flight suit costume but can't be bothered to see the coffins of the soldiers who have died since he proudly proclaimed "Mission Accomplished". He doesn't even want us to see them, either...it's bad for his image, you understand.

When Democrats, and liberal Democrats at that, ran the show, they rewarded the valor of our troops by giving them the GI Bill, which gave them a college education and helped them to make the best of their lives after they sacrificed years in the service of their country. They knew the value of the soldiers. Under Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, money for the military swelled, and anyone who complained about things like waste was accused of being "soft." And you know that whenever Bill Clinton was put into a position where he had to use the military, in the back of his mind was how the Republican hate machine was going to spin it. But the lives of the soldiers weren't necessarily better for all the money that was getting spent. Most of it went to new toys for the higher ranks, not to improved conditions for the working soldier. I can speak from personal experience how wasteful the entire system is, because of some of the bullshit I had to deal with during my time in the Air Force.

It's time we stopped letting the Republicans get away with this garbage. They love the money they make from the military (Dick Cheney never made a cent except for his military/government connections), but they hate the soldiers who fight the wars and make the sacrifices that make them rich.

Around The League
It's been a busy weekend for me, too busy to do any serious writing on the blog, but I took some time to look through the other League blogs and see what's going on:

Rushlimbaughtomy on Rush's hypocrisy
The Spy Game shows how sanctions haven't hurt Al Qaeda
Cosmic Iguana on the NYPD busting some activist heads
The People's Republic of Seabrook on how My God can beat up your God
Philosophical Scrivener follows the case of a US soldier charged with cowardice and other military doings
The Mahablog on the expense of W's visit to London
T. Rex on Ralph Nader
Dohiyimir gives a warning to the Bush administration
Savage Cruel Bigot on how the US wouldn't cover the London protests

And , in order to welcome the newest members of the League:
Anarchy Xero, on the possible return of a famous flightless, rotund waterfowl
Iddybud on how the Bush administration is using fear to manipulate us
Stage Left on US Cluster Bombs in Iraq
The Sesquipedalian on our lack of preparation

Enjoy, while I get some other things done!

Dear NY Times:
To The Editors:
Re: 33 Years Later, Draft Becomes Topic for Dean
What the Times fails to realize as it writes yet another hit piece on Gov. Dean is that this campaign is not about him. It's about taking our country back from the special interests that have hijacked it. This is our campaign, not his, and we see your piece for what it is: a deliberate, desperate attempt to derail it by a so-called "professional media" that is more interested in preserving its privileged position than in looking for real solutions to the serious problems that face this country.

What Happened Yesterday
As I suspected, the lack of any activity on my behalf towards the blog led to a decline in readers, though it was not as bad a drop as I feared it might be. For those of you who might have been wondering where I was all day Friday, I went to a special meeting of the Georgia For Dean group, where Dean campaign director Joe Trippi gave a speech and answered some questions, followed by some light training on the ins and outs of canvassing and other campaign strategies. After the meeting, we went down to the corner of Peachtree and 10th St. here in Atlanta and participated in a "flash mob", holding up Dean signs to the passing drivers. I was surprised to see the kind of positive support we got.

I was impressed with Joe. He was nothing like I imagined he would be: I expected some smooth-talking guy dressed in a suit and tie, sounding like an info-mercial host, but Joe was casually dressed and spoke in clear, sure words about what the Dean candidacy meant. There was no doubting his passion: when he was asked (in essence) by a lady of color in the audience, what Gov. Dean would do for the African-American community (who she said, and I agree, that the Democratic Party had taken for granted), you could see that it was a question he had heard before and talked about how the Dean campaign was for raising everybody up, and how we all have to work together.

He talked about how Gov. Dean's strategy from the start was based on how to win the election and not just the primary, which is a big reason why they decided to opt out of public financing: think about it, they turned down $19 million which would have enabled them to win the primary hands down, but would have crippled them for months after. It's yet another bold move by a bold campaign that understands that the problems of this country aren't going to be solved by a single person, but by a growing movement of people who believe that the US is on the wrong track. Regardless of how future events unfold, I am glad to be a part of it.

Unfortunately Joe had to leave after a few hours because Atlanta was just one stop of many he had to make on that day, meeting with supporters in different states. But it affirmed to me why I had joined the Dean campaign in the first place, the fact that this is a campaign that listens to its people rather than having a central authority hand out marching orders that must be obeyed without question. The Washington "insiders" and the so-called "professional media" have no idea of what they're up against, because this campaign is not about Howard Dean or Joe Trippi, it's about us. Because we understand what they don't: that we have the power.

It's A Hard Knock Blog
One of the problems with being a blogger is that you're required to continually update the site lest you lose readers, and since I have been busy with other projects, I haven't been able to post as often as I'd like. I will be out of the house most of the day today, and therefore will not be posting (if at all) until this evening. But so you won't miss anything, here's a list of older articles for your reading pleasure:

Letter to the CAP
Dear Donald Luskin
Framing The Message
Pissing Contest
Invasion Of The Body Politic Snatchers(Libertarian rant)
Confessions of a Bush-hater (redux)
Confessions of a Bush-hater
Dean vs. Clark
The Realities Of Rugged Individualism
Blogging The Watchmen
Your Stupid Minds! Stupid, Stupid!
Every Soldier Counts
Uncivility
Schoolyard Tactics
The Sanctity Of Life
We're Not Angry Enough
Lined Up And Shot
Welcome To The Future
Howard, Maha, the Rebel flag, and Me
Campaign Finance
Dear David Brooks
Mr. Smartass and Mr. Highhorse

Iraq = Death
This article from Ron Findlay's Anarchy Xero blog gets my vote for the New Weblog Showcase this week. Here's an excerpt:

It's becoming more and more clear that America's neo-conservative regime was so blinded by it's dual lust for oil and expanded empire that, not only did they fabricate lies to justify the invasion of Iraq but they also didn't bother to plan for the occupation. Now, just like Afghanistan they have what they want, energy resources and a pliant puppet regime. The rest of the country descending into chaos? That's just fine. Soon enough the war will be "won", that is, when the American people stop paying attention and we've moved on to invade Iran or Syria.

I'm still not sure about the whole Iran/Syria thing. I have no doubt that the PNAC crowd would love to do that, but I imagine they're going to find it hard to sell another war to the US public. Even a new, destructive terrorist attack on the US may not help, because it would not only seem a little too convenient, it would also showcase how incompetent they are when it comes to national security

At present, I believe they're doing everything they can just to make sure W gets another four years. Note I didn't say "re-elected". The plan is apparently to pull the troops out of Iraq by March or so (but not really, because if all our troops left the whole country might easily, as Ron pointed out, fall into chaos), declare victory, use it as a wedge to keep W in power, then go after the other countries after 2004. But the problem with their strategy is that the longer it goes on the harder it is to sell, and unless they stoop to some overt fascist tactics, that is, some form of Krystallnacht, it's going to be harder and harder to sell. Not that there aren't a whole bunch of people who would go along with whatever W says to begin with. Anyway, nice work, Ron.

GAY MARRIAGE
Now that the Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that banning same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, expect to hear that phrase over and over again. It's bad enough that the Republicans, masters at Framing The Message, are going to pound us over the head with that day in and day out, the so-called "professional news media" is going to be helping them. Take, for instance, this article in the NY Times, where the term gay marriage is used a total of eight times (not counting the title) while the term civil union is used just once, and same-sex only three times. Legal rights likewise only showed up once.

This is why we lose. We need to start defining these terms to our favor. The right wing's stance on this ought to be coined as what it is: anti-American, anti-freedom, and their policies are sick.

Someone had a good idea to use the words miserable failure when talking about Bush so that it would show up on every search engine, let's throw in some more terms to be used in association with either Republicans in general or Bush in particular:
Soldier-haters
hate-mongerers
Vicious betrayers
Crybabies
Power-mad
Racists
Bigots
Incompetent
Ignorant, etc.

In addition, we should use positive terms when talking about Democrats and Democratic policies:
Freedom-loving
Patriotic
Forward-looking
Generous
Hard-working
Professional
Dignified
Heroic

Yes, it's taking a page from their book, but the difference is that we mean what we say whereas they just used these terms to manipulate people into going along with their hateful schemes. I realize how uphill a climb this all is, but we have to start somewhere...

Open Thread: Show 12
Are you pissed off by all the profanity? Are you even more pissed off that Rush is sitting in his cozy studio spewing more hate when he should by all rights be sitting in a prison cell? Chime in below and tell me what you think! Do it NOW!

Been Busy
Sorry I haven't posted in a day or so, been busy doing work for the Dean campaign, putting together COJ show 12 (which should be up on the air tonight), and working on a business plan for a new project.

I want to thank Ben from The White Rose Society for archiving back episodes of the COJ show on their well-read site, I'm getting a lot of hits from there and I'm grateful. I also want to thank Bartcop for mentioning the CUJ show on his main page yesterday, that got a bunch of attention too.

The site is going pretty strong hit-wise, thanks mostly to my membership in the League of Liberals, the fastest growing blogger alliance in the TTLB Ecosystem. I'm averaging over 100 links a day according to their figures since I joined the League, I wouldn't get a tenth of that if I weren't part of the alliance. New post hopefully this evening.

Dear David Brooks
Sir:
In answer to your recent essay, where you decry the partisan war between Republicans and Democrats that rages every day in Washington and produces behavior that would be unacceptable in any other arena of life. I mean the war that poisons our airwaves, clogs up our best-seller lists and stagnates our politics, allow me to say this:

Go screw.

Who the hell are you trying to kid, you sanctimonious little smartass? After thirty years of nonstop pounding by a right-wing hate machine that's been built by anti-American, anti-freedom fanatics with hundreds of millions of dollars, you're telling us you want us to play nice? What was it that Grover Norquist called bi-partisanship? He called it date rape, Mr. Brooks. He's a fanatic, just like all the leaders of the GOP are fanatics, and you are, at worst, nothing more than their well-paid apologist.

Now if by some miracle Mr. Bush and other leaders of the right would figure out that what they're doing is just plain wrong, and that it doesn't help anyone, even themselves in the long run, by constantly attacking anyone who disagrees with them, maybe then we'll consider the support and cooperation you talk about. But there is no reasoning with madmen, Mr. Brooks, and the battle lines have already been drawn. You are either with us or against us, says Mr. Bush. We stand against you, and as long as the present course continues, we will continue to stand against you for as long as we can.

If it makes you feel better, Mr. Brooks, I believe that we will indeed have progress. We will have progress when people like Bush and Norquist are thrown from power, and when everything the right has built over the last thirty years has been destroyed, and salt sown into the ground it was built on. They are liars, traitors to their country, and the enemies of free men everywhere. You, sir, talk about coalitions and movements, but we can clearly see the knife you're planning to stick in our backs. Even if the right's attacks on us were justified, which they were not, what will you say to the families of our soldiers, some of whom supported this administration, who have been killed because of their greed and callousness? What will you say to the millions of Americans and the billions worldwide who are going to live their lives in poverty and hopelessness because of their actions?

When Mr. Bush and his ilk are sitting in a prison cell for war crimes, when the people of the world, citizens of America and Iraq, of all the world, reject the manipulations of the corporate elite that seeks to make them into cheap labor to make them rich and fodder for their wars, then we will have progress.

Until then, sir, I will keep my sword, such as it is, and I will continue to use it.

Of Muckadoos And Men
It appears that the smartasses on the right have found a new term for us (read the comments). Well, since they have so much time to browse thw Web, here's a few more links for them:
US Army
US Navy
US Air Force
US Marine Corps

Have fun, boys!

Sgt. Joe Vecchio
US Air Force 1983-1989

Iraqi Bait & Switch
From the headlines of this NY Times article, you would think that the Bush administration was planning on pulling out our troops by July. But if you read a little further, you'll find this:

The agreement envisions giving Iraqis control over their own wealth and political affairs in advance of writing a constitution or holding national elections, while maintaining the presence of American and other foreign troops to assure stability, officials said.

"This is good for everyone," said Ahmad Chalabi, a council member who saw Mr. Bremer on Friday night. "We will have the U.S. forces here, but they will change from occupiers to a force that is here at the invitation of the Iraqi government."

First, note the name: Ahmad Chalabi, and how the Times doesn't even bother to mention the background he has in Iraq, how Chalabi was one of the people who deceived us into thinking the Iraqis would welcome us with "open arms" and "flowers".

But even more telling is that the troops will apparently remain in Iraq, anyway, though supposedly under the control of the Iraqi governing coalition, which in itself isn't very well-liked. What are they going to do, try to melt into the society?

It's no surprise that the Bush administration is trying to push this bullshit story, why does the Times feel the need to pass it along almost without comment?

Open Thread: Shows 10 and 11
Comment, or you'll get rabies!

GOP Sleepover
And Then's hilarious take in the "GOP Sleepover" I brought up in an earlier post is my vote for this week's New Blogger Showcase. This is actually one of the better blogs I've seen recently, good content in a humorous way.

Which reminds me...why is it that the hits they say I get on the Ecosystem don't match the hits I get on my hit counter? Me no understand. My brain hurts.

More From The Crybaby Party
Republicans, upset that their plans to stack the judiciary with right-wing lunatics are being stopped by Democrats, are throwing a 30-hour temper tantrum to show their constituents that they still care. The stunt isn't necessarily going to change anything of course, but it'll be good for a few laughs.

LoL Roundup
With all the things I've been doing lately I haven't had much of a chance to look through some of the League blogs to see what's up, especially since we have almost fifty member now...when I joined not too long ago there were only twenty or so...

Anyway, here's a small sample of what's going on:

Happy Furry Puppy tells us what's really going on at the Bremer/Cabinet meeting.
The Felonious Elephant covers the story about Bush not going to the funerals of US soldiers killed in Iraq
Blogs Canada explains some of the discrepencies in website hit counts
The Poison Kitchen keeps us up todate on China's plans to send astronauts to the Moon
Arms And The Man reports on an oil-swapping program between Iran and Iraq.

Read up! It's good for ya!

More Growth
No sooner had I updated the site to include a bunch of new League members than news comes of five more! Let's welcome them to the League!
Left Is Right
Byte Back
The Huck Upchuck
Pharyngula
Ink From The Squid

Another loss
My condolences go out to League member Barbara at the Maha blog, who just lost her mother. My wife and I will remember you in our prayers today.

Art Carney, 1918 - 2003
One of the funniest men who ever lived. Ed Norton, the character Art was most famous for, represented, along with his friend Ralph Kramden (the late Jackie Gleason), the consummate working men, aspiring to be something more but inevitably realizing that they were what they were. He'll be missed.

Here's more from the NY Times Obituary:
At first he played a variety of roles: the rabbitlike Clem Finch; Sedgwick Van Gleason, the aristocratic father of the wastrel son, Reggie Van Gleason (Mr. Gleason); and Ed Norton. They were all funny, but it was Norton who captured the hearts of a nation and soon Mr. Carney was being offered honorary memberships in associations of sewer workers in Texas, California and Florida. Look magazine assessed what he had done with the role of Norton and concluded that Mr. Carney "brings to comedy all the deftness, imagination and pathos of yesterday's most eloquent loser, Charlie Chaplin."

...Audrey Meadows, who played Alice Kramden on the show, summed him up as "a genuinely nice guy" and added, "He hasn't got a nasty, conniving hair on his head."

Mr. Smartass and Mr. Highhorse
From time to time, I receive an invitation to attend, if not participate in, an event sponsored by the local free weekly newspaper, which by the way happens to be better than our regular daily newspaper. The event is a debate between "left" and "right" on assorted issues of the day. I have yet to accept such an invitation, partly for practical reasons: I can't afford to eat out, and since I don't have a car, I really don't have a way of getting to the event to begin with. It would help if some of the people who say I ought to go would give me a ride there, but their behavior isn't much of a surprise, and I'll get to that later. Another reason is that I really don't fit in with either the debaters or the audience for such occasions, and they don't care about me any more than I care about them. I think the whole thing is just a pointless exercise that means nothing and accomplishes less than that.

These meaningless debates, to me, are a microcosm of what's wrong with American politics today, because they only represent two viewpoints, and these viewpoints are represented by the two debaters. If, however, I ever accepted such an invitation, here's what I'd probably do: before the debates actually began, I'd grab a mike and say the following:

You know, I really didn't want to participate tonight. I'm nobody special, after all, I'm just some guy with a two-bit radio show and a blog that maybe a hundred people or so read. And I get the impression that they just brought me up here to see if they can humiliate me. But you know what, there's nothing very special about them, either, and about who they represent.

I mean, take a look at Mr. Smartass over there, our Republican. He's a total asshole, but he has a big audience: in fact he has a big audience precisely because he's such a total asshole. He thinks he's better than everybody else and doesn't give a rat's ass about anything above and beyond boosting his own ego and filling his bank account. He gets away with all his bullshit because nothing he says or does is really gonna affect him in a negative way. He's got a huge support group built just for him, and they'll make sure that he never has to worry about paying the rent or keeping up with his bills, as long as he keeps on being an asshole and handing out the party line. I mean, even when he goes too far and says something that's a little too honest for the powers that be, they'll just hide him in a safe-house somewhere until the heat dies down, then bring him right back again. So why should he care about how what he says affects other people's lives?

And here we have Mr. Highhorse, the guy who says he's a Democrat. He talks a lot more about principles and high-sounding crap than Mr. Smartass does, but the truth is he secretly believes half the stuff Smartass says. Oh and make no mistake, he also thinks he's better than anyone else, he just thinks it's rude to be so obvious about it, as if that makes any real difference. He also doesn't care about how much things are gonna affect him because he's got plenty of money too, and when it comes down to a decision between his money and his prnciples, well, let's just say that he knows what's really important.

Now, what Mr. Highhorse doesn't understand is that Mr. Smartass has been kicking the crap out of him for years, and regardless of what happens in this stupid little debate tonoght, Mr. Smartass is going to keep on kicking the crap out of him where it really matters: control of the government and control of the message. Because, you see, while Mr. Highhorse sniffs at the very idea of using his money to support his principles (although the truth is, he's just afraid of losing it himself), Mr. Smartass knows that it takes money to make money, and he isn't afraid to throw it around: using it to create foundations and keep people on a payroll so that they can support the cause and not have to worry about trivial matters like rent and bills. Mr. Highhorse thinks he can fight this by building a few more ivory towers, but these don't accomplish much of anything except to give a few more people in his little clique a place to assuage their guilt while earning a few bucks. Of course, he demands that anyone outside of their little kaffeeklatsch either work for them for free or give them money and keep their mouths shut about it.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget that Mr. Smartass doesn't play by the rules. Why should he? Rules are for losers, and he's playing the game to win, while Highhorse here wants everyone to play nice. We all know how that always finishes up. In short, Highhorse is doomed because Smartass is a fanatic who just won't accept losing and is willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to keep that from happening, and Highhorse is more interested in understanding why he has that attitude than he is in fighting back.

But if I were you, Mr. Smartass, I'd wipe that stupid, know-it-all smirk off my face. Because what you don't understand, what you can't see because you're way too busy being full of yourself to figure out, is that even if you manage to beat the shit out of Mr. Highhorse, there's an entirely different group of people who are capable of plastering that ugly puss of yours all over the wall. You and Highhorse here have been ignoring them: you call them sheeple, you call them the unwashed masses, you both call them every insult you can think of, but I have news for you, when it comes right down to it, for every Smartass and Highhorse in the world, there are thousands of them. They're here right now, though you may not have given them a moment's notice. They're the ones serving your drinks, cooking your food, and cleaning up after you. They built the fancy cars you drove to get here, they built the roads you drive them on, they built the very building we're having this debate in, and if they didn't exist, you'd both have been killed by your own incompetence a long time ago.

You see, they don't give a shit about your little debate here because, regardless of how it turns out, they still have to go to work tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. And if you, Mr. Smartass, get your way, they'll have to work harder and harder for less and less money. They've been in the dark about this fact for a long time, and some of them are more aware of it than others, but they're slowly beginning to realize that you're helping to make their lives more miserable, and for the most part, they're going to blame you. Half of them don't even go out and vote, and of course you're counting on that, Mr. Smartass. The more they stay away from the polls, the better your chances of getting what you want.

And Mr. Highhorse here, who got his money because of the hard work and sacrifice of people like that, people who he thinks are beneath him, doesn't understand why they no longer blindly support him. The reason, for those of us who are paying attention, is because you're nothing more than a snivelling little coward who won't fight back. And when they come for Mr. Smartass, they're going to reserve some of that anger for what's left of you, because you had the chance to take Mr. Smartass down years ago, but you were too busy pretending you were above it all, and too busy enjoying the rich and pleasant lifestyle that these people helped create for you to make the sacrifices that needed to be made for the future.

You don't have to believe me. History is filled with examples of people who went too far because they were so interested in their pointless little games that they failed to understand that there's a whole world full of people who don't give a shit about them. It doesn't matter if they come from the right or the left, or neither: Mussolini, Ceausescu, Louis XVI, they all went down because they weren't satisfied with the money and power they had, they had to go out and get more and more until there wasn't enough for everyone else. And I'm putting you both on notice right now that sooner or later that dam is going to break. You may win in the short term, Mr. Smartass, but either the people of the US are going to rise up and put you down, or the rest of the world is going to stand against you and take you out. How soon this will happen is going to depend on how big an asshole you continue to be, and likewise how much longer Mr. Highhorse continues to be a coward.

Now, I'm not fool enough to imagine that my puny words are really going to change anything. I mean, I'm just this guy, you know? I don't have any money, I don't have any power, I do a radio show and write a little journal, that's all. But unlike Mr. Smartass and Mr. Highhorse, I understand what's really going on. The thing is, all that has happened in the past, everything that's happening now, and everything that will happen in the immediate future, happens because of human nature. And humans are still ruled, for the most part, by a combination of fear and ignorance. In six thousand years of human history, the only thing that has really changed is the efficiency by which we are able to kill each other and the increasingly sophisticated ways we justify it. What's happening in Washington D.C. right now is little different from what happened in Athens 2500 years ago, just as it has played itself out numerous times in between, all over the world. In short, until the very nature of human beings themselves change, things will continue as they always have. Eventually, we'll realize how horrible things have become and fix it, or we'll just blast ourselves back to the Stone Age or worse.

So, you may ask, in the face of all this cynicism about human nature, why should I bother to say or do anything? Why should I keep fighting? Why not simply accept things and even profit from it like the Smartasses do?

I fight because, being as stupid and naiive as I am, I'm still an optimist. I think, in the end, we're going to overcome the darker side of our nature and become something greater, only to face newer, greater, challenges in the future. The only question for me is, how bloody will it get before that happens? So enjoy your little debate, I'm gonna go home and make love to my wife while I still can.

More Notes
While I'm occupied with my latest article and radio show, and with beginning the process of writing the business plan for the tentatively-named Independent Bloggers Coalition, here's some news from the League Of Liberals:
First, congratulations to Clarefied for winning the New Blogger Showcase on the blogger ecosystem! This is not only proving the effectiveless of being part of the League, but is also scaring the bejeesus out of some of the powers that be who aren't quite sure how to handle our insurgency...

The Mahablog wants to remind everyone about the real origins of Veteran's Day.

Everyone's invited to Rick's Cafe to read his riotous review of the London operatic musical based on the Jerry Springer Show

And finally, I want to welcome the newest members of the League:
Unofficially Official,
The Gunther Concept,
The Mudshark,
Hammerdown,
Screaming Points, and
The Politburo Diktat.

Screaming Points in particular has a powerful article on Veteran's Day.

The League's membership has doubled snce I joined up, and there's every indication of it growing just as quickly in the next few weeks. At the rate it's going, it will be the largest blogger alliance in the ecosystem by the end of the year. And if this scares the blogs on the right...good.

Slow Time
I know it seems like I haven't posted in a while, it's just one of those stretches where I feel like I need to get out for a bit, get away from the computer, and take it a little easy while I'm not looking for work. I also am going to engage in a project that I've been wanting to do for a while that may now become possible because of my work with the League of Liberals.

Speaking of which, the League is expanding and making quite an impact on the blogger "ecosphere." We have a few new members and I will be adding heir links soon.

I have raised $75 so far towards a new monitor, and I want to thank those who have donated so far. The monitor still acts funny, but there are still times of uninterrupted stability. I hope to get a new monitor before this one totally collapses, as I think it will. Mostly, I need someone to give me a ride to the store, I have no desire to drag one home on the bus.

I have an article I am working on that I can't get just right, and I'm also trying to put the radio show together, but I had a hard day today and I may not get either done tonight, hopefully I can finish both in the next day or so. Keep clicking in, though, because you never know when I'll see something I like and drop it in!

I Don't Get It
This isn't what you think...read on...
Not too long ago, Atrios asked his readers for donations so he could get a new laptop. He raised $3400 in a matter of hours, and and on top of that, someone went out and bought him the laptop he wanted.

A short time after that, he had that frivolous lawsuit filed against him by Donald Luskin, which was juat as quickly dropped.
As a result of that experience, Atrios set up a charity to help people fight against these frivolous lawsuits, something I wholeheartedly support and would donate to if I could afford to it.

So why is it that, a day or so later, he has only raised $958?

It seems to me that this is a far more noble cause than getting Atrios a new laptop. So why is it that more people were willing to donate more money to Atrios for a laptop he could easily afford, yet are unwilling to give to a more worthy cause? Somebody help me out here...

LoL Roundup (Short Version)
More on the Dean Flag Thang from The 18 1/2 Minute Gap
Indigo Ocean talks up the Harmonic Concordance tomorrow night.
The Philosophical Scrivner wonders why we're celebrating Christmas right after Halloween, for cryin' out loud!
Gotham City 13 wonders if we're prepared for reinstating the draft.

CLick Here for more from the League Of Liberals!

I Need A New $#%^^%#&^!!! Monitor
The monitor I have is going all bug-eyed on me, I have to keep banging it to keep the picture from fizzling out...it's damned annoying and is keeping me from doing a lot of work: it's hard to write when you have to keep hitting your monitor to get a picture...

Of course, I don't have any money for a new monitor, so I'm asking if anyone out there can help me out. If you click on the "Leave A Tip" link at the left, you can send money via PayPal, or if you feel uncomfortable with that, e-mail me privately and we'll try to work something out.

This isn't a blank donation call, I really do need a new monitor, I obviously can't run the blog or do the radio show if I can't see what I'm doing! If anyone thinks I'm looking to snag a little bit of cash, you can feel free to chip in and buy me a monitor online and have it shipped to me. Atrios has what he would call a "wish list" of items he could use, maybe I'll see if I can set up something similar.

Sorry to interrupt. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Campaign Finance
Gov. Howard Dean is reportedly considering to decline public financing for his Presidential campaign, a move that hilights how useless the current system is. Mr. Bush of course has, as far as I know, always declined public financing so that he can ignore limits on how much you can raise, and because of it he has amassed the largest campaign war chest in history, it's estimated he may even raise as much as $200 million dollars, and that's without an opponent in the primaries. Gov. Dean has raised the most of any of the Democratic candidates, but he doesn't have the kinds of big-money donors Bush has. Bush is getting the bulk of his tens of millions from at best a few thousand people who can afford to donate the current maximum: $2,000. Dean has hundreds of thousands of donors donating app. $50-100 each.

I am a firm believer that fund-raising is an important part of the political process: to me it is an indication of real public support. But the system is obviously skewed towards non-citizens (corporations) and against individual citizens. As I see it, money is its own reward, and it should have as little part in the political process as possible. Raising $15 million dollars from a quarter-million people, as Gov. Dean has done, is a better representation of a candidate's popularity than raising four times that amount from fifty thousand donors, which is Bush's strategy. But with no primary opponent, Bush's campaign will be able to completely control the message, despite the fact that Dean clearly has the financial support of more voters, and of course the number of votes is the most important thing in the end.

This needs to change, and I suggest the following:

• A complete and total ban on all corporate donations. Period. Corporations are not citizens, they are artifical legal entities, and are not entitled to the same rights as citizens


• Complete and full disclosure of all money donated, and how it is spent.


• Repeal of the 1975 FEC "Sun PAC" law that allows corporations to create and fund their own Political Action Committees.


• Candidates can solicit donations from individuals only*: no special interest groups or corporations:

No more than $250** per person




Individuals can donate up to $250 to candidates, and an additional $250 to political parties, during the primary season. They can donate to as many candidates as they like, and to as many political parties as they like, but they cannot exceed the $250 limit. Any donations to the candidates exceeding this amount must either be returned to the donor by the campaigns, or be placed into a General Fund which will be distributed equally among the winners of all the primaries




When the primary season is finished, individuals can then donate another $250 to the candidate of their choice, and an additional $250 to a political party. As before, individuals can donate to as many candidates as they like, and to as many political parties as they like, as long as they do not exceed the $250 limit. This will prevent political parties from running phoney candidates so as to circumvent the fund-raising limits.




No candidate can, above and beyond the $250 limit, donate money to their own campaign




All monies that remain from losing candidates must either be returned to the donors or placed into the General Fund mentioned above




For Presidential campaigns, no fund-raising until two years before the actual election




The same rules would apply to Senatorial and Congressional campaigns, under the following conditions:

Only money raised from within that state or that Congressional district would be admissible. This would prevent larger, national political organizations from controlling statewide races




The limits should be lower, say $75 or $100 instead of $250

In addition, I also propose the following:

• Let's establish a set standard as to what does and does not constitute a political party in order to weed out parties and candidates created for the purpose of circumventing fundraising limits


• Let's re-define and rearrange the primary season so that the entire doesn't just come down to a couple of days where the bulk of the delegates are chosen. How about this:

Let's start the whole thing in the east and move progressively westward, which would signify how we colonized the country




Let's even the whole process out so that each primary week has roughly the same clout as far as choosing delegates. Both of these would help the candidates move across the country and meet as many people as possible, and not just concentrate on the "super" days when the bulk of the delegates are chosen. It would also prevent those with the biggest war chests from dominating and allow a more open forum for all candidates

• Let's fix the entire electoral process:

The States have the responsibility of counting the votes, but the federal government can set standards and help fund upgrades and equipment.




The secret ballot must be maintained. I've heard people talk about electronic machines issuing receipts, but all that would do is to invite intimidation ("I wanna see that receipt showing you voted for so-and-so, or you're fired/excommunicated, etc.")

• Finally, let's put an end to the legalized bribery we call the lobbying system. Lobbyists should be advocates for a particular cause, but their success should be based more on the merits of their arguments, by how they are presented by the lobbies, and by the amount of voters those lobbyists represent, as opposed to who can donate more to the coffers of the candidates.

I suppose I could continue, but the main thing, for me, is to preserve our democratic institutions. Our political process has always been dominated by a small group of wealthy people, and I don't doubt that regardless of what we do, they will continue to have an influence that exceeds their numbers, but we can limit that influence and return government of, by, and for the people to the people.

*I was thinking about saying citizens only, or registered voters only, but I'm not a hundred percent on that. Mostly I want to remove corporations and special interest groups from the process. Another idea I had was for there to be a general fund set up, not unlike the one mentioned above, that would be divided equally and sent to every registered voter in the form of vouchers so that they can either donate it to the candidates or parties of their choice, or, if left unused, have it returned to the general fund. I think this has possibilities, I just don't know how to fund it initially.

**this number is not set in stone, I use it because I think it is a fair number, it's not more than people can afford, and not so high so as too allow corruption.

Dear NY Times:
Re: Dr. Dean and the Pickup Truck
To The Editors:
Once again, the Times and the so-called "professional" media have gotten the story wrong. Dr. Dean has been saying the same thing for months now, making the point about how the Democratic Party needs to reach out to people who nominally vote Republican but who continue to be hurt by Republican policies.

But instead of reporting what he actually said, and when he actually said it, the Times, among others, reports simply that he made a "racially insensitive" comment only recently. In the meantime, lies and distortions from Mr. Bush or the GOP leadership get buried or outright ignored.

This is lazy journalism, this is scandal-mongering, this is tripe more worthy of the Enquirer or Matt Drudge than the Times, and you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves for it.

-Joe

Howard, Maha, The Rebel Flag, and Me
The Mahablog has been talking at length over the last couple of days about Gov. Dean's comments about Southerners, and the ridiculous flap it has begun. It shows, once again, how lazy and predictable our media has become, and more importantly, how Democrats will tear into each other with more vigor than they will tear into the Republicans. Like sharks sensing blood, the other candidates are going after Dean, the Dem front-runner, hitting him with a charge of racism for even mentioning folks who "drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back." Dean's point, and a good point it is, was that these people are cutting their own throats by continually voting for Republicans, but of course no one is bothering to bring that little fact up. Makes it tough to create a scandal when you have to include ideas that actually make sense.

Having lived here in the South for a long time, I think I can claim a certain amount of understanding on this issue, especially working people, and you know, Dean is absolutely right. The South is one of the worst places in the country to work. Wages are lower, you get less benefits, and have less job security than anywhere else in the country. And the scary part is, that people down here seem to want it that way. They maintain an almost medievel attitude towards life: the rich are the rich and the poor are the poor. That's the way it's meant to be. That's how it always has been, that's how it is now, and that's how it will always be. And worse, that's how it should be.

I happen to agree wholeheartedly with what Dean said, but if I can be constructive, he's going about it the wrong way. He will never convince these people that they're being ripped off by the GOP by telling them they're being ripped off by the GOP. It's like trying to tell your teenage daughter that the biker they're going out with is treating her like crap. It just doesn't work. And in some cases, it's never going to work, especially since Dean isn't from around here. The rebel flag wavers identify with Bush more, partly because the GOP propaganda machine makes sure of it, but also because Bush is someone they feel more comfortable with. Hey, I'm not saying it makes sense, that's just the way it is.

I don't know how Gov Dean could best take his message to Southerners, but I think he would do well to pick a Southern running mate, someone like Edwards or Clark, and have them speak for him. Southerners feel (not without reason) that their views are often misrepresented by northerners, but if they have someone they feel they can relate to on a ticket (whether it be President or VP) they'll be more inclined to vote for them, and listen to them. Dean can and should make a few campaign stops here, of course, but it's always best to let Southerners talk to their own kind.

This won't be the last time Dean will have to deal with this issue, and knowing the laziness of the press, it will be something he'll have to answer often, unless he can come up with a snappy comeback. It's unfortunate that this is the kind of story the press is going to focus on, it's more unfortunate that the other Democratic candidates are using it as a wedge issue because they're threatened by Dean, and it's even more unfortunate that the kind of people Dean is talking about are going to continue to get hurt by Republican policies. But that's the kind of country we live in.

Unfortunately.

Death By Invitation
This article by League member Clareified is my official vote for the weekly new blog showcase on the blogger ecosystem.

From the column:

It may be acceptable for the leader of the United States armed forces to say if you attack us, we'll respond; but to invite attack, is appalling. This isn't "swagger" or cowboy courage, (he's saying these things from the safety of a podium during a press in conference more than 6,000 miles away from the bloodshed in Iraq) it's destructive, childish taunting.

Right on!

Welcome To The Future

On Oct. 23rd of this year, federal agents swooped down on Wal-Mart and arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants who were sub-contracted by the chain to clean the floors at night. Following the corporate script perfectly, company executives said they had no idea the sub-contractors were hiring illegal aliens. Evidence produced by the government shows otherwise, that they not only knew about it, but that it was an established policy. And as usual, it's the poor working people who are going to pay the penalty. Many of those arrested came to America lured by the prospect of making more money than they could in places like Russia, Poland and Lithuania. They worked seven days a week for as long as eight months, under harsh working conditions and for little pay. And while Wal-Mart will no doubt face some obligatory charges, the odds are that they will lose very little and continue to pursue these policies. The cynic in me would simply suggest that they donate more money to the Republican Party.

Welcome to the future of the American worker. While working conditions haven't gotten to where they were a century ago, before the labor laws we now take for granted were enacted, we have been on a slippery slide for the last thirty years, working harder for less money, with all too many of us living paycheck-to-paycheck, and more and more of us not working at all. If the Bush administration and its people have their way, this is what the working environment of the future will be. And I think one of the reasons it's getting this way is because working Americans are either blind to what's going on, are afraid to do something because they might lose their jobs, or are openly supporting these policies on the false belief that, one day, they might be the ones at the very top.

The first group of people can be shown, through articles like this, how the policies of the right are and will continue to hurt the working poor. The second group must learn to overcome their fears, join together in a common cause, and work to preserve their rights as working people, their rights to a decent wage, to decent working conditions, and to a reasonable amount of security. The third group, well, they're not all lost causes, but we'll just have to live with them. They'll never get to be one of the "in" crowd they worship, but they'll still get all the benefits of our hard work, and they'll grumble and complain about it all the time, thinking that they could have done it all by themselves. I for one am content with this, let them live in their libertarian fantasies as long as working conditions are still good for the rest of us.

Those of us on the bottom rungs of the ladder of success who have our eyes open, the ones who everything "trickles down" to, understand that, in the real world, the game is rigged against us. We have no job security, we work too hard and for too little money when we have work, and very few of us will ever break out of that cycle. At least, not as long as corporate power and political power are merged as they are. The only counter to that power is the power of organized labor, because, as Lincoln said, there can be no capital without labor. They can't make their billions of dollars without us, and they know it. But by merging with the government they can use its power to keep us down.

I am a firm believer that, one day, we will live within a single global economy. The question is, how many rights will workers have under this economy? Will we have an economy where people are paid well enough to afford to buy things that make their lives comfortable? Or will we have one where there isn an established group of people used as cheap labor?

These are the issues we have to fight for. The American middle class was built on strictly-enforced laws within a society that, by and large, understood the premise that a day's work was worth a day's pay. And things didn't get that way without some major sacrifices. Remember those who spilled their blood fighting for those labor laws, so that their children could live in a better world. Let's fight and win the battle of words now, so that it won't have to come to that. Let's start boycotting stores like Wal-Mart until they allow their workers to organize. Let's stop letting thieves like Kenneth Lay get away with ripping off his employees and stockholders. Let's stop letting people like Rupert Murdoch control the news we hear, so that at least we can make informed decisions. And let's stop pretending that we can go it alone. How much we're willing to work together is going to determine how good the future is going to be.

Well, I'm Back

My DSL died at about 8:15pm my time yesterday evening, just as I was tweaking the changes to the League Of Liberals web site. The service was out the remainder of the evening, I was told it wouldn't be repaired until 6 a.m.. When exactly it came on, I don't know, but it is back now, and I hope it's a while befoe I ever lose the service for that long again.

Things That Make Me Feel Good
These days, I have to make an effort to find things to make me feel good. But something struck me when I was going through a quick look at the blogger ecosystem that surprised me a little. One of my favorite authors, Jerry Pournelle, has a blog of his own. I don't know him personally, I met him very briefly at a convention maybe ten years ago, but I know he's a right-winger. Not one of the really hardcore types, but still a right-winger, and the blog has some interesting bullshit about the usual right wing crapola: our honorable war in Iraq, the denial of humanity's effect on the environment (global warming), etc. But regardless, Jerry has been a professional writer for decades, and is one of the more respected authors in his genre. He is, in short, more successful than I am.

So, what makes me so happy?

My blog is getting more hits than his.

League Of Liberals (Almost) Daily Roundup
The Spy Game - the November Threat Revisited
Cosmic Iguana - The Army Times
Rush Limbaughtomy - Tax Dodging Limbaugh
TPRS - Expand your Horizons
Philosophical Scrivner - Sherlockian?
Talk is Cheap on Mahablog
The Reagan Truth - WTF is it NOW?
The NRO is Pathetic - Dohiyi Mir
blunted on reality - The End of the World
Windfall - Hell for Halliburton
Disconnect? - Happy Furry Puppy Story Time
Crappy Porn? - Shock and Awe
All Fact's and Opinions on Left Wing Media?
Pen-Elayne is Spinnin
different strings - Bush is a NITHING
Futurballa has a new gallery
Indigo is NaNo
SpeedKill from Bozeman has his own Roundup
A Byrd in the hand is worth 200 Bushes - Sick of Bush
Arms and the Man - Sabotage
Election Day - at Rick's Cafe
Chomsky Soundbites And Then
Art Spies? - the Estimated Prophet
Rebel War - A Changin' Times

Why We're Losing
We're cowards

Meet The Neocons
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled an easy-to-use directory of all the major players in neoconland. Read it now, and experience the thrill your great-grandchildren will have reading about them in history class, much in the same way we watch documentaries of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

The Maha Blog has answered the call and written a letter to the CAP! Click and read!

Open Thread: Show #9

Click here to listen (MP3 format).
Comment below. Say it with love.

League Of Liberals Round-up!
Natalie Davis at ALL FACTS AND OPINIONS covers Justice for HMO Members.
Oppose the parade of Right Wing Judges join ARMACT Alerts
Is Halliburton protected at the expense of injured workers? - see Arms and the Man
Do we only protect the white troops? asks Blunted on Reality
Clarified asks "What does a Lawyer look like?"
Iraq price tag to hit $200 Billion? - The Cosmic Iguana
Democratic Veteran covers yet more Republican whining.
Different Strings finds Wolfowitz Over the Line
Dohiyi Mir has a Quote from Cheney we all should read and take to heart.
Futurballa has his own take on Ecosystem fluctuations.
The Happy Furry Puppy runs down the Conservative Columnists.
Hell for Halliburton takes on the Mutual Fund Inside Traders
Indigo Ocean strings it all together
Mad Kane has the Spinning Song and The Felonious Elephants finds Lincoln spinning in his grave
That hissing sound is Dennis 'the menace' Miller's ego inflating on TPRS
Pen-Elayne covers the Strange Case of Stephen Kaye
The Philosophical Schrivner is all over the E-mail dilemma
163 Million Dollars for LASSER of Prudential and he could not resist stealing a million on top of that?
Should we baptise Patriots - see Shock and Awe
Sick of Bush on the STALKER T-Rex on the Party of Hatemongers The Mahablog on Bush's Down Day The Poison Kitchen offers and invitation to Canada
The difference between CEO's and CIA agents? check here: The Spy Game
Nobody should have to go a day without WTF is it NOW!?

Lined Up And Shot
If there was ever any question as to the level of hatred the right wing has of us, if there was ever any need to understate exactly what it is we're up against, read this:

These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and shot.

This from an article by Kathleen Parker in Town Hall, an online hatefest of right-wing scum. She was quoting "a friend of hers" who is supposedly a member of the elite special forces "Delta Force" military unit, but I'll betcha ten bucks she's just mouthing what she really feels anyway. Hey at least Ann Coulter, another columnist from the site, says it straight out. I guess Kathleen hasn't quite reached that "getting in touch with her inner hatemonger" stage yet.

They changed the words in the article to "taken out and slapped" as if by simply lying about what was said, they could somehow hide what they really think. But thankfully someone got a screen shot of the page before they decided honesty wasn't really the best policy, which is to say that they haven't gotten to the point where they're actually ready to practice what they preach. At least, not yet.

You know, I get pretty angry on this site sometimes, and being the low-class working slob that I am, I don't have any qualms about pointing out, in no uncertain terms, how I feel about these well-paid dregs of society; these useless, pompous, self-righteous assholes who in any rational, civilized society would be, at best, laughed out of any position of authority or import.

For the record, and in my opinion, I don't think George W. Bush, his cabinet, the leadership of the Republican Party, and the people who finance them and keep them in power through a combination of intimidation and propaganda ought to be lined up and shot. I do think they ought to be impeached or otherwise removed from power, arrested, frog-marched and perp-walked (however you want to phrase it) out of the White House in handcuffs, sent to a World Court for war crimes, and, if convicted, imprisoned for the rest of their miserable lives as an example of what happens to those who think they have the right to kill people and steal their money, and as an example to us of what happens when we neglect our duties as citizens.

I think that the wealth they obtained by way of the war crimes ought to be confiscated and used to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to make better lives for themselves. Likewise we ought to dismantle the machinery of hate they've spent the last thirty years building up and use the money to help all the people who were put out of work, the veterans who lost benefits, the elderly and sick who have had to choose between buying food and buying medicine, by these greedy motherfuckers.

I think we ought to take over Fox News's facilities and use it so that people like Ms. Parker, Bill O' Reilly, Ann Coulter, and the rest of these wastes of protoplasm can to be forced to spend a certain amount of time on-air each day, live, apologizing to Americans for being a bunch of obnoxious cocksuckers. And they ought to get paid mimimum wage and be forced to live under the same kinds of conditions as the millions of poor Americans they helped create because of their words and actions.

I think we ought to apologize to all the other countries of the world and begin the real work of building an international community that would help all of Earth's citizens live in peace and freedom.

Anyway, I think that's what we ought to do.

But that's just me. Unfortunately.