from Mark Twain's The War Prayer :

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. 

Amen.

Who will be the next president? A better question might be "When will there be a next president, at least one that is allowed to serve?"

Will the military trust the most uninformed, complacent, and intellectually lazy electorate in the industrialized world to choose another leader? After all, in the past we  have chosen on the basis of how he or she is marketed, how much they spend to attack their opponent with 11th hour smears, and whether or not they’re "someone you’d like to have a beer with". 

This has resulted in a very hard road for the military. If you haven’t noticed, generals have become very tired of the military’s being squandered over nothing more substantial than the hunch bets of a clique of isolated theoreticians who were given full vent by a chuckleheaded, Machiavellian cabal.

I don’t think the military wants to take over the country’s leadership, but is nearing the conclusion that it may have to, by default. The next leader’s title is as likely to be "General" as it is to be "Mister or Madam President".

A Massachusetts company, Cape Wind, wants to put 130 turbines off the shore of Cape Cod. This wind farm would be able to meet 75 percent of the electricity needs of Cape Cod and surrounding islands. Reasonably, the US House and Senate have decided that before the project can proceed, the Coast Guard must make a determination as to whether or not it would be a hazard to navigation. But Arkansas senator has tacked on an amendment allowing Massachusetts Governor (and future presidential candidate) Mitt Romney (R) to have the final say, even if the Coast Guard has no objection.

"So why should I care about a wind farm in Massachusetts?" you ask. Well, that's just the point, why should Senator Stevens (R-Arkansas) care either? Neither Mass. Senators Kerry nor Kennedy are alarmed by the prospect of an offshore wind farm, so it's very odd that a senator from Arkansas is blatantly involving himself in the issue. Evidently, wherever there are powerful Republican donors on the opposing side of an issue, Senator Stevens can see them over the horizon.

In the first days after 9-11, there were candlelight vigils in Teheran for America and its dead. The vigils were not government-staged or managed, they came spontaneously in an outpouring of sympathy from the Iranian people. There was no irony, no cynicism, just sincere grief and support.

More than four years have passed, and now our government is brandishing nuclear weapons at Iran. In the interim, our government has spurned an overture from Teheran for reconciliation, even jumping all over the Swiss for having the temerity to carry the overture to us. 

We have maligned and provoked the Iranian government, with the effect of undermining moderates in that country. The result has been the election of a hardliner to head the civilian government in Iran. 

The alternative approach, engagement, would almost certainly not have brought us to the brink of yet another war, this time with a population that feels no enmity toward us. However, engagement is anathema to neo-conservatives. They prefer to intimidate, bully, and where necessary, annihilate. 

The neo-con creed that we have the right and the obligation to coerce the world into doing our will is based on the presumption that we alone are the good guys. Swell philosophy, nice and arrogant. Working out great for us so far, too.

Turns out there was a misprint, it was really "The Contract ON America". Wrong preposition, that's all.

I care about children who live in stressful, precarious, even dangerous circumstances. Children who may not have enough to eat, proper clothes in winter, or a warm, clean place to sleep. Children who tread lightly to avoid setting off an avalanche of adult rage, who are starved for love and need security. Children who come to think they are at fault, and who will hold themselves in low esteem in time to come. Children whose parents are themselves beleaguered children, having come from the same child’s hell.

4-12-6: White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan attacked the Washington Post for reporting that President Bush had stated emphatically, triumphantly -and falsely in '03 that two trailers found in Iraq were proof of a chemical weapons program; Bush said this the day after a definitive intelligence report came out concluding they were definitely NOT used for weaponry.

What seemed to make Scott McClellan most irate was the "inference" that the White House knew they were making a bogus claim -although the Post never said that explicitly. One way to clear up the confusion of course would be to release the report in question, which has been classified "secret" since its release. This shouldn't pose a problem, since Bush has already set the precedent of declassifying selected material on an ad hoc, informal basis to "show the American people the truth".

Aside from that, Scottie's problem isn't really with anything the Post may or may not have implied, but instead with the obvious likelihood the White House new full well about the report. After all, they were waiting for news about these trailers like a kid waiting for a BB riffle at Christmas! 

The White House surely devoured every piece of data pertaining to those trailers, because it promised to stem the mounting criticism over the failure to find any WMD. Telling us they didn't know the score and hence were merely blissfully, stupidly, inconceivably, and incompetently unaware they were spouting garbage is as unlikely and unbelievable as a kid's forgetting to put "BB riffle" on his list to Santa. Fat chance.

How can you be a patriot without loathing tyranny and fascism?

4-11-6: Yesterday in the Washington Post, a letter from Zarqawi to Osama that was leaked to the New York Times back in '04 was revealed to have been a complete fake. It was planted then by US Military Psy-Ops to establish a tie between the two men; the object of this was to create an impression the insurgency in Iraq was the work of "outside agitators". (By the way, the government spending tax dollars in order to put one over on the American people is illegal and unconstitutional.)

Someone didn't warn President Bush that the lie had been revealed and so not to repeat it. Thinking it was still usable, that same day at Johns Hopkins University he referred to it twice: "In 2004 we intercepted a letter from Zarqawi to Osama bin Laden... " and again, "You heard the letter I wrote --I read- from Zaa... "

To quote Newt Gingrich on the subject, "Had enough?"

The average Fortune 500 CEO's "compensation" went up 27 percent last year, to approximately 12 million dollars...  How you doin'?

There are two reasons for both the endless war on drugs and the war in Iraq: the interests of profiteers, and the passive aggression of a perennial block that derives satisfaction whenever someone somewhere gets thumped. This country is held hostage economically by the first group, and politically by the second. Each is a minority, but together they rule over the rest us, ensuring our resources and energy will always be siphoned away.

Two stories broke on 4-6-6: 1) It was revealed that the President of United States, in a Machiavellian political move to blunt rising criticism over the apparent lack of WMD in Iraq, authorized leaking classified information to discredit and/or punish critic Joseph Wilson; in the process, Wilson's wife's status as a CIA agent was intentionally exposed. 2) Diminutive Representative from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney, struck a guard at the Capitol; presumably, he will recover. 

Which one of these stories of monumental import flooded the airwaves on TV news all day? Yep, it was the "Killer" McKinney story. Darn that liberal media!

"M & M Enterprises, a pioneer in US privatization!" 

The Administration has always touted they’re running this government "like a business". Fine, every serious business has a plan for any project it undertakes. The plan establishes milestones, defines phases, and sets a schedule. Straying from the plan or falling behind is a matter that warrants immediate attention and corrective action. 

Why then, is the Administration prosecuting the Iraq military operation with an open-ended schedule and hazy milestones? The only conclusion is that either the Bush Administration is running USA, Inc. in a sloppy and slipshod manner, or else their objective is something other than what they’re stating in the prospectus.

Voting without paper verification is just making a wish on a smart-card.

Another mad cow was detected recently, this time in Alabama. It seems that the more we test, the more disease we find. That’s why it is astoundingly wrongheaded and cavalier of the FDA and the Bush Administration to elect to do LESS testing for mad cow disease beginning immediately. 

Although this action seems counterintuitive, when you consider that protecting the population takes a back seat to assuring corporate profit, this move isn’t really surprising. Bush’s political appointees in command of the agency believe it's charter to protect Americans is silly. Witness government run like a business, which has little to do with the public interest.

"Any time that you hear the United States talking about a wiretap, it requires a court order ... Nothing has changed -- when we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." -Chuckles the Boy King, Buffalo NY, 2004  

"A state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." -Sandra Day O'Connor 

"I got ya checks and balances for ya, RIGHT HERE!" -Samuel Alito

Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado accuses Russ Feingold of siding "time and time again with the terrorists". Nice use of the ad hominum attack, Wayne! Whenever you disagree with someone, it's always better to slur them than to refute their ideas with an argument based on facts.

Also, the use of unrelenting fear is a great way to keep the populace in line. Hermann Goerring was into that too. Smart. Keep up the good swift-boating, Wayne!

Contrary to oft repeated common wisdom, there is no job Americans won't do; their only expectation is to earn a living wage for doing it, so they don't have to live six to a room.

"American Christians are under attack!" Obviously, that’s not really true. It’s hyperbole, as fundamentalist organizer and kingpin wannabe Rick Scarborough, a Texas reverend, admitted on "Air America Mornings". This contrived battle cry is just a hook to draw attention to the "Culture War".

There are so many aspects of society offensive to fundamentalists that it’s easier for them to pretend there’s a conspiracy behind it. However, things are the way they are because of economics and because of the mores and sensibilities of the general, non-fundamentalist, public.

One fundamentalist hot-button issue is gay marriage, because it supposedly threatens conventional marriage. Apparently, it’s feared this will somehow divert straight people from heterosexual relationships and into homosexuality. I fail to see how. Seriously, if you’re a guy and your only incentive for marrying a woman is to file a joint tax return, do the woman a favor and call off the engagement, now.

To see what a red herring this is, just look at Massachusetts, the first state to declare gay marriage legal. Conventional marriage isn’t in peril there. In fact, Massachusetts is the state with the LOWEST divorce rate. For that matter, liberal states generally have lower rates of divorce, spousal abuse, and child abandonment. Even more astonishing, the divorce rate for people describing themselves as "agnostic" or "atheist" are about twenty five percent LOWER than those of Christian fundamentalists. Crusader, save thyself!

So what else... Sexual permissiveness! Stop blaming liberals. Sex sells. It has been selling cars and everything else for over half a century, even in the decade of Ronald Reagan’s sweetest dreams, the 50’s. Actually, it’s been selling beer since B.C. and the people making the most drachmas from it today are corporations, the base of that most un-liberal party, the Republicans.

I am the furthest thing from a self-avowed Christian, and even I don’t like many aspects of present culture. I don’t like the relentless sexual pandering in advertising, the pervasive violence in entertainment, or the voyeurism of reality TV. 

But I don’t blame any particular group. I blame consumerism, and I also blame the automobile for prompting the Diaspora into the countryside that broke up city neighborhoods, estranged lifelong friends, separated families, and even now isolates children in sterile tract housing where there’s nothing to do but get high and watch TV. In short, we Americans are in such sorry shape solely because we GOT EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED.

Who’s really to blame? We are. We have consumed our way into a corner, and cynical hucksters are now trying to exploit our dissatisfaction by offering bogus scapegoats and inciting culture wars. Well, I’m a Kennedy Liberal, and I hate this lowest-common-denominator culture too! We have seen the enemy, and it is ourselves, ALL of us.

Rather than pretending, even believing, that you’re under siege, take responsibility. Look at the Amish, they saw long ago that consumerism was a highway to hell, so they took advantage of the religious freedom this country offers (thank you, Roger Williams!) and just went their own way. They didn’t whine about being UNDER ATTACK.

But the Culture War has a second taproot. Besides its appeal to the disaffected, it is a boon to ambitious church leaders.

When federal government stepped in during the 60’s and tried to alleviate poverty, it undercut one of organized religion’s primary functions, dispensing charity to the poor. So now church leadership has made a deal with the Republican Party to deliver their flock’s vote in exchange for a return of the power-of-the-purse, federally funded "faith-based" charities. Show me the money!

The sad thing is that this deal shores up a horrendously corrupt regime that is strip-mining the common people and the future of their children. The flock, in effect, is helping to fleece itself. Cynical clergy, in cahoots with the robber barons, are daily churning out wedge issues to inflame and bamboozle them, like gay marriage, the war on Christmas, and now the war on Christianity in general. It’s a cornucopia of red state red herring.

Fundamentalist Pharisees even have the temerity to hold up Republican henchman Tom DeLay as a paragon of fundamentalist values. Apart from the bribery and double-dealing, here’s what we know about him: Congressmen who visited the Marianas Islands, a US protectorate, were appalled by the conditions there. Nearly all wanted to erase the iniquities they saw in a place where goods can be produced and still carry the "Made in the USA" label. Tom DeLay put the kybosh on that though, preferring to take the side of corporate businesses there which impose de facto slavery, forced prostitution, rape, and yes, forced abortion! And he did this for a price. If he’s a Christian, Peewee Herman is the Pope.

That brings up abortion, the ultimate wedge issue. Frankly, there is less concern out there over a mass of undifferentiated cells than people let on. Fact: the real enemy is the birth control pill, not abortion, and the real prize for fundamentalists will be outlawing the pill for unmarried women, and married women too, if that can be achieved. Abortion is merely a rallying point and a steppingstone. 

The pill caused a revolution in family relationships, women’s sexuality and independence. It had a monumental effect on teenage upbringing, marriage, and the workforce. It generated massive  problems and myriad opportunities. It really, really upset the applecart. (By the way, liberals didn’t invent the pill, and they don't profit from it, corporations do.)

The changes wrought might make you uncomfortable, but trying to put the genie back in the bottle is utter folly. Pursuing this folly would be costly and devastating. Better to face up to it with understanding, forbearance, and compassion rather than dogmatic inflexibility and invective. It’s not going to go away, and it won’t be easy. 

Enough trickle-down snake oil, it's time to go back to what works: a living wage.

Instead of cheerleading Bush's parrying a question from Helen Thomas, the press should do a little fact-checking on what the President said shortly thereafter, "I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein."

In point of fact, he said at the start of the war: "The use of armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States' and other countries' continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." If this tortured verbiage can be interpreted to mean anything, it's that Iraq had a hand in 9/11.

Now, a Philadelphia lawyer might argue that despite the strong and intentional impression it leaves, Bush's above sentence can be parsed in such a way that it doesn't actually declare Iraq took part in 9/11. In that case, the press should be fair and balanced and call this cowardly "weasel-wording", which is even more dishonest than a straight-out lie because it's a lie cloaked within another lie.

Further, notwithstanding Bush's admonishment of Ms. Thomas that "No president wants to go to war" a 3-27-6 article in the NYTimes based on a full reading of the Blair-Bush meeting memo reveals that Bush fully intended going to war whether WMD were found or not; therefore, he clearly did want to invade. Thus, another new lie has been generated regarding the war! Big surprise.

Throughout most of the world, pressure for corporate-driven globalization is synonymous with U.S. policy, and it's not our pride, it's our albatross.

I've been wracking my brain for BUSHCO's real reason for invading Iraq. Obviously, they have let loose a barrage of baloney in this regard, but assuming they are not insane (although still immoral), what possible reason could there be? Here's what bubbled up.

The US aims to do the same thing to China -using oil- that the British did to it with opium, and for the same reason: to turn around the trade deficit. The British silver reserves were depleting because of the tea trade, so they brought opium to China from Afghanistan; once we control the oil, we could export it to China to redeem our Treasury Bills. It's the same plan, the same purpose, and the same localities are involved. The only difference is the commodity in play. History repeating itself?

Off the wall? Maybe, but it's plausible. It would also explain why BUSHCO insists on building an anti-ballistic missile shield. After all, China is the only power (soon-to-be) able to hurl nukes at us and it might be inclined to do so if we played keep-away with the oil it was desperate for.

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