With deficits soaring, the dollar sinking, and the banking and real estate industries collapsing, the future is bright for Bushevik fiscal policy, which has already done so much to make the United States a better place.
Five years ago President Bush's selfless campaign to end the injustice of taxing the rich bore fruit in the can-do inventiveness of the parents and teachers at the Family School in Eugene, Oregon. Parent Lorrie Burns came up with the ingenious idea of having parents and teachers sell their blood plasma to keep the school going. When she presented her proposal at a community meeting, the crowd burst into applause.
Aventis Bio-Services was brought in to assist this breakthrough in school funding. Aventis manager Alf Moebius pronounced the plan a "win-win situation," not to mention another splendid example of public-private partnership. By all accounts the event was a grand success, although one parent was inexplicably short on enthusiasm for the momentous achievement. "It's a bizarre and poignant place we've come to, when we're reduced to donating our bodily fluids to support our schools. It's definitely our last stand."
But there really are no grounds for such pessimism. With a $500 billion budget deficit looming and a gargantuan national security state bleeding the U.S. dry with unwinnable wars as far as the eye can see, it seems safe to predict that the opportunity to "think outside the box" like the parents at the Family School in Eugene will present itself again and again.
So instead of belly-aching about extortionate gas prices, lack of medical care, and mass illiteracy, why not make a virtue of necessity and come up with more tough-love solutions to intractable budget problems? For example, why don't we agree to extract just a little more from our bodies? Americans could offer up spare kidneys to keep Medicare afloat, that extra eye for Social Security. And if enough people gave up some of their bone marrow to insure U.S. military dominance of outer space, we could stimulate our dying economy with another big tax cut for the armaments corporations that work night and day on our behalf.
Though this outcome would be gratifying enough, it's also entirely possible that the era of Red State-Blue State partisan attacks could be left behind, what with American citizens uniting in elective surgery from coast to coast. Barack Obama and John McCain could urge us to "leave no unharvested body behind." Religious leaders could remind us that the body is God's temple, although there might be a little squeamishness at the gooey donations to the collection plate.
As a counterweight to radical Islam's suicide bombers, the U.S. could promote suicide donors, patriots who literally give their all for school supplies. On Memorial Days we could honor them: "Here lies John Doe, fiscal patriot. His brave last words were: I regret that I have but one liver to give to the high school music program."
Sources:
"These Parents Give From Heart to Help Fund Eugene School," The Oregonian, April 22, 2003
------Michael K. Smith is the author of "The Madness of King George (illustrations by Matt Wuerker)," and "Portraits of Empire," both with Common Courage Press. He can be contacted at proheresy@yahoo.com.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Perverse Priorities
"Our first priority today is the stability of the capital markets, the stability of the system.”
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
If you had the silly notion that our first priority might be the stability of our environment, or people losing their homes , lacking health care and saddled with a multi trillion dollar warfare state, the above words should set you straight. Capital markets are us, so let’s keep them floating on a sea of speculation and assure that public loss insures capital gain. As long as consumers pay interest, capital can rule without principle. Nice.
Given the situation, the next president may regret winning the election. While the Bush regime has us near a breaking point, it’s not the president but the system which is at the root of our problem. And unless a political miracle puts Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney in the White House , the next president will be trying to save and not change that system . This is bad news, and until Americans demand serious transformation and see the issue of change as going beyond style, sex or race, the news will get worse .
Our credit casino produces almost daily chaos, with a public bailout of a private firm followed by soothing talk that everything will be fine now, followed soon by another public bailout. The troubles with mortgage backing institutions like the entities called FannieMae and FreddieMac are indicative of the problem. These names make them sound like mom and pop grocers or hip hop performers, when they are really multi trillion dollar gambling centers that supposedly help us all get closer to owning homes. Sure.
While we are the financing source of just about everything, our ownership share of the economy is in steep decline. This is in contrast to nonsense about an ownership society, unless that means the majority owns the liability, while a minority feasts on the assets. Our personal and social debts are rising faster than ever, which is how the system works. And the new president will try to keep it working by attempting to steer this crippled ship of state through a turbulent sea that may soon become too raging to float any structure . There are small signs of hope and progress, but not in the economy.
We have seen some decline in war talk about Iran, not due to the anti war movement but mostly because the old WASP ruling class has been moving back into control by leaking stories about planned attacks on Iran and the madness of such ideas. From sources like the Pentagon, State department , universities and even an ex president, we have heard words previously not dared to be spoken become open dialog among establishment insiders. The Israeli First - Jewish lobby previously wielded enormous clout without any public criticism, but that is no longer the case.
Sectors within the establishment which show little respect for humanity , beyond the desire for it to remain under U.S. control, are in growing fear that policy dominated by protectors of the Jewish state endangers their empire. They are right about the second point , but the first is most important as to why no one should think that the show will soon be directed by people who want systemic change. What we can expect is a return to the neo-liberal policies which failed before and led to neo-conservatives assuming power . The zealous Christian-Zionist cabal has brought us even closer to ruin, so the less overtly fanatic proprietors of empire - those responsible for the cold war with the Soviets and hot wars in Korea, Viet Nam and a host of other places - may be returned to power.
People desperate to be rid of the present regime may be forgiven their innocence in the short term, but if it continues in the long term, we’ll all be guilty of losing much more than an election.
Those who voted for Democrats to stop the war in Iraq may ultimately get their wish, but only by moving it to Afghanistan. And leaving Iraq will only happen because we lost, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, several thousand of our own, and a few trillion dollars our rulers borrowed from national coffers we are expected to fill with our debt. We’ve been operating exclusively on that debt for quite some time, but recently our credit line has begun to look like that of a sub prime nation, causing more concern for international loan sharks who prop up our economy with their faith that it will somehow keep paying them interest. Even if it’s with their own money . If Ponzi were alive now he’d be operating his scam in China and Russia .
So the hundreds of billions we squander for war by putting them on our international credit card will continue being spent under the next regime, only redirecting the folly to another area. And it will hasten the ultimate breakdown of our unstable “capital markets” if we don't stop acting as thoughtless consumers, and start acting as a thoughtful democratic people.
Public financing of private enterprise makes no sense unless we take public control of that enterprise. The sooner we take that step, the sooner we end a system in which a majority perform as socialist consumers , while a minority somehow owns the capital markets at which they are forced to shop. Why should we save a system which is not only failing us, but threatening the future of all humanity?
For environmental salvation, peace, and social justice we need to take democratic control of our economy away from the antidemocratic forces which we still support under the guise of political democracy., At this point we have neither political nor economic democracy and you can’t have one without the other. We need both, soon, or the perverse priorities and social instability of capital will bring down much more than the market.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
If you had the silly notion that our first priority might be the stability of our environment, or people losing their homes , lacking health care and saddled with a multi trillion dollar warfare state, the above words should set you straight. Capital markets are us, so let’s keep them floating on a sea of speculation and assure that public loss insures capital gain. As long as consumers pay interest, capital can rule without principle. Nice.
Given the situation, the next president may regret winning the election. While the Bush regime has us near a breaking point, it’s not the president but the system which is at the root of our problem. And unless a political miracle puts Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney in the White House , the next president will be trying to save and not change that system . This is bad news, and until Americans demand serious transformation and see the issue of change as going beyond style, sex or race, the news will get worse .
Our credit casino produces almost daily chaos, with a public bailout of a private firm followed by soothing talk that everything will be fine now, followed soon by another public bailout. The troubles with mortgage backing institutions like the entities called FannieMae and FreddieMac are indicative of the problem. These names make them sound like mom and pop grocers or hip hop performers, when they are really multi trillion dollar gambling centers that supposedly help us all get closer to owning homes. Sure.
While we are the financing source of just about everything, our ownership share of the economy is in steep decline. This is in contrast to nonsense about an ownership society, unless that means the majority owns the liability, while a minority feasts on the assets. Our personal and social debts are rising faster than ever, which is how the system works. And the new president will try to keep it working by attempting to steer this crippled ship of state through a turbulent sea that may soon become too raging to float any structure . There are small signs of hope and progress, but not in the economy.
We have seen some decline in war talk about Iran, not due to the anti war movement but mostly because the old WASP ruling class has been moving back into control by leaking stories about planned attacks on Iran and the madness of such ideas. From sources like the Pentagon, State department , universities and even an ex president, we have heard words previously not dared to be spoken become open dialog among establishment insiders. The Israeli First - Jewish lobby previously wielded enormous clout without any public criticism, but that is no longer the case.
Sectors within the establishment which show little respect for humanity , beyond the desire for it to remain under U.S. control, are in growing fear that policy dominated by protectors of the Jewish state endangers their empire. They are right about the second point , but the first is most important as to why no one should think that the show will soon be directed by people who want systemic change. What we can expect is a return to the neo-liberal policies which failed before and led to neo-conservatives assuming power . The zealous Christian-Zionist cabal has brought us even closer to ruin, so the less overtly fanatic proprietors of empire - those responsible for the cold war with the Soviets and hot wars in Korea, Viet Nam and a host of other places - may be returned to power.
People desperate to be rid of the present regime may be forgiven their innocence in the short term, but if it continues in the long term, we’ll all be guilty of losing much more than an election.
Those who voted for Democrats to stop the war in Iraq may ultimately get their wish, but only by moving it to Afghanistan. And leaving Iraq will only happen because we lost, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, several thousand of our own, and a few trillion dollars our rulers borrowed from national coffers we are expected to fill with our debt. We’ve been operating exclusively on that debt for quite some time, but recently our credit line has begun to look like that of a sub prime nation, causing more concern for international loan sharks who prop up our economy with their faith that it will somehow keep paying them interest. Even if it’s with their own money . If Ponzi were alive now he’d be operating his scam in China and Russia .
So the hundreds of billions we squander for war by putting them on our international credit card will continue being spent under the next regime, only redirecting the folly to another area. And it will hasten the ultimate breakdown of our unstable “capital markets” if we don't stop acting as thoughtless consumers, and start acting as a thoughtful democratic people.
Public financing of private enterprise makes no sense unless we take public control of that enterprise. The sooner we take that step, the sooner we end a system in which a majority perform as socialist consumers , while a minority somehow owns the capital markets at which they are forced to shop. Why should we save a system which is not only failing us, but threatening the future of all humanity?
For environmental salvation, peace, and social justice we need to take democratic control of our economy away from the antidemocratic forces which we still support under the guise of political democracy., At this point we have neither political nor economic democracy and you can’t have one without the other. We need both, soon, or the perverse priorities and social instability of capital will bring down much more than the market.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Sunday, July 13, 2008
"For Me, He (Chavez) Is Very Important" - Betancourt
Jorge Ramos: Ingrid, a short time ago you spoke by telephone with Hugo Chavez. What did Chavez say to you? Do you trust the president of Venezuela?
Ingrid Betancourt: Yes, of course. For me, he is very important. I think he has a voice that is heard throughout the continent. I know that whatever he says is important to the members of FARC. Much of what Chavez says affects the guerrillas profoundly because they don't like to be told things. They would like, let's say, to have a fan club around them. And they don't like having their actions criticized. I think that Chavez does it prudently. I think it's necessary to keep open, let's say, the possibility of someone speaking to the guerrillas. I've always thought that the Colombian guerrilla movement is autistic, it only likes to hear itself, they have committees of applause, they come from a closed world where the only thing that has value for them are the congratulations that they give themselves. They have to understand that there's a world that's judging them, one that is not pleased with what they're doing, that puts a negative value on the act of kidnapping and on the other acts of terrorism that they do, as well as the suffering that they impose on many Colombians; and they have to understand that the world is no longer prepared to accept those kinds of actions. The people that are right now changing the way of doing politics, for example, like Hugo Chavez, managed to gain power in a democratic way. Democracy in Latin America is today a great example. All over Latin America we see people so different, of such different political sensibilities. All of them have followed the democratic path, all of them have their own personality, they speak for countries that have, let's say, their own character, it's a mosaic of return (to democracy). I feel so proud of being Latin American. . . in that Latin America that we're living today, where we are struggling to be better, to have more social justice, to have more development, to find a space for technology. With so many dreams to share there's no space for violence, for the spilling of blood, for thinking that, like . . . The FARC think that they are a messianic organization to whom falls the responsibility of transforming Colombia. But Colombia is transforming itself without FARC. Colombia is transforming itself against FARC. If they really want to participate in the awakening of Colombia, they have to put down their arms.
Jorge Ramos: Thirty-eight days before they kidnapped you I had the opportunity to have an interview with you here in Miami, when you were promoting your book, "Fury In The Heart." In that interview you told me the following about Alvaro Uribe. I'm quoting. You said: "Alvaro Uribe is the candidate of the paramilitaries and a person who is putting Colombian democracy at risk." Do you still think the same about Alvaro Uribe?
Ingrid Betancourt: The Colombians elected Alvaro Uribe. They elected him once in 2002 and they elected him again two years ago. Today Alvaro Uribe represents the will of Colombia. It's very important that we understand that our democracies in Latin America have that function of giving representation to our peoples. Alvaro Uribe provides that representation. I think that he has succeeded in giving back to Colombians the feeling that their families are safe. And I think that has allowed the Colombian nation to mature. I see an awakening of Colombian conscience. I see that these days Colombians can be touched by someone else's suffering, which didn't used to happen because we were too preoccupied with our own suffering, I think that nowadays Colombians have a desire to struggle for others. One of the most powerful moments for our nation was when it was having the marches it has been holding. There were some marches for our freedom and for peace at the beginning of this year. And there is a new march planned for July 20, to whom I invite all Colombians who are watching me, all the Colombians in the whole world, all those who have befriended the Colombian struggle, all those who have accompanied us all these years so that they march with us, not only physically, but in their hearts and with their voices, helping us to demand freedom for those that are kidnapped and held hostage in Colombia. Juanes is going to come here to France and sing impromptu. There is nothing really planned, but let's say we are going to meet with artists, with intellectuals, with people who, let's say, all of us consider leaders, who are like teachers that make us think. People are going to come from all over the world to be with us. For me that's the important thing. The rest . . . I think that all of us have matured, I think that all of us have resorted to a way, I think that there are things that we don't like and that have to be transformed. But the important thing is to transform our hearts first. When hearts are transformed first, new actions follow.
Jorge Ramos: Exactly how have you adapted to freedom? You exchanged the dragonflies of the jungle for the lights of Paris, the mud and dirt of the jungle for the fragrances of perfumes and hotels, the river for a shower. Do you feel strange being free?
Ingrid Betancourt: I feel blessed by God to be free. And what worries me is to think that throughout my life before that experience, I didn't understand what its value was, how lucky we are to be free, to be free and alive. It's something like oxygen. You don't feel a lack of oxygen until you're underwater and can't breathe. And that is something that I want to share with you, because I think that it's very important that we understand that there are people in the world who don't have that good fortune and that don't have as I do the possibility of telling you all everything that I lived, and they are people who are suffering and are mute and don't have a way to speak, to shout, to ask for help. And therefore I think it's very important that everything we do be directed towards serving those people who need us. And that we don't stop struggling. I think that in this moment . . . well, obviously I'm thinking very intensely about the hostages, my friends, my family that remains in the jungle. But there are also people around the world who are suffering, and I think that it's very necessary that we understand that each one of us with our heart and with our words can make a difference.
Excerpt of Jorge Ramos interview with Ingrid Betancourt on "Al Punto," July 13, 2008. Translation by Michael K. Smith. Complete interview available in Spanish at www.univision.com
Ingrid Betancourt: Yes, of course. For me, he is very important. I think he has a voice that is heard throughout the continent. I know that whatever he says is important to the members of FARC. Much of what Chavez says affects the guerrillas profoundly because they don't like to be told things. They would like, let's say, to have a fan club around them. And they don't like having their actions criticized. I think that Chavez does it prudently. I think it's necessary to keep open, let's say, the possibility of someone speaking to the guerrillas. I've always thought that the Colombian guerrilla movement is autistic, it only likes to hear itself, they have committees of applause, they come from a closed world where the only thing that has value for them are the congratulations that they give themselves. They have to understand that there's a world that's judging them, one that is not pleased with what they're doing, that puts a negative value on the act of kidnapping and on the other acts of terrorism that they do, as well as the suffering that they impose on many Colombians; and they have to understand that the world is no longer prepared to accept those kinds of actions. The people that are right now changing the way of doing politics, for example, like Hugo Chavez, managed to gain power in a democratic way. Democracy in Latin America is today a great example. All over Latin America we see people so different, of such different political sensibilities. All of them have followed the democratic path, all of them have their own personality, they speak for countries that have, let's say, their own character, it's a mosaic of return (to democracy). I feel so proud of being Latin American. . . in that Latin America that we're living today, where we are struggling to be better, to have more social justice, to have more development, to find a space for technology. With so many dreams to share there's no space for violence, for the spilling of blood, for thinking that, like . . . The FARC think that they are a messianic organization to whom falls the responsibility of transforming Colombia. But Colombia is transforming itself without FARC. Colombia is transforming itself against FARC. If they really want to participate in the awakening of Colombia, they have to put down their arms.
Jorge Ramos: Thirty-eight days before they kidnapped you I had the opportunity to have an interview with you here in Miami, when you were promoting your book, "Fury In The Heart." In that interview you told me the following about Alvaro Uribe. I'm quoting. You said: "Alvaro Uribe is the candidate of the paramilitaries and a person who is putting Colombian democracy at risk." Do you still think the same about Alvaro Uribe?
Ingrid Betancourt: The Colombians elected Alvaro Uribe. They elected him once in 2002 and they elected him again two years ago. Today Alvaro Uribe represents the will of Colombia. It's very important that we understand that our democracies in Latin America have that function of giving representation to our peoples. Alvaro Uribe provides that representation. I think that he has succeeded in giving back to Colombians the feeling that their families are safe. And I think that has allowed the Colombian nation to mature. I see an awakening of Colombian conscience. I see that these days Colombians can be touched by someone else's suffering, which didn't used to happen because we were too preoccupied with our own suffering, I think that nowadays Colombians have a desire to struggle for others. One of the most powerful moments for our nation was when it was having the marches it has been holding. There were some marches for our freedom and for peace at the beginning of this year. And there is a new march planned for July 20, to whom I invite all Colombians who are watching me, all the Colombians in the whole world, all those who have befriended the Colombian struggle, all those who have accompanied us all these years so that they march with us, not only physically, but in their hearts and with their voices, helping us to demand freedom for those that are kidnapped and held hostage in Colombia. Juanes is going to come here to France and sing impromptu. There is nothing really planned, but let's say we are going to meet with artists, with intellectuals, with people who, let's say, all of us consider leaders, who are like teachers that make us think. People are going to come from all over the world to be with us. For me that's the important thing. The rest . . . I think that all of us have matured, I think that all of us have resorted to a way, I think that there are things that we don't like and that have to be transformed. But the important thing is to transform our hearts first. When hearts are transformed first, new actions follow.
Jorge Ramos: Exactly how have you adapted to freedom? You exchanged the dragonflies of the jungle for the lights of Paris, the mud and dirt of the jungle for the fragrances of perfumes and hotels, the river for a shower. Do you feel strange being free?
Ingrid Betancourt: I feel blessed by God to be free. And what worries me is to think that throughout my life before that experience, I didn't understand what its value was, how lucky we are to be free, to be free and alive. It's something like oxygen. You don't feel a lack of oxygen until you're underwater and can't breathe. And that is something that I want to share with you, because I think that it's very important that we understand that there are people in the world who don't have that good fortune and that don't have as I do the possibility of telling you all everything that I lived, and they are people who are suffering and are mute and don't have a way to speak, to shout, to ask for help. And therefore I think it's very important that everything we do be directed towards serving those people who need us. And that we don't stop struggling. I think that in this moment . . . well, obviously I'm thinking very intensely about the hostages, my friends, my family that remains in the jungle. But there are also people around the world who are suffering, and I think that it's very necessary that we understand that each one of us with our heart and with our words can make a difference.
Excerpt of Jorge Ramos interview with Ingrid Betancourt on "Al Punto," July 13, 2008. Translation by Michael K. Smith. Complete interview available in Spanish at www.univision.com
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Trinity and the Morals of Extermination
Perhaps never before in history had a group of scientists so fervently prayed. J. Robert Oppenheimer, slumping against a wooden post, told himself: "I must remain conscious!" Afraid it might electrocute him, the normally unflappable Sam Allison dropped the microphone at the last second of the countdown: "Five . . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . . . . . . . zero!"
After what seemed an interminable silence, a strange light never before seen in the world ignited the horizon and a reddish-orange fireball infinitely brighter and 10,000 times hotter than the sun rose majestically over the desert, turning darkness into light for a hundred miles around. On that day - the day of the Trinity blast - even a blind woman reported seeing the dawn.
A New York Times reporter was reminded of the Lord's command, "Let there be light!" Physicist Isidor Rabi feared the fire in the sky would burn forever. His colleague Dick Feynman, momentarily blinded, turned away in pain. Oppenheimer recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds!"
The boiling mushroom cloud swirled into the heavens, presaging catastrophe. Under a curtain of fallout, jubilant Manhattan Project scientists broke into a jig on the desert floor.
Thus did the nuclear genie escape the bottle in the desert of Alamagordo New Mexico sixty-three years ago. Of one thing there could be no doubt: Washington was issuing unconditional surrender to the morals of extermination. Even as the atomic bomb was nearing completion, the U.S. was razing whole cities to the ground with "conventional" bombs and burning hundreds of thousands of civilians alive with napalm sticks. In April 1945 one of FDR's advisers declared that he favored "the extermination of the Japanese in toto." It was not an isolated sentiment.
With Hitler dead, Germany defeated, and Japan in ruins, the U.S. Target Committee met to select a Japanese city for atomic doom. Seeking to heighten the international impact of the bombing, General Leslie Groves, Director of the Manhattan Project, favored Kyoto, on the grounds that the inhabitants of an intellectual center would be "more apt to appreciate the significance of such a weapon." Secretary of State Henry Stimson, having visited Kyoto and grown fond of it, vetoed Groves's preference. The committee ultimately opted for Hiroshima, amidst a lament that its mountains weren't close enough to the city to maximize the bomb's effects.
Everyone involved in the operation was well aware of the historic nature of the occasion, and strove to act appropriately with an eye toward posterity. Moments before the Enola Gay obliterated Hiroshima, Colonel Paul Tibbets told his crew, "watch your language." Since the bombing was being recorded, he didn't want a slip of the tongue to reflect badly on his crew. Profanity, not extermination, was the feared sin.
At 8:09 a.m. Hiroshima broke into the Enola Gay's view. Four minutes later, the bombardier took control of the plane, lined up the "T" of the Aioi Bridge in the cross hairs of his bombsight and announced, "I've got it."
At 8:15 a.m. the bomb-bay doors swung open, lightening the plane's load by five tons. The plane lurched skywards. Tibbets pulled on his goggles.
Nothing happened.
With the crew suspecting a dud, the cockpit was suddenly flooded with bright light, which was followed by two strong shock waves that jolted the plane upward. Sergeant George Caron dictated into his tape recorder: "A column of smoke is rising fast. It has a fiery red core . . . . Fires are springing up everywhere . . . there are too many to count . . . " In the copilot's seat Robert Lewis scribbled a more emotional reaction: "My God, what have we done?"
On the ground thousands of feet below him came the answer. Eyes turned skyward liquified in the blinding flash, streaming down upturned faces. Bodies turned to charcoal. Infrared rays melted skin like wax.
Windows exploded, buildings crumpled, people hurtled through the air like missiles, limbless and headless bodies piled up like logs and lay under piles of fallen debris. After the ear-shattering roar, an immense column of dirt blotted out the sun. At 8:16 a.m. Hiroshima suddenly turned as still and black as night.
On the Aioi Bridge eerie silhouettes of the vaporized were permanently burned into the concrete. Along the streets, blackened and bleeding survivors swarmed towards water, hands and arms aloft, patches of roasted skin flapping in the wind. Stunned, terrified, in agony, they moved - herdlike - toward estuaries of the Ota River, which quickly filled with bloated corpses. Helpless voices cried out for water, for their mothers, for the relief of death.
The few functioning medical facilities were overwhelmed as ten thousand wounded jammed the Red Cross Hospital contending for four hundred beds and a handful of dazed doctors. Burned beyond recognition, patients hoping to be reunited with their families finger-painted their names in blood on the lobby walls.
Back in Los Alamos Hiroshima represented sweet triumph. Robert Oppenheimer received word by phone from General Groves, who confirmed that the bomb had exploded "with a very big bang indeed." Relieved and proud, Oppenheimer had an announcement issued over the public address system that a "successful combat drop" of one of Los Alamos's "units" had taken place, and called a meeting in the theater to celebrate with his ecstatic fellow scientists.
It was a showman's dream moment, and Oppenheimer didn't let it go to waste. Arriving to the meeting late, he strode up the aisle amidst the bedlam of clapping, foot-stomping, and shouting coming from his fellow experts in emotional discipline. For once the scientists were irrepressible and the celebratory din did not subside until long after Oppenheimer clasped his hands over his head in the ritual victory stance and mounted the podium to speak.
In the evening a party was held in the men's dormitory. Off in a corner Oppenheimer showed a colleague a telex of the Hiroshima damage reports. The colleague shook his head. Oppenheimer, depressed, left the party early and spotted a scientist vomiting in the bushes outside. Meanwhile, back in Washington President Truman was apparently enjoying great peace of mind, calling the atomic bombing "the greatest thing in history."
Three days later a piercing flash accompanied by a thunderous blast announced the world's first plutonium bomb in the skies over Nagasaki (Hiroshima had been a uranium bomb). At ground zero, there were no screams or moans: within a radius of 1000 yards the unsheltered perished before they could react.
The swath of destruction roared through northern Nagasaki at 9000 miles an hour, making it rain debris. Houses and buildings were smashed, crushed, and burned. Stone was pulverized and tiles shot through the air like bullets. The sturdy beams of the Mitsubishi Steelworks twisted and turned like silly putty while the roofs of reinforced concrete buildings crumpled and collapsed. Trees were ripped from the ground, utility poles snapped like matchsticks, and a hurricane of shattered glass embedded countless shards in human flesh.
Yellow smoke hung over the carbonized remains of the city. Near the epicenter fires raged out of control. Stunned survivors cupped detached eyeballs back inside their skulls.
Six days later the Japanese signed the surrender. Shortly after that the U.S. War Department announced that the atomic bombings had not been militarily necessary:
"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts . . . it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."
Cultural historian Lewis Mumford recapped fission's ugly debut by accusing the U.S. government of having reverted to Bronze Age barbarism and "reversed the whole course of human history." At Hiroshima and Nagasaki the U.S. had lifted the curtain on the atomic age with the annihilation of an estimated 200,000 non-combatants, "virgin" targets deliberately selected to isolate and measure the atomic bomb's unique effects. So ended what historians have taken to calling the "good war."
That Japan was already putting out peace feelers through its emissary in Moscow did not stay the hand of the nuclear executioners, nor did the cosmic destruction deter General "Hap" Arnold from staging the war's grand finale five days after Nagasaki - a 1000-plane raid that bombarded what remained of Japanese cities, killing thousands as leaflets fluttered to the ground announcing the Japanese government's surrender. Some, however, were still not satisfied. General Carl Spaatz wanted to use a third atomic bomb on Tokyo, but decided that bouncing rubble around the demolished capital might fail to make a discernible point.
In view of the foregoing it is safe to paraphrase Mark Twain and say that reports of Hitler's defeat in WWII are greatly exaggerated. Germany was defeated, but the loathesome tenet that wholesale slaughter is praiseworthy if it brings victory was perpetuated. At Nuremberg and Tokyo the victors framed their war crime indictments to exclude Allied atrocities, deliberately pardoning U.S. officials for the atomic bombings, though Justice Radhabinod Pal of India did manage to declare in his dissent that "the decision to use the atom bomb is the only near approach to the directives . . . of the Nazi leaders . . . "Secretary of War Henry Stimson justified atomic incineration on the basis that it saved lives - by obviating an American invasion of Japan. Within a generation the same "humanitarian" logic was at work in Vietnam as the CIA employed systematic torture to deter a guerrilla movement and blackmail its supporters into capitulating to U.S. demands.
Accompanying the morals of extermination was a shadowy nuclear priesthood stockpiling the bombs of cosmic violence and advancing the fascist religion of permanent war to justify them. Fine-tuning deranged technological fantasies in totalitarian enclaves of total secrecy, the Atomic Apostles operated completely outside the process of democratic government, poisoning earth and sky with radioactivity, upsetting a delicate ecological balance, and contaminating the genetic heritage of life itself. A critical focus of their work was the institutionalization of atomic testing, which showered fallout on hundreds of thousands of American G.I.'s at test ranges in Nevada and Utah while the U.S. government downplayed the radioactive dangers, assuring its conscripted guinea pigs that all would be well if they just placed complete faith in the Pentagon. At the same time in the South Pacific, Marshallese Islanders sickened by atomic tests were removed from their radiated islands to face years of bitter exile, only to return home and be evacuated anew after it was discovered that the area was still radioactive. When thousands of soldiers and islanders found themselves dying of cancer, Washington disclaimed all responsibility for their plight.
A half-century later the heirs to these atomic crimes threaten Iran with nuclear obliteration and order its president to terminate his country's development of nuclear energy. Iranian theocrats, the reasoning goes, are strangers to rationality and therefore cannot be trusted to use nuclear technology responsibly like the civilized master race in Washington has done for so long.
That the perversely comic premise of good U.S. nukes vs. evil Islamic nukes will not be debunked in this presidential election year, nor discussed in the corporate media any year, illustrates how far the United States is from anything remotely resembling democratic debate. In spite of the the fact that the constituency that desires that it not be annihilated by nuclear bombs or subjected to slow death by radiation poisoning includes everyone, no "focus group" is ever asked its reaction to the morals of extermination heralded by its leaders as merely gutsy realism in a "dangerous world."
No doubt the world is a dangerous place. But the point is that it is made a suicidal place by the lunatic policies of "rational" nuclear war upheld by the United States government. That the world has survived this nuclear recklessness for over six decades is nothing more than blind luck, and as is well known, luck inevitably runs out.
Sources:
Lewis Mumford, "The Conduct of Life," (Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1951)
Lewis Mumford, "My Works and Days," (Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1979)
Howard Zinn, "Postwar America: 1945-1971," (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973)
Noam Chomsky, "Year 501- The Conquest Continues," (South End, 1993)
Peter Wyden, "Day One," (Simon and Schuster, 1984)
Stephen Hilgartner, "Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions, and Mindset," (Sierra Club, 1982)
John Hersey, "Hiroshima," The New Yorker, August 31, 1946
Frank Chinook, "Nagasaki: The Forgotten Bomb," (World Publishing, 1969)
Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present," (Harper, 1995)
Walter LaFeber, "The American Age - United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad since 1750," (W. W. Norton, 1989)
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "Portraits of Empire" and "The Madness of King George (illustrations by Matt Wuerker) both from Common Courage Press. He can be reached at: proheresy@yahoo.com
After what seemed an interminable silence, a strange light never before seen in the world ignited the horizon and a reddish-orange fireball infinitely brighter and 10,000 times hotter than the sun rose majestically over the desert, turning darkness into light for a hundred miles around. On that day - the day of the Trinity blast - even a blind woman reported seeing the dawn.
A New York Times reporter was reminded of the Lord's command, "Let there be light!" Physicist Isidor Rabi feared the fire in the sky would burn forever. His colleague Dick Feynman, momentarily blinded, turned away in pain. Oppenheimer recalled a line from the Bhagavad Gita: "I am become death, the shatterer of worlds!"
The boiling mushroom cloud swirled into the heavens, presaging catastrophe. Under a curtain of fallout, jubilant Manhattan Project scientists broke into a jig on the desert floor.
Thus did the nuclear genie escape the bottle in the desert of Alamagordo New Mexico sixty-three years ago. Of one thing there could be no doubt: Washington was issuing unconditional surrender to the morals of extermination. Even as the atomic bomb was nearing completion, the U.S. was razing whole cities to the ground with "conventional" bombs and burning hundreds of thousands of civilians alive with napalm sticks. In April 1945 one of FDR's advisers declared that he favored "the extermination of the Japanese in toto." It was not an isolated sentiment.
With Hitler dead, Germany defeated, and Japan in ruins, the U.S. Target Committee met to select a Japanese city for atomic doom. Seeking to heighten the international impact of the bombing, General Leslie Groves, Director of the Manhattan Project, favored Kyoto, on the grounds that the inhabitants of an intellectual center would be "more apt to appreciate the significance of such a weapon." Secretary of State Henry Stimson, having visited Kyoto and grown fond of it, vetoed Groves's preference. The committee ultimately opted for Hiroshima, amidst a lament that its mountains weren't close enough to the city to maximize the bomb's effects.
Everyone involved in the operation was well aware of the historic nature of the occasion, and strove to act appropriately with an eye toward posterity. Moments before the Enola Gay obliterated Hiroshima, Colonel Paul Tibbets told his crew, "watch your language." Since the bombing was being recorded, he didn't want a slip of the tongue to reflect badly on his crew. Profanity, not extermination, was the feared sin.
At 8:09 a.m. Hiroshima broke into the Enola Gay's view. Four minutes later, the bombardier took control of the plane, lined up the "T" of the Aioi Bridge in the cross hairs of his bombsight and announced, "I've got it."
At 8:15 a.m. the bomb-bay doors swung open, lightening the plane's load by five tons. The plane lurched skywards. Tibbets pulled on his goggles.
Nothing happened.
With the crew suspecting a dud, the cockpit was suddenly flooded with bright light, which was followed by two strong shock waves that jolted the plane upward. Sergeant George Caron dictated into his tape recorder: "A column of smoke is rising fast. It has a fiery red core . . . . Fires are springing up everywhere . . . there are too many to count . . . " In the copilot's seat Robert Lewis scribbled a more emotional reaction: "My God, what have we done?"
On the ground thousands of feet below him came the answer. Eyes turned skyward liquified in the blinding flash, streaming down upturned faces. Bodies turned to charcoal. Infrared rays melted skin like wax.
Windows exploded, buildings crumpled, people hurtled through the air like missiles, limbless and headless bodies piled up like logs and lay under piles of fallen debris. After the ear-shattering roar, an immense column of dirt blotted out the sun. At 8:16 a.m. Hiroshima suddenly turned as still and black as night.
On the Aioi Bridge eerie silhouettes of the vaporized were permanently burned into the concrete. Along the streets, blackened and bleeding survivors swarmed towards water, hands and arms aloft, patches of roasted skin flapping in the wind. Stunned, terrified, in agony, they moved - herdlike - toward estuaries of the Ota River, which quickly filled with bloated corpses. Helpless voices cried out for water, for their mothers, for the relief of death.
The few functioning medical facilities were overwhelmed as ten thousand wounded jammed the Red Cross Hospital contending for four hundred beds and a handful of dazed doctors. Burned beyond recognition, patients hoping to be reunited with their families finger-painted their names in blood on the lobby walls.
Back in Los Alamos Hiroshima represented sweet triumph. Robert Oppenheimer received word by phone from General Groves, who confirmed that the bomb had exploded "with a very big bang indeed." Relieved and proud, Oppenheimer had an announcement issued over the public address system that a "successful combat drop" of one of Los Alamos's "units" had taken place, and called a meeting in the theater to celebrate with his ecstatic fellow scientists.
It was a showman's dream moment, and Oppenheimer didn't let it go to waste. Arriving to the meeting late, he strode up the aisle amidst the bedlam of clapping, foot-stomping, and shouting coming from his fellow experts in emotional discipline. For once the scientists were irrepressible and the celebratory din did not subside until long after Oppenheimer clasped his hands over his head in the ritual victory stance and mounted the podium to speak.
In the evening a party was held in the men's dormitory. Off in a corner Oppenheimer showed a colleague a telex of the Hiroshima damage reports. The colleague shook his head. Oppenheimer, depressed, left the party early and spotted a scientist vomiting in the bushes outside. Meanwhile, back in Washington President Truman was apparently enjoying great peace of mind, calling the atomic bombing "the greatest thing in history."
Three days later a piercing flash accompanied by a thunderous blast announced the world's first plutonium bomb in the skies over Nagasaki (Hiroshima had been a uranium bomb). At ground zero, there were no screams or moans: within a radius of 1000 yards the unsheltered perished before they could react.
The swath of destruction roared through northern Nagasaki at 9000 miles an hour, making it rain debris. Houses and buildings were smashed, crushed, and burned. Stone was pulverized and tiles shot through the air like bullets. The sturdy beams of the Mitsubishi Steelworks twisted and turned like silly putty while the roofs of reinforced concrete buildings crumpled and collapsed. Trees were ripped from the ground, utility poles snapped like matchsticks, and a hurricane of shattered glass embedded countless shards in human flesh.
Yellow smoke hung over the carbonized remains of the city. Near the epicenter fires raged out of control. Stunned survivors cupped detached eyeballs back inside their skulls.
Six days later the Japanese signed the surrender. Shortly after that the U.S. War Department announced that the atomic bombings had not been militarily necessary:
"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts . . . it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."
Cultural historian Lewis Mumford recapped fission's ugly debut by accusing the U.S. government of having reverted to Bronze Age barbarism and "reversed the whole course of human history." At Hiroshima and Nagasaki the U.S. had lifted the curtain on the atomic age with the annihilation of an estimated 200,000 non-combatants, "virgin" targets deliberately selected to isolate and measure the atomic bomb's unique effects. So ended what historians have taken to calling the "good war."
That Japan was already putting out peace feelers through its emissary in Moscow did not stay the hand of the nuclear executioners, nor did the cosmic destruction deter General "Hap" Arnold from staging the war's grand finale five days after Nagasaki - a 1000-plane raid that bombarded what remained of Japanese cities, killing thousands as leaflets fluttered to the ground announcing the Japanese government's surrender. Some, however, were still not satisfied. General Carl Spaatz wanted to use a third atomic bomb on Tokyo, but decided that bouncing rubble around the demolished capital might fail to make a discernible point.
In view of the foregoing it is safe to paraphrase Mark Twain and say that reports of Hitler's defeat in WWII are greatly exaggerated. Germany was defeated, but the loathesome tenet that wholesale slaughter is praiseworthy if it brings victory was perpetuated. At Nuremberg and Tokyo the victors framed their war crime indictments to exclude Allied atrocities, deliberately pardoning U.S. officials for the atomic bombings, though Justice Radhabinod Pal of India did manage to declare in his dissent that "the decision to use the atom bomb is the only near approach to the directives . . . of the Nazi leaders . . . "Secretary of War Henry Stimson justified atomic incineration on the basis that it saved lives - by obviating an American invasion of Japan. Within a generation the same "humanitarian" logic was at work in Vietnam as the CIA employed systematic torture to deter a guerrilla movement and blackmail its supporters into capitulating to U.S. demands.
Accompanying the morals of extermination was a shadowy nuclear priesthood stockpiling the bombs of cosmic violence and advancing the fascist religion of permanent war to justify them. Fine-tuning deranged technological fantasies in totalitarian enclaves of total secrecy, the Atomic Apostles operated completely outside the process of democratic government, poisoning earth and sky with radioactivity, upsetting a delicate ecological balance, and contaminating the genetic heritage of life itself. A critical focus of their work was the institutionalization of atomic testing, which showered fallout on hundreds of thousands of American G.I.'s at test ranges in Nevada and Utah while the U.S. government downplayed the radioactive dangers, assuring its conscripted guinea pigs that all would be well if they just placed complete faith in the Pentagon. At the same time in the South Pacific, Marshallese Islanders sickened by atomic tests were removed from their radiated islands to face years of bitter exile, only to return home and be evacuated anew after it was discovered that the area was still radioactive. When thousands of soldiers and islanders found themselves dying of cancer, Washington disclaimed all responsibility for their plight.
A half-century later the heirs to these atomic crimes threaten Iran with nuclear obliteration and order its president to terminate his country's development of nuclear energy. Iranian theocrats, the reasoning goes, are strangers to rationality and therefore cannot be trusted to use nuclear technology responsibly like the civilized master race in Washington has done for so long.
That the perversely comic premise of good U.S. nukes vs. evil Islamic nukes will not be debunked in this presidential election year, nor discussed in the corporate media any year, illustrates how far the United States is from anything remotely resembling democratic debate. In spite of the the fact that the constituency that desires that it not be annihilated by nuclear bombs or subjected to slow death by radiation poisoning includes everyone, no "focus group" is ever asked its reaction to the morals of extermination heralded by its leaders as merely gutsy realism in a "dangerous world."
No doubt the world is a dangerous place. But the point is that it is made a suicidal place by the lunatic policies of "rational" nuclear war upheld by the United States government. That the world has survived this nuclear recklessness for over six decades is nothing more than blind luck, and as is well known, luck inevitably runs out.
Sources:
Lewis Mumford, "The Conduct of Life," (Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1951)
Lewis Mumford, "My Works and Days," (Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1979)
Howard Zinn, "Postwar America: 1945-1971," (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973)
Noam Chomsky, "Year 501- The Conquest Continues," (South End, 1993)
Peter Wyden, "Day One," (Simon and Schuster, 1984)
Stephen Hilgartner, "Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions, and Mindset," (Sierra Club, 1982)
John Hersey, "Hiroshima," The New Yorker, August 31, 1946
Frank Chinook, "Nagasaki: The Forgotten Bomb," (World Publishing, 1969)
Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States, 1492-Present," (Harper, 1995)
Walter LaFeber, "The American Age - United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad since 1750," (W. W. Norton, 1989)
-----Michael K. Smith is the author of "Portraits of Empire" and "The Madness of King George (illustrations by Matt Wuerker) both from Common Courage Press. He can be reached at: proheresy@yahoo.com
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Bulletins!
Court Declares Gun Marriages Legal
Gun owners were ecstatic at the Supreme Court decision making marriage to a gun a constitutionally guaranteed right. “We’ve been lovers for twenty years now. We’ll finally have the same rights as other married people, with health care and being able to stay in motels together. This is the happiest day of my life” said an AK-47 owner as he lovingly caressed his weapon.
A hand gun owner said she had been in a common law relationship with her pistol for thirty years , but lived in the shadows, never being seen in public with her beloved unless target shooting or menacing a man in a bar. “We can finally be open about our relationship and i couldn’t be happier. I plan to walk down the aisle with his barrel in my mouth.”
Some fundamentalists were not pleased. “Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s in Deuteronomy Six, or Taxonomy Seven, or one of those biblical chapters ” said a preacher at a demonstration calling for impeachment of the justices who responded to loving pleas from smitten gun lovers. And a lawyer said the second amendment speaks to ownership of , not marriage to, a gun. His organization promised to back new legislation which would make it a crime to publicly fondle or kiss a gun, thereby creating new lawsuit possibilities. “We must protect children from the horrid scenes of folks rushing into city halls erotically clutching their weapons and expressing passionate love for mechanical devices which are not legal sex toys, like vibrators, you know.”
Obama Offers New Re-clarification of War Policy
At a hastily called press and media conference attended by the hastily assembled press and media, Senator Obama offered a hastily assembled explanation of recent explanations:
“Let me clarify my previous re-clarification explaining the change in my policy of change we can believe in to change we can explain through re-clarification as being a product of nuanced reconsideration of constantly changing facts on the ground which may cause pushing the envelope in a more deliberative and thoughtfully constrained and judicious fashion.
When I saidI would end the war during my administration, I did not put a time limit on the time or a time table on the table. If my term is only four years, I cannot guarantee anything until I visit the battlefield and speak to those who know most about killing and terrorizing the people of Iraq. But if I am elected for a second term, I can promise you that I will reconsider any decision made in my first term, and once again, let me be clear that I am against this war, always was, and remain still opposed but believe we must end it properly and not leave any doubts as to whether the oil is ours or not, or whether Israel wants us out or not.
McCain Names Limbaugh as Running Mate
Rush Limbaugh will become John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election. McCain’s new slogan:
“ I’m John McCain, and I’m Not Insane”
accompanied by his smiley face photo, would be balanced , his professionals believe, by a Limbaugh slogan of :
“ He’s Deaf, but He’s Not Dumb”.
“We need to balance our ticket with slogans that can capture the imagination of the American people, and Limbaugh’s ditto heads are at least as unquestioning in their devotion to him as those change-lings who worship Senator Mugabe, er, Obama” said campaign adviser Karl Rove.
Media paparazzi welcomed the exciting possibilities of repeating everything such colorful characters as the disabled and former drug addict Limbaugh and the dashing war hero captured prisoner with the idiotic grin, McCain had to say, without questioning anything. The Mugabe, er, Obama campaign was still wondering whether to re-clarify their position on whether Hillary or Bill Clinton would join their ticket.
Catholic Priest Converts to Judaism, Becomes Rabbi
A Roman Catholic priest charged with sex crimes by 247 of his past students became a Rabbi and charged his accusers with Anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League immediately came to his defense and promised legal aid to fight against still another in a growing number of anti semitic outrages.
The pope apologized to the accusers, thanked the ADL and was considering converting to Judaism himself. “They get very sympathetic coverage in the press”, he said, ”and we could use more of that. Perhaps the time has come to talk about a merger. After all, our businesses rely on the same foundation and product line.”
New Poll Shows Nader Leading McCain, Trailing McKinney
and Tied with Mugabe, er, Obama
The world renowned British research and polling firm, Make The Check Out To Cash LTD, shows Ralph Nader and Senator Obama tied at 35% with Cynthia McKinney at 36% and John “not insane’ McCain at 23%. A spokesperson with a very high class British accent explained that this early in the race polling tends to ask the same people repeated questions, which can cause several to be counted repeatedly, thus creating more than a 100% response. He said that most of these respondents probably would not vote in the general election, but given the twisted distortions and ridiculous prattle of American media, anything this poll came up with would make as much sense as the election itself.
Nader claimed victory, Mugabe, er Obama asked for a recount, McKinney called for an investigation of the firm, and McCain continued smiling idiotically while saying, “My friends, we are embarked on a race for freedom and some other important stuff, so bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran...hee hee hee”
McCain’s Wife Rushed to Hospital for Makeup Removal
Mrs. McCain suddenly slumped to the ground during a speech by her husband, but initial diagnosis of boredom and weariness at trying to duplicate his frozen grin changed to a more serious case of smothered skin pores. “Her foundation creams were layered on in the double digits and we had to employ a Sanitation Department Scraper device to get her skin opened to the air again. She’ll be okay in a few weeks, but right now she needs rest and constant face washing” said a medical emergency cosmetic technician.
John McCain said his campaign would not skip a beat and, grinning idiotically, claimed he would dedicate the rest of his term in the senate and/or the white house to the memory of his wife’s valiant effort to remain expressionless while standing behind him. “My Friends, she is a trooper. Bomb Bomb Bomb, etc.”
Gun owners were ecstatic at the Supreme Court decision making marriage to a gun a constitutionally guaranteed right. “We’ve been lovers for twenty years now. We’ll finally have the same rights as other married people, with health care and being able to stay in motels together. This is the happiest day of my life” said an AK-47 owner as he lovingly caressed his weapon.
A hand gun owner said she had been in a common law relationship with her pistol for thirty years , but lived in the shadows, never being seen in public with her beloved unless target shooting or menacing a man in a bar. “We can finally be open about our relationship and i couldn’t be happier. I plan to walk down the aisle with his barrel in my mouth.”
Some fundamentalists were not pleased. “Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s in Deuteronomy Six, or Taxonomy Seven, or one of those biblical chapters ” said a preacher at a demonstration calling for impeachment of the justices who responded to loving pleas from smitten gun lovers. And a lawyer said the second amendment speaks to ownership of , not marriage to, a gun. His organization promised to back new legislation which would make it a crime to publicly fondle or kiss a gun, thereby creating new lawsuit possibilities. “We must protect children from the horrid scenes of folks rushing into city halls erotically clutching their weapons and expressing passionate love for mechanical devices which are not legal sex toys, like vibrators, you know.”
Obama Offers New Re-clarification of War Policy
At a hastily called press and media conference attended by the hastily assembled press and media, Senator Obama offered a hastily assembled explanation of recent explanations:
“Let me clarify my previous re-clarification explaining the change in my policy of change we can believe in to change we can explain through re-clarification as being a product of nuanced reconsideration of constantly changing facts on the ground which may cause pushing the envelope in a more deliberative and thoughtfully constrained and judicious fashion.
When I saidI would end the war during my administration, I did not put a time limit on the time or a time table on the table. If my term is only four years, I cannot guarantee anything until I visit the battlefield and speak to those who know most about killing and terrorizing the people of Iraq. But if I am elected for a second term, I can promise you that I will reconsider any decision made in my first term, and once again, let me be clear that I am against this war, always was, and remain still opposed but believe we must end it properly and not leave any doubts as to whether the oil is ours or not, or whether Israel wants us out or not.
McCain Names Limbaugh as Running Mate
Rush Limbaugh will become John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election. McCain’s new slogan:
“ I’m John McCain, and I’m Not Insane”
accompanied by his smiley face photo, would be balanced , his professionals believe, by a Limbaugh slogan of :
“ He’s Deaf, but He’s Not Dumb”.
“We need to balance our ticket with slogans that can capture the imagination of the American people, and Limbaugh’s ditto heads are at least as unquestioning in their devotion to him as those change-lings who worship Senator Mugabe, er, Obama” said campaign adviser Karl Rove.
Media paparazzi welcomed the exciting possibilities of repeating everything such colorful characters as the disabled and former drug addict Limbaugh and the dashing war hero captured prisoner with the idiotic grin, McCain had to say, without questioning anything. The Mugabe, er, Obama campaign was still wondering whether to re-clarify their position on whether Hillary or Bill Clinton would join their ticket.
Catholic Priest Converts to Judaism, Becomes Rabbi
A Roman Catholic priest charged with sex crimes by 247 of his past students became a Rabbi and charged his accusers with Anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League immediately came to his defense and promised legal aid to fight against still another in a growing number of anti semitic outrages.
The pope apologized to the accusers, thanked the ADL and was considering converting to Judaism himself. “They get very sympathetic coverage in the press”, he said, ”and we could use more of that. Perhaps the time has come to talk about a merger. After all, our businesses rely on the same foundation and product line.”
New Poll Shows Nader Leading McCain, Trailing McKinney
and Tied with Mugabe, er, Obama
The world renowned British research and polling firm, Make The Check Out To Cash LTD, shows Ralph Nader and Senator Obama tied at 35% with Cynthia McKinney at 36% and John “not insane’ McCain at 23%. A spokesperson with a very high class British accent explained that this early in the race polling tends to ask the same people repeated questions, which can cause several to be counted repeatedly, thus creating more than a 100% response. He said that most of these respondents probably would not vote in the general election, but given the twisted distortions and ridiculous prattle of American media, anything this poll came up with would make as much sense as the election itself.
Nader claimed victory, Mugabe, er Obama asked for a recount, McKinney called for an investigation of the firm, and McCain continued smiling idiotically while saying, “My friends, we are embarked on a race for freedom and some other important stuff, so bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran...hee hee hee”
McCain’s Wife Rushed to Hospital for Makeup Removal
Mrs. McCain suddenly slumped to the ground during a speech by her husband, but initial diagnosis of boredom and weariness at trying to duplicate his frozen grin changed to a more serious case of smothered skin pores. “Her foundation creams were layered on in the double digits and we had to employ a Sanitation Department Scraper device to get her skin opened to the air again. She’ll be okay in a few weeks, but right now she needs rest and constant face washing” said a medical emergency cosmetic technician.
John McCain said his campaign would not skip a beat and, grinning idiotically, claimed he would dedicate the rest of his term in the senate and/or the white house to the memory of his wife’s valiant effort to remain expressionless while standing behind him. “My Friends, she is a trooper. Bomb Bomb Bomb, etc.”
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Enough Already!
While a cowardly congress avoids prosecuting Bush for using the constitution as toilet paper and getting us into war by twisting facts even more than his syntax, more serious problems await their failure to act as representatives of the American people. Like:
Should we bomb Iran for Israel, or pay Israel to bomb Iran and either way suffer the consequences? Should we resolve this dilemma with the present regime, or wait for the new executive staff next year? How long can the international community - the USA, Israel, a British lapdog and a French poodle - tolerate the mad killer in Tehran who threatens to exterminate Jews , sodomize puppies and rape white women in his demonic campaign to rule the world. Or something like that.
Our political paparazzi spread stories of Ahmadinejad and Iran that are almost that blatantly idiotic. As madmen press for us to murder more people in their quest for a divinity that will leave them chosen survivors of a nuclear holocaust, our corporate congress acts as willing servant. It is only aroused to action when Zionists snap their fingers, or when neocons wave a flag .
No wonder so many are swept up in a passionate hope that dulls the senses, but at least seems to offer some light at a very dark time. It is necessary to be asleep to experience a dream, but now we need to be comatose to imagine an American Dream of prosperity, peace and justice, let alone a self focused one of personal success. A fully awakened people have to confront the present crisis before it becomes an American Nightmare .
The constant leaking of information about planned attacks on Iran indicate that groups within the establishment, supportive of empire but opposed to its present madness, are trying to avoid disaster. But the ruling fanatics are also hard at work, and with the most spineless opposition our nation has ever known - if they’d been around during the American revolution we’d all be speaking with British accents - there is a vital need to come out of our political slumber , or mythical dreams will become factual nightmares.
While it’s easy to see that attacking Iran could be more insanely destructive than the slaughter we have caused in Iraq, that is only apparent to those with some sense remaining after having our heads beaten to a pulp by distortions of reality. Our irrational consciousness controllers claim that Iran threatens mankind, especially Jewish mankind, and this based on evidence as convincing as proof of how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
When Ahmadinejad quoted his Imam and said that the rulers of Israel, like those of the Soviet Union, would vanish into history, it somehow became a threat of holocaust revival, endlessly repeated by those incapable of coherent reasoning in English, let alone the Farsi spoken by Ahamadinejad .
At a time of confusion and fear, many Americans who hardly believe much their government and its controlling institutions say , seem ready to swallow any bilge shoved into their heads if it’s about about the Islamic world. This may be a time for the doubters of much that they are told, most of the time, to become disbelievers in everything they are told, all the time.
Given that we are supposedly a nation of believers, it might be better if we prayed for guidance from immaterial forces before letting hysterical crackpots push us into supporting material action of ever more murderous intolerance and stupidity.
Iran is neither a threat to America, nor is its nuclear program any of our business. Especially since our business involves being the only nation to have ever used nukes, arming ourselves with more of them, and remaining silent about the mass murder potential of the primary source of moronic fables about Iran. That would be AIPAC - the American Jewish lobby - and Israel, where Mordechai Vanunu spent years in prison for trying to tell the world that it is as great a threat to humanity as is the USA. Why? It is founded on a myth of perpetual threat of annihilation at the hands of the rest of the world, so that any defense against that threat, however irrational, is deemed logical and even divine.
For the moment, the paranoia is focused on Iran , but it once was Iraq and soon could be any nation or group that incurs the animosity of Israel’s American lobby. And it doesn't take much beyond honest criticism to incur the high financed rage of that lobby and its sentiment of pending doom, based on biblical legend more than historic reality. If descendants of Native Americans and African slaves had the same psychological aberration, Americans might never be allowed to sleep again.
A public almost desperate to see the Bush regime fade away seems to have been lulled into a state of greater passivity than usual. But the incredible nature of proposed war on Iran may be, hopefully, pushing many closer to action. If that only involves a gentile sector of the ruling class, relief will be brief, at best. If it means a breakthrough in desires and demands for a truly democratic society run by a majority of citizens and not their minority rulers, we may not only avert short term disaster but bring on real long term hope for progress.
If we remain angry , confused and lashing out at innocent scapegoats instead of challenging real power, an outlook that can seem personally bleak could soon turn into one of social disaster . It is long past the time for Americans to say, we’ve had enough and we can’t take it anymore. That means ending the dictatorship of corporate wealth and zionism, and beginning a democracy of all the people. Can we? We’d better.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
Should we bomb Iran for Israel, or pay Israel to bomb Iran and either way suffer the consequences? Should we resolve this dilemma with the present regime, or wait for the new executive staff next year? How long can the international community - the USA, Israel, a British lapdog and a French poodle - tolerate the mad killer in Tehran who threatens to exterminate Jews , sodomize puppies and rape white women in his demonic campaign to rule the world. Or something like that.
Our political paparazzi spread stories of Ahmadinejad and Iran that are almost that blatantly idiotic. As madmen press for us to murder more people in their quest for a divinity that will leave them chosen survivors of a nuclear holocaust, our corporate congress acts as willing servant. It is only aroused to action when Zionists snap their fingers, or when neocons wave a flag .
No wonder so many are swept up in a passionate hope that dulls the senses, but at least seems to offer some light at a very dark time. It is necessary to be asleep to experience a dream, but now we need to be comatose to imagine an American Dream of prosperity, peace and justice, let alone a self focused one of personal success. A fully awakened people have to confront the present crisis before it becomes an American Nightmare .
The constant leaking of information about planned attacks on Iran indicate that groups within the establishment, supportive of empire but opposed to its present madness, are trying to avoid disaster. But the ruling fanatics are also hard at work, and with the most spineless opposition our nation has ever known - if they’d been around during the American revolution we’d all be speaking with British accents - there is a vital need to come out of our political slumber , or mythical dreams will become factual nightmares.
While it’s easy to see that attacking Iran could be more insanely destructive than the slaughter we have caused in Iraq, that is only apparent to those with some sense remaining after having our heads beaten to a pulp by distortions of reality. Our irrational consciousness controllers claim that Iran threatens mankind, especially Jewish mankind, and this based on evidence as convincing as proof of how many angels dance on the head of a pin.
When Ahmadinejad quoted his Imam and said that the rulers of Israel, like those of the Soviet Union, would vanish into history, it somehow became a threat of holocaust revival, endlessly repeated by those incapable of coherent reasoning in English, let alone the Farsi spoken by Ahamadinejad .
At a time of confusion and fear, many Americans who hardly believe much their government and its controlling institutions say , seem ready to swallow any bilge shoved into their heads if it’s about about the Islamic world. This may be a time for the doubters of much that they are told, most of the time, to become disbelievers in everything they are told, all the time.
Given that we are supposedly a nation of believers, it might be better if we prayed for guidance from immaterial forces before letting hysterical crackpots push us into supporting material action of ever more murderous intolerance and stupidity.
Iran is neither a threat to America, nor is its nuclear program any of our business. Especially since our business involves being the only nation to have ever used nukes, arming ourselves with more of them, and remaining silent about the mass murder potential of the primary source of moronic fables about Iran. That would be AIPAC - the American Jewish lobby - and Israel, where Mordechai Vanunu spent years in prison for trying to tell the world that it is as great a threat to humanity as is the USA. Why? It is founded on a myth of perpetual threat of annihilation at the hands of the rest of the world, so that any defense against that threat, however irrational, is deemed logical and even divine.
For the moment, the paranoia is focused on Iran , but it once was Iraq and soon could be any nation or group that incurs the animosity of Israel’s American lobby. And it doesn't take much beyond honest criticism to incur the high financed rage of that lobby and its sentiment of pending doom, based on biblical legend more than historic reality. If descendants of Native Americans and African slaves had the same psychological aberration, Americans might never be allowed to sleep again.
A public almost desperate to see the Bush regime fade away seems to have been lulled into a state of greater passivity than usual. But the incredible nature of proposed war on Iran may be, hopefully, pushing many closer to action. If that only involves a gentile sector of the ruling class, relief will be brief, at best. If it means a breakthrough in desires and demands for a truly democratic society run by a majority of citizens and not their minority rulers, we may not only avert short term disaster but bring on real long term hope for progress.
If we remain angry , confused and lashing out at innocent scapegoats instead of challenging real power, an outlook that can seem personally bleak could soon turn into one of social disaster . It is long past the time for Americans to say, we’ve had enough and we can’t take it anymore. That means ending the dictatorship of corporate wealth and zionism, and beginning a democracy of all the people. Can we? We’d better.
Copyright (c) 2008 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frankscott@comcast.net
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