Think On This

Dear readers...while i'm away, think on how much money we've wasted in four areas (hmmm...four corners-of the same thing?) over the last eight years:

I. White MIL budget
II. Black MIL budget
III. War On Drugs
IV. Imprisonment

My guess is, we spent 15 trillion and change. Now, I'll give'em half that for legit purposes, but the rest i believe has just gone down the drain for nothing! (Not to mention the people killed using up the money.) So, by my estimates, we've poured 7.5 trillion right down the toilet. We've spent on this crap right up to the point where we've almost bankrupted our collective selves. And what did we get for all this? A castle? An acre of land? Bin Laden? Less dope headz? Less dope? NOPE!

We got nada, nothing, zip. Just a bunch of useless people working on useless stuff. (Better that they're walking the streets!)

Now, just think of what we'd have if we put 7.5 trillion into NASA over the last eight years? We be on the moon and/or mars! We might even have the capability to mine asteroids.

But, nooo-oh. We can't go to mars. It's too haaard.

Yeah, crap, i'm outta here...see you out in the four corners region!

more on this stuff---later...

August’s Parade of the Dead

August 2009 has been a hell of month for the dead. May they all rest in the states and respective places they have coming. Foremost among them all was my mother and then Teddy Kennedy. Two tireless fighters for civil rights back in the 1960’s. While Kennedy fought in the Senate, my mother fought in the streets. She and her groups, using passive resistance, opened lunch counters and restaurants all over the state in which she lived. They are all to be remembered!

You Ship Of Fools

Oh, you ship of fools.
You have sunk yourselves again.
Sitting on the rocks, you ask…great questions.
Your pundits look bemused.
Your ignorance is too great to question them.
No profundities erupt!
Only a fetid fowl.

You fools you fools you fools.
Your best and brightest have
colluded (again) with your dumbest and their thieves.
To take your fortunes,
and pass them around, laughing to the
clink of flutes and tart of bubbly.
Ahh…life is good.

Your ship is wreck.
Sinking in water you befouled.
Your admirals stand a fore with albatross a hang.
Raven pecks at the portal.
Eyes plucked and driving blind.
You are smashed upon the rocks.
Sinking sin king s i n k i n g…

Your city is a wreck.
Staberinde!
Blasted and hollowed.
Burnt and cored.
Angry mob, abandon ship!
Burn your institutions of freedom.
Blow hard your trumps you fools!

Your sister is letched
On the bone white chair.
You look on.
A grinning crone.
I know your secret.
What do you know?
Who am I to care?

You’ve had it, you fools.
It is over, except for the long fall.
No moon, no mars, no super conductor,
No super collider.
Your 'brainiacs' just produce software toys.
You get no answers to the questions,
too BIG to fall.

In your end you will whine.
All your vain notions of exceptionalism,
will lie smashed in a ditch.
Your struggles will be for naught.
Your thefts will be your legacy.
Close your eyes now.
“Die.”

The Summer of Hate!

This was supposed to be a of ‘summer of love’ (http://www.taossummeroflove.com/calendar/ , http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2009/08/12/the-summer-of-love-2009.html). It didn’t turn out that way.

Summer 2009 has become the summer of angry white republican party mobs roaming the American landscape looking to castrate a feckless president who does not seem able to distinguish friend from foe. In his attempts to ‘tack left’ then ‘tack right’ at strategic points, Obama has ‘come-off’ just looking like a leaf blowing in the wind.

He has backed himself into a corner as he has no friends on the right and he is fast losing what support he could have counted on, on the left (http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/poll-obama-and-congressional-dems-dropping-among-democrats/ ; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR2009082004305.html?hpid=topnews).

He is a man losing control. Perhaps, this is an important test for anyone who would be president. Their, existential moment.

But, make no mistake about it! The mob knows! The mob can smell it! They can smell the fear of man who has backed himself into a corner. They thrive upon it, revel in it. Obama is coming apart. Just what the 'right' wants.

But, there is more! These republican mobs are not just hostile to the president, they are armed and dangerous!!

With the calls for armed insurrection ringing from the Hill (http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2009/03/another-michele-bachmann-radio-eruption.html) and Obama, in his infinite wisdom, allowing people to come to town halls armed (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.guns21aug21,0,1613427.story), it is only a matter of time before these mobs kill someone (http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/service-employees-union-recieves-viol)!

In being sanguine about all of this, Obama is risking all of us!!! Imagine what would happen in every major city in this country if Obama got shot by some vile and ignorant republican rabble! There would be no safe haven. It would be the Red Summer of 1919 again (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Red_Summer_of_1919).

This must stop.

If there is any place that Obama should know he must stand his ground and get tough with the right-wing, it should be to protect his own life! Now, he might view himself as some cross between ‘transformative’ men like Gandhi, King, and Reagan. He might view himself as a martyr.

Well, if you do, Obama, do it somewhere else!!!!!!!!!!!! Try a little walk in the country over in the Helmand valley (take a pipe and a copy of the Rig Vedas-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmand_Province).

No, he must put us, the American people, before himself!

He must put in place a civil emergency order (as civility is breaking down everywhere these meetings are being held), banning all guns (not in the hands of law-enforcement personnel) from town hall meetings IMMEDIATELY!

Why? Just look who's 'waiting in the wings': (http://enduringamerica.com/2009/04/24/meet-your-next-president-of-texas-mr-chuck-norris/)

yeah, well..."yippie-kai-yay motherf**kers"!

more later...(allah willing and tikrit don't rise)

Hell’s Newest Angel

While all men start life innocent of the evils of the world of our making, very few escape them. Some, not only do not escape them, they come to revel in them. For some, these evils ally themselves to a groveling sycophancy by which they are able to raise themselves up in a world seemingly corrupted by nature itself. For these chosen few, treason in the name of ideology is not to be feared, for no courts of connected men will ever find their way to the truth. Then, a way with words becomes commodity. Editions of lies are cut up and pressed between moments of corporate self congratulation. Their influence metastasizes. Success follows. But the social environment becomes a cancer eating away at the organ of self-image. In the end, “making a lot of money and doing very little”, your images are cancelled and you are let go. Stygian waters part, for Hell’s newest angel. (In memoriam: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE57H4ZQ20090818).

The Problem with America & A Solution

THE PROBLEM

The fundamental problem with America is that it was founded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_colonies) upon three great crimes, the:

I. "Genocide" of the red-man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_genocide#Genocide_debate).

II. Enslavement of the black-man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_slavery).

III. Rape of the environment (both social and physical) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_impact_of_colonial_Americans_before_1877).

Although one or more of these crimes have been committed in every region of this hemisphere and many other places in the world, the heinous nature of these crimes has been keenly perceived from the beginning of the state that resulted from the revolution against British rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution). These crimes (and others) have divided America into two different cultures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism_in_the_United_States).

The first culture is one that finds no problem with any of the crimes. It has, in fact, enshrined these crimes into the notion of ‘manifest destiny’ where this land and all of its animals and peoples were gifted, by God, to be ruled by peoples of white European (but most particularly, English) descent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny). This culture combines simplistic notions of protestant Christianity with white suprematism and unfettered capitalism.

The second culture (the one I belong to) combines secularism and racial and religious tolerance with the application of capitalism to the establishment of a civil society (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society) and a social safety net (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_net). The second culture finds great moral and historical issue with these crimes considered ‘manifest destiny’ by the first culture. The second culture sees these crimes as the festering seeds of the destruction of a just and proper American culture. American militarism, jingoism, and racism are seen in the second culture to have roots in these crimes. While, the second culture has attempted to enshrine the Rights Of Englishmen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_Englishmen) in the heart of this nation’s political philosophy, all attempts have been compromised due to the other culture in order to hold ‘The Union’ together. This, of course leads right up to the War Between The States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War).

I will (simplistically) call the first culture Conservative America (CA) and the second culture, Liberal America (LA).

Now, the fundamental assertion of this essay is that CA and LA are fundamentally philosophically incompatible. We see this played-out everyday in the news and congress and the courts. We see this currently being played-out over ‘health care reform’. It is easy to predict that ‘health care reform’ will be compromised as have all other legislative attempts to form a greater civil society in American history.

So, how do we deal with this incompatibility?

THE SOLUTION

The solution to most of the current social problems in American is to have CA secede from the United States as it did with the formation of the Confederate States of America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America). The CA would withdraw from the U.S. to form its own country within the boundaries of the former slave states of America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_state). Call it, the Southern United States or the Solid South (SS) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_South). All properties and holdings of the U.S. government would be removed from the SS or destroyed. Land swaps would be granted for all those moving from one country to the other for a limited time. The Republican party and all other ‘right-wing’ parties would be banned in the U.S. and helped to relocate in the SS. Those professing ‘right-wing’ and/or conservative ideologies would be helped to relocate in the SS.

The main problem I see with this arrangement is a security problem brought on by military aggression from the SS. I envision the SS attempting to invade various countries in Latin America as well as staging a take over of Canada from the more conservative western Canadian provinces. (However, this would be slowed by their need to purchase a new military industrial complex.) Therefore, it might become advantageous for the U.S. and Canada to form a merger of some kind where conservative Canadians are helped to emigrate to a chastened SS.

If a partition would work for Israel (Palestine), why wouldn't it work here?

but, of course, ‘the devil is in the details’, so...

more…on that…later!

Panetta and the CIA

Either Leon Panetta doesn't know what he is doing or he doesn't know what he's talking about
or he doesn't write these essays.

he writes in "Congress and the CIA: Time to Move On" By Leon Panetta
Sunday, August 2, 2009:

"Last month, at a meeting overseas of intelligence service chiefs, one of my counterparts from a major Western ally pulled me aside. Why, he asked, is Washington so consumed with what the CIA did in the past, when the most pressing national security concerns are in the present? It was a very good question."

actually, it's not a good question at all. it's a question that only a simpleton would ask. why?

because, it's obvious that what the cia has done in the past will affect the world in the future.

consider the iranian revolution that kicked out the cia cronny sha palavi and installed the ayatola Khomeini!

consider the cia's backing of the authoritarian take over of argentina and the cia's assissination of the elected socialist president salvador allende.

consider the cia's role in vietnam and cambodia that lead right up to the victory of north vietnam over the croony stooge governments of the south and the take over of the Khmer Rouge of cambodia and the ensuing slaughter.

consider all of the bloody dictators the cia installed all over africa in the war against communism in the 1960s. that's left nothing but basket-case countries ripe for al-Qaeda.

consider the cia's arming of the al-Qaeda in the war against the commies in afghanistan.
well...you know what that led to!

Panetta writes:

"In its earliest days, the Obama administration made policy changes in intelligence that ended some controversial practices. The CIA no longer operates black sites and no longer employs "enhanced" interrogation techniques."

Oh yeah? Prove it! Panetta can't prove anything. No one working in the intel community can prove anything about what they do because its all classified. This is a very stupid situation. All anyone who leads this community can do is to ask the public to 'trust' them. And why should we? Do they trust us? Do they trust you? (Try getting a job in one of the agencies!)

Panetta writes:

"I recognize that there will always be tension in oversight relationships, but there are also shared
responsibilities. Those include protecting the classified information that shapes our conversations. Together, the CIA and Congress must find a balance between appropriate oversight and a recognition that the security of the United States depends on a CIA that is totally focused on the job of defending America."

How about the cia finding greater transperancy? This idea that "the security of the United States depends on a CIA" is no more than a matter of conjecture! Here I would definitely ask for proof!

Panetta writes:

"The time has come for both Democrats and Republicans to take a deep breath and recognize the reality of what happened after Sept. 11, 2001."

Hey Panetta, that is the question!! What did happen after Sept. 11, 2001?

Panetta writes:

"The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11."

Oh yes it is!!!!! These intel types tried to (and probably have) put into place all of the technical apparatus of an authoritarian state. (Chinese, eat your hearts out!)

Panetta writes:

"The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong."

Panetta gets one right!

Panetta writes:

"But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided."

Wait, so is Panetta saying that because these people did their jobs wrong and made bad judgments, they shouldn't be tainted? If not for doing their jobs wrong and making bad judgments, when should they be tainted? For doing their jobs correctly? Is there a CIA award
for doing your job wrong and making bad judgments?

Dear reader, try doing your job wrong and making bad judgments! See what happens to you!

Panetta writes:

"The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction."

Yes, that's true, but the new direction was not suppose to be the same old 'sweep it under
the rug' of the bush administration.

Panetta writes:

"Intelligence can be a valuable weapon..."

Wait, intelligence can also be used to avoid harm and harming, if you know what you're doing. When was intel 'weaponized'?

"...but it is not one we should use on each other."

tell that to ashcroft.

when an intelligence group is allowed to run counter-intelligence operations and dis-information operations, it's products are going to go everywhere and eventually come back to the home population. These sorts of operations are very hard to 'contain'. start lying and it comes right back to munch your sitter.

Panetta writes:

"As the president has said, this is not a time for retribution. Debates over who knew what
when -- or what happened seven years ago -- miss a larger, more important point: We are a nation at war in a dangerous world..."

Yes, but who are we really at war with? Who made it so dangerous? al-Qaeda or the american right-wing? who's done more damage? who's killed more people? who's running the 'tea bagging parties' and inciting treason and revolt? al-Qaeda or the american right-wing?

Panetta writes:

"Unlike the effort I canceled in June, our present tools are effective, we use them aggressively to go after our enemies, and Congress has been briefed on them."

Prove it! Let's us see how the CIA, NSA, and NRO really work. how about some tours?

Panetta writes:

"I also know that we can learn lessons from the past without getting stuck there. That is what the American people expect. The CIA is ready to do its part."

Panetta is dead wrong here. You never get stuck in the past because an understanding of the past changes the present and changing the present changes what the future would have been without the understanding of the past!

As for what the "American people expect", we really don't expect much out of the CIA. They seem to miss the mark every time. (If the don't, then show us!)

Why is it our public leaders can't think better than high schoolers? my guess is that the 'group think' that goes on in these organizations destroys a person's capabilities to reason on their own, unless that person is extraordinary (which Panetta really isn't). Panetta is just an ordinary guy. Not a bad guy. Not particularly morally courageous. But, this is true of all of the people in the current administration that i'm familiar with.