That Other America

2005-07-03T23:57:00.000-04:00

Why is that I've stopped being surprised by the anti-intellectual, malevolently negligent and generally antagonistic things that The Administration does? More and more, I find that I can't be bothered to blog or even care about the state of the economy, the "War," or the state of the nation in general, as it just seems overwhelmingly futile. Bush Inc. seems to be blissfully ignorant of the needs, perspectives, and concerns of the his own countrymen, so why should anyone be remotely shocked that he is similarly out-0f-step with the world, as well?

Let's dissect a few paragraphs from this BBC article, entitled "Bush Rejects Kyoto-style G8 Deal," courtesy of my handy Firefox headline tab:

President George W Bush has ruled out US backing for any Kyoto-style deal on climate change at the G8 summit...But he conceded that the issue was one "we've got to deal with" and said human activity was "to some extent" to blame.

"To some extent?" *Whew* Way to dodge that bullet, W! The only way you could've pinned less culpability on modern industry was to blame all that greenhouse bullshit on cattle flatulence!

Mr Bush said he would resist any deal that would require countries to reduce carbon emissions - similar to the 1997 UN Kyoto protocol, which the US never signed.
"If this looks like Kyoto, the answer is no," he said in an interview with ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme.

"The Kyoto treaty would have wrecked our economy, if I can be blunt."

He said he hoped the other G8 leaders would "move beyond the Kyoto debate" and consider new technologies as a way of tackling global warming.

Those ozone-loving, mesh tank top-wearing Eurotrash hippies can go straight to hell! I love carbon emissions! The thought of mile-long gridlock on the L.I.E. makes me hard as a goddamn rock! I start my day by cranking my Hummer H2 in the middle of a crowded playground and leaving it running till its mastodonic fuel tank runs dry. I don't drive anywhere, I just like to sit and watch the future melanoma patients on the monkey bars. And don't even get me started on the economy! Without industry and its consequent pollutants, I could never have earmarked billions for The ~~Crusade!~~ War on Terror! What an economic boom that's turned out to be!

The US was investing in developing techniques such as sequestration of carbon dioxide in underground wells, hydrogen-powered cars and zero emission power stations, he said.

We'll just sweep that shit under the rug! What could be better than enormous underground tanks of deadly gas covered by a thin layer of diseased topsoil and capped off by an elementary school? Those are the future soldiers in The War on Terror in that math class. Maybe the toxic fumes will mutate the kids into superpowered instruments of death, like that spider did for that Parker kid in that documentary I saw.

But he rejected the idea he should support British Prime Minister Tony Blair's G8 plan in return for his support during the war in Iraq.

"Tony Blair made decisions on what he thought was best for keeping the peace and winning the war on terror, as I did," he told the programme.

"So I go to the G8 not really trying to make him look bad or good, but I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country."

Fuck 'em! They still owe us for DubyaDubyaTwo! And besides that, what have those limey bastards even done in ~~Vietn~~ Iraq? Americans are dying like, 100 to 1 over there. If anything Tony, it's time to pony up!

2005-06-21T20:14:00.000-04:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your Department of Homeland Security at work.

2005-06-15T15:17:00.000-04:00

Irate. I'm irate. Let's start from the beginning:

Philip A. Cooney, the former White House staff member who repeatedly revised government scientific reports on global warming, will go to work for Exxon Mobil this fall, the oil company said yesterday.

Well surprise, surprise. Read on.

Mr. Cooney resigned as chief of staff for President Bush's environmental policy council on Friday, two days after documents obtained by The New York Times revealed that he had edited the reports in ways that cast doubt on the link between the emission of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures.

Okay, let's review what we know so far.
1. White House staffer
2. falsified documents
3. environmental damage
4. outed by major news outlet
5. resigned
6. not fired
7. new job with Exxon
Press on, children. Press on.

A former lawyer and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobbying group for the oil industry, Mr. Cooney has no scientific training. The White House, which said on Friday that there was no connection between last week's disclosure and Mr. Cooney's resignation, repeated yesterday that his actions were part of the normal review process for documents on environmental issues involving many government agencies.

Mr. Cooney was a lobbyist for a petroleum interest. He was then appointed Chief of Staff for the Environmental Policy Council. He butchered documents and research findings to skew the data away from a conclusion supporting global warming as an imminent threat, presumably laboring under the approving eye of his administrative handlers. He gets busted by the Times and resigns, dignity intact and without a sour word from his administration (he was praised in fact: "Phil Cooney did a great job," said Dana Perino, a deputy spokeswoman for the White House, "and we appreciate his public service and the work that he did, and we wish him well in the private sector."), sinks gently into the waiting arms of an oil company.

Exxon Mobil has long financed advertising and lobbying efforts that question whether warming caused by humans poses risks serious enough to justify curbing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by smokestacks and tailpipes.

2005-06-15T12:19:00.000-04:00

I. GIVE. UP.

courtesy of www.warrenellis.com

2005-06-10T14:35:00.000-04:00

A cursory glance at the nation's major newspapers will, of late, reveal a few ominous and looming portents for the US: the draft is coming and the nation is spiralling uncontrollably into a police state where work is scarce and "security" is intrusive and omnipresent.

Through the boundaries of denials and protests, the draft will, slowly but surely arrive. US Armed Forces have failed to meet recruitment quotas repeatedly, (the Army has experienced more than a 40% shortfall since April), and the construction of a capable and sustained Iraqi military presence is going even more poorly than originally thought possible.

In Washington, W is pushing for a renewed Patriot Act with extended jurisdiction. The middle class has become the smallest sliver on the American pie chart just in time for the bulk of the work force to reach retirement (I'll not even bother linking to the latest Social Security woes).

The emergence of Mark Felt as Deep Throat reminds many of a time when the Executive Branch and its sword arm (the CIA) ran about unchecked and reminds others of a time when it seemed, if briefly, that a few decent guys could hold the politicos at bay. It's a shame it didn't really pan out.

The Dems are too busy bickering over whether Dean is or isn't, as well as trying to stifle the impending shout of "WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO, YOU REDNECK ASSHOLES!" to do anything about it.

Step back and take a good long look, kids. We're neck-deep in a war that has no terminus or even a clear purpose, a draft is fast approaching, our elderly are about to get the screwgie of a lifetime, Big Brother is watching in Technicolor, and the only ones who can do fuck-all about it are having a pissing contest out behind the baseball field. My advice? Invest in enough sturdy cardboard boxes to hold all of your stuff and make sure your passport is still valid; the grass is definitely greener abroad, but only because the grass over here is dead.

2005-06-09T12:27:00.000-04:00

For those who may have missed "The Downing Street Memo," I'm posting it now. It's more than a month old; however, I had every intention of posting it back in the day but never got around to it. Work is slow today, so I decided to put it now. Better late than never, one supposes.

For anyone who doesn't know about this, this the memo that causing a bit of a stir in DC and Whitehall. It details the Bush Administration's pre-9/11 plans to rush an invasion of Iraq.

fatherland

2005-06-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

The laziest blog style ever? Reposting BoingBoing. Pertinent or not, it's still lazy.

Soviet realism finds its way to DC-area commuter trains:

I hope Orwell has enough room in his grave for all those somersaults.

2005-05-31T11:26:00.000-04:00

Ft. Hood, Texas now features a life-size mannequin of Saddam, fresh from the spider hole, complete with leaves and shit sticking out of his hair. This was commissioned, apparently, to commemorate the 4th Infantry's tour in Iraq.

The mannequin case will eventually be part of a larger display commemorating the 4th Infantry's tour of duty in Iraq. It will include a full-scale replica of the hole where Saddam was caught, with an opening so that museum visitors can crawl in and see for themselves what it was like.
Arthur Fonzo, an Air Force veteran visiting from Atlanta, got a little choked up while taking a long look at the mannequin when the exhibit opened Thursday.

"That is great, just terrific," he said. "It's realistic, it's history. It makes me feel that what our soldiers did was so impressive."

In a related story, the George H.W. Bush Library will feature a statue of an intoxicated Joseph Stalin vomiting into the Volga to commemorate the fall of the Iron Curtain.

2005-05-27T09:54:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard already, the Left was right. The Pentagon validated claims of Koran abuse by US personnel. Of course, it was "minor" and "prior to regulating measures" (which might as well say "Christ almighty, we didn't know anyone would get so pissed.) Read Ari Berman's piece from a few entries back and pat yourself on the back.

2005-05-26T10:22:00.000-04:00

It's not politics, but it's news.

Dale Carroll, a 16 yr. old from Manchester, England, has been banned from wearing a hoodie for 5 years. Carroll was handed an "Asbo" or Antisocial Behaviour Order, (Britain's latest defense against wee lads getting in scrapes) for a list of offenses that seem more or less harmless. He threw firecrackers at bicyclists, drove a car down a pub's steps and tried to cut down a telephone pole with a chainsaw. From the UK Guardian:

Carroll of Cheetham, Manchester, was found guilty of anti social behaviour and was banned from wearing a hoodie or cap in public and from entering a large part of Collyhurst, including the home he shares with his mother in Manordale Walk.
He was also prevented from congregating with more than two people, except family members, and banned from possessing fireworks, axes or chainsaws.

Manchester city council's executive member for housing, Eddy Newman, said: "This young man has caused absolute misery for the people he has terrorised in this neighbourhood, and is out of control."

UPDATE: Apparently, hoodies are big news in the UK. Admittedly, I had no idea and still don't actually care that much, aside from the Orwellian/Maoist implications. Still, when shopping centers ban "yob" clothing, i.e. hoodies, caps, etc., it smacks of something to blog about.

2005-05-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

The current flurry of speculation surrounding Cuban ex-pat and CIA operative Luis Posada has instigated a recent glut (in relative terms, of course) of de-classified, buried, or forgotten documents relating to his long and storied, if notoriously so, CIA career and his involvement in the Bay of Pigs debacle. A solid primer on the subject comes from the most recent Nation, which also features a link to a declassified version of the tale from the NSA Archives.

Less than four months later, on October 6, two bombs explode on Cubana Flight 455, which has just taken off from Barbados. The plane is carrying seventy-three people, including Cuba's teenage fencing team and eleven Guyanese citizens, most of them students on their way to Havana to attend medical school. All aboard perish when the plane crashes into the sea. A CIA source subsequently reports that sometime around the last week of September, another renowned anti-Castro exile in Caracas, Luis Posada Carriles, was overheard stating: "We are going to hit a Cuban airliner."

An important "see also" regarding this story is Operation Northwoods. "Northwoods" was a CIA project spanning the early to mid 60s, whose purpose was, more or less, to instigate full-on conflict with Cuba. Like Posada's Flight 455, Northwoods involved blowing up a remote-controlled, single-engine passenger plane over Florida in full view of a population center and then blaming the Cubans. They also planned to blow up a US ship in Cuban waters and pull the same shit. Masterful espionage historian James Bamford writes: Operation Northwoods “may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government.”

UPDATE: From the NSA Archives' file on Operation Mongoose, an ancillary to Northwoods:

The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.

Newest New

2005-05-25T00:10:00.000-04:00

New season, new look. Anyway, the last design never reallly pleased me and never really worked right. I'm still ironing the kinks out of this one, as well.

In case anyone bothered to wonder why my blog was so neglected for so long and is now hyperactive, it's because I was super-busy with the drudgery of grad school and, now that it's summer, I'm busy with the drudgery of a job in a publishing office. And by "busy," I mean "placed idly in front of a Mac for 8 hours a day with little to do." Not that I'm complaining, mind you; there will be plenty of work to be had around the next publishing deadline. For now, however, I'm primarily engaged in thumb-twiddling.

2005-05-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

First there was the laughable Alabama legislation to ban all books with gay characters or authors. Now, there's this. Republicans and books just don't mix.

2005-05-24T14:57:00.000-04:00

From BoingBoing:

In the early 1920s during prohibition, a vocal group of brewers and doctors fought for the right to prescribe and drink "medical beer." For just a few months in 1921, a pint could be prescribed to cure whatever ailed ya. From Smithsonian:

On March 3, 1921, shortly before his last day as attorney general, (A. Mitchell) Palmer issued an opinion declaring that the "beverage" clause of the 18th Amendment entitled doctors to prescribe beer at any time, under any circumstances and in any amount they saw fit. Wholesale druggists could take charge of selling beer. He also suggested that commercial drugstores could sell it from their soda fountains—though "never again beer over the saloon bar or in the hotel dining room."

But rather than settling the debate, Palmer's opinion set off a new round of court challenges, squabbles and questions. "Will the druggists become bartenders and the drug store a saloon?" the New York Times asked that November. "Will the doctors become beer dictators and be overwhelmed by those who are thirsty because they are sick, or merely sick with thirst?"

Link!

2005-05-24T11:11:00.000-04:00

While on the topic of girl-girl political action, the UK's having girl trouble of its own.
"Renegade" Labour MP Peter Law (from Blaenau Gwent in South Wales and no, I'm not making that up) and his supporters are facing retribution from the Labour overlords for what amounts to desertion. Law left the party, ran and won as an independent (defeating the Labour candidate soundly, no less) after expressing frustration at Labour's "all-female shortlists." In recent years, the party has apparently fielded hordes of female candidates to broaden demographic appeal and has discouraged men from running in contested spots. Result? Law got pissed, left, ran his own race and won.

Now, Labour is threatening those Law supporters who remain in the party with "expulsion." (I'm not entirely certain what this entails, but I imagine you have to turn in your bowling ball and tie tack.) Of course, Maggie Jones, the Labour candidate defeated by Mr. Law, is having her own pink panty meltdown after having had her ass handed quite easily to her by someone who shouldn't have been allowed to run in the first place.

2005-05-24T10:06:00.000-04:00

In a stunning display of, well, Republicanism, the reds are doing their best to field Jeanine pirro, the Westchester County D.A., to oppose Hillary in the U.S. Senate race in 2006. The GOP has probably looked long and hard to find a neocon-friendly Hillary analog. Pirro is a savvy, professional woman with hubby problems; lobbyist Albert Pirro was convicted of income tax fraud and served 11 months in a federal prison (the caveat here is that cheating the government pales in comparison to receiving a hummer from a chubby chick in the GOP moral spectrum). Her candidacy will probably do its best to obscure that Hill, too, is a successful lawyer in her own right. She's already using her D.A. status to shill the homeland security agenda, because honestly, who knows more about terrorism than the District Attorney for an affluent, suburban neighborhood?

2005-05-23T15:16:00.000-04:00

okay, so first day back and everything starts looking strange. what's wrong with these fonts? maybe it's because i'm using a mac at work. or not. bear with me.

-TOA

2005-05-23T13:22:00.000-04:00

this afternoon's theme is THE WITHDRAWAL METHOD, W-STYLE.

from the uk guardian: US TO BUILD 4 NEW MILITARY BASES IN IRAQ.

"They appear to settling in a for the long run, and that will only give fuel for the terrorists," said a spokesman for the mainstream Sunni Iraqi Islamic party.

A senior US official in Baghdad said yesterday: "It has always been a main plank of our exit strategy to withdraw from the urban areas as and when Iraqi forces are trained up and able to take the strain. It is much better for all concerned that Iraqis police themselves."

Under the plan, for which the official said there was no "hard-and-fast" deadline, US troops would gradually concentrate inside four heavily fortified air bases, from where they would provide "logistical support and quick reaction capability where necessary to Iraqis". The bases would be situated in the north, south, west and centre of the country.

from the bbc: BUSH WON'T HAND OVER MILITARY CONTROL TO KARZAI

Mr Karzai told journalists afterwards that "we are sad" about the abuse of Afghans by US troops, but that it did not reflect on the American people - "these things happen everywhere" he said.

Anti-US feeling in Afghanistan emerged in a wave of riots this month.

2005-05-23T12:20:00.000-04:00

I've been out of circulation for a while and i apologize to anyone that managed to notice. When academia calls, it calls incessantly.

from the Post:
Laura gets heckled and threatened at Mid-East holy sites.
- "It will take a lot of baby steps, and I'm sure it will be a few steps backward on the way, but I want to encourage the people that I met with earlier and the women that I just met with that the United States will do what they can in this process," she said before leaving. SHE REFERS TO THE PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI CONFLICT.

Swedish officers document CIA "rendition" practices.
- Inside an airport police station, Swedish officers watched as the CIA operatives pulled out scissors and rapidly sliced off the prisoners' clothes, including their underwear, according to newly released Swedish government documents and eyewitness statements. They probed inside the men's mouths and ears and examined their hair before dressing the pair in sweat suits and draping hoods over their heads. The suspects were then marched in chains to the plane, where they were strapped to mattresses on the floor in the back of the cabin.

2005-02-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

Surprise, surprise. Y'know, I could swear someone brought this up a while back...

2005-02-04T16:12:00.000-05:00

Rumsfeld: Two from the BBC

Herr Rumsfeld, your papers pleez?: Rumsfeld may face arrest in Germany if he chooses to attend a conference on defense policy in Munich. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights has filed charges with a German court regarding human right abuses following the Abu Ghraib fiasco.

Rumsfeld tries to resign twice, but Bush asked him to stay on, even as eight other cabinet secretaries depart after his re-election.

2005-02-03T01:18:00.000-05:00

I'll not beat anyone to the punditry punch regarding the State of the Union Address tonight. I got in too late to see the whole thing and what I saw made the veins in my temples feel as though they were about to explode. Instead, here are a few items that you may have missed.

House Reds are pushing for a resolution to uphold the "Solomon Law," a statute that denies federal funding to universities that deny military recruiters access to their campus. Republicans, one after another, trotted out the "if our military doesn't have access to the best and brightest" claptrap ad nauseum. The universities they cited, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and New York University (my current place of academic residence), do indeed deny such access to the military. However, these institutions are private schools, thus making this not an issue about left or right, but about university autonomy. The Reds are trying to intimidate universities into becoming military farm clubs, which begs the question: who are they recruiting, French Comparative Lit majors? If a private institution desires not to comply with a request, which is by no means a law, I'm fairly sure they have the right to do so.

An issue I've avoided is Social Security. It's such a huge mess with a sprawling history, much of which I'm fuzzy on. Fortunately, it's well-covered by those more qualified than I. However, the eagle-eyed BeauCoupKevin alerted me to this find earlier today. It's the GOP playbook for selling the Social Security scheme to their constituency. It's a fairly lengthy work, but the first bit is downloadable in PDF form. It basically boils down to "Your constituency is dumb and they don't care much for big words. Talk slowly and use small numbers." This, of course, is a paraphrase, but here's an actual quote:

Keep the numbers small: Your audience doesn't know how trillions and billions differ. They know these numbers are large but not how large nor how many billions make a trillion. Boil numbers down to "your family's share." Also avoid percentages; your audience will try to calculate them in their head--no easy task while listening to a speech--and many will do it incorrectly.

2005-02-01T23:28:00.000-05:00

Elections heal all wounds.

The Daily Kos posted this article a while back. An archival gem, to be sure; the article is from 1967 in the administration of LBJ who, though ostensibly a Democrat, was the worst sort: the Zell Miller sort.

So Vietnam had an election and the VC didn't blow up the earth? Mission accomplished! We all know how that turned out. At least we've learned from history and at least both these children got the same glut of freedom.

(Images hosted by ImageShack)

2005-01-31T01:37:00.000-05:00

I caught some of the Q&A session for the candidates for DNC chairman tonight. After watching their speeches and most of the Q&A, my mind is made up. To be truthful, my mind was made up long ago: Howard Dean is the only way to go. He is the candidate who, though he may be far to the left, can revitalize the party just as he revitalized the Democrat's campaign style in 2004. That he had the foresight to institute a grassroots and web-based support base from the beginning of primary season (that he didn't wait until crunch time to mobilize is the key factor here) alone is evidence enough of his abilities to lead in a revolutionary manner.

He seems to be set on remaking the party in its own image, rather than snuggling up to evangelicals and other Red nutjobs as many Dems seem bent on doing. He spoke of the need to recreate the party, rather than retool it, just as Gingrich remade the Reds during the mid-90's. In short, Dean is the clear choice not only to create and lead and a new Democratic party, but to lead efforts to sandbag against The Return of the Red Menace.

This is a link to a transcript of one of Dr. Dean's speeches, given on Dec. 8, 2004 at George Washington University.

2005-01-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you The Shittiest Weblog Since the Dawn of Man (or at least the internets)! Not only are the politics therein horribly misguided, by which I mean blindly devoted to the Red Party Line, the writing is laughably god-awful. I happened across this while following links from the masterful Sadly, No! to an amusing entry on HFN. Submitted for your approval, an excerpt from one of today's entries, written by a Mr. Michael Novak:

These are the days that try men's souls, if they are men and women of the left. When their own sense of what has been going on is shattered. When the vision of the hated conservatives comes to life in reality, and its birth seems to send joy through conservative ranks. At such times, the hive of the left often falls silent. Everyone seems to wait for a big bee to teach them the new buzz. Listen in the silence! The queen bee will stir. The buzz will grow soon.

The secret compass of the left used to give off a clear signal, even when puzzling events suddenly clouded the sky. One had only to discern whether new events empowered a new and larger collective (the state, the UN), in which case that was the side to cheer. If the individual was weakened, if the United States was weakened, and if the collective powers were strenghthened [sic], that was guidance enough.

The fall of socialism has destroyed that guidance system. What to do? Whom to cheer? What to reject?...It takes longer these days for the hive to regain its voice and sense of direction...these days, the identity of the big bee is no longer so certain.

What the hell does this mean? Aside from a being a poorly managed metaphor, this whole thing reads like a text crawl from a bad Star Wars fansite. Please refer to my previous post about the educated Left and feel validated because, well, we're not dumbasses.

2005-01-28T23:56:00.000-05:00

This is the Bush America.

The New York Times today made note, as they often do, of the ongoing violence surrounding the upcoming election. Horror stories, violence, and the overwhelming failure of the US occupation force to establish anything remotely resembling security have become so commonplace that even the blue-est of us liberals are starting to become desensitized.

This, however, cannot happen. Since progressives are typically found in the upper echelons of culture (though not, incidentally, always in the upper tax brackets, i.e. me), such as academics, jurists, many young professionals, etc., we are primarily the most educated and thus have the responsibility to the rest of the country to sort these things out. Unfortunately, this often means doing the thinking for Red America.

How, then, does the responsibility relate to the Iraqi election process? The short answer is that it's our job to call "bullshit" loud and often.

The long answer is hardly so simple. Perhaps the first step is to identify The Administration's motives in holding elections on such an unrealistic timetable. Among the information provided in the Times today is the fact that Allawi's slate for the upcoming election contains more than 150 candidates. In short, the interim head of state appointed by the coalition (read: The Administration) has become a figurehead for an entire political party. The article states that there are roughly 40 slates for in the upcoming election; with such a glut of burgeoning parties vying for a such a limited amount of positions means, simply, that for a single slate to receive a confirmed majority will be next to impossible.

The good news for the Bush camp is that a recognized figure is heading a prominent party with a large stable of candidates will inevitably fair better than a burgeoning group lacking publicity, influence and experience. One may safely assume that Allawi's party will fair quite well for this very reason, hence an extended stay of influence by US commercial interests. The only caveat in this matter is that Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani-backed United Iraqi Alliance is expected by some to fair better in the election. If this expectation is proven correct, it will have a devastating effect on the efforts of The Administration to retain control in Iraq by establishing a puppet party that is highly susceptible to US influence; a non-secular majority in the 275-member National Assembly will quash claims that freedom is on the march and that tyranny will end in our time. However, we may also expect to see The Administration spin such a result as a victory; that a party, lacking the aid of the US, could fair so well is a sure sign that Iraqis have voted their conscience and liberty is at hand, or something of the sort.

In short, the elections will most likely be a loss for the Iraqi people, no matter the outcome. If the UIA fairs as well as some project, however, it could give progressives and skeptics ample fodder for just criticism. Either way, the Reich will probably still march on.

2005-01-25T23:39:00.000-05:00

For anyone (I refer here, of course, to an estimated .4% of the literate population) who saw Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) on the Senate floor on C-Span 2 today, you may have witnessed both the tiniest of triumphs and the largest of comprises.

Byrd, looking very dapper in a 3-piece black suit and red tie, appeared as the genteel, subtly persuasive, and lucid-but-slightly-doddering stereotype of the aging Southern statesmen that we as Americans have come, quite by accident, to accept as charmingly anachronistic. From behind the lectern, Byrd launched salvo after tactful salvo at Condi's record, occasionally waving a quivering finger to drive home a point. His efforts to object and raise objections to the Senate's almost certain confirmation of Dr. Rice as the next Secretary of State was among few in the overwhelmingly Red Senate. His evidence was well researched, deftly presented, and would perhaps have been quite damning were the current political climate different. Still, one of the Old Guard of Democrats stood up and objected. Small, small victory.

Unfortunately, Byrd's career has been dotted by allegations of Ku Klux Klan involvement during the 1940's, racist comments dating from his service in WWII, and an assuredly less-than-favorable legislative record regarding civil rights. He once used the word "nigger" on Fox News. Let's face it, he's an old bastard whose day in the sun has long-since passed. But he's still there, playing the venerable old statesmen to the few Democrats still islanded about Congress, desperately seeking some legitimate link to the old establishment. The old rhetoric which he now, of course, condemns is just that: condemnatory, hateful and backward; that he could be allowed to stand before the US Senate and protest to the appointment of a black woman as Secretary of State would be a crucial mistake for the Dems. That is, if anyone noticed. Were his statements to take hold, it would be ridiculously facile for the Reds to label his protest "racist" and undeserving of a place in the legislature. Byrd did, however, seem to be cognisant of this fact; he did best to mitigate the possible Red co-opting of racism by fondly enumerating the achievements of Colin Powell, an effort that seemed immediately transparent. It was all, of course, unnecessary. But he's what we've got. Huge, huge compromise.

2005-01-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. These are a bunch of not-very-bright guys, and things got of hand. -- All The President's Men

There is an absolutely must-read article in Sunday's Washington Post, capable of bringing about the onset of a NICH (NeoCon-Induced Cerebral hemorrhage). Donald Rumsfeld has surreptitiously created his own intelligence organization, the coyly-titled Strategic Support Branch, or SSB. Having announced he was tired of being solely dependent on the CIA for intelligence gathering, the Secretary of Defense (the US could score some semantic honesty points by reverting the old Secretary of War title) cobbled together a force from existing convert groups.

Though this new organization comes as little, if any, surprise to those familiar with Rumsfeld's politics, the biggest surprise may be that THE SSB HAS ALREADY BEEN OPERATIONAL FOR TWO YEARS. The organization was created, according to the article, by artfully redirecting funds earmarked for other purposes. This could be done due to the limited supervisory powers Congress is granted over intelligence-gathering groups.

Not to seem overly reactionary, but comparisons to the Gestapo, Hermann Goering's private paramilitary police force (though later assimilated into the SS's purview under Himmler), are certainly in order. However, an explanation of why we should fear this development is self-explanatory; the concept of an armed, intelligence-gathering force created by and subject solely to a single individual outside of the supervision of Congress is a definitive link between The Administration and fascist, dictatorial states throughout the world.

Other links of note from Sunday:

London Times - Twilight of the American Empire

New York Times - Viktor Yushchenko sworn in as Ukraine's President.

Reuters - Britain urges US to develope timetable for Iraq withdrawl.

2005-01-23T15:29:00.000-05:00

An afternoon perusal of BoingBoing features German poo-protestors against Bush. It seems that these individuals (or individual) have planted 2-3,000 small flags featuring George W. Bush's face in mounds of dog feces.

2005-01-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

DUM DUM DUM DA DA DUM DA DA DUM!

Thanks to BeaucoupKevin for the image and for fixing my HTML issues with the comments a few days back. Holla!

2005-01-21T01:36:00.000-05:00

Doomsday: Zero Hour

It officially happened today, and there's nothing anyone can do about it now. I had the opportunity to go to several inauguration protests in NYC today, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Unable to stomach any more impotent rage at the state of the nation, I just caught the Uptown 6 Local home, cracked a beer and settled into the tepid bath of acceptance.

That said, I suppose it's appropriate to cut to the highlight reel.

The overarching tone of The Speech was, for anyone able to stomach it in its entirety, "freedom from tyranny" and "spreading democracy." Bush vows to "break the reign of hatred and resentment" towards the US by making human rights the primary priority. Congratulations.
The media did a bang-up job with this one, with its overwhelming preponderance of conservative pundits making Bush's utterances seem academic and polished. Meanwhile, in the real world, NeoCons on the ground were taking pot shots at animated sea life.

It's also never too early to start considering 2008. Sure-thing candidates were lacking, with Bush and Cheney both considered to be at the end of their elected political careers. Who might the Reds field in 2008? Who will the Dems send to the front? Hillary? Kerry Part II? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

2005-01-20T11:20:00.000-05:00

-DOOMSDAY-

2005-01-19T02:53:00.000-05:00

The New York Times today details the lengths to which The Administration is going to provide a secure perimeter around the Inauguration Festivities. The photo that accompanies the article shows a municipal worker welding a manhole cover shut. At what point will it dawn on The Administration that, if it weren't so unilateral, alienating, polarizing, and hate-inducing, that it might not have to be so afraid of a gunman on the Grassy Knoll? Can a group of individuals really persist with such blind self-interest in the face of an unprecedented groundswell of disdain? The answer, apparently, is "yes." It (the amorphous entity that wields power in D.C.) has even gone so far as to widen the typical no-fly zone around the capital to over 20 miles for small aircraft. It has sold bleacher seats for $125 a piece in order to fill spectator space with Bush supporters and disenfranchise protestors.

Here's a map of the area cordoned off for Inaugural festivities.

2005-01-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Condi's grilling by the Senate began today. It was live on C-SPAN earlier. Her opening statements will be replayed at 11:30 ET tonight (Tuesday) and part two begins bright and early tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET.

2005-01-17T02:03:00.000-05:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

2005-01-17T01:44:00.000-05:00

I considered a year-end retrospective of the hectic and disappointing previous 12 months, but every other blogger did that. So I didn't. Instead, ThatOtherAmerica returns from a rather lengthy holiday hiatus with a list of what to expect from the coming political year.

1. The Administration announces that its re-election is a mandate for its policies and an endorsement for its Iraq agenda.

2. The "establishment" media spins the Russian vs. US Ukraine election controversy as a harbinger of Cold War II. TOA is pretty sure The Administration likes it that way.

3. Specialist Graner, the alleged mastermind behind the Iraqi prison abuse scandal receives 10 years in an army stockade for his participation in said abuse, despite insisting he was ordered to do so and producing evidence from a US Army handbook detailing the "4 S's" of interrogation: Shout, Shove, Show (your weapon), Shoot. The accountability ends here.

4. Condi will likely get the bump to Secretary of State, replacing Colin Powell. The Administration likely expects her academic background in Cold War Policy to come in handy fairly soon.

5. Thanks to a GOP majority, the House Ethics Commission amended its voting procedure; the panel, split evenly between Democrats and Reds, must now dismiss ethics complaints if the vote is evenly divided (which they often are). The Reds may now violate with impunity, since votes are likely to continue being split down party lines. This was most likely done to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, that old perpetrator, from ethics charges he is currently facing.

As a bonus, did you know that Laura Bush (then Laura Welch) got drunk and killed a guy when she was 17? It's true! She's our First Lady! Huzzah! (thanks for info, Hope!)

2004-12-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

Law and Order star Jerry Orbach is dead today of prostate cancer. He was 69.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

2004-12-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

So, I'm working on this template. I got it from www.eshany.com and I'm still tweaking it a bit, so it may or may not look substantially different when I'm done. Of course, by "tweaking," I mean ham-handedly mucking about with the HTML in an amateurish trial and error process. There will be more bloggishness as soon as this is complete. Let me know how it turns out.

THE JOKE MAKES ITSELF

2004-12-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

RUNDOWN FOR 12.22

2004-12-22T01:01:00.000-05:00

The following are some of my favorite articles for the week.

MORAL CRUSADERS' INSATIABLE LUST FOR PORN:
In this masterful article for the Post (D.C., not NY, of course), Terry M. Neal blurs the line between the evangelical red and the coastal elite blue by demonstrating that even Mormons (which make Baptists look like Episcopalians) love their porn. Consequently, the upper tier of GOP donor companies are cashing in on trailer-dwellers' lust for smut. Here's an excerpt:

For instance, Ruport Murdoch, the controlling owner of News Corp. -- which owns both the conservative Fox News and the popular and frequently salacious Fox TV -- continues to cash in. On one hand, Fox News employs commentators who promote the connection between Republicans and family values while other divisions of the company profit from sexually explicit content.

In fact, Murdoch's Fox TV network is fighting a record-setting FCC indecency fine for an episode of the now-canceled "Married by America" (which featured whipped-cream-covered strippers at a bachelor party and digitally obscured nudity) by arguing that the government should not even be in the business of regulating decency on the public airwaves.

YOU ALWAYS HURT THE ONE YOU LOVE: Liza Featherstone's piece for the Nation details the ways Wal-Mart preys on the poor and keeps its employees poorer:

In the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, Wal-Mart's many progressive critics--not to mention its business competitors--finally enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude when the retailer had to admit to "disappointing" sales. The problem was quickly revealed: Wal-Mart hadn't been discounting aggressively enough. Without low prices, Wal-Mart just isn't Wal-Mart.
That's not a mistake the big-box behemoth is likely to make again. Wal-Mart knows its customers, and it knows how badly they need the discounts. Like Wal-Mart's workers, its customers are overwhelmingly female, and struggling to make ends meet. Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the landmark sex-discrimination case against the company, points out that Wal-Mart takes out ads in her local paper the same day the community's poorest citizens collect their welfare checks. "They are promoting themselves to low-income people," she says. "That's who they lure. They don't lure the rich.... They understand the economy of America. They know the haves and have-nots. They don't put Wal-Mart in Piedmonts. They don't put Wal-Mart in those high-end parts of the community. They plant themselves right in the middle of Poorville."
Betty Dukes is right. A 2000 study by Andrew Franklin, then an economist at the University of Connecticut, showed that Wal-Mart operated primarily in poor and working-class communities, finding, in the bone-dry language of his discipline, "a significant negative relationship between median household income and Wal-Mart's presence in the market." Although fancy retailers noted with chagrin during the 2001 recession that absolutely everybody shops at Wal-Mart--"Even people with $100,000 incomes now shop at Wal-Mart," a PR flack for one upscale mall fumed--the Bloomingdale's set is not the discounter's primary market, and probably never will be. Only 6 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers have annual family incomes of more than $100,000. A 2003 study found that 23 percent of Wal-Mart Supercenter customers live on incomes of less than $25,000 a year. More than 20 percent of Wal-Mart shoppers have no bank account, long considered a sign of dire poverty. And while almost half of Wal-Mart Supercenter customers are blue-collar workers and their families, 20 percent are unemployed or elderly.

SELLING OLD PEOPLE'S MONEY: As The Administration continues to devalue democracy and derisively mock the framers of the Constitution by using "faith and family" to scare the bejeezus out of the under-educated, it's making an end-run around Social Security policy. Here's a fun bit by Johnston and Lewis:

The first salvo was launched by the Securities Industry Association, which recently issued a research report arguing that the private accounts would not be a financial bonanza for Wall Street. In the paper, the association calculated that firms would collect at least $39 billion in fees, and perhaps considerably more, from managing such accounts over the next 75 years. But the group noted that the fees charged would be significantly below the fees that investment firms receive these days from low-cost mutual funds.

Now you have your list of things to be upset about for Christmas. Enjoy.

BUSH'S ONE FINGER VICTORY SALUTE!

2004-12-16T17:17:00.000-05:00

If you only see W flip someone off once this year, this one has to be it! (You're going to need Flash for this.)

SHORT ENTRY

2004-12-16T01:44:00.000-05:00

It's been a stressful few weeks, and it's not over until Monday. With that in mind, I've cut together a frankensteinian entry just so it doesn't appear that I've given up so soon.

Rumsfeld is the new McNamara: after the Kuwaiti debacle (that whole "You go to war with the army you have" comment, i.e. "You're not what we wanted, but you'll do for now"), Rummy's street cred has plummetted and the arrogance surrounding he and his staff is finally coming in to question. I say "finally" because anyone who didn't sleep through freshman history knows the pitfalls of a McNamara-esque conflict run by intellectuals who have never served in the military. Hell, I'm an intellectual that's never served in the military. Give me a third world country, and I'll bomb the hell out of it for shits and giggles, especially if it has a marketable natural resource. I'll deplete that fucker inside a decade. C'mon, it'll be fun.

EAST INDIA COMPANY, ANYONE? The good people at Halliburton have hired a group of Colombian mercenaries to guard their installations in Iraq, becoming the EIC of the 21st century by constructing its own private army to safeguard its method of production. The OMGWTF moment here is that Halliburton holds a slew (the unit of numerical value between "several" and "ass-ton") of (no-bid) contracts to house and feed American troops in region; our troops are, apparently, less capable of securing interests than a handful of Colombians who get paid $7,000 a year.

YOUNG TEAM: The Administration's new stable of "yes men" grows as Bush replaces those cabinet members who jumped ship before the new administration with hand-picked successors completely devoid of an opinion that runs counter to that of The Administration. Presumably modeled on the perpetually subservient Condi, these new cabinet members represent the tip of the Iceberg Red; with a GOP-ridden Congress and at least 2 Supreme Court Justices tottering over the cliff of senility and subsequent retirement, W stands to inherit a situation where he can act with total neocon impunity.

CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK? This link will take you to a blog published by a presumably young Iraqi girl witnessing the devastation of her homeland. If you haven't read Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's article (obviously entitled "Can the Subaltern Speak?"), it's a seminal work of Marxist lit crit and masterfully elucidates the nature of subalternity in the literature of the last half-century. However, if you're not an academic, you probably never will.

VANITY ENTRY: Remeber Henry Kissinger? Neither do I. I was born right at the tail-end of the Jimmy "I saw a swimming rabbit attack my fishing boat (I'm not making that up -TOA) and ruined the credibility of the Democratic Party for a whole decade by being such an ineffectual nice guy that no one respected me" Carter administration. But Henry is still with us as the Watergate years become increasingly more relevant. This is a link to an article regarding recently declassified documents about the relationship (strictly platonic) between between Secretary of State Kissinger and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

MEDIA RUNDOWN

2004-12-08T23:58:00.000-05:00

O'REILLY TO JEWISH CALLER: THE SEVEN CANDLES OF HANUKKAH AND A "PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRY."

I'VE GOT TO GET RID OF THIS LAPTOP: LOW SPERM COUNT OFTEN A RESULT OF HOT LAPTOPS.

HOUSE AD-HOC PANEL ON OHIO VOTER FRAUD: THE LACONIC JOHN CONYERS LEADS A SHOCKINGLY INFORMATIVE PANEL OF HOUSE DEMS IN QUESTION OF OHIO RIGGINNG (YOU SHOULD CATCH IT ON C-SPAN. GOD KNOWS THEY'LL REPLAY IT 200 TIMES)

BUSH FEIGNS ENVIRO-CONCERN: BLAIR SHOWS SOME HUEVOS, ATTEMPTS TO MAKE W. CARE ABOUT THE NON-RED PORTIONS OF THE PLANET.

NOT SO FAST RUMMY: CIA BLOWS WHISTLE ON FALLUJAH GLOATING

BLOGGER GETS DRUNK: GRAD SCHOOL PRESSURES MOUNT; INSANE UPSTAIRS NEIGHBOR CONTINUES POLICY OF CURSING AT TRAFFIC.

RUMSFELD APPARENTLY SLEPT THROUGH CHURCH AS A KID

2004-12-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

Kuwait - Donald Rumsfeld took substantial shelling from forces on the ground today as he was met with strong opposition from US troops deployed there. Soldiers repeatedly launched barrages of pointed questions regarding inadequate equipment and the projected duration of the "stop loss" program (the current policy of withholding the honorable discharge of troops who have completed their obligations in the armed forces and forcing them to remain active).

ThatOtherAmerica has criticized the Defense Chief for learning little from childhood church services. "Rumsfeld should have learned early on that preaching to the converted is often actually just placating them. He missed his opportunity today by instead choosing to unapologetically poo-poo the requests of soldiers (those in actual danger) for adequate equipment and fair administrative policy," TOA said in a recent interview. "He basically flipped off the congregation, told the choir to go fuck themselves and then groped the organist. He's indicating that he'll get around to their salvation sooner or later, and not to expect to see any results from their contributions to the offering plate. Basically, the Secretary of Defense has bigger fish to fry than to administrate military policy."

The Donald bawked at suggestions by soldiers that they were foraging in local landfills for scraps of metal to armor their vehicles, which lack sufficient armor to protect against roadside bombs, the primary weapon of the insurgency. More information can be found here.

LINKS; ONE FUNNY, ONE ONLY FUNNY IN THE DADA-IST SENSE

2004-12-06T01:16:00.000-05:00

I'm a busy boy these days.

Evolution fairy tale: a site devoted to mocking evolution from a creationist standpoint. Its sick, sad irony is that it treats non-creationists as the uneducated butt of the academic joke, because the fossil record was obviously put in place by the Devil (because he has nothing better to do). You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll lament the state of Western civilization.

Million4Roe: Find out the scoop on Bush's prospective Supreme Court appointees and support the doctrine of free will, all at the same time. Do your part to stop construction of the Bridge to the 18th Century (however, in a shocking display of progressiveness, they're actually pro-cotton gin). Thanks to Jess for the link.

THE REDDEST OF STATES GETS EVEN REDDER

2004-12-03T21:22:00.000-05:00

An Alabama state representative, Gerald Allen, wants to ban any all material that "recongizes or promotes homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Here's a bit of the article from the Birmingham News:

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."

"Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

"I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said.

A spokesman for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the bill censorship.

"It sounds like Nazi book burning to me," said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok.

I'll give everyone good odds on it passing. SOON. Things are just that fucked up and backward down there.

HEALTH CHIEF STEPS DOWN, SHOUTS "BOO!" ONE LAST TIME

2004-12-03T19:41:00.000-05:00

Tommy Thompson, the alliteratively-named Sec. of Health and Human Services, tendered his resignation today. Now the eighth member of Bush's cabinet to abandon a ship that's apparently sinking (if their exodus is any kind of indicator), Thompson, in a rather candid interview, excerpts of which appear in this New York Times article, gave up this gem:

"For the life of me," he said, "I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it's so easy to do."

Well goddamn, Tommy. Thanks so much for that. Presuming terrorists hadn't already thought of that, which one must almost certainly believe they have, you just gave them an open door to walk into a wheat field and spray the whole thing down with anthrax, Comet-brand cleanser, Arby's "Horsey" sauce or any other toxic substance.

The most frightening thing in the article, however, is that Newt Gingrich has expressed interest in the job. Newt, whom you may remember from his memorable role as Boss Hogg from "Dukes of Hazzard," is a sloppily overweight conservative prick who left his wife of many years upon learning that she had cancer. As Speaker of the House, Newt was known for hiding bills that he disapproved of in the cavernous crevasse underneath his palid, sweaty man-breasts. Welcome back, big guy!

BUSH ADMINISTRATION BURSTS THRU MID-EAST, SHOUTS "OH YEAHHH!" MACHO-MAN STYLE

2004-12-03T01:46:00.000-05:00

Colin Powell, perhaps the most moderate (the word works in context only) member of Bush's cabinet, was just inches from walking away from four years of political disaster with his reputation relatively intact (if one discounts that old UN gaff). That is, of course, until today. Colin announced that Iran may be manufacturing A nuclear-tipped missle. One missile. And they don't even have it yet. They're still in the r-and-d phase, we think. And the intelligence comes from an unvalidated source that no one can identify. It's not even certain. But to Colin, its good as launched. The ever-vigilant Ari Berman takes Powell to task for this in his latest entry for the Nation.

So, how may conflicts are we actively participating in or contemplating? Survey says:

1. Afghanistan - Active
2. Iraq - Active
3. Yep, still a presence in Bosnia - Active
4. Ukraine; those pesky election results - Working on it
5. Iran - Why not? We're in the neighborhood.

Libya, we're looking in your direction.

THE CREEPING RETURN OF THE THIRD REICH AND THE EQUALLY CREEPING RETURN OF THE COLD WAR

2004-12-02T02:31:00.000-05:00

As totalitarian regimes go, Nazi Germany was pretty much it. Comparable in its extermination of its native populace and the overwhelming success of its Ideological State Apparatus (god bless Althusser) only to the Stalinist USSR, and to the reign of Louis XIV in its absolute despotism, the Thousand Year Reich owns the charts in the category of totalitarianism. But, lest we forget, the Nazis rose to power only because of their mass appeal. The Treaty of Versailles pretty much raped the German economy and someone had to take the fall. Well kids, looks like artists are the new Juden.

Hell, they don't even have to be the contemporary equivalent of German Jews. The Nazis persecuted artists that didn't produce works of Aryan "realism." So, let's take this as another facet of an autocratic regime. Even if you don't buy it (which you should), it's obviously the best way to graduate to the point I'm preparing to make.

And that point is: IT HAS BEGUN. We all saw the alleged evidence of tanks in the streets at the California protest. Few of us bought it. But another, more gullible, cadre of liberals trotted out immediate, convenient and mind-numbingly obvious comparisons to Tiananmen Square. That was bullshit. This is not. Herrera's article detailing the arrest, prosecution and persecution under the auspices of the Patriot Act harkens back to a simpler time. A time of master races, "work" camps, and state-mandated art. Am I calling the current administration fascist? No. Is it on its way? Hell yeah. The NeoCons are scratching and clawing their way to a police state where every brown person is a terrorist and all those goddamn artsy-fartsy kids in Washington Sq. are dangerous dissidents hell bent on subverting the government. (As far as I can tell, most of them just smoke and listen to Broken Social Scene on their iPods.)

Also, certain NeoCons are advocating US intervention in the Ukrainian electoral process. Here's the rub: Putin backs the incumbent and the US backs the opposition. The incumbent is suspected of voter fraud and the challenger is pissed. Ukrainian citizens, outraged by allegations of a fraudulent election, have blockaded Ukraine's capitol (if only Americans were that zealous), as well as this brilliantly subtle piece of subterfuge, until a resolution can be reached. Leupp's essay, again from www.counterpunch.com, is quite telling in its analysis of the underlying post-Cold War politics in play.

The Ukraine may now become a new proxy conflict for the old heavyweights. Cold War II may be heating up as we speak and signaling a new conflict for The Administration. Which, of course, is just what we need.

Oh, and Bill O'Reilly is still a pervert. (I know everyone's heard about it by now, but it came along at a moment when I was snowed with the rigors of grad school and it does my heart good to disseminate the info) It's always those moral crusaders who get busted doing something horrid and goatish. Remember Swaggart and Baker? Add Bill to that list. He is not only aroused by the thought of Al Franken getting a KGB-style knock-on-the-door, but also by Thai sex shows and the thought of rubbing his accusers body with a falafel (which he seems to use synonymously with "loofa;" how one can confuse a delicious piece of international fare with the scrubby thing that every girl I've ever dated had hanging in her shower is beyond me). You can read the fair and balanced complaint report here.

MIND CHANGED; STUFF POSTED

2004-11-29T01:29:00.000-05:00

I know I promised you a reprieve, but after I saw this on mediamatters.org, I could no longer hold my peace. No one on this planet has the ability to raise my ire like Jerry Falwell. Shill, liar, snake-oil salesman, homophobe, misogynist, fascist, and racist are just a few of the qualifications that must appear on his lengthy C.V. He manipulates the undereducated (although those less educated than he are a rare commodity indeed) in a Nuremberg Rallies-esque fashion, preying upon the fears and misconceptions of the lowest common denominator of society, whipping them into an unwashed fervor and then offering them solutions through an ass-backward, completely non-Biblical and ultimately self-defeating brand of Christianity. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Calling NOW [National Organization for Women - TOA] the "National Order of Witches" was far from Falwell's first expression of his opposition to feminists. Falwell mobilized opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment through his organization The Moral Majority (founded in 1979 and disbanded in 1989). In 1989, Falwell stated:

I listen to feminists and all these radical gals ... These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it, and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men; that's their problem.

And shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Falwell accused feminists, gays and lesbians, and a variety of progressive groups of having "helped" make the attacks happen.

If there is a God, I will take great comfort in knowing that Jerry will spend eternity being laughed at by Him while he is unceasingly raped by the Devil. Finish the article, dammit.

POST-BREAK POST

2004-11-29T01:21:00.000-05:00

After a stressful academic week and subsequent well-deserved holiday, we're back in the saddle. I'm far too exhausted from the flight in to post today's news, but I do have some news of my own. I've added an AIM screen name for this blog. It is, you guessed it: thatotheramerica. Would it kill you to say hi sometime?

I may or may not post the official 9/11 entry soon. I'm debating. There's a ton of info, some of which may be familiar already, about the unsolved/unreleased nature of the tragedy. Items like Building 7, the Pentagon "crash," and new video analysis from the WTC disaster might appear. However, I'm wrestling with how to present this information (of which only items from reputable sources will be posted) so as not to appear as a sucker, nutjob, crack-pot, conspiracy theorist, etc. There's a lot going on that people should know about, but I don't want to come off sounding like "the Bush administration, in concert with Bigfoot, Santa Claus and Hitler's re-animated brain perpetrated the disaster in order to bolster his image blah blah blah..." However, I do have a sneaking suspicion that Lee Greenwood was behind it. Think about it: when, before 9/11, was the last time you heard "I'm Proud to be an American?" Think of the royalties that came rolling in. That kind of shit will keep you up at night.

And no, I'm not serious. Jackass.

HYPHENATED REFERENCE HELL

2004-11-21T11:11:00.000-05:00

How appropriate is it that the NeoCons start a national prick waving contest, and then the Iron Lady herself is back in the news? Oh, conservative heaven!

Yes, Margaret Thatcher flew to South Africa this week to comfort (or pistol whip) her son, Mark. Sir Mark (actually NOT an ironic epithet) is a failure in so many respects, namely bankrolling 3rd world coups. You see, if you don't recall, Mark and a few of his friends attempted to fund a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea for fun and profit. He got busted, of course. And now he faces extradition from his South African estate to the rumored-to-be-gulag-style E.Q. penal system.

[An interesting side note: even though the function of code names in covert operations is to shield one's identity, Mark's codename was SNATCHER. I was swear to god I'm not making that up.] The story of a successful, if iron-handed, conservative war-monger and their not-the-sharpest-tool-in-the-shed progeny is becoming as old as the hils.

REPAIRS MADE; METAPHORS MIXED

2004-11-18T18:50:00.000-05:00

I fixed the comments function. It was set (by default) so that only registered users could comment, but no longer. Not that anyone wants to comment, but this was brought to my attention. Anyway, expect, at the very least, a media rundown tonight.

WE NOW INHABIT A WORLD WHERE EVEN TOM HANKS GETS CENSORED

2004-11-18T01:23:00.000-05:00

In case you didn't hear, some ABC affiliates refused to air "Saving Private Ryan," that perennial tear-jerker and life-affirmer with ever-affable Tom Hanks at the helm, on Veteran's Day due to pressure from "pro-family" groups objecting to the "violent content" and obscenities contained therein. Frank Rich's piece in the Times today brilliantly presents the quagmire:

1. We are a nation at "war." War means people get shot, blown-up, bayonetted and otherwise eviscerated in a not-so-Disney sense.

2. The movie in question is, in fact, a war movie. People swear when they get shot at. We should be used to this fact by now, if Americans actually had a realistic conception of what war actually is.

However, in Bush country (I hereby personally refuse to ascribe the word "America" to that phrase), the mindless, slavering hordes of war-mongering, collection-plate-rattling red staters apparently fling their King James Versions at their big screens in revulsion when a young man looks down at a bloody stump and says "fuck."

I would therefore like, as an elaboration, to present a brief tableaux that imagines ThatOtherAmerica going to war in the Bush army.

SCENE: Rocky, sun-parched battlefield; heavy combat; cliches falling all around.

SERGEANT: Get down!

(mortar whistling)

TOA: (ducks, covers head with right hand, testicles with left)

BOMB: Boom.

TOA: (surveys missing extremities and now-external organs) HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

SERGEANT: Language, mister!

FINIS

There's also an interesting essay in the Voice chronicling the last lectures by Derrida. Hit it up.

W's ghostwriter comes clean; Cheney to dwell among the living for a few more years.

2004-11-14T11:39:00.000-05:00

Mickey Herskowitz, former sportswriter and well-respected ghostwriter to the wealthy and semi-relevant, outs W. on several key points. Herskowitz had unrestricted access to the Pres for several years while ghostwriting Bush's "autobiography," until Bushy's handlers determined his account did not portray the events of W.'s past in a postive enough light. Replaced at the helm by Communications Director Karen Hughes (WHO APPARENTLY HAD NOTHING ELSE TO DO), the "auto" biography turned out to be a work of hard-spun political pap written by another of the cabinet lapdogs, or lackeys who feed from the Bush teet, or (insert degrading subordinate-dominant metaphor here). Herskowitz quotes Bush on many troubling issues, such as his pre-election plans to invade Iraq to gain "political capital" and his belief that a "a strong leader never admits a mistake." I'll also be starting a pool on how long it takes Karl Rove to make him "disappear." It's all here.

Cheney's still alive. Maybe Revelation was wrong. Or maybe it was right. Hit it up.

LIBERAL MEDIA BLITZ

2004-11-12T01:49:00.001-05:00

Here's a rundown of some of today's stories of interest from my favorite left-wing propagandists.

150 Marines held at bay by sniper in Falluja; sniper later escapes ON A BICYCLE.
-New York Times (This link may not work. Sorry)

Rush claims that "no one ever said there was" an Iraq-9/11 connection.
-MediaMatters.org

Araffat finally dies; PLO names new chief; Middle East prepares for more hell to break loose.
-The Nation

TODAY'S FAVORITE: DECODING THE GOP LEXICON
-The Nation

That is all.

IF YOU LIVE IN A RED STATE, YOU'RE PROBABLY A FAT, STUPID, MURDEROUS KIDDIE-FIDDLER.

2004-11-11T18:51:00.000-05:00

I promise this is the last of my red state rants. Murder, divorce, and sex offense top the charts as passtimes in Bush country. Check the facts, kids. The "Bible Belt" states, those reddest of states, those moral watchdogs that keep us degenerate liberals from pillaging offering plates to cater gay weddings should be watching their own asses rather than hindering the literate minority from saving this country from the moral majority. Eat it up, bitches.

Murder Rates: Top 10 states by murders per 100,000 citizens.

Louisiana: 13
Maryland (thanks, Baltimore): 9.5
Mississippi: 9.3
Nevada: 8.8
Arizona: 7.9
Georgia: 7.6
South Carolina: 7.2
Illinois: 7.1
California: 6.8
Tennessee: 6.8

Divorce Rates: Top 5 Highest and Lowest by divorces per 1,000 people.

Lowest:
Massachusetts: 2.4
Connecticut: 2.8
New Jersey: 3.0
Rhode Island: 3.2
New York: 3.3

Highest:
Wyoming: 6.5
Tennessee: 6.6
Oklahoma: 6.7
Arkansas: 7.1
Nevada: 9.0

Forcible Rape by state (this is not a ratio; these are the actual numbers of prosecuted offenses in five of each color picked at random.)

Texas: 8,508
Florida: 6,753
Ohio: 4,809

Illinois: 4,298

Maryland: 1,370
New York: 3,885

Massachusetts: 1,777

Louisiana: 1,529
Alabama: 1,664
Maine: 377
Vermont: 126

ITEM: NATION WHIPS OFF BIBLE BELT, ADMINISTERS BEATING FOR JESUS.

2004-11-07T22:24:00.001-05:00

God bless those states that don't matter. Thank you South Dakota, Louisiana, et al., for peppering the Senate with Yosemite Sam-esque crazies who are prepared to lead our nation proudly into the 14th century. We can always count on you to give representative government the kick in the ass it needs, even though nothing relevant has happened within your borders since 1864 (sometimes longer! or never at all!). Yes, it's you Oklahoma, where the Hitler comes sweeping down the plain, that proudly gave a man who fantasizes about fictional lesbianism raging through high schools the mandate the govern at the national level.

Ari Berman briefly outlines a few of the loons, zealots, goobers and fascists elected by those states known for their high culture. Hit it up.

LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY

2004-11-05T14:59:00.000-05:00

Amendment 2, the Alabama constitutional amendment proposing a removing out-dated and racist language pertaining to school segregation managed to fail by a tiny margin on Tuesday. Huzzah for my home state. As a new New Yorker, I have become even more ashamed of the Bible Belt since its performance on 11.2, also known as BLACK TUESDAY. Jessica brought this article to my attention.

"Amendment 2 would remove language that provides for separate-but-equal schools for whites and blacks, authorizes poll taxes and specifies in a 1956 amendment that Alabamians have no constitutional right to public education.

That 1956 amendment was at the center of the opposition to Amendment 2. Critics argued that repealing the old amendment would lead to higher school taxes."

The rest of the article can be found at CNN.com. Hit it up.

IN A BIND, WAY BEHIND, AND LOOKING TO MAKE A DEAL

2004-11-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Ah, the Christian Coalition. Pat Robertson's "non-partisan (!), non-profit" organization for the dissemination of misinformation and the subjugation of minorities, women, and liberals (basically, anyone who has read a book without pictures) had its day this week. By publishing "voter guides," downloadable in glossy, full color form, they did their best to demonize the Left as baby killers, wastrels and reprobate "sodomites."

This "literature" features polarized views of the candidates, with a list of policies that each candidate either "supports" or "opposes." The policies are often worded in such a fashion so that Bush "supports" nearly every policy, while Kerry "opposes" them. Download one today! It's never too late in the eyes of the Almighty!

And feel free to make a donation! Lest we forget Ecclesiates 10:19, "wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things."

THE BIG LIST

2004-11-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

Below is a laundry list of what we can expect from Bush 2: The Sequel. I pulled it off of Ari Berman's rapid-response blog on TheNation.com. It's well worth a few minutes, so hit it up.

1. More dismantling of the New Deal, including the privatization of social security.
2. More erosion of the separation between church and state.
3. More possible preemptive invasions, as stipulated by the Bush doctrine, including--but not limited to--Iran, Syria and/or North Korea.
4. More anti-gay legislation, anchored by a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
5. More right-wing judicial activists on the courts, with Antonin Scalia replacing William Rehnquist as Supreme Court Chief Justice.
6. More environmental initiatives like "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" that are intended to achieve the exact opposite of what their names suggest.
7. More reverse-Robin Hood tax cuts increasing both the US deficit and the portfolios of the super-rich.
8. More violent raids on Falluja and Ramadi in Iraq.
9. More (many more) children left behind.
10. More media deregulation.
11. More colored terror alerts.
12. More recruiting material for Al Qaeda.
13. More freedom fries and freedom toast.

O CANADA

2004-11-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

The great white north doesn't want us, either. Hit up this link from my friend Jess for the whole story on Canadian immigration. But for those who actually mean it when they say "I'm going to Canada," ImmigrationExpert.com is handy. Thanks for the link, Jessica.

LIFT-OFF

2004-11-04T01:04:00.000-05:00

I want to begin by stating the purpose of this blog. I have created it for no other reason than to simply fall in line with the batallion of other like-minded bloggers, giving voice to the 49% that were disenfranchised on Tuesday, 11.2. This is not an exercise in self-expression or a gut reaction to the mass moral and political failings of the American people. This, hopefully, is to be a tiny instrument, the smallest of daggers, in the effort to inform and refute the conservative media blitzkrieg.

-That Other America

J'ACCUSE!

2004-11-04T00:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a link:

Sean Hannity Accuses Dems of Voter Fraud: http://mediamatters.org/items/200411020012

EXODUS

2004-11-04T00:12:00.000-05:00

The international community continues to abandon the US in Iraq, to little shock and awe among liberal sectors stateside. Rumsfeld et al. continue to alienate allies and widen the gulf between the "wills" and the "will nots." Below is an exerpt from the New York Times.

...Poland, the fourth-largest contributor, with 2,400 troops, says it intends to withdraw by the end of next year, and the Netherlands, with 1,400 troops, said this week that the latest rotation of troops would be its last contribution to Iraq.

New Zealand is withdrawing its 60 engineers and Thailand said it wanted to bring home its 450 troops. Singapore has reduced its contingent to 33, from 191; Moldova has trimmed its force to 12, from 42. On Wednesday Bulgaria's Defense Ministry said it would reduce its 483 troops to 430 next month, Reuters reported.

Read the rest of the story at www.nytimes.com, or

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/international/europe/04hungary.html?hp&ex=1099544400&en=b2bec20ae022f247&ei=5094&partner=homepage