Next In Line
Of course the U.S. Army didn't have enough guys to stop looters from robbing Bagdad of 7000 years worth of historical artifacts. While no one else was looking, they were far to busy bombing the shit out of the armed militia formed to oppose the current Iranian dictatorship, who'd taken refuge in Eastern Iraq.

Now, if the leaders of Iran are truly part of the Axis of Evil, why would the U.S. take out their strongest opposition? Some speculate that it was a pay-off to keep Iran out of our invasion of Iraq.

Didn't we learn our lesson from Iran-Contra about backdoor deals with these people?

Insider Trading
Why are the vast majority of the government contracts to rebuild a country we just destroyed without provocation being given away to companies with ties to the Bush administration without going to a public, open bid that might, at least, shield the American taxpayer from paying $30 for toothbrushes? A bunch of U.S. senators want to know, too, which is why they've introduced the "Sunshine in Iraq Reconstruction Contracting Act of 2003".

And people wonder why the world is suspicious of Bush's motives? What are they hiding? Isn't their cause righteous?

The Phantom Menace
The man pictured above is Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America. And his relevance in these proceedings will become apparent if you read it to the end.

According to this essay from The American Prospect, there are competing political traditions in the American body politic. One that is progressive, inclusive, welcoming, expansive, & supportive. The other that is provincial, exclusive, and, above all else, ambitious. Consider the notion of Manifest Destiny.

Favorite Quote: "In an administration determined to free American power from all constraint and business power from most regulation, Cheney's particular contribution has been to keep power as unchecked -- and often as unseen -- as possible."

Bulletproof
Just saw this recently on Bill Moyer's PBS show, called, oddly enough, "NOW".

So, let's see if you can keep up:
* Robert Ricker, a former lobbyist for the gun manufacturing industry, recently jumps ship and files an affidavit against his former employers in a pair of lawsuits, one brought by the NAACP, that would hold gun manufacturers libel for injuries caused in crimes committed with their guns. Ricker points out that the AFT compiles statistics on an annual basis on what percentage of guns from a given distributor are used in the commission of a crime. More often than not, trends in the data compiled by the ATF can show that the guns from very specific distributors have an abnormally high probability of being used in a crime, which probably means that said distributors are essentially legalized gun runners and should be prosecuted as such. However, the ATF is far to overstaffed to prosecute (it would be like prosecuting every liquor store that sells to minors) and has asked the gun industry to help police itself. The ATF report that outlines all this can be obtained for the nominal fee of $50. The gun makers contend that there is no way for them to determine which dealers are selling to criminals. Coincidentally, the dealers in question can comprise up to 20% of the gun industry's annual revenue. The lawsuits move forward.

* The House of Representatives passes a bill (H.R. 1036 - dubbed "The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act") that will limit the amount of money someone can get out of a gun manufacturer when they sue them after someone is hurt in a crime committed with one of their guns on April 9th of this year. It's now being considered by the Senate.

* Under the Homeland Security Act, the ATF is moved under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, headed by Attorney General and all-around NRA buddy, John Ashcroft.

* When approached by Bill Moyers to comment on the Rickers affidavit, the ATF & the Justice Department declined.

* Under orders from Attorney General Ashcroft, the ATF no longer makes it's gun sales statistics available to the public.

Bill Moyer's show has really effectively used the web, offering every conceivable link in this story to additional info. Check it out.

Reaping The Whirlwind
Smarty-pants conservatives have totally missed the point of those who, like me, continue to oppose the war in Iraq, despite it's apparent successes. Sure, the Iraqis deserve to be free, just like the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Chinese, the Palestinians, and every other group of people living under totalitarian conditions. Sure, the Baath Party should be bereft of WMDs, just like the North Koreans. But to choose to achieve both of those aims, without the support of the international community, removes the umbrella of international law and reintroduces social Darwinism on geopolitical levels, where might makes right. If you assume you're the mightiest, it's all gouda. But, for the countries who's very existence depends on the threat of global reprisals, like Taiwan, or South Korea, or Pakistan, or any number of African states, President Bush's actions have signalled to their potential oppressors that it's OK to do what they want as long as they don't get in the big American dog's way. He's effectively rolled international diplomacy back one to two hundred years, to the ages of, depending on your favorite metaphor, Kaiser Wilhelm or Napoleon, where entire nations just took what they wanted without any framework to deter them from agression as a legitimate means of conflict resolution. And, unlike the days of 1800's warfare, the technology has advanced to the point where it's no longer necessary for each of our guys to individually stab or shoot each of their guys to have war. Mass murder is now an industrialized process, capable of generating corpses with an efficiency that would make Henry Ford proud and shamed in one single posthumus breath. If they were truly interested in preventing the distribution of WMDs to terrorists, there were proposals on the table at the UN that could have backed measured inspections over time with military force. But the White House never wanted just disarmament, so of course they hampered more effective efforts at every turn, while declaring Iraq an imminent threat to America with 10 year old evidence that predates the work of previous UN inspectors. And, since liberating the Iraqi people also seems to be just a secondary justification to support the predetermined goal of open warfare, I'm left wondering what was the point of dragging humanity back into this retro-fitted, definitively more dangerous world.

But, according to this article from the Washington Monthly, apparently I've missed the point as well. The more dangerous world was not the means, but the end itself.

Don't fall asleep just because the Marines are chilling in Bagdad. Those boys aren't coming home for a long time if this article is right.

"No, I'm not a dictator. HE'S a dictator!!!"
This is beautiful.
In the ultimate, geopolitical example of the pot calling the kettle black, the Chinese government has issued a report rating the human rights record of the United States. Needless to say, it's a litany of every societal ill in this country, from overcrowded prisons to the preponderance of sexual assault to the proliferation of gun violence.
I love how George W. Bush has managed to bring out the "inner cowboy" in all the rest of the world's heads of state. The new Chinese president, Hu Jintao, might actually start thinking he's running a superpower.

Fight Night
Amiri Baraka.
On "The O'Reilly Factor."
I think this transcript speaks for itself.

Military Strategy Quote of the Day

"The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans. The next best option, he continues, "is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces. The next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field. And the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided."

- Sun Tzu, from "The Art of War"

Consider this article from the L.A. Times on the history of sieges on cities as The Coalition of the Willing begins to encircle Bagdad. It's not pretty, and not for the reasons you might expect.

Battle Hymn
According to the Austrialian Broadcast Company's news wire, an evangelical Christian organization, In Touch Ministries, has been distributing pamphlets to U.S. Marines in Iraq. The pamphlet contains instructions on how to pray for George W. Bush, and a tear-off response card that they can mail to the White House to indicate that they have been appealing to the Almighty on behalf of their commander-in-chief.
My first question, which the Aussies don't answer, is this: HOW are these things getting to the Marines on the battlefield, and who is responsible?
But, barring that, as both a Christian and a baby libertarian, I'm always very troubled by the people who want to associate religious significance to military actions. On the surface, it would seem as comical as the Holy Hand Gernade of Monty Python fame, but, it runs dangerously close to becoming the New Millenium Crusades. Then again, it's not like anyone ever needed an excuse to unleash the dogs of war. Consider Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name Of": George Bush actually has large chunks of the American people deluded into believing that our forces are killing to preserve peace.

Space Supremacy
This post combines a recurring Macroscope themes of "interstellar kewlness" and "fear of your shady government", all in one fell swoop.

Here's a very interesting article from Space.com about the plans of DARPA, the United States' Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and their mandate from Donald Rumsfeld to help extend America's air superiority up about several thousand kilometers into low Earth orbit. They're working on everything from long distance energy transmission for both industrial and offensive military purposes to drone starfighters to defend orbiting satellites.

Wisdom from the Peanut Gallery
I was patrolling Robert Ebert's section of the Chicago Sun-Times site, trying to find what in his background could have warped his sense of humor so much that he only gave Beverly Hills Cop II a single star. Imagine my surprise when I found this little essay, in which Ebert pinpoints the greatest danger to America in G.W. Bush's war strategy: Bush is thoroughly convinced that God saved his soul to do the good work of re-making Iraq into a democratic state, and that any kind of withdrawal from that course would be a sin.

Can you imagine a scenario where the war has gone badly (e.g. high U.S. casualties with no indication of an end to hostilities, plus escalating retaliatory terrorist strikes on American soil), where the country has stopped supporting the invasion, but the President refuses to heed the word of the people he says he's sworn to protect?

I can.

And it's not pretty. For anyone.

New World Water: The Sequel
According to the most optimistic estimates, 1 out of every 4 people on this planet will not have access to usable drinking water within the next 40-50 years if current trends of contamination & draconian industrialization are not reversed. With that in mind, the United Nations has declared 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater to raise awareness of the looming crisis. You see what people are willing to do over the possibility of an oil shortage. Can you imagine the blood that will be shed if the United States is forced to start rationing out water?

Impeachment: The Next Generation
You know, if I was prone to conspiracy theories, I might suspect that there might be more than a glitch involved when the ONLY post missing from my archive just happens to be the one suggesting an American regime change. But, I'm certain it's just an unfortunate mishap and that Blogger would NEVER stoop to censoring one of it's users.

So, for you're viewing pleasure, here is the whole post from March 7, reprinted for your amusement......

Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark thinks he has enough of a case to impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, AND Ashcroft.

Clark also claims to have turned water into wine in his spare time.

Of course, if the Republicans can try to undue a presidential election over a blow job, then I think "instigating World War III" could conceivably fall into the category of high crimes & misdemeanors. "What's good for the goose", etc. etc. It at least warrants a little thought.

Angry White Men
So, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is, if nothing else, confrontational. But, in today's climate, where dissent is equated with treason in the eyes of more than a few, his ability to raise a voice in opposition to this 2nd Gulf War on one of the world's biggest stages is definitely appreciated by yours truly. Here, in an op-ed piece he wrote for the L.A. Times a few days after he was booed off the Oscar stage, Moore starts out by letting us know that his own religious faith is the beginning of his outrage. Is he grandstanding? Probably. But at least he's talking.

Incidentally, Variety has indicated that Moore's next film, "Farenheit 911", will be an expose on the relationship between two powerful, aristocratic families:

The Bushes and the Bin Ladens.

Here's hoping more doesn't find himself in a freak plane accident before it's finished.

Calm Like A Bomb
Yes, Tom Morella is a musical genius with the electric guitar, but we all know who was the REAL heart and soul of Rage Against The Machine. And, while Chris Cornell & Audioslave are a heck of alot of fun, in the end, they're just dancing around the issues like so many angels tiptoeing on the head of a pin.

By contrast, Zack De La Rocha busts out a pair of steel-toed combat boots, stomps a mudhole in the issue, walks it dry, then spits on it to make it mud again before stomping some more.

Favorite Zack lyric from favorite Rage song "Ashes In The Fall":

A mass of promises
Begin to rupture
Like the pockets
Of the new world kings
Like swollen stomachs
In Appalachia
It's the priests that fuck you
As they whisper holy things


Of course, Zack is probably too mad at the world to actually take the time to finish a solo album (rumors of collaborations with Trent Reznor abound). In the meantime, he and D.J. Shadow have ALOT to say about Gulf War II on this solo track, "March of Death".

Paranoia
Courtland Milloy, an African-American columnist for the Washington Post, was milling around the Jefferson Memorial and asked some Park Service folks about some contraption stuck onto the monument. Within minutes, he was surrounded by 10 cops, demanding to see his identification. Read for more details on how quickly you can become a suspect these days.....

Sadly Ironic Quote of the Day

"The missiles are flying, gentleman. Hallelujah. Hallelujah."


-Nero-like future President of the United States Greg Stillson (played by uber-peacenik Martin Sheen) as he launches a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union in "The Dead Zone", based on the book by Stephen King, now a weekly TV series on the USA Network.

Shock and Awe
blitz·krieg ( P ) Pronunciation Key (bltskrg)
n.
A swift, sudden military offensive, usually by combined air and mobile land forces.

[German : Blitz, lightning (from Middle High German blitze, from bliczen, to flash, from Old High German blekkazzen. See bhel-1 in Indo-European Roots) + Krieg, war (from Middle High German kriec, from Old High German krg, stubbornness. See gwer-1 in Indo-European Roots).]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

This essay from Common Dreams, which draws some unnerving parallels between pre-Nazi Germany and modern America may seem exploitative on the surface. But the point is clear: wars of agression are always cloaked in the veil of imminent national security.

Hearst Would Be Proud
According to this report on Common Dreams, a progessive news outlet, the recent pro-war rallies around the country have all been organized by Clear Channel, the massive radio conglomerate. Doesn't this get dangerously close to manufacturing news?

Into the Darkness
Now that the die are cast, here's an editorial from Truthout.com, on just how bad things might get.

Remember, conservatives: this is what you wanted. Enjoy it.