WHAT BUSH WOULD HAVE DONE
Even if Saddam Had Left Within the 48 Hour Deadline

I'm on a Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting email list and I get some cool reports from time to time. Here's one I just got. It may even be up on their website for all I know, but I thought it was interesting enough to just past the whole thing on Real Art:


FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism

MEDIA ADVISORY:
Will the War Begin With a Big Lie?
Iraq will be invaded or occupied regardless of "ultimatum," report says

March 19, 2003

George W. Bush's March 17 speech has been boiled down to one blunt
statement: "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.
Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a
time of our choosing."

Headlines the next morning focused on this message: "President Tells
Hussein to Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours or Face Invasion" (Washington Post);
"Bush Gives Ultimatum to Hussein: Leave in 48 Hours or Face War" (Ft.
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel); "President Gives the Iraqi Dictator One Last
Deadline" (San Antonio Express-News).

One story, however, at the bottom of an inside page in the New York Times,
had a different message: "Allies Will Move In, Even if Saddam Hussein
Moves Out" was the headline over a page A16 story by Times military
correspondent Michael Gordon. "Even if Saddam Hussein leaves Iraq within
48 hours, as President Bush demanded, allied forces plan to move north
into Iraqi territory, American officials said today," the article began.

Gordon pointed to a little-noted line in Bush's speech: "It is not too
late for the Iraqi military to act with honor and protect your country by
permitting the peaceful entry of coalition forces to eliminate weapons of
mass destruction." While in the context of the speech, this seemed to
refer to what Bush hoped Iraqi commanders would do in the event that his
ultimatum was rejected, Gordon reports that this was actually a signal
that regardless of what Hussein chooses, the U.S. would still, in Gordon's
words, "enter Iraq to search for hidden weapons of mass destruction and
help stabilize the nation so that a new and more democratic regime could
take over."

Even if the Iraqi military were to overthrow Hussein, Gordon wrote, "a
military intervention seems very likely." He quoted Colin Powell's
statement on March 17 to the effect that "the only way for Iraq to avoid
an attack is for Mr. Hussein to leave the country and 'allow this matter
to be resolved through the peaceful entry of force.'"

In other words, there is nothing that Iraq can do to avoid invasion and
occupation; its only choice is whether or not to surrender. Why dress up
this straightforward policy with a claim that Saddam Hussein's refusal to
step down within a 48-hour deadline "will result in military conflict"?
Presumably because the White House knew that the media would find the
drama of the ultimatum irresistible, and would therefore frame the
upcoming war not as a choice that Washington was making, but as a final
test for Saddam Hussein.

Media have by and large failed to challenge this spin campaign, and
continue to frame the story as a "defiant" Saddam Hussein spurning the
last chance for peace. "Saddam Sneers Back: Hell No, I Won't Go" was the
New York Daily News' front-page headline on March 19. The cable news
channel MSNBC actually had a "DEADLINE" clock in the lower-right hand
corner of its screen at all times, ticking away the seconds until the
meaningless deadline passes.

Even the Times itself did not seem to have grasped its own
correspondent's report: "War Imminent as Hussein Rejects Ultimatum" was
the paper's lead headline (3/19/03), with an accompanying story beginning,
"The White House said today that Saddam Hussein was making his 'final
mistake' by rejecting an ultimatum ordering him to leave Iraq or face
war."

Here is a link to the original New York Times article (you will have to register if you haven't already; if it's any consolation, I don't think I get any spam for having registered myself).

UPDATE: FAIR does, in fact, have the essay on their website. But, what the hell, I'll leave it here, too.

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U.S. troops raid Afghan villages, searching for al-Qaida

"About 1,000 U.S. troops and attack helicopters swept into villages in southern Afghanistan today in a new military operation to flush out remaining al-Qaida terrorists and their allies, an Army spokesman said."

So...just how many more al-Qaida remnants are there, anyway? Click here.

Grumble, Soviet, grumble, mutter, Vietnam, grumble...

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Looming war with Iraq draws viewers to news channels

"'The people who are really fascinated by it have a place to go, which is the cable news networks,' said Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the Tyndall Report, a newsletter that tracks TV news coverage."

Last time, I spent the first three days of the bombing campaign glued to CNN. Not this time, no, thank you.

For news of current day news sheep, click here.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES: A BLAST FROM MY PAST

Some of you may remember reading my post on why I hate cops back on January 12th. For a lark, I thought I'd dig up a local news report from the time the cops invaded my home, weapons drawn, last summer. There is no mention in the report of how every apartment in the complex where I live was illegally searched (remember, the search happened at least seven hours after the shooting, and could in no way be considered "hot pursuit"), but it did say this:

"Sheriff's deputies have set up a dragnet to find the other suspect."

"Dragnet?" Well, I guess so, if it was a dragnet in my bedroom...

For a news whitewash of cop misbehavior, click here.

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AGAINST ALL ODDS, US DIPLOMACY GETS WORSE

Listening devices found at EU offices

The French newspaper Le Figaro broke the story today, saying Belgian police identified the bugs as American. The report did not say why officials believe the devices are American, and that report could not be confirmed immediately.

Well, here's one good reason why they might suspect the US:

Earlier this month, London's Observer newspaper reported the United States was spying on other U.N. Security Council delegations. The Observer said a U.S. National Security Agency memo showed the United States was monitoring the phones and e-mail of U.N. delegates in New York.

For bad spy novel, click here.

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Scalia bans broadcasters from free-speech event

The ban on broadcast media, "begs disbelief and seems to be in conflict with the award itself," C-SPAN vice president and executive producer Terry Murphy wrote in a letter last week to the City Club. "How free is speech if there are limits to its distribution?"

Well, I'd say that free speech isn't really being defiled here: however, its first amendment sibling, freedom of the press, certainly is being flipped off. I guess this is one of those rights that can be curtailed during war...

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HMMMM....

Still no "shock and awe," as my friend, Alan, generously and quickly pointed out. Earlier today, some NPR analysts were speculating that the military is trying to get Saddam to simply quit in fear and that the massive bombing campaign may not happen. This is, of course, good; thousands of lives may be saved as a result. But, as they say, we've only just begun to fight, and I fear that Saddam may try to make a real war of it this time: there is still the rot of death on the air...

However, I do pray for a quick end to the killing. I also pray that Bush comes through on rebuilding Iraq when it's all over--given that he forgot to include funding for the rebuilding of Afghanistan in his 2003 budget, I fear he may "forget" again.

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MARS COMES IN MARCH

Click here for mood.

And so it begins. After the "surgical strike" ends, some 3,000 pinpoint "guided" missles will rain fire and death down on millions of helpless Iraqi citizens in an opening salvo to "shock and awe." MOAB, the "mother of all bombs," will create explosions similar in scale to nuclear blasts. This taste of Hell will last a day. As the smoke and dust clears, the overwhelmingly powerful military of the United States, dressed in their sci-fi, high-tech, anti-chemical costumes of war will emerge spraying death and decay on helpless populations of innocent human beings: the stormtroopers of a new era will now claim their mantle of evil. Hospitals, water, and power facilities will be destroyed in order to "destroy the enemy's ability to make war." This will also destroy the enemy's ability to heal the sick, eat, and drink. Cholera, starvation, and a host of other ancient plagues will now be unleashed. By America. Thousands of refugees will die in their pathetic attempts to avoid the carnage and slaughter. Thousands more will die later, probably millions.

The death toll will easily multiply our WTC losses by at least a hundredfold.

Feel better, America?

Yeah? Just wait until our beloved troops, whom we all support, come home with a new Gulf War syndrome that the Pentagon, again, will ignore. Depleted uranium dust and exposure to toxic chemicals will, once again, sicken thousands of American soldiers who will have no idea that it is happening. These soldiers will, again, infect their families and live hellish lives as did their predecessors in the 1990s. And what happens to the minds of killers?

But it's okay because it's all for America, right?

I knew this was all inevitable, but I'm sick to my stomach right now...


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SCALIA LICKS HIS CHOPS

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday night that government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution.

Click here for outrage.

Thanks, once again, to Eschaton for the link.

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FBI PLANS TO ROUND UP THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS LIVING IN THE US

Remember the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII? Well, check this out:

Working from an initial list of some 50,000 Iraqi nationals living in the United States, the FBI has winnowed that number to about 11,000 who would be targeted for interviews in the event of a war, a senior FBI official said.

And there's also this little gem:

Although Bush administration officials do not emphasise it publicly, U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism experts are in broad agreement that a war in Iraq will dramatically increase the chances of terrorist attacks against U.S. targets.

I'll say this again: waging war on Islamic populations will cause more, not less, terrorism.

We ought to call it the "War to Cause More Terrorism."

Click here.

Link Courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe.

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YOU HEARD IT FIRST ON REAL ART

Yesterday, Tom Tommorow posted a comparison between Bush's latest call to arms and the John Gill speech from the classic Star Trek episode "Patterns of Force:" it seems that somebody over at the house of Atrios on Eschaton comments independently came up with the joke, and Mr. Tomorrow thought it was so funny that he would post it, too. Well, readers of Real Art, if you've been paying close attention, you know that I made the joke first back in January after the SOTU address. That's why I've gotten five hits in the last twenty hours or so from both Google and Yahoo searches--it seems that people are trying hard to find this hard to find teleplay on the internet. So, as a service to wayward searchers, I now retro-link to my archived blog entry.

Enjoy.

What can I say? Tom Tomorrow's funny; I'm funny...

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SPRING BREAK ENDS

Alas!

So, I'll probably be slowing down the frequency of my posts for a while. But who knows? I managed to post four times today, including this one. I'm starting to really enjoy this blogging thing...

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NOTES ON LAST FRIDAY'S ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION IN HOUSTON

*On the way to the demonstration, we passed the Chinese Consulate building. Since I first noticed it, it has always looked like an old, crumbling, Stalin-era, relic of the cold war. (Yes, I know; Stalin was a Soviet from Georgia, not Chinese. That's just how it looked to me.) Now that the Chinese Communist Party is allowing capitalists to join, the consulate seems to be getting a much needed face-lift. The revolution just ain't what it used to be, huh?

*Shortly after we got to the protest at Mecom fountain in the museum district near Montrose, a woman I met told me that Houston has a local chapter of Not in Our Name.

*The demonstrators came from all walks of Houston life. There was the usual group of tatooed, pierced types. The largest group, however, consisted of aging baby boomers, some of whom brought their children. I heard one forty-something on his cell phone, presumably to his wife: "Did you get the kids? Good." Say what you want about the mostly fabricated generation gap between Boomers and Gen X-ers, at least they're out there doing something instead of sitting on their butts watching TV, playing video games, or surfing the internet. Boomers may still be self-righteous and arrogant, but they're motivated.

*I had a two sided sign. One side said, "Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 19:19," in order to appeal to the many Christian fundamentalists in Houston; the other side said simply, "MAKE LOVE NOT WAR." A group of Islamic women in head coverings seemed to contemplate standing in the open space next to me, but thought better of it. Later, a Christian minister in a clerical collar stood next to me for a moment, but then left. I wonder if my anti-war/pro-sex message made them uncomfortable...

*A lot of the action was in the form of rush hour traffic responses. Most drivers seemed supportive, honking and flashing peace signs. Bus and cab drivers were well represented. There were, of course, butthole hawks. One patriot called me an idiot as he drove by. One guy shouted, "Get a life!" I yelled back, "Get a wife? She's right beside me!" Another guy flipped us off. I said, "Hey, no man! Two fingers! The peace symbol is two fingers!

*All in all, my peace protest experience was really pleasant. I got to meet some like-minded people, feel like I was actually doing something constructive for a change, and live a 1960s fantasy I've had since childhood. If you have any inclination at all, you should go to a demonstration, too.

Thanks to my old friend, Matt, for, years ago, directing my attention to the above linked Atlantic article.

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ANNEX THE SUDETENLAND:
Reading Between the Lines of Bush's Latest Call to Arms

Just a few notes:

For their own safety, all foreign nationals, including journalists and inspectors, should leave Iraq immediately.

So that there are fewer witness to the death and destruction.

Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast, and I have a message for them: If we must begin a military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you.

Of course, no one can really get out of the way of MOAB and "shock and awe."

As our coalition takes away their power, we will deliver the food and medicine you need.

No doubt something along the lines of the pointless food drops in Afghanistan that looked good on TV but didn't actually feed any relevant number of people at all.

We will tear down the apparatus of terror...

While building up our own...

...and we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.

Like Guatemala or Chile when were through with them.

In free Iraq there will be no more wars of aggression against your neighbors, no more poison factories, no more executions of dissidents, no more torture chambers and rape rooms.

At least, none of these awful things that are run by people not working for us.

The tyrant will soon be gone.

And replaced by a new tyrant.

The day of your liberation is near.

But in this case "liberation" means "new kind of oppression."

More:

Yet the only way to reduce the harm and duration of war is to apply the full force and might of our military, and we are prepared to do so.

What? More war equals more peace? Does he think the American public will believe anything now?

If Saddam Hussein attempts to cling to power, he will remain a deadly foe until the end.

And that's why Bush desperately hopes that Hussein actually won't leave Iraq.

In desperation, he and terrorist groups might try to conduct terrorist operations against the American people and our friends. These attacks are not inevitable. They are, however, possible. And this very fact underscores the reason we cannot live under the threat of blackmail. The terrorist threat to America and the world will be diminished the moment that Saddam Hussein is disarmed.

But everybody should just forget about the reports from the Department of State and the DoD that clearly state that waging war on Islamic populations will cause more, not less, terrorism, huh, George?

For the full swill experience, click here.

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MY OLD NEIGHBORHOOD REENACTS THE WW I PERSECUTION SCENE FROM EAST OF EDEN

But instead of persecuting a German shopkeeper, this time it's a French real estate agent.

Kingwood is among the most materialistic, superficial, deluded, elitist, drug-ridden, hateful, blind, fundamentalist, conservative places I have ever been. It is also the neighborhood where I grew up. In addition to recently breeding a thrill-seeking robbery gang of drill team girls, and whining so endlessly about its recent annexation by Houston that politicians in the Republican dominated state Legislature took pity and offered a slew of sympathy bills, Kingwood is now persecuting its French residents.

Kingwood sucks.

Kingwood desperately needs James Dean.

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MORE ON AUSTIN'S BARTON SPRINGS

The Save Our Springs Alliance website relates even more disturbing news about the water quality at the Barton Springs Pool and a discovery that may have environmental impacts on a national scale:

This in fact has been the pattern of research into pollution from urban runoff: more extensive research quite often reveals pollution much worse than expected. And Barton Springs and Barton Creek are among the most heavily studied and most vulnerable watersheds in the world. Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, the Statesman’s greatest contribution to Austin, Barton Springs, and the nation may well be in helping draw attention to the fact that urbanization is an even greater threat to our nation’s waters.

Click here.

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ONE STATE TWO PLANETS

Austin: Barton Springs

When I lived in Austin in the early and mid 1990s, real estate developers were trying to build over the aquifer that fed Barton Springs, which is considered by Austinites to be a local treasure. Many believed that the developers' plans could very easily wreck the delicate ecological balance that allows the springs to exist: a local political movement of citizens quckly arose, gained power and seats on the city council, and did battle with pro-development political forces. (Alas, recent news indicates that the efforts of Austin's green alliance may have been for naught.) Democracy, or at least a reasonable facsimile, seems to exist in Austin.

Contrast that with:

Lobbyists lead pack of donors
Poured $4 million into Harris County legislators' campaigns

"It tells you that for many politicians and candidates, it is money over principle," said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, another campaign finance advocacy group.

Plutocracy prevails in Houston. That's where our president's daddy lives...

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HE WHO HUNTS THE DRAGON BECOMES THE DRAGON

"Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information...it is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control...and so one wonders why it is still practiced. The only possible reason must be...pleasure."

Captain Picard from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation

"Al Qaeda captives held at overseas CIA interrogation centers, which are completely off-limits to reporters, lawyers and outside agencies, are routinely "softened up"--that is, beaten--by US Army Special Forces before interrogation, as well as thrown against walls, hooded, deprived of sleep, bombarded with light and bound in painful positions with duct tape. "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," one official said"

And it's a whole lot worse than that. The Nation reports on how America ratchets Harry Callahan's Dilemma (see my post on Thursday) up a few more notches. This is pretty disturbing. This is not America, at least not the one that I know. Click here.

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The evolution of punishment explained

Modern hunter-gatherer societies, which are assumed to be similar to those of early man, have a maximum size of 150-180 people. Without punishment, the computer simulations suggest that co-operation would have died out in groups of this size.

It is interesting to note that, in terms of this article, public schools are still operating at a pre-civilization level. But I already knew that.

Thanks, once again, to J. Orlin Grabbe.

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HYSTERICAL REDNECKS FORCE COUNTRY SINGER TO RETRACT ANTI-WAR REMARKS

Dixie Chicks Learn the Truth About Southern Hospitality

"There were a few radio stations (around the country) that immediately went out and banned them," said Michael Cruise, program director for KKBQ and KTHT (97.1 FM). "We didn't want to be hasty. We knew how the wind was going to blow, because you know how patriotic Texans and country music listeners are. We decided the fair thing to do was to put a Web poll up and ask our listeners, and whatever you guys decide, we'll abide by. "We ended the poll at 2:30 p.m. today. It was 72 percent in favor of dumping the Chicks from the playlist."

Of course, anybody reading Eschaton on Thursday already knows that KKBQ was tampering with the poll in order to get the results it wanted...

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SPOCK WITH A BEARD

"Mirror matter is not anti-matter, it is altogether weirder. It is somehow a "reflection" of normal matter, a sort of parallel series of particles required to restore the balance of the Universe."

I'm beginning to miss the Einsteinian universe. It seems like there's some new rub or take on either the nature of the universe or the nature of physics every six or seven months now. Okay, fine. Not anti-matter. Mirror matter it is, then.

HOLLYWOOD'S WORST SEQUEL YET: THE BLACKLIST

Godless homosexual communist actors and directors scare the crap out of Oscar TV executives.

"Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Vanessa Redgrave, George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman and Spike Lee...Sarandon and Robbins are also among those on this year’s unofficial blacklist, along with Ed Norton and Dennis Hopper...Top of the loose-cannon list this year is the Bowling for Columbine director, Michael Moore, a favourite to win the documentary feature award."

For retro cold war fun that's happing again, click here.

Links nabbed from J. Orlin Grabbe.

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BLOOM COUNTY RETURNS?

It's kind of hard to tell if Breathed is actually going to be doing new strips; they may just be making old stuff available online. But then, alas, it is "morning in America" once again, so perhaps we will get to see new adventures of Opus and company. But it's gonna cost...

Thanks to retroCrush for the link.

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THE US PRESS SUCKS, SO LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT THE UK PRESS

From Saturday's world section of the Independent:

Top US military planner fears a 'likely' repeat of Somalia bloodbath.

"Colonel Turner outlined a worst-case scenario: 'Within hours of our attack, Saddam launches Scuds on Israel. Israel's government launches a full-scale attack on Iraq, creating a holy war. Saddam, threatened with his own survival, uses chemical and biological weapons and human shields. He torches his own oil fields, thousands of his own people are killed. Photos of US soldiers amid landscapes of Iraqi civilian bodies blanket the world press which aligns unanimously against the US.'"

They'll call the movie Apocalypse Now. Wait, that's already been used...

Secret US report scorns Bush policy, attacks Middle East policy

"The intelligence source who leaked the document concluded: 'This idea that you're going to transform the Middle East and fundamentally alter its trajectory is not credible.'"

Well, DUH!

US preparing to abandon UN and launch war within a week

"At the same time, Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said President George Bush would allow Britain to keep trying a bit longer, perhaps until Monday."

Yes, the United States now "allows" the UK to play its fun little UN game. We're too old for that stuff, though. The US is run by grownups...(punchline provided by Eschaton)

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

Here is a cool list of police corruption links. Enjoy.

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DEATH TO THE CONSERVATIVE ENABLING DEMOCRATS!

Tom Tomorrow puts it so well that I'll just paste it on to Real Art:

"Short story: "partial birth abortion" is a canard, a wedge issue, a way for the anti-abortion crowd to inch closer to their objective through stealth rather than honest debate. It's the equivalent of marijuana legalization advocates who also happen to be really, really enthused about the many practical applications of hemp fiber in everyday life.

And they just won an important victory. The vote was 64-33, with 3 abstaining. Which means that it was the 16 Senate Democrats who voted "yes" who put this thing over the top.

For what it's worth, they were:

Bayh (D-IN)
Breaux (D-LA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Daschle (D-SD)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Hollings (D-SC)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Miller (D-GA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reid (D-NV)

Thanks, Democrats!"

Mr. Tomorrow then goes on to list Democratic Senators who voted for the war. Check it out. This should put to rest any moronic accusations that somehow Ralph Nader got us into this mess. Democrats and Republicans are destroying this country without any help at all.

ALSO, Mr. Tomorrow has a link to a blogger who clearly articulates some of the workings of the thirty year conservative rise to power by analyzing a little known Lewis Powell memo from 1971 and more (I'm still a bit dim on linking to blog entries--you may have to scroll down to the February 25th entry called "Some History of the Conservative Movement"). I'm happy to note, that Real Art has hit upon a very similar topic back on February 16th.

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STEAL THE SECRET PLANS

"On July 11, 2001...it was stated by the (US officials) that the United States planned to launch military strikes against Afghanistan in October of that year. The purpose of these strikes was to topple the Afghanistan government and the Taliban in order to replace it with a government 'more sensitive to the needs of American oil interests.'"

"On August 20, the Government of France, through the American Embassy in Paris and their Embassy in Washington, issued a more specific warning. This warning specified the exact date, time and places of the attacks."

"These investigations disclosed in late May of 2001 that an attack was to be made against certain specified targets in the American cities of Washington and New York. But it was apparent that the Mossad was not only fully aware of these attacks well in advance but actually, through their own agents inside these Arab groups, assisted in the planning and the eventual execution of the attacks."

"The terrorist attacks on American targets were fully known to many entities well in advance. The US President was fully informed as to the nature and exact time of these attacks."

These quotes are supposedly from some German intelligence document regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This could be a fake; I'm hesitant to believe such a thing. But the document's line of thinking seems reasonable. I certainly wouldn't put it past King George II and his advisers. Anyway, read at your own risk.

Link courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

Undercover cops monitoring peace protesters, documents show

"In a two-page message he sent to Capt. Paul Chignell, Crenshaw described 'First Amendment activities' as a 'guise' used by some radical groups to 'conduct their contemptuous acts against corporate and government structures.'"

Back to San Francisco. Link taken from J. Orlin Grabbe.

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THE COOLEST TOYS EVER

If you don't enjoy this list of cool old toys aimed at baboomgenxers, you're a freak.

(You see, I made up the word "baboomgenxer." Bah boom JINX ur. It kind of combines "baby boomer" with "generation x-er" and makes just one huge pop culturally homogenous demographic...'cause, you see, what with decades of television series reruns and movie reruns, the establishment of the classic rock cannon, and the continual recycling of styles and fashions, everybody born from around 1950 to around 1988 has roughly the same pop cultural experiences...and...it's a very clever word...and...ah, just go look at the old toys...)

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DOONESBURY

Gary Trudeau is giving some mainstream exposure to a conservative economic idea that I wrote about on January 6th. Cool.

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STILL MORE BS OUT OF TEXAS

Remember my post on Dick Cheney from Monday? No? Well scroll down to the post, check it out, and scroll back up. Now, here's the follow up: in addition to getting a sweetheart deal for post-war Iraq, Halliburton still has the vice president on the payroll! Of course, they all say that the arrangement is such that there could be no conflict of interest. So I guess that the sweetheart deal just ended up that way. Kind of like how Wendy Gramm just ended up on Enron's board of directors.

Link courtesy of Tom Tomorrow.

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HARRY CALLAHAN'S DILEMMA: Why the "War on Terrorism" Will Damn America's Soul

Dirty Harry was one of the first cultural artifacts in what would eventually be an enormous mass media backlash against the progressive gains of the 1960s. Harry Callahan is San Francisco's avenging stormtrooper, brutally violating civil rights while his audience can't help but cheer him on; in fact, to the manipulative credit of the makers of the film, and Clint Eastwood's charisma, it is quite difficult for film viewers to resist his fascist allure. By the film's end, Harry asks Scorpio if he feels lucky: the narrative is such that audiences almost beg the psychotic killer to reach for his gun. When he does and Harry blows him away, we are satisfied. Dirty Harry helped to give an emotionally powerful mythology to Nixon's "War on Crime" rhetoric--it is no accident, I think, that the film is set right smack dab in the middle of one of the USA's most liberal cities.

(To be fair, the film is, in fact, more sophisticated than I am saying, with some subtle nuances that play against Harry's violent contempt for civil rights--in fact, to this day, Eastwood denies that the film promotes fascism; he says it's "anti-authortarian." For the most part, however, the message that the film strongly pushes is clearly a mandate for cops to gleefully violate the Constitution while apprehending crooks.)

However, Dirty Harry's sequel, Magnum Force, throws a wild card into Callahan's ideology. Harry is confronted with the dark and distorted logical conclusion to the argument that he makes in the first film. A secret quartet of crack-shot rookie traffic cops conspiring with Harry's superior, Leiutenant Briggs (Hal Holbrook), acts as an anti-Mafia death squad, dramatically decreasing organized crime in San Francisco. Harry is appalled--these new guys go too far. Harry, of course, deals with the situation in typical form and, of course, his murderous ways are entirely satisfying on an emotional film-viewing level. This is, however, simply a deus ex machina, a plot device that resolves the movie's story but not its themes. Magnum Force asks an enormous moral question that inconspicuously goes unanswered.

This, then, is Harry Callahan's dilemma: at what point does the ruthless efficiency of violence and murder become unacceptable?

This is also America's dilemma. Terrorism (as defined by Bush, rather than being inclusive of state-sponsored terrorism, which actually makes for a better definition) is used by desperate people who have a massive grievance against an institution or a state, but do not have an army with which to make war. The United States cannot possibly wage "War on Terrorism" because, by definition, terrorists have no military with which to fight. Blasting civilian populations in the Islamic world will not end terrorism. It will, however, inspire even more terrorism in retaliation for very real injuries inflicted by the United States. The State Department and the Department of Defense agree: it's called "blowback."

How will the American warmongering establishment react when it becomes clear that its military adventures have been utterly ineffective? My best guess is that they will do what the death squad in Magnum Force did: turn up the heat. So, too, will the forces of Islamic terrorism. And, then, so will the US. And so will they. And so will we.

Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (who Bush called "a man of peace") is already an expert on this dynamic.

The dark and distorted logical conclusion to this line of thinking can be seen in the history books. The Nazis, in retaliation for "terrorism" or partisan resistance, massacred entire villages. American soldiers slaughtered the elderly, women, and children at My Lai and hundreds of other villages during the Vietnam War. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet ruthlessly eliminated his political opposition at the National Stadium in Chile. Salvadoran right-wing para-military soldiers murdered liberation theologist and Cathloc Archbishop, Oscar Romero, while he said mass. It has already begun anew in Afghanistan.

(It is important to note that, except for the Nazis, from whom our military learned, all of the above mentioned examples involve the US government in some way).

This is our future if we continue along these lines: the US will continually escalate its own violence and killing; all the while, terrorism will escalate. Our future will be less like Dirty Harry and more like Mad Max or Brazil. This is the end of morality for our people. The very soul of America will turn from its traditional tarnish to a deep, dark, wretched rot. I know that President Bush, as a fundamentalist Christian, believes in Hell. I wonder if he ever fears going there.

some research also done at ClintEastwood.net

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WOODY ALLEN: JAZZMAN

"For more than three decades, filmmaker Woody Allen has been playing jazz clarinet on Monday nights in intimate Manhattan settings. He spent 25 years performing weekly at Michael's Pub, famously missing the 1978 Oscar ceremony. While Annie Hall was winning multiple trophies, he was back East doing his regular Monday night gig at Michael's."

This is a pretty good article that does a nice job making connections between the artistic impulses behind both music and film.

Click here.

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WHO GUITARIST CLEARED OF PEDOPHILIA ALLEGATIONS

Thank god. I really didn't want to believe it was true, anyway. I mean, Pete's no Michael Jackson: we all know that he likes "Rough Boys" but I'm pretty sure that he meant grown up guys in leather jackets at seedy pubs...

Click here.

"And the morals that they worship will be gone."

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CONFLICTING REPORTS ABOUT THE CAPTURE OF BIN LADEN

He may already be in custody but the US isn't about to admit it. Here's Houston Chronicle coverage, and here's Yahoo coverage provided by Eschaton. Here's my own take which I just wrote about on Eschaton comments: I'll paste it here.

"I think that I can offer some small bit of corroboration here. Last weekend late at night I saw a cable news channel "breaking news" spot (I forget which network) that said something to the effect that bin Laden had been cornered in Pakistan, a shootout was in progress, and more details would be forthcoming. During the voiceover, they showed video of a suburban neighborhood with soldiers running around.

At first I thought, "what the hell?" But when I heard nothing more about it, I just figured that they were rehashing the capture of that Ron Jeremy guy and that I had misunderstood.

Now I'm thinking that I heard it correctly. Perhaps a late night producer ran the story trying to get a huge scoop over rivals and his bosses then killed the story at the request of the Pentagon.

That kind of thing has happened before..."

Did anyone else see this report? Has anyone run across it on the internet?

My life is more and more like the Matrix every day.

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AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones considers the coming war.

"And yet it worries me that Mr. Bush says that one of the reasons he wants to kill a lot of Iraqis is because Saddam Hussein has also been killing them. Is there some sort of rivalry here?"

Click here. Link culled from Eschaton comments.


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RON'S SOAPBOX

I now present a rousingly riotous new rivet in the superstructure of REAL ART: permanent links! Yes, that's right. After futzing around for seemingly several hours, I have doped out enough of the screamingly simple, yet tantalizingly tedious HTML code to provide you, true believer ("true believer"? Where the hell did that come from?), peril free pathways to your pondering penman's most prized places on the World Wide Web. (What's with all the alliteration?)

(What's happening to me?)

Excelsior!

makeminemarvelmakeminemarvelmakeminemarvel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE

CBS is now reporting that there is a good chance that the UK may be dropping out of Bush's mercenary army.

Link via Eschaton.

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A POINT OF LIGHT IN THE CONSERVATIVE WASTELAND

And I don't mean one of those thousand points of light. Who says Houston is all conservative? Well, I usually do, but not today:

Peace activists, newlyweds gather at Mecom Fountain. I think I'm going to try to join in this Friday.

Also

Bhopal protesters block access to Dow plant. Remember the Union Carbide distaster in Bhopal, India? No? Click here. Now, it's Dow's problem since they bought UC: welcome to Houston, Greenpeace activists! (Okay, I know that Greenpeace has actually been in Houston for years, but they haven't been so noisy, lately.)

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DUMBASS BUTTHOLE AGGIE FRAT BOY GETS HIS COMEUPPANCE

Sometimes there really is justice. And now he has to go to Blinn College. Hahaha. Click here.

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WE ALREADY KNOW THAT MOST US CONGRESSMEN ARE EXTRAORDINARILY STUPID, BUT...

'Freedom fries' go on House restaurant menus

The French Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment, except to say that french fries actually come from Belgium.

And the 9/11 terrorists all came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but that didn't stop us from invading Afghanistan. Silly Congressmen.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES: Who Watches the Watchmen?

More cop rape, this time in Miami. The trigger-happy Philadelphia police force is also getting in on some rape, too (note how the article says that this is only the most recent accusation). Finally, while it's not exactly about cop misconduct, it is worth noting that famed Harvard Law School professor and civil rights advocate Alan Dershowitz is now also an advocate of torture. That is to say, one of the most articulate spokesmen of the last two decades against police brutality, corruption, and misconduct has gone to the other side. With civil rights friends like these, who needs enemies?

Thanks once again to J. Orlin Grabbe for the link.

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A REALLY GOOD ARGUMENT FOR PACIFISM

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001, I waffled for about a week on whether to support US military action in Afghanistan. Then I read this Howard Zinn essay. That's the moment when I became a pacifist.

War is immoral.

War is fought by regular people against regular people for the benefit of a wealthy elite who are barely even inconvenienced by it all. The rich get richer; the people pay the price. As long as war is waged to fatten the pockets of the wealthy (as has almost always been the case), there can be no such thing as a "just" war. All the pro-war political rhetoric is just bullshit designed to rouse the population to do what an informed, rational person would think insane: kill innocent human beings for the profit of our masters.

Still don't buy it? Read this email sent to Tom Tommorow from the proud father of a US marine who has shipped off to kill Iraqis in order to enrich the American wealthy elite. Sounds like he's proud of his son but not proud of what he's been ordered to do...

UPDATE

Unfortunately, the direct link to the above mentioned email isn't working at the moment, so if you want to read it, just go to Tom Tommorow's page and scroll down to the post for 1:28 PM, March 10.

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SPRING BREAK

If anybody's wondering, the reason I'm posting more these last few days is that I'm on spring break. In addition to health insurance, steady pay, and retirement benefits, the many days of vacation are one of the really nice aspects of being a teacher. It almost makes up for being a lacky-stooge to the authoritarian indoctrination force more commonly known as "public education." Almost.

(God, sometimes I really do feel like an indoor cossack.)

Woohoo! Party down! It's spring break!

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MORE CONSERVATIVE BULLSHIT OUT OF MY HOMETOWN

Veep Cheney's buddies at Halliburton are getting a sweetheart deal to assist in the raping of Iraq after the war. Does this sort thing even surprise anyone anymore? Not about oil, indeed...

Thanks to Tom Tomorrow for the link.

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THE SEARCH ENGINES ARE FINALLY NOTICING ME!

And seemingly the search topic that makes Real Art pop up on both Yahoo and Google searches is Janeane Garofalo. I think people are trying to read the transcript for her March 7th appearance on CNN's Crossfire. Of course, Eschaton has already linked to it.

Now, just to be helpful to wayward internet searchers (anybody that knows me knows how I just loooove being helpful to strangers...), I will also link to the said transcript.

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TRAILER TRASH

Lack of seniority lands Texas senator a trailer-office.

I hope he has to use a porta-can, too.

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MOLLY IVINS

Molly Ivins coins a new name for the US after Bush finishes remaking it in his image: Greater Texas. Plus: funny remarks about governor Rick Perry's beautiful hair.

How I miss her columns in the Austin American-Statesman! Do they still run them? I haven't really kept track since I left Austin in 1996. I suppose I should just check the A A-S website...

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PERFORMING ARTISTS CONTINUE TO GET TOUGH WITH THE MAN

Houston Symphony musicians go on strike over the amount of pay cuts they will endure. Meanwhile, the neon lights are not bright on Broadway as the musician/actor/technician strike continues.

Right on, brothers!

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MACROECONOMICS 101
Or
How Bush is destroying the United States

The Bush administration's out of control military spending coupled with its absurdly massive tax cuts is pushing the federal budget deficit to nearly $2 trillion dollars. A "budget deficit" refers to the yearly difference between money collected by the federal government and the money it spends (not to be confused with the federal debt which refers to the cumulative total of those yearly deficits plus interest).

Why is this bad? Don't lots of individuals and businesses carry debt for years and years in order to buy things they wouldn't ordinarily be able to buy and then eventually pay it off, no worse for the wear?

Yes, but individuals and business aren't as big as the federal government. That is to say, you have to readjust your thinking about the sense of economic scale when considering the federal budget. As the conservatives are continually reminding us, the government is big. Perhaps this puts it into perspective: Douglas Adams's fictional reference book, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," says of the universe, "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space..." So, too, with the federal government and it's collection and spending of money. If I and millions of other individuals are in debt, the overall economy is relatively unaffected (although I could see a scenario where personal debt gets really out of hand...), and one could argue that profits gained by lenders offset the effects of personal debt at the macroeconomic level. But the movement of federal money is so vast that it can easily be viewed as a significant percentage and, therefore, a major influencer of the national economy itself.

That is to say, when federal deficits rise above a certain dollar threshold relative to the Gross Domestic Product (or simply, the economy) bad things happen.

The feds can deal with a lack of money in several ways. They can raise taxes (always unpopular and in the current political climate, not likely). They can just print new money (which causes inflation and makes the economy even worse). Or they can borrow it: this has been the standard solution for funding government operations and programs during deficits for at least a couple of decades, probably longer. But the big problem is that when the feds borrow, they borrow on the enormous scale mentioned above. This essentially squeezes the overall supply of American money. That means much less money for American businesses to stay afloat during lean times or to expand during good times, much less money to finance personal car purchases, home purchases, home improvement, and college educations. The higher the federal budget deficit, the slower the US economy moves.

Simply put, huge federal deficits are a really, really bad idea.

Couple Bush's retarded economics with the effects of war jitters on the price of oil and the overall economy itself, along with the effects of the recent wave of corporate scandals and we have a recipe for a recession the likes of which have not been seen since the 1930s. Bush is this era's Herbert Hoover as Nero: he is playing with his toy soldiers while the nation burns. In fact, he's playing with matches and gasoline as the nation burns.

All of which really burns me up.

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VANS, ABORTION CLINICS, HIT LISTS AND BEIRUT

I want to take a quick moment to make it clear that a van driving into a Planned Parenthood office must be considered to be an act of terrorism even though nobody was hurt. Abortion providers and their staffs live in a constant state of seige and fear. The longtime judicial injunction against mass Operation Rescue style protests and clinic blockades have eased the anxiety a bit but that injunction has recently been lifted by the Republican dominated Supreme Court (this by itself may have encouraged this van guy). Furthermore, during the time of the injunction, clinic bombings and murders have continued virtually unabated. I hope that everyone knows of the "hit list" on a website called the "Nuremberg Files" that compares abortion clinics to Nazi concentration camps: despite the denials of the people who run the site, the list is clearly a call to kill abortion providers; they cross off the names of doctors that have been murdered by the site's readers. Yesterday's van attack takes place within this context. The attack also invokes the ghost of the Beirut truck bomb attack that killed sixty three Americans in 1983. Clearly, Frank Lafayette Bird Jr.'s very loud unspoken message was something like, "We've got you in our sniper scope; we used blanks this time, but we can kill you and your patients any time we want. Be afraid."

Bird's "protest" was, without a doubt, designed to create fear and anxiety on the part of clinic staff and would be patients. Perhaps next time, Bird will have his van full of explosives.

These psycho-fundamentalist acts of intimidation and violence are having an effect, too (I mean, apart from the violence itself). Many doctors and nurses, fearing for their lives, are getting out of the business. The ultimate effect is that it is increasingly difficult for women to find doctors willing to perform abortions. Where politics have failed, from the point of view of pro-lifers, terrorism has succeeded.

Driving vans into abortion clinics is not a "protest;" it is terrorism, pure and simple. KHOU is wildly irresponsible in euphemizing this.

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KHOU TERRORIST AS "PROTESTER" STREAMING VIDEO

How long before we start to see "peace protester" changed to "terrorist"? It's not so strange to think. It's already been done successfully with environmental activists and anti-globalism protesters.

Anyway, the link actually comes from the KHOU story page linked below. The graphic in question on the background screen at the beginning of the segment says, "protester arrested." Then, after a quick shot of a map graphic, a full screen title graphic says, "Planned Parenthood Protest." My point here is that driving a car into a building cannot reasonably be said to be simply a protest. Not that I expect anyone to disbelieve my wild claims of conservative bias in the media.

It's just, you know, content for my website and all...

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I'M TOO TIRED TO THINK so here's a couple of links...

First, New York actors are going on a solidarity strike to support musicians who are being threatened by...automation?!?!? The sad reality is that actors and musicians are ultimately so much meat; when working professionally, they have almost no control over what they produce--that's why artists' unions are so overwhelmingly important: at least creative workers can collectively demand fair wages, benefits, and working conditions. Frankly, I think that performing artists should seize the means of production and run everything themselves. Jeez, such a revolution couldn't possibly in a billion years make Hollywood or Broadway any worse...

Next, and here in Houston, an anti-abortion terrorist drives a van into a Planned Parenthood office. I've been in that Planned Parenthood lobby. I've given out their business cards on the sly here and there to some of my high school students. I know that worse has happened to other abortion services in other parts of the country, but this really pisses me off and really scares me; this hits me literally where I live. Furthermore, I've noticed that the Houston Chronicle has, as of this writing, pulled the story from it's own front link page--this is really unusual because they typically keep story links up for 24 hours. So, read about it here or on Eschaton, where I got this link, because you won't find it anywhere else on the Chronicle site. Also the local news show on KHOU, the CBS affiliate, used a video graphic that referred to this anti-choice act of terrorism as an "abortion protest."

God damned mother fuckers.

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UPDATE

I'm not going to link to the KHOU page because they have an annoying registration process, but I have lifted a photo caption quote for you to read:

An abortion protester allegedly drove a van into the Planned Parenthood clinic on Fannin.

Abortion "protester?" "Protester?" "PROTESTER?!?" PROTESTERS DON'T DRIVE VANS INTO BUILDINGS!!!!!

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ANOTHER UPDATE

Okay, here's a link to the KHOU story on their web site. The above mentioned photo caption is not there because it was on their main link page and now even that has been pulled...what's going on here? Brave the registration process if you dare!

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OKAY, I PROMISE THIS IS THE LAST UPDATE

I found the terrorist story on the Chronicle site, but it was buried under a secondary (metro and state) link for some reason. Some nefarious reason? You decide...

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

The Houston Chronicle just keeps sending these things my way. First, the time sheet cop scam mentioned below nets a constable conviction. Second, hard numerical data now proves what African-American Houstonians already know: the Houston Police Department engages in racial profiling.

At the rate these stories are being reported, I'm sure I'll have more soon.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES A Special All Texas Post!

Cop in Harris County rips off taxpayers in a time sheet scam.

Houston PD crime lab is in worse shape than the FBI's and the LAPD's during the O.J. investigation.

Cop rape ring in a town near San Antonio is sued.

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LINKS FOR TUESDAY

Famous professional evil clown, Bill O'Reilly is at it again and Counterpunch's Kurt Nimmo meditates on both him and the new McCarthyism. But, wait! In a strange twist of events, Fox's pixie bastard suddenly decides that his most recent round of denunciations maybe just went a wee bit too far. Eschaton provides the details.

Over at Capitol Hill Blue, lawyer and author Steven Brill gives a detailed, easy to read account of how US Attorney General and Christian fundamentalist John Ashcroft rammed the draconian Patriot Act down Congress's throat.

So you still think Cowboy Bush is trying to catch terrorists in Iraq? Or trying to disarm Saddam Hussein? Well, you're dead wrong. The coming war is quite consciously about oil and US world dominance, and the plan to do it goes back thirty years! Democracy Now fills us in by streaming audio. Still a doubter? Read this.

Finally, here's a bit of samba streaming midi in honor of Carnival.

Some of these links lifted from J. Orlin Grabbe.

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THE CONTEXT FOR TRULY UNDERSTANDING THE USA IN 2003 PART II

OR How To Read Between the Lines of the Corporate News, Public Education, and Politics

OR The Story So Far…

“This recommendation (the call for a constitutional convention) was cautiously worded, for Hamilton did not want to raise any unnecessary alarm. He doubtless believed that a complete revolution in the old system was desirable, but he knew that, in the existing state of popular temper, it was not expedient to announce his complete program.”

“Mr. Madison warned the convention that in framing a system which they wished to last for ages they must not lose sight of the changes which the ages would produce in the forms and distribution of property. In advocating a long term in order to give independence and firmness to the Senate, he described these impending changes: "An increase in the population will of necessity increase the proportion of those who will labor under all the hardships of life and secretly sigh for a more equitable distribution of its blessings. These may in time outnumber those who are placed above the feelings of indigence. According to the equal laws of suffrage, the power will slide into the hands of the former.”

From Charles Beard’s "Framing the Constitution."

A Quick Intro

After ruminating on my earlier plug for Howard Zinn’s “People’s History,” I thought that it might be helpful to try to write a really condensed overview of my understanding of US political history—this is the context in which almost all of my writings should be understood. By and large, I must both credit and suggest not only Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and James Loewen, who deal specifically with history, but also others that I’ve read who deal with deconstructive analysis of other topics such as Susan Faludi, Eric Schlosser, Greg Palast, and others.

Before I go any further, I must point out an assumption that I’m making here: class exists in the United States. Whether you buy this assumption or not (and you’re a fool if you don’t), one thing is undeniable. Most Americans die in approximately the same income bracket and social circumstances into which they were born. A relative few move up, even fewer move down; it is clear, however, that the percentage of Americans who actually somehow change their economic circumstances is so small as to make the observation irrelevant. There is effectively no upward mobility in the US. The “American Dream” is, quite simply, a myth that aids the powerful and oppresses the powerless.

The Overview

The really interesting thing about this so-called revisionist version of history is that it is not particularly sophisticated or difficult to understand. In fact, it makes much more sense than the officially recognized version—it is a story of people trying to do what they perceive to be in their best interests rather than the preferred mythological tales of the weird, altruistic, justice-oriented, super philosophy-heroes that founded the land of freedom against all odds. It’s not even really all that “revisionist;” most of the facts jibe with what we were all taught in high school (for the most part, anyway). The major differences are deciding which facts are the most important and determining what those facts mean.

Here it is:

In the 1780s, wealthy American merchants, bankers, and landowners managed to co-opt and then manage both the rhetoric and political energy of the young nation’s popular revolutionary fervor. In fact, the entire American revolution and establishment of national government can be seen in terms of one plutocracy that dishonestly presented itself as being “of the people” replacing another plutocracy that honestly presented itself as the elite.

All American governments, from federal down to municipal, ultimately reflected the collective will of the new wealthy establishment. By and large, therefore, the role of government in the United States came to be about protecting the property and business interests of the elite while moderating disagreements and conflict between wealthy factions. These functions were (and still are) cloaked in the language of “the people” but usually had more to do with restricting freedom and democracy to the benefit of the wealthy rather than protecting and enhancing such concepts. The founding fathers really were brilliant, just not in the way that we were taught.

“Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.” Thank you, Pete Townshend, for planting the seeds of understanding…

Charles Beard’s “Framing the Constitution” was, I think, the first time that this was understood to be true. It took nearly 125 years for the power of American national myth to be seriously questioned by a respectable scholar. Of course, by then it was too late to even matter. The rule of wealth was already strongly entrenched in the American character—to question the conventional understanding was to piss off not only the powerful, but also the oppressed who had made a strong identity investment in the national myths of democracy and justice.

Now this is not to say that there is not some truth to these powerful national myths. One must admit that the economic and social situation has greatly improved for most rank-and-file Americans since 1776. In every case of social improvement, however, the ruling elite has only cooperated such that the system would not disintegrate. That is to say, greater economic privileges, more civil rights, and fairer political representation have only been achieved by MASSIVE outpourings of popular dissent. The only time that justice is truly done in the United States is when the plutocracy feels very, very threatened—even then, the elitists are generally able to take credit for the political changes, once again wrapping themselves in the pseudo-ideology of American freedom and democracy. In the American political system of managing and directing popular dissent, defeat becomes success.

In summary, this is not the America that you thought it was. This is not a democracy; we are ruled by the wealthy, despite all appearances. This is how it has always been. This is how it is even now.

I did say that this point of view was pretty simple, didn’t I?

Some Examples

THE CIVIL WAR can be seen in terms of the worst-case scenario for the American plutocracy. The popular uprisings against slavery had come to threaten the existing order among the wealthy elite. That is to say, the elite in the north saw the writing on the wall: abolish slavery or deal with a real revolution that would be very harmful to business stability and rule of wealth. Of course, the elite in the south stood to be completely pushed out of the plutocracy if slavery were abolished, and, therefore, were utterly paranoid about the issue for decades before the Civil War. The Constitutional system was unable to work in the desired way: the resolution of conflict among elites and the management of popular dissent became mutually exclusive of one another--war eventually broke out.

SUFFRAGE is an example of the granting of rights. Simply put, the all-male elites only gave women the vote because the widespread protests of the Suffragettes were seemingly threatening the stability of the nation. Allowing women the vote didn’t really have anything to do with morality from the point of view of the ruling elite; more like “we better save our asses because this is looking a bit scary (and my wife won’t have sex with me).”

LABOR rights had to be violently fought for. Public schools don’t really stress any real understanding of the US labor movement or how very popular it once was. In fact, Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs garnered 900,000 votes for president in 1912 and later got just about the same number of votes while in prison for speaking out against WWI (and, no doubt, for also pissing off the plutocracy). Indeed, the labor movement was perceived by the ruling elite to be a HUGE threat to their system. So they allowed workers just enough rights to diffuse the movement. Otherwise, freedom and justice might break out and then where would the wealthy be?

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT is theoretically almost a combination of the politics preceding the Civil War and the politics of the Labor Movement. That is to say, regional disagreements among wealthy elites converged with massive social upheaval to create the most turbulent times the nation has seen since the 1860s. The result was that the south lost again, but the rule of wealth was preserved and numerous politicians (JFK, to name one) were able to jump on the integration bandwagon and score political points—again, defeat becomes success.

THE VIETNAM WAR is yet another example of massive public dissent forcing the elite to grant concessions to the people. The US lost the war and suffered some loss of international prestige, but the plutocracy persevered.

WATERGATE is, perhaps, one of the most cynical examples of the inner workings of the American plutocracy. Noam Chomsky has pointed out in an interview in the book “Understanding Power” that the Watergate cover up is so utterly insignificant when compared with Nixon’s numerous real crimes (the secret bombings of Cambodia, misuse of the FBI, assassinations of both Americans and foreigners, etc), that the stated reasons for his exit from office cannot possibly be true. Rather, Chomsky speculates that Nixon’s abandonment of the Breton Woods financial agreement (this was the blueprint for the post WWII international economic order) and his freezing of wages and prices (which, interestingly enough, he believed he had to do because of the economic squeeze created by the Vietnam war) greatly offended and burned many powerful economic interests. In other words, Nixon had some very real enemies, but they did not make it onto his list: from the moment that he screwed the financial interests that allowed him to stay in power, his days were numbered.

TODAY the wealthy elite is in the best shape it has been in since the days of the Robber Barons and the political corruption of the late nineteenth century. After over two decades of conservative (a.k.a. wealthy) dismantling of the US social state, after over two decades of a concerted ideological attack on working and oppressed Americans that has manifested itself in the public schools and the elite controlled news media (in fact, the management and redirection of social unrest, or the “manufacture of consent,” as Chomsky and Edward Herman call it, is now a wildly successful near-science), opposition and popular dissent are in near complete disarray. The plutocracy can do almost anything it wants and it does. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are probably the most successful example in American history of the plutocracy co-opting popular unrest and redirecting it toward their own ends. There are, of course, massive demonstrations against the Iraq war, but it remains to be seen if the elite feel threatened—so far, the plutocracy is resting easy…

A Brief Conclusion

Anyway, I hope you get the idea of where I’m coming from: the political reality in America is at the same time both far more complex and far more simple than is popularly understood. Freedom, justice, and democracy all play important roles in the US, but these concepts generally serve as a means to elitists’ ends, rather than as a national end.

Call me crazy, but I think that democracy and freedom are good ideas by themselves. That is what they taught us all in school, after all.

Isn’t it?

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FRIDAY FLURRY OF BUSH WAR ACTIVITY

Bush lays the rhetorical groundwork for invading Iraq even though the rogue nation may end up being in compliance with UN resolutions. Blix prepares his own criteria and time table. Russia starts to play global political hardball at the UN. Bulgaria becomes the latest country to be bribed into the US led mercenary army of nations. Canada gets nervous.

AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!

Click here.

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QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

Just for fun, I'm going to try to link to any reports that I come across that concern police brutality and corruption in these here United States. I'm working on the theory that I ought to be able to come across more stories than I might expect if I wasn't paying attention.

It's content for my website, anyway.

My first entry comes from the city of Harry Callahan.

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9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Refuses To Reconsider "Under God" Pledge Ban

This is starting to get interesting...

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POTENTIAL FOR FASCISM II

Norman Mailer says:

There is a subtext to what the "Bushites" are doing as they prepare for war in Iraq. My hypothesis is that President Bush and many conservatives have come to the conclusion that the only way they can save America and get it off its present down slope is to become a regime with a greater military presence and drive toward empire. My fear is that we might lose our democracy in the process.

Click here for more...

Thanks to my good friend, Kevin, for the link.

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FAREWELL MR. ROGERS

This makes me sad.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

© 1967, Fred M. Rogers

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
I've always wanted to have
A neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live
In a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we're together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please,
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?

The truth really can't be expressed more simply than that.

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THE CONTEXT FOR TRULY UNDERSTANDING THE USA IN 2003

So you still haven't read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States? You really ought to do so ASAP. Otherwise, there's a really good chance that you have absolutely no understanding of what's happing these days--even if you are quite certain that you do...

In the meantime, enjoy this recent Zinn speech about the coming war against Iraq that was broadcast on Pacifica by Democracy Now just this morning.

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LET US CONTENT OURSELVES WITH SMALL VICTORIES...FOR NOW

First Surprise, surprise. Sometimes there really are free speech rights in public schools. You just gotta sue for 'em.

Second The British are now equating Bush with Hussein. Personally, I think Bush is far more dangerous. (But then, seeing as how this is the Tehran Times...well, I still think Bush is more dangerous.)

Third Pro-war hypocricy is now starting to embarass the hawks. 'Bout time.

links courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe

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EVERYBODY'S GOTTA READ THIS
Eschaton's Guest Blogger Mac Diva Meditates On Southern Neo-Confederates

Click here.


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NOTES FROM ONE OF AMERICA'S MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL FRONTS:
Public Education, Theater, Black History Month, and Paul Robeson

This May, I will have completed five years as a public high school teacher. One extremely important observation that I made about American education during my first month of teaching is that public schools are far, far more political than I could ever have imagined--like government and the news media, public education is a major American ideological battleground. For the most part, I've kept my leftist mouth shut when talking to other teachers (I'm in a Texas conservative hell district) and have been very careful about what I say to students (but I do talk about my beliefs to my students).

Last Thursdsay, in a ritual repeated yearly, the ten or fifteen theater arts teachers of our district met to discuss the state of theater education. Typically, teachers complain that faculty and administrators don't take theater seriously as an academic subject--students are regularly pulled out of theater classes to do extra work in other more traditional, academic classes; generally, teachers in Texas are obsessed with getting their students to pass Bush's "standards" oriented tests and not many of them seem to understand how studying the theater has anything to do with that. So, many teachers in our district see theater education as useless fluff.

Many of the same theater arts teachers at these meetings who complain about not being taken seriously also usually boast of all their shows and productions that, in my humble opinion, are so much useless fluff. That is to say, it seems that most of the theater teachers in my district have a sort of 1930s Mickey Rooney, Our Gang "let's do a show" approach to theater education that does nothing but prove to their detractors that theater education is pointless. At past meetings, I have tried to point out this paradox and that maybe we ought to approach theater more intellectually--I am usually quickly dismissed as an arts "snob," a serious artiste who just doesn't understand the community: "that's not what they want around here; that's not what makes them happy."

This year, I was more assertive. Once again, I pointed out the paradox: "don't you see, you're playing to their bias." Once again, I was called a snob. For the first time, I shot back: "I'm pretty far to the left both politically and philosophically and I believe that elitism of any sort is unethical and wrong." Three teachers burst out into near hysterical guffaws of laughter; this really cracked them up. While they were still laughing, I said calmly, "I'm actually serious. I really mean it. This isn't about snobbery; snobbery is wrong."

The district fine arts coordinator also misunderstood, but in a more respectful way--he thought I was railing away about the nature and bureaucracy of public education. "No," I said, "I've been in this business long enough to understand how things work. I'm talking about what we teach in the classroom. I'm saying that theater is, in fact, a hard academic subject that is studied at many universities all the way up to the doctoral level." Finally, I think I had gotten everybody's attention.

I went on. "I think the best way to illustrate how we can do this at our level is to give you the rundown on my Black History Month unit on Paul Robeson." Very quickly (in order to amaze with a veritable deluge of information), in my old high school debating style, I then proceeded to give them the basics:

In order to contextualize my approach to theater education, I need to say, as I say at the beginning of the year to all my theater arts students, that theater is a four thousand year old tradition that comes from the culture that practically founded western civilization, the ancient Greeks. Indeed, the Greeks were among the very first in the west to formally study philosophy, math, physics, astronomy, geometry, and democracy. They made lasting contributions to architecture, sculpture, the study of history, and poetry. To the Greeks it was all the same thing: the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Indeed, Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great, was a major expert on literature, poetry, theater, metaphysics (spirituality), physics (science), and philosophy; Aristotle, who has been studied throughout the ages, is still taken very seriously by scholars today. This is where I am coming from when studying and teaching the theater. Theater is, ideally, the study of everything, the study of the human condition, of human relationships both individually and collectively.

This is also the approach that one should take when studying the great actor, Paul Robeson. If we're going to talk about Robeson, then we have to hit the Harlem Renaissance. That means talking about James Baldwin's experience there as a youngster, talking about Langston Hughes, about Duke Ellington. If we're going to talk about Robeson, then we have to talk about his definitive work as "Othello" and the value of Shakespeare who, as Robeson said, "foresaw the problem of a black man living in a white society." We have to talk about his other great roles such as Brutus Jones in Eugene O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones." We have to talk about Robeson's career long tinkering with the lyrics to the song written for him to sing in "Showboat," "Ol' Man River" such that the racist song of black despair eventually became a song of black triumph and defiance. We have to talk about his pioneering civil rights activism that took place well before the modern civil rights era had begun, activism that ultimately resulted in his blacklisting during the McCarthy era. If we talk about blacklisting, we have to hit the Cold War and the great ideological divide of the twentieth century, communism versus capitalism; we also have to talk about free speech and what it means to the American political system.

This is how we should sell theater arts to administrators, faculty, and to the community, not as "let's do a show," but as one of the most important classes a child can ever take.

That sure did shut up everybody. After a brief silence, the fine arts coordinator gave the floor to another teacher with another topic. When introducing her topic she said that she was going to "rant" about something else.

"Oh you think I was ranting, do you?" I asked.

"Yes, you were ranting." she replied.

But I think I had made my point because nobody had a real response. Unfortunately, I fear that, in the end, I will simply be ignored. Theater arts in my school district will, in all probability be business as usual for the foreseeable future. But then, that's exactly what public education is supposed to be, isn't it? Business as usual: indoctrinating children into the culture of authority and obedience. True education, true thought runs counter to that agenda.

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YAY!!!!!

Atrios noticed me!!!! Alas, because Eschaton switched over to another comment system, there is now no evidence of the all-seeing eye pointing in my direction... Anyway, it was on Wednesday, 2/19/03: Atrios posted a story about a KKK terrorist being arrested in Pennsylvania with the headline "Homegrown Suicide Bomber." I then posted a little joke: "uh, Atrios, don't you mean 'homicide bomber?'" (If you don't know, ultra-conservative Fox News is the only major corporate news venue to embrace Bush's ultra-silly redefining of the term, "suicide bomber.") A few hours later on the comment posting system, the omniscient one responded by rejecting my suggestion and making a call for another term that is hip and funny, but shows respect for the intended victims: something like"klanikazi" maybe.

Okay, I know it's goofy of me to rejoice, but, hey, I'm a teacher; it's not like my life is exciting or anything...

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MY DOOMED ATTEMPT AT BEING A LETTERHACK:

Media critic and writer of "What Liberal Media?" Eric Alterman writes about how the corporate media have successfully redefined the American political spectrum such that "far, loony right-wing" now means simply "conservative," "conservative" means "moderate," and "moderate-right" now means "liberal." "Liberal," of course, now means "crazy." Ordinarily, this intense euphemizing doesn't really confuse me. Recently, however, it doomed one of my few attempted forays into the mainstream press's letter pages.

Slate's "liberal" writer Emily Yoffe recently had an anti-peace movement essay published in the Houston Chronicle. Silly me, not being a reader of Slate, not realizing that she's supposedly "liberal," I just figured that because she refers to the peace movement as being "morally bankrupt," that she was yet another one of those loud mouthed, sermonizing conservative weirdos. I mean that's how the essay reads, for Christ's sakes!!!! But, no. She was supposedly speaking as a "liberal."

This, I think, is what probably doomed my letter hack response to the essay (if it ever had a chance to be printed at all...).

Anyway, for your reading enjoyment, I now post my ill-fated letter to the editor here. For what it's worth, I think that if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, then it's probably dog poo. Or conservative, for that matter. My letter:

I am a proud signer of the NION statement and I deeply love America.

Whenever I hear one of those venomous, condescending, war-mongering, right-wing tirades against those "America hating" progressives, something always tugs at the back of my head: "the marketplace of ideas." The great philosophers, such as Locke, Hobbes, and Mill, who heavily influenced our country's founding fathers, expressed democracy's absolute and crucial need for vigorous debate. In other words, no "marketplace of ideas" means no democracy.

When a conservative tells me that I am "morally bankrupt" for doing what I believe is my patriotic responsibility, publicly expressing my vision for our grand nation, I am both sickened and perplexed. Accusing progressives of such a thing only serves to stifle "the marketplace of ideas," without which our democracy cannot survive. If any group should be called "morally bankrupt," it is the multitude of self-important, snobbish shouters on the right; they try to destroy debate, and, therefore, destroy democracy.

From this point of view the true near-treasonous behavior is coming from the likes of Emily Yoffe, Anne Coulter, or Fox News' Bill O'Reilly who told peace activist Jeremy Glick to "Shut up! Shut up!" live on TV in the wildly popular "no spin zone."

This is basic Civics 101. Doesn't anybody else get this?

Well, I think that at least I get it...

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IS FIDEL CASTRO ACTUALLY A REALLY COOL GUY?

You decide. First, let's set the mood. Bueno. On to the story...

CounterPunch's Saul Landau interviews Cuba's Vice President, Ricardo Alarcon. The second-in-command of the nation most often victimized by the evil terrorist force that Martin Luther King, Jr. once called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" (en otras palabras, Los Estados Unidos) relates an alternative understanding of "the war on terrorism."

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