Ain't Gonna Happen: Episode #1
Today's Theme: "We'll Stand Down When They Stand Up."
HOST: Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of...[POINT TO AUDIENCE]
[CUE AUDIENCE] AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!
HOST: And on today's show...
[CUT TO VIDEO NEWS REPORT] "A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias. The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing."
HOST: So, when will the Iraqi's stand up? Audience? [POINTS AGAIN TO AUDIENCE]
[CUE AUDIENCE] AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!
HOST: Our audience, right again. We'll be right back after this commercial...
A Pig by Any Other Name
Interesting, those that are called "neo-conservatives" in American political thought/journalism are called "neo-liberals" in Europe and South American political discourse. Once I discovered that, lots of things made more sense.
In either place, by either nomiker, they are considered a shifty and self-serving lot who dish out pseudo-intellectual bullcrap, but it all seems to start with the premise that we should never appease Hitler.
And all enemies are by default, Hitler. All good guys are Winston Churchill (Never FDR, cause he was, in fact, a dirty communist) and all domestic political opponents are either "communists" or "dead end marxists" (in Europe), or just plain old "liberals" (in the US, or known as ""libruls" by the dumbed down media shills who ply their trade for the neo-cons). All domestic opponents are inevitably Neville Chamberlain. In other words, they're fighting a war that ended well over fifty years ago and won't let it die.
For more interesting elucidation on these matters, do listen to this.
Orwell Is Alive And Well
"WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."
See, because the surge was so fucking successful, we have more violence. Makes perfect sense. And Cheney says, "So?"
Damn Cynical Americans
Came across this post on Boing Boing about a bunch of Texas college students protesting the location of an early polling place by peacable marching enmass to the location which was put seven miles off campus to place their vote (Hmmm, I remember the polling place at my college actually, you know, on campus). Awesome, I thought. Yet read some of the comments:
"Disrupting a public highway is a childish and mean way to 'protest' it."
"Seven miles? I drive almost 30 miles to work every single day. This was the EARLY polling place... it's not like they had to be there during business hours for one day. Sheesh. What a bunch of whiners. I hope they didn't prevent anyone from getting anywhere important with their stunt."
"This is a great idea. I need to renew my license soon and I'm going to march down the middle of the street all the way to the DMV office to protest it not being closer to me."
"I'm all for voting rights and stopping gerrymandering, and I don't doubt there are very real instances of this in Texas and elsewhere, but this seems like an extremely excessive reaction."
WTF? Is that what Americans of a certain generation believe? That this a bunch of "whiners" who are disrupting a comfortable ride on a highway for someone, you know just to uphold their right to access to vote?
Damn, the pussification of Americans has really taken hold, eh? No Spirit of '76 anywhere in evidence. Just Karl Rove Era Cynicism from here to the horizon. No wonder the Constitution is in the shitter...
Taken, Never Given Back
Power given to the State is rarely, if ever, returned to the Citizens.
Everything in the last seven years has been a titanic land grab by the government for new powers. This is the sole reason why George W. Bush will be a villain in the history books of all Free Men.
"This had started out being a program to track or identify criminals," he said. "Now we're talking about large swaths of the population -- workers, volunteers in youth programs. Eventually, it's going to be everybody."
The Good Fight always needs to be fought. Be vigilant.
