No, No, We Meant the Good Democracy

One thing that Bush and his cheerleaders love to talk about is "democracy." The only legitimate form of government, don't you know. Fully compulsory for all territories under the American Empire -- which means every territory in the world. Of course, we're mostly concerned about those territories where the oily-oily-oily is plentiful, and where the Israelis have concerns ... but, shoot, we've got to have some priorities. Even the Empire has only so much shock 'n' awe to pass around, and some of these places, like sub-Saharan Africa, have to wait their turns. But meanwhile: democracy, democracy, democracy! Vox populi, vox Dei, right?

Well, War Party, how do you like your democracy now?

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's parliament has approved a motion calling for the government to prosecute the U.S. soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash that sparked the worst riots in Kabul in years, officials said Wednesday.

The assembly passed the nonbinding motion Tuesday, after debating Monday's crash in which a U.S. truck plowed into a line of cars, killing up to five Afghans and sparking citywide, anti-foreigner riots, said Saleh Mohammed Saljuqi, an assistant to the parliamentary speaker.

"Those responsible for the accident on Monday should be handed over to Afghan legal authorities," Saljuqi cited the motion as saying.

Hey, a parliament is nothing if not democratic, so I assume we'll have no problem with our legionaries standing trial in the Afghan system, whatever that might be. What, aren't we trying to nourish the tender crop of democracy in that thin, dry soil?

Bush is looking a little more like Brezhnev every day, I think. Must be those excellent Afghan adventures.

Better Late than Never

Well, all right, it's yesterday's news. But I wasn't blogging yesterday, and I am today, so I'll just have to hope it's close enough.

Bush marks Memorial Day 'where valor sleeps'

Monday, May 29, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States honored its military dead Monday with speeches from its politicians, parades led by its heroes and outdoor celebrations featuring family and food.

President Bush made the trip across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and said "the best way to pay respect is to value why a sacrifice was made."

"On this Memorial Day," he said, "we look out on quiet hills and rows of white headstones, and we know that we are in the presence of greatness."

Well, no, not really. In Arlington National Cemetery, they were in the presence of a great many -- far too many -- crime victims. Some of the criminals, too: I believe a number of our defunct supervisors, distinguished only by having accumulated more votes than the other guy, are buried there, too.

That there have been so many children murdered in war, on all sides, should be an occasion that we mark with pity, sorrow, and shame. It truly is a shame that the current war criminals, such as the Wee Emperor, so easily co-opt a day like yesterday (interesting that it's observed as a "Monday holiday," isn't it? O thank you, thank you, O Great AFL-CIO and AFSCME) for crude propaganda aimed at "staying the course," and thus ensuring that the victims already beneath the sod will soon be joined by more. It truly is a shame that we cannot face the truth: that we have sent so many young people to truly horrific deaths, so unnecessarily. And so, being unable to face that truth, we lie some more, and condemn still more young people to the same fate as their predecessors, to the background accompaniment of brass bands and sizzling hamburgers.

The solemnity of the day also found a home at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, where the names of four more Americans killed in the conflict were officially added.

"Whatever your politics, the lessons of Vietnam and the wall are very clear: Make sure you do everything to avoid sending our servicemen and women to foreign soil," said Vietnam veteran William Frank. "But if they are sent and when they are in harm's way, do everything, everything to support them and let them do their mission."

No, apparently the lessons of Vietnam and the wall aren't clear at all. The real lesson is: don't let them be sent to die. Call things by their right names, and don't let those who would murder for political advantage get away with it. Stop them before they start. And if, despite your efforts, they get started anyway, don't acquiesce; stop them immediately, before another child is slaughtered. Don't feed one more child into the mouth of the war-Molech -- neither "theirs" nor ours.

Gone For the Weekend

I have a niece in Texas who's getting married. In fact, I'm pretty much out of nieces who aren't either married, or old enough to be. How'd I get so old, all of a sudden?

See you all on Tuesday. Meanwhile, allow me to recommend the fine blogs and other online resources linked below and to the right.

A New Link

I was just looking at Left in Aboite, a Fort Wayne-area blog, and I saw where the proprietor, John Good, has been kind enough to add a link to this humble little blog. I hastened to reciprocate. I guess this is as good a time as any to say that I link to periodicals and blogs if: (1) I'm in substantial agreement with what's posted there; (2) the excellence of the writing or amusement value of the content simply compels me to; or (3) they link to me. As a card-carrying Reactionary Utopian (well, I would carry such a card if one existed), I probably disagree with the content in Left in Aboite a little more often than not, but the writing is good and my link is there ... much the same as with Craig at Reverent and Free. Thanks, guys!

I Choose the Good News

These days, in order to maintain my well-known sunny disposition, I have to take my good news where I can get it. I can't be very particular. So, I will choose to regard this as good news:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday that the FBI and the Justice Department "took the wrong path" when they searched a Democratic congressman's office this weekend as part of an anti-corruption probe.

"We understand that they want to support and pursue the process that the Justice Department is trying to pursue," Hastert, a Republican from Illinois, said. "But there's ways to do it, and my opinion is that they took the wrong path."

The FBI searched the Washington home and office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, and found $90,000 of allegedly ill-gotten funds in the freezer of his home, according to an affidavit.

Jefferson's office is in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Leaders from both both parties and both houses of Congress have expressed concern about the search.

So, why is this good news? Well, it depends on how you look at it. My Inner Pollyanna says that the executive-branch security goons and the lawfakers are going after each other, which subtracts at least a little from the time, attention, and energy with which they can go after us, and after the world in general, and that's good. With some luck, maybe they'll hurt each other, at least a little. It's all good.

Then there's my Inner Scrooge, who assures me that the legislative tyrants and the executive tyrants will quickly enough reach a friendly little agreement -- perhaps with the help of the judicial tyrants -- and that agreement will not hamper any branch's ability to tyrannize you and me. Indeed, they'll probably contrive to enhance that ability somehow.

But the sun is shining, Pollyanna's got game, and that glass is half full, doggone it! So it's good news ... it is, it is, it is. Tomorrow: back to our regularly-scheduled gloom.

So, What Is Up With the Runaway Bride, Anyway?

Sometimes a remarkable juxtaposition brings the whole picture back into focus -- maybe a little sharper focus than is comfortable for us viewers. Still, allow me to recommend that you have a look at what Mark Brennan posted at the Lew Rockwell site today. An excerpt:

... Maybe Saddam was in fact going to nuke me, my wife, our two cats, and the dry cleaners across the street. And maybe monkeys will fly out of my… In either case, he is now behind bars while suicidal maniacs with IEDs strapped to their chests are killing Americans whose kids are not benefiting from the services of $500 per hour SAT tutors or figuring out how to redeem their American Express Platinum Membership Rewards Points so that they can attend the ESPN Golf School with a "focus on the importance of swing mechanics, club control, and body behavior." One can safely assume that ESPN has made no special provision for any military amputees in attendance who might need special instruction in "chipping with one arm" or "putting while blind" since Iraq reminds the intended customer base of little more than the unraked sand trap on the 15th hole at their country club.

By all means, go and read the rest, too.

OK, But Who's "We?"

Got home from church today, and went upstairs to change into my usual weekend grunge and turned on the tube, as is my wont. Some weeks, you can see the F1 race rebroadcast on the Speed Channel. This wasn't one of those weeks. However, on my PBS affiliate, I caught the rebroadcast of The McLaughlin Group. Yes, I know -- it's a profoundly guilty pleasure, and probably more than a little perverse, too. Mostly, I just like to see Tony Blankley Of The Thousand Dancing Chins and remind myself that, when the "Find the Fattest Chickenhawk" contest is announced, I have my winning horse all picked out in advance.

But, anyway ...

There I was, hanging my good shirt back up, and the folks of the Group were talking about Topic A, which was illegal Mexicans. I can't really provide quotes, since the Group's website doesn't have a transcript posted quite yet. But the Main Man, Big John, was saying that the illegals must be allowed to stay, because when they came here, "we welcomed them," meaning that they got jobs, health care in the emergency rooms, places in the government schools, and so on; it would be unsporting and inconsistent if "we" changed "our" minds now and un-welcomed the illegals. Eleanor Clift was quick to agree with him. After all, she said (approximately), "they" have mowed "our" grass, cleaned "our" houses, raised "our" children.

And I thought -- not for the first time: Who's "we?"

This is illustrative of the ultimate hopelessness of politics. It's just too easy to say things that don't make any sense. People -- even great big smart famous people who are in McLaughin Groups -- talk about three hundred million people as if they shared a single set of interests and motivations. We do this, we do that, something-or-other is in our best interest: as if the condition of residing within the same vast arbitrary boundaries makes one person of us all. Sure, some Americans welcome -- perhaps "import" is a more-accurate term -- undocumented Mexicans into the U.S. Some Americans have an economic interest in employing people who are anxious to work for very low wages, and who are in a highly-unfavorable position from which to complain about poor working conditions, safety, excessive hours, or much of anything else. These American employers range from produce operators in California's Imperial Valley to the proprietors of third-tier automotive suppliers in northeast Indiana to ... well, maybe to McLaughlin groupies who prefer housekeepers, pool boys, and nannies who work cheap and are eager to please. I just don't believe that any large fraction, let alone a majority, of Americans are part of this group or share their interests. When I want my grass cut, I reach for the mower and the gas can, not the Spanish phrasebook ... and I don't think I'm untypical in this respect.

Any time you see Eleanor Clift and Big John McLaughlin agreeing on something like this, it means the left-right paradigm isn't a useful way to analyze the political implications. I don't want to sound like a Marxist here, but a class analysis is more revealing. More on that later.

Dancing With the Devil

To replace Saddam is to become Saddam. I don't know whether Rep. Murtha has reached this conclusion yet, but I do think it's true:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A decorated Marine colonel turned anti-war congressman has said Marines killed at least 30 innocent Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" in Haditha in November, suggesting the death toll may be twice as high as originally reported.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, told reporters Wednesday that he got his information from U.S. commanders, who said the investigation will show that the Marines deliberately killed the civilians.

The U.S. Marine Corps has declined to comment on the report, which initially stated that 15 were killed.

"There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," Murtha said.

I don't imagine it will take the Stateside chickenhawk brigade very long to land on Rep. Murtha with its full keyboard wrath. Truthtelling is no defense; the truth is sometimes objectively pro-terror. Do not hear it. It does not exist. Eurasia is the enemy. Eurasia has always been the enemy.

Thought Experiment: Sauce for the Goose

Anyone see this?

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico warned Tuesday it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops detain migrants on the border and some officials said they fear the crackdown will force illegal crossers into more perilous areas to avoid detection.

How's that grab you, O Red-Blooded Magnetic Ribbon Patriots? Why, them damn Met-sicans are tryin' to tell us where in our own country we can send the National Guard! My first reaction was intense annoyance. Then I started to think a little. Think along with me for a minute or so.

Suppose this wasn't a matter of our southern neighbors the Mexicans, but was instead some "Islamofascist" outfit whose home is halfway around the world from here. And suppose, instead of threatening lawsuits from the Mexican consulates, these towelheads instead had military airbases in Mexico, and aircraft carriers in the Gulf (of Mexico) and in the Pacific off southern California. And suppose they came up with some cute, semiliterate name for the parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas that are within a couple hundred miles of the border -- a name like, oh, the "Southern No-Go Zone" -- and forbade any sort of American military presence there at all. Suppose they continuously overflew the No-Go Zone with helicopter gunships and fixed-wing attack aircraft, and killed anyone with a helmet, a gun, or any military-style vehicle who could be seen. And suppose that we weren't a mega-super-hyper-power, and couldn't do a thing about it.

Think you might be a little bit pissed?

And if, after a decade or so of this, the towelheads actually invaded and proceeded to set up a puppet government ... think you might become an "insurgent?"

I sure hope you would. And thanks for thinking along with me.

Eureka!

I've discovered a better way to enjoy one of Il Duce's speeches: read it. Really! It's lots better than listening, or -- worse yet -- listening and watching. Last night's, in text form, isn't nearly as hideous as you might expect (and as I would expect) from Jorge.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to complain, though:

For decades, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders. As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border -- and millions have stayed.

"Not in complete control" -- now, that's an interesting way to put it. To say that the U.S. has not been in complete control of its non-border with Mexico is true. But it's true in the same way as saying, "Mr. Smith's remains, having floated in the Maumee River for three weeks in July, are not completely presentable." True, but not particularly expressive of the actual situation.

First, the United States must secure its borders. This is a basic responsibility of a sovereign nation.

That is, perhaps, the first thing that's ever spewed from the Bushmouth with which I can completely agree. Leaving me only a few simple questions: Why, O Chimperor, did it take so long for this to dawn on you? Could it be that you're not ... uh ... completely sincere? Could it be that there's been all this unsightly business in the streets, and there's an election coming up this fall? Hmmmmm ...

This program would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers for jobs Americans are not doing.

As the pre-Alzheimer's Ronald Reagan might have said: there you go again, Jorge. "Jobs that Americans are not doing" -- well, at least that's a minor variation on his standard "jobs that Americans will not do." The translation to honest-speak is the same, though: jobs that not enough Americans will do at the wage that many American employers -- who have my ear, who have my class sympathy, and who regularly purchase access to me and my fellow pols -- prefer to pay.

The "immigration issue" is another illustration of how the standard political paradigm is becoming amusingly irrelevant. More on that later.

Word!

At her blog, Grace offers an arresting thought about the great American public's ho-hum reaction to the news that our gummint is keeping track of whom everybody calls, and when:

I have to keep reminding myself that so many generations have passed since school kids first had to piss in cups just so they can sing in the school chorus or join the Future Outsourced Employees of America club (specimens are required in my town's school district) that pretty much no one but cranky oldsters has any expectation of privacy.

Everything flows from that first demand for body fluids.

We have become a nation of cup-pissing cheese eaters.

There's no separating one diminution of our liberties from another. Even when they are superficially unrelated, one leads to the next. Words on paper -- or parchment -- are unavailing; they serve, at best, as guides and reminders for those who, unlike our supervisors, are willing to be guided and reminded. There's only one effective rebuke to tyrants, and it requires that at least a large minority of the people have had enough; until then, overt resistance only gets you killed. The time hasn't come.

A Quick One ...

... from Joseph Sobran:

As I observed last year, Americans who think America should behave like other countries are called "isolationists," whereas other countries that behave like America are called "rogue nations." Though I disagree with those who want Bush to nuke Mecca, they can't reasonably be accused of isolationism.

A Judicious Choice of Target

I'm sure everyone's had plenty to say today about the NSA every-phone-call-ever-made database. This story, though, emphasized something curious:

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded that executives from AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. testify before Congress about a report that the telephone companies gave the U.S. government phone records of millions of Americans.

``I am determined to get to the bottom of this,'' said Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, who added that he would subpoena the companies if they decline to appear before the committee voluntarily.

Well, well, Senator Specter, mighty champion of our liberties! Let's see, now ... an agency of the same government that Sen. Specter is paid to oversee makes a nauseatingly anti-constitutional demand for information from some private companies, and they comply ... and Sen. Specter is so mad, he's just going to call those companies on the carpet. Has Sen. Specter called for impeachment of the chief executive yet? Has Sen. Specter introduced a bill yet that would de-fund the lawless NSA, or repeal the "PATRIOT" Act, or disband the Department of Fatherland Security? Has Sen. Specter asked the Department of Justice (no, really, it's not a joke, that's what it's called) to prosecute the responsible NSA functionaries? No; instead, he's going to throw his weight around with those who might -- at their own risk -- have refused to comply with the illegal demands for data. He's carefully avoiding the criminals. Makes me wonder what phone calls of Sen. Specter's might be in the Big Database.

Trust Them With WHAT??!?!!?

So: the GOP's political future looks bleak. Dubya's approval numbers in the polls seem daily to plumb new sub-Nixonian levels. And the Democrats may retake power. Between this fall and '08, they may retake power as thoroughly as the Republicans possess it now.

Think that's a good thing? Think there's any meaningful difference between the Pachyderm and Jackass Caucuses of the War Party? Check out this crap, from the Washington Post.

Democratic hawks said yesterday that their party can win a war of ideas with the Republicans over national security, but only if Democrats move beyond simply criticizing President Bush's policies and convince voters they support strategies to defeat Islamic jihadists.

These centrist Democrats argued that voters are more receptive to the Democrats because of Bush's mistakes in Iraq. But they warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections. Instead, they said, Democrats should concentrate on charting alternative policies for fighting terrorism and succeeding in Iraq.

"We still have a hurdle to cross with the American people in convincing them we can be both tough and smart when it comes to securing America," said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.). Voters may have more confidence in Democrats on the economy or education, he said, but, "they're not going to trust us on those things if they don't first us trust us with their lives."

Bayh and others spoke at the launch of a collection of essays on national security policy published by the Progressive Policy Institute, the think tank associated with the Democratic Leadership Council. The sponsors challenged Democrats to resist policies advocated by what they called the "non-interventionist left" wing of their party while vigorously challenging what they call the "neo-imperial right" viewpoint of many in the Bush administration.

Yesterday's unveiling underscored again the division within the Democratic Party between elected officials such as Bayh, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who have resisted calls for setting timetables for withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq, and those such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) and Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), who have embraced such timetables.

Yesterday's speakers said Democrats must make clear that, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they do not take lightly the threat posed by Islamic radicals. Even as they challenged their own party to offer a more robust strategy, they rejected Republican criticism -- voiced earlier this year by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove -- that Democrats collectively have a "pre-9/11 worldview." Rove said Democrats have been "deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong" on national security.

...

Pelosi has said Democrats will investigate how the United States went to war in Iraq if they gain control of the House, but pollster Jeremy Rosner said yesterday that this represents a backward-looking approach that will make it more difficult for Democrats to define their security agenda.

"Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party for what we would do if we get back into office," he said.

PPI President Will Marshall said that Democrats should embrace internationalism in the tradition of Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. That includes championing freedom and democracy. "We can't abandon [support for] democracy simply because the Bush administration has embraced it or misappropriated it," he said.

Let's suppose one of these clowns (Bayh, Hillary, or Biden) gets the Democrat nomination, and runs against some photogenic GOP chickenhawk in '08. We'll be told endlessly how important it is to vote. We'll be told not to complain about the outcome, if we didn't vote. And we'll hear the "two" sides (actually, about 1.001 sides) compete to convince us that each one is a more efficient towelhead-killer than the other. And one caucus or the other will win. I neither know nor care which, but one thing's for sure: we lose. We'll be too stupid, in many cases, to know that we've lost, but we'll lose all the same.

Note, by the way, that John Kerry is listed in the article as being one of those eee-villll antiwar Democrats. This is just another indicator of the severity of our condition: that the guy who ran for President in '04, claiming to be a better and more effective warmaker than BushCo, is now called "antiwar." So there's a good chance that, even if the Democrats set out to nominate a non-interventionist, they would end up with just another opportunistic weathervane, holding the moistened finger up in the breeze and adopting "positions" accordingly.

We, as a nation, deserve much worse than we've gotten so far. Our luck is probably running out.

Gouge

I've been hearing a lot lately about "price gouging." It makes me wonder: what does the term mean? The dictionary says: " ... 3 : to subject to extortion or undue exaction : OVERCHARGE - goug·er noun."

Well, now, "extortion." That sounds bad. And I'm pretty sure it's already illegal. "Extort" means: " ... to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power."

In the above-referenced news story, Sen. Maria Cantwell of the state of Washington is, as senators are wont to do, urging legislation:

With gas prices above $3 a gallon in many places, Congress should pass legislation by Memorial Day to make price-gouging a federal crime, Sen. Maria Cantwell said Saturday in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

Regrettably, the news story provides no further detail about what prices would constitute "gouging," and I was unable to locate a transcript of Sen. Cantwell's address. Her web site has a fair amount of material on the subject, but it neither defines "gouging," nor "profiteering," nor does it indicate what prices for gasoline or other fuels are acceptable.

Price-fixing collusions: already illegal. Extortion: already illegal. This makes me think that something that isn't already illegal is about to become so, and I wonder what it is. I expect there's a good chance that it will turn out that "gouging" and "profiteering" mean asking a higher price from willing buyers than Sen. Cantwell finds seemly. Now I wonder when Sen. Cantwell will turn her critical eye and technical expertise to the real-estate markets. Many Americans are selling their houses for far, far more than they paid for them. Yes, sadly, many Americans are gouging and profiteering. Perhaps Sen. Cantwell will let us know what fair prices would look like.

Now, I don't mean to seem partisan here; all who know me also know that I carry no water for the Gee-Oh-Pee. So let's pause to note here that the "gouge" word has also recently been heard from the simian lips of El Presidente himself. It matters not which crime family any particular lawfaker associates himself or herself with; all of them love to make expansive and threatening gestures with the huge gun that is government, while barking out orders to you and I, telling us what we may buy at what price, and what we are forbidden to buy. Of course, all this is as it should and must be ... of course! Without our Dear Leaders, whatever would we do?

A Melancholy Pleasure

As of about 10:30 pm last Friday, when I submitted my final grades, I am no longer a part-time physics instructor. So now, the day job is the only job I have. I may as well stop calling it the "day" job, I suppose. I'll probably go on calling it that, though. Habit's a powerful thing.

It always feels good to be done at the end of the spring semester, with the summer stretching out endlessly before you, with lots of time to rework lecture notes, revise the lab manual, tweak the syllabus, and so on. This time, the good feeling is mixed liberally with sadness. I really, really, really like teaching physics. (Grading lab reports, on the other hand, is a bale of drudgery that I'll miss not at all, not even a little bit.) But aside from maybe substituting every now and then for my replacement -- a day-job co-worker of mine who really knows her stuff and will do wonderfully well -- I'm done, and that doesn't feel very good.

It's the correct decision for me right now, though. The day job expects people like me to travel every now and then, reasonably enough ... and the last five years, I've traveled very little indeed, needing to be on hand on Monday and Wednesday evenings from late August through early May. The day job's been nothing but cooperative, but my conscience has been uneasy. Several times, I've seen colleagues have to go places when I should have gone. So, five years is enough, and it's time for me to give my primary employer some undivided attention for a while.

Teaching an evening class, I've had a varied group of students, a lot of them non-traditional in age and situation. I'm not likely to forget Nathan, an electrician from Ghana who used to drop in on me at my Friday evening office hour the year after he was in my class, just to chat or sometimes for some "consultation" on his work for other classes. Another young man -- never mind his name -- had, I think, a dozen piercings above the shirt collar where they could be seen, and I shudder to think of the hardware he probably bore in places that I, thank God, had no occasion to see. (He was quite a good student, too.)

Well, anyway, good-bye to all that. It was good. I'll miss those folks.

What a No-Blogging Guy!

End of semester = lots of stuff to do = no blogging. I have many students' dreams to crush, you know. The crushing of dreams takes time. They must be crushed both carefully and thoroughly.

Not that the whole world was holding its breath for my next batch of keyboard droppings or anything. But somehow, there's that spurious sense of responsibility that demands appeasement. See you all on the weekend, I expect.