Welcome to the Gulag

Our Congress has officially given the green light to this Administration to act on its worst impulses. (Not that it hasn't been doing so already, of course, but now it doesn't even have to hide its atrocities.) The Senate confirmed bill S. 3930 on Thursday; the Democrats couldn't even muster enough human beings to filibuster this excrement, and only a single Republican (Chaffey of RI) broke ranks in a blatant ploy to bolster his image as a "moderate" to potentially forestall his ouster in November. I have no doubt that if the vote was any closer, he would have voted differently anyway, so let's not rush to praise the distinguished jackass from Rhode Island--he's voted party line every other time he's been asked.
What's in this bill, to become law as soon as Smirky figures out that for it to work, you have to take the cap off? Let's see: Habeas corpus? You can now be jailed without cause with no judicial recourse, as long as the President approves. And it's backdated to 9/11/01, too! The Geneva Convention? The President now decides what the Geneva Convention Laws mean--he has sole discretion as to the interpretation of the Geneva Convention! Which means that Smirky also gets to interpret what "cruel" "inhuman", and even "torture" mean! Congress just gave a blank check to the President to imprison and torture anyone he wants without any oversight whatsoever.
In other words, this Republican Congress and its enablers has just thrown hundreds of years of laws out the window, and I'm not even exaggerating--habeas corpus rights were first enunciated in the freakin' Magna Carta, for God's sake!
These evil sociopaths need to be stopped, by any means necessary. I have little faith that our electoral process is pure enough to be trusted any longer, and our hopeful "wait, work, and pray" strategy for November may be simply a last naïve gamble on that gossamer faith. I wish I were kidding, but mass assassinations of those willing, eager, and able to sell out this nation's soul--and for what? money? safety? power?--are becoming a more and more sane possibility. Anyone stupid, selfish, and evil enough to vote Republican this November, or in 2008, or ever again, should immediately be jailed and tortured just to show them what it is they are supporting. We are no longer a nation of laws, and we have now reached a moral edge most people talk about theoretically, as in: If you could go back in time, would you kill Hitler or Stalin in the crib? It may be that time now for us living here today, because our government has now declared war on anyone it wants to. My guess is, Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq are merely the first victims in this worldwide purge of anyone whom Der Führer Smirky dislikes.
Jeebus, we are screwed. Thanks a bunch, Republicans! Thanks, Christian Fundamentalists! Thanks, mainstream media! Thanks, spineless Democrats! Thanks, Ralph Naderites! Thanks, Ronnie, for starting us down this path 25 years ago! Thanks, Babs, for raising such a foul, sociopathic, evil bully! May all your flesh be flayed in Hell forever . . .

Alternet on 9/11

A friend of mine pointed me to an article on alternet.org written by Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi. In it, Taibbi asks a simple question that has gone unanswered for over 5 years: why were we attacked on 9/11? His article is not an exploration of various theories of anti-Americanism; Taibbi is actually more interested in what, if anything, our country learned about ourselves and our place in the post-Cold War world as a result of the attacks. Basically, Taibbi argues that we have simply ignored the whole issue and have refused to learn anything, especially in regards to why this sect of Islamic fundamentalists hates us so much. I wholeheartedly agree, and I offered this answer as to why that is to my friend:
My take on this is that, for good or ill--nahhh, just for ill--our nation took its cue from the moron in the White House. If we had had a President who really wanted to tackle this issue seriously, and wanted to be sure all of us knew that s/he was, we'd have responded (and would be responding) differently. It's obvious that a lot of people look(ed?) to Smirky for guidance and leadership, and even though he has never given it to the nation as a whole, people have acted like he had. Our nation has been undergoing one long, devastating con job, and is only barely waking up to it. (And, of course, the rabid 35-40% that still view Bush favorably will clearly never wake up.) We have no leadership in this country that is really looking out for us as a whole, except for a few pockets of rationality here and there. From the White House through Congress to the media and business, the only "looking out" is for #1, the future and the safety of our citizens be damned.

Why this isn't obvious to every single one of the citizens in this nation is a matter of awareness. I'm sure there are some people who honestly believe that George Bush is a saint come to save us from Hell, and that the entire world outside our borders is filled with heathens who deserve to die. These people are sick and twisted by their faith into creatures so devoid of true principles or morality that they are beyond help. Others are more evil than sick--they know full well that Smirky and his gang are raping the American public for profit, but they are the few that benefit along with these felons (or even worse, only think they are), so it's all good for them.
The vast majority of people who don't get it, though, are merely ignorant of what's happening. They either have no time to become well-informed--since the demise of actual journalism in the country circa 1980-1983, it is increasingly difficult to do so without devoting a good portion of ones time and thinking--or they simply don't care enough about their fellow human beings to think about or act on what the ruling junta has done to us all. We can probably guess that most societies are filled with this type of ignorance; how else can one comprehend the actions of the majority of the German populace in the 1930s and 1940s?
We still have a window of opportunity to shed our ignorance and act to restore our national dignity. The next two elections are crucial to our country's history, because if we don't send the Republicans back to their black hole of self-absorbed callousness and amorality, I honestly think the entire earth's population will never forgive us for our sins. Our economy is already rotting; we are kept afloat simply by the good graces of our creditors, who for some reason or another think it best to keep loaning us money or buying our assets. If that spigot were shut off, we'd face an immediate fiscal devastation that would plummet us into the worst depression we've ever seen. The more countries we piss off, the fewer will do business with us at all, and the Republicans are showing very few signs of calling off our Imperial dogs.
Given our Constitutional mechanisms, there really isn't a viable alternative to a two-party system, so the only rational method by which we can attempt to restore sanity to our government this quickly is by voting for any Democrat at hand, almost without regard to his/her policy aims. Once safe from the threat of social, if not actual, annihilation by Republican misrule, we can try to pull the Democratic Party back to its historical (since FDR, at any rate) position to the left of center through the usual process of running more progressive candidates in our primaries. For now, though, it is imperative for the health of our country that we rid our government of those who have done nothing to help us achieve peace in our time.

Football!

Longtime readers know that I have a serious passion for two things: my wonderful wife and college football. Well, luckily enough, my wife stays with me throughout the year, but football only lasts for about 3 months+, so I have to immerse myself when I can.
One can count on only a few truths these days, but among them is the certainty that the Notre Dame football team will be massively overrated. Once again the Irish proved themselves wholly unfit to be ranked anywhere near the top 10, let alone #2, barely staggering past an unranked and unheralded Georgia Tech 14-10. LordGodKing Quarterback Brady Quinn, widely assumed to be a frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy, seemingly played moderately well--until one realizes that Ga. Tech has just 5 seniors on their entire defensive roster, and only 3 of those are starters, only 1 of whom plays in the defensive backfield! In other words, this is a very young team at this point in the season, and shouldn't have provided much of a challenge at all for the vaunted Notre Dame gridiron attack.
Sheesh.
At least the poll voters recognized, sort of, their astounding lack of insight by dropping ND in their voting--by all of 2 spots, of course, but we can't all be smart. Or pay attention. Or know what the heck is going on.
The Ducks, on the other hand, fared remarkably well against their weak opening opponent Stanford, pasting them 48-10. Now that's how you handle an unranked, unheralded team. Heck, Stanford is a conference foe that Oregon sees almost every year; most people would expect games like this to be closer simply due to the familiarity factor alone.
Lastly, we won't mention TBO's Alma Mater's meltdown in the Smokies . . .