Jan 15 2008
I’d filled out the little form online to say I could go to South Carolina and work for the primary on behalf of Edwards, my choice for president, but I didn’t expect they’d need me.
After all…I can’t pay for my accommodations, and can’t do a lot of walking or standing. But today someone from Edward’s campaign staff in SC called, asking me to come to volunteer –asap.
Jan 15 2008
All of the circumstances and conditions listed in my essay below are caused by one overarching problem.
As Truong Son Traveler called it The Military Industrial Complex and the Power Elite.
Not because they are some vast evil conspiracy bent on some nefarious plan to subjugate all humans, (necessarially, lol) but because of the plain fact that they and others in the ‘elite’ are an incredibly small minority in which nearly all the wealth and power in the world resides. In the big picture, their aims and motives and consciences don’t even really matter. What matters is that they hold the power and that they are not going to give it up.
Oligarchy is ALWAY a problem….conspiracy or not….because of that fact. Because they simply have NO interest in doing what is best for the majority of the people on the planet.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely, especially in a group that represents the interests and intrigues of far less than 1% of the people on the planet.
Jan 15 2008
I just made my first donation to a political candidate in my entire life, (and I am pushing 70.) I just sent 25.00 of my very small income to John Edwards.
Not because I am an Edwards groupie. Not because I think he’s the answer to all our wishes.
I did it because I am DAMNED if I can sit idly by and watched the freaking corporate owned media, (or any other corporate owned political machinery) to decide FOR US, who the Democratic Candidate ought to be! And because Edwards stands ALONE in NOT running his campaign on dirty money.
It just couldn’t GET more transparent than it now is,that the Repugs want nothing more than to fan the flames of racisim, sexism and ageism to five alarm level between Obama and Clinton! The fact that one is the first black to get this close, and the other the first women to get this close, is being mercilessly exploited to their advantage, and people are falling for it.
FRACTURE THE OPPOSITION and WIN, while withdrawing ALL ATTENTION away from the ONE candidate they all fear the most: the one candidate they COULDN’T BUY OFF!
The media is totally invested in getting us all to choose between their pre-selected TWO: the two candidates MOST beholden to the Powers That Be: the ones least likely to kill their golden goose, if elected.
And don’t think those made up,jaw flapping talking heads don’t know what side of their bread is buttered. The chances that my TV will survive this campaign grow smaller every day, I am so DAMNED DISGUSTED with all of this!
My measly 25 bucks won’t say much…but it is my fervent hope that a whole lot of folks with a whole lot more money than I have, will donate to the Edwards Campaign and SOON, even if he’s not your chosen candidate.
Because it’s worth a few bucks,in MY world anyway, to at least TRY to insure that this election is NOT completely bought off by the power elite of both parties, in this sham of a democracy. If nothing else, it might help me sleep a bit better knowing I did…”something”, however small.
Jan 15 2008
So I went to “The Militant”, seeing what was on tap for me to choose for my candidate. See, I’ve been a card carrying member of the Socialist Workers Party since I was 18. I rarely get to vote in primaries, especially in Texas. Though I did flirt this year with becoming a Republican to vote for Ron Paul, just to pretend I was part of America’s democracy, but I decided to stick to my guns and stay a lifelong leftists socialist scumbag.
I know, socialism only works in homogeneous cultures with a either a strong central nationalistic or cultural streak, and America is a mosaic of independent self interested individuals, but I like me the social equality an American strand of socialism could bring.
So, back to The Militant, where I read the fantasies of other like minded people.
Shockingly, they are still call for the same thing: to be taken seriously.
SWP candidates offer working-class proposals
Socialists call for a fighting labor party,
independent of capitalist 2-party system
BY SARAH KATZ AND LUIS MADRID
http://www.themilitant.com/ind…
NEW YORK-Candidates and campaigners for the Socialist Workers Party have been on the streets here, engaged in the discussions among working people on the outcome of the recent Democratic and Republican primaries. They are introducing people to the proposals the SWP candidates are putting forward in the interests of workers and farmers.
“As the presidential election campaign unfolds, major questions confronting working people are being discussed,” said Martín Koppel, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s District 15, speaking at a campaign forum here January 4.
Rising food and fuel prices, joblessness, stagnant wages, war, and immigration policy-these are issues workers and farmers are concerned about, Koppel said. He and other speakers for the SWP campaign discussed the results of the previous day’s Iowa presidential caucuses and the proposals the socialist candidates are putting forward in the interests of working people.
Similar Militant Labor Forums featuring SWP candidates were held across the country the same day. The socialist campaign has launched as its national ticket Róger Calero for president and Alyson Kennedy for vice president.
Well shit, I don’t even get to vote on the candidate? Róger Calero, fucking for reals? I don’t even get a chance to write in Bernie Sanders on my Texas primary ballot?
Fuckers. Because at the end of the day, mother fucking Calero wasn’t even born in the mother fucking US of fucking A. He was born in Nicaragua for god’s sake, he’s not even eligible to be mother fucking president!
And you thought that the Democratic Party sucked, welcome to my ineffectual world of stupidity.
And don’t even get me started on Alyson Kennedy, the rich girl who plays poor. Cry me tears of diamonds as you work in a garment factory while making rent off a trust fund. And she’s a damn communist, not even a socialist! Who made this god damn ticket?
President Ineligible/ Vice President Trustafarian 2008!
Woooooooooo! Go socialists!
2012, Sanders better run or I might defile myself and become a Democrat.
Jan 15 2008
As everyone knows, the NIE (“National Intelligence Estimate”) advised that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Bush was aware of this as far back as August, 2007, and probably sooner, if the truth be known.
Nonetheless, nothing has stopped him from continuing his rant about how dangerous Iran is to us and the world. And in December, 2007, and this month, January, 2008, his efforts increased.
His trip to the Middle East of January 8, 2008, supposedly predicated on a wish to help the peace effort between Palestine and Israel, and a meeting with both leaders (for the first time), also included Kuwait to meet with U.S. troops [to prep them?], Amb. Cocker and Gen. Petraeus and [hold onto your seats] to hold round-table discussion on democracy with Kuwaiti women, Bahrain for meeting with King Hamad and visits with U.S. Navy 5th fleet, United Arab Emirates, to meet with Pres. Sheikh Khalifa and deliver a speech in Abu Dhabi, then to Dubai and to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, then meetings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Sharm el-sheikh, Egypt, to meet with Pres. Hosni Mubarak and then return to the U.S. on Jan. 16th.
. . . . Bush hopes to spur negotiations among Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowing to make peace and lay the ground work for two independent states by year’s end. . . . .
and this is the best:
. . . . Bush, also touring several Arab nations, will address more than the role they can play in encouraging reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. He also will explain his vision for democracy in Iraq and his concern about the potential security threat posed by Iran. . . .(emphasis mine)
The article goes on at great length about the so-called efforts Bush hopes to make toward the Israeli – Palestinian conflict and peace negotiations. Doubt as Bush set to visit Mideast — Chances called slim for breakthroughs as final year begins.
More:
Jan 15 2008
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Our government planning to read all of your e-mail.
Nuclear armed state trains …and then loses control of terrorist groups (ht, mishima)
Jan 15 2008
Jesse Jackson, Jr., in stumping for Barack Obama, was correct in pointing out after the New Hampshire primary that Hillary Clinton did not cry for Katrina.
Apparently, based on what’s above the fold on her issues page, Clinton doesn’t seem to think that Katrina’s impact on the Gulf Region or the loss of 80% of New Orleans due to the failure of federally-maintained levees is that big a deal today–as if the fact that the continued suffering of many in the disaster zone close to 2 1/2 years after the flood doesn’t matter. And this is morally wrong.
Jan 15 2008
Treason for sale
Larisa at-Largely, January 14, 2008
We know that there are a number of Saudi royals sympathetic to the Jihadi cause. We also know that many in the Saudi royal family fund terrorism in general and al Qaeda in particular. We know that the majority of foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudi nationals – killing our troops. We know too that the majority of 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Yet, the US has continued to supply the Saudis with weapons, despite their role as being the world sponsor of terrorism. The latest is as follows:
“RIYADH (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush, trying to counter Iran’s growing military clout, made clear his commitment on Monday to go ahead with a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia as he began his first visit to the Islamic kingdom.
Just hours after his arrival in Riyadh, the U.S. administration said it notified Congress of its intention to offer the Saudis a controversial package of advanced weaponry as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with Gulf Arab allies.”
Sorry? If I recall we were fighting a war on terror and yet we are providing advanced weapons to the terrorists? How the hell is this not treason? Seriously, I want a Constitutional scholar to tell me how this is not treason. The Saudi regime may be Bush’s ally in the mythical war on terra, but they are no ally of the US, and they are certainly no ally of Israel or or India, or to any other democracy in the world.
Oh did I mention what types of weapons we will be handing to the Saudis? Our deal includes – sit down now – Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits.
Let’s hear a big round of applause for George W. Bush and his idiot supporters….
Jan 15 2008
Fourth Time Is The Charm!
After a long stretch of not actively endorsing a candidate, I have decided to come out both guns blazing for the one man who will ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY bring bold change to the White House, our nation ,and indeed the world, should he be elected. NONE of the other candidates can bring the perspective and unwavering, steadfast position of this fine, noble and no longer upstanding example of commitment to principle, values, and the working man of America.
My candidate is a man of values, both religious and social, a man of literally lifelong experience in foreign and domestic policies. A man who has proved time and again his willingness to take on special interests and vast corporate and business powers to advance the interests of the working man and the middle class, no matter what the cost to his own aspirations. He has been long…very long… an outspoken opponent of America as an Empirical power in the wold. An untiring and relentless candidate, he has a solid track record of walking his talk and of putting what he believes in above any petty political calculation.
Jan 15 2008
This is stark, and it is maddening. This NY Times article says it succinctly:
The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.
Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.
Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
President Bush has never given a date for a military withdrawal from Iraq but has repeatedly said that American forces would stand down as Iraqi forces stand up. Given Mr. Qadir’s assessment of Iraq’s military capabilities on Monday, such a withdrawal appeared to be quite distant, and further away than any American officials have previously stated in public.
This means: US troops in Iraq until at least 2018. That means: ten more years of Iraq occupation and ten more years of US troops in harm’s way and ten more years of death and maiming in Iraq.
Friday is another Iraq Moratorium Day. I hope you know what to do.
Jan 15 2008
im not getting all corporatist on you, sharing adverts and whatnot….but i liked this commercial….
nope….not dead yet….
Jan 15 2008
This is an Open Thread: No International Borders Here
Iraq Defense Minister Sees Need for U.S. Security Help Until 2018
FORT MONROE, Va. – The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.
Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated.Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made last year.
Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.
As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.