May 2008 archive

 

To a person:  Man, women and child…

If we all followed the better tenants of the Good Books we feel the need to believe in…

If we all stopped the racism…

If we all stopped the killing…

If we all stopped the mad-grab for money, power and control…

If we all stopped the lying…

If we stopped playing god and lording over people…

If we started sharing…

If we started helping…

If we started giving…

If we started loving…

If we started feeling…

If we started to get personal with the lessons and stopped believing that tithing is enough to get us into heaven…

If we stopped the process of believing in vague mythologies out of stark fear for selfish comforts…

If we started to stop the hatred and stop delaying that start at living in true peace…

How could the various gods of all our mythologies be angry with us?

Even if we ended up throwing them away, if we accomplished the god’s goal of Peace on Earth, how could they all not but retreat in joy from our lives, minds and souls, mission accomplished, problem solved?

How could they not do this?

Could we let them?

If we grew to adulthood, would our Gods let us move away from home and start worlds of our own?

What would we do?

Will we ever emerge?

Should we rise up?

The scuttlebut is that the Obama supporters are trying to figure out how to capture the Clinton supporters into joining the Obama supporters.

Those who have supported Clinton have been characterized as (among many other things) a bunch of old ladies who are bitter because their accomplishments as feminists are being belittled, and in the heat of the moment there are claims they won’t vote for Obama if he is the nominee.

And of course there are Obama supporters who vow they would never vote for the racist Clinton who played the race card and race baited, etc., if somehow she manages to steal the nomination.

It’s really quite fascinating to watch the thought processes.  Seems to me that most of the folks blogging about this aren’t really interested in either race or gender but for the purposes of this carnival we call a Presidential campaign, they’re dusting off whatever they may have gleaned from our culture, from teevee shows and magazines and books and have become instant experts on both race and gender issues.  Really quite remarkable.

I wonder why those who wish Clinton supporters to switch over to Obama don’t talk more about how Obama should court them … talk about feminism with respect, give them a bone for heaven’s sake?

But I don’t read much about that suggestion anywhere.  Probably because it’s unrealistic.  But what do I care about being realistic?  I’m just writing an essay and pontificating.  I’m in the mood for that.

1. Iraq Spending Ignored Rules, Pentagon Says
   By James Glanz, The New York Times

   Where did the pallets of cash bound for Iraq really go?

   A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

   The audit also found a sometimes stunning lack of accountability in the way the United States military spent some $1.8 billion in seized or frozen Iraqi assets, which in the early phases of the conflict were often doled out in stacks or pallets of cash. The audit was released Thursday in tandem with a Congressional hearing on the payments.

   In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered…

   The mysterious payments, whose amounts had not been publicly disclosed, included $68.2 million to the United Kingdom, $45.3 million to Poland and $21.3 million to South Korea. Despite repeated requests, Pentagon auditors said they were unable to determine why the payments were made.

   We was robbed!

2. The Washington Post adds there has been a Surge in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. In Iraq, two black funeral banners hang outside of a ruined home. The banners read: “They were killed because of the cowardly American bombings”.

   “Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months. The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis.” Criticism?!?! The Iraqis want us to stop killing them? That isn’t criticism. That’s a plea for us to get out. Many Iraqis think the U.S. is making indiscriminate attacks on their family, friends, and homes.

   Those civilians include people like Zahara Fadhil, a 10-year-old girl with a tiny frame and long brown hair. Relatives said she was wounded by a missile on April 20 at approximately 8 p.m. in Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City. The U.S. military said it fired a Hellfire missile in Zahara’s neighborhood at that time, targeting men who were seen loading rockets into a sedan.

   Her face drained of color and her legs scarred by shrapnel, Zahara spoke haltingly when asked what she thought of U.S. troops.

   “They kill people,” she said. Lying in bed, she gasped for air before continuing. “They should leave Iraq now.“

   Compare and contrast:

   [Capt. Ben] Katzenberger, of Kansas City, Mo., fired his first missiles last month. Arriving in Iraq last winter on his first deployment was nerve-wracking, he said.

   “You’ve been building up for this for three years and now you’re going to get to do what you were trained to do,” he said. “You get this bit of excited rush feeling, like right before you get out of the locker room before a game. We got in the helicopter and started flying up and you start looking down and you’re like — wow. I’m in Iraq now. This isn’t back in Texas where we were just training. People down there are going to try to shoot me. This is for real. Game on.” …

   Katzenberger said pilots adhere to strict rules of engagement. They occasionally get reports of what happened on the ground after they fire the missiles. After that, “we never hear about it again,” he said. “It leaves you a little sense of wondering. You kind of get that detached feeling.“

   He’s not alone. Thanks to a near total governmetn and media blackout of the news, people back in America have a detached feeling from the battles going on in Iraq too. We have little idea what we’re asking our troops to do on a daily basis in Iraq (and Afghanistan).

3. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports House aims at Pentagon ‘propaganda’ on Iraq war.

   The House of Representatives moved Thursday to crack down on a Pentagon program that Democrats say planted false and overly optimistic news stories about the Iraq war, using military analysts who appeared regularly on television.

   Acting on a 2009 defense policy bill, lawmakers forbade the Defense Department from engaging in “a concerted effort to propagandize” the American people over the war.

   The amendment by Rep. Paul W. Hodes (D-N.H.), which passed by voice vote, also would force an investigation by the General Accounting Office of efforts to plant positive news stories about the war. The overall bill passed 384-23.

Four at Four continues with the Bush administration uniting Russia and China in opposition to the U.S. Plus bonus stories salmon and the increasing acidity levels along the Pacific coast.

This diary is intended as something of a rant. Because this saddens me and makes my blood boil every time I think about it.

But before I vent, here’s a caveat: as I said in yesterday’s diary, 9/11 tore me apart. So this is by no means intended as a put-down of the trauma 9/11 survivors went through or a complaint about the well-deserved sympathy and support they’ve gotten.

Rather, what pisses me off is is the fact that survivors of 8/29–whether of Katrina, the federal flood, or of Rita–have not been receiving the equal aid, synpathy, or other treatment to that received by 9/11 survivors, that they deserve. What blueintheface brings up–the fact that Daily Kos hasn’t been paying enough attention to New Orleans and Katrina, is the tip of a very big iceberg involving the MSM and many politicians that has been keeping storm and flood survivors from getting the attention they have a right to receive.

The Urban Dictionary has accepted my definition for Fauxrage.

Cross-posted at Kos

Fauxrage: n. fo-rage., fô r?j?

Frenzy created by media or blogs to inflate a usually minor, perceived offense into a major scandal or continuing political event.

Congress, in a fit of fauxrage, passed a resolution condemning a newspaper ad about a General. The fauxrage was stoked primarily by Faux News.

We now observe fauxrage almost daily.  The endless loops of the good Rev. Wright provided the uber fauxrage of the campaign so far, but just recently, we had Republican and media fauxrage at:

Obama [compassionately] saying he wouldn’t punish his daughters by forcing them to have a baby.

Ed Schultz [accurately] calling McCain a “warmonger.”

A 16-year-old who [justifiably] asked McCain a question and was called a “heckler.”

Obama [sociologically] saying that bitter people cling to guns or religion.

Join me below for a Brief History of Fauxrage