Ringing Through the Night

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

At West Point last week, Obama said, “We’ll support Afghan ministries, governors, and local leaders that combat corruption and deliver for the people.  We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable.”  

David Broder must be freaking out.  It sounds like Obama is advising Afghans to exact retribution, engage in partisan witch hunts, have show trials, and turn their country into a banana republic.    

Why Is Obama Worried By Corruption in Afghanistan? . . .

Obama’s weakest position, in our view, has been his determination to “look forward, not backward” regarding the apparent crimes of the Bush administration. That stance has never made sense, and it makes even less sense now that Obama has announced plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan.

At the heart of the Obama plan is a push to root out corruption in Afghanistan. And that’s ironic because Obama has shown no interest in rooting out corruption here at home.   Why the surge in Afghanistan?  Obama hopes to stabilize the country and turn it over to the government of President Hamid Karzai. Unfortunately, the Karzai government is flagrantly corrupt, marked by cronyism and electoral fraud.

Sounds a lot like the Bush administration, doesn’t it?  But Obama wants Americans to forget all the pain that was inflicted upon our democracy over the past eight years.

If Obama actually gave a flying fuck about accountability, he’d bring the Predator drones home and fly them over Wall Street.  As soon as a corrupt CEO, banker, hedge fund manager or credit default swapper showed up in the street he’d get his ass blown to Hell.  Obama could call it winning the hearts and minds of the American people.  He could call it liberation. Francis Scott Key VII would see it from that Brooklyn homeless shelter he lives in and could write a song about it.  Here in the twilight’s last gleaming, we could finally get some useful results from our $900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 defense budget.

Maybe I’m missing something here . . .  Did the Taliban destroy our economy?  Is the Taliban looting our Treasury?  Did the Taliban take control of Congress?  Is the Taliban using it as a weapon against us? Who’s doing all that?  

We all know who’s doing that.  So does Obama.  But there won’t be any Predator drones over Wall Street.  He won’t have a Predator or two following Dick Cheney around either. He’d rather let Dick strut around like the greatest warrior of all time and call him a traitor every day of the week and twice on Fox News Sunday.    

I don’t remember Mr. Five Deferments being red, white, and blue to the bone when the Vietnam War was raging.  I don’t remember him joining the Army because he had no place to go, I don’t remember him landing in Kandahar with an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm. But he sure likes to give those warmongering speeches.   A fat man in a blue Mercedes drives him to the door, he pumps himself up like he’s Patton crossing the Rhine, scowls his message of endless war, and basks in the applause of every other psychopath in the room.    

Something about being a lying asshole all your life makes you hard that way.

Christmas is coming.  So put a candle in the window for peace.  

Light a candle for peace, light a candle for justice, light a candle for the 40,000 Americans who died during Obama’s first year as president because they had no health care, who died while he made back room deals with the drug companies, insurance companies and politicians who killed them, while he let Baucus and Conrad and Lieberman and Snowe and every Republican in the country make a mockery of their memory.

Despite the brilliance of Obama’s Lets All Kiss Wall Street’s Ass Strategy,  some of us don’t have a job, some of us don’t have a home.  Some of us are ill and may not be here next Christmas.  Light a candle for them too, and listen in the night for the answer.  Look above you for the answer.  It’s out there.  It’s always been out there.   Waiting for us to see it.

That’s not Christianity’s star, it’s not Islam’s star, it’s not Judaism’s star, it’s the Star of Peace, the Star of Wisdom, the Star of Justice.

Said the night wind to the little lamb,

Do you see what I see?

Way up in the sky little lamb.

Do you see what I see?

A star, a star,

Dancing in the night,

With its tail all aglow with light,

With its tail all aglow with light.

That star will guide us.  Its light guided Mahatma Ghandi, it guided Nelson Mandela, it guided Bobby Kennedy, it guided Martin Luther King Jr, it guided Paul Wellstone, it’s guided every seeker of wisdom, peace and justice, it led them to the truth, it gave them courage, it showed them the way.  

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,

Do you hear what I hear?

Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,

Do you hear what I hear?

A song, a song,

High above the trees,

With a voice as big as the sea,

With a voice as big as the sea . . .

It was the song of truth, peace and justice in those ancient days.  It’s still the song of truth, peace and justice.  It’s our song now.  It’s the song of progressive blogs.  Let it ring through the night so every American will hear it.  We are the voices America needs to hear, we must have voices as big as the sea if we are going to be heard.  We know the song, we know the words, we just need to crank up the volume, we need to crank it up so high it’ll still be echoing across this country a thousand years from now.  

As the voices of truth, as the shepherds of truth, we have a Christmas 2009 message for the last king of AIG, the last king of Goldman Sachs, the last king of Halliburton, the last kings of K Street, the last kings of that corporate castle with the dome on top that used to be the Congress of the American people . . .  

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,

Do you know what I know?

In your palace warm mighty king?

Do you know what I know?

You are going down.

You will be held accountable.

There will be justice.

We will tell America that.

With a voice as big as the sea.

In Boston, in Philadelphia,

In every city across this land,

A child, a child,

Shivers in the cold,

While you lust for more power and gold,

While you lust for more power and gold.

Let us say to the people everywhere,

Listen to what we say.

Seek justice, people everywhere.

Listen to what we say.

Teach your children well everywhere.  Teach them honesty, teach them integrity, teach them the truth, tell them honesty matters, tell them integrity matters, tell them the truth matters, tell them The Truth Is Too Big To Fail.  Tell them to remember that, tell them you’re counting on them to remember that, tell them the future of the world depends on them.  If you do that . . .

The children, the children,

Sleeping in the night,

They will bring us goodness and light,

They will bring us goodness and light.

The world’s children,

Sleeping in the night.

They will bring us goodness and light . . .

And these years of shame and corruption will pass away, these years or war and exploitation will be over, these years of deceit and degradation will end.