McShame/Wailin'

Okay, even though I am officially endorsing Nader/Gonzales and refusing to sell myself out to the Corporate Dems, I am still fearful that chronic prick McCain and his fascist bimbo sidekick Palin will delude white middle and upper class bourgeois backwards assholes into voting for them, or, worse but even more likely, manage to pilfer another election. So while I am certainly mindful of staying pure to my values - i.e., voting for the candidate who mirrors my conscience - I am also aware of how much better an Obama admin would be, at least in terms of the progressive MOVEMENT that is behind him.

That said, I ain't gonna taint my vote, so don't even go there.

McSame is bad enough, but Palin is truly scary, and together they make a toxic team.

This country is sliding further and further into the fascist vortex. With all that transpired at the RNC and even DNC (scary police state tactics), it's any wonder we haven't had all-out riots. I think it's only a matter of time. And while I don't endorse violence, I do ascertain the purpose and power of popular uprisings, and I am excessively hopeful that a peaceful populist movement can germinate to counteract the poisonous events of these last 8 years.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE, YO!

EGG FUCKING ZACKLY

FUCK BUSHCHENEYRICE AXIS OF EVIL!

IMPEACH!

THIS JUST IN!

Clockwise Cat is endorsing



Any bitterly bemused Democrats (is there any other kind?) can kiss my right buttcheek! And then kiss the other one, but I'm warning you: it's not half as flavorful as the right one.

Seriously, though; I've thought it over long and hard (mmmm...long and hard) and come to the clever conclusion that if I am going to vociferously stand for progressive principles, then I damn well better put my moolah where my mouth is. Obama is only 1/4 progressive (and don't get me started on Hillary); otherwise he panders to the right like the rest of 'em. Gimme a REAL progressive ala Dennis Kucinich or Ralph Nader ANY day!

We don't need no half-baked faux-progressive runnin' things, cuz that's nearly as deadly as the neo-cons. In the case of Bill Clinton, this was true, and it would be in the case of Obama as well.

Check out Nader's dauntless progressive platform at Vote Nader.

Also, if you're up to it (or down on it), rent "An Unreasonable Man" and see for yourself WHY Nader did NOT lose the 2000 election for Gore!

Suck on that, SUKAZ!

Snowpeople for Kucinich

Reality check

Cost of War

Hello Dalai

I just came back from seeing the Dalai Lama speak here in Atlanta. He has been offered a professorship at Emory University, and so he's been in town for that. There is an Emory-Tibetan Buddhist alliance, has been for years, and it's only recently strengthened with the DL accepting the professorship.

The talk he gave was, of course, incredibly, profoundly moving. I am still basking in his glow - he radiates pure peace, and humility. He is 1000% genuine - no act at all. His sense of humor, childlike charm, humility, peaceful persona, erudition, and pure PRESENCE of mind are deeply inspiring. I was moved to tears several times during his talk, and the audience was held enthralled by his very elegant, simple, POWERFUL message of inner peace and world peace. There's no cliche, and no pedantic agenda in his speech. He radiates warmth and hope and humility. I urge EVERYONE to see him talk if you have the chance, and barring that, rent a video of him speaking. He will transform you if you open your heart and mind to his words.

The thesis of his speech was the necessity of cultivating inner peace, and how we must disarm internally before we can disarm externally. We must dismantle internal weapons of hatred, jealousy, and anger in order to manifest peace outwardly toward other people, and countries.

He also touched on religious harmony, and the necessity of interfaith dialogue in order to strengthen one's own spiritual practice.

Years ago I was transformed by the teachings of Buddhism. I practiced Buddhism for a while somewhat formally.

Then I decided I was better off gleaning wisdom from Buddhist and other teachings on my own, away from Dharma Centers and churches the like. I am fully happy being a spiritual person in my own way.

But the Dalai Lama's speech bolsters my unwavering committment to peace and justice, and I realize that I must tenaciously practice peace within myself in order to push for external peace.

The only candidate worth a good goddamn

Holy White Supremacy, Batman! It's the 1950s all over again!

David DuKKKe (Duke of Puke?) is supporting the would-be lynchers in the Jena 6 fiasco.

FREE THE JENA 6!

Good god I'm scared of this country.

Would you pay out of pocket for this?

From True Majority and various media outlets:

Mercenaries paid with our tax dollars opened fire on Iraqi civilians over the weekend. They killed 8 people and shot 13 more.

"They are untouchable," one private soldier told the Los Angeles Times. "They've shot up other private security contractors, Iraqi military, police and civilians."

Now the Iraqi government has had enough, and has ordered Blackwater to stop work in the country. This morning the Iraqi Prime Minister demanded the U.S. use someone else to guard their VIP's.2 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised an investigation, but that's not enough.

Tell Sec. of State Rice to stop using hired mercenaries as state department guards:

http://act.truemajorityaction.org/o/2/t/50/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=22

Most of Blackwater's work is guarding officials from the State Department. They are among the most high-profile mercenaries working in Iraq, but hardly the only ones. An astounding 120,000 "private security contractors" are in Iraq, 48,000 of them working as combat soldiers.3 They get paid far more than real soldiers, their deaths are not included in the official casualty counts, and they are essentially accountable to no one, according to state department officials.

This is still America. We can't hire mercenaries to fire on civilians with no accountability.

----------------------------


If your answer is no, then GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS AND DO SOMETHING! That's YOUR tax dollars at work, funding mercenaries who have NO ACCOUNTABILITY to anyone but themselves, and who kill at will with little disregard for the consequences.

Really, if you still doubt that we are living under a burgeoning totalitarian regime (one that most Democrats gleefully uphold, and will continue to uphold, because it's in their interests to do so), then you are a pathetic part of the problem. Real democracies do not countenance mercernary activity. Real democracies do not even consider courting mercenaries.

REAL democracies do not SUCK like American government does.

Blood on our hands

1.2 million Iraqi citizens have perished in the war, according to a new study, which reports that this death count exceeds that of the Rwanda genocide in 1994, when 800,000 were murdered.

In addition, more than one million Iraqis have been injured, and 48% of the millions of Iraqis who have fled their neighborhoods have crossed the borders into places like Syria.

Kidnappers and Torturers R US!

This warms my heart.

From Alternet.org:

With Iraqi industry all but collapsed, one of the only local businesses booming is kidnapping. Over just three and a half months in early 2006, nearly 20,000 people were kidnapped in Iraq. The only time the international media pays attention is when a westerner is taken, but the vast majority of abductions are Iraqi professionals, grabbed as they travel to and from work. Their families either come up with tens of thousands in US dollars for the ransom money or identify their bodies at the morgue. Torture has also emerged as a thriving industry. Human rights groups have documented numerous cases of Iraqi police demanding thousands of dollars from the families of prisoners in exchange for a halt to torture. It is Iraq's own domestic version of disaster capitalism.

Demockery epiphany

I had an epiphany today as I was reading an article about Guilani and Hillary, and how each are exploiting the September 11th tragedy for political advantage. It made me sick to read how these cretins could be so cold and callow, and it made me realize that I do NOT want to partake in this MOCKERY of Democracy any longer.

Since I was 18, I have faithfully shown up at the polls on election day to vote. But for what, exactly? Our votes DON'T COUNT, thanks to the antiquated electoral college, as well as to paperless, malfunctioning, manipulated voting machines. And besides, the choice is always down to two evil morons who are loyal ONLY to big business interests, and never to the people interests. The elections are controlled by the corporate-owned media to the point that we can NEVER have a candidate who represents TRUE social democracy of the sort that benefits everyone and that evolves humane solutions to complex problems.

So I have made a pledge to myself that I will do this: I will vote for Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary. If he fails to get the nomination, then I will simply not vote in the actual election. And in the future, I will vote ONLY if a peaceful, reasonable candidate like Ralph Nader or Dennis Kucinich is in the running.

Otherwise, count me the fuck out.

I don't care what anyone says - it's all one big stinking lie.

How's that wacky war in Iraq doing, anyway?

With General Patreus' impending testimony to congress about "progess" in Iraq, I thought it'd be interesting to analyze just how that wacky war is going. Below, my brief interview with the Iraq War:

Me: Iraq War, nice to meet you.
Iraq War: KABOOM!
Me: Oops, are you okay?
Iraq War: Just 500 civlians dead in the latest blast, that's all. Added to the 600,000 civlians already dead, of course. But who's counting?
Me: So how's it goin' otherwise?
Iraq War: (weeping hysterically) Just watching as 4 million refugees are streaming out of the country, that's all.
Me: So what about those who stayed behind to brave the daily blasts and horrific urban warfare?
Iraq War: bzzzzzzzbzzzzzzzkeeeeeeeeeek
Me: What was that?
Iraq War: Just the Baghdad power grid failing for the 5th time today.
Me: Hey, it's hot here, and I'm thirsty. Can I have some water?
Iraq War: Sorry, no clean drinking water supplies.
Me: So where are all the children, anyway?
Iraq War: Hiding inside. They don't come out to play or go to school much these days. Too dangerous, plus many of the schools are destroyed.
Me: That's too bad. But other than that, the war is going well, right? Lots of progress, I hear.
Iraq War: KABOOM!



But hey, at least Dennis Kucinich gives a shit about peace:

Report from the Middle East


While the other leading candidates for the Presidency were spending the Labor Day weekend campaigning at picnics, barbeques, state and county fairs, and parading in front of the cameras, YOUR candidate, Dennis Kucinich, without fanfare, was quietly traveling throughout the troubled Middle East in search of real-world solutions to monumental, global challenges.

The votes we cast next year will have an impact here in the United States and around the world, and the candidate we elect must be equipped to make sound foreign policy decisions, based on first hand experience and in-person communications with other world leaders.

So, while other candidates partied and picnicked and posed, Dennis and Elizabeth traveled to a troubled, dangerous region of the world to meet with heads of state and other political leaders to find ways to solve the problems, mitigate the dangers, and find common ground for diplomatic cooperation - and PEACE.

"Strength through Peace" - the Kucinich philosophy - means direct engagement, diplomacy, adherence to international law and upholding treaties. It was in that spirit that Dennis and Elizabeth decided to visit the Middle East; to see whether political and religious leaders as well as the citizens of the region were open to the kind of positive dialogue recommended in the Baker Hamilton report. The kind of dialogue ignored and dismissed by the White House.

Read the rest of the story here.

Lambasting Bush, Family Guy style

If you're a regular reader of my webzine, Clockwise Cat, then you know I am a huge fan of satire. Satire's stinging sardonic style (seems I'm a bit drunk on alliteration, eh?) is the perfect antidote to suicidal tendencies. In other words, if you're so mired in misery that you're tending toward self-homicide, satire might just lift you out of your funk by showing you the comedy in tragedy. True, the comedy is of the bitter variety rather than the pabulum sort, but still.

So anyway, one of my favorite satirical TV shows is Family Guy. It can get a bit crass at times (and sometimes the satirical sexism backfires - more about that later), but mostly it's just hilarious humor that mocks the inanity of society and life.

In this montage of clips, Family Guy makes vicious fun of Commander-in-Thief Bush. Granted, he's an easy target, but then, he deserves it, the fascist fuck.

Sexism ain't sexy

I was re-reading some of my earlier posts (well, *someone's* gotta read my posts), and I got stuck on my post about sexism against women in ancient Greece.

Sexism against women exists still, to this day, and if you don't believe me, fuck off.

Seriously, sexism is still rampant, even in the western world, and of course in the eastern world.

Look for upcoming posts about sexism against women - and even a few about sexism against men, which is an egregious offense all its own.

Disaster, Inc. Part IV

And from the ACLU :

On Katrina's Second Anniversary, Ongoing Civil and Human Rights Violations on the Gulf Coast Still Reported

A new report by the ACLU, Broken Promises: Two Years After Katrina, exposes numerous civil rights violations that have occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi since the storm, including reports of heightened racially motivated police activity, housing discrimination, and prisoner abuse.

"Politicians made promises, but they failed to fix the problems that Katrina's fury made painfully clear,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “The government must be held accountable for its mistakes rather than allowed to perpetuate the systemic racism and discrimination that only added strength to the storm."

The report highlights the ongoing abuses since the storm, including:

Violence and neglect run rampant behind the walls of the jails. Some conditions in the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) have even worsened since last year. The House of Detention, the largest of four jail buildings reopened since the storm, is severely overcrowded and conditions are squalid. Prisoners are forced to sleep on the floor without mattresses for weeks at a time in areas where up to 18 prisoners are held in cells designed for 10 people. There is no air-conditioning in most of the overcrowded facility despite excessive heat. These inhumane and dangerous conditions are exacerbated by severe understaffing at the jail.

Medical and mental health services at the jails are grossly inadequate. There reportedly have been several recent outbreaks of "staph" infections, a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease caused by filth and unsanitary conditions, and efforts to provide treatment are deficient.

Prisoners who are identified as needing mental health care after being taken into custody have been sent to a unit where they are strapped down to a bed in five-point restraints. The ACLU has received reports of prisoners being left there, largely unsupervised, for days at a time without any breaks, even to use the restroom.

In light of the findings in the report, Congress should pass legislation to address post-Katrina injustices, including racial profiling, voter disenfranchisement, and the dearth of health care facilities and low-income housing. The Department of Justice should investigate severe problems at OPP, the New Orleans jail system where prisoners were abandoned during the storm.

Disaster, Inc. Part III

This, too, gives me hope.

Brave New Films has made a short but heartbreaking video about the ongoing disaster, When the Saints Go Marching In.

At the conclusion of the film, it urges us to support The Gulf Coast Recovery Act. Sign the petition to do so.

And here is a brief letter written by Brave New Films:

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and still there are tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt.

During the making of this video, we heard the heartbreaking stories of good people unable to return home. We have heard the story of the Aguilar family who lost their home to the storm and only received $4,000 in payments from their insurance company. We have met Mr. Washington, an 87-year-old man and former carpenter, who owned three homes prior to the storm. He is still living in a FEMA trailer today. And we've met Julie, who could have returned to her job and normal life, if the government had opened up the public housing units that she had lived in prior to the storm.

Disaster, Inc. Part II

The heartening part of it all - if there IS a slice of optimism to be discerned amidst the devastation - is that there are a few groups who are clamoring for change in the way that the Katrina aftermath is being handled.

From Campaign for America's Future:

Conservatism Disconnected

The Gulf Coast is still struggling to rebuild and recover, while conservative policies ensure that critical infrastructure and services will continue to be neglected. Write your local paper and inform your community how conservatism is eroding America’s foundations.

Seventeen days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and fifteen days after he ended his vacation, President Bush addressed the nation from New Orleans. He urged the displaced to call a toll-free number “and we will work to bring your family back together.”

Call that number today and you’ll find the line disconnected. Sadly, not surprising.

As we approach the second anniversary of the brutal storm, we still have hundreds of thousands of displaced Americans who have still not been able to rejoin their families in New Orleans -- and many others unable to get help with housing or jobs. White House promises made to them were broken, and it’s up to us to hold accountable those who failed to keep their word.

That’s what this week's observance of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina must be about, if we are to not only rebuild the Gulf Coast, but also rebuild all of America.

Because this is not simply about assailing the incompetence of President Bush and his band of hacks. This is about how the conservative ideology is eroding the foundations of our great country.

From our bridges to our mines to our beloved home of jazz, conservative hatred of responsible government has led to crumbling institutions that have cut short the lives of too many. Unless we speak out and identify the problem, we won’t be able to implement solutions that will restore our infrastructure and revitalize our cities.

At Campaign for America’s Future, we’re doing our part during this week of solemn remembrance.

We’ve released a new video dramatically showing how Washington conservatives are disconnected from the harsh reality that Katrina’s victims are still living.

All week at our blog The Big Con, we’re chronicling how conservatism is at the root of what still ails the Gulf Coast.

And we’ve set up a web page where you can easily send letters to the editor and relay the facts to your community.

After Katrina, a leading congressman said the plan was to bring “conservative, free-market ideas to the Gulf Coast.” They did, and we’ve seen the results.

Less affordable housing. Fewer schools. Less water. Fewer buses. Less medical care. Fewer African-Americans that can come home and exercise their right to vote.

A disaster-relief agency that has served as a dumping-ground for political cronies.

And lots of no-bid contracts and wasted taxpayer dollars.

We cannot allow conservatism to continue to plague New Orleans and the rest of America. Let’s make our voices heard this week, and help get our nation back on solid ground.

Sincerely,


Roger Hickey, Co-Director
Campaign for America’s Future

Disaster, Inc.

Have I even written about the Katrina disaster yet? If not, mea culpa, and I am deeply chagrined. The way the Katrina aftermath was handled is one of the many fiascos (among the whole huge bewildering mass) that Bush, Cheney, et al. should be impeached (and incinerated) for, and one of the many tragic situations that should be dominating the media, but which sadly and outrageously is not.

Anyway, the Katrina situation is STILL raging, because the government, fascist sick government that it is, is refusing to grant lower income people their RIGHT TO RETURN to New Orleans, and instead are using money that is RIGHTFULLY the victims' to remake the city into a Vegas-style tourist trap. It's happening along the Gulf Coast, too - instead of helping to house people, they are buidling casinos to lure in the tourists. Poor folk be damned - as usual.

It's yet another example of how America is being re-fashioned into a Haiti-like nightmare of huge income disparities. America is third-world-izing right before our very eyes. If you are in any doubt whatsoever, you are not paying attention, and have a lot of catching up to do. Get crackin'.

And none of us are safe from the egregious greed shown by the tyrants and corporations who control our country; middle class folks are already being financially impacted, and even the richest among us will eventually pay, spiritually and emotionally, for the sickening sins of the corporate totalitarians.

Watch a heart-wrenching video about it here:

Voices from the Gulf

And here is the excellent site of a movement that advocates for Katrina victims' rights, among other civil rights:

Color of Change

This just in:

The world is still fucked up. Boo world!