"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Bush: Gonna Give it to Ya

First he's gonna BOMB, then he's gonna ROLL... Bush gonna give it to ya...

My god-dammed irritable and petulant head of state addressed the world today, cutting off Henry Kissenger giving his analysis -- cold, insightful, the kind only a war criminal can proffer -- in the CNN pregame show. The most quoted line is the "moment of truth" soundbyte, but to me the really interesting stuff was the candid responses on the margins, like when he jumped in on top of Jose Maria Aznar (the Spanisn PM), eventually apologizing, or when he uttered the phrases "the wars of the 21st Century are going to require a lot of international cooperaion," and "it's important for the U.N. to be able to function well if we're
going to keep the peace," in consecutive breaths.

"The wars of the 21st Century," and "if we're going to keep the peace." I think I'm going to pop a blood vessel. Notice the plural on wars. Wars. This really is prepetual war for prepetual peace.

If you want a reaction for a Portugese blogger, it's here. God bless the internet. She also give a link to the complete transcript of the affair, if you're interested.

As I said to Frank, there's nothing worse than a fucking spoiled rich kid from fucking Connecticut, flunks his way through Yale on some gentlemen's Cs, then takes his trust fund out to Texas and decides he's a damn cowboy, comes back East and is tryin' to tell y'all what it's all about. He didn't learn shit about being a cowboy out there; he learned how to be a failed oilman, a baseball team owner, and backroom dealmaker. These people have got to go! They're a pack of cheaters who've been taken in by some very delusional academics, are blatantly using fear to achieve their ends, are comfortable making public statements that can't be trusted any further than they can be thrown, and they're got my future in their hands. Let me tell you, I don't like their brand of business. They're people who are valuable because they can "make things happen," not because they have any real bright ideas about the world. It's frightening.

Sometime this week, we will have officially failed to prevent a war. The question now is where are we directing our energy next?

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A Scathing Indictment

If you've never read Dear Raed, today is the day to start. This blog is updated from within Baghdad by an Iraqi citizen, and his writing is precise and insightful. Today's entry is a scathing indictment of the international dumb-show that has more or less destroyed his country lead us to the brink of war.

What is bringing on this rant is the question that has been bugging for days now: how could “support democracy in Iraq” become to mean “bomb the hell out of Iraq”? why did it end up that democracy won’t happen unless we go thru war? Nobody minded an un-democratic Iraq for a very long time, now people have decided to bomb us to democracy? Well, thank you! how thoughtful.

The rest of it is even better. Salam takes on the sanction, the rise of fundimentalism and tribalism, and basically takes the west to task for half-assing his country to death. It's on the money. If there's anything that Afghanistan, Iraq and N. Korea can tell us is that's when you isolate nations, leave them without hope and let them marinate in dispair and lies, bad things happen. That was also the lession of Post-WWI Germany too, now that I think of it, but I've called a truce on any Hitler-related analogies, so I'll let that one lie. What we need now is a strident policy of engagement, a worldwide program to promote peristroyka. Instead we've got the Cowboy in Cheif, alienating the world and embittering people against us with his policy of violence.

Direct engagement can work. It's what about the demise of the USSR... flood the black market with American Culture, drop the punative sanctions, keep up inspections to keep Hussein on his toes, contain, deter, engage, and most of all let the people prosper again. When the people are strong and can support themselves, they will be able to cast off the shackles of dictatorship. This goes for Cuba too, by the way. Punative sanctions keep dictators in power -- they keep populations weak and provide dictators with endless excuses for hardship. Indigenous progress towards democracy is possible. It's happening in Iran right now, though Bush set that movement back about 5 years with that Axis of Evil bullshit, and now they're geting (justifiably) paranoid that they're going to be next. If only we had someone who could see this, who wanted to really be involved in ushering in a new era of progress and prosperity rather than just being the biggest kid on the playground and consolidating his power. It's tough time to be an American.

In other news, I'm in search of our contender for 2004. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these people have had their way long enough. It's time for them to go. If you've got ideas on who I should back and how I should back them for 2004, please chime in.

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Straight Talk

The news is the news, same as it ever was. People are protesting, and people are counter-protesting the protesters. It's America, it's democracy, it's kind of beautiful in all it's contradictions and inconsistancies. I was talking with my friend Kate last night about how depressing the state of journalism is, how the press has slowly become just another impotent institution mired in the tar-pit of corporate America. We talked about how the talking-head anchors sound so different from people in the field, how interviews are almost indistinguishable from one-on-one press conferences, how toothless everything seems to be. We lament the death of integrity, of guts, of good old honest muckraking.

The President (gasp!) left the house to go pow-wow with his war buddies on an Air Force base off the coast of Portugal. It's another one of the things that annoys me so about Bush, his seeming belief that he can get diplomatic traction though a few phone calls and one speech at the UN. It smacks of pampered rich-boy spoiledness. The thought that getting a coalition for war together might involve lots of hard work and travel never seems to have crossed his mind. Now it looks like they're trying to plan the big move, "I flew all the way over here, now let's fucking roll." You know it's not really about the UN, because if it were they'd at least have buddy-buddy Bulgeria in on the talks, if not also a number of the swing voter nations. No, this is about how to get around the UNSC, not go through it.

The prez is in a real bind. They're not getting a resolution. Blair can't back Bush up 100% without one or he'll face the very real prospect of going the way of Marge Thatcher, booted out of office by his own party to stem a popular revolt. Going in without Britan makes us look even more like cowboys than we are, a fact that people here are finally starting to wake up and realize is a bad thing. Sure, there's been a surge of chauvinistic nationalism -- mostly directed at the French -- but the smart money says going it alone -- now almost literally -- is probably not going to get us a happy outcome. It's a recipie for quagmire. I think we're to blame here for starting the diplomatic pissing contest, though the resistance has also solidified to an undreasonable degree. In any case, we've reached an impasse, and unless someone comes up with something truly innovative, there's a train wreck in the offing.

And me personally? I'm going to the candlelight vigil, I'm going to the march next week, but I've accepted that the war is probably going to happen. I hope it's quick and as painless as possible. I hope the Iraqi army surrenders and Saddam flees the country. I hope it's over in a week and no one gets hurt. I'm not too optimistic about any of this, but I'm not cynical to hope it goes bad just so my resistance will be vindicated.

The bottom line though is that these people have got to go. They've had their way for quite long enough, and I want my damn country back. I'm going to be active and pragmatic in 2004 (anyone but Leiberman, please!). Also, the Republican National Convention is going to be here. You're coming to my town, bitches? Wave your flags and dance on some graves? Well this time it's personal; you gonna hear from this cat. Frank and I are resolved to make a scene.

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Depressing Reading

Much as I'd like to believe there's some light at the end of this tunnel, it appears that there is not. Christopher at Back to Iraq has a piercing analysis of the diplomatic situation, and a depressingly accurate (to my eyes) assessment of the likely outcomes.

This isn’t the start of World War III, it’s the start of World War I — a very stupid war, started thanks to a tangle of alliances, national pride and personal egos involved. It never had to happen...

...When it’s over and the dust has settled, the United States will stand supreme in the world, powerful but hated, its boot on the throat of Iraq. The international frameworks built over the last 50 years, including the United Nations, will lie in ruins or will be about to collapse. Resentful young men, hearts full of fear, hate and Allah will find refuge and a raison d’etre as explosive martyrs. The world will be less safe — for everyone. And thousands of people — soldiers, civilians, innocent or not — will be dead. And for no good reason at all.

The whole thing is here.

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NYC Opposes War

Bam! NYC opposes war with Iraq in a City Council resolution that just passed, albiet with some softer language that other cities have used. My representitive, David Yassky was one of the primary sponsors. Now if only this would prevent the administration from using our tragedy as a conver for their aggression...

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You Can't Make this Up

So there's been all this noise about the Big Bad Scary Iraqi BioWarfare Drone, yeah? Turns out it's made of balsa-wood and duct tape, with an eyesight-guided range of 5 miles. Seriously. Not only that, but the original declaration did include the drone, but misstated the wingspan by 10 feet. A subsequent letter from Iraq clarified this w/inspectors. No kidding. Salon.com breaks the story.

And here's a laugh-out-loud user comment from the blog that turned me on (daily kos):

Why wouldn't the Iraqis just go ahead and attack us with the small balsa wood gliders that are powered by rubber bands? They could strap a vial of some sort of chemical agent to the underside and let 'em go. Of course, if the wind shifted, the planes could crash on their helmets, thereby creating a friendly fire incident. Or, how about those rockets you pump up creating water pressure and then releasing the rocket. Maybe you could put a small warhead on one of those. In fact, just yesterday I saw someone of Middle Eastern origin in the toy isle at WalMart...

Welcome to Dick Cheney's America, where the WallMart greeters are watching you!

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McCain Sells Out

Heavy blogging, I know. What can I say. Coffee!

But let's get right down to the point, Fuck You, John McCain. I used to like you and your straight talk. I used to think you stood for something, but it looks like you're falling into line, just like every other spineless GOP toadie. Come on man! Listen to this bullshit he got published in todays NYT:

The main contention is that we have not exhausted all nonviolent means to encourage Iraq's disarmament. They have a point, if to not exhaust means that America will not tolerate the failure of nonviolent means indefinitely.

This is complete doublespeak. Nonviolent means resulted in the destruction of hundreds of thousands of munitions and thousands of tons of chemical and biological agents as well as the dismantling of their nuclear program. If we hadn't been using the UNSCOM team to spy for the Pentagon, they might have gotten even more done. Nonviolent means have by no means "failed." Iraq has not attacked America or any other nations with or without WMD since inspections began in 1991. That's success, people.

These critics also object because our weapons do not discriminate between combatants and noncombatants. Did the much less discriminating bombs dropped on Berlin and Tokyo in World War II make that conflict unjust?

Let's ignore for a second the absolutely luidicrous assertion that the military and moral imperative of stopping Nazism and imperial Japan equates with disarming Iraq and remember that what we did to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin were absolutely awful things that may or may not have had anything to do with winning the war. Then let's stop ignoring the fact that the analogy is ridiculous. By Mr. McCain's logic, why not just nuke Baghdad? I know it won't be such a boon to Northrop and Boeing (3,000 cruse missiles is $3 billion in their pockets) but it sure would show those damn A-Rabs we mean business. Again, I can't believe he's actually saying this.

Many critics suggest that disarming Iraq through regime change would not result in an improved peace. There are risks in this endeavor, to be sure. But no one can plausibly argue that ridding the world of Saddam Hussein will not significantly improve the stability of the region and the security of American interests and values.

What? What!? No one can argue that Saddam magically disappearing wouldn't be a good thing. However, there are many many very plausable arguments suggesting that a US invasion could radically destabilize the region in very bad and unpredictable ways. McCain is either grossly underinformed, or is spouting pure and unadulterated lies to rally support for the war.

Isn't it more likely that antipathy toward the United States in the Islamic world might diminish amid the demonstrations of jubilant Iraqis celebrating the end of a regime that has few equals in its ruthlessness?

John, did you let Wolfie slip you a happy pill? I don't doubt that the surviving Iraqis will be glad to be out from under Saddam's thumb, but people don't dance in the streets for you after 3 days of non-stop ariel bombardment. People don't cheer you when you killed their brother/sister/mother/father/grandma/lover/friend. People don't cheer for you when your sanctions regime has resulted in outbreaks of polio because your government isn't allowed to import chlorine to purify the water. And don't doubt for a second that there won't be teams of terrorist recruiters there to photograph all the carnage, or that Saddam won't take steps to make things even worse than they already are. This is not going to make us look good to the rest of the Islamic world.

I used to think John McCain was a straight-talker with a true grasp of military realities. Looks like I was wrong.

(Sorry for all the cursing. It's getting to the point where I honestly feel explitives are needed for me to adequately express my outrage.)

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Anti-War Tracks/Polling Data

The Beasties have dropped a new jam. You can get it for free if you get through, though I'm betting it's all over gnutella by now. I listened to the streamed version, pretty strident. Shout out to A-Stock for the link.

George Bush you’re looking like Zoolander
Trying to play tough for the camera
What am I on crazy pills? We’ve got to stop it
Get your hand out my grandma’s pocket
We need health care more than going to war
You think it’s democracy they’re fighting for?

This is exciting. I hope it gets some top 40s airplay. When popular musicians start making anti-war jams, it will be a good time for the peace movement.

Also, in answer to the $64,000 question, Americans once again proove themselves to be grossly misinformed. Let's all say it together, one more time: Saddam Hussein had no connection to 9-11. He's a bad man and was probably happy that it happened, but he didn't have any involvement in planning it. Maybe if I just repeat this enough people will get it.

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Blogs Over Bhagdad

In a narccistic hunt for those who've linked to me, I turned up this blog (restlesslord) which seems to be an older gentleman in the UK having a romance with at 20-year-old woman in New York. No idea how he found me, but that's part of the intrigue of the 'net, innit? I was thinking, gee, what a neat little thing to find out until I found in this person's blogroll, the most important thing I ever seen on the internet.

His blogroll contained this site, which (unless it's a troll) is being blogged from within Iraq! Amazing! It seems legitimate and it's the most astounding thing I've found online. Ever. Go read now, and tell all your friends.

This, by the way, is the real promise of the internet, folks: if we can meaningfully and culturally interconnect enough people in enough countries, future wars based on disinformation and manipulation by the elite of one nation vs another should be pretty hard to pull off. Anyone know of any other Iraqi blogs?

Jeeszus fucking christ. The more I read of this the sicker I feel. Check the comments sections. Oh God, what the hell are we doing?

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Coming Around

It seems that people are coming around to the fact that the 9-11 justification for war is utter and complete bullshit. There's a nice article in Salon (day pass BS notwithstanding) which makes a rather logical case for diallowing the use of September 11th as any real reason for war, and also makes the salient point that the real people behind this idea (Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheany, et al) have been chomping at the bit to do this for more than 10 years.

Allow me to make a less logical argument on this point. THE USE OF 9-11 AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR IN IRAQ IS AN AFFRONT TO HUMAN DECENCY. IT IS MANIPULATION AT ITS MOST CRAVEN AND MALIGNANT, AND SICKENS ME ON A PERSONAL LEVEL. I've written before about how the way in which the government and media handled the anniversary was not to my liking, but I tend to stay away from how it's specifically being used as a goad for war. I stay away because this tends to stir up very ugly feelings in my heart, feelings of physical violence and visceral hatred towards those who are callous and frankly evil enough to use it as such. I become highly agitated, angry and irrational. Sometimes I feel like crying. No one I know was killed in the attacks, yet I was there. I am a New Yorker, and a part of that tragedy belongs to me. The fact that it is so blatantly and falsely being used as a fear-generating tactic and as an excuse to unleash the horrors of war on an unrelated people literally nauseates me. These lying, murdering motherfuckers have got to go.

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