Utopia 2025

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were “German dogs.” They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The minute that someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means.

-Molly Ivins, “Put up or shut up,” 1/22/06

I don’t support Hillary Clinton either, Molly. Hillary’s always struck me as the worst sort of pandering, triangulating, which-way-is-the-wind-blowing sort of politician. And it disgusts me that the crapweasel right is able to paint Cindy Sheehan as “the left” simply because of the vacuum on the left side of the aisle.

Why doesn’t anyone have the courage of their convictions? Most Americans *don’t* support this President or his war, but yet all we get is Joe Lieberman doing his Droopy Dog impression on Meet the Press. That’s maddening.

Like women in the corporate world, progressives have to be 10 times better than the ruling right in order to be considered equal. But with this crowd, why is that so hard?

Glenn Greenwald has his own (perhaps more cogent and relevant) take on my “what are the odds?” post from a while back.

Putting the terrorist threat into perspective

An eye-opening contrast from Glenn’s article:

The total number of Americans killed by Islamic terrorists in the last 5 years — or 10 years — or 20 years — or ever — is roughly 3,500, the same number of deaths by suicide which occur in this country every month. This is the overarching threat around which we are constructing our entire foreign policy, changing the basic principles of our government, and fundamentally altering both our behavior in the world and the way in which we are perceived.

“Bin Laden was a self-mythologized figure of no historic standing until George W. Bush designated him America’s equal by defining 9/11 as an act of war to be met with war, instead of a crime to be met with criminal justice.”

-James Carroll, The Boston Globe, Jan. 30, 2006

This quote got me thinking again about being “at war,” and the President being a “war President.” The bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was an act of terrorism carried out by a small group of people in order to effect political change. So were the attacks of 9/11. Why was one an act of war, and the other not?

Exercising my infamous hyperbole, why didn’t we bomb wherever we thought McVeigh’s associates could be hiding? Why didn’t we round up all their families and associates, and imprison them without representation at secret sites until they divulged all they knew? Why wasn’t the OKC bombing the beginning of the “War on Anti-Government Extremism”? This of course would result in the routing and killing of hundreds of militia members across the nation. After all, their anti-government views are an imminent danger to the society.

Why didn’t this happen? Where’s the difference?

UPDATE: More thought-provoking stuff on war here and here at Digby’s place. One snippet:

The fevered one-handed war blogging and the endless evocations of pre-9/11 and post 9/11 thinking reminds me of nothing so much as people who are hooked on a stimulating drug.

“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” [Ann] Coulter said. “That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”

And when Bill O’Reilly called for terrorists to bomb San Francisco, that was a joke too. I guess conservatives can say whatever insane, vile things they want, as long as they chuckle with that creepy GWB chuckle and say, “Just a joke, folks. When I said I wanted you dead, hey, that was just a joke! Don’t you have a sense of humor, you fascist?”

The word “fuckers” is losing its effectiveness when describing these people, sort of like an antibiotic that’s been overwhelmed by a new strain of ebola. I need a new word.

9/11.
Iraq.
Hard work.

9/11.

Thank you and good night.

Troops don’t need all that stinkin’ armor! It’s too heavy! Weighs ya down. (Those armored Humvees are probably a waste as well. Maybe we could use Ford Escorts? A real warrior doesn’t need a metal cage to protect him, am I right?)

It’s official. There is no depth to which Bush blowjobbers like Dean Esmay will not sink to defend the immoral, criminal policies of this administration. My “ritual puppy slaughter” and August Pollack’s “Dead Kitten Survey” don’t go far enough.

As Joey Tribbiani said, “You are so over the line that you can’t even see the line. The line is a dot to you.”

UPDATE: My father didn’t want to wear his seat belt, because it was uncomfortable across his giant belly. Therefore, we should get rid of all seat belts, right? That’s the cultists’ “logic” on this. Of course, it’s not really logic. It’s just craven talking points designed to exonerate Bush and Rumsfeld from any responsibility in how they run the war they started. Fuckers.

I love August Pollak. And it appears that he and I are on the same wavelength.

Al Gore. Wow. Read the whole thing.

I hope Al Gore runs for President. And I hope he kicks Hillary’s ass.

Since 9/11, Americans have been gripped with an almost all-consuming fear of terrorism. I’m convinced that this is the reason so many people are willing to let their government do virtually anything, as long as it’s ostensibly done in the name of Fighting Terrorists.

(To any pro-Bush people who might be reading this, my question is, how far is too far? What could the government do that would be too extreme for you? As a society right now we seem basically comfortable with torture, imprisonment without representation, curtailing press freedoms, and warrantless spying on American citizens. What exactly is left?)

The thing is, your chances of getting killed by a terrorist on American soil are almost laughably small. You’re 1,300 times more likely to die at the hands of a cigarette than a terrorist. 1,300.

But let’s take a more realistic example. You’re 85 times more likely to die in an auto accident in this country than be killed by a terrorist. But would you support the President severely curtailing your rights, in order to possibly reduce the threat of auto accidents? He could make everyone take a road test every year. He could require auto makers to encase their vehicles in bubble wrap. The punishment for a moving violation would be 10 years in Guantanamo. Also, only one car per household. After all, fewer cars, fewer accidents. Heavy drinkers, turned in by neighbors, could be spied on to make sure they wouldn’t get behind the wheel. Drunk driving gets the death penalty.

Sound OK? I mean, why doesn’t the President campaign on his ability to save us from auto accidents? They are orders of magnitude more of a threat to the safety and security of you and your family than getting gassed or nuked or otherwise blown up by dusky people with strange religions.

We know this intellectually. But in the Hindbrain Administration, thinking takes a backseat. That’s where we get in trouble.

HOMER: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.
LISA: That’s specious reasoning, Dad.
HOMER: Thank you, dear.
LISA: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
HOMER: Oh, how does it work?
LISA: It doesn’t work.
HOMER: Uh-huh.
LISA: It’s just a stupid rock.
HOMER: Uh-huh.
LISA: But I don’t see any tigers around, do you?
[Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
HOMER: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

It’s time we stop shopping for rocks.

It always gives me a chuckle when the cave dwellers at Free Republic start talking about pop culture. Their idea of pop culture begins and ends with “Bonanza,” so it’s always funny to see them rage against the dying of the light.

Particularly funny are the posts every year about the Oscars, where they pile on and spend pages and pages to shout how Hollywood is just a bunch of perverted Commie fags and of course, they wouldn’t watch the Oscars anyway if someone pried open their eyelids like in “Clockwork Orange.” On and on they go, each trying to outdo the previous exhortation of hatred toward movies and TV in this debauched age. They rage and rage until they are hoarse, and presumably need to chill out in front of a 3 a.m. showing of “Naughty Cheerleaders 12” on the Spice Channel.

It’s especially funny this year, because the movie they all fear more than a terrorist attack, “Brokeback Mountain,” where two men kiss (ack!), is a serious contender. One of the earlier Brokeback/Oscar threads got 345 (!) comments.

Could we be…ahem…..repressing anything at all? Anything? No? OK. Well, wrestling is on in a few minutes. You like wrestling, right?