David sent me two analyses of the new Patriot Act that grants the US Executive Branch eerily similar emergency powers as were granted the Office of the Chancellor in Germany to combat domestic terrorism following the Reichstag Fire.
It’s very tempting for zealots to link inextricably a US conquest of Iraq with Israel’s territorial ambitions in the region, and more dangerously to continue to push forward aggressive military adventures to realise these ambitions. I’ve mentioned this before, but Time’s Joe Klein puts it much better than I ever could:
the Bush Administration hasn’t done very much to bring about peace in the Middle East; in fact, it has allowed a bad situation to grow worse … a stronger Israel is very much embedded in the rationale for war with Iraq. It is a part of the argument that dare not speak its name, a fantasy quietly cherished by the neo-conservative faction in the Bush Administration and by many leaders of the American Jewish community.
Of course, any non-positive analysis of Israel’s military hegemony in the region leaves one open to accusations by demagogues of anti-Semitism, the prevalence and vehemence of which seems to me to be the closest incarnation of heretic denunciation in our modern society. Again, I must leave it to others to defend me:
The lack of public discussion about the role of Israel in the thinking of “President Bush” is easier to understand, but weird nevertheless. It is the proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions it. The reason is obvious and admirable: Neither supporters nor opponents of a war against Iraq wish to evoke the classic anti-Semitic image of the king’s Jewish advisers whispering poison into his ear and betraying the country to foreign interests.
And there’s more:
The Clinton administration was close to Israel’s moderate Labour Party; Bush’s camp is totally aligned with Israel’s aggressive far right and mirrors its views and policies to a remarkable, unprecedented degree … Many Americans simply don’t understand their leadership is about to plunge the nation into an open-ended, dangerous colonial war. All the propaganda about democracy, human rights and regional stability is the same kind of double-talk used by the 19th century British and French imperialists who claimed they were grabbing Africa and Asia to bring the benefits of Christian civilization to the heathens.
So this teacher dressed as a woman to lure 15-year-old boy into sex. Meanwhile, schoolgirls are playing a filthy game of orgy roulette, cross-dressing schoolgirls are going nuts on teachers, and gorgeous guys in miniskirts prowl in search of kinky johns. If only all these people could coordinate…
Earlier here.
I note that in an effort to “punish” Germany, Bagman Rumsfeld wants the US to withdraw from Germany all its troops stationed there that annoy people so much. That’s military intelligence right on the scale of “we had to destroy the village in order to save it”. What’s next? Take the US troops out of Korea when they realise both the North and the South Koreans don’t like them? If you’re going to be a global bully then you have to learn to live with the consequences of your actions. This Bush Gang seems to be spending their international currency at an amazingly fast rate… and they got to lodge so much goodwill in the bank after the airplane attack in New York. Nevertheless, when even a disturbingly pro-US aligned country such as Ireland can find one morning that one of the largest street protests in its modern history against US unilateralist policy suddenly emerges then it’s time to be worried. Sadly though, these bozos in the White House really do think they can fight the world. Meanwhile in the UK, Bush’s only political ally that doesn’t export bananas as its economic mainstay, the popular mood has not been more oppositional to a sitting Prime Minister since Thatcher supported the Poll Tax. I noted the massive UK protests went largely unreported in the US in a case of censorship-by-eliding. US media did, of course, show footage of protesting French and Germans, because they are represented as “against” the US while everyone in the UK is, of course, rooting for the war. Strangeley enough, the right-wing in the US is so desperate to find people to agree with them that they have recruited many of the podunk leaders of the former Warsaw Pact nations (and wannabe EU expense account big spenders) into the war effort, despite the disavowal of the war by their subject populations.
With the Labour Party enjoying a huge parliamentary majority but a PM with rapidly declining popularity, it won’t be long before Blair is seen more as a liability than as an asset. His colleagues may become emboldened to force Blair out of the PM job and replace him with someone perceived to be less of a Bush lapdog and more in tune with popular feeling. Unfortunately though, right now Blair’s mis-steps are causing support for the Tories to rise to within spitting distance of Labour, and the current Tories with their anti-Euro ideology are bound to support this currency war even more fervently than Labour.
Of course, there is also latent energy manifesting here. Not all the marchers against Blair’s policies would ordinarily be so anti-war, just as not so many people were so fervently anti-Poll Tax when they campaigned against Thatcher. Politics is never simply the application of cause and effect but instead can be influenced on a gigantic scale by group psychodynamics and unspoken paranoias. Street politics reflect the ebb and flow of extraordinary popular delusions, and many people who feel a generalised sense of dissatisfaction with the idoelogies of the day can be recruited by eager street protest organisers and their nervous energy given focus and direction. The Fascists knew this, and so did the Bolsheviks, when they hijacked people’s anxieties to give their movements credibility. What we are seeing now across the world has impetus from the unilateralist actions of the US, yes, but the sheer numbers involved are also just the latest manifestion of the current anti-globalization zeitgeist. Capitalism over-reached itself during triumphalist 90s and provoked a predictable response from the body politic. We live in interesting times. Of course, with their list- and PR-based political systems (and the UK’s peculiar majority-swing pocket borough system), the Euro democracies tend to respond quite quickly to political undercurrents. By comparison, the ossified US system is straitjacketed and well-insulated against any notion of responsiveness to anything but minor issues. It took nearly 20 years for popular revulsion against the enormous crime,waste, and plain illegality of the US’s war in Vietnam to penetrate their political system and lead to Nixon’s “Vietnamization” scorched earth withdrawal… I am not expecting any miracles to come quickly from the streets.
So in addition to the removal of Bin Laden’s anti-Saddam ranting, US media is also routinely censoring critical comments by the UN about the Bush Gang. According to this, some 800 words by Hans Blix pointing out some flaws in Colin Powell’s reasoning were somehow deleted by CNN. The Google cache is now a potent weapon for truth seekers everywhere… and porno surfers, of course.
Earlier here.
So I noticed this propaganda piece from ABC describing some of the shenanigans the US forces already attacking Iraq are getting up to. One undoubtedly brilliant tactic in particular caught my eye:
The United States is sending e-mails to the commanders’ private accounts, calling them on private cell phones, urging them to consider overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
I wonder if the Iraqis should put their unit commanders onto some Telemarketing and Spam Opt-Out Lists?
I note from this article that an Executive Order by Gerald Ford currently bars the US from using its own version of chemical weaponry in its invasion of Iraq. But of course, Bush could nullify this ban with a stroke of his pen (and of course, his Executive Orders do not have to be made public, so this may already have happened). But of course, when the US or Russia use nonlethal chemical incapacitating and killing agents they are not chemical warfare but “crowd control”.
This article has an interesting little examination of how quickly Bin Laden’s call for regime change in Iraq and the ousting of the “infidel socialist” Saddam Hussein was mostly censored from US media. Apparently most US media outlets were “on message” and broadcast only slanted excerpts from the tape but NBC ran Bin Laden’s appeal for regime change within Iraq, demanding the murder of Saddam Hussein, but within 20 minutes realised their error and deleted Bin Laden’s anti-Saddam ranting from their translation. Of course, more than a year ago the Bush Gang requested all media outlets not to broadcast unedited Bin Laden material. Apparently, Colin Powell had a different translation. That the Bush Gang seem to hear different voices from everyone else causes no end of confusion for some people.
In any case, it is indeed good to know that old enemies such as Bush and Bin Laden can now agree to overcome their differences and work together to achieve their common goals: overthrowing nasty socialists who oppose them. Surely this is an inspiring message of hope and faith in rapprochement for the world?
Sex surveys are always good for a laugh but this one has a nice record of current sexual slang in Chicago:
Some say “hooking up.” Others “going out.” We wanted to know how you describe it to your friends when you’re getting it on with someone. Women tended to say that they were “dating someone” or “seeing each other,” as opposed to describing that significant or less-than-significant other in sexual terms.
Hooking up 28%
Seeing each other 18%
Dating 11%
Hanging out: 8%
Going out: 8%
Fuck buddies: 6%
Kicking it: 2%
Honorable mentions: friends with benefits, knocking boots, getting it on, shacking up, “together,” messing around, riding the beast with two backs, friends that fuck, laid pipe, booty calls, screwing, bed buddies, got together.
I note that the Washington Post says US Special Forces are on the ground in Iraq, and already have begun advance preparations for the invasion. Their job involves reconnaissance, sabotage, recruitment, and the assassination of key local military and political leaders. In some ways this predictable endgame must come as a kind of relief to some people: after over a decade of interdiction, sanctions, and aerial bombardment that people in the US persist in believing was “not a war” my understanding of what constituted military action was getting fuzzy.
