On Hiatus

Dealing with a family emergency right now. Be back sometime.

The Scariest Shit of All: Anarchists!

So, from the quick news coverage I had seen of the St. Paul Heffelfucker report, it appears that the ruling class has done again what it always does best, namely change the terms of the debate. I had recently discussed some of the more recent leaks about the St. Paul RNC protests, and the fact that the US military (NORTHCOM), working with the FBI, MN state and local authorities, the NSA, and various other spook agencies, set up a total security and surveillance system that allowed them to target and monitor activists, with the help of the telecom companies that your Democratic congress so nicely decided to immunize from any possibly prosecutions for oh, um, spying on American citizens. (wait, actually, this has nothing to do with FISA. supposedly the phone companies were only spying on people talking to "potential terrorists" overseas, right? I remember a lot of talk about "splitters" and "trunks," and where calls were originating, and some other boring stuff. It's all kinda hazy now. Like I always say, lotsa weed. Brain gets fuzzy. Besides:

Next, I remind you as forcefully as I can of FISA's actual nature. As I wrote in "The Ruling Class Unleashed":

I must immediately interject that to discuss these issues [pertaining to liberty and privacy] with regard to FISA is ludicrous in a much deeper sense. As Jonathan Turley explains here, FISA itself is a secret court whose very purpose is to circumvent the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. The FISA court is no protection against illegitimate government intrusion at all. But as Turley notes, that we are fighting over whether to grant the executive branch and FISA still more untrammeled authority to disregard constitutional rights is a measure of how far we have already marched toward tyranny. And look at this chart to see just how compliant the FISA court is.

As I argued in the earlier essay, if we were genuinely concerned about civil liberties and privacy, we would return to the Fourth Amendment and the procedures it requires, and the FISA regime would be abolished entirely. That's right: it would be abolished. No one wants to do that. Too radical, doncha know. That's scary talk, much scarier, it would appear, than the tyranny which daily strengthens its death grip on all our throats. Nonetheless, if you want to understand the nature and scope of the decades-long attack on individual liberty, you had better remember what FISA is.

Moreover, understand the nature of the old FISA regime, which appears to be just fine with almost everyone, Republicans, Democrats, progressives, everyone. Steny Hoyer has helpfully spelled out the near-omnipotent powers of FISA under the old scheme. Understand how comprehensive it is, and how comprehensively it destroys civil liberties. Quite inexplicably, though, Hoyer declined to summarize the government's powers under the old FISA scheme in easily understandable, everyday language. So I helped him out:

We can already spy on everyone. Everyone! Got that, you schmucks? And we don't even need a warrant a lot of the time! Every once in a while, we kinda think we should get a warrant. No reason for that actually. But it looks better, you know? Keeps the stupidly annoying civil liberties crowd happy. But those idiots at the FISA court will give us one nearly every time! [See here again.] And since FISA is a secret court, none of those peons (otherwise known as "citizens") will ever know a damned thing about what's actually going on anyway. It's good to be an Empire!

I repeat: that's the old scheme, which most people think is the bee's knees, a gentle zephyr cooling a moist brow, a benevolent moon keeping watch over a peaceful world below.

So, anyways, we're talking about widescale domestic spying, not some Foreign Intelligence Some-such-or-other Act with secret courts and "overseas terrorists".)

I haven't read the full report. It's 88 pages long, and I honestly don't know if I'll have time to do so. But I have read a bit of news coverage on the hearing and presentation of the report, and its executive summary. Basically, here's the gist: "It was a mixed-bag. The police mostly did a pretty good job, but they should have shown public service commercials of evil anarchists throwing dumpsters through Starbucks' windows or something, so that the people of St. Paul could have worked themselves up into a proper hate-frenzy. A lot of people freaked out about the authorities' reactions to the protests, so we clearly didn't do a good enough job of demonizing the protestors as "anarchists" (wait, preferably "violent anarchists!" -- much better) or terrorists, or whatever. But we're sure as shit not gonna make that mistake in our whitewash!"

So, let's go with the highlight reel:

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

"In general, the conduct of law enforcement during the RNC was restrained and professional under the circumstances."

"There were, however, several specific incidents or situations of potential inappropriate conduct, including the improper uses of pepper spray and potential mass arrests, that warrant further review."

"Law enforcement was not fully prepared for the anarchists to descend on St. Paul on Sept. 1 as early as occurred and in as violent a way as they did."

"Because of the high expectations created for this convention, the public was unprepared to witness riot gear outfitted officers and to see the use of pepper spray, smoke and other chemical devices to clear crowds of anarchists from the streets of St. Paul ... and the security fencing surrounding the Xcel Energy Center." - my emphasis

See? It wasn't the police tactics that were the problem. It's the fault of those anarchists. And, the dumb shit civilians who freaked out when they saw what full spectrum dominance really means, in a pretty up close and personal way.

Please take the two minutes to watch this video below. This is from the AP:

I received a really great link in the comments to this excellent post at UsefulActivism by LudditeRobot dealing with the Oakland riots. Please, read it in its entirety. But anyways, check out this quote from an article at Counterpunch written by some of the anarchist protesters:

Anarchists tend to show up at all demonstrations prepared to act should the situation escalate, and this case was no different. Yet it is simply incorrect to suggest that there was some conspiracy of anarchists from the 'outside' who were able to manipulate the helpless youth of Oakland as part of their sinister agenda. This is a paternalistic misreading of what was unquestionably a spontaneous outpouring of rage, led by youth of color. There, temporary alliances were made as those who were motivated to act in the moment experienced a unique cross-pollination that cut across the inhibiting social boundaries of everyday life.

So the allegations of an anarchist takeover are destructively misleading...

...What manifested during the Oakland rebellion was a moment of interchange and revolutionary transformation that rarely happens within the rituals of left organizing in the Bay Area. Between white "community organizers" overtaken by guilt into an impotent politics of servitude, professional activists worried about annual reports and grant cycles, and vanguardist marxist sects continually looking to use the next demonstration as a recruiting drive, many radicals find themselves in a desert devoid of revolutionary activity and thought. Within this barren landscape, it is rare to find new possibilities for radical social change while combatting racism and the constant oppression of capitalism. Resisting the police shoulder to shoulder, destroying property (albeit with different emphasis), helping one another evade arrest, exchanging tactics and gestures of solidarity across racial barriers pushes the desire for a multi-racial revolutionary movement ahead, more than any speaker at a rally ever could.

Anarchists are very accustomed to accusations of spoiling carefully managed demonstrations, and in some cases this is true and necessary. The Oakland rebellion was a different story. Those who are truly committed to revolutionary change in this country need to appreciate the significance of what unfolded in the streets that night and move forward without falling into the usual sectarian traps.

Mark my words, we are going to be hearing a hell of a lot more about these scary anarchists "taking over" protests. It's their most effective way to delegitimize protest, and to ignore the actual reasons that people were taking to the streets. "Outside agitators" and puppetmasters and such, these anarchists. It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Like, Totally. And Shit.

As many of my proggie friends are preparing to trek to DC to whoop it up during the "inaugurager" (good one, Kev), Arthur Silber reminds us again why all of this shenaniganary is simply a disgusting distraction, and other than a few buzzkills, everyone is ignoring the real issues of significance. Why anyone who is supporting this jefe (new boss, same as the old boss) is beyond me, but the pull of belonging, the need to be part of the "winning team" is pretty damn strong. I can understand it. I understand why people who believed that everything wrong with this country, with the world, with, well, everything can be laid at the feet of President Bush and the "Rethuglicans" in general just want to turn off their brains and party fucking hardy! These last 8 years have been truly horrifying. The mask has been removed, etc. etc. "We worked hard for HOPE and CHANGE, and finally, mirabile dictu! we have won! Evil has been vanquished, a thousand year reich of peace and prosperity and hope and vacuity begins, a new day dawns, etc etc and now I finally can go back to dicking around with my iPhone rather than blogging about Obama, and worrying about yucky 'politics' and such." (or whatever it is the kids these days are saying).

Arthur, quoting David Swanson at Counterpunch:

I want to focus on a few points in particular. I recently mentioned again in passing (with links to lengthier discussions of this subject) that no meaningful prosecutions of war crimes will be pursued with regard to even one of the major criminals from the Bush administration. On that subject, Swanson notes the following at the very end of his article:

Conyers goes on in his Foreword to enumerate his many reports and announcements, investigations, hearings, lawsuits, etc. Conyers opened a hearing on impeachment (but not really on impeachment) this past July by bragging about all the hearings he'd held. To him, these hearings and reports are, to some degree, ends in themselves. Actual substantive steps that impact people's lives can get lost in the shuffle. One such step would be impeachment, which could happen right now if Conyers wanted it to. Another step would be Conyers' clear and active support for a special prosecutor.

While prosecution of Bush and Cheney would be hard-pressed to fail, and politicians who supported it would be hard-pressed not to rise in popularity, Cheney has given us a preview of his legal defense: "We were never impeached."

I urge you to reflect for at least several minutes on the horror of this result. This is one of the bitter, deadly fruits of cowardice in the face of evil. It helps to illuminate a critical principle, one that would be very simple to appreciate if it were not for the unstinting efforts made by Democrats like Conyers and the most vocal of Democratic apologists to evade the truth and refuse to acknowledge the obvious: each retreat from battle makes the next battle that much harder. The Democrats are always talking about "saving their gunpowder" for the next fight, which will be the genuinely important one. But each act of cowardice of this kind -- and it is cowardice, we should call such acts by their rightful name -- weakens them, rather than making them stronger. At the same time, each concession to evil makes evil stronger, while the coward reinforces his own cowardice. Thus, evil consolidates and expands its reach -- and those who would fight against evil are pushed farther offstage.

That's it man. Game over man, game over.

No impeachment. Complicity all around. (oh yeah. and this. and this. etc. etc. ad nauseam)

The clock runs out on the Bush/Cheney administration, all is right and good in the land once again.

PS - I do not support.

Thus, the lesson: when you choose to be a critical part of a system that has become this corrupt -- and the endless corruptions of our corporatist-authoritarian-militarist system have been documented at great length here and in other places -- you will not ameliorate or "save" it. The system will necessarily and inevitably corrupt you.

Finally, that is the choice that confronts Conyers, and all of us: you can remain or become part of a system dedicated to destroying liberty and peace -- or you can choose to withdraw your support, to whatever extent is possible given the particulars of your life. I have never suggested, and I am not suggesting now, that the choice is always obvious, and it is certainly not easy -- but that is the choice. It is long past time to pretend otherwise.

Choose with care, and wisely, if you dare. As I have said before:

[T]hese horrors are now what the United States stands for. Thus, for every adult American, the question is not, "Why do you obey?" but:

Why do you support?

Or will you refuse to give your support? Will you say, "No"? These are the paramount questions at this moment in history, and in the life of the United States. We all must answer them. Our honor, our humanity, and our souls lie in the balance.

Echo Chamber

So, still waiting for word on the RNC report due to be presented today by Heffelfucker et al. In the meantime, check out LudditeRobot with a roundup of new links on the Sheriff Bob Fletcher shenanigans out of Ramsey County, MN.

Cops Are So Awesome

OK, so I'm just going to repost this entire dealie from the Twin Cities Daily Planet. Reminder, the official report comes out sometime today:

Whose law? Bob's law!

By Mary Turck

By Mary Turck , TC Daily Planet

January 13, 2009

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher concealed his pre-RNC operations from other law enforcement officials, including the St. Paul city attorney’s office, according to reports published January 13 in a PiPress blog. He now has asked the Ramsey County Board for $300,000 in convention costs, including money spent on agents and informants criss-crossing the country during the year before the convention. The expenditures could not be billed to the $50 million in federal convention financing, since they were secret.

As the RNC Commission presents its report to the St. Paul City Council on January 14, Fletcher’s strange secrecy is not the only unanswered question about law enforcement operations during the RNC. (The RNC Commission, headed by former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, was appointed by the city of St. Paul to review police planning and tactics, but not accusations of police misconduct.)

Politics In Minnesota (PIM) notes the PR manipulation surrounding police actions and RNC

prosecutions:

[N]o one has ever proven the buckets Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher presented as ‘urine’ were actually urine, even though it has become a strongly held perception, underpinning most claims in favor of law enforcements’ conduct during the RNC. (Authorities like Chicago Mayor Richard Daley have regularly accused demonstrators of flinging bodily waste since the 1968 Chicago DNC... it’s something of a classic messaging frame, and it’s worked well so far.) Everyone’s kind of forgotten that Fletcher also claimed bike tires would be used to fling rocks…

(Positioned squarely in the middle of the Minnesota political road, PIM is published by Republican Sarah Janecek, though the about page says a “lefty” balance is provided by Dan Feidt, Peter Bartz-Gallagher, and Andy French.)

PIM also noted that FBI informant Brandon Darby, “who bragged about his actions in an unusual public letter, has sparked nationwide criticism of what’s seen as a law enforcement pattern of synthesizing terrorism-style cases by sending in informants to stir people up, in the classic COINTELPRO style.”

That “classic COINTELPRO style” can also be gleaned from documents posted on Wikileaks.org. Wikileaks publishes secret documents:

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we are of assistance to people of nations who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact. Our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by all types of people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

Wikileaks posted a Powerpoint presentation titled Special Event Planning 2008 Republican National Convention. According to PIM, the document “was evidently presented somewhere by Terri Smith, Branch Director for Response, Recovery and Mitigation at the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.” PIM goes on to observe:

The most illuminating slide shows the layout of the ‘Multi-Agency Communications Center’ (MACC). In particular, it reveals that the Pentagon’s new Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, had more seats than anyone else; fans of government intrigue will love the idea that this new, increasingly domestic-oriented military command had the most chairs. (According to the Army Times, no tinfoil rag, they are training troops for quelling “civil unrest and crowd control,” Posse Comitatus notwithstanding.)

While prosecutors focus on protesters, the danger posed by militarization of law enforcement slides right under the radar. Media attention to the military and law enforcement issues is easily distracted. As we have noted before, “At a minimum, raising the questions lets people know that the full story has not been told. But the mainstream media has an opportunity to do much more. They have the opportunity — and the resources — to reclaim journalism’s role of finding and speaking truth, rather than acting as stenographers for power.

Keep raising the question.

Didja hear? Sarah Palin is a Dumb Bitch!!11!1!!!!!!!~!

OK, let's start out with the basic premise that 99.7% of the ol' blogosphere simply DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT if something did not happen within the last two days. Beyond that, it's old. Icky. Spoiled news, not fresh. I mean, didn't you hear the hot poop about Obama's choice for Secretary of Who Gives a Fuck? Well, this post isn't about that.

It's about a little thing called NORTHCOM. So, about, ummm, let's say four and half months ago, a lot of my friends got the shit kicked out of them in St. Paul, MN. And these weren't "anarchists throwing urine on cops" or whatever. These people were running "know your rights" legal trainings.

And they got tear-gassed.

And shotguns pulled on them.

And arrested.



Now, I lived in Minneapolis for the majority of last year. Possibly my favorite city in America. But here's the thing. Minnesota is supposed to be a good government state. I was actually a lobbyist last year sorta, (seriously. can you believe that shit?) and I can assure you that their politics are just as corrupt and venal as any other state's. But that's not the point. The point is, the elected officials of MN worked hand in hand with the Bush administration to, ah well, hang on, let me let someone else (someone who is not wearing a tinfoil hat. someone who is the most widely read online political newspaper in Minnesota) tell it:

A very interesting presentation about the structure of 2008 Republican National Convention security operations got leaked onto WikiLeaks.org, a fun repository for spilled government documents around the globe. The doc, entitled "Special Event Planning: 2008 Republican National Convention," [PDF here] was evidently presented somewhere by Terri Smith, Branch Director for Response, Recovery and Mitigation at the Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. It was labeled "Limited distribution - for official use only."

This doc hasn't gotten too much notice locally, but one scrutinizer of government plans, Tom Burghardt, posted a thorough analysis of its significance. Aesthetically, it's a choice primary source document: it combines the ugliness of PowerPoint with diagramming the ominous expansion of discreet government control. [PIM staff loves stuff like this!]

The most illuminating slide shows the layout of the 'Multi-Agency Communications Center' (MACC). In particular, it reveals that the Pentagon's new Northern Command, or NORTHCOM, had more seats than anyone else; fans of government intrigue will love the idea that this new, increasingly domestic-oriented military command had the most chairs. (According to the Army Times, no tinfoil rag, they are training troops for quelling "civil unrest and crowd control," Posse Comitatus notwithstanding.) Additionally, the RNC Committee on Arrangements also earned a seat in this center. We wonder if the activities of the Minnesota agencies here would be subject to the Minnesota Data Practices Act.

You got that? This was a military operation. They were tapping people's phones, and using satellites to track them in real time. And over 800 people were arrested. And houses and businesses were raided. And people were held in solitary confinement. And when released by the police, people were dropped off, with no money and no transportation, in random-ass places throughout the city, in the middle of the night, with no way of getting home safely. And while all this was going on, while whatever remaining mask of civility and the rule of law was being pulled off of American democracy's bloated corpse face, the fuckhead Democrat supporters spent the week talking shit about Sarah Palin.

Yes, Sarah Palin. I actually had this unfortunate conversation last week. I hate it when conversations turn to politics in real life (I use this blog to try to vent my spleen so that my friends and family don't have to hear this shit in real life. No one wants to hear this kind of stuff, I know that.) I was asked by a friend if I voted for Obama. I said no. Another friend then asked if it were McCain. Then another friend said "Ah ha! Fucking Naderite hippy, right?" Again, I said no. I didn't vote this past year.

I turned the tables on them, and asked them whom they voted for. Obama, all around, of course. As to why?

"Sarah Palin scared me. She is just so dumb. And John McCain is old. And had cancer. Haven't you seen the actuary tables? Can you imagine if that woman got her hands on the nuclear codes?" etc etc

To which I replied, "so fucking what?" and, "Joe Biden is fucking retarded. Come on, can't you do better than that?"

So that was your reason? That a woman well within the mainstream of political opinion in this country, a woman no worse (I don't know if she's better, I don't know how to rank utter shit) than George Bush or Dick Cheney (whom I never saw you protesting, in fact, wait, didn't you vote for Bush in 2000 or 2004?), her, being VP was the reason? That was the most common reason I heard for voting for Obama this past year, without a doubt. I heard it from all stripes, and I still hear it. Bullshit. Sounds a little, um, what do you call it.... Tribalistic? I sure hope somebody finally writes something about tribalism sometime soon...

Fuck man.

Oh wait, forgot, I was going to write about NORTHCOM. I get distracted sometimes. I really like to get high, and it affects my short-term memory.

So, tomorrow is the day that the "official" report on the RNC stuff gets presented to the St. Paul City Council. Can anyone in the blogosphere manage to realize that this stuff is really fucking important? I know that this didn't happen within this "media cycle." Andrew Sullivan and Wonkette aren't cracking jokes about it. Zombie Tim Russert won't be talking about it on Meet the Press. But we are now starting to see what "full spectrum dominance at home" might look like.

I can't think of anyone who has done a better job of discussing these issues, hell, practically breaking the goddamn story on NORTHCOM, other than Arthur Silber (Chris Floyd is great too). Here's Arthur, discussing less-lethal weapons, NORTHCOM, and The Army Times story where it was announced that a battalion of troops would be deployed to America:

"Nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them..." Frequently, it doesn't work out that way: "Obey or Die."

But you were being unruly. You might be dangerous, at least dangerous to those who rule us. And honestly, the fact that you may be homeless, starving and desperate is no reason to be rude or uncooperative.

This comes at the very end of the story, offered by the division operations officer:

“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.”

I'm sure there are people in the military who believe this, or at least think they believe it. But if and when the order comes to fire on American citizens, what happens then? I don't think we want to find out. Many of these individuals are overly familiar with killing innocent people -- as indeed, our criminal war in Iraq is nothing but an operation dedicated to killing innocent people in ungraspably huge numbers -- so a new kind of target probably won't deter them for long, if at all.

Add in all the private mercenary forces now available to the government, and, well...

No, you're not crazy. The reasons for my argument will become clearer in the second and concluding part of this new essay of mine, "The State and Full Spectrum Dominance, Abroad and At Home" -- but this gives you an idea of why I chose the phrase "Full Spectrum Dominance," a phrase that usually refers to U.S. military capabilities in particular, and why I included "At Home."

You know what happened to all of those protestors in Minneapolis? They broke the goddamn rules. And good liberals, or progressives, or Democratic partisans, or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days essentially said, "Fuck 'em. They got what they deserved. Shoulda stayed home like me and watched the Daily Show and laughed at how just plain fucking stupid that dumb bitch Sarah Palin is." Or, barring that, they ignored the fact that the St. Paul RNC protests ever even happened. Fuck that. Break the goddamn rules.

And solidarity forever.

What's the Difference Between Jelly and Jam?

I can't jelly my cock down your throat.

So, how fucking pathetic is it that Glenn Greenwald actually has to spell this out to the progressive hordes?

Politicians, by definition, respond to political pressure. Those who decide that it's best to keep quiet and simply trust in the goodness and just nature of their leader are certain to have their political goals ignored. It's always better -- far better -- for a politician to know that he's being scrutinized closely and will be praised and supported only when his actions warrant that, and will be criticized and opposed when they don't. - emphasis in original

Jesus Hector Christinez.

Ugh, fuck it. I don't have the strength.

I actually have a lot to say on this topic, especially related to the "marijuana reform movement," ("hey, we better not make any waves now, I mean, Obama's second term is only like 4 years away, and we need to be in his good graces. So what if everyone of his nominations has been a drug-warrior or in the "recovery" movement. And so what if he explicitly told us to go fuck ourselves at his little Change.gov dealie. Like, he's totally gonna be all "progressive" and shit in his second term. He's gotta fuck us over now, you know, but we can make some serious inroads now, lay the groundwork for 2014 or so...) but frankly, don't really feel like writing. Besides, I gots shit to do today. Maybe later.

Man, you gotta feel bad for Greenwald sometimes...

I Honked for Gaza this Weekend

Yeah, that's just about the only level of activism I can handle right now.

I went to Gainesville, FL last week (UF is my alma mater) to try to feel a little bit of the juice that was gonna happen when the Gators won the national championship. I was hoping to see some fires and cop cars flipped over, but no dice there. It was an extremely orderly and boooring celebration. There were 100 riot police on the street, they greased all of the light polls, had choppers flying overhead, and had the fire department patrolling the crowd and bars. It must have been a lot more fun celebrating (let alone protesting) before we became a total police state.

So, Luddite Robot put up an interesting post at UsefulActivism. Read it, comment on it, etc. What do you guys think?

I've been trying to think about something to post about lately, but it just really feels kinda useless. I can't seem to get it up for any significant bloggery. I mean, come on. What do I write about? Gaza? Obama's inauguration? Fucking Sanjay Gupta? (by the way, fuckhead over there wrote that article in response to the campaign [yeah, that's me suing the entire Nevada political and law enforcement communty. That's just how I roll, bitches. Well, used to roll that is, before I quit my job.] I worked on in 2006 in NV. Gupta has a long history of sticking his fucking beak into health policy debates, doing the establishment's dirty work as a supposed neutral healthcare professional). The fact that the "bailout" last year turns out to have been a total bullshit looting of the treasury for the banks to simply be able to buy other banks? I mean seriously, no one could have seen that one coming, right? Ferchrissakes. I'd just be adding noise. Spouting off into the void.

Oh, and TGGP? I'm not domain-name squatting. I've been the sole proprietor of this here piece of the internet since approximately March of 2004, once the Dean campaign was over, and I found myself unemployed and wondering "what the fuck just happened here?" I mean, I was supposed to have been working in the White House as of inauguration time back in 2005.

Unfortunately, for my ability to gain a readership anyways, there have been several lengthy hiatuses. But they were definitely a good thing overall. I mean, in 2004, I was a very vocal member of this crew. You know, e-mailing back and forth with la Digz and collectively scratching our heads, "I just don't understand why John Kerry is running such a bad campaign. He just needs to say X,Y, and Z in order to win. It just doesn't make any sense." Luckily, I took two years off from blogging, worked some more campaigns, worked towards getting a masters degree in political science, and became a fuckload more cynical and angry at the political process. I started writing again in summer 2007, that first week in August, when the Dems totally "capitulated" (that's what I used to call it back then) on FISA.

I tried to be helpful. I suggested supporting Cindy Sheehan over Nancy Pelosi in the election, as a tactic that your average Dem supporter who was angry at the Dems could do. I also suggested trying to impeach Pelosi and Reid. I also suggested writing out an actual list of things that, if done by the Democrats, would cause you to stop actively supporting them. I tried to point out the stupidity of the "More and Better Democrats" argument. Fuck it. HOPE AND CHANGE FOREVER, motherfuckers!

Then, last spring, I was asked by my former employer to remove my name from this blog. I completely see where they were coming from, and hold them no ill will on this matter. I mean, I was writing lengthy blog posts urging people not to vote at all, when I was being paid to try to get people to vote on medical marijuana initiatives (yeah, we won, bitches. It was supposed to have been a big deal. One of the final cracks in the wall of ending marijuana prohibition. Well, at least medical marijuana prohibition. All it was going to take is winning a few more states, and Obama being elected, plus larger majorities for the Dems in both houses of congress. Motherfucking slam-dunk. So, how'd that work out?). I'm kind of an obstinant, hardheaded fucker, and I refuse to be pseudonymous. Pseudonyms are for pussies. (Yeah, that's right. I just called out 97% of the blogosphere. Pussies.) So instead, I tore down my blog, deleted my archives, and did everything I could to scour any traces I that I had left on google.

Well, now that I'm unemployed, I can write whatever I want, right? Woo-hoo! If only I could think of anything to write about. Ah well, fuck it. Where else can you write a couple of hundred words about how you have nothing to write about?

Blaaaaaawg!

PS - ha, yeah, I know how that goes. Infuriating. Ah well.

Wow

Good post to go out on. via James.

Israel and Shit

Well, this blogger doesn't really have anything intelligent to add to the Gaza/Israel clusterfuck. That's why he hasn't written about it. But this being the blogosphere and all, much smarter people than I already have, so I can just link to them.

First off, Luddite Robot, here and here. I'm not going to comment, but I know a little bit more of the story from LR. I'd like to remind him of his standing offer to post at UsefulActivism. By the way, if anyone else in the nerdosphere is interested in posting there, lemme know. I'd like to hear his thoughts about the protest that he attended. (I haven't posted there in a while. Severe writers block right now, and am also trying to come up with an independent study/thesis topic by the end of the week. Yeah, I quit my job and have decided to return to the warm, pillowy bosom of academia, for at least another semester or two. Might as well finish off this goddamn six year masters degree at some point, right?)

And if you hadn't noticed, Arthur Silber is back. Goddamn, it's good to see that guy writing again. And Hud is totally a great fucking movie.

For a very long time, the United States government has specialized in the pattern pursued by Israel. The vastly more powerful nation wishes to act on a certain policy -- almost always territorial expansion, for purposes of access to resources, or to force itself into new markets, or to pursue the evil notion that economic and ideological success depend on brutality and conquest -- but a specifically moral justification for its planned actions does not lie easily to hand.

So the powerful nation embarks on a course designed to make life intolerable for the country and/or those people that stand in its way. The more powerful nation is confident that, given sufficient time and sufficient provocation, the weaker country and people will finally do something that the actual aggressor can seize on as a pretext for the policy upon which it had already decided. In this way, what then unfolds becomes the victim's fault.

The United States government has utilized this tactic with Mexico, to begin the Spanish-American War, even, dear reader, in connection with the U.S. entrance into World War II, most recently in Iraq, possibly (perhaps probably) with Iran in the future, and in numerous other conflicts. It's always the fault of the other side, never the fault of the United States itself. Yet the United States has always been much more powerful than those it victimizes in this manner. The United States always claims that its victims represented a dire threat to its very survival, a threat that must be brought under U.S. control, or eliminated altogether. The claim has almost never been true. This monstrous pattern is "The American Way of Doing Business."

And finally, Dennis Perrin:

I certainly know the feeling, living the majority of my adult life on the political margins. After awhile you get used to it, adapt to the conditions while hopefully not resigning yourself to failure and loss. Lord knows I've surrendered to despair more times than I care to admit. But as I've recently noted, from the Republic Windows sit-in to the widening critical awareness and action against Israeli aggression, unrest stirs below. Many people are restless, looking to connect with others as opposed to curling up in private. Desperate times affect people in various ways, of course; but now anyone with Web access can immediately share his or her thoughts with countless others. This helps make one feel less alone, the starting point for any social movement. Little wonder why elites and their media megaphones despise the Internet so...

...Their leaders are making it sparkling clear what they think about Palestinian lives and society, the destruction and marginalization of which is financed by American taxpayers who have no say in how their money's spent. Will American liberals truly challenge this blood arrangement? Or will they rub their hands and meekly plead for whatever CHANGE they think they can get with the least effort? I still believe that in the end, liberals will defend Obama, albeit "critically." It's certainly easier and safer than taking the next big step, which would put many libs outside of their comfort zones. The time for serious rebellion is as ripe as it's been in memory. What will it be?

For real, yo.

Freedom

It's beautiful.

PS - Seriously, and I mean seriously, how the fuck can anyone advocate working "within the system" for positive political change when the government, law enforcement, our elected officials, "the state," whatever you want to call it, is completely unaccountable, undependable, and corrupt?

O'Malley condemned the monitoring as a politically motivated mistake and moved quickly to seek answers. He appointed Sachs, who had prosecuted Catholic activists for raiding a Selective Service office in 1968.

Sachs called the spying a "systemic failure" that violated federal regulations and said police were oblivious to the activists' rights to free expression and association.

The Maryland State Police have changed their policies and plan to solicit advice from the ACLU, the General Assembly, prosecutors and police about regulations that would raise the bar for intelligence-gathering to "reasonable suspicion" of a crime.

So, how much faith do you guys have in the MD State Police implementing any of the "advice" that they received from the ACLU et al.?