Peace Rant

Wanted red snapper, got calamari. Twice.

After discovering that the Democratic debate was not going to be aired live at 5:00 pm but tape delayed until 8:00 pm for us Left Coasters, my partner and I decided to visit a favorite Italian restaurant to kill the time.

I ordered the evening's special -- red snapper.  I was served calamari.  I should have sent it back, I know.  I'm not a big fan of calamari.  But the waiter offered a compromise -- no charge for my meal.  So I ate the bland, dull, boring calamari.

Then it was back home to watch the big debate.  And the very same thing happened.  I had hoped for red snapper but got bland, dull, boring calamari.

No complimentary meals from ABC, though.  Bland was the planned menu all along.

Waiter!  There's a fly in my soup.

Bitter? Oh, we're beyond that.

I've just finished preparing my tax returns, of course.  As usual, I get to send a check to Washington.  Turbo Tax told me that my tab is about $600.  Curious figure, that.

I send the IRS a check for $600 in April.
The IRS sends me a $600 check in May (my "rebate").
The economy is stimulated by this transaction.

At first this confused me.  But I quickly realized that breaking even is about the best one can hope for these days.  In fact, breaking even is a boon.  Most folks have been losing the financial game for quite a while now.  Losing their jobs, losing their homes, losing their dreams.

Meanwhile, Obama is getting slammed for ascribing bitter feelings to these people who are falling further and further behind, one step at a time.  He has allowed that he may have chosen the "wrong words."  I agree.  Sort of.

The working class -- so recently discovered by Clinton and the NY Times (which still conflates working class with middle class) -- they know they're being taken advantage of.  They know they are exploited, given the short end of the stick.

They also know that their political power is limited in the face of unimaginably wealthy opponents.  They understand that the promise of democracy is failing them, slipping from their grasp. 

But they're willing to fight back.  That's why millions of new voters have been racing to the polls, anxious to wield what power they have, hopeful that their numbers alone will be meaningful.  The numbers are staggering. 

These folks aren't bitter.  They're pissed off.  And there a lot of them. 

That's the lesson of this campaign.

At long last, democracy takes root in Iraq

The Iraqi parliament has enacted a law calling for provincial elections to be held on October 1.  This is a benchmark breakthrough, pushed by Cheney on his recent visit.  Whoopee, rejoice ye all!  Democracy at last.

The setting of an election date also explains, to an extent, the recent outburst of violence in Iraq:  Election season in Iraq is underway.

The government says it is fighting "outlaws", but Sadr's followers say political parties in Maliki's Shi'ite-led government are using military force to marginalize their rivals ahead of local elections due by October.  [Reuters article]

Sounds just like an American election.  Marginalize.  Attack.  Destroy. 

By George, they've got it!

Tibet, torches, and our own backyard

A friend sent me an AP photo -- well, it seems to be an authentic AP photo -- depicting a man who is presumably pro-Tibet, shall we say.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

The killing of citizens in Tibet, their only crime being protest, is unacceptable, unconscionable.  Protests against this kind of repression are welcome.

Some (mostly the guilty) argue against using the Olympics as a forum for protest.  "It's all and only about athletics."  Hogwash.  It's an international event.  Given the chance for even a moment on a global stage, any organizer for social change would be negligent not to try for it.

So, with that in mind, and the hope that the AP photo gets global coverage, I submit my own version (humbly auditioning for that global stage), directed at protesting another international human rights outrage.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Dick Cheney explains democracy. So?

Let's allow only the annointed to speak tonight.  Mr. Cheney's deep philosophical grasp of the concept of democracy is awe-inspiring.  Martha Raddatz, ABC News, interviews the Dark Lord.  The topic is Iraq:

RADDATZ: Let me go back to the Americans. Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting . . . the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: So?

RADDATZ: So -- you don't care what the American people think?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: No

Of course I'm not making this up.  Transcript, video here.

Are you feeling economically stimulated yet?

I received my Economic Stimulus Payment Notice from the IRS recently.  I was very excited.  Stimulated, in fact.

Under the economic stimulus plan approved by Congress and signed into law by Bush, about 128 million households will receive checks for approximately $600 per adult.  Everyone, of course, is expected to rush right out to purchase unneeded electronic gizmos which were designed in Japan and manufactured in China.  This will stimulate our economy.

Under an entirely different economic stimulus plan, decreed by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, with no vote from Congress, the investment bank Bear Stearns will receive a check for $30 billion.  That works out to $234.38 for each of the households getting the $600 checks.

Let's look at this from some other angles.  Without the Bear Stearns bailout, maybe we could all be receiving checks for $834.38 instead of a mere $600.00.  Think how many more consumer gizmos we could buy to stimulate the economy.  Or, maybe what's happening is that we're being asked to write a check to Bear Stearns as our first stimulating act.  That brings the stimulus package down to $365.62 per stimulated taxpayer. 

That means fewer electronics for us taxpayers, of course, but the news comes as a big relief to Alan Schwartz, Top Dog of Bear Stearns, who is barely managing on his $16.5 million per year compensation.

What a generous, caring people we are to come to the aid of a single powerful corporation like Bear Stearns.

What about the nearly two million people who are facing foreclosure on their homes, you might ask?  Hey, $365.62 is more than enough to rent a U-Haul van for the weekend.  What's the problem?

Pix from Saturday's rally

Photographer Charles Slay has posted some nice photos from Saturday's peace rally and concert at Indybay.  The rally went really well and the concert was great!  Attendance was pretty poor, as was expected.  Protest fatigue is taking its toll.  The weather didn't help.

Five years.  Too much.

Update:  Tian Harter (see his comment to this post) has also shared a page of pictures from the rally.  Thanks, Tian!

Man bites dog

Now here's something you don't see every day.  In fact, you rarely see anything like this at all . . .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives defied President George W. Bush on Friday and passed an anti-terrorism spy bill that permits lawsuits against phone companies.

But the 213-197 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised veto by Bush.

Of course, the cynic in me can't resist re-writing that lead . . .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives defied postponed its latest cave-in to President George W. Bush on Friday and passed an anti-terrorism spy bill that permits lawsuits against phone companies.

But Because the 213-197 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised veto by Bush, the Democrats are expected to fold their cards in the near future.

Still, I'll give Dems a round of applause on this one.  They refused to be rushed into another vote like the disaster of last August that first extended the NSA spying until its recent expiration in February.  And they actually came up with a decent compromise on the immunity issue -- letting the courts decide.  That's a pretty radical position for this day and age in America.  The courts?  We don't need no stinkin' courts.

But the Dems' past track record of capitulation following a presidential veto is worrisome.  The Republican Fear Machine will be all over them in the coming weeks.  And, then, of course, there's the Senate, which has already agreed to immunity.

Here's the full story at Reuters.

Nothing to hear but fear itself

Dust off the old Paranoia Meter, we're getting deep into fear season again.  The Republican scare machine is at full throttle over the Protect America Act.  That's the bill in Congress to "reform" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow the administration to continue eavesdropping on our phone calls and email while granting retroactive immunity to the giant telecoms for their previous illegal assistance in illegal wiretapping.

The previous FISA reform expired last Saturday.  The Senate bought into the White House fear-mongering and passed a new bill before taking a President's Day break, but the House, amazingly enough, didn't give in to White House's frantic hand-wringing.  For the time being, at least, it appears the House Demos are holding firm against giving the telecoms immunity.

So the Republicans are dealing the fear card again.

House Republicans have launched a new website that has a nifty little counter to tell us how many days, hours, and minutes it has been "Since America Went Blind to New Terrorist Plots."  (6 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes as of this moment.)  I kid you not.

The site also features a doozy of a fear-mongering video ad, as well.  Check this out, but keep the lights on and don't watch it alone:

Are you cowering under your bed like a good little American?  Well, fear not.  A clever graphics designer by the name of Lee Stranahan has whipped up a nice video response to the Repuglicans.  This video is much more truthful:

I love it!

It took him seven years, but now he gets it. Or not.

From a press conference following Bush's tour of the genocide museum in Rwanda:

Q Thank you. Mr. President, Bill Clinton came here and said he regretted that he wasn't able to do more to stop the genocide here. You have seen the memorial here today, and I'm wondering, what would you tell your successor about America's obligations and also its ability to stop genocide?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I would say it's like -- as I explained to this fellow here -- that one of the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda was to take some of the early warnings signs seriously.

Secondly, a clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive. In other words, people came from other countries -- I guess you'd call them colonialists -- and they pitted one group of people against another. And an early warning sign was -- and it's hard to have seen it, I readily admit, but I'm talking earlier than 1994, and earlier than the '90s -- was the fact that it become a habit to divide people based upon -- you know, in this case, whether they were Tutsi or Hutu, which eventually led to exploitation.

Secondly [sic], I would tell my successor that the United States can play a very constructive role. I would urge the President not to feel like U.S. solutions should be imposed upon African leaders. [Transcript]

Colonialist.  Imperialist.  Idiot.