... Subjecting someone to pain and humiliation doesn't compel them to tell the truth; it compels them to say whatever will make the pain stop...
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Bad intelligence
Let's just say that in my experience, pain can be used to glean information, good information, in the short term* - quick application of pain upon initial engagement in a one-time circumstance - on the battlefield to gain a tactical advantage. Long term interrogation using painful, humiliating methods becomes counterproductive quickly.
*Told ya I'm going to Hell.
Good news
Our wonderful, most excellent friends, MandT, whom we love so much, have resurrected the Adgita Diaries. It is a great day in Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!).
Dreamscapes
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Last night I dreamt I was on a strange search-and-destroy mission (I have never been in real combat), don't know where exactly (some city, in that surreal way a place exists in dreams), but I was wearing a combat uniform including OTV, carrying a rifle, safety lever off. I was inside a building and went slowly into a shadowy, messy room where I saw the Dear Leader of a country cowering in a corner. He could not tell if I was male or female, and I was so tired and so afraid, taking deep, silent breaths. I approached him and put the tip of the barrel of my rifle right under his chin, poking his neck. He could not see my eyes but I looked into his and he was afraid too. I believe he thought I would kill him and I believe I knew that I could. What I did, though, was scream at him, "Say you're a war criminal! Say it! SAY IT!" All the while I was poking his neck with my rifle. Then he said, "I am a war criminal". I grabbed him by his shirt and jerked him up. Without another word spoken by either of us, I pushed him out of the room with my rifle, then out of the building, to where some of the others were. Every step out of the building I hated him intensely. We took him as a prisoner and I no longer paid him any attention. I woke up at that point absolutely terrified... He said he was a war criminal because I told him to say it, he feared that if he didn't I would kill him. I would not have. And he lived because I knew there would be a tomorrow when the object of my hate did not sit cringing before me and I would no longer legitmately be able to say to myself, it's either him or me.
2700 US deaths in Iraq today, more than 45.000 Iraqis. And who will be the last person tortured for a mistake?
Last night I dreamt I was on a strange search-and-destroy mission (I have never been in real combat), don't know where exactly (some city, in that surreal way a place exists in dreams), but I was wearing a combat uniform including OTV, carrying a rifle, safety lever off. I was inside a building and went slowly into a shadowy, messy room where I saw the Dear Leader of a country cowering in a corner. He could not tell if I was male or female, and I was so tired and so afraid, taking deep, silent breaths. I approached him and put the tip of the barrel of my rifle right under his chin, poking his neck. He could not see my eyes but I looked into his and he was afraid too. I believe he thought I would kill him and I believe I knew that I could. What I did, though, was scream at him, "Say you're a war criminal! Say it! SAY IT!" All the while I was poking his neck with my rifle. Then he said, "I am a war criminal". I grabbed him by his shirt and jerked him up. Without another word spoken by either of us, I pushed him out of the room with my rifle, then out of the building, to where some of the others were. Every step out of the building I hated him intensely. We took him as a prisoner and I no longer paid him any attention. I woke up at that point absolutely terrified... He said he was a war criminal because I told him to say it, he feared that if he didn't I would kill him. I would not have. And he lived because I knew there would be a tomorrow when the object of my hate did not sit cringing before me and I would no longer legitmately be able to say to myself, it's either him or me.
2700 US deaths in Iraq today, more than 45.000 Iraqis. And who will be the last person tortured for a mistake?
How it's gonna work
Commander Huber has an excellent take on what the war in Iraq, and the probable attacks on Iran, have gotten us. Not much, but by golly we sure gave Iran what it wanted (Part 1 - Part 2):
A great read for Saturday afternoon.
...
Cheney's real problem is that he broke his promise to his big oil buddies by letting his pal Don Rumsfeld spray the Iraq situation into the fan. That gave China and its partners the opening they needed to crack the western world's control of the energy market. If Iran, with help from Russia and China, can develop a mature, independent nuclear energy industry, and if those three countries, along with Venezuela, can take over the energy sources for Asia, eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America, British Petroleum and Mobil Exxon will start going the way of Ford and General Motors.
...
In a nutshell, the goal of Realpolitik or "realistic foreign policy" is to strengthen your alliances, divide your enemies, and convince everybody else to stay out of the way. The Bush administration's pursuit of the neoconservative ideological policies has united our adversaries, pushed formerly non-aligned states into our adversaries' camp, and convinced former allies like the western European states to take a largely neutral position.
If we pull the trigger in Iran we'll shoot off another of our few remaining toes, and we won't have a friend left in the world but Israel. The senior military types who have been pushing back at the idea of attacking Iran understand this better than their civilian bosses, and that's a sad comment on contemporary America.
...
A great read for Saturday afternoon.
A thought ...
If Osama's really dead*, the result of Typhoid, I think that would be the ultimate justice. No martyrdom through Jihad, just a horrible, miserable existence in some cold, damp cave until the end.
You and I will settle up in Hell, motherfucker.
Update:
Just getting back from dinner and I hear the Saudis say bin Laden is still alive. What I said still goes. I'm gonna spend eternity with my hands around your throat.
You tried to kill my wife. I will never forget.
You and I will settle up in Hell, motherfucker.
Update:
Just getting back from dinner and I hear the Saudis say bin Laden is still alive. What I said still goes. I'm gonna spend eternity with my hands around your throat.
From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.
You tried to kill my wife. I will never forget.
*Tip o' the Brain to Creature for the link.
I don't think he gets it
Let me first say, I love Steve Gilliard. I read him daily and value his insights, but I don't think he gets it with regard to this 'torture compromise'. It's not the fact it will be overturned by the courts, or the fact Rethugs are going to look as monstrous as they did during the Schaivo case, or that other messes will be their undoing, it's the fact we are having the debate at all.
Hel-lo, McFly?
This is America. We should not even be considering defining torture. It should not even be discussed with regard to becoming policy. Think about it, Americans are discussing whether torture should be excused.
This is America, Steve. It's about our honor, not about political expedience, and it's about time the Dems stood up and showed they had some.
Hel-lo, McFly?
This is America. We should not even be considering defining torture. It should not even be discussed with regard to becoming policy. Think about it, Americans are discussing whether torture should be excused.
This is America, Steve. It's about our honor, not about political expedience, and it's about time the Dems stood up and showed they had some.
Unity '08
Some of us and our readers have expressed a slight displeasure with the Democratic party as it now stands. I have no idea why (cough, cough).
Here's something you might be interested in: Unity '08 wants to put together a bi-partisan ticket for '08. Also see NOW on the subject. Check it out, see what you think, let us know.
Here's something you might be interested in: Unity '08 wants to put together a bi-partisan ticket for '08. Also see NOW on the subject. Check it out, see what you think, let us know.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Daily Dave
CQ Politics:
Hil and Spitzer better cough up some scratch. King is the last Rethug holding national office on Long Island. Let's get his nasty ass out.
Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America
Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.
Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?
Update:
Peter King Watch has an interview with Imam Dr. Farouque Khan of the Long Island Islamic Center. It's enlightening how King's views have changed in this 'post 9/11 world'.
...
[Dave] Mejias' longshot bid is drawing increasing local and national attention: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has listed the contest among its "emerging races," which party officials use to highlight contests they believe are becoming increasingly competitive.
He has a significant though not huge campaign treasury for a first-time House contender. And - perhaps most crucial to his hopes for cutting into King's apparent strong lead - he potentially could get help from the top of the party's ticket, with Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the gubernatorial nominee, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, both prohibitive favorites to win their November contests.
...
Hil and Spitzer better cough up some scratch. King is the last Rethug holding national office on Long Island. Let's get his nasty ass out.
Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America
Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.
Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?
Update:
Peter King Watch has an interview with Imam Dr. Farouque Khan of the Long Island Islamic Center. It's enlightening how King's views have changed in this 'post 9/11 world'.
Cannon fodder and deck apes
NYT (Wow, 2 links for the Gray Lady today) via Holden:
To all those people who laughed when I said a draft is in the future. We might not have any other option in a little while. Well one, we can let the Army collapse. Stay the course. Good thing we got all these strategists and tacticians in charge.
Not only have we broken Iraq, we've just about broken the U.S. Army.
Update:
A bit of a tangent, but this struck me over at Montag's:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - Strains on the Army from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have become so severe that Army officials say they may be forced to make greater use of the National Guard to provide enough troops for overseas deployments.
...
An internal Army document that was provided to The New York Times notes that the demand for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has greatly exceeded past projections that predicted earlier troop reductions. According to the document, the Army needs $66.1 billion to make up for all of its equipment shortfalls. Referring to the units that are to deploy next to Iraq and Afghanistan, or are in training, the document shows a large question mark to indicate their limited readiness.
...
To all those people who laughed when I said a draft is in the future. We might not have any other option in a little while. Well one, we can let the Army collapse. Stay the course. Good thing we got all these strategists and tacticians in charge.
Not only have we broken Iraq, we've just about broken the U.S. Army.
Update:
A bit of a tangent, but this struck me over at Montag's:
Yes, it is true. Our Dear Embattled Leader has now killed as many Americans in His Glorious Little Wars as Osama did on 9/11.
The only surprise will be what the surprise will be
NewsMax
Duh.
Please pardon me if I take a little 31-day break from blogging next month. It's hard to type with my eyes screwed shut, my asshole bunched up, and my fingers in my ears like a foot-tappin' Polish mine detector.
In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an "October surprise" to help win the November congressional elections.
Duh.
Rove is not saying what the October surprise will be. Asked if he would elaborate and give his thinking about the coming elections, Rove told NewsMax that his take largely parallels what RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman said in a Sept. 5 NewsMax story.
As for the October Surprise, Rove said, "I'd rather let the balance [of plans for the elections] unroll on its own."
Please pardon me if I take a little 31-day break from blogging next month. It's hard to type with my eyes screwed shut, my asshole bunched up, and my fingers in my ears like a foot-tappin' Polish mine detector.
No angry letters, please. I'm half Polish.
The Road to Hell
Billmon
This is the first I've heard that imperialistic, christofascist, capitalistic, monarchical, one-party world rule are good intentions!
I realize these rhetorical then-and-now comparisons are getting very old, but I can't stop -- probably because I have so many enraged memories of the asinine braying of conservative pseudo-humanitarians back in the days of Mission Accomplished, when the knee-jerk response to any question about the missing WMDs was: Would you have left Saddam in power?
It takes a rare combination of stupidity, incompetence and bone-headed arrogance to make Saddam's murderous regime look benign by comparison. But that's what the American reign of error in Iraq has managed to accomplish. Instead of an end to terror, Bush and his merry band of neocolonialists have unleashed a terror without end.
Even if Shrub's motives were as virtuous as his hagiographers insist, at what point do recklessness and fecklessness, and a petulant refusal to admit -- much less learn from -- even the most disastrous mistakes, become forms of evil in themselves?
Well, we all know what the road to hell is paved with. But it looks as if this one is going to go there via Tehran.
This is the first I've heard that imperialistic, christofascist, capitalistic, monarchical, one-party world rule are good intentions!
Praise the Lord and pass the waterboard...
I touched on this briefly in my earlier post, but it's true: Torture is the christian way. From Balkinization:
He's right - it ain't right and it's scary. Since when did that matter to the christofascist wingnut agenda?
"Traditional values" my ass. You actual Christians out there: ain't you about outta cheeks to turn? Rise up and smite these bastards that are making you all look bad.
"We must redefine how our lawful society treats those who have nothing but contempt for the law and rely on terrorizing the innocent to accomplish their objectives. The lines must be redrawn and then we must pursue these criminals as quickly and as aggressively as the law permits.
"And since this debate is, at its very core, about preserving the traditional value of prosecuting injustice and protecting the innocent, TVC will score this vote in both the House and the Senate. We encourage all of our supporters and affiliated churches to contact their elected representatives and let them know we support President Bush's efforts to update our methods of interrogating terrorist detainees in order to provide greater protection for our troops and the innocent."
It is strange--to put it politely--to see an avowedly Christian organization promote torture. Reverend Sheldon is correct that this debate is about preserving our traditional values, but he is on the wrong side.
Conservative Christian groups are a key block within the Republican political coalition, as everyone knows. If these groups took an agressive moral stance against torture, the Bush Administration might be given pause. The Traditional Values Coalition has chosen to do the opposite, throwing its weight behind torture, urging Christians to pressure their legislators to support toture.
This can't be right (although I'm not a Christian).
(And please don't characterize authorizing torture as a matter of "updating our methods"--that's scary doublespeak.)
He's right - it ain't right and it's scary. Since when did that matter to the christofascist wingnut agenda?
"Traditional values" my ass. You actual Christians out there: ain't you about outta cheeks to turn? Rise up and smite these bastards that are making you all look bad.
A Bad Bargain
A New York Times editorial, without blockquotes or comment.
[Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession.
About the only thing that Senators John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham had to show for their defiance was Mr. Bush's agreement to drop his insistence on allowing prosecutors of suspected terrorists to introduce classified evidence kept secret from the defendant. The White House agreed to abide by the rules of courts-martial, which bar secret evidence. (Although the administration's supporters continually claim this means giving classified information to terrorists, the rules actually provide for reviewing, editing and summarizing classified material. Evidence that cannot be safely declassified cannot be introduced.)
This is a critical point. As Senator Graham keeps noting, the United States would never stand for any other country's convicting an American citizen with undisclosed, secret evidence. So it seemed like a significant concession - until Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, briefed reporters yesterday evening. He said that while the White House wants to honor this deal, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, still wants to permit secret evidence and should certainly have his say. To accept this spin requires believing that Mr. Hunter, who railroaded Mr. Bush's original bill through his committee, is going to take any action not blessed by the White House.
On other issues, the three rebel senators achieved only modest improvements on the White House's original positions. They wanted to bar evidence obtained through coercion. Now, they have agreed to allow it if a judge finds it reliable (which coerced evidence hardly can be) and relevant to guilt or innocence. The way coercion is measured in the bill, even those protections would not apply to the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.
The deal does next to nothing to stop the president from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. While the White House agreed to a list of "grave breaches" of the conventions that could be prosecuted as war crimes, it stipulated that the president could decide on his own what actions might be a lesser breach of the Geneva Conventions and what interrogation techniques he considered permissible. It's not clear how much the public will ultimately learn about those decisions. They will be contained in an executive order that is supposed to be made public, but Mr. Hadley reiterated that specific interrogation techniques will remain secret.
Even before the compromises began to emerge, the overall bill prepared by the three senators had fatal flaws. It allows the president to declare any foreigner, anywhere, an "illegal enemy combatant" using a dangerously broad definition, and detain him without any trial. It not only fails to deal with the fact that many of the Guantánamo detainees are not terrorists and will never be charged, but it also chokes off any judicial review.
The Democrats have largely stood silent and allowed the trio of Republicans to do the lifting. It's time for them to either try to fix this bill or delay it until after the election. The American people expect their leaders to clean up this mess without endangering U.S. troops, eviscerating American standards of justice, or further harming the nation's severely damaged reputation.]
OK, I lied. Sue me. One little comment:
November
[Here is a way to measure how seriously President Bush was willing to compromise on the military tribunals bill: Less than an hour after an agreement was announced yesterday with three leading Republican senators, the White House was already laying a path to wiggle out of its one real concession.
About the only thing that Senators John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham had to show for their defiance was Mr. Bush's agreement to drop his insistence on allowing prosecutors of suspected terrorists to introduce classified evidence kept secret from the defendant. The White House agreed to abide by the rules of courts-martial, which bar secret evidence. (Although the administration's supporters continually claim this means giving classified information to terrorists, the rules actually provide for reviewing, editing and summarizing classified material. Evidence that cannot be safely declassified cannot be introduced.)
This is a critical point. As Senator Graham keeps noting, the United States would never stand for any other country's convicting an American citizen with undisclosed, secret evidence. So it seemed like a significant concession - until Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, briefed reporters yesterday evening. He said that while the White House wants to honor this deal, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, still wants to permit secret evidence and should certainly have his say. To accept this spin requires believing that Mr. Hunter, who railroaded Mr. Bush's original bill through his committee, is going to take any action not blessed by the White House.
On other issues, the three rebel senators achieved only modest improvements on the White House's original positions. They wanted to bar evidence obtained through coercion. Now, they have agreed to allow it if a judge finds it reliable (which coerced evidence hardly can be) and relevant to guilt or innocence. The way coercion is measured in the bill, even those protections would not apply to the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.
The deal does next to nothing to stop the president from reinterpreting the Geneva Conventions. While the White House agreed to a list of "grave breaches" of the conventions that could be prosecuted as war crimes, it stipulated that the president could decide on his own what actions might be a lesser breach of the Geneva Conventions and what interrogation techniques he considered permissible. It's not clear how much the public will ultimately learn about those decisions. They will be contained in an executive order that is supposed to be made public, but Mr. Hadley reiterated that specific interrogation techniques will remain secret.
Even before the compromises began to emerge, the overall bill prepared by the three senators had fatal flaws. It allows the president to declare any foreigner, anywhere, an "illegal enemy combatant" using a dangerously broad definition, and detain him without any trial. It not only fails to deal with the fact that many of the Guantánamo detainees are not terrorists and will never be charged, but it also chokes off any judicial review.
The Democrats have largely stood silent and allowed the trio of Republicans to do the lifting. It's time for them to either try to fix this bill or delay it until after the election. The American people expect their leaders to clean up this mess without endangering U.S. troops, eviscerating American standards of justice, or further harming the nation's severely damaged reputation.]
OK, I lied. Sue me. One little comment:
November
The Great Cave-In
The Rude Pundit has it about right on the torture 'compromise'.
He's right. We've been suckered again. This whole deal has 'Rove' stamped on it.
The Chimp got to look tough on terrorists. He played to his base, which would let him roast slowly on a spit any little brown men who might come kill their punk asses in their beds. Torture is the Lord's work if it protects them from heathens and Liberal terrorist sympathizers, after all. Bush might have picked up a few others, as the polls seem to be showing.
McCain got to look like the 'maverick' he isn't. He may have started this honestly, or not, but somewhere along the way he was convinced somehow to back off, as were the other pols. He basically let Bush fuck him in the ass again: "It'll all be forgotten by '08. If you go along. Remember South Carolina and what we've proven we can do to you". Something like that.
The five former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who opposed Bush are on the right side of the torture deal, but they have no power.
Most of the American public like the high-minded idea of going along with morality and the Geneva Convention treaty we signed, but they really don't give a shit what Bush does to foreigners as long as they can drive their SUVs and continue consuming in safety. All they care about is that gas prices are going down.
They won't mind too much when Bush starts doing this to Americans either, for the same reasons. White Protestant Republicans will be exempt. They think. It'll be way too late to worry about it then.
November may be our last chance. Clean your rifles.
The fact that anyone thought for two seconds that we were watching honorable men confront the evil wrought by a president from their own party is a pathetic statement on just how debased politics has become in this country. If there can be actual celebratory jubilation over the brief stand taken by the Gutless Trio, then no one's been paying attention. For if John McCain actually gave a rat's ass about torture, then he would not have voted to confirm Alberto Gonzales or Samuel Alito. If Lindsey Graham gave a happy monkey fuck about the rights of detainees, then he wouldn't have authored an amendment limiting their rights of appeal. And Warner, despite his reputation as a moderate in some of his statements, almost always goes along with the herd, so, you know, fuck him, too. A real, genuine confrontation with the White House would have been to open hearings on the treatment of detainees, with subpoenas and possibly arrests. This was just legalistic wrangling over language.
In the final analysis, the compromise says that Bush gets to decide what is a "grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions, a government prosecutor gets to say what evidence a detainee and/or his attorney can see at trial, and the lights get turned back on at some godforsaken CIA dungeon in a remote area of Uzbekistan. Thank Christ we can finally get back to the goodly work of arresting people without charge, sending them to Syria, and looking away while they're kept in a coffin-sized space and beaten with metal cable.
But, really, and, c'mon, this was all a pretty dance for the cameras and the folks back home because of the inevitable signing statement that'll accompany the bill.
He's right. We've been suckered again. This whole deal has 'Rove' stamped on it.
The Chimp got to look tough on terrorists. He played to his base, which would let him roast slowly on a spit any little brown men who might come kill their punk asses in their beds. Torture is the Lord's work if it protects them from heathens and Liberal terrorist sympathizers, after all. Bush might have picked up a few others, as the polls seem to be showing.
McCain got to look like the 'maverick' he isn't. He may have started this honestly, or not, but somewhere along the way he was convinced somehow to back off, as were the other pols. He basically let Bush fuck him in the ass again: "It'll all be forgotten by '08. If you go along. Remember South Carolina and what we've proven we can do to you". Something like that.
The five former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who opposed Bush are on the right side of the torture deal, but they have no power.
Most of the American public like the high-minded idea of going along with morality and the Geneva Convention treaty we signed, but they really don't give a shit what Bush does to foreigners as long as they can drive their SUVs and continue consuming in safety. All they care about is that gas prices are going down.
They won't mind too much when Bush starts doing this to Americans either, for the same reasons. White Protestant Republicans will be exempt. They think. It'll be way too late to worry about it then.
November may be our last chance. Clean your rifles.
Buckle Up,It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride
Grab a bev kids,this is going to take a few. Oh,and I'm going to curse like a sailor too,deal.
Comfy?Good.And so it begins....
To riff off of Fixer a bit and then veer off some, I HAVE HAD IT. I wish I could sue the GOP for alienation of affection. I liken it,in some ways,to some sexy young thing who seduces your spouse at work,it happens,alot,so it's not unusual. And then let's say your spouse,trying to make you the bad guy in all this,treats you like shit and becomes a complete asshole so YOU'LL end up having to be the one to initiate the divorce. Because the person you once loved became a cowardly,lying,cheating scumbag. And then,once you get sick of the bullshit and the abuse(and the lying,OMG,the lying),stand your ground and get the fuck out of there with some semblance of sanity and dignity left,your soon to be ex fights you right down to the last fucking cobweb you once owned together. Just to plunge the final knife into your heart. You see them actually ENJOYING it. Can you imagine? Well,in this case the GOP is the hot young love interest of the spouse,and the spouse is America. They took my country,that I once loved so very much(and still do,but what I loved about this place is pretty much gone,or at the very least gone into hiding),and turned it into everything I hate. And I'm fairly certain America hates me too. At least the part of America that "counts",you know,rich mostly white people. The ones that run things and have all the odds in their favor.
As if all this crininally insane and sadistic,vicious and evil "debate"about torture isn't enough, as if the insane,spittle flecked rabid insanity hurled at anything good and right and true doesn't do enough damage, I find myself with nowhere to escape.I'm surrounded by self centered,clueless idiots.
After I dropped Atilla the Fun off at school this morning,I headed out to the store,post office and assorted Friday morning errands. As I often do when I'm out and about,I notice people,and I pay attention to what's happening with the air,water,land and wildlife. What I see happening around here doesn't bode well for the future.
I live on a two lane road,in what used to be a mix of farm country(small farms) and older houses,built from the 50's to the 70's. Most of the farms are abandoned now,much of the land was allowed to go back to being forest and meadows long,long ago. Some of the little farms are still working farms,but they're smaller than they used to be.The land is either being sold off or allowed to return to it's wild state because of the cost to keep it producing. In the last 3 yrs or so,high dollar subdivisions have been eating away at these large pieces of acreage and now the traffic is a mess and we're losing huge old trees by the thousands. Long time residents here have been fighting road widening projects and development for years,but we always seem to lose in the end. Just in the last few days,another 750 acres of land has gone up for re-zoning, for more fucking subdivisions and strip malls and office buildings. My home,and many other of the older homes sit rather close to the road. If the road gets widened,we'll have four lanes at our front doors(which ain't legal,and god knows what the county will do to all of us to screw us out of our homes).
We fought this crap last year,the plans to widen the road were scrapped because of public pressure. BUT,that hasn't stopped the developers from proceeding anyway with building more and more shit,which will increase traffic even more,which means the road will HAVE to be widened anyway. All the resident's actions are really just postponing the inevitable. I'm wagering the pressure on us to sell for less than the property is worth will start within the next year and a half. If we don't sell and try to hang on,I'm afraid they'll just condemn the place and take it anyway. Fuck that,I'm not going into more debt to attorneys to fight this crap.
I'm seeing LOTS of dead wildlife on the side of the road now.Used to be you'd see the occasional family pet that got loose and killed by cars,or a 'possum or big old snake now and then,and rarely someone would hit a deer. Today I saw 5 dead racoons,an owl that had probably got hammered by an SUV and flung to the side of the road,a fox, and a small deer all recently killed,probably last night. All within a two mile stretch.
I have to get my family out of here. My husband is torn. He has a really good paying job,but it's come with an enormous price. Mostly that we never see him. And when he is here,he's not really "here". I'm about one step away from taking his fucking Treo thingy and that piece of crap Blackberry away from him, throw them into the driveway,along with his work laptop, and proceed to run over them repeatedly with my car.And then light the remains on fire. The job is trashing his health, and he doesn't take care of himself. I admire his drive,but he could take a job for less pay,I could get something part time,we could live in a smaller house,drive older cars,and we'd be just fine. In fact,we might actually be able to start saving some money for a change.
Like so many men,my husband's identity is tied to his success at work. And I'll admit,the money is nice(but we are in debt too-which is where lots of the income goes,mostly because the man is bad with money,long story),but I'd rather live on less in a less populated area. I don't know how you convince a workaholic that it's not failure if you don't die with the most toys. I'm seriously considering making an actual business presentation to him,using pie charts and graphs and shit to communicate to him in language he can relate to. I'm NOT kidding. He pays the idea lip service,but makes no move to change. I think he's scared,not just of failing,but of change itself. Besides,he gets tons of strokes for doing what he does; decent insurance,paid vacations, trips where all his expenses are paid,cash bonuses,and a decent yearly wage and notice from the CEOs. That IS alot to give up after working so hard to get it. I've checked all over the country,looking at job listings, looked at the base pay for what he does,and he'd be lucky to make 2/3 of what he does now. This is not going to be an easy sell.
Since it's obvious to me this economy is about to take a huge crap pretty soon(we cannot go on like this and I see no signs that anyone's getting a clue that could do something about it),I don't want to live anywhere near a big city or it's suburbs when that happens. With our rights being eroded,dissent being treated as criminal, a thoroughly corrupt government and business climate, and a gross sense of self importance and entitlement running rampant,when things head into the crapper in a big way,it's gonna be UG-LEE. I want no part of it. I want OUT.
Ack. This is getting to me too much. I actually started bawling in the grocery store this morning. Good thing the place wasn't crowded and no one saw me,I damned near embarassed myself.
Comfy?Good.And so it begins....
To riff off of Fixer a bit and then veer off some, I HAVE HAD IT. I wish I could sue the GOP for alienation of affection. I liken it,in some ways,to some sexy young thing who seduces your spouse at work,it happens,alot,so it's not unusual. And then let's say your spouse,trying to make you the bad guy in all this,treats you like shit and becomes a complete asshole so YOU'LL end up having to be the one to initiate the divorce. Because the person you once loved became a cowardly,lying,cheating scumbag. And then,once you get sick of the bullshit and the abuse(and the lying,OMG,the lying),stand your ground and get the fuck out of there with some semblance of sanity and dignity left,your soon to be ex fights you right down to the last fucking cobweb you once owned together. Just to plunge the final knife into your heart. You see them actually ENJOYING it. Can you imagine? Well,in this case the GOP is the hot young love interest of the spouse,and the spouse is America. They took my country,that I once loved so very much(and still do,but what I loved about this place is pretty much gone,or at the very least gone into hiding),and turned it into everything I hate. And I'm fairly certain America hates me too. At least the part of America that "counts",you know,rich mostly white people. The ones that run things and have all the odds in their favor.
As if all this crininally insane and sadistic,vicious and evil "debate"about torture isn't enough, as if the insane,spittle flecked rabid insanity hurled at anything good and right and true doesn't do enough damage, I find myself with nowhere to escape.I'm surrounded by self centered,clueless idiots.
After I dropped Atilla the Fun off at school this morning,I headed out to the store,post office and assorted Friday morning errands. As I often do when I'm out and about,I notice people,and I pay attention to what's happening with the air,water,land and wildlife. What I see happening around here doesn't bode well for the future.
I live on a two lane road,in what used to be a mix of farm country(small farms) and older houses,built from the 50's to the 70's. Most of the farms are abandoned now,much of the land was allowed to go back to being forest and meadows long,long ago. Some of the little farms are still working farms,but they're smaller than they used to be.The land is either being sold off or allowed to return to it's wild state because of the cost to keep it producing. In the last 3 yrs or so,high dollar subdivisions have been eating away at these large pieces of acreage and now the traffic is a mess and we're losing huge old trees by the thousands. Long time residents here have been fighting road widening projects and development for years,but we always seem to lose in the end. Just in the last few days,another 750 acres of land has gone up for re-zoning, for more fucking subdivisions and strip malls and office buildings. My home,and many other of the older homes sit rather close to the road. If the road gets widened,we'll have four lanes at our front doors(which ain't legal,and god knows what the county will do to all of us to screw us out of our homes).
We fought this crap last year,the plans to widen the road were scrapped because of public pressure. BUT,that hasn't stopped the developers from proceeding anyway with building more and more shit,which will increase traffic even more,which means the road will HAVE to be widened anyway. All the resident's actions are really just postponing the inevitable. I'm wagering the pressure on us to sell for less than the property is worth will start within the next year and a half. If we don't sell and try to hang on,I'm afraid they'll just condemn the place and take it anyway. Fuck that,I'm not going into more debt to attorneys to fight this crap.
I'm seeing LOTS of dead wildlife on the side of the road now.Used to be you'd see the occasional family pet that got loose and killed by cars,or a 'possum or big old snake now and then,and rarely someone would hit a deer. Today I saw 5 dead racoons,an owl that had probably got hammered by an SUV and flung to the side of the road,a fox, and a small deer all recently killed,probably last night. All within a two mile stretch.
I have to get my family out of here. My husband is torn. He has a really good paying job,but it's come with an enormous price. Mostly that we never see him. And when he is here,he's not really "here". I'm about one step away from taking his fucking Treo thingy and that piece of crap Blackberry away from him, throw them into the driveway,along with his work laptop, and proceed to run over them repeatedly with my car.And then light the remains on fire. The job is trashing his health, and he doesn't take care of himself. I admire his drive,but he could take a job for less pay,I could get something part time,we could live in a smaller house,drive older cars,and we'd be just fine. In fact,we might actually be able to start saving some money for a change.
Like so many men,my husband's identity is tied to his success at work. And I'll admit,the money is nice(but we are in debt too-which is where lots of the income goes,mostly because the man is bad with money,long story),but I'd rather live on less in a less populated area. I don't know how you convince a workaholic that it's not failure if you don't die with the most toys. I'm seriously considering making an actual business presentation to him,using pie charts and graphs and shit to communicate to him in language he can relate to. I'm NOT kidding. He pays the idea lip service,but makes no move to change. I think he's scared,not just of failing,but of change itself. Besides,he gets tons of strokes for doing what he does; decent insurance,paid vacations, trips where all his expenses are paid,cash bonuses,and a decent yearly wage and notice from the CEOs. That IS alot to give up after working so hard to get it. I've checked all over the country,looking at job listings, looked at the base pay for what he does,and he'd be lucky to make 2/3 of what he does now. This is not going to be an easy sell.
Since it's obvious to me this economy is about to take a huge crap pretty soon(we cannot go on like this and I see no signs that anyone's getting a clue that could do something about it),I don't want to live anywhere near a big city or it's suburbs when that happens. With our rights being eroded,dissent being treated as criminal, a thoroughly corrupt government and business climate, and a gross sense of self importance and entitlement running rampant,when things head into the crapper in a big way,it's gonna be UG-LEE. I want no part of it. I want OUT.
Ack. This is getting to me too much. I actually started bawling in the grocery store this morning. Good thing the place wasn't crowded and no one saw me,I damned near embarassed myself.
Wait
Yes, I'm still pissed.
Wait, ladies and germs. You think this 'torture deal' (can you believe we're actually considering it, that we're actually having this conversation, in America) will just make life more difficult for the brown folks rounded up in the Middle East? Heh ... gullible fools.
Wait, ladies and germs. Wait until someone in government believes an American citizen has information on a terror group. Wait until they use this 'deal' to imprison them and torture the shit out of them.
Wait, ladies and germs. Wait until we start down this road and find we've slid down the slippery slope of the 'ends justifying the means'. Wait until 'terrorist-enablers' (read: anyone who doesn't agree with this administration's ideology) are deemed eligible for torture by the party in power.
If this doesn't bother you as much as it does me, you're a complete fucking idiot. Mark my words, the passage of this 'compromise bill' will be the event historians point to when they speak of the 'death of the American Way'.
We will have become nothing more than the worst of our enemies, nothing better than a tinhorn dictatorship, placed in league with the villians of history. We will be no better than Saddam, Khaddafi, Hitler, and Stalin. And all you apathetic, gullible fools have yourselves to blame.
I'm fortunate. I have the resources to get up and leave if it gets too bad. Most of the rest of you will have to live with it. But you made your beds. You listened to Fox 'News', accepted all the drivel from the government at face value, and you voted for the Moron in Chief ... twice. You said 'all politicians are crooks and it doesn't matter who's in charge' and you left it at that.
But you made your beds. Now that you've soiled them, have fun sleeping in your own shit. No one's gonna come to clean it up because no one out there wants to. From here on out it's gonna get worse.
Thanks to Diebold and the collective stupid of the American people, 2006 will close much as 2000, 2002, and 2004 did. 2 more years of a Rethug-led Congress and Executive will probably be the coup de grace for the America we once knew, the America I once pledged my life to protect.
I'd ask you to call your reps and yell and scream over this, but it won't matter. The game is rigged, the refs have been paid off, and we're just going through the motions. I plan to be somewhere like Paris or Sydney or Stuttgart in less than a decade and I can leave sooner if I have to. How many of you can say that? Enjoy your 21st Century America; you have no one to blame but yourselves.
Wait, ladies and germs. You think this 'torture deal' (can you believe we're actually considering it, that we're actually having this conversation, in America) will just make life more difficult for the brown folks rounded up in the Middle East? Heh ... gullible fools.
Wait, ladies and germs. Wait until someone in government believes an American citizen has information on a terror group. Wait until they use this 'deal' to imprison them and torture the shit out of them.
Wait, ladies and germs. Wait until we start down this road and find we've slid down the slippery slope of the 'ends justifying the means'. Wait until 'terrorist-enablers' (read: anyone who doesn't agree with this administration's ideology) are deemed eligible for torture by the party in power.
If this doesn't bother you as much as it does me, you're a complete fucking idiot. Mark my words, the passage of this 'compromise bill' will be the event historians point to when they speak of the 'death of the American Way'.
We will have become nothing more than the worst of our enemies, nothing better than a tinhorn dictatorship, placed in league with the villians of history. We will be no better than Saddam, Khaddafi, Hitler, and Stalin. And all you apathetic, gullible fools have yourselves to blame.
I'm fortunate. I have the resources to get up and leave if it gets too bad. Most of the rest of you will have to live with it. But you made your beds. You listened to Fox 'News', accepted all the drivel from the government at face value, and you voted for the Moron in Chief ... twice. You said 'all politicians are crooks and it doesn't matter who's in charge' and you left it at that.
But you made your beds. Now that you've soiled them, have fun sleeping in your own shit. No one's gonna come to clean it up because no one out there wants to. From here on out it's gonna get worse.
Thanks to Diebold and the collective stupid of the American people, 2006 will close much as 2000, 2002, and 2004 did. 2 more years of a Rethug-led Congress and Executive will probably be the coup de grace for the America we once knew, the America I once pledged my life to protect.
I'd ask you to call your reps and yell and scream over this, but it won't matter. The game is rigged, the refs have been paid off, and we're just going through the motions. I plan to be somewhere like Paris or Sydney or Stuttgart in less than a decade and I can leave sooner if I have to. How many of you can say that? Enjoy your 21st Century America; you have no one to blame but yourselves.
I'm disgusted
So tell me, my fellow Americans:
How does it feel knowing that your government will pass laws permitting the violation of the Geneva Conventions against torture?
How does it feel knowing the taxes you pay from money you earned are going towards the salary of legally sanctioned torturers?
How does it feel knowing that the only political party with an organization large enough to stand in opposition to the American fascists in charge of this country's legislature and executive were actually boasting that they were not going to get involved in one of the most important moral debates of our time?
And how does it feel to have George W. Bush, that paragon of moral probity, mental stability, and well-informed intelligence, granted the legal right to determine what is and isn't torture?
I'll tell you how I feel. I am outraged and ashamed. [my em]
...
This was a chance for the Dems to grab the moral high ground but instead have once again been shown for the spineless weasels they are. I've had it with the lot of them.
Do I expect them to filibuster this? No, that would take courage and moral fortitude, and a smattering of leadership that the American people are longing for but will never get with this buncha pussies.
If the stakes weren't so high, I'd wash my hands of all of you. If the future of our nation wasn't hanging by a thread, I'd throw up my hands and give up. I'm tired of fighting for a team that doesn't want to win.
Congressional and Senate Democrats should be ashamed of themselves, hiding in the corners like rats, hoping to find a scrap or two overlooked by the Republican who owns the house. Never would they show their faces in the light, stand up to what amounts to the abdication of our core principles and taking another step toward turning this nation into Nazi Germany. You all disgust me.
And to John McCain, I wouldn't mind making you a new reservation at the Hanoi Hilton, you miserable piece of shit. You deserve everything the VC did to you, you morally corrupt, self-serving, comtemptible, reprehensible, lowlife worm. Read a book on Bushido and take the appropriate steps; that would be the only way you could earn respect in my eyes. You have no honor, don't even know the meaning of the word. Anything you did in the military, your imprisonment, has been disgraced by your actions. When I get there, I'm gonna make sure Lucifer has a special space reserved for you.
I'm beginning to feel, more and more, that the only way we can restore this nation is through revolution.
Update:
Jo Fish:
Buh-bye Democrats, nice job snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2006 mid-term election cycle...
Is anybody in the Party gonna stand up to the leadership? [crickets]
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