The Republic must be restored.

Tom Paine wrote that “these are the times that try mens souls,” and the time is apt for those to be repeated often and loudly. The basic premise of government, as realized by Hobbes, Locke and other Enlightenment thinkers was that government was a contract: the people gave up certain rights (such as absolute control of all their wealth and profit and a the right to mete out justice) in return for the government being not merely derived from the consent of the governed, but as an agent for the mutual protection of the people under whom the government was established.

The Divine Right of Kings, of Might Makes Right, and that government is an oligarchy set up to maintain and increase the power and wealth of a few is long passed in theory. But these days, here at the dawn of the Twenty-first Century, a new rise of a tyranny masquerading as a Security State. Cloaked in a flag dripping blood from the innocent spewed out by the acts of a few religious fanatics, holding a Bible in one hand and the threat of peine fort et dure along with the threat of indefinite detention with no due process or even our ancient right of habeus corpus, a man with little wit and slim to nothing to recommend him alongside his cabal of toadies and henchmen has been allowed to ride roughshod over our entire Republic.

We find ourselves embroiled in another Asian Adventure, after having failed to learn our lesson from the Vietnamese Fiasco in Iraq. Iraq! A state which was our ally against the Iranians after their Islamic Revolution! Iraq! A state which had not threatened any of its neighbors save the decadent al Sabbah tyranny of Kuwait for over ten years. Yes, that Iraq.

Why? We still do not know the whole truth. Every reason offered has been proven to either be a lie or changed. After the 19 religious fanatics from ARABIA not Iraq flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and allegedly aimed for the Capitol itself, “everything changed” according to the official account of this Administration.

Indeed, it did, as we were set back further in our quest for a government by, for, and of the people in one fell swoop with a rubber stamp Congress and a tyrant in the White House and another at the Naval Observatory in the city of Washington.

Perhaps we are saddled with the nincompoop Bush and the evil Cheney and Chertoff until 2009, but they can be thwarted at every move by a strong Democratic Congress and a handful of Independents and Republicans who can keep additional spread of the cancer of cronyism, backslapping and lust for absolute power, the Constitution and our contract be damned!

Now is the time for the people to stand firm and speak out! Are you as tired of being in a civil war as am I? Are you sick of having dissent equated as treason? Do you want the Constitution restored? Then erect your verbal barricades and arm yourselves with the truth and then join the battle to save the Republic by restoring Constitutional Rule to our nation.

Cut and Run and the Ministry of Truth and Net Neutrality

This afteroon, 24 October 2006, London time, the
BBC reports that ” US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has said stabilising the country is possible in a realistic time-frame, despite ongoing sectarian violence” and that General Casey claims that “Iraqi security forces are 75% ready.”

However the BBC notes the following events as Khalizad and Casey spoke:

BBC World affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says the thrust of the briefing was one of reassurance, perhaps to US voters as they prepare for next month’s mid-term elections.

As the two US officials spoke in Baghdad, violence continued across the country. Among the incidents:

* US soldiers shot dead four Iraqi firefighters they had mistaken for insurgents in the western city of Falluja

* A car bomb in Baghdad wounded 13 people

* Two policemen died in Amara, in an attack blamed on Shia militiamen

The same report continued: “At least 87 US troops have died this month – the highest monthly toll since November 2004.“

Meanwhile, back in Washington or Florida or wherever the Commander in Chief happens to be campaigning at present, the White House issued a lie, then a correction and then a clarification on “stay the course.” The phrase, when contrasted with the Democratic alternative of “cut and run” was of course, made popular by Bush himself along with cut and run. Now he denied saying it. Then when caught on tape, he denied denying it or something of the sort, and says that the problems facing his Iraqi War and his near-abandonment of Afghanistan construe a change in strategic, rather than tactical thinking…whatever that means.

What it appears to mean is that (1)Lindsay Graham, (2)the forthcoming Baker Report, (3) the fact that Warner and the a growing majority of both chambers do not care for “stay the course”, and (4) the all-too apparent likelihood of the Republican majority being lost in at least the House, if not the entire Congress, and (5)the enslaught of Republican pedophilia and corruption cases have combined to make Mr. Bush wake out of his stupor. Of course, lacking a Ministry of Truth, and having only Snow and FoxNews to clarify, we await an “official” statement from the throne or “signing statement” as to what constitutes a change from “stay the course.”

Meanwhile, the unitary executive, whatever that is, grinds on. I imagine it to largely be something cooked out of a recipe book by either Stalin or Hitler, myself, or else a concept brought to light by a self-appointed “President for Life” or “Supreme Leader.” In his latest ploy, Mr. Bush seems to think that after signing the budget bill, he is able to single handedly appropriate monies as he sees fit within the DOD. Why stop there? Why not declare the right to tax or void tax at will or else to solely declare the constitutionality of laws, Mr. Bush?

Meanwhile, back in DC, a series of unfortunate corporate hacks posing as Congress refused to allow continued deregulation of the internet. Evidently, the Republican House and its DemocraticEnablers (aka the Corpopublicrats) have dashed down any hope of maintaining status quo in 2006. The ACLU and the Christian Coalition have actually joined forces with Google and other parties to attempt to preserve what we presently have.

But what has that to do with the war in Iraq? Everything. If the corporate media in the USA continues to report by rote all the soundbites as fact coming from the Pentagon and White House and money determines whose blogs get read, then where is the voice of the people and the independent media? Second rate, just as would be any voice of inquery and accurate analysis. We would be turned into minions of a corporate Ministry of Truth where only those who paid get to play, we could read the news from The Guardian, The Independent and Observor and listen to Amy Goodman and the BBC on Pacifica and the shortwave, but where would we see it in print with a huge variety of nuance in individual analyses if the internet became a play to pay toy for the corporations? In a sad place is where.

A sad place indeed, almost as sad as Iraq or the Pentagon or a military family’s notice of the death of their son, grandson, nephew, husband or friend.

$100,000 USD per hour towards Iraq; Civil War in Iraq and Congress.

Besides the Republican sex scandal in Washington which has DC and the talking heads abuzz, several recent developments are definitely worthy of comment. We refer not to the latest Enabling Act of the BushCo, Inc. administration re: habeus corpus and unitary executive legislative/executive power, two other events are especially pressing. While many might not immediately assume that the two are directly connected, they are in more than a mere cursory manner. These two are the cost of the Iraqi debacle, known as the “War on Terror” and the US Congress playing politics and local funding politics at that over an international issue, the full and equitable funding of the FY 2007 Ryan White Care Act.

The Los Angeles Times article by Mark Mazzetti and Joel Havemann, entitled “Iraq War Costing $100,000 per Minute,” via the Seattle Times on 3 February 2006 reports the following:

WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that it plans to ask Congress for an additional $70 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving the cost of military operations in the two countries to $120 billion this year, the highest ever.

Most of the new money would pay for the war in Iraq, which has cost an estimated $250 billion since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

The additional spending, along with other war funding the Bush administration will seek separately in its regular budget next week, would push the price tag for combat and nation-building since Sept. 11, 2001, to nearly a half-trillion dollars, approaching the inflation-adjusted cost of the 13-year Vietnam War.

At the same time, the intercine civil war in Iraq is claiming as many as 150 victims of torture and murder in a 48 hour period, even during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. News reports of as much of $9 Billion missing from the US Iraq reconstruction project are scandalizing the Iraqis, the US general public and the entire world.

At the same time that all this money is seeming to be the equivalent of keeping out rats by stuffing the holes with paper money, a catfight erupted on the floor of the US Senate and between HIV/AIDS advocacy groups over the funding of the Ryan White Care Act. Hillary R. Clinton (supposed D, NY) took to the Senate floor to basicly say three things: (1) Leave Metro NYC funding alone, since (2)it is the fault of people moving to NYC for HIV treatment from other states that we have the highest case load in the country and (3) that maybe someday soon the other more rural states will get what they need, but NY can’t lose a dime. She does reiterate the fact that a shift in priority needs to occur in the country regarding HIV/AIDS care and that Medicare should be offered as soon as a person presents HIV positive, but that Congress doesn’t seem too interested…

However, as she pointed out, NY doesn’t want to lose any money, claiming that the higher cost of living and more per capita cases in New York means that more monies are required. But what she neglects to mention is that there is a wealth of HIV/AIDS social service organizations that are well funded and organized offering a wide range of services that a smaller city, such as Huntsville, Alabama or Columbia, South Carolina lack.

Sen. Clinton held up the bill for a while, but caved in once the compromise was reached. Had she been more for HIV funding and less for New York, she would have held her breath until she turned blue, ready to filibuster until she fainted from exhaustion.

One blog,
“From the Left,” notes via Jeffery Birnbaum’s WP article on 23 August 2006 that:

Clinton (D-N.Y.) said she opposes the measure because it would lower funding for her home state. But some AIDS groups also see broader political motives at work. Other states that would lose out include California, Florida and Illinois — all places Clinton would need to win if she seeks the presidency. Her critics also note that many of the states that would receive higher funding under the new formula are rural and Southern, which tend to vote Republican.

Birnbaum’s article concludes that she was the only nay in the entire Senate… Quite a few comments came in to this blog, some most virulent towards Mrs. Clinton and the entire AIDS charity network. These include:

Sign the God damned bill Hillary, before no state, including your own, can get a dime of Federal money to treat the epidemic. Tweak it later, add appropriations to other bills, but get the God damned Federal money now before Bush spends every last cent in the US Treasury on Iraq!

and

What is the Gay Men’s Health Crisis thinking by supporting her? These silly queens must be swept away by the Cult of Hillary, just as they are by the Cult of Barbra, Liza, Cher and Mariah.

Time to wake up, gay America! Hillary Clinton is NOT our friend. Never has been and she never will be. Hillary takes care of Hillary.

In the interest of fairness, one must admit that there are defensive comments as well in rebuttal. However, the fact that it appears to be less than Lily White, does give us cause for alarm… Mrs. Clinton has the appearance of counting potential electoral ballots prior to nomination and of making an international crisis one of county lines.

Let us face fact, this Congress, collectively, doesn’t give a proverbial rat’s ass about HIV. If they did, they would fully fund Ryan White, and give up some of the $9 Billion they shat away in Baghdad to contractors that are not rebuilding Iraq and maybe a few hours of the Iraqi Adventure.

HIV funding should be national and not a hodgepodge of self-replicating mini-ministries. The funding should follow the cases and education and outreach should be universal — the same adverts should be in New York and Newark as are in Baton Rouge and Birmingham or Binghampton. The social service organizations and medical clinics should be funded by two criteria: that of case load and that of overhead, not by luck of geography.

The face of HIV is changing, and it is becoming darker and female. It is time for the United States to decide where we want our month of Adventure to go: to Bush’s gulags and fresh cannon fodder on the streets and in the markets of Iraq or to FULL FUNDING for not only Ryan White but active education and social and medical services whether in Brooklyn or Birmingham or Boise.

Noone should play politics with peoples’ lives. It is not only unseemly, but immoral, and just plain old-fashioned bullshit, whether dressed in a senator’s suit or a Talibangelist’s stole.

An Open Letter to George W. Bush and the People of the United States

It was Tom Paine who began Common Sense with a simple proclamation that “These are the times which try mens souls.” Such could not be more true now than when Mr. Paine of blessed memory wrote them over 200 years previous. Our souls are sorely tried, sir, by the current stream of thought and action coming from your White House (the author is loathe to call the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, our White House).

Sir, your administration is an utter failure. You sought revanche against a small band of religious fanatics and have instead of delivering them to the hands of justice, wrought havok upon the nation which harbored them and upon another independent republic which you and your administration used as a pretext to destroy. You and you alone played guitar and ate birthday cake while your own ministers worried about how far to roll up their sleeves or else ignored pleas while a city drowned. Any man with a sense of honor should have offered his resignation to the Congress over a year ago. You have not. Instead of the proverbial roses and candies being tossed to our troops in Baghdad, we find them cannon fodder for a warped neo-conservative worldview.

You place untold men and youths into a foreign detention center out of communication with their families, legal representation or even a mechanism for trying them for their alleged crimes. Your Department of Justice kidnapped a citizen of a close ally of the United States while en route to his home from a family vacation to a third country where he was tortured and offer no explaination for this act. In former times, this ally might consider it an act bordering upon an undeclared act of war.

Your administration is attempting to weasel its way through the Constitution, basic human rights under the UN Universal Declaration, and the common sense of decency as understood by most people in the world by finding an apology for torture — agressive interrogation — non-fatal physical discomfort — or whatever you may call it. The world thought that the last public outrage over legal torture had ended before Voltaire drew his last breath, but such is not the case.

Your Secretary of Defense, one Donald Rumsfeld, is obviously incompotent in directing a war of any magnitude. The BBC reported the following this very evening, the 24th of September, 2006 regarding the “leak” of a classified document that surmised that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was in fact, abetting the “terrorism” which you so loudly decry:

Last Updated: Sunday, 24 September 2006, 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK

The BBC’s defence correspondent Rob Watson says this is not the first time the US intelligence community has said that the war in Iraq has made the problem of Islamist extremism worse.

Indeed it had warned that might happen even before the US-led invasion in 2003.

Pakistan man waving Osama Bin Laden poster
Many have been inspired by al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden
But, our correspondent says, this latest finding, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, is the most comprehensive report yet, based on the considered analysis of all 16 of the US intelligence agencies.

According to the New York Times, which has spoken to officials who have either read it, or been involved in drafting it, the report says the invasion and occupation of Iraq has spawned a new generation of Islamic radicalism that has spread across the globe.

[snip]

It reportedly concludes that, while al-Qaeda may have been weakened since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the radical Islamic movement worldwide has strengthened with the formation of new groups and cells who are inspired by Osama Bin Laden, but not under his direct control….

This is the same SecDef who has been quoted in the press as saying that the next person who brought up the “reconstruction” of Iraq to him during the hot war there “will be fired.” He is your minister, Mr. Bush. He is hand in glove with your and your collective obviously erroneous assessment of “staying the course.” The morgues in Baghdad continue to be the most popular place for impromptu get togethers in the city as the last two months saw over 2000 persons murdered in the area, many with signs of torture and still bound…

Your Vice President, Richard Cheney, is not fit to preside over a school board meeting, much less the Senate of the United States of America. His corporate ties are not hidden to anyone; one wonders where his allegiance lies: to the country or his oil corporation cronies?

Your Attorney General, is a talking perversion of our ancient Anglo-Saxon tradition within the Common Law as well as our current statutes. His inverted sense of justice is an outrage. His refusal to hold timely trials or to even establish a system of holding them in accordance of anything resembling a legitimate court of justice — of advocating the basic near-universal rights of a defendent to have access to all evidence both potentially exculpatory and incriminating under the veil of “state secret” is dispicable. He does not deserve to be a member of any bar, much less the AG of the USA.

Mr. Bush, you have ignored pleas for peace and an open administration, driven us into national penury and yet found time for vacation upon vacation. One wonders who actually governs? This writer has little faith in our present Congress, and none at all in your administration. None. For the sake of the country and what dignity we have left, please resign and take Messrs. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales with you.

In closing sir, your administration currently jangles sabres at the state of the Islamic Republic of Iran. What Iran is doing is what multiple states, even those in this hemisphere is doing, and that is enrich Uranium for the use of power reactors. The very program in which Iran is currently engaged is one begun by President Eisenhower! It lay in stasis for many years, but began again after the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution which ousted the tryant Reza Pahlavi, the soi-disant “Shah.” Those close to your administration claim that Iran is developing enrichment technology in order to produce a nuclear bomb. Reputable researchers from around the world disclaim their ability to assemble any such weapon at their current rate of development for perhaps ten years. The consequences of a war with Iran would be utter disaster for the United States, the neighbors of Iran and the country of Iran. Every analysist knows this. You know this. Why let the sabre-rattling continue? To make us live in fear? To make us into two camps, one that is “terrorist-enabling” (the current opposition party) and one of “patriots and terrorist slayers” (the other major political party)?

No, Mr. Bush, we aren’t afraid. We know your game and it disgusts us. It is time for you to return to Texas. I call upon you to resign or else for the House of Representatives to impeach and the Senate to try you for high crimes and misdomenors. I call for the same actions towards your VP and the cabinet officers identified above.

Mr. Bush and fellow citizens, the government is ours, not Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s. The House and Senate represent us and have the power of the purse and oversight and to declare war, not the President. Allow us to close with a reflection on the words of James Madison:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes…known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

Iran, the Next Iraq?

Representative Dennis Kuninich yesterday sent an urgent email to his supporters warning us of the gathering war clouds in DC gathering towards the East. The text is as follows:

Urgent Letter from Dennis Kucinich
about Bush Administration Plans for a US War vs. Iran

Dear Friends,

The Bush Administration is preparing for war against Iran, using an almost identical drumbeat of weapons of mass destruction, imminent threat, alleged links to Al Queda, and even linking Iran with a future 911.

In the past few months reports have been published in Newsweek, ABC News and GQ Magazine that indicate the US is recruiting members of paramilitary groups to destabilize Iran through violence. The New Yorker magazine and the Guardian have written that US has already deployed military inside Iran. The latest issue of Time writes of plans for a naval blockade of Iran at the Port of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world’s oil supply passes. Other news reports have claimed that an air strike, using a variety of bombs including bunker busters to be dropped on over 1,000 targets, including nuclear facilities. This could obviously result in a great long term humanitarian and environmental disaster.

Earlier this year, I demanded congressional hearings on Iran and was able to secure the promise of a classified briefing from the Department of Defense, the State Department and the CIA. When the briefing was held, the Department of Defense and the State Department refused to show and are continuing to block any congressional inquiry into plans to attack Iran.

Just this past week, the International Atomic Energy Agency called “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated” statements relating to Iran’s nuclear program which came from a staff report of the House Intelligence committee. Other intelligence officials have claimed over a dozen distortions in the report which, among other things, said Iran is producing weapons grade uranium. The Washington Post wrote: “The IAEA called that ‘incorrect’ noting that weapons grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent or more. Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5% under IAEA monitoring.”

I have demanded that the Government Oversight subcommittee on National Security and International Relations, of which I am the ranking Democrat, hold hearings to determine how in the world the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, viewed the report without correcting the obvious inaccuracies before it was published. Once again a case for war is being built on lies.

You will recall that four and a half years ago I warned this nation about the deception behind the build up to war against Iraq. Everything I said then turned out to be 100% right. I led 125 Democrats in opposing the Iraq war resolution in March of 2003. The very same people who brought us Iraq in 2003 are getting ready to bring us a war against Iran.

With your help, I will lead the way to challenge the Bush Administration’s march to war against Iran. Please support my campaign for re-election with a generous donation to help continue my work in the Congress. The plan to attack Iran, on its face, threatens the safety of every US soldier serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the countless Iranian lives at risk and the threat to world peace and environmental catastrophes.

With your support, I intend to continue to insist upon:

(1) Direct negotiations with Iran.

(2) The US must guarantee Iran and the world community that it will not attack Iran.

(3) Iran must open once again to international inspections of its nuclear program.

(4) Iran must agree not to build nuclear weapons.

Many of you joined me three years ago as I ran for President to challenge the deliberate lies about WMDs, Iraq and 911, Iraq and Al Queda and the Niger “yellowcake” claims which put us onto the path of an unnecessary, illegal, costly war in Iraq. The Iraq war has caused greater instability and violence in the world community. In the meantime, our government has used the oxymoronic war on terror to trample our Constitution, rip up the Bill of Rights and rule by fear.

Please join with me as we continue our efforts for the end of fear and the beginning of hope, for international dialogue, for cooperation and for peace.

Thank you,

Dennis

Luckily, Ignacio Ramonet of Le Monde Diplomatique, see things differently. His editorial “Iran Atomique” of July 2006 declares that the US has had a “volte face” in light of the Iraqi debacle currently underway, the Big 5 of the Security Council and Sino-Russian negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ramonet concludes with the observation that :

Ont sans doute pesé également d’autres considérations. Par exemple, l’échec de l’occupation de l’Irak, où les chiites pro-iraniens sont, paradoxalement, les meilleurs alliés de Washington ; la menace iranienne de miner, en cas d’attaque, le détroit d’Ormuz, par où transitent 20 % de la production mondiale de brut ; l’intention de l’Iran d’exiger le paiement des exportations de pétrole et de gaz en monnaie européenne, après avoir déjà converti en euros la majeure partie de ses réserves en devises, Téhéran n’ignorant pas que, en ce moment, le dollar est le talon d’Achille des Etats-Unis…

Une escalade demeure bien entendu possible, mais les deux parties ont intérêt à chercher un compromis.

We hope that LMD is correct, and that the dollar is indeed the Achilles Heel of the USA’s war aims, and that a compromise can be reached as Dennis Kucinich so hopes.

Cerebus, having lost two of his heads is dying, himself!

Cerebus Eats two of his Heads,

or

How the unholy alliance of Rand’s Ghost Devoured First the Talibangelists, then the Heritage Foundation, Resulting in the Beast’s Death.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, they say, and this current administration in Washington of late definitely proves that old saws are often more than merely passe. Once Reagan entered the White House, the road to perdition was smoothed and freshly paved by three disparate groups, often with conflicting or neutral views towards one another, yet capable to reach agreement on enough to achieve hegemony over the American political scene. The first group is the unabashed rabid capitalism, the apostles of free trade, the lords of the universe, those lubricated with expensive Scotch whisky and nurtured on petroleum, in short: Ayn Rand’s Ghost.

The next, the Talibangelists, who had not a problem one with laissez-faire economics, but enjoyed the challenge of finding “biblical” reasons to discredit such annoying principles as graduated income taxation, employment security and environmental laws – while finding Heather Has Two Mommies an agent of Satan and sodomy a crime against God and society worthy of death.

The last, which this writer hopes does not conclude the reader to find any evidence of anti-Semitic bias in this essay, we may term the Heritage Foundation for shorthand, only, as there are many, many other groups with whom we lump them, such as the PNAC and the AEI. AIPAC certainly has had many apologists for the rabid anti-everything-not -supportive-of-Israel bunch who throw out the “anti-Semite” charge every time anything that doesn’t smack of a planted article written by Ariel Cohen is printed in a paper in Britain or the US. The charge is so distasteful that it makes serious, dispassionate adult analysis and dissemination of the results all but impossible for a writer to bear. These are the “Terror! Terror! Terror!” mantra repeaters. They see Old Sammy under every bed and wish to bug every phone and wreck nation under nation in order to preserve a self-anointed role as “Big Daddy of the Universe,” from whom all must march in step or become a bug under the sole. Why? Why to make us all free, of course. Even if we have to endure semi-tyranny in the process. In short: Israel and the United States of America, good; UK and Canada, almost good; everyone else in Europe, tolerable; and everyone else evil. Especially countries that dare to be vocal about their rejection of US values. But this crowd does not see individuals, only groups; thus, group punishment is meted out for opposition: terror bombing in cities, cutting off of the trade of medical supplies and other vehicles. To cross them runs one in danger of being labeled either an appeaser of terrorists or else accused of hating the Jewish religion and ethnos or both. Their revolution is as eternal as was Lev Trotsky’s. However, at least Trotsky came down from his soapbox and won a civil war, instead of scribble and screech as do Kristol, Norquist, et al., the first head of Cerebus.

Well, we have the three heads of Cerebus, now we also know some of their names. Talibangelist: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, as well as anyone who wears a diamond pinkie ring and snake skin boots while allegedly “preaching” on television while begging for money. Their “theology,” if it
deserves the benefit of a greco-derived nomenclature, is diverse, an odd hodgepodge of “born again” ranting and “feel good” old fashioned revival theatrics, with an occasional “healing” or miracle or wind fall of sudden cash thrown in. But that is just good ole’ flim flam. Hokum. Bunk. What is especially troubling about these true believers, these Jacobins of the Pulpit is the supposedly “moral” code they wish to impose upon an Enlightenment nation – a return Leviticus, if one will. They see the old desert tribal superstitions not quaint nor obsolete, but a perfected method of everyday life. This folks, is the Earth is Six Thousand Years Old Crowd, and lucky for us all, Noah was not inspired by EL to put T. Rex on the Ark, or we’d all be dodging dinosaurs today instead of Old Sammy’s airplanes. These are the “defund public education and libraries” crowd – agents of Satan, one knows. These are the “better a coat hanger and an aspirin than the ‘morning after pill’” crowd. We are all too familiar with them, and they have been tossed a bone or two for delivering enough hate to get the uneducated blind semi-literate non-thinking masses to give them votes. They also love guns, this makes the second head of Cerebus especially dangerous.

And then we have the Ghost of Ayn Rand…as the gin-soaked Chris Hitchens late of London once said, her sole redeeming factor was her stringent atheism: the Rumsfelds and Cheneys and Daddy Bushs that reek of Famous Grouse and crude. They are CEOs, people who set “energy policy” behind closed doors, those for whom a nice little war is certainly worth having in the far west of Asia in order to threaten the rapidly depleting oil reserves, thus driving the price ever higher. Their brothers, the old school capitalists, are living a Dickensian fantasy: not even a goose for Tiny Tim’s Christmas table, as Bob Cratchet has lost his job to an outfit in Mumbai. How are we supposed to buy trinkets made in China and wear clothing made in Bangladesh if we clean floors and groom greens for a living? These men – and there are but a few of them women – are producers of nothing except flatulence of the anal and oral varieties. They bravely cheer on the troops to bombs under the streets of Baghdad while dining at Kennebunkport on fresh Maine lobster. They print their signatures on condolence letters. They are the men who read every word from the Vienna School as if it were holy writ. Then they quote holy writ ignoring the overall message of the revealed religions. They are the third head of Cerebus.

The first and second heads slowly consumed by the first – as Stalin warned once, never be part of a troika, as the first and second members will always ally against the third, leaving only one, with which the first then secretly allies with the third’s replacement– leaving only a shill and the first after the second has a care of the mysterious Russian Flu. Sorry, Pat and Ari, Donnie just ate you. Robertson and Cohen are rapidly being relegated to the Lawn Garden of history, as anachronistic as Freud’s “glove paralysis” cases.

Unfortunately, business must go on, and the Carlisle-Boeing-Exxon Group must have its way, there are enemies awaiting, that is to say, Chinese trinkets to be sold and new generations of missiles to test. We must have the bases in Mesopotamia, the Iraqis be damned, what if they really got angry and the oil didn’t just slow down but abruptly end? What if the Baathist message of secular anti-monarchy got out and spread to Saudi Arabia, that would be a fine
pickle, then, wouldn’t it. No, the farce must continue and the Senate debate trivia such as flag burning and how saving the rich from taxes is good for us all and that in order to be free we must become a security state. The Randistas do not care about security, save the securities of the negotiable type. They do not care who plays house. All they want is your money, and if a few thousand here and there from the US need to die, well, then there are intellectual and religious justifications available from Ariel Cohen and Rev. Pat Robertson. Please, do not let the news get out: free trade is what this is all about, the free trade of oil at the highest possible price, with a few stable suppliers. All else is useful rhetoric to justify this.

However, the stumps of the severed heads are bleeding profusely, and save an October Surprise – Old Sammy, anyone? – a severing of the third head is inevitable come November, courtesy of a newly testosterone drenched Democratic Party. And oh, my, there shall be singing in the street when Johnny comes marching home.

WTF? BushCo, Inc.’s EPA to close regional EPA libraries!

Earlier last week, the Wicked Trio received an email from a professional colleague at the NIH libraries in Maryland about a proposal by the EPA admin to close a number of regional libraries, including the main one in DC… All we can ask is WTF?

Here is PEER’s take on the news: and here.

For Immediate Release: February 10, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

BUSH AXING LIBRARIES WHILE PUSHING FOR MORE RESEARCH — EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog

Washington, DC — Under President Bush’s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition to the libraries, the agency will pull the plug on its electronic catalog which tracks tens of thousands of unique documents and research studies that are available nowhere else.

Under Bush’s plan, $2 million of a total agency library budget of $2.5 million will be lost, including the entire $500,000 budget for the EPA Headquarters library and its electronic catalog that makes it possible to search for documents through the entire EPA library network. These reductions are just a small portion of the $300 million in cuts the administration has proposed for EPA operations.

At the same time, President Bush is proposing to significantly increase EPA research funding for topics such as nanotechnology, air pollution and drinking water system security as part of his “American Competitive Initiative.”

“How are EPA scientists supposed to engage in cutting edge research when they cannot find what the agency has already done?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson is moving to implement the proposed cuts as soon as possible. “The President’s plan will not make us more competitive if we have to spend half our time re-inventing the wheel.”

Frankly, those in the know should have seen it coming down the proverbial path. Health Canada is doing the same thing in defunding at appropriate levels the various libraries that serve as a de facto national health library. One supposed that the Rt. Hon. Mr. Harper is assuming that the NIH libraries will take up the slack…

We have no idea what Mr. Bush is doing. Supposedly this will save $2 Million (US) out of a total $2.5 Million library budget. Frankly, this pittance is astonishing — one assumes that a single trip to the Brush Ranch or Kennebunkport costs at least that for a week of “deciding.”

Evidently this was a pure EPA decision, and it was done in order to court favor with the “faith based” environmental policy which BushCo, INC presently exercises, that is to say “I have faith that I shall still have breathable air and potable water for long enough for me to die of old age in bed.” In other words, a retake on “the public be damned” only add “the researchers working on public policy” along with “the public” and we have Neo-conservative policy at its worst.

We assume that reading the The Fountainhead again along with an appropriate Bible passage will function for researchers basic needs. What more could they possibly need?