Monday, May 31, 2004

The Bush/Cheney propaganda machine is getting desperate, resorting to attacks 'unprecedented' in their negative, misleading tone toward Kerry. According to an article in the Washington Post, the amount of negative ads directed toward Kerry by the Bush campaign has been described by "scholars and political strategists" as "extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts." Furthermore, "Though stretching the truth is hardly new in a political campaign, they say the volume of negative charges is unprecedented -- both in speeches and in advertising." In fact, "Three-quarters of the ads aired by Bush's campaign have been attacks on Kerry. Bush so far has aired 49,050 negative ads in the top 100 markets, or 75 percent of his advertising. Kerry has run 13,336 negative ads -- or 27 percent of his total. The figures were compiled by The Washington Post using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group of the top 100 U.S. markets. Both campaigns said the figures are accurate." For instance, the Bush campaign has accused Kerry of criticizing the validity of the War on Terrorism, wanting to do away with wiretaps on suspected terrorists, wanting to raise the gasoline tax, and 'flip-flopping' on changes in the education system, although he "did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications." To see the Bush attack machine as it begins to run on empty, consider the following:

"In early March, Bush charged that Kerry had proposed a $1.5 billion cut in the intelligence budget that would 'gut the intelligence services.' Kerry did propose such a cut in 1995, but it amounted to about 1 percent of the overall intelligence budget and was smaller than the $3.8 billion cut the Republican-led Congress approved for the same program Kerry was targeting. ... On March 11, the Bush team released a spot saying that in his first 100 days in office Kerry would 'raise taxes by at least $900 billion.' Kerry has said no such thing; the number was developed by the Bush campaign's calculations of Kerry's proposals. On March 30, the Bush team released an ad noting that Kerry 'supported a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax' and saying, 'If Kerry's tax increase were law, the average family would pay $657 more a year.' But Kerry opposes an increase in the gasoline tax. The ad is based on a 10-year-old newspaper quotation of Kerry but implies that the proposal is current."

According to Darrell West, professor at Brown University, "Bush's level of negative advertising is already higher than the levels reached in the 2000, 1996 and 1992 campaigns." In addition, due to the unparalleled earliness (?) of the attack ads in a presidential election year, West -- "author of a book on political advertising" -- believes that 2004 will be "'the most negative campaign ever,' eclipsing 1988," in which Bush the Elder attacked Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis for his patriotism (not surprisingly, Bush Jr. and Karl Rove are using practically the same attack formula on Kerry).

Whatever your political beliefs may be, it looks pretty clear that 2004 will be an election year that might be one of the most important in our nation's history.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

According to an article by the Washington Post, the New York Times has admitted in a note "from the editors" of the paper that its coverage of Iraqi WMD was lacking, at best. The Times now acknowledges that the paper's "coverage of whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction 'was not as rigorous as it shold have been' and that 'we wish we had been more aggressive in reexamining the claims as new evidence emerged--or failed to emerge.'" The Post cited five instances in which the Times had fallen prey to the Bush administration propaganda machine that pushed a false rationale for war with Iraq on the basis of the (nonexistent) WMD in question. It is very disturbing when the largest paper in the United States, the "Newspaper of Record," oft-described as part of the American "liberal media" establishment, doesn't do its job and instead parrots government rhetoric without second thought. As Thomas Jefferson once said that the path toward a tyrannical government is one that is not questioned; our free press must exercise the right of dissent, which Jefferson referred to as "the highest form" of patriotism. If the largest mainstream newspaper in our free society won't do it, who will?

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

According to a new report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), al Qaeda "has more than 18,000 potential terrorists," and its support base is growing, as reported by CNN. The IISS believes that al Qaeda "poses a growing threat to Western interests and attacks are likely to increase," and that the terrorist organization "will continue carrying out attacks on 'soft targets encompassing Americans, Europeans and Israelis and aiding the insurgency in Iraq,'" according to IISS director John Chipman. I'm sorry, but didn't the Bush administration say with a straight face that going to war with Iraq would actually make the world safer and "remove a key ally of al Qaeda" (Bush's words, on his May 1, 2003 'Mission Accomplished' speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln), ignoring that Osama bin Laden -- an Islamic fundamentalist -- and Saddam Hussein, an atheistic ex-tyrant -- hate each other; in fact, in one audio tape attributed to bin Laden, the murderer referred to the other as a "secular infidel."

Monday, May 24, 2004

In tonight's primetime television address, Bush laid out a five-point plan toward defeating evil and ensuring the vision of freedom for all in the world, especially in the Middle East. Oh, yeah, and toward the more realistic end of getting us out of the mess in Iraq. This administration is downright arrogant to think that it alone can perfect the world in its image. In the case of the Middle East, I don't think the utopian vision of Jeffersonian democracy will happen any time soon. In essence, the Bush regime plan is:

1) to hand over "full sovereignty" to the Iraqi people on June 30 (another lie by Bush: the interim government will not have full sovereign powers until the general elections in January 2005),

2) help the Army of South Vietnam - er, the Iraqi police - improve their security from the "terrorists" (whoever they are; we don't really know, aside from Muqtada al-Sadr's militia or anonymous "insurgents"),

3) rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, brilliantly destroyed in the March 2003 blitzkrieg,

4) help the TBA interim puppet government hold general "elections" next year, and

5) internationalize the war, drawing from the UN and major nations who we didn't give a flying fuck about when Bush-n-Co. decided, in its resolute war march, to wholly destabilize the region and make us and the world many times less safe last March.

Plus, his embarrassing mispronunciation of the Abu Ghraib prison was funny, albeit the serious nature surrounding it. Let's forget that the incidents there were representative of official interrogation methods approved by the Pentagon, such as in Guantanamo.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Michael Moore's latest documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, has won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or, the French equivalent of the Oscar. Disney, the parent company of Miramax, which was going to distribute the film, has barred it from doing so. CEO Michael Eisner is afraid of pissing off Gov. Jeb Bush and being deprived of millions of dollars in tax breaks for his Florida theme parks. Now, many might think that the Cannes win, which is the first Palme d'Or to go to a documentary since 1956, is biased because, you know, it's the French. Wrong. The jury, headed by virtuoso filmmaker/genius Quentin Tarantino, is made up of four Americans in which only one is French, according to Moore. Perhaps because of Eisner being a complete bitch, the film will actually be released a week before the general election this year, thus making the rumor true? Who knows.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Some crazy shit is going down in Israel. I got these articles from the BBC and al Jazeera that the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) is launching some sort of offensive in Rafah, a Palestinian settlement of some kind in Gaza. The BBC article is reporting a UN resolution condemning the attacks, which have killed 10 Palestinian civilians and injured 60 (the US abstaining), and al Jazeera is referring to the incident as a "massacre". In addition to this, the IDF is also apparently demolishing the homes of the Palestinian people living in the area. Is it just me, or does this policy sound suicidal for Israel? As a Jew, I am deeply concerned for the nation's future in the face of brutal terrorist attacks by Arab extremists, but I cannot condone the arbitrary killing of Palestinians and the destruction of their homes. Do the ends justify the means, after all?
Ill Bill's latest album, What's Wrong With Bill?, is incredible. Ill Bill (not to be confused with the great movie, Kill Bill) is a virtuoso lyricist, seamlessly splicing in politics, life on the street, and ... well ... pretty much everything. Oh, yeah, and the beats kick ass. Although near the end my copy of the CD got sort of choppy-sounding (kinda distracting from the music; I'm sure it's scratched or somethin'), this album is fuckin' awesome.

Monday, May 17, 2004

I've been meaning to write these myself, but I came across this first: the Articles of Impeachment against the Bush administration. Here's a transcript from the source:

Articles of Impeachment

of

President George W. Bush

and

Vice President Richard B. Cheney,
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
Attorney General John David Ashcroft

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. - - ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General John David Ashcroft have committed violations and
subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out withimpunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rightsof the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperialexecutive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and thosereserved to the people of the United States, by the following acts:

1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and hundreds of U.S. G.I.s.

2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war.

3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities andlocations where civilian casualties were unavoidable.

4) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently changing its
government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of aggression.

4) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secretand other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion ofprisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments andindividuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

5) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the conduct of foreigngovernments and individuals and acts by U.S. government personnel; manipulating the mediaand foreign governments with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks.

6) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the land" under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international community.

7) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of a citizen as an "enemy combatant."

8) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Defense.

9) Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override judicial orders of release of detainees under INS jurisdiction, even where the judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully held by the government.

10) Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary execution of persons who are not citizens who are designated solely at the discretion of the Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and as the only avenue of appellate relief.

11) Refusing to provide public disclosure of the identities and locations of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the U.S. government in the United States, including in response to Congressional inquiry.

12) Use of secret arrests of persons within the United States and elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials.

13) Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client privileged communications by the government, even in the absence of a court order and even where an incarcerated person has not been charged with a crime.

14) Ordering and authorizing the seizure of assets of persons in the United States, prior to hearing or trial, for lawful or innocent association with any entity that at the discretionary designation of the Executive has been deemed "terrorist."

15) Institutionalization of racial and religious profiling and authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement on persons based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political activity.

16) Refusal to provide information and records necessary and appropriate for the constitutional right of legislative oversight of executive functions.

17) Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights and abrogation of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal from, international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United States and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the Treaty of Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal Court.


Sunday, May 16, 2004

I just saw the most amazing episode of the Simpsons. Arrested for treason, the family is sent to Alcatraz (although if I had any say in the writing of it, it would be Guantanamo), where they are "reeducated" along with the other traitors, including Bill Clinton, Al Franken, and others. I really had no idea that they would even think of going that far. It's really incredible. I can't wait to see what sort of backlash will ensue.
'Brood X' has begun to return in full force, and there has begun to develop a really strange buzzing sound, sort of like the beltway, but more ... I don't know, it's hard to say. Secondly, I've begun writing a really belated review of Ann Coulter*'s book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, which you will see here whenever I am done with it.

*Here's a link to what I had to say about her about five months ago.

Friday, May 14, 2004

A new ad by the Republican National Committee describes how presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry is a lot like one of the 17-year cicadas. Check it out. It's really ridiculous.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

According to an MSNBC "Question of the Day," out of over 166,000 who responded 53% believe that the "media SHOULD NOT show graphic acts of terrorism," and 47% believe that the "media SHOULD show acts of terrorism, graphic or otherwise" (emphasis added). Personally, I believe that if acts of terrorism are not shown, how can there be a response to them? The attacks of September 11 definitely qualify as graphic acts of terrorism; rightly, they were shown. It raises a legitimate question: Is a beheading (in of itself) any more barbaric, or graphic, than jets being hijacked by Muslim fundamentalists and crashed into buildings, murdering 3,000 innocent civilians? I leave that question to you.
The Memory Hole website*, run by the very patriotic Russ Kick, is temporarily down. Allegedly, they're switching servers.

*It would be kinda pointless to make this a hyperlink right now, right?

Monday, May 10, 2004

Got a new template. It has dimension, you know? And some cool, um, graphic stuff. Anyways, tell me how you like it.
On June 5th there will be a rally at the Pentagon protesting the ongoing occupation of Iraq. I'll be there, and I encourage everyone who can to come, too.

Friday, May 07, 2004

It is strange that there is not as much an outcry against the administration's lies regarding Iraq's imaginary WMDs as, rightly, there is against its neglect toward the prison abuse and torture in Abu Ghaibri, both of which have been very damaging to our standing and credibility throughout the world. And, amid all of the talk of the abuse in Iraqi prisons, there is a relative lack of discussion about the other human rights situation in Guantanamo regarding the detainees, many of whom are only suspected of being so-called "terrorists".
Bush, Cheney, and Rummy ought to be run out like the rats that they are. Oh, and don't forget Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, the fuckers.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

King George II has requested an additional $25,000,000,000 for Iraq and Afghanistan, which we don't really hear that much about these days. The original 87 billion was largely spent not on reconstruction of the beleaguered country but on security, which doesn't seem to be helping out very much. The war machine being maintained by the administration cannot for much longer hold together.
It is ridiculous that Disney is not letting its subsidiary, Miramax Films, release Michael Moore's newest documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11. We live in a free society: Let him release his film. It needs to be seen in these turbulent times. About how Bush exploited the tragedies of September 11 in order to advance a radical, neoconservative agenda, Fahrenheit 9/11 promises to be perhaps the most controversial film of the year (aside from A Day Without a Mexican, which is a sort of comedy about what would happen to the Californian economy if all of their Hispanic population mysteriously disappeared one day). I hope Michael Moore's new film will help get this fucker out of office; I can't wait to see it.

Saturday, May 01, 2004

It's been a year since Bush declared, on the USS Abraham Lincoln with a gigantic "Mission Accomplished" sign hanging over it, the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq, and it looks like we're still fighting the fucking war. Well, when are we going to end this thing? When will the generals start to say, "Well, the only way to save a town [Fallujah] is to destroy it [or hand it over to the control of a former general under Saddam's regime]?" Oh, wait; I guess they already have. And then, of course, there is the news of the horrible incidents of Iraqi prisoners being abused by some US soldiers. Truly terrible. The most ironic thing of it all is that it happened (in November and December of 2003, by the way; the military must have kept it under wraps since then until now) in a prison in which a lot of the abuse and torture conducted by Saddam's regime took place, the Abu Ghaibri (I know I'm not spelling that right) prison. This certainly isn't as bad as the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, and ... oh, shit, I'm told that I am not allowed to compare Iraq to Vietnam. Sorry for that, ladies and gentlemen, I erred grossly and for that I humbly apologize to the Blogger Corporation. Anyhow, I am still waiting for a legitimate response to that letter I sent to Mr. Krauthammer, aside from that message I got automatically. You know, the ones that go, Thank you for your comments. Of course, Mr. Krauthammer cannot personally answer each email he receives due to the volume of these emails, you can be rest assured that they will be read by his team ... and so forth. I gotta go.
Happy May Day, everyone. Long Live Communism! No, wait; Communism sucks. Boo, boo, down with Communism. Eh, whatever.