I did the early voting thing. If you don’t know who you would like to vote for at least vote against people who supported the Iraq War, or for the green party, or at least vote against that douche bag Bush by voting against Republicans.
General
03
Nov 02
Voting Machine Conflicts
Voting machine company demands web site remove articles showing conflicts of interest. Voting machines brought to you by right-wing nutjobs. Conflict of interest??
03
Nov 02
Guerrilla warfare or terrorism?
Russia Helicopter Downed in Chechnya, Nine Dead: It may be inconsistent for a pacifist to express this sentiment, but I can’t help but to root for the Chechens. They’ve been fighting the Russian absolutists in one guise or another for several hundred years. I admire their doggedness and determination.
03
Nov 02
War is politics by other means
And people around the world are getting sick of it. It is time to shrug off the parasites that attempt to propel us into war. These Russian kids have the right idea. Maybe it’s time to stop paying taxes that go towards murder.
Russian youth dodge conscript military:
While America fights a war on terror with overwhelming public approval, families here are scrambling to avoid sending their boys to Russia’s own war against an Islamist foe in Chechnya. And this czarist-era capital of Russia has become a hotbed of antiwar activism. So strong is the resistance to the draft in this city, the army is forcibly conscripting boys by dragging them from high school classes in handcuffs and arresting them on the streets, to be sent off to the army, lawyers and war resistance groups say.
Draft dodging is fueled reports of desertions and mistreatment of soldiers, and by widespread anger at government’s seeming indifference to the depravations that ordinary Russians face.
“Nobody I know is willing to go to the military,” said Artur Getrimas, an 18-year-old who has hired a lawyer in an attempt to get a deferral. “I don’t think my country deserves to be loved and respected because it doesn’t provide a good life for its people. Corruption is everywhere, and those people who have no money or connections are stuck on the lowest level, and everyone kicks them around.”
Remember, this kind of crap could and does happen here. When I was a senior in high school military recruiters would call and try to give me the hard sell because they needed warm bodies. There are bills in Congress which would require public schools to provide the personal information of graduating seniors to military recruiters for the purpose of seducing young people to join the mercenary army of the United States. There was also a bill which would have required all 18 year olds to serve the United States for a two-year stint.
03
Nov 02
Poem and response
| The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) Come live with me and be my love, And we will sit upon the rocks, And I will make thee beds of roses, A gown made of the finest wool, A belt of straw and ivy buds, The shepherd swains shall dance and sing |
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd – Sir Walter Ralegh (1554?-1618) If all the world and love were young, But Time drives flocks from field to fold; The flowers do fade, and wanton fields Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses, Thy belt of straw and ivy-buds, But could youth last, and love still breed, |
31
Oct 02
Here’s to all you romantic devils
To his Coy Mistress
by Andrew Marvell
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv’d virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am’rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp’d power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
31
Oct 02
Fascist cog of the day
31 Oct, Thu, 09:38:43 sc035ws123.chs.spawar.navy.mil MSIE 6 Windows 2000
That’s right it’s from the Space and Naval War Command.
Whoever it was got here via a search for “Enduring Freedom Movie Trailer” in Google.
30
Oct 02
Conservative propaganda machine
From WRH, ABC and the rise of Rush Limbaugh:
Rush Limbaugh explains his success as the result of his individualism, of his refusal to do it someone’s else’s way. But the fact is that his success has been orchestrated, financed and promoted by Capital Cities/ABC. He also seems extraordinarily well-connected to the Republican leadership in Washington, carrying out their campaign strategies so faithfully that it is difficult to distinguish his promotions from their campaign commercials. For example, when Rush’s television show debuted nationally two months before the 92 election, his producer was Roger Ailes, who was Bush’s media advisor throughout the campaign. Many of the themes that Ailes had inspired earlier in the campaign showed up in identical form on Rush’s show, which resembled a program-length commercial for the Bush campaign. When asked to give equal time to his opponents, Rush responded “I am equal time!”
In 1994, not only the Rush Limbaugh Show, but hundreds of other conservative talk shows dutifully raised the issues that Newt Gingrich’s Contract Information Center faxed to them each morning about the Contract With America. Many went so far as to read them verbatim over the air. And when the Republicans captured Congress in 1994, they held a ceremony in honor of Limbaugh, naming him “an honorary member of Congress” and “the Majority Maker.” That night, the conservative propaganda machine had reached its full potential.
Of course, Roger Ailes now manipulates ‘news’ through his helm at FoxNews.
30
Oct 02
Oil agenda hurting the Bush war plans
And so the White House is trying to say something to the effect of, ‘We don’t want the oil. Honest.’ Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice..how does that go, George?
White House: U.S. Doesn’t Plan to Control Iraq’s Oil:
“The only interest the United States has in the region is furthering the cause of peace and stability … not his country’s ability to generate oil,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Iraq has oil reserves of 112 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
When asked if the United States would take over Iraq’s oil fields if the U.S. attacked Iraq, Fleischer responded: “No. The purpose of any plan the United States has is to make certain that Saddam Hussein complies with all U.N. resolutions.” …
When asked, Fleischer refused to say whether the U.S. military might administer Iraq’s oil fields.
“I think that it’s impossible for anybody to speculate about anything and everything that could possibly happen under any military scenario. And I wouldn’t even try to start guessing what the military may or may not do,” he said.
And then there’s this, despite the White House’s outright lies and deceptions. US sets meeting on exploiting Iraqi oil after Hussein:
(10/30/2002 – OGI: Washington) The US State Department has pushed back its planned meeting with Iraqi opposition leaders on exploiting Iraq’s oil and gas reserves after a US military offensive removes Saddam Hussein from power to early December. According to a source at the State Department, all the desired participants are not yet available.
The Bush administration wants to have a working group of 12 to 20 people focused on Iraqi oil and gas to be able to recommend to an interim government ways of restoring the petroleum sector following a military attack in order to increase oil exports to partially pay for a possible US military occupation government – further fueling the view that controlling Iraqi oil is at the heart of the Bush campaign to replace Hussein with a more compliant regime.
As the current chestnut goes, regime change starts at home. Down with the Bush military junta.