(Previously posted on 7/29/06 at IMCT.)

Mitch Prothero, reporting from Lebanon for Salon, says the “Hezbollah hiding among civilians” issue so dear to Alan Dershowitz is a fig leaf:

“Throughout this now 16-day-old war, Israeli planes high above civilian areas make decisions on what to bomb. They send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around their targets, and then blame the inevitable civilian deaths — the Lebanese government says 600 civilians have been killed so far — on “terrorists” who callously use the civilian infrastructure for protection.

But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters — as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers — avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators — as so many Palestinian militants have been. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sorry to see that Murray Bookchin has died. He tried to do much, and did much more good than harm. Let us all hope for at least that as our legacy.

Let me begin by saying that, as I wrote this blogpost, I saw breaking news that some Turkish soldiers had allegedly entered Iraqi Kurdish villages near Zakho. Can the U.S. efffort in Iraq withstand more instability spilling over borders - a war in Northern Iraq with our own ally Turkey as a player? Even though reports now say that Turkey has left northern Iraq for the time being, their government had urged U.S. and Iraqi authorities to act, warning that otherwise it would carry out a cross-border operation inside Iraqi territory. It’s questionable whether the U.S. has the capability to control Northern Iraq in a manner sufficient to placate the Turkish government, who is itching for a battle to eliminate the PKK. With the UN’s stalling of talks in the confusion of the swirling and senseless violence in Southern Lebanon, I am sensing that this is going to get much worse before it gets better - unless the U.S. is willing to learn to bend its rigid attitudes.

I want to talk Turkey with you (pun intended). Let’s discuss how they fit into the big picture with our ongoing crisis in Iraq (thanks to a disastrous foreign policy) and the new and troubling instability in Southern Lebanon. The U.S. seems to be making some back-channel concessions to Turkey, giving them leeway in crossing the border of northern Iraq to “take care of” PKK forces in the mountainous region of Kandil. In return, I’m sure the U.S. is hoping for Turkey’s cooperation with a peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon. The question is: How much will the U.S. have to concede and what effect will it have on Bush’s already-disastrous war in Iraq? The fact that Turkey is looking “eastward” for diplomacy is not a sign that the U.S. is currently scoring any points for Condoleeza Rice. Let’s look at some of the latest news and headlines to get an understanding of the big picture:

Turkey has strongly condemned the killing of innocent civilians, most of whom were children, by the Israeli army in the Southern Lebanese village of Qana.

In the words of journalist Huseyin Gulerce, “Turkey is advancing on the path to EU membership, but it can turn its back on neither Islamic geography nor the Turkish world. ”

As I reported at Iddybud Journal on Friday, there is breaking news that Turkey is proposing a peace force in Southern Lebanon.

Let’s not assume too much from this headline. There are still reservations and conditions on Turkey’s part.From Zaman.com:

Turkey is hesitant about the planned UN-led military force, and Ankara will not participate in an international force if the clashes with Hezbollah continue.

Before engaging their forces, Turkey would also require that Hezbollah agree to the implementation of the UN’s decision to disarm them. [Do we really think this will happen anytime soon?]

In response to Zaman’s questions, diplomatic sources revealed, “We will not rush soldiers to embattled areas.”[..]

There are other voices from a summit held recently in Rome, and the following is an example of just how hard this is going to be. The goal of the U.S. to disarm Hezbollah without acknowledging them or Syria in international discussions; obtain a UN agreement; and create an international peacekeeping force while completely avoiding the requiring of Israel to cease-fire is looking pie-in-the-sky- especially since the most recent development where every country in the world except the U.S. is publicly expressing repulsion upon seeing Israel randomly killing innocent women and children:

[..]In response to the question “What would Turkey’s attitude be if the mission of implementing the UN peace force includes disarming Hezbollah,” Ankara replied, “It depends on the parties’ (including Hezbollah) positive approach.”

Foreign Affairs officials on the other side responded: “The UN decision regarding the international force will be taken first. States are free to join. The direction, time and the mission of the force are crucial. A force, which will have an active role when weapons are laid down and the ceasefire starts, should keep the peace in the region.”

An article in today’s New Anatolian about the Rome summit said that the results as they’d expected, were unsatisfactory and that Turkey is likely going to look “eastward” for a diplomacy. George W. Bush has called Turkey’s Prime Minister with a promise to do “what needs to be done” to clean out PKK bases around Kandil, a mountainous region in Northern Iraq, and increase tripartate cooperation between the U.S., Turkey, and Iraq. Such a meeting is rumored to be happening this fall, and I wonder how the events, as they unfold in in Southern Lebanon, will effect those meetings.

My question stands: What concession will Turkey get from the U.S. for their participation - and will it inflame passions amongst the Kurds [ not only PKK, but the inflamed Kurdish leadership] in northern Iraq?

Read the rest of this entry »

Award-winning reporter Kevin Sites is on the scene in Qana and I finally feel there’s a trustworthy news source there we can rely on.

As a man not entirely unaccustomed to a snort or two, I have to admit to a twinge of sympathy for Mel Gibson. I’ve never been arrested for anything, I’m glad to say — despite some deserving efforts on my part — so I can’t credibly speculate about the mental stresses one undergoes when John Law shines a flashlight in one’s bleary eyes and intones, in that condescending way they have, “Do you know why I pulled you over, sir?” when one has an undisguisably self-evident snootful.

I imagine the stress is great indeed. Gibson’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12%, as reported by TMZ.com (the legal limit in California, where Gibson was arrested Friday, is 0.08%). According to a handy online calculator provided by the University of Oklahoma Campus Police, a 180-pound man would have to drink seven imported beers over a period of two hours to achieve Gibson’s Blood Alcohol Count (BAC). (Or six malt liquors, seven glasses of wine, seven Bloody Marys, five vodka gimlets, or four doubles on the rocks — it’s an instructive little toy.)

By his own admission, Gibson is a recovering alcoholic who fell off the wagon on Friday night. People with his condition are notoriously unable to hold their liquor — I’ve known a few, and they’re no fun at all to drink with — or even just be around. They’re liable to say and do things they will have to apologize for the next day.

Indeed, Gibson has apologized for raving — on videotape, apparently — that Jews “are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and for demanding of the arresting deputy, “Are you a Jew?” In his apology he said that he had “said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.”

It is important to establish the context of Gibson’s revolting babbling. TMZ.com has published the arresting deputy’s report (PDF). It’s poorly scanned and difficult to read, but the gist is clear enough. The topic of Judaism and its putative responsibility for world unrest was not brought up by the arresting deputy as he clapped the darbys on his collar; the subject was raised for discussion by Gibson himself. He was not responding to something said to him. He thunk it up all by himself.

No matter what your past history with it, it’s highly unlikely that booze will make you raise a point, ex nihilo, as Gibson did, unless the idea was simmering just below the surface, waiting for its moment to appear. The distress of being arrested and publicly humiliated for drunken decisions seems to have been that moment.

My ineluctable conclusion is that Mel Gibson, despite his repeated protestations to the contrary, is a demonstrated anti-Semite. In nearly any other case this would simply be sad, an occasion to tut-tut urbanely about hating the sin and not the sinner. But for the author of The Passion of the Christ, all that effort put into convincing the MegaChurched that they were being bussed to theaters to watch a movie that was not conceived in the libel that the Jews killed Christ, has been destroyed beyond repair.

For this, I have no sympathy whatever.

Yes, This Is All Working Out Just As We Had Hoped
The numbers keep changing, but the anger gets stronger. If you’re wondering why the Lebanese have taken to the streets after Qana, and why the Israelis have called a temporary halt to the bombing, this may shed some light:

Qana, Thursday April 18, 1996
In the bloodiest attack by far on this eighth day of Israeli aggression, over 105 civilians were massacred after Israeli artillery pounded a UNIFIL warehouse packed with refugees.

The hundreds of men, women and children were seeking shelter from Israeli bombardment with the U.N. in the village of Qana. U.N. spokesman Timur Goksel said the U.N. station, manned by Fijian troops, came under fierce attack this afternoon.

Foreign Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel would continue the bombardment despite the massacre.

Lather, rinse, repeat. I don’t have the energy to go into the diddling worthlessness of Rice’s babblings these last few days, except to say that she displays the same level of competence at her new job that she did at the old, so why should anyone be surprised? I realize she is only carrying out the orders of her master Schicklgruber, but nonetheless, she carries them out, like all the good soldiers before her. Anyone with two neurons to rub together could have seen this coming, what with the US practically cheering Israel on to the tune of “Israel has the right to defend itself.” My new nominee for Most Vapidly Evil Political Appointee (God knows it’s not easy to choose) has got to be Underbelly Secretary for Political Fuckups R. Nicholas Burns, who, along with Rice, has been repeating this phrase like the callous Borg he is for nigh onto 2 weeks now, and who, like Rice, displays a breathtaking failure to grasp the history and context of the events unfolding in the Middle East. Let’s see what Israel has defended itself against:

15 disabled children killed in Qana
July 31, 2006

FIFTEEN physically or mentally handicapped children were among 52 people killed by Israeli raids on the village of Qana in south Lebanon overnight, a Lebanese MP said today.

“There were 15 physically or mentally handicapped children among the children killed in Qana,” said Bahia Hariri, who represents south Lebanon.

Mr Hariri, who presides over several charitable organisations, said several families had already been evacuated towards the city of Sidon but some families of the handicapped had wanted to stay.

“The bombardment of the Tyre region was intensifying and we wanted to take them to safety. But these families believed that the shelter and the mosque (in Qana) served as their shelter,” she said.

Thank heaven they headed off THAT danger. Olmert can sleep soundly tonight, knowing his people have been spared future attacks by the autistic and wheelchair-bound hellhounds of Grade 4.

As for the adults, I’ve been searching everywhere to find the story of the young father named Chaloub in Qana who was spared in the bombing but lost all five of his children, including his youngest, a 2-year old, as well as his wife, aunt, and sister. The NYTimes ran his story in one of their earlier versions of the Qana report, but since Israel agreeed to a 48-hr. ceasefire, it seems to have been dropped from the body copy. I guess since Israel is taking a breather, Mr. Chaloub’s losses stopped counting for much. I wonder how successful the Israeli/American game plan was in getting him to hate Hizbollah for the bombing.

I wonder how long it will take him to pick up a gun and aim it southward.

Thus do we move ever closer to that fata morgana, the sustainable peace.

Patriotboy asked about protest songs yesterday and got many great responses.

As I’d previously compiled some of my favorites, I thought I should share some of my favorites here. You may need to vary your volume for each of these.

There’s more excellent music below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Digby takes on the myths advanced about Democrats, that we’re split between a centrist camp of sensible middles and a liberal camp on a permanent acid flashback.

It’s important to add that those so out of touch with the breadth of liberal thought within the democratic party surely suffer from a lack of experience with LSD. They should take some in a controlled experiment. It might cure them of their lying and stupidity.

‘Hippy’ or ‘Hippie’ was a term that meant something once, as the original or ‘real’ hippies never numbered more than a few hundred - or perhaps a couple thousand US citizens, at best. But the media broadened the label to include every male from high school to 29 as a hippy, solely because they had long hair. Women with long hair might or might not be so defined, depending on the rest of their attire.

Bill Clinton and George Bush had long hair, but few consider the former to be of hippy stock and none think Dubya was one, ever. Other attributes - drug use, libertine sexual mores and opposition to the Vietnam War (or complete pacifism) - were a part of the stereotype that was demonized. And it’s often overlooked that soldiers returning from Southeast Asia were one of the major conduits that caused a boom in drug use.

Because I had long hair, I was considered a hippie. The people I socialized with fought status quo thinking about many more issues than the war, the sex, the drugs (and the rock & roll).

Consider the odd notions hippies of that time advanced:

- food cooperatives, with savings from purchasing in bulk.
- good nutrition, from whole wheat bread, to organics, to herbal healing remedies.
- clean air and clean water and pollution controls
- recycling
- energy conservation
- reduced use of fossil fuels
- natural fiber clothing
- sustainable agriculture and forestry
- civil rights for women, Blacks, Latinos, gays and lesbians, everyone.
- frank discussions of sexual practices and sex education
- cooperation between different nations
- eliminating nuclear proliferation, in part to keep nukes out of the hands of rogues
- universal health care
- alternatives to healthcare, from chiropractors to naturopaths
- natural childbirth and breastfeeding
- pathways out of domestic violence situations
- alternate energy
- space exploration
- computers and robotics
- freer speech
- alternative media
- decriminalization and legalization of marijuana
- recognition of the dangers of alcohol and tobacco use
- honesty in politicians
- compassion towards the poor

Not all of their ideas are in this list, but it constitutes most of them. And not all were novel ideas that sprang from hippy origins, but they were ideas many, many hippies advanced.

As Digby noted, liberals coalesced to vote for moderate after moderate for the past 40 years, with only a few reasonably liberal candidates along the way that we got excited about, like Jerry Brown and Jesse Jackson.

During that same period, what did Republican conservatives advance?

-oil use
-plastics
-wars
-tax cuts
-deregulation of all businesses
-trade with China
-military contract fraud, waste and abuse
-selling weaponry to Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khomeini
-massive accumulation of the national debt
-spying on US citizens and political opponents
-mandatory prayer in schools

Did I forget anything?

Most of the items in both lists have been mainstreamed. Which list has done more benefit to your hometown, this nation or the globe?

Not every item has become an unqualified winner. Among the very few hippies that were complete pacifists in 1970, most have matured and understand the importance of a strong defense and a rare need for’good’ countries to engage in combat. Moderation and safe sexual practices displaced the ‘free love’ era when HIV/AIDS showed up.

Thus, I wouldn’t be offended if liberals were labelled ‘hippies’ as long as the full list of ‘hippie’ endeavors were properly portrayed. When weighing the good and bad done by any organization or movement - Republican, Democrat, Christian, Jewish, Atheist, or whatever - I’d say the list of positive social contributions that the hippies advanced in the past 40 years beats all the others by miles.

Antiwar? That was the Republicans before World War II. Pro-terrorist? Hey, we didn’t arm Saddam, the Shah, the Ayatollah, Noriega, the Contras, nor Osama Bin Laden (Republican conservatives, and a few moderate Dems can take the credit for all of them). Drugs? Don’t blame the deadliest of these - tobacco and alcohol - on the hippies. Sex? Nope, we really didn’t invent that nor even homosexuality, but we did think it cool that women could enjoy it more when contraceptives and education and choices and no-fault divorces granted them greater control of their lives (and their orgasms) - though clerics of many religions have fought endlessly to get those uppity wimminz back under control.

Most liberals and ex-hippies that I’ve met wanted intervention in Bosnia, in the Hutu over Tutsi genocide, in Darfur, and wanted the war in Afghanistan to be completed properly, so even the ‘anti-military, weak defense’ claims made by political opponents don’t withstand scrutiny. War is best avoided when good alternatives exist, and an effective, strong military is an essential deterrent that prevents more wars. Anti-stupid-wars is something we’ve favored after the lessons provided to our nation in the stupid Vietnam War. (Which, by the way, was lost by the hawks, who poured money, bombs and men into it till they ran out of ideas.)

Media guys like David Broder should know all this, if they were good, objective journalists with all their marbles. And us liberal ex-hippies advocate stem-cell research that help with marble retention, affordable healthcare to treat marble deterioration, and a strong Social Security & pension system so journalists past their prime can retire in dignity and survive with more than a cat food diet.

You must read Doonesbury today. We ought to be laughing ourselves silly every time those Republicans dredge up a flag burning amendment to distract everyone from their other ridiculous, failed policies.

At 4:45 PDT, I heard CNN interviewing two bloggers.

David, an Israeli peace activist living in Haifa, gives a brief history here , points to the different realities of this current conflict for those in Lebanon versus Israel, and describes how it feels to be under attack.

The Lebanese blogger interviewed was Zena El-Khalil. She was sickened after inspecting an oil spill when the news came in about Qana’s bombing.

During her interview, she was described as a peace activist. She said she was not a political analyst, but an artist writing a personal journal about the current events. When asked whose fault it was, she called that irrelevant: “It’s not about blame. It’s about the need for a ceasefire.”

She advised “We have to rise above the hate and talk about humanity.”

Her eloquence and clarity drew many immediate blog comments, including a few anti-semites and people lecturing her for being stupid. Such arrogance and hatred will not find a receptive audience in her, I’m sure.

After Israel attacked a building in Qana that they claimed was a Hezbullah rocket launch site and killed more than 50 sleeping civilians (including at least 22 children), massses of Lebanese citizens stormed the UN embassy in Beirut, forcing Condoleeza Rice to cancel her plans to go there.

The building struck by Israel housed refugees fleeing the violence elsewhere.

I was watching Condi talk on CNN a few moments ago. She was expressing condolences and looked and acted for once like a caring human being. Still, it rang hollow, after weeks of refusing to join the call for a ceasefire, to hear her ask for a cessation in the violence at this late date.

Key Israeli leaders - again like the errant knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail - are lining up to say “Terribly sorry, didn’t mean to” while promising more.

Hezbullah precipitated the conflict. But the Israelis, instead of dealing with it based on events unfolding, chose to launch a long-planned offensive trying to eliminate Hezbullah as an entity. Just as our invasion of Iraq was based on a years-old plan to take out Saddam, with the intel fabricated to support the move, the Israeli plan has now been proven an unmitigated disaster.

From Bush’s radio address yesterday:

“This approach will demonstrate the international community’s determination to support the government of Lebanon, and defeat the threat from Hezbollah and its foreign sponsors,” Bush said.

The administration has insisted that any cease-fire come with conditions to address long-standing regional disputes, including the insistence by Israel that Hezbollah be disarmed — something the Lebanese government has been unable to do.

“An effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian relief, facilitate the return of displaced persons, and support the Lebanese government as it asserts full sovereignty over its territory and guards its borders,” Bush said in his radio address.

Americans can now see fresh anti-American hatred being brewed before their eyes, partly the result of Bush’s refusal to stand against violence in a Middle East country that was building a democratic society. These are the citizens that forced Syria - its previous occupier - to depart. They’re not going to accept another occupation force from Israel.

It remains doubtful that will dissuade Israel from continuing the current trajectory of its vengeance-based strategy. As a citizen of the US, as useless as it may be, I extend my condolences to the people of Lebanon, and apologize for the idiots in control of our government.

I applaud the innocent Lebanese civilians now rising up to protest the war being foisted on them. And to the government and military planners in Israel, I extend a one-fingered salute to their vicious failure of a policy. This is a clear case of a second wrong being advanced in response to the first wrong. This time, Isael’s gone way too far, there is no excuse and they should begin a ceasefire immediately.

As for Bush, Rice, et al, their credibility is shot ad the first, most appropriate step Congress must now take is to reject John Bolten’s nomination as US ambassador.

It is well past time for accountability for an administration whose foreign policy initiatives have been marked by repetitive and costly failures. Not an elective official, not an appointee, not even one military general has been asked to resign for this world-record string of debacles.

If Bush can’t clean house, if Congress refuses its oversight role, it’s time for US citizens to storm a few government buildings of our own. Democracy is supposed to mean representation of the best interests of our population. And when that representation continually falls short, the only way democracy can persist is for US citizens to unite in opposition and throw da bums out.

The world came through for us in response to the 9-11 attacks. It’s time we stood up for other innocents, and in opposition to a heartless, vicious administration whose only talent lies in killing, with an absolutely unacceptable loss of innocent lives.

Endless war shall not be the American way.

Update 4:04 am PDT: Some key points to consider…

From News24.com:

Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a United Nations base on April 18, 1996 that killed 105 people who had taken refuge there during Israel’s “Grapes of Wrath” offensive - also aimed at wiping out Hezbollah.

Ten years later tragedy has returned to Qana.

From the International Herald Tribune, partners of Israel respond:

The attack drew immediate condemnation from the Arab world, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II voicing his strongest criticism of his Israeli peace partner yet. Abdullah called it an “ugly crime.”

And Billmon thinks Israel’s much-vaunted military machine may have made a mistake that exposes a weakness to the military solution they thought they could force through.

A 2002 presidential order, which the Supreme Court later declared illegal, provided wide latitude for US troops to torture detainees. With the court’s red light, not only must the torture stop, but the Attorney General says a new law is needed to protect military personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes, under a new law passed in 1996.

That’s the way to support our troops: tell them they can break the law, then try to cover their asses because you gave them an illegal order.

While telling the American public throughout that the detainee abuse was caused by a few low-level bad apples.

But what Gonzalez is saying privately to GOP lawmakers actually doesn’t single out the need for military troops. The report says only that ‘personnel need the protection. Is he speaking of elective and appointive political personnel? Exactly whose ass is he trying to cover?

In the Watergate era, Congress - including Republicans - investigated the crimes and coverups of a corrupt administration. Today’s GOP Congress is aiding and abetting the coverups.

That doesn’t keep us safe from terrorists. It makes us vulnerable to common criminals.

It’s hard to tell who is the bigger Goofus. The United States or Israel, as blunder mounts upon blunder. And now we hear that Goofus has caused the largest environmental disaster in the history of the Mediterranean, with its latest oil-spill fiasco. It almost makes you want to whack Goofus on the head and say: “McFly!!!” although that would represent product extension, and might not be so useful in this discussion.

The Mediterranean is threatened by its worst ever environmental disaster after Israel’s bombing of a power plant in Lebanon sent thousands of tonnes of fuel gushing into the sea, the environment minister charged.

“Up until now 10,000-15,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil have spilled out into the sea,” after Israel’s bombing of the power station in Jiyeh two weeks ago, Lebanese Environment Minister Yacub Sarraf told AFP Saturday.

“It’s without doubt the biggest environmental catastrophe that the Mediterranean has known and it risks having terrible consequences not only for our country but for all the countries of the eastern Mediterranean.”

Israeli forces bombed the tanks at the power station on July 14 and July 15, just days into their offensive on Lebanon which has seen blistering air strikes across the country and a bloody ground incursion in the south.

Re: Instructions from the President to his appointment secretary.

Plese use thees gidelyns 4 all pointmints and photoe ops:

Never Meet With, Recognize Or Speak To: Yasser Arafat, any current democratically elected Palestinian leaders, Hugo Chavez, Kofi Annan, Hezbullah, Cindy Crawford.

Never Attend: The funerals of US troops KIA, the funerals of Hurricane Katrina victims, AA meetings.

Meet With Or Speak To: The Leader of Free Kabul, the Latest Leader of the Free Green Zone, The Leaders Of All The Countries Where The 9-11 Attackers Came From, Daddy Cheney, All the American Idol Losers.

Surprise Visits To: The Green Zone Troops, Laura’s Bedroom.

Okay, Now It’s Okay To Speak To: The National Association Of Condi’s People

Hug, Kiss, Hold Hands With Or Massage: That Nice German Frau Whatshername, John McCain, Condie, My Saudi Masters, Joe Lieberman, My Winky.

When laws are violated, society is best protected by people willing to speak the truth.

When those truth tellers are not permitted to speak, the lawbreakers win and society loses.

Always.

If anyone has evidence to refute this claim, persuade me. When has a whistleblower provided faulty evidence of wrongdoing. And when has it ever been proven that their revelations have or could harm national security?

Secrecy designations have expired on past events driven by whistleblowers who were silenced purportedly for national security reasons. Have we found even one that demonstrates it deserved the gag order?

Not that I’m aware of. Enlighten me if I’m wrong.

In what has been hailed as a bold move in light of its daring level of irresponsibility– even for the GOP led House of Representatives– the House passed a combination estate tax repeal/minimum wage increase, along with some pension reform measures and… more tax cuts. The party of fiscal responsibility (except for only about 99% of the nation) strikes again!

As some, or most, of these measures will meet with opposition from the requisite senate committee chairmen, it is unclear what future this bill will have in the senate– but the signature piece, the elimination of the fairest and most efficient tax on the books, the estate tax (fair because it (1) only even applies to a tiny percentage of estates–those left by millionaires and (2) allows its complete avoidance if one choses to leave their estate to a spouse, to charity, or to give it away in small increments while alive, and efficient because the beneficiary paying the tax didn’t earn the damned money), is ingeniously coupled with a Republican bete noire, to wit, an approximately $2/hour minimum wage increase over three years.

Naturally, there is some opposition and grousing about the bill: from Republicans outraged at increasing the minimum full-time compensation from $10,300 to around $14,000 per year!

While it can be argued that some of the business tax cuts proposed will, at least, increase business activity and hence, tax revenue, the estate tax cut is, of course, a dead loser for the Treasury, while a dead winner (!) for those ever-more lucky beneficiaries.

The irony, of course, is that if the G.O.P. is hell-bent on an estate tax cut anyway, we may as well get something for it– and a minimum wage increase is long overdue. Further ironic is that given that the only tax not being cut is the regressive social security contribution, revenue from that tax will increase as low-wage workers’ wages are increased.

As House Speaker Dennis Hastert says, “Have we not prisons and workhouses? Those are the institutions that I support.”

Über-Catholic director Mel Gibson’s gorefest “The Passion of the Christ” made some wonder if the director might be anti-semitic. Well, yesterday he removed all doubt during his arrest in Malibu for drunken driving. While being transported to the police station for booking he berated the arresting officer with a barrage of anti-Semitic remarks, including “fucking Jews” and “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” During this tirade he asked the arresting officer “Are you a Jew?”

Other highlights of the arrest included an attempt by Mel Gibson to escape arrest by running back to his car and the discovery of a partially consumed fifth of Cazadores Tequila in a brown paper bag on the floor of Gibson’s car. Gibson’s response when informed of the discovery of the bag of hootch was that it wasn’t his. Uh-huh. Mel is not only an anti-Semite but a really bad liar too. During the arrest he referred to a female police officer as “sugar tits.” I guess Gibson thinks this is “What Women Want.”

The original police report was rewritten by the arresting officer at the request of his supervisor to delete Gibson’s inflammatory anti-Semitic remarks. But not before the original report made its way to the Internet. You can read it for yourself here.

Just think, it was only last month that Mel announced he was moving from his Malibu home to escape the pernicious influence of his new neighbor Britney Spears and to be closer to the $5 million church he built for his friends at Opus Dei.

Cross-posted at Outside the Tent.

Even well informed people who cannot claim to possess something as amorphous and all encompassing as ‘the truth’. Because truth, like the definition of Heaven or beauty, is in the synapses, collective experiences and resulting biases of the beholder.

If there is a universal, provable truth at all, all the evidence indicates few have a grip on it. The inescapable conclusion I’m forced to draw is that the only truthful socio-political pundit on this mortal coil is Me. (But don’t fret, I’ll tutor you, grasshopper.)

Where do I shop for that truth? In addition to the weekly scour of blogs, newspapers, magazines, TV news, talk shows and talk radio , I regularly and randomly engage complete strangers in conversation (and some incomplete ones) , saying just enough to keep them talking. Then I listen. And try to hear. I don’t assign their words a value based on their professions, degrees, expert status, their visible level of income, their fashion sense, their height, or their sexuality.

They are, above all, human. They share the common quest of trying to make sense of it all. Their race, gender, sexual practices and other differences are likely to influence their perceptions. But it does not negate the fact that most - when engaged in serious conversation - are reporting their perfectly valid truths and the dharma they rode in on.

I do grant some extra points to people who’ve made their way in the world for a a decade or two, assuming some wisdom collects over time if they’ve been sufficiently sober, responsible, curious and somewhat sane. A perfect example is Mr. Wendal, who many would prefer to marginalize.

The two 7-11s I frequent for late night coffee provide a cross-cultural perspective. At one is a Pakistani couple. At the other is an Iranian guy who moved to the US when Khomeini took over. Upon first glance, some would asign the label ‘old hippie’ to the latter guy. Maybe he is, but he’s friendly, and seems well read.

He explained to me that, of Iran’s 65 million citizens, 40 million were born after the revolution. He returned for a visit 4 or 5 years ago. He hated it, because of the mullahs. But he said that most in that 40 million were not any more religious than an American who attends church half a dozen times a year. They like Western culture and hate the mullahs too. Just as some here dislike the theocrats in our government.

Then he said, in his travels he’s found one country to be super-religious, more than the others he’s lived in or travelled through. The country is the USA.

He did not say that to suggest we suck. He’s a US citizen himself and has lived here for 20 years. He just wanted to relate that things are not at all like our government and media like to portray. I suppose it’d be useful to remember that about Iran. At least 60% aren’t particularly religious. Of the remaining 40%, most are not extremists seeking confrontations with the US or anyone.

When we go to war with Iran, most of their civilian casualties won’t be enemies of America. Nobody knows how they’ll feel afterward. At the moment, they like Americans but they probably fear our government.

They don’t seem very different from me at all.

The key to a successful foreign policy cannot depend solely on the incorrectly labelled smart bombs. It can only occur with government leaders smart enough to listen and to understand the realities in the Middle East, instead of leaders busy flapping their pie-holes like the Wizard of Oz, trying to convince us of the threats of non-existent things.

On September 10th, 2001, our enemies were few. Their numbers have grown because of foreign policy blunders by leaders who refuse to listen. But they have not grown to the numbers those same leaders are telling us now.

But they could. If those leaders continue to be dumber than our bombs.

It’s a whole new world…
It’s an entirely diffident point of view.

In the very very secret and very unique and interesting “World Maintenence Manual”, there are a number of things that Juan may do in order to prevent the world from ending, which is considered, by some, to be mauvaise foi and entirely unfun. I disagree, but not with that.

Included in the list:

- Make war, itself, a crime. Arrest and incarcerate all those who participate.

- Truth in advertising. Call “War” by its real names: “Mass Murder” and “Serial Killing”, and consider all those involved mass murderers and serial killers.
As Chaplin noted, “numbers sanctify”. Not good. If one man kills, he is a murderer, but if a thousand kill, they are heroes. Desanctify number. Truth in advertising.

- When you find a leader who consistently makes the wrong decision (like George W. Bush)…use him! Ask him his view on the problem, and then do THE OPPOSITE of what he says. If, for example, he says “no ceasefire”, know that the correct answer is “yes ceasefire”. Most smart people know this already, but just look at the buffoons who still “stay the course” with every daft dictum of the dafter dictator, ever-dialed into Dick the Dastard: Dark Deity.

- Realize that the Foolwells of the world are literally banking on Armageddon. Deny them their Satanic visions. Create a a long, flexible tube wide enough for, say, Rush Limbaugh or Jerry Foolwell, and then put one end in the vacuum of Space: the final frontier. Then simply suck these Foolwells out into space. It may be the only sucking they’ve received in their ugly waste of a life. Very good for world maintenence, since these thumping egos are but shills for those who profit from the earth’s rapine and destruction. What we call tree fuckers. See also: Exxon/Mobil, Halliburton

- Empower all the world’s women. Men have devolved to the point where their mass-murdering wiles freely include women and children. No woman would stand for this. Women have to carpe the diem… and millennium.

- Elect wise leaders with a record of world maintenence, like Al Gore, John Edwards, Robert Redford, Constance Rice or The Yogurthead Man. Sex-changes are easy these days, even fun! (I’ve done it three times now, and am now working on my second species change. Genus is next.)

So you see, it is not too late. You don’t have to give up and lose everything just because a moron from Texas is so power-crazed that he wants to bring it all down with him. Let HIM go down instead, then laugh at him derisively for having such evil and adolescent notions. Send in the clowns, and lock up the serial killing mass murderers.

Future and Fun begin with “f. u…”
So tell your president “F. U.” next time you see him.
This will cause the world to not end.