The River

Monday, November 20, 2006


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Lots more comedic gold here

Find courtesy of bmo

Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl Again

By Joe Bageant
(excerpt)


Americans take comfort in the spoonfed "pendulum" theory of politics. No matter that the pendulum smacks them in the goddamned head at either end of the swing, because supposedly, it achieves some democracy preserving balance. To my mind, it merely offers a different faux target for citizen discontent every four years, so the same powers behind the powers can continue to extract wealth and sucker the public into consumer confidence and the latest Wall Street Ponzi scheme, or fighting wars to obtain more wealth and to protect what the elites have already piled up. Yet American tolerance for this pendulum bullshit, for this set of fake choices between two powerful groups of political elites who are dancing in the Washington conga line, asshole to belly button pretending they are alternatives to each another, seems endless.

--

Internationally speaking, the picture is no better. It's pretty doubtful anyone will publicly fess up to the fact that the whole damned world hates us, and that a recent poll found that just about everybody but the Japanese and the South Koreans consider us far more dangerous than Kim Il Sung's North Korean nuclear zoo. The soon-to-come investigations of Cheney and Rumsfeld may make jolly spectacle for the American public, even entertain the Europeans for a while, with its examination as to how our illegal invasion, complete destruction and occupation of a sovereign country was "mishandled" -- if the actions of a rogue nation can be said to be mishandled -- which will distract the citizenry for a while longer. But the Democratic Party will never challenge the militarism that has made war the resort of first option so acceptable to so many Americans. Cutting defense spending by half remains unthinkable, even though it would still leave us with one quarter of all the world's weapons and four fifths of the world's viable nuclear firepower. Despite that the savings would rebuild every school in then nation, or send every American child through college or technical school, or wipe out homelessness in one fell swoop, or pay for nationalized health care for all, (if the insurance company leeches are dumped in the process) or public transit.

[emphasis mine]

-- more

To find out how Napoleon was important to the development of the modern computer, go here, look at the right-hand column.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006



Protest vote

I voted first thing this morning. I stood in a line with about 25 in front of me. The church hosting the polling had a table with free coffee. I had brought my own, but they also unveiled three dozen Krispy Kreme’s, still warm. I accepted one and found that it was good. The word of the Bruce.

With the coffee and donut ritual out of the way, it was time to do my civic duty, i.e. pretend there weren’t massive structural, cultural, and criminal inhibitors of democracy at work.

I decided that if I could do any good today, it would be through a vocal protest of sorts over the joke that is electronic voting.

I went through the “fill out a form that says you are who you say you are” song and dance, presenting it to one of the two nice young women along with my driver’s license. After that, there were two people providing fresh microchip cards with which to activate your ballot on the Diebold machines. I asked the friendly, gray-haired gentleman whose job it was to hand me a card if I they had paper ballots available for those that don’t trust the machines. He didn’t know, but said I could ask the “manager” at the table about four feet away.

The manager wanted to know why I wanted a paper ballot. I said that the machines use proprietary software. I said that the software company was politically connected (I didn’t mention a party). The manager, clueless and wanting to appease the strange man, provided me with a card for a disabled voter to complete, albeit with the help of a poll worker, who would then presumably provide the paper ballot, as well as any necessary help.

But at least the gentleman handing out the computer activation cards had heard the exchange and commented, “that’s interesting.” I said, “it’s true.” And he replied that he wasn’t arguing.

Certainly a few more in the lines heard me as well. However, their arguments, or lack thereof, remained private.

I then got in line to perform push-button democracy. I had visions of kicking over the tables supporting the silly little tabulator machines, police wrestling me to the ground while I screamed, “democracy has been hijacked! It’s been diebolded! It’s who counts the votes that matters! In cyberspace, no one can hear you screeeaaammmm…gah, ooof, umph…”

But I didn’t. Now I have indigestion. And I don’t think it was the innocent little donut.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006


I've always been accused of being a cynic. I think cynicism is sour grapes. I think cynicism is a weakness. It's saying "everything is wrong! EVERYTHING IS WRONG!" You know? "This is not right! That is not right!" Cynicism is the weakness that keeps one from being able to adjust to what is occurring at the moment. Yes, cynicism is definiteiy a weakness, just as optimism is. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing -- so smile." That's bullshit too. The truth lies somewhere in between. What is, just is. So you're not ready to handle it...too bad.

-- Charles Bukowski