60% Fear

“In a worldwide poll commissioned by the BBC World Service found about 60% of those polled had an overwhelming belief that the Iraq war has increased rather than decreased the chances of terrorist attacks.” Is this because the terrorists have won? In the event that this polling service is correct then terrorism is winning. Terrorism is of course a crude but successful method of creating fear. Therefore we have entered a situation where war and destruction, by coalitional and US forces, have actually increased the terrorist strangle hold on the public, writ large. Imperial and proactive warfare has backfired.

The purpose, I am assuming, was to end fear and the corrosive effect terrorism has on public security as well as personal saftey. Thus terrorism is now feeding on a meal which has long been basting. The corporate media relations, the beheadings and daily suicide bombings have instilled in the public a sense of fear and dread. So total victory will come when democracy is established or fear is conquered? The plot thickens...

The first step is to dehumanize

Winston believed that the state and INGSOC posed the real threat to humanity. The State’s duty was to strip away the fiber of humanity. Feelings, language, reactions, grief, logic and emotions were systematically purged from each man and women. War was constant and life hinged on the belief that Big Brother was savior, executioner, and saint.

The first movement in this direction has occurred in the form of radio transmitters which were implanted into employees working for City Watcher. An Ohio based firm dealing which security issues. The ID chips were planted into the upper arm and give the two employees access to ‘sensitive materials’. This according Democracy Now!

The chips give the employer and any agency with ties to the employer (i.e. the government) the ability to permanently track the employees. The maker of these chips is Verichip. VeriChip is a subsidiary of Applied Digital and provides state-of-the-art security solutions that identify, locate, and protect people, their assets, and their environments.

This benign PR statement masks the underlining shift in corporate America, and thus the government. From pagers to cell phones, from Blackberries to Radio Transmitters, these are the first steps to complete surveillance and tracking of citizens. Not to sound like a post-modern Luddite but a line must be drawn. Implanted chips may be FDA approved but it signals an end to self-security and personal privacy.

It's all in the tea leaves

Don’t Bogart that tea …

I thought I was seeing things when a read the Supreme Court had ruled that it must allow the use of a hallucinogenic tea (illegal under illicit drug statues) under religious freedom laws. The essence of the story stems from a Christian group revealing that the dimethyltryptamine, or DMT laced tea is critical to their relationship with God. Rituals are preformed in sessions where the tea is consumed and God is revealed, understood and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida is performed with Gabriel on cow bell.

Excuse me while I light my Spliff…

Now this opens a new case for drug use in our culture. More importantly, this raises the issue of ritual Christian drug use. I understand that Monks are renowned for their barley and hopps and Saints sat in drab caves suckling frosted mushrooms for divine guidance, however the law must be universal and general in its equality. Many a Rasta will testify that Cannabis sativa, which contains delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is not a pastime but an essential method of enlightenment and so it must also be incorporated in the religious freedom law. This can of weeds, tea, mushrooms and peyote will only bring more ‘enlightened’ groups to the steps of the Supreme Court asking for freedom. This Conservative Court has done the most liberal of things: legalized drugs.

Factum est*

On this day we have witnessed the first throws of a civil war in Iraq. While we gorge ourselves on Cheney and his new escapade of incompetence, Iraq burns. Even with Iraq's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, calling for peace and calm, groups are forming and lines are being drawn. Justice is being called for, but without the rule of law, justice will manifest in more burnings and death squads. This is the new Iraq, this is the outcome of an incompetent administration, and this is the victory that so many have died for.

And for America?

American soldiers and diplomats will sit back and wait. This is the only option; we have induced a child of war and now must watch it ravage the country. If we feel that it is our duty to step in, then which side do we attack first, which group do we condemn, which group must be stopped and which group is aiding and abetting the terrorist? We have painted ourselves in a corner with paint that will sporadically dry. Consequently, a civil/guerilla war of this scale will take decades to resolve. Iran (a Sunni stronghold) will fuel every fire and give ample resources to either side. Terrorists will have plenty of chances to gain useful war time experience. Thus we have sown the seeds for civil war in the Middle East. The best laid plans of mice (the Bush administration) and men (the Provisional Governing Authority) are now on the precipice of completely destabilizing the Middle East. The Bush Junta has committed the ultimate culpa: opening the Middle East to complete civil war with a nuclear option.

* it is done

Hobbes v. Kant (The US and the UN)

Before extrapolating on the UN report concerning Gitmo, it is important to frame this collision of ideas and priorities. The United Nations is a beast of our own creation. The US pushed for and created this international body. We are the largest contributor to the UN, in terms of funds, military measures, technology and manpower. The UN headquarters is based in North America and we are permanent members of the Security Council. Thus it is a US construct.

The UN is a deliberative body of some 191 member states. Differing agendas and conflicting philosophies swarm the halls of the General Assembly. Reports are made, investigations are pronounced, military actions are pondered and resolutions are conducted. Thus, when a report such as The Commission on Human Rights is filed, you can guarantee that many eyes have reviewed and previewed the findings before it reaches the general public. Moreover, when a report denounces the most central member state of human rights violations this is cause for concern.

The UN’s only weapon against a member state such as the US is the court of public opinion. In Professor Nye’s terminology this is Soft Power, and it works quite well in most cases. It is the power to have a sovereign nation do what you want without force and also creating a situation where the state sees its actions as a one of its own. For example, if the US does remove all detainees from Gitmo then it must do so by revealing to the world that it was in the best interest of the US to do so. It can not seem that force was the reason for policy change. In general, policy changes in this fashion are hard to pin down. Ironically, if the state did admit to the presence of Soft Power then it would not be Soft Power but some form of international coercion.

The US however does not believe in Soft Power at this moment and its policies bear this out. Hard power is the only true power and force is the only true tool for change in the world. This Hobbesian/Machiavellian philosophy is at the base of the Neo-Con mind (Kant be damned). Thus, when a report is suggestive to the US and goes on to prescribe a remedy to the situation at Gitmo; it is rebuffed by the White House within a day.

Consequently, revealing a deeper set of motives. Simply put these motives center on the UN as a front for multilateral intentions but not action. The UN can suggest but it can not demand, it can debate but it can not conclude, it can bring nations to the table but it can not force them to eat. The US is the sword and the power. The UN is only useful when the sword needs to be sharpened or the power needs to be legitimate. (Self-evident?) Therefore, the report will be drowned in a sea of punditry and policy wonks. The issues of human rights, torture, abuse, and legal codes will be left to the detainees. The US, again, has maneuvered around an issue of immense human consequence and once more defiled the justice and liberty we so cherish in this country.

Secularism Good: Religion Bad

Flag burning, rioting, hanging caricatures of diplomats and setting them ablaze is nothing new. It is a fresh reminder of religions hold on the politically efficacy of people throughout the world. Religions' dogma and rigid guidelines do not permit ‘naturally free’ humans to express their inner most thoughts and demands on a society for which they have a social contract. Thus, we have violence and destruction as a means of self-expression.

After the fall out of the Danish cartoons, we must pinpoint the violence and establish its origins. The religious-driven violence is found in countries which are coated with religious superiority and faith-based governments. From Indonesia to the Middle East, groups are performing violent acts in protest of this ‘cartoonist situation’. In these countries they lack a history of secularism and free thought which would enable them to have a clear discourse with any adversary. However, with religion's grip on their conscience they feel forced to erupt in violence. This violence stems from the suffocating religious regimes and now has a ‘proper outlet’ for relief. If you were to ask the average protester on the streets of Cairo or Jakarta you would find that their anger runs deeper than a simplistic cartoon of someone they have never seen before. Ironically, more such cartoons will appear after the fires turn to embers.

What is surprising and not revealed to the public, as a matter of societal comparison, is the lack of violent protest by American Muslims over this cartoon.* They are Muslims aren’t they? And any depiction of the prophet is blasphemy? So why then, are there not riots exploding throughout America? The answer is secularism and its logical effect on mystic religion and the faith for which it is based. The ‘Jeffersonian wall’ between church and state has tempered abject religious fervor. Americans are still deeply religious (95% believe in God) but the majority of Americans are moderate in their faith and have found that secularism is good for democracy and thus good for the people being represented.

Contrary to many pundits beliefs, secularism is good and religion in its political form is bad. The interjection of faith-based programs must end and a new post-modern mortar must now be applied to the ‘Jeffersonian wall’ before our streets become just another religious mixing ground of ignorance, intolerance and violence.

* (true that some protests have taken place in Europe, however those protesters are not as violent and are carried out by either first or second generation immigrants)

A time of debt, deficit and denial

These are the sage words of congressmen Spratt from the Palmetto State and his counterpart in the Senate the distinguished gentleman from North Dakota, whom have the unenviable job of combing through the fiscal budget for 2007.

In fact, the lies of this administration are in full view in this fiscal policy of hidden costs and understated funding.. Just an outline will clear up the irresponsible fiscal management of the Bush administration. First, Sen. Conrad states, that the administration has “absolute(ly failed) to face up to the countries fiscal condition.” As an example of this failure are the erroneous debt numbers. In which, the administration states a debt increase of 120,000,000,000 but in fact by the CBO’s accounts the debt increase will reach 280,000,000,000. The administration leaves out the extending war costs. Conveniently, the administration does not reveal the costs for years after 2006. I guess this is the first timetable for an administration adverse to such time constraints. Moreover, the AMT (alternative minimum tax) is not reconciled in the budget and left to float above all of us like a fiscal specter.

Devastatingly here are the numbers revealed by Conrad and the CBO:

• The debt as of 2001: 5,800,000,000,000
• The debt as of 2006: 8,600,000,000,000
• The debt est. as of 2011: 12, 000,000,000,000 (We will still be in Iraq and Afghanistan)

Thus the debt will have doubled on the Bush watch.

Now on to the deficit!

As it stands now the deficit is 423,000,000,000. This administration has created the five largest deficits in our nation’s history. Tax cuts in this budget are not projected in the future and masked by exclusions and fact dodging, according to Congressman Spratt of SC. On top of welfare for the rich is a list of cuts from programs which contribute to the common welfare, a statement a borrowed from the constitution.

REDUCTIONS:

1. 13,700,000,000 Medicaid

2. 36,000,000,000 Medicare

3. Elimination of 255$ social security death benefit for survivors

(money to bury the dead)

4. 2,100,000,000 in education (no child left behind?)

5. 55% less for firefighters (first responders)

6. No new finding for cops (first responders)

7. Elimination of community block service funding

Compassionate conservative? A culture of life? Fiscally responsible?

Look out, look out the candyman, Here he comes and he’s gone again.

Drugs and addiction complete each other. Drugs fill a void. The addiction becomes the new emptiness. The circle is self perpetuating until the victim dies or becomes rehabilitated. According to our oilman and chief we as Americans are addicted to oil. Thus we have an uncontrollable need for oil. A need which is growing and need which we must break or we will die. However the candyman is alive and well. In fact, our addiction will only grow in following decades due to the energy bill of 2005 and the inability of congress to ask questions of oil CEO’s. (Under oath that is) The candyman is bathing in a sea of money, tax breaks and; (For example, Exxon Mobil’s announcement that its 2005 fourth-quarter profits gushed to more than $10 billion. For the year, the company reported profits of $36 billion, thought to be the largest yearly profit for an American company in history) a system of welfare, which is more devastating than any of our ‘entitlement’ programs. First, we must capture the candyman, then go after the abusers.