The Lupanare

After reading the tourist frenzy over a 1925 year old brothel, in Pompeii, I thought about our own brothels. Brothels are places of hedonism and debauchery, legally sanctioned in The Roman Empire and seen as places of delight and self-satisfaction. The Lupa or prostitute was paid for services rendered and customers were streaming into the Lupanare. Decadent frescos are present within the Lupanare, which reveals the importance of such an institution. Some of the faithful flock may see this debauchery as the sole reason for the 79 CE volcanic eruptions which destroyed Pompeii. These are the same people who see Tsunamis as God’s wrath. However, ignorance of weather patterns and geological shifts is nothing new and is a safe haven for religious troglodytes. However, notwithstanding the religious overtones commonly associated with brothels, we must now look at our own institutions of pay for play.

In America, we have fantastic frescos donning our brothels and have erected elaborate building to house our high priced lupas. Tourists by the thousands visit these great edifies everyday. We pay them and even rehire them for continued service. I am speaking of Congress. This is not satire, even though I wish it were. The abject corruption and money dealing in Congress has reached epic proportions. In his new piece for Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi takes an in-depth look at the outgoing 109th Congress in his article, "The Worst Congress Ever." Not only has congress been absent from the brothel they have set their own price for legislation. Taibbi reveals a system so corrupt that many of the days spent in congress are spent redefining the rules for which to pass legislation, the shorter the time the better, sounds like a well informed whore to me. CSPAN be damned. Closed door hearing and shell game party tricks are now normal operational procedures for congress. We have entered the grand historical consequence of empire and absolute power. We have now embarked upon the Roman equivalent of Senatorial politics. Special interests and money have circumvented the democratic process and Taibbi’s piece gives clear examples. The whores are now without restraint.

Register Republican…just in case.

I have been a registered Republican for the last decade. I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal/libertarian. I am overly states rights, including the dismantling of the DOE, and see the constitution as a fluid document. These may seem like contradictions but in light of dynamic society, I find this to be, as Mark Satin coined, a radical middle approach to politics. However, my GOP affiliation runs deeper than my core political philosophy. It is the most practical act I can take in this era of voter fraud and electronic voting.

Diebold is the leader in electronic voting machines and carries with it trademark and patent secrets which inhabit public officials from viewing their software and counting procedures. This is a fallacy. Also this is an infringement of our rights as citizens to be equally represented through the election process. Diebold has reportedly been clear about its intentions to push votes into the GOP camp. So with this information in mind, I find myself wondering about the labels that are connected to each voter when they arrive at the polling station. Each voter is labeled with their particular party: DEM, REP, or I is placed next to voters’ name. This is important in some states because of primaries however it is more important for Diebold.

In the general election Diebold can weed out votes through an easy process of party affiliation. If you are a registered DEM your chances of having your vote over turned or dismissed are, in some areas, three times as likely. For evidence of this machination please read, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast. Race is also a common factor but the two labels are clearly connected. So when you are registered as a REP you have a better chance of having your vote counted. Vote for anyone you like but make sure a REP is in front of your name.

Note: to see more Diebold posters visit the following site:

http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

Why we need Obama now…

As most avid political watchers I was impressed with Obama in 2004 at the DNC convention. He was remarkably clear with his ideas and comforting in his remarks. I also saw a difference. A difference from the stiff Kerry and the mushy Clinton, Obama was a bridge. The crowd wanted a new face and a clear message of cooperation and bipartisanship. The crowd wanted a leader and a listener. They screamed for a commander and a public servant. Obama was not tied to the floor or over intellectual, he was American.

With 2 weeks left until the 2006 mid-term elections and GOP candidates pointing fingers and blaming everyone from Howard Dean to Nancy Pelosi for the illness which is the Bush agenda, we see a star of such magnitude that the difference of the past 6 years have coalesced into one man. This man is Obama.

I am waiting for his new book, Audacity of Hope, to arrive and will finish it with an eye to the future. It is refreshing that a politician is not only literate but imaginative and sincere. Proof of this mixture was evident in his Meet the Press interview this past Sunday when Tim Russert tried to back him into a corner with statements Obama had made about running for president last year. Obama had previously stated that he would not run however in this recent interview revealed that things have changed and he was considering the option more seriously. This is an example of forthrightness which is sorely lacking in politics. He did not try to erase what he said nor may amends; he was honest. His mind had changed due to recent events. That is called thinking and those in the press, and the public for that matter, have not be around leaders who think for such a long time that it is now become a novelty.

Most importantly, Obama is a bridge over the last great hurdle of civil war reconstruction and the civil rights movement. His presidency will heal the wounds of the past and ignite the future for all Americans. This nation is without a captain or a rudder. We are still chasing the whale and need to step back before we kill ourselves. It is not too early for Obama to make a run at the oval office; carpe diem is more American then ‘wait your turn’. America deserves a man like Obama, white, black, foreign and educated. Obama will be tried like all candidates and dirt will be smeared and lies will be codified. However, he does exemplify the one thing which is absent in this nation, hope.

Death of a corpus

The following information was gleaned from the Military Commissions Act 2006:

948a. Definitions
‘‘In this chapter:
‘‘(1) UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT.—(A) The term ‘unlawful
enemy combatant’ means—‘‘(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who
has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who
is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces); Or

‘‘(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant
by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.

Section ii is extremely important because it destroys habeas corpus. A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he should be released from custody. Therefore, anyone, citizen or not can be deemed an unlawful enemy combatant. This power now is squarely in the hands of the President of the United States and/or the Sec. of Defense. Lost is the court and lawyer privilege, afforded you in the bill of rights. You will be remanded to a military tribunal and held incommunicado. Charges do not have to be filed and your location, in accordance with the Patriot Act, does not have to be revealed.

They have crossed the last Rubicon and liberty through justice has now withered on the vine. The constitution is better served as kindling. We are now under siege without judicial recourse. It is K. waking up with the two shadowy figures looking down on him saying, simply “come with me.” In fact, Kafka’s The Trial and Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother INGSOC are now joined at the hip. It is a Frankenstein of despotic proportions.

Iraq 2010

Bush has revealed that troops, some 100,000, will still be needed in Iraq as late as 2010. This of course is ludicrous, first he will not be in office to make such a statement and secondly there will need to be many more troops to man the 10-15 permanent bases now established in Iraq. However, a prediction is in order for 2010.

After many personal entries about democracy and the facets of democracy, I have come to the realists’ viewpoint that Iraq will be divided into many smaller regions. This is an earlier notion which I put forward in graduate school; however the circumstances have changed in the past two years.

Part of Iraq will be dissolved and absorbed by Iran. Turkey will be in a constant conflict with Kurdistan to the North which will bring the EU back to the region as a peace keeping force. The central portion of Iraq will boil into a pool of warlords and green zones. Green zones for oil officials and warlords fighting for the scraps. American troops will be lost in the desert looking for an oasis of answers. Troops will be kidnapped and tortured, unlike Americans; Iraqis have a keen sense of history and will not forget the disgraces of the last decade.

The region will be more unstable and the Israeli /Palestinian debacle will be on the verge of genocide with Muslims herded into small corridors of land without adequate food, jobs, shelter or provisions. The US will be in a constant state of fear from the ever growing nuclear club of North Korea and Asia Minor. These will be desperate times. Logic and diplomatic discourse will not be easy to come by. A GOP or Democratic President will be demonized by the other side and amelioration of viewpoints will be absent. The last 5 years have given us a prelude to the next 20 years and the horrors of war and millions of dead have just begun to be counted.