Tannishblog

Two headlines placed next to each other in the Washington Post’s daily email caught my eye. For clarity I’ll also include the first paragraph of each story - no more needs saying.

Bush Signs Domestic Spending Bill but Criticizes Pet Projects

WACO, Tex., Dec. 26 — President Bush signed a $555 billion domestic spending bill into law Wednesday, but not without taking a swipe at Congress for including pet projects that total about $10 billion.

Wars Cost $15 Billion a Month, GOP Senator Says

The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism — nearly $15 billion a month — came last week from one of the Senate’s leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq.

wow……..

It took a while, but the long-awaited, epoch-ending conflagration is finally spreading. What with Pakistan’s brewing instabilities, and today’s Kurdish attack in Turkey, it looks like Armageddon is back on track.

That should make Mr. Bush happy. And the Christian fundamentalists, too, if they’re actually allowed brief fits of non-rage. I’ll bet they were a bit worried that their Chosen One wouldn’t preside over the End of the World ™. Looks like he’ll at least get credit for the opening act. Good for him.

Let’s all sit back with our popcorn and watch the show!

Filed under the tab of “I Wish I Wrote That,” is Chris Rowthorn’s blistering assessment of the Florida University Taser Incident as found on Smirking Chimp.

The four players in the present-day American political drama were all represented at the University of Florida on Monday:

1) Andrew Meyer writhing on the ground in agony represents the Constitution and the freedom of speech and the protection from unlawful arrest that it enshrines.
2) The police holding Mr. Meyer to the ground and inflicting torture with 50,000 volts of electricity represent the fascist forces in America led by George W. Bush and their attempts to kill the Constitution.
3) John Kerry droning impotently on in the background and allowing the torture to occur through his shameful lack of courage and principle represents today’s Democratic Party.
4) The majority of the students who sat passively by while one of their own was tortured for speaking out represent the largely apathetic American populace.

And, of course, after the fact, the fifth and perhaps most important player in the drama made its inevitable entrance: the press. Major press outlets and even some supposedly left-wing political blogs were united in suggesting that Mr. Meyer actually deserved to be tasered because of his history as a prankster. Thus, the American media has sanctioned the torture of an American citizen who exercised his freedom of speech. In this they stand firmly in the tradition of all fascist states, in which certain undesirables and those who dared to speak out were officially sanctioned as targets of violence.

After the smoke clears, no one is left standing. All the implemented capable have crept away. But that’s on the inside: on the outside, America has become a Terrorist Organization as well. From The Truth Will Set you Free comes a post called “Shake and Bake” that graphically illustrates (you’ve been warned) the effect of US Military policy in the 2005 pacification of Falluja. Apparently, Shake and Bake is the cutesy name for alternating rounds of high explosives and rounds of white phosphorus.

Although white phosphorus often has no effect on clothes, when it makes contact with a person’s skin, it will burn it down to the bone. If the gas is inhaled, it will blister the throat and lungs, causing rapid suffocation, burning the body from the inside.

How many gallons of blood does it take to refine a gallon of gasoline? How long will we remain the Apathetic Americans? How much longer can this go on? These are questions you should ask yourself. No possible answer can remotely satisfy.

Even before full emplacement, America’s shadow Army is taking heat. Blackwater USA, a “security firm” with deep ties in Washington, is in a wrangle with Iraqi officals over a fire fight over the weekend. the US account has it that a convoy of diplomats were fired upon in a crowded square. The American response was typically decisive. Civilians were killed.

Of course, the enemy counts on that happening. that’s why they do these things with innocents around them - besides the camouflage benefits - to later cry how the Coalition is targeting indiscriminately.

With all that’s happen in Iraq, I would be surprised if the Yankee yahoos aren’t blasting everything in sight. The situation is out of anyone’s control. Prolonged fear can do that to the stalwart, not that that adjective applies to these hired guns.

Iraqi response was to first “revoke Blackwater’s license to operate.” As if that mattered…
Today the soup thickens as Iraqi officials re-write their initial assessment to say the “response” by Blackwater was actually an “attack.”

All this will only prove how powerless is the Iraqi government. The nation, such as it is, is in US control. All the car bombs in the world can’t change that, as they have a disturbing tendency to maim and kill more Iraqis than foreigners. That may be Bush’s grand strategy (if there is one) to let the nation self destruct until there are only isolated bands of brigands left between our Corporate interests and all that oil. All we have to do is stand aside and let that happen.
Yet with all the pressure to remove our troops outfits like Blackwater will become ever more necessary to replace the troops while the natives blow each other up. This outing of our shadow warriors might cause difficulties, but it cannot stop what is already in action: A switch out of soldiery is imminent.

Think of it as an oil change.

Florida seems to be the testing grounds for the New American Century, wherein fear acts as crowd control and police brutality becomes de rigeur. It is become the breeding ground of the modern police state. Unfortunately, the crowd hasn’t quite gotten the message yet. The State that Tasers unruly children has turned its Protectors of the Peace against a more conventional target: liberal college students. From Chicago Tribune:

A University of Florida student was Tasered and arrested after trying to ask U.S. Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election and other subjects during a campus forum.

Videos of the incident posted on several Web sites show officers pulling Andrew Meyer, 21, away from the microphone after he asks Kerry about impeaching President Bush and whether he and Bush were both members of the secret society Skull and Bones at Yale University.

“He apparently asked several questions — he went on for quite awhile — then he was asked to stop,” university spokesman Steve Orlando said. “He had used his allotted time. His microphone was cut off, then he became upset.”

As two officers take Meyer by the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., is heard to say, “That’s alright, let me answer his question.” Audience members applaud, and Meyer struggles to escape for several seconds as up to four officers try to remove him from the room.

Meyer screams for help and asks “What did I do?” as he tries to break away from officers. He is forced to the ground and officers order him to stop resisting. Meyer says he will walk out if the officers let him go.

As Kerry tells the audience he will answer the student’s “very important question,” Meyer struggles on the ground and yells at the officers to release him, crying out, “Don’t Tase me, bro,” just before he is Tasered. He is then led from the room, screaming, “What did I do?”

Must have been some questions!

Liberal use of Tasers on liberal arts students conjures flashback images of the police in Valve Software’s brilliant near-future PC adventure Half Life 2, wherein masked and black suited militia freely use stun batons on the oppressed citizenry.

It’s an odd coincidence that such behavior occurs in Jeb Bush’s former territory. Rigging election results was just an appetizer for an insidious creep toward greater martial control. Be forewarned.

The Washington Post notes a contradiction between General Patreus’ testimony and actions taken by his commanders in New Halliburton:

A week ago today, Gen. David H. Petraeus started his rounds on Capitol Hill, reporting that security in Iraq was improving to the point that a small number of troops could begin coming home by year’s end.

But 10 days ago, his commanders in Baghdad began advertising for private contractors to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.

I see a precedence occurring here: Respond to the Cries of the American public, media and congressional pressure to lower troop levels by replacing them with Mercenaries.
That’s right! We’re not supposed to use that word; private security companies don’t like it - it gives them a bad image, or something…

But since the dictionary says:

mer·ce·nar·y /ˈmɜrsəˌnɛri/
–adjective
1. working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.
2. hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.
–noun
3. a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.
4. any hireling.

I can only assume a corporation willing to work in a foreign nation as part of an outside army (albeit from the same nation, but NOT enlisted in that nation’s armed forces), willing to provide tactical and logistical assistance to a national military, can indeed be defined as a Corps of Mercenaries.

So while the quagmire continues and public support wanes, the Administration is orchestrating a bait-and-switch by replacing one set of soldiers for another. All they have to worry about is how to funnel the cost of their Shadow Army into the defense budget. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Today’s Washington Post reports on the resurgence of Al-Qaida. They haven’t been sitting idle while We’ve been distracted by George Bush’s Excellent Iraqi Adventure. On the contrary; while the American Media has been obsessed with the scene in New Halliburton, our "friends" in Nuclear Pakistan have been harboring terrorists. Remember Bush’s tough talk about nation who would stoop so low?  How we wouldn’t tolerate that? Just another in the long list of little white lies emanating from the White House.

Dodging the U.S. military in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al-Qaeda Central reconstituted itself across the Pakistani border, returning to the rugged tribal areas surrounding the organization’s birthplace, the dusty frontier city of Peshawar. In the first few years, Pakistani and U.S. authorities captured many senior leaders; in the past 18 months, no major figure has been killed or caught in Pakistan.

As for the War on Terrorism ™, we’ve had the same luck as we’ve had on the War on Drugs ™ or the War on Poverty ™; bad luck. In fact, I can’t remember American winning a war since Korea. We did win that one, right? It seems the days of America winning all of its wars is long past.

Today, al-Qaeda operates much the way it did before 2001. The network is governed by a shura, or leadership council, that meets regularly and reports to bin Laden, who continues to approve some major decisions, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official. About 200 people belong to the core group and many receive regular salaries, another senior U.S. intelligence official said.

"They do appear to meet with a frequency that enables them to act as an organization and not just as a loose bunch of guys," the second official said.

We’ve been led to believe otherwise:

"Thanks to President Musharraf’s leadership, on the al-Qaeda front we’ve dismantled the chief operators," Bush said. Although bin Laden was still at large, his lieutenants were "no longer a threat to the United States or Pakistan," Bush added.

But then as Keith Olberman noted, the President has been "playing" us.

Six months later, Musharraf was nearly killed in an assassination attempt by al-Qaeda operatives. Shortly afterward, a group of al-Qaeda leaders held a summit of their own in the Pakistani region of Waziristan, where they plotted fresh attacks thousands of miles away in Britain, including targets in London and financial institutions in the United States, according to Pakistani officials.

Many U.S., Pakistani and European intelligence officials now agree that al-Qaeda’s ability to launch operations around the globe didn’t diminish after the invasion of Afghanistan as much as previously thought.

As American’s learned during the Cold War (did we win that one?), a government can get  away with anything once a "clear and present danger" can be seen to exist. As we’ve learned to our dismay during this presidency, the danger need not be real. Repeat after me: "Weapons of Mass Destruction." Very good.

Al-Qaida is a real threat. Perhaps that’s why we let Osama Bin Laden escape into the unruly hills of Pakistan, so our leaders can perpetuate the Cold War mentality among the American people so lucrative to what’s left of America’s industrial base, i.e. the Defense Industry.

So as long as the bullet makers need to sell bullets, America needs a bad guy - a bogeyman - to sell to its voters as a National Security threat. If enough people fear, not leeway is given lawmakers to erode freedom, promote questionable business practices abroad, and to invade sovereign nations. If the people fear enough, America can be morphed into a police state in the mane of Homeland Security. That is not the America the veterans of World War Two we’re dying for.

Let us not forget that the last nation that rallied its people "for the Fatherland," used the same tactics we see today. Zieg Heil!

So. Alberto Gonzalez is out. People are starting to flake off this presidency like a leper’s skin. Gonzo’s perhaps the flakiest of the bunch.

Perhaps that’s not the best metaphor. Did you ever see cockroaches scatter when the light switches on? The longer the roach light shined, the less Gonzo could remember. Pictures of him last week had him looking like a deer in headlights. But that confounds the imagery.

The spotlight on Alberto must have been too much for the guy George Bush has so much confidence in. Has anyone asked the President about what is he confident? Could it be in Al’s ability to politicize the Justice Department? Or His willingness to take the hatchet?

I’m not saying the Democrats going after this cockroach are enlightened, but the pointed questions are so overdue. We may never get to the bottom of the dung heap people like Gonzalez are sacrificing their careers to obfuscate. And time is running out.

Why should Alberto stay anyway? He’ll be replaced by the next administration in a few month’s time; he’ll not be able to get real work done now that his credibility is in question. What’s the point? On the other hand, why leave? Our “Resoloot” leader will install another hack to continue the deal. If the Democrats screech, as is likely, then the few flakes that are left can cry about obstruction - whatever.

It’s all so stupid, really. One thing’s for sure: none of this, from either camp, serves the American People. That’s a shame.

The White House proposes a $20 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Can you believe this? The same nation that birthed Osama Bin Laden is offered high-tech weapons and upgrades to fighter jets by the nation that suffered from the same man’s obsessions: Freaking brilliant.

It’s just business as usual for the military-industrial Corporatocracy. "Who?" you ask. (Or maybe "What’s he getting on about?") You know, the people who have the money to influence elections, buy presidencies and profit on war and bloodshed; the people who really run this country. I cannot imagine that the founders of this country - in their worst nightmares - would have imagined the nation they strived so hard to create fall into the role of an unscrupulous gun seller. Kind of give new meaning to "Wild West."

Can our government get more out of touch with the will of it’s people? Can it get more arrogant? More defiant?

Yes. Things can always worsen. But I believe the bottom has been reached. The political pendulum is swinging away from rampant capitalism, pre-emptive aggression, and wanton destruction. We are moving away from the narrow, selfish greed of a well-placed few and steering the the nation back toward a sense of stewardship of it’s people and their needs.

Congress must stop this deal. But even the Democrats in congress will accept this hypocrisy if the American people don’t make a lot of noise against this move. Our unwillingness to cry foul in the face of political idiocy has gotten us into the mess we’re in. Will we, in our silence enable our nation to continue to be the butcher of the world through it’s insistence of selling war material to anyone who will pay?

What kind of future will that bring? There is only one logical end to such maneuvering: traffic in the tools of blood, and blood is the product. Only by a concerted effort of millions of Americans will this cease. Let’s make a new America: one that doesn’t profit from destruction.

Don’t expect congress to do this for us.

With approval polls historically low, accountability hearings gaining momentum, outrageous deeds being questioned for a change, the Bush administration is squirming. Even Dick Cheney is on the defensive, and he doesn’t give a damn about anything.

But what’s an embattled White House to to? Trot out the fearmongers. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lays it on the line during an interview:

We could easily be attacked. The intent to attack us remains as strong as it was on September 10, 2001…

I believe we’re entering a period this summer of increased risk. We’ve seen a lot more public statements from Al Qaeda. There are a lot of reasons to speculate about that but one reason that occurs to me is that they’re feeling more comfortable and raising expectations. In the last August, and in prior summers, we’ve had attacks against the West, which suggests that summer seems to be appealing to them. I think we do see increased activity in South Asia, so we do worry about whether they are rebuilding their capabilities. We’ve struck at them and degraded them, but they rebuild. All these things have given me kind of a gut feeling that we are in a period of increased vulnerability.

Yep. That should distract the American public from thinking - make them scared and their tiny little brains will cease functioning. It happened before, it’ll happen again. Ramp up the fear factor, multiply by ten, so the criminals in the White House can skate through the next few months, grab their overflowing portfolios full of defense firm stocks, and get the hell outta here.

Whip up the terror, whip it good.