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JANUARY 16, 2007

IN BELATED HONOR OF A GREAT AMERICAN...

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_**Note**- I have posted this transcript on the Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday, for the past three years, and for no little reason- Dr. King's words speak to us today with a prescience that is startling, to say the least. If you don't have the time to read the following, you can listen to the sermon, [here.][63]_

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.

I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.

Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.

Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.

### The Importance of Vietnam

Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

> O, yes,  
I say it plain,  
America never was America to me,  
And yet I swear this oath--  
America will be!

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them? What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share with them my life?

Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

### Strange Liberators

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former colony.

Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination, and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.

For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.

Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at recolonization.

After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S. influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese --the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.

They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. What liberators?

Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.

Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.

How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow national elections in which this highly organized political parallel government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then shore it up with the power of new violence?

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.

When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops, and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.

Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.

### This Madness Must Cease

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one of them wrote these words:

> "Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play.

The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.

In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:

  1. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.
  2. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will create the atmosphere for negotiation.
  3. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in Laos.
  4. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.
  5. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.

Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.

### Protesting The War

Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible.

As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.

### The People Are Important

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:

Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word."

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.

As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:

> Once to every man and nation  
Comes the moment to decide,  
In the strife of truth and falsehood,  
For the good or evil side;  
Some great cause, God's new Messiah,  
Off'ring each the bloom or blight,  
And the choice goes by forever  
Twixt that darkness and that light.
> 
> Though the cause of evil prosper,  
Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;  
Though her portion be the scaffold,  
And upon the throne be wrong:  
Yet that scaffold sways the future,  
And behind the dim unknown,  
Standeth God within the shadow  
Keeping watch above his own.

Where are the Martin Luther Kings of today?

Go look in the mirror - his cause is our charge to keep. A bullet may have silenced this great heart, but his words and spirit are with us, today. Compare these eloquent words to the stutterings of the bastard who claims to be our president, and choose your side.

WHY THEY HATE US- REASON #17674-UB7

In the wake of Bush's incomprehensible performance last wednesday, not much has been said about the Bush Bowl's recent expansion of the "war or terruh" to Somalia.

One can only assume that there was one addled strategist at the NSA who thought that the best way to preface Bush's address to the nation was to send a message to the world:

"You still think we're SANE? Just watch THIS!"

A few minutes after the folks over at Free Republic stopped touching themselves while visions of exploding poor brown people danced through their heads, the facts of the matter came out:

Actually, the strikes had been the equivalent of a punch-drunk jab, and had failed to eliminate any of the stated targets. In fact, [the only casualties were about 70 nomadic tribesmen][64], along with another 100 wounded.

Now, I know we all would like to believe everything we hear from the Bush Bowl- but I have a feeling the the families of those killed and wounded are, well- sorta cheesed off at the United States of America right now- and it ain't because they "Hate Freedom." (Hell- objectively speaking, a nomad is about as "free" as one can get.)

So, we've just created another few thousand enemies (familial ties in that part of the world tend to be a tad extended.) Nice one- but in the eyes of the Neocons, it's a net gain- you can't continue to keep the american people in a constant state of fear, unless there's a constant, fresh supply of enemies...

![][4]

JANUARY 12, 2007

I KNOW I'M SUPPOSED TO BE BUSY, ELSEWHERE...

You knew it was coming...

The Bush Bowl is, well- circling the drain, right now. The republicans are falling over themselves to condemn the troop "surge", and the corporate media talking heads are finding themselves unable to find a way to smear lipstick on this pig. Watching the news, all day, I've gotten tired of listening to conservative commentators saying "I don't know what to make of this."

The prize of today goes to [Condoleeza Rice][65], who appeared before the senate foreign relations committee, and issued forth another spray of Bush Bowl idiocy, only to be interrupted time and time again by senators saying "okay- we've heard this crap before, and it won't fly, anymore."

Der Untergang continues. Break out the Newman's Own...

![][4]

JANUARY 11, 2007

BUSH'S "SURGE" SPEECH

**[Was it as good for you, as it was for me?][66]**

I told ya it was gonna be a spectacle- I've been watching the talking heads, and every one of them is pretty incredulous- there is not a single person who sees any rationale in what Bush is doing, outside of Free Republic...

What struck me the most:

20,000 troops- let's break that down- how many are combat, and how many are support? A liberal estimate would be 50/50, but such an estimate is impractical, in view of modern military operations. It's likely that there will only be a supplemental 7,000 combat troops added. Unless all 7,000 are going to be doing 24 hour shifts with no sleep or food, you can count on about only 3,000 new troops on duty at any one time, throughout a country the size of California. This will do squat to improve the situation in Baghdad, much less the whole of Iraq.

His plans for securing Baghdad, and his lofty talk of "liberating" Anbar province are utter pipedreams- we haven't been able to secure the Green Zone in Baghdad for over three years- are we to assume that 3,000 new pairs of boots on the ground will suddenly lead to such a dramatic shift in the balance of power, in Iraq?

Remember Bush's grand speech in New Orleans, after Katrina? Remember how he proposed the greatest public-works projects since Roosevelt's WPA? I'm still waiting for any evidence that the words spoken in that speech have any correlation to reality. One of Bush's hallmarks is promising the world, and delivering nothing...

His major bombshells were the threats against Iran and Syria- Apparently, the Neoconservative dream is still alive. Such threats are only to be expected, but his proposed action- to dispatch naval forces to the region- is patently ludicrous. Apparently, Bush is unaware that both Iran and Syria share hundreds of miles of open borders with Iraq, and don't really need to send fighters and munitions into Iraq via a boat. This action serves no purpose other than to further antagonize Iran.

His attempted "bipartisan" effort with Joe Lieberman- do I really, REALLY need to point out what's wrong with this idea?

Finally, Bush could only stare dumbly at the camera, and say that even though every decision he's made in regards to Iraq has been met with catastrophic failure- that even in the best case scenario, his new plan would only lead to unprecedented death and destruction in Iraq- we should feel comfortable in trusting him, one last time.

In the end- Bush, tonight, has retreated to a darker, more secluded chamber of the bunker, and it's only going to get worse.

As to the democratic response- they need to grow a pair, and defund the war- it is the only way that this horrific debacle can be brought to a close.

[**JOIN A MOVEON VIGIL AGAINST THE WAR, TONIGHT!**][67]

Gotta get back to work- but afore I go...

GIVE A TAD OF LOVE TO DICK EATS BUSH

I've known Steve, the guy over at [Dick Eats Bush][68], for quite a while- and while sometimes we differ on certain topics and video production values, I admire the guy, and he's facing the same dilemma I am- work versus web activism. He is currently running a fundraiser on his site, and if you have a buck or two to spare, I suggest helping the guy out, a bit...

More in a couple of days...

![][4]

JANUARY 9, 2007

IT'S CALLED "REAL WORK"...

Ya may have noticed: the frequency of updates has sorta slumped, since the new year. Unfortunately, there's little I can do about it, for the next few weeks.

When you work as a freelancer, you live a "freeze and fry" lifestyle- for months, you're flat broke, and desperate for work- for an equal number of months, you've got money to burn, but are too danged busy to pick up a lighter. The constant roller coaster gets tedious, at times, but it beats going into an office....

My current job will last until the 15th of february. During these forthcoming weeks, my daily life will be summed up as: "Sleep, Eat, Work, Crap, Sleep." Naturally, this leaves little time for Bushflash- and my friends, that TRULY sucks.

However, I will be able to grab a few hours every four days or so to post new media, perform a bit of overall updating, and mayhaps find time to spew out a sentence or two at you...

When I return to regular maintenance of the site, I really REALLY, **REALLY** want to get back to animating. I have oft stated my disgust for blogging, and rue the day that this site became such. The day I stopped animating was the day that traffic began to plummet, and more importantly:

It was the day that I turned my back on my one creative outlet. Listen- as much as I'd like to be competitive with those other blogs out there, this site is archaic, and after a year of fruitless searching for someone to help out with CMS development, it remains a one-man show, and ya know?

A few days ago, I re-posted the ["Thanks For The Memories"][69] animation on the index page, and that year-old animation caused a 100% spike in traffic- no big surprise, really.

The lesson? If Eric Blumrich spends a few less hours a day obsessively watching the news, and even fewer typing away his opinions (which are as numerous as the ubiquitous asshole,) and spends that time working to produce more video content, maybe more people will visit the site, and he'll have a better outlet for his outrage than the repeated use of toilet metaphors in the aforementioned (and current) written content.

That having been said, I have one last item to touch upon...

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10- BUSH ADDRESSES THE NATION

On his new "Plan" in Iraq.

A few weeks back, I told ya'll to be ready to break out the popcorn for particularly insane events, as Bush thrashes about within the bunker. I initially called for you to have Jiffy Pop available for such events- I want to rescind that. Instead, I recommend picking out your favorite type of [Newman's Own][70]. All profits go to charity- it's the best microwave pop there is- and you'll need it.

Bush is due to go on the air within 36 hours, and, regardless of the advice of every branch of the united states military- regardless of the will of 80% of the american people- regardless of the fact that every half-baked plan he's adopted thus far in regards to Iraq has been an utter failure, Bush will announce his plans to sacrifice the lives of 20,000 americans servicepeople, simply because he can.

I urge you to watch this address. I know- I know- it will be painful- the very sight of this idiot makes my stomach turn, and the sound of his voice is like the emergency broadcast signal, at 2000 decibels- but you MUST get past your disgust, and watch it. You will be witnessing a spectacle that will go down in history. Just as the youth of today ask their elders where they were, when they heard of the death of JFK, we'll be asked by our irradiated, mutant spawn where we were, when the "evil one" went over the deep end. After a few minutes explaining the concepts of "Television "and "The Internet" to a new generation that's grown up in an irradiated wasteland, we'll all be able to say that we were sitting on our butts, scoffing down Newman's Own.

Then, we'll all go our hunting for rats- but hell- we'll have nice memories...

![][4]

JANUARY 5, 2007

SORRY I'VE BEEN AWAY- NEW MEDIA, AND A FEW OTHER THINGS...

**Let's get this party started right...**

**"MR BUSH, YOU DO NOT OWN THIS COUNTRY!"**

Keith always delivers the goods- and each time, he surpasses himself in his strident, unabashed truthtelling. That having been said, this new Special Comment is exceptional. Whatever words I could contribute to this would be superfluous- just WATCH IT.

BUSH'S "SURGE", AND THE NEW CONGRESS...

At this hour, it seems more than likely that Bush's grand new plan for Iraq is a troop surge in Baghadad, to the tune of about 30k troops.

Insanity- there's no other way to put it.

A few ticks back on the political clock, we were hearing awed, hushed whisperings of a magic document that was to be released- the report of the Iraq Study Group, which was to issue a multi-point plan for victory in Iraq.

When this document was finally published, it was derided by those on the right, as being to wishy-washy, and condemned by those on the left, by being far too myopic. Bush, himself, didn't bother to read it, and asked one amongst his shrinking circle to do so, and present him with one, cherry-picked element from the programme put forward, as a sure-fire way to win in Iraq.

And wouldn't you know it- he chose the move championed by James Baker, the guy to whom he owes his presidency (Baker served as Bush's legal representative in the wake of the florida vote fraud.)

I wrote on Baker's ingenious plan, well over a month ago:

Baker made a prime-time appearace on The Daily Show, to serve as a press agent for the Iraq Study Group's report, and in the interview, he described his grand plan:

"Secure Baghdad, and we can secure the nation."

To those few right-wingers out there who still subscribe to the Bush Plan in Iraq, lemme put it in the cute military lingo that you amongst the armchair warriors love so much:

SECURING THE CAPITOL OF A NATION YOU INVADE IS A DELTA-UNIFORM-HOTEL OPERATION.

D.U.H.- as in DUHHHHHH!!!!!

Now- please let me indulge in a bit of strutting- ya see- I'm a peacenick liberal pantywaist, yet seem to understand a tad more about military strategy than the "president" of the United States, along with the entirety of his cabinet. If such strategical nuance is within the grasp of an unemployed loser in jersey who can't remember the last time he showered, what kind of idiots are calling the shots, here?

The time for "securing Baghdad" was about three years ago, back when people like Baker, Perle, Cheney, et al were saying that shopping malls would sprout spontaneously from the craters of our "smart bombs." However, we spent the time securing the oil ministry, while Baghdad fell apart at the seams...

Bush's "surge" is just gonna kill more people- but let's just indulge this pipedream, for a second...

Okay: With the introduction of 30,000 new troops in Iraq, the capital is secured. Carbombings cease in Baghdad, and occupation troops fan out accross a newly-peaceful Baghdad. But that's where the pipedream ends...

Any idiot knows that the militias aren't going to just disband- they're going to move elsewhere- most likely to the less densely populated regions outside of Baghdad, where their "hit-and-run" attacks will serve better to isolate the capitol.

In a few months, we'll have a relatively secure Baghdad, which will be an island of relative calm in a nation that is tearing itself apart.

And that's the best-case scenario.

The fact of the matter is that any troop increase in Iraq will only lead to more dead, on both sides, with the same outcome- a nation torn apart.

We're in for a penny, and we're in for a pound...

Now- the new congress, lamentably, within hours of their assuming power have shown themselves prone to equivocation in their intentions towards the war in Iraq

There are two options available to the new congress:

Continue playing footsie with the Bush Bowl, equivocate, and play politics, or:

Stop paying for the war- block or vote down every funding bill towards extending this war.

Bush will continue to indulge his Iraqi fantasies, until he's stripped of the monetary ability to do so- and even then, he'll send more American soldiers to die, stripped naked...

And maybe then, the american people will wake up...

We can only hope...

![][4]

DECEMBER 30, 2006

SADDAM HUSSEIN NOW ELEVATED TO 'MARTYR" STATUS.

So, I guess tonight, the secret service agents stationed outside the presidential bedroom will have to listen to the cute chitterings of George's g-rated sexual antics with Laura in celebration of his ability to kill yet another member of the human race.

In the last few minutes, the right wing echo chamber has gone into overdrive, lauding the execution of Saddam Hussein with the same intensity that they perviously exerted on downplaying and denying the deaths of thousands of american servicepeople, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Saddam Hussein, in the eyes of the muslim world, is now a martyr- a symbol that will rally generations to come to distrust and hate this country. It doesn't matter if Hussein is worthy of such an iconic status- the United States of America just thrust it upon him.

So- almost four years after our invasion- 40 thousand americans have been maimed- another three thousand americans have died. 650,000 Iraqis have died....

In sight of this, how can any sane person look upon the death of Saddam Hussein, and suddenly feel as if this was all worth it? How can we take comfort? How can we feel any relief, or closure?

Tomorrow, more american kids and inncoent Iraqis will die- so, in the end, this changes nothing.

[![][71]][69]  
[(Click to view flash video)][69]

![][4]

DECEMBER 28, 2006

WE ALL KNOW BUSH IS WORSE THAN SADDAM HUSSEIN...

Hell- it took Hussein 25 years to kill 2 million Iraqis- it's only taken about 4 years for 650,000 iraqis to die as a direct result of Bush's policies. I guess he ain't lying when he whines about how hard his job is- it takes quite a lot of effort to be twice as deadly as a hombre like Saddam Hussein.

However- add to this dubious distinction the following: In just the past 48 hours, Bush has become personally responsible for the deaths of more americans than Osama Bin Laden. Yep- the current death toll of american servicepeople in Iraq now has surpassed the number of people killed on 9/11. The few people who still support Monkey Boy are constantly lauding Bush, reminding us that there hasn't been another major terrorist attack on american soil since 9/11. Well- as bright and shiny as that pipedream is, the fact of the matter is: Al Qaeda is sitting back, and letting Bush kill americans for them.

'Casue really, that's what Bush does best...

YEAR-END ROLL CALL...

As we head into the new year, hoping that a bit of sanity might waft back into our collective lives, we can only look back at 2006 with the same trepidation that we feel when we look back into the toilet bowl, after an agonizing vindaloo-powered bowel movement. Yes, there were some bright spots- Dick Cheney shooting that guy in the face, the defeat of the republican one-party state in november, and the rise of the nuclear-powered media behemoth that is Stephen Colbert- but overall, it was a pretty nasty experience, all around.

I hope to have a new year's intro animation done, in time for the dawn of 2007 (if I can sandwich it in between alla the freelance I'm dealing with, these days,) but for now, I offer up the following as an Olbermann-esque "highlight reel:"

BUSHFLASH TOP TEN ASSHOLES OF 2006

#10: Glenn Beck  
![][72]

Currently the #1 "knuckle-dragging right-wing demagogue claiming to be an independent" (yes- even outstripping O'Reilly,) Glenn Beck posesses the most punchable face in america, as well as the most stomach-turning, vile, and hateful ideology. He was tolerable, and ignorable, as long as he was confined to the more obscure regions of the AM radio dial, but since the day he was inexplicably given an hour-long daily television program on CNN Headline News, his smarmy invective is now beamed into the homes of hundreds of millions of households, worldwide.

Glenn has the perfect schtick- his claims of being a "recovering alcoholic" allow him to play the role of the "flawed hero." His smarmy, rapid-fire manner and speaking style actually succeeds in being comedic at times. Borrowing from the repertoire of every charlatan since the snake of eden, he peppers his commentaries and diatribes with self-deprecating banter, letting his audience know, with a wink and a nod, that he's not a stuffed shirt, like Limbaugh, Hannity, and his fellow spreaders of conservative bullshit.

His on-air persona is carefully crafted to make him appear the charming average joe- a fun, happy-go-lucky guy that you'd like to have over to your place for a friendly round of Jenga.

However, this tailored media persona does little to conceal a hate-filled, paranoid, and downright delusional agenda.

This is a man who has:

[Compared Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum to Winston Churchill][73]

[Is one of the few remaining deniers of global warming][74]

[Considers blind people to be objects of ridicule][75]

[Called the victims of Hurricane Katrina "Scumbags", and admitted his "hate" for the families of the victims of 9/11][76]

[Called for the bombing of Venezuela][77]

[Called Cindy Sheehan a "really big prostitute"][78]

Further, Beck has spent about 25% of his on-air time engaging in a hysterical, self-indulgent, anti-muslim crusade, including a continuing mini-series, "Exposed," which has no other modern equivalent, outside of Franz Hippler's ["The Eternal Jew."][79]

Despite Beck's affable manner, he has distinguished himself on radio, and now on TV, as the preeminent affable, self-deprecating disseminator of hate, lies, ignorance, and intolerance. You can read the full list of his offenses [here.][80] The basic problem with Beck, as it is with most alcoholics, is that he hates himself with a passion that he cannot contain- with recovery, rather than confront that self-hate, he has turned his hatred outward, upon an ideological target. Without a timely intervention, he'll implode, leaving his clueless devotees without a central icon for their wasted impulses and tendencies.

**#9: HISTORICAL REVISIONISTS  
** **![][81]**

There are two kinds of historical revisionists- those who are unable to grasp the facts of history out of ignorance, and those who are unwilling to do so, out of malice.

In the latter category, we have Iranian President Mahmoud Amadenijad, who recently hosted a conference of holocaust denial. Pointing out the idiocy of this is banal, to an extent that defies description. Folks who claim that the holocaust "just didn't happen" are so seriously delusional, they'd give Alex Jones a run for his money.

The holocaust did happen- my only problem with the details of the collective historical understanding of what happened during those years is this:

If you ask the average person on the street about the nazi holocaust, and they'll only be able to quote you one statistic: 6 million jewish victims.

All well and good- 6 million dead is a horrific thing to contemplate- but I wonder why the additional 17 million people who died at the hands of the nazis- Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Slavs, Russians, Muslims, and political prisoners, are always left out of the equation.

But that's another topic for another website than this.

However, Mahmoud isn't alone on his walk down the road of lunacy, along with him, you'll find Bill O'Reilly, who asserted that US troops went on a brutal killing rampage during World War 2- [the Malmedy Massacre][82]. (Unfortunately for Falafelman, the massacre was actually a mass killing of american troops by German forces.) Right alongside Billy, we have professional contrarian gobshites like Michelle Malkin, Christopher Hitchens, and Ann Coulter, who attempt to defend everything from Joe McCarthy's red scare, to the notorious [Tuskeegee syphilis experiments.][83]

But hey- maybe we're not giving these jokers enough credit- they're the eternal optimists: "Don't worry- everything's GREAT! Holocaust? Never Happened! Segregation? Hell- black folks THRIVED under Jim Crow! Prescott Bush didn't have ANYTHING to do with supporting the Third Reich!"

**#8: THE PRO-WAR MINORITY  
![][84]**

Those other historical revisionists- those who embrace a flawed view of history out of their inability or unwillingness to think coherently, have formed a few grand sewing circles in the shrinking minority that still adhere to Bunnypants' view of the war. In amongst those who adhere to Bush's personality cult, you find stunning ignorance.

In recent months, I've spoken with diehard conservatives and have repeatedly brought up one of the major flaws of the Neocon strategy, vis a vis Iraq:

"The Bush Bowl thought they could conquer Iraq with a force smaller than that which was required to conquer the island of Iwo Jima- doesn't that strike you as, well- idiotic?"

Their response, invariably, is:

"Well- the Iraqis are just UNCIVILIZED. We're just trying to help the Iraqis, and they send suicide bombers out to kill people."

Uhh- all due respect for the new, reformed Japan, but I'd suggest that anyone who holds on to the belief that the fight against the Japanese was a cupcake party to read Iris Chang's "[The Rape of Nanking][85]" If you can think of a bestial horror that can be perpetrated by man against man, the Japanese perfected it, seventy years ago.

And as far as suicide bombers go- ever heard of the "Divine Wind" Kamikaze pilots? Talk about being ahead of one's time...

Yeah- those damned Iraqis- we went in and bombed the hell out of their country, killed over a half-million of them, and dang it, if they were just "civilized" enough, they'd collectively bend over, and ask for more- it's the only civilized thing to do.

#7: LEE RAYMOND  
**![][86]**

Lee Raymond might have quit his job as chair of Exxon Mobil at the end of 2005, but we didn't learn about this guy's record-busting 400 million dollar retirement package wasn't known about publicly until April of this year.

The year prior to this guy's retirement, he gouged the american people to the tune of hundreds of billions at the pump. Taking advantage of the turmoil in the middle east, the complicity of the Bush Bowl, and the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, he jacked up the price of gasoline to ridiculous levels, simply because- hell- HE COULD.

Currently, he serves as vice-chair of the notorious conservative "American Enterprise Institute" think tank, where he presides over the intellectual pursuits of other grotesquely fat rich white men.

The only nice thing one can say about this guy is that the above portrait has become quite famous on the web, because bulimics no longer have to finger-gag themselves- now, they just whip out a glossy of this guy's mug, and before you know it, EVERYTHING'S coming up.

#6: RUSH LIMBAUGH'S AUDIENCE  
**![][87]**

Rush Limbaugh has long since resigned himself to being the one member of the "Surreal Life" who never shows up on-set. Whether it be [his mocking of parkinson's disease][88], [his admission to lying to his audience][89], or getting caught with illicit stashes of penis pills, his antics over the last year are just a few more drabs of paint on a Pollock-esque mess of a career.

But one must wonder- what kind of self-loathing, delusional idiot still listens to this man, much less believes Limbaugh has anything to say that's worth listening to? Okay- I admit- there might be some who listen in to the guy because, sometimes, mind-blowing idiocy is kinda fun- that's why I STILL watch "Springer" from time to time- but that doesn't account for the massive audience that this cretin still drags in, every day.

It's more apparent than ever that Reagan's cuts to education back in 80's continue to bear bitter fruit.

#5: **THE CREATORS AND PRODUCERS OF "JERICHO"**  
**![][90]**

Yeah- it's not all about politics, folks...

Back in 1959, Pat Frank wrote the classic post-apocalyptic novel, "[Alas, Babylon][91]," which still remains iconic and unique in a genre that has spawned countless novels, films, and television shows. In the novel, we witness how a small, rural Florida community strives to survive in the wake of a global nuclear war. It's a fantastic read, particularly, because of the skillful use of character development: After the bombs fall, the rich banker finds out that his prestige and wealth are now just pieces of paper- the librarian who found herself marginalized in the dawning age of the television finds herself the guardian of the only source of knowledge and entertainment in town- the white and black communities, formerly separated by history and mutual prejudice, are brought together.

Now- apparently, someone over at CBS had read this novel, and has bowlderized it into the Worst. Apocalypse. Ever.

Watching this show, I found my intelligence being insulted every 30 seconds or so, and startled to find my pants being blown off by the sheer force of my boredom. You'd think that, in the wake of a nuclear catastrophe, people would have better things to do than have melodramatic arguments with their parents about their failed marriages. You'd think that after several weeks of no running water or electricity, some of the people might show a tad of grime. You'd think that after thousands of plot holes and inconsistencies pile up, the writers would do us the courtesy of committing collective suicide on prime time TV...

But Alas, Babylon, this show is 90210 without alla that troubling depth and nuance. The characters are unlikable, unbelievable, and the acting is the worst I've seen outside of those "Why, I didn't order a plumber!" segues at the beginning of porn films.

It is oft said that, should a nuclear war occur, the survivors will envy the dead. I concur whole-heartedly- if if post-nuke Montclair resembles Post-Nuke Jericho, I'd be so tortured by banality and boredom, that I'd be among the first to off myself...

**#4: PEOPLE WHO DRIVE HUMMERS  
**![][92]****

Okay- we get it- you have a very small penis, and are enough of a corporate ass-kissing tool, that you can afford to go out and buy a sixty thousand dollar paperweight.

However- in times in which wars are being fought for oil, and in a world in which global warming is the greatest threat the human race will have to face in the next half-century, the purchase and use of one of these viagara-on-wheels is the vehicular equivalent of walking around while wearing a swastika armband.

Whenever I'm walking down the street, and I see a hummer parked, or waiting in traffic, I make an effort to cross the street, dredge up the nastiest wad of boogers and phlegm I can muster, and spit it either on the hood (10 points), or on one of the door handles (20 points.) Sometimes, while walking through neighborhood streets at night, I notice a parked Hummer, away from the streetlights- I check to make sure the streets are clear, and well- let's just say I drink my 8 glasses of water a day, it's gotta come out, and there's no better place to put it than on the driver's side door handle of a strategically-parked Hummer (50 points and a GOOOOOOAL!)

#3: BILL KRISTOL  
****![][93]****

As the neoconservative agenda falls to tatters, one is struck by their relisilience- think about it- they advocated an american imperial agenda that has succeeded in pretty much destroying the United States of America on the world stage in just a few short years. You'd think that these folks would have the good sense to shut their pieholes, but dangit, they just keep springing back into the limelight.

Foremost amongst these geopolitical dead-enders is a man who was once given the distinction of being called "Quayle's Brain"- William Kristol.

He was one of the most strident advocates of Bush's invasion of Iraq- and still thinks that it was a grand idea. In fact- he thinks it was such a grand and glorious success, he currently advocates the use of the United States military to bring "Regime Change" to Iran.

Normally, you'd dismiss a guy like this as a lunatic. However, this guy is a longtime washington insider, and as Bush's coterie continues to shrink, folks like Kristol will be among the last left in the bunker.

#2: DONALD "THE REPTILE" RUMSFELD  
****![][94]****

Holy freaking "Bob" on a stick, with sparklers- where do I start?

An evil, nepotistic bastard that spent the lives of his countrymen like they were wooden nickels. An anti-american, fear-mongering demagogue who will hopefully die soon in infamy. Getting rid of this guy was more painful than passing a foot-wide turd spiked with acid-dipped razor blades, and we're only left with sandpaper to wipe with.

This man put into motion a mechanism of death that has surpassed the genocide in Darfur. This man makes me ashamed to be an American.

#1 ASSHOLE OF THE YEAR:  
****[![][95]][96]****

As if it were to be any surprise..

What can I say, that has not already been said?

Let's get active, in the new year, and erase a few assholes from the world...

![][4]

DECEMBER 25, 2006

HAVE A CHRISTMAS

Have fun with the yuletide thing, folks. Myself, I'm just looking forward to being able to walk into a store in 48 hour's time, and not hear Nat King Cole's christmassy warblings bleating from every corner. I've been able to conquer my holiday blues, pretty well, but it didn't help, when I called my jewish friends to see if they wanted to hang out, only to discover they were spending the day with their families...

Damn- even the jews are having a better christmas than I...

But hell- I should count my blessings... This weekend in Iraq saw another 6 american soldiers blown into red mist, ensuring another six families have the worst christmas of their lives- thanks, Bush! Add to this the news that [12,000 Iraqi policemen have been killed][97] since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, and you can FEEL the rosy christmassy glow emanating from every pore.

I'd write more, but my usual rants would do little to embellish these sad numbers. I'm going to give myself a christmas gift, and spend the last two hours of wakefullness playing Gothic 3.

More in 48...

![][4]

DECEMBER 21, 2006

GRAB SOME POPCORN, IN '07

I dunno if you watched Monkey Boy's [press conference today][98], but if you missed it (or are too lazy to click on the link,) you missed another dazzling performance- not as frantic and hysterical as his previous dog and pony show, but still fascinating- as it gives you an idea of what's ahead...

A hallmark of this administration, and of Monkey Boy in particular, is that once you disagree with them, you're officially dead to them- you're now part of the "reality based community" that is at fundamental odds with how the Bush Bowl perceives the world. We've seen many instances of this peculiarity, as administration officials and former loyalists who give voice to their discontent find themselves ostracized by their former employer.

Watching this press conference, you see it happening again- however, this time, it is on a far grander, and dangerous scale. It is clearly apparent that in the wake of the election, the majority of the american voters, having crossed him, are no longer relevant. Now that the congress is no longer a rubber stamp for his policies, that entire branch of government has ceased to exist. Now that a growing number of higer-ups in the military are voicing their opposition to a rumored troop boost in Iraq, these vaunted "commanders on the ground" no longer exist, nor do they have a say in what shape the vital policies in Iraq will take.

The frightening, delusional disconnect between this administration and reality is becoming strained, to the breaking point. As Bush ignores any who dare to oppose him, he is left with a smaller and smaller pool of opinion and perspective to validate his positions and his policies. In what is the only logical conclusion of such a situation, we find a leader isolated amongst a small cadre of the most loyal, the most fanatic, and the most extreme elements of his formerly vast base of support.

Bush is already in the bunker, building models of the great cities he'll build in Baghdad (once the current troubles are over, of course.) He is absolutely convinced that even if everyone in this country abandons him, his actions will be validated, in a mystical future fairyland that exists wholly within his mind.

Bush, for lack of a better term, is insane.

Over the next year, we will bear witness to a political meltdown of a magnitude that has never been seen in the history of our republic. Now- it ain't gonna be on the level of Mussolini's "Hang and Swing" party at the end of WW2, but it's gonna make watergate look like a farting contest between two people on an all-meat diet (go look it up.)

It's unfortunate that so many more Iraqis, Americans, (and possibly Iranians) will have to die, as this sorry spectacle plays itself out, but there's nothing we can do in relation to influencing the policies of this nest of vipers, short of occupying washington DC with defecting national guard units (seriously- we're at that stage, with this joker.)

However- that doesn't mean we're powerless: You know where to go, what petitions to sign, which websites to visit, and what meetings and rallies to attend. The new congress will listen, if we make enough noise, over the next few months.

But, in a few weeks, as you flip on c-span to watch live coverage of Bush's whiskey/methamphetamine-fuelled hostage standoff in the Washington Monument, we'll see telescope-lens footage of Bush peering through the windows of that famed structure, and breaking through the glass with the butt of his sniper rifle while popping handfulls of Vivarin. At that moment, you'll need some jiffy-pop.

Go and buy a box, today.

![][4]

DECEMBER 19, 2006

TAKING ME A TAD TOO LITERALLY

Is a serious mistake.

Last night, I wrote the following, in the spirit of sarcastic jest:

Uhh- you ARE aware that [Barak Obama's middle name is "Hussein,"][99] right?

Folks- If you think that anyone with that name has a chance of getting elected president, please send me a pound of what you're smoking, because you're OUT THERE, and I can't afford a trip to Amsterdam.

Apparently, some folks out there who didn't recognize the humor in which this was stated, so I am behooved to make the following statement:

I do not advocate the use of drugs- especially marijuana. After all, according to the US government, marijuana is an evil weed that causes spontaneous generation of carnivorous microworms in the brain, and we've all got enough troubles in life, already. Furthermore, I would never suggest that anyone use the U.S. postal service to ship large bales of controlled substances. I do reccommend visiting Amsterdam- it's a beautiful city, and you can avoid the nasty areas, pretty easilly.

I guess I should follow this up with a warning not to slam a door on one's head repeatedly- but I have to get back to my freelance work.

![][4]

DECEMBER 18, 2006

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED...

That updates have been slow in coming, in the past week. Chalk it up to holiday depression (I suffer from clinical depression, and have been having to deal without meds for the past two years- I can usually hack it, but the holiday season always brings with it a serious "low",) a roomie moving out (and the desperate search for a replacement,) and a HUGE freelance job that landed on my head, a few days back (yeah- sometimes, ya gotta take time offa hating republicans, and earn money, ya know...)

Hopefully, once the accursed holidays are over, and I've made headway with my freelance, I can provide something more substantial, but for the next few weeks, expect media, and minimal chatter.

I apologize to the readers and advertisers, but until I can get a CMS framework going, this remains a one-man show, and there's only so much one dude can do.

So- until we meet again in 48 hours, I'll leave you with the following to ponder:

Uhh- you ARE aware that [Barak Obama's middle name is "Hussein,"][99] right?

Folks- If you think that anyone with that name has a chance of getting elected president, please send me a pound of what you're smoking, because you're OUT THERE, and I can't afford a trip to Amsterdam.

![][4]

DECEMBER 13, 2006

POLITICS '08- A RAMBLE OF SUPREME IRRELEVANCE

Okay- let me be among the first to break the rockstar aura that has surrounded Barak Obama's potential bid for the whitehouse in '08.

Let's list Barak Obama's qualifications for the whitehouse:

1: He's kinda good looking in an obliquely ethnic "Tiger Woods" sorta way.

2: He gave a pretty good speech at the DNC convention in 2004.

3: He's a freshman congressman who has four years of legislative experience. He gained the office because the republicans could only find a lunatic like Alan Keyes to run against him, and quite frankly, a ten-pound sack of horse dung could win in a race against Alan Keyes.

Now, as stunning and jaw-droppingly awesome (sarcasm fully intended) as these qualifications are, when you go beyond the aforementioned media-created rockstar status, there just isn't much there. Some might say that a limited congressional record is a benefit when it comes to seeking the highest office in the land- tell that to John Edwards.

When I consider Obama's limited congressional experience, two votes stand out, personally:

1: His vote to confirm the catastrophically incompetent Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State,

And...

2: His vote to confirm Alberto "Torture Memo" Gonzales as Attorney General.

I'm not in the least sorry to say that these two votes are enough to cast serious questions upon this man's qualifications for the presidency.

But let's cut to the meat of the matter: Barak Obama's potential presidential bid is taking on the trappings of a media-created phenomenon, one that currently serves to counter another media-created phenomenon in the 2008 race- that of the potential bid by Hillary Clinton.

Both of these figures are being served up as the hottest item in the politics of the day, but quite frankly:

In 18 months, neither Clinton nor Obama will be the democratic frontrunner. Think about it- a week before the 2004 primary season began, we expected Dean to be the nominee. Now, two years before the race of '08, we're in the personality phase of the pre-game, and anyone who places their bets, at this stage, is a simpleton, at best.

That having been said, it's good to see [Kucinich entering the race][41]. I worked for him in 2004, all the way to the convention, and to the detriment of my career in political media (Kerry's campaign wanted to hire me away from him, but I remained loyal.)

Kucinich is a longshot- hell- he's the mother of all hail marys. He's short, he has a foreign-sounding name, and he's the only vegan member of congress. We'd like to think that such superficialities wouldn't count, but in a political system dominated by the most cynical aspects of the mass media, he's at a distinct disadvantage.

However, I've met the man- and lemme tell ya...

I've done the meet and greet with a goodly deal of politicians in my time, and when you shake their hands, they do it, because it's part of their job. Kucinich, on the other hand- he's the real deal. He genuinely cares, and believes- you only have to speak with him, look into his eyes, and you know. Within this man lies a spirit and will that is indominatable.

His voting record speaks for itself- alone amongst the 2004 democratic candidates, he was the only one who had cast his vote against the war in Iraq, and the USA Patriot act. He was the only candidate who was willing to stand up to the machinations of the DLC, before Dean took over as party chair.

And most importantly- he was the only candidate who was calling for the immediate withdrawal of american troops from Iraq.

I'm placing no bets- but I'm backing Kucinich, in this phase of the game.

He was right in 2004, and he's right, today. In coming months, we'll see Obama, Bayh, and other candidates voicing echoes of Kucinich's policies of two years ago. In my book, it's too little, too late. In a year, we'll see how thing lie, but for now, there are two choices:

The johnny-come-latelys and the media flavors of the month, or the guy who was with folks like me, from the beginning.

I'll back the latter, for now.

![][4]

DECEMBER 9, 2006

[NEW IMAGES][15], NEW MEDIA, NEW SENSELESSNESS...

It seems that the Iraq study group report has hit the dirt, right out the gate, and ain't going anywhere. It's no real surprise...

The group was commissioned purely as a face-saving gesture in advance of the election, and Bush had no intention of listening to their recommendations, regardless of their nature. As I've stated time and time again, here- as far as Bush is concerned, the only thing that's "real" in this world, is whatever exists within the few centimeters of his remaining brain tissue. Due to his solipsism, Bush is innately incapable to understanding, or even acknowledging, anything that is external. He's vaguely aware of the world about him, but from his viewpoint, the world in which you, I, and about six billion others live in is nothing but a pretty filmstrip that occasionally shows him some unpleasant stuff (but it doesn't faze him, because the real world to him is about as substantial as a John Wayne Movie (probably less so.))

It's just as well, really. The commission's basic job was to figure out ways to haul Bush's ass out of the fire, before his term expired, so he could secure a legacy slightly less bloodstained than that which is certain to dog him, for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, such a plan doesn't exist. Faced with an impossible whitewashing job, the commission issued forth a slew of recommendations which, if followed to the letter, might delay the inevitable american defeat in Iraq long enough so that it will land in the lap of Bush's successor.

But this ain't enough for Bush- he likes killing people- and well, anything that gets in his way of killing more people before he leaves office just ain't cool.

But Bush isn't alone in the rejection of the Iraq Study group. I, and a good portion of the american antiwar majority have found serious flaws- Primarily, that the ISG report was ostensibly commissioned to find a way to "win" in Iraq. It is written from the viewpoint that our invasion and occupation of Iraq was a good and decent thing, and the only thing that's gone wrong over the past three and a half years of horrific bloodshed is that we made a "few key errors."

Paradoxically, the right wing has condemned the report for diametrically opposed reasons- that the report doesn't guarantee "victory". They see the report as a touchy-feely thing that fails, because it doesn't call for the carpet-bombing of the entire middle east.

Now- the lynchpin here, between the right and left condemnation of this report, is that key term:

"Victory."

When you watch the corporate news, over the next few weeks, I want you to watch how often that word comes up- "Victory." Because apparently, that's how they've been instructed to define the only outcome of the war. For example, the other day, CNN's anchors, to a man, described that Bush was "disappointed with the progress towards victory in Iraq."

When I recently attended the Bar Mitzvah of a friend's son, one part of the service really struck me- the rabbi admonished the congregation that words need to be taken seriously, and used judiciously. After all, in the Judeo Christian mythos, the universe in which we live was brought into existence by words: "Let There Be Light." Words, in this context, are incredibly powerful things.

Amongst those conservatives who decry the report, this word "Victory" heralds great things in their minds- flags waving, burger kings opening in Damascus, and the Rush Limbaugh show being simulcast in Beijing. To them, this word is like a diamond- a bright, shining, high-condensed lump of everything they hold dear: the world-spanning ideology of Neconservatism, the legacy of Reagan's "truimph" in the cold war, the idea that everything that's wrong with the world can be solved with a few bombs and a few million dead brown people.

They have endowed this word, in relation to the horrific situation in Iraq, as the be-all and end-all of their ideology, and in the wake of their crushing defeat in the last election, they hold to this word, as a drowning man grasps at any straw to save his life.

The only problem is that, despite its power, "Victory" is only a world- three syllables, 7 letters, and a dictionary definition.

As long as our policy in Iraq is held hostage to this word, people are dying, our tax dollars are being wasted to the tune of 200 million a day, and so on, and so on (you know the drill.)

And that's the fatal flaw in the ISG report: There cannot be any "victory." This is a basic, fundamental fact that we, as a nation must grasp- we have lost in Iraq, and there is no way we can win.

This isn't defeatism- it's reality.

FROM THE QUAKERS: 10 REASONS WHY WE MUST LEAVE IRAQ, NOW.

  1. **The human cost of war is unacceptable.**  
The U.S. decision to invade and occupy Iraq comes with a horrific price tag: deaths of an estimated 100,000 Iraqis and more than 2,345 occupation troops, including 2,140 U.S. military personnel. The numbers rise daily. Hundreds of thousands have been physically wounded or traumatized by chronic violence and insecurity. This path will not lead to victory. There are no winners, and there is no military solution. In spite of this, the U.S. continues to embrace military rather than diplomatic approaches. An immediate end to hostilities is essential to stem the carnage and loss of human life.
  2. **The U.S. occupation is a catalyst for violence.**  
The longer the U.S. occupation continues, the more Iraqis will join the resistance, which primarily opposes the foreign presence. Conservative estimates say the number of resistance fighters in Iraq increased from 5,000 in November 2003 to 20,000 in November 2005. Violence is aggravated at all levels by the U.S. presence: in neighborhoods, among militant extremists, and between ethnic groups. When the brutality of occupation -- raiding homes and hospitals, detaining people without charge or due process, torturing detainees, imposing curfews on communities, using military force to suppress demonstrations -- ends, the majority of resisters will lay down their weapons.
  3. **U.S. actions inflame divisions and the chance of civil war.**  
The occupation and its divisive policies deepen tensions within Iraqi society. Three major mistakes the United States made from the beginning of the occupation were: (1) dissolution of the Iraqi army and police, leading to insecurity, looting, and violence; (2) failure to dismantle militias, allowing the number of armed combatants to increase; and (3) support for Shi'a demands for regional autonomy, fueling the possibility of a break-up of the country along ethnic lines. Problems from these mistakes will continue as long as the United States controls Iraq politically and militarily. If U.S. troops leave, an independent Iraqi government, free of external control, could open the door to discussion and reconciliation between groups.
  4. **Iraqis want the United States to leave now.**  
Recent polls reveal that Iraqi opinion coalesces on four demands: (1) an end to foreign occupation, (2) compensation to Iraqis for damages caused by the U.S. invasion, (3) release of Iraqi prisoners, and (4) establishment of political and military institutions independent of outside influences. A survey in Iraq commissioned by the British military in September 2005 found that 82 percent of Iraqis "strongly oppose" the continuing presence of coalition troops, and 45 percent feel attacks against coalition troops are justified. The battle for hearts and minds has been lost.
  5. **Democracy cannot flourish under an occupation.**  
For Iraqis, the key issues in the December 2005 election for the first permanent government were security, economic opportunity, and removal of foreign occupation. The mechanics of voting worked -- the third election for Iraqis during 2005. However, the election is only a milestone in the country's difficult journey toward self-determination, with great challenges ahead. The new government must now move beyond artificial deadlines set by outsiders, determine its own goals, and see the process through.
  6. **The United States has failed to rebuild Iraq or provide for Iraqis' basic needs.**  
Twelve years of economic sanctions (1991-2003) nearly crippled Iraq. Malnutrition became widespread. Life-sustaining systems such as water and sewage treatment, electricity, and health care were severely degraded. These problems led to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraq's most vulnerable citizens, many of them children. Since the beginning of the occupation, U.S. forces not only failed to reverse these trends, but also failed to restore services disrupted by war and looting. This is not due to a lack of funds, but to a perversion of priorities. While the United States spends $6 billion a month fighting the war (a total of more than $226 billion so far), it has not spent even half of the $18 billion allocated for reconstruction. Much of the money evaporates due to corruption and ballooning security costs. Plus, awarding major contracts to U.S. corporations who fail to complete their work takes money out of the economy and creates little benefit to Iraqis. The money that is spent on war and occupation should be spent on meaningful Iraqi-led reconstruction.
  7. **The Iraq war and occupation waste resources needed for U.S. domestic programs.**  
Community programs are being cut in every corner of the United States - from public schools to libraries to hospitals to transportation. Meanwhile, the U.S. deficit continues to skyrocket, building a massive debt for future generations of Americans. Money that could be used for domestic needs instead goes into the war and occupation. Furthermore, using National Guard troops in Iraq leaves states shorthanded when disasters strike at home. Hurricane Katrina, in particular, highlighted the need for massive reallocation of resources from armaments into disaster preparedness and infrastructure at home.
  8. **The U.S. occupation of Iraq destabilizes the Middle East.**  
The rash, ill-advised, and nearly unilateral invasion of Iraq and subsequent U.S. occupation has profoundly damaged the United States' relations with other Middle East governments, including those it considers to be allies. U.S. actions have galvanized militants in the region to join the insurrection in Iraq and attack other countries, such as Jordan, considered to be too closely aligned with the United States. Elsewhere, the United States' "tough talk" toward Syria has led the Israeli government to warn that U.S. actions threaten to destabilize the region. The massive number of civilian casualties in Iraq are caused by heavy weapon attacks and flesh-burning compounds such as white phosphorus, particularly devastating in urban areas. Such attacks greatly damage U.S. credibility and political influence in the Middle East, as well as respect from the international community. The many U.S. bases in Iraq are seen as a long-term threat to the region and the future of Iraq. They should be removed when the troops leave.
  9. **Humanitarian aid is crippled by the occupation.**  
The U.S. military seeks to win Iraqis' support by delivering food and medicine and implementing reconstruction projects. Such activities are also used to gather intelligence, blurring the lines between the military and humanitarian efforts. As a result, civilian humanitarian aid is confused with military-led operations, creating the misperception that relief workers are part of the occupying forces and a legitimate target. These conditions have forced almost all NGOs and UN agencies to leave. Coupled with lack of progress by the U.S. military in rebuilding Iraq, this severs the lifeline of international humanitarian aid to Iraqis. Ending the U.S. occupation would reduce tensions and clear the way for humanitarian organizations to support Iraqis in rebuilding their country.
  10. **The global community wants the war and occupation to end now.**  
The United States cannot afford to ignore the voices and sentiments of the many other countries that oppose the occupation. Bridges need to be rebuilt between the United States and the international community. The past three years show that unilateral militarism, with disregard for our allies, leads to isolation and failure. Iraq needs political and diplomatic support from the international community--including its immediate neighbors--to get back on its feet and keep peace internally and externally.

![][4]

DECEMBER 7, 2006

[IRAQ STUDY GROUP SPEAKS...][100]

And Russ Feingold summed it up, pretty succinctly:

_Unfortunately, the Iraq Study Group report does too little to change the flawed mind-set that led to the misguided war in Iraq. Maybe there are still people in Washington who need a study group to tell them that the policy in Iraq isn't working, but the American people are way ahead of this report._

_While the report has regenerated a few good ideas, it doesn't adequately put Iraq in the context of a broader national security strategy. We need an Iraq policy that is guided by our top national security priority - defeating the terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11 and its allies. We can't continue to just look at Iraq in isolation. Unless we set a serious timetable for redeploying our troops from Iraq, we will be unable to effectively address these global threats. In the end, this report is a regrettable example of 'official Washington' missing the point._

However, the sad fact of the matter is that Bush will put this report on the bookshelf, where it will proceed to gather dust, unread, over the next two years. Remember- Bush doesn't care what anyone thinks- he's gonna do what he thinks is right until only he, Eva, and Barney are the only three left on his side of the issue (I wonder if Bush's gonna test the cyanide on Barney...)

If anyone believed that Bush was likely to accept the message the voters gave him on election day, their hopes were dashed on the morning of November 8th, when he once again retreated to the pugilistic language of the schoolyard bully, and could only describe it as "a thumpin'."

Bush saw this as the equivalent of a fight that he lost, but, much like the proverbial bully, refuses to learn any lessons, as a result.

Tony Snow spent a good deal of today's press briefing spinning the report- protesting that it is a "partisan document", yet, at the same time, asserting that it does little but reinforce and compliment the "strategies" Bush has followed since the first day of the war. This sort of doublethink would have, in years past, shocked and stunned any thinking individual. However, after six years of blatant illogic, we simply shrug our shoulders, and accept it...

[Don't expect things to change, anytime soon...][101]

Bush really doesn't care- Stewart had a great commentary about his acceptance of the report- hopefully, video will appear tomorrow (I STILL haven't been able to get windows movie maker to work.)

Oh- one last thing.

**[ALEX JONES HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE FAQ- STOP BOTHERING ME.][31]**

![][4]

DECEMBER 5, 2006

BOLTON LEAVES, RUMSFELD DODGES- NEW MEDIA AND SUCH, TOMORROW.

**To Bolton:**

As we used to say down in Tennessee- Don't let the door knob hit ya, where the good lord split ya. My only worry is who Bush appoints as his successor. Every time that Bush has had one of his cronies quit, he's always replaced him with someome who is ten times worse. Think about it...

After John Ashcroft quit, we rejoiced- but this fundamentalist christian whackjob was replaced with Alberto "Torture memo" Gonzales. After Simple Scotty left as press secretary, we got Tony "Fox 'News'" Snow. One wonders who will be Bolton's replacement...

My money's on [Alan Keyes][102] (UN ambassador under reagan.) The guy's been down on his luck, as of late. His last three presidential bids floundered (a black republican has work ultra-hard to pander to the rapture-right base- his platform was basically "Outlaw abortion and homosexuality" After his lesbian daughter came out of the closet, he disowned her,) and he got whupped by Barak Obama, in the '04 Illinois senatorial race (when he carpetbagged on behalf of the RNC.) Considering that Bush has been reviving the reagan legacy for his current cabinet/echo chamber, he'd be a shoo-in.

**[Rumsfeld's memo...][103]**

This is a case of obtuse ass-covering that will unfortunately stand the test of time. Knowing he was on the way out, Rumsfeld issued a flurry of memos covering all contigencies, so that he could claim that he was on the "right side", and actions taken after his resignation occurred despite his wishes. This is in line with the greater noecon strategy of the day:

"Our intentions were pure- the Bush administration screwed it up."

Yeah, right.

It is at this point that I again wish I were a christian, because if there's anyone alive today that is certainly headed for the the christian version of Hell, it's Rummy. I'd sleep better, at night, knowing such is the case.

THE MEDIA ARCHIVES HAVE BEEN PURGED.

As is the case in the wake of each new election, I have gone through the media archives, and deleted any dead links. If you are the creator of any media that was deleted, and believe that your work was removed unfairly, [drop me a line][104], and provide me a link, and description, and a thumbnail image (150X113).

Just so's ya know- Bushflash.com now offers you 637 anti-bush media features- to view everything in the archives, you'd have to watch for a full week, 24 hours a day. Hell- I could start up a Television network, with these assets.

![][4]

DECEMBER 3, 2006

ON DECLARING VICTORY, AND LEAVING...

It has become fashionable, in recent days, for the punditry to declare that the best thing the United States can do in relation to Iraq is to "Declare Victory, and leave."

I like the part about leaving- but I just can't get behind "declaring victory"...

In the wake of this american-created monumental disaster in Iraq, there is no way that we can walk away from this mess (as we inevitably will,) and say that we were "victorious."

We've lost in Iraq- this shouldn't be news to anyone.

Our defeat in Iraq was certain, even before the first cruise missiles slammed into Iraqi ports, and the first troops spilled over the border from Kuwait. Bush and his cronies believed that an entire nation could be subdued with a smaller force than that which took the island of Iwo Jima, in WW2- they believed bullplop that was shoved into their ears by the likes of Achmed Chalabi and "Curveball." They believed that a nation that lies at the heart of the Muslim world would consider a christian invader as the best thing since chilled hummus.

The war in Iraq was justified by false claims of weapons of mass destruction, and then later upon a dream of exporting Jeffersonian democracy to a part of the world which really didn't want it, and then, it was presented as "The central battleground in the war on terror", which has subsequently only served to breed a new generation of terrorists.

All of the "official" reasons for this war aside, in the end, we must see it for what it was: A war fought for oil, initiated by a bunch of childish clowns who had no idea what they were doing, at the behest of a president who wanted to "Whup Saddam", because of deep-rooted freudian issues relating to his father.

The American people cannot turn their backs on such a historically absurd spectacle, and comfort themselves with the trappings of rhetorical "victory." We did the same thing, at the end of the vietnam war, and as a result, we didn't learn anything- here we are, thirty years later, scratching out heads in wonder at this abominable mess, and wondering why...

"Gee- we were always victorious before.... Howcum we lost, this time?"

Those who forget the past are likely to quote historical figures ad infinitum...

Now, let me draw a historical parallel, here:

A goodly number of germans in the 20's believed that they could have won The Great War, but had been forced to accept defeat through the machinations of corrupt politicians. In the minds of these germans, they had lost the war, but could comfort themselves in the knowledge that the war had been a "victory" of sorts- a victory unfulfilled, but one that still could be realized, perhaps, in years to come. The nation was forced to submit to horrific economic penalties, and this only deepened resentment.

Fast forward 20 years, and for most germans, the war was something to be forgotten, until a group of germans (Hitler, Goering, Himmler) who still held to the belief of the "unfulfilled victory" came to power, and sought to redeem their fantasies, through war and conquest.

Today, we can draw a similar parallel: A goodly number of Americans in the 70's believed that we could have won the vietnam war, but had been forced to accept defeat through the machinations of liberal congresspeople. In the minds of these americans, they had lost the war, but could comfort themselves in the knowledge that the war had been a "victory" of sorts- a victory unfulfilled, but one that still could be realized, perhaps, in years to come. The nation was forced to submit to horrific diplomatic penalties, and this only deepened resentment.

Fast forward 30 years, and for most americans, the war was something to be forgotten, until a group of americans (Bush, Rumsfeld, Kissinger) who still held to the belief of the "unfulfilled victory" came to power, and sought to redeem their fantasies, through war and conquest.

Now- in the case of the germans, their second modern adventure into pre-emptive unilateral warfare ended in a situation in which no german could walk away from feeling very good about themselves, and the war that they had walked into. There were more rapes in the city of Berlin following the [collapse of the third reich][105] than there had been during the infamous [Rape of Nanking][106]. The country was split up, blown to bits, and an important lesson was learned: The Lesson of Defeat.

They were forced to become humble- and did germany suffer as a result?

Nope- despite that nation being split for almost a half-century, Germany bounced back, and is the economic and cultural powerhouse of central europe- more powerful now, than it has ever been, before.

They would not have been able to do this, culturally, economically, or socially, had they not accepted their defeat, and learned the same lessons that are staring us in the face, today...

We here in the USA have two choices- walk away from this war, claiming "victory", or accept it as a collective mistake, and admit defeat.

If we accept the former, we'll be embroiled in yet another senseless war in another 20-30 years, while a more handsome, bio-engineered version of myself will be running a website very much like this (By then, cybernetic sex robots will be in every home, so he won't be as depressed as I am, but will be every bit as hopeless.)

My future clone's living habits aside, it will be yet another war, yet another litany of dead people, and another huge waste of recourses, cash, and lives.

On the other hand, we can accept that the fantasies of the Bush Bowl have led us to defeat, and learn the hard lessons that defeat always brings.

These lessons will be hard to swallow, but the alternative- yet another war- is far worse.

Some say that talk of our inevitable defeat in Iraq casts dishonor upon those who have served in that country. I beg to differ.

Those who are serving in Iraq need to know they have been serving in the cause of a great lie. They need to know that their honorable, valiant efforts are for the cause of one man's hubris, and freudian fantasies. Mayhaps, once they learn that their sacrififced so much, for so little, parhaps they'll join the ranks of those opposed to war, and we here in the USA will not have to learn the lesson of defeat, so deeply, as those in Germany did.

Let us declare defeat, and leave. And let us never do this sorta crap again....

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DECEMBER 1, 2006

NEW MEDIA, [NEW IDIOT][107], AND A WORD ABOUT WINDOWS...

Tonight, Olbermann's program featured [another of his now-famous "special comments"][108], and I was hoping to present it here. However, windows decided to screw the pooch...

Now- lemme tell ya- In the computer wars, I am, and always have been, a solid and dedicated PC/Windows user. The lack of software available for the Mac is dreadful, and I find the Mac Interface to be counter-intuitive, to my thinking. Further- Mac folks creep me out- when speaking about their computers, they get a "heaven's gate" look in their eyes that makes me wanna leave the room.

That having been said, I must give props to Apple for being a solid blue company, while microsoft continues to misguidedly funnel millions to republicans. Further- additional props are due:

Every Macintosh computer comes with a full creative suite. Right out of the box, you can edit video, sound, and images. If you're cool with the apple vibe, and are willing to spend a few grand (the average apple costs three to five times as much as the average PC,) you have a virtual multimedia studio at your fingertips, ten minutes after you unpack the thing.

Windows, on the other hand, gives you squat, unless you buy "XP Media Edition." I had to download Windows Movie Maker (which is basically a windows version of IMovie) from a third-party site, because the Microsoft site just didn't seem to wanna make their software widely available to those who use their OS.

This was the program I used to convert captured video to YouTube-friendly WMVs.

It worked great, for months- functioned flawlessly- easy to use- every bit as good as IMovie. However- last night, I downloaded a long-overdue windows update, and wouldn't you know it- after the update installed, Windows Movie Maker crashes on startup. I go to the Microsoft site, and they proudly declare that there's a new 2.1 update available, but don't give a direct link to the installer- the only way you can only get it through the windows updater website, and unless you have XP Media Edition, it doesn't detect your current install of Movie Maker 2.0, and thusly, I'm screwed.

I'm still wading through google for a direct download- if anyone knows of such a link, or another free suite for such endeavours, [drop me a line...][104]

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BUSH ON 60 MINUTES

[![][109]][110]

It would take days to point out everything wrong with this  
  


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GUANTANAMO UNCLASSIFIED

[![][112]][113]

The story of Adel  
Hamad, humanitarian worker jailed in Guantanamo  
  


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EXXONSECRETS  
DOT ORG

[![][114]][115]

EXCELLENT and educational interactive site plotting Exxon's cover-up of global warming!  
  


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STILL THINK McCAIN IS SANE?

[ ![][116]][117]

Apparently, the war in Iraq has been easy  
(at least, if you're a senator...)  
  


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ARMAGEDDON

[![][118]][119]

New From  
[**Dick Eats Bush**][68]  
  


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CINDY TAKES THE CAPITOL

[![][120]][121]

We gotta go after the dems, every bit as hard as we did the republicans...  
  


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GUERNICA IRAQ

[ ![][122]][123]

The intro is kinda long, but the video itself is EXCELLENT work.  
  


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ILLNESS TAKES NO BREAK FOR WAR

[ ![][124]][125]

Iraq once had modern, universal healthcare- now, well....  
  


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NEVER FORGET...

[![][126]][127]

Florida was stolen in 2000.  
  


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BSR

[![][128]][129]

Nice spoof "Battlestar Galactica" intro  
  


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WAR IS OVER...

[![][130]][131]

Christmassy animation  
  


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HAPPY  
CHRISTMAS!

[![][132]][133]

Pretty much sums up  
why I'm not doing much celebrating, this year.  
  


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[**  
**][13] [FOR PREVIOUS  
VIDEO FEATURES, CLICK HERE!  
][13]  


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[Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com][134]

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