Palin: running on empty

"Sarah Palin is going rogue again. Want to cover the potential Republican presidential candidate? Better bring your running shoes.
Unlike most carefully choreographed presidential campaigns that routinely release detailed candidate schedules, Palin's staff is keeping most of the national news media in the dark about her political action committee's bus tour this week.
The result is a chaotic game of cat and mouse, with the media frantically chasing the 2008 vice presidential candidate from one stop to the next." --CNN.com

sarah palin seems to have found the right recipe to bolster her flagging career: make reporters chase her -- like a big white rabbit.

seems like the usual quid quo pro of the political circcuit rider, where candidate feeds stories to reporters in exchange for coverage in their papers/broadcasts, has been ditched by the palin "campaign". the usual give and take, where reporters ask questions and the candidate answers with campaign talking points, is inadequate for getting palin's message out.

instead, we are treated to an insane rabbit hunt, with the playmate bunny of the GOP right-wing fringe takes her media cadre over the river and through the woods to the next stop of sarah's "party of one" tour.

the ingénue of FOX news is so lacking in any newsworthiness or gravitas that she's forced to manufacture interest by this crack-brained concocted publicity stunt -- catch me if you can, motherfuckers!

palin has made a lucrative career of "going rogue," since she failed as a vice-presidential candidate in 2008, and bailed as governor of alaska shortly thereafter. she's since starred in a reality TV series, ghost-written a best-selling novel loosely based on her "life," and become known as a twit for tweets, all the while being daddy rupert's $10 million plaything on POX.

palin is a rogue, all right, and a hot commodity for those pimping her to brain-dead farts who confuse television with reality. for palin, however, that confusion is bankable, as is this silly "chase scene" -- because sarah plays to the only audience that takes her seriously, the one in the cheap seats that thinks an inflatable sex-doll candidate can actually function in an unscripted role.

U.S. debt: let's do it the GOP way

the bullfrogs on the right wanna play chicken with the US debt limit... up until now -- which is to say, while they were in charge of the government -- they've been more than happy to spend their way to fiscal oblivion, piling on debt to the national credit card. now that the negro is in charge, they've had a sudden change of heart:

Two top Republicans said Sunday they oppose raising the nation's debt ceiling without major moves to slash the federal deficit, a stance that suggests the GOP may be heading toward a high-stakes showdown with Democrats as the deadline for congressional action nears.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that he is prepared to keep the ceiling in place 'unless we do something really significant about debt and deficit.''

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican candidate for president, also challenged the Obama administration's contention that failure to lift the debt limit would trigger an unprecedented default.
The U.S. has until Aug. 2 to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.

isn't that a hell of a note! we waged 2 unfunded wars, enacted giant tax cuts that primarily benefitted the wealthy, and then were more than generous in bailing out the banks that parlayed ridiculously low interest rates into a variety of casino capitalism never seen before.

now they GOPpers are having a spasm of remorse -- a bit like a reformed smoker making those who still indulge miserable with displays of newfound virtue.

well, not buying it.

especially when you look at the "serious" proposals of the paul ryan budget "proposal," which is as DOA as any budget that ever arrived on capitol hill. maybe already in rigor mortis, in fact. this is a stinker of a proposal that extends the spend and pretend antics of the republican congress -- except that it only covers their wealthy benefactors.

any program that has even a hint of targeting the public good is destined to the fiscal rectitude of these prodigal sons of bitches. eliminate medicare, but cut taxes for the highest brackets from 35  to 25 percent. that's ideology, bitches! the proof that this is nothing but a distraction and a diversion is the fact that for all the pain it causes, it makes gains against debt and deficits only speculatively, and in the distant future. and even then, it doesn't do what it pretends -- which is leave the US with a balanced budget.

obviously, something must be done. the debt and deficits are a cancer on the republic, but in the final analysis they are the work of bankers and the FED, which make easy money available to suckers at every level, to suck them into a relentless treadmill of debt.

when there's a serious will to cut deficit spending, we'll see it reflected in serious proposals to take the wind out of the national security state, military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, the medical pharma insurance complex and various and sundry sweetheart deals and subsidies to supposed free-market capitalist entities.

then, one can seriously ask the citizenry to sacrifice, the submit to austerity, because they'll understand that they aren't suffering from the hangover after the oligarchy's orgy...

for israel, crime pays

unilateral benny, knowing he's got barry the obamanator by the balls, keeps sticking it in -- and it's not a knife in the back of his patron and benefactor, but it shows plainly the master-slave dynamic at work in this great-power caper:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reaffirmed his intent to keep Jerusalem the 'undivided capital' of Israel, authorising a $100-million investment package for the disputed holy city.
Speaking at a special meeting of his cabinet held inside the Old City walls, Netanyahu repeatedly vowed that he would not divide the city, despite international pressure for Israel and the Palestinians to share Jerusalem.
Israel captured east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War, later annexing it in a move not recognised by the international community.

benny has his nukes, and he's got the US congress in his pocket. what more does he need to impose his will over jerusalem?

of course, it's a very complicated situation. we aren't supposed to ask too many questions, like how the US pays $3 billion a year to the israelis, and they in turn thumb their noses at our leaders. netenyahu wouldn't even smile and make nice for the cameras when joe biden came calling -- just for show, since everybody knows there will never be a negotiated settlement between the israelis and the palestinians.

nope, they'll never negotiate a settlement. there's no will to do it, or any intention. the political situation is such that netenyahu and whomever follows him in the israeli leadership, is already committed to taking control of the entire west bank and pushing the palestinian people out of historical palestine.

if you're interested in what this is called, it's ethnic cleansing.

not to be a pessimist, but this is a situation that will only be resolved when the global political balance of power shifts to the east, and the US is no longer able to impose its will be force or proxy. once the israeli zionists lose their security blanket, they are mostly likely then to desperately seek a partner -- which is also when they'll find they don't have any friends.

just them and their nuclear arsenal...

the more things change... the more you've been mislead

the BBC news headline says that afghan pres hamid karzai, who started off as conoco's man on the ground before realizing he could bank more playing both sides against the middle, finds himself increasingly forced to bite the west's hand that feeds him, if only to prevent him losing that and some other bodily real estate in the ugly and devolving afghan massacre:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has forcefully condemned the killing of 14 civilians in the south-west of the country in a suspected Nato air strike.
Mr Karzai said his government had repeatedly asked the US to stop raids which end up killing Afghan civilians and this was his 'last warning'.
A Nato spokesman said a team had been sent to Helmand province to investigate the attack carried out on Saturday.

 another day, another NATO "investigation" of the shoddy-but-deadly imperial operation that is the "peacekeeping" operation in afghanistan.

how many mindless, shameless massacres have the afghan people to endure before some collective level of indignation is reached, and the citizens of NATO put a stop to this shameful charade?

the entire premise for this military adventure is preposterous, and if there was any end game in the US' AUMF that sent an NATO invasion force into afghanistan back in 2001, we've surely achieved our purpose, and should declare victory and carry our shameful asses home.

no one in DC wants to be the one to "lose" afghanistan, i suppose -- the way dubya didn't want to "lose" iraq, where we decided to pay off our foes there to achieve that most american of goals, "peace through strength."

in another part of the country, NATO experienced another black eye at the hands of "insurgents,"

Taleqan, Afghanistan - Afghan officials said Sunday an investigation was underway into Saturday's suicide attack that killed two senior police commanders, two German soldiers and two others and also wounded a German general.

we enjoy telling ourselves how exquisitely splendid we are as both humanitarians and war-making machines, and so when the ingrates we are trying to help rise up and kill our people, instead of giving the required thanks, we feel the sting of it. our wounded pride calls out for revenge and retribution, and to teach the barbarians about the superiority of the western way.

it was written somewhere -- not that i had the stomach to read it -- that the CIA considered the execution of osama bin laden as "payback" for a previous taliban attack by a double agent that cost the lives of a number of CIA "operatives" in afghanistan.

while no one will be much surprised to hear about this grudge match mentality on the part of NATO against the afghan people and the islamic world in general, it will be difficult under the circumstances to convince any neutral observer -- not that there are any -- that the west is advancing any kind of superior morality in its struggle in a strange land, so very far away from the reality most of us here in the USA inhabit.

in short, however, rather than passing along some sort of superior civilization and values, we are no doubt hardening the resolve of the people we're fighting to grind our forces down, and demoralize our side so much that, after having flung untold trillions of dollars down the military rathole, we finally decide to cut our losses and get the hell out of there.

graveyard of empires, indeed.

honestly, this war seems to have no future. for a world power teetering on the verge of economic collapse, the powers directing the grand imperial project must certainly be seeking another conflict with the prospect of greater ROI that afghanistan. whether it actually leads to a change in global strategy and a reallocation of resources to an easier target is, at this point, hard to say. it certainly makes sense pragmatically to get out of an unwinnable quagmire, and instead focus on an easy victory using hi-tech, gee-whiz weaponry.

getting a rise outta hot air

it appears "consumer confidence" is like a hot-air balloon: if the media pumps enough hot-air into the presentation of business news, consumers' "confidence" will start to lift off like a blow-up sex toy:

according to business week (weak?), which is pumping a reuters survey:

Stocks are closing higher after an unexpected jump in consumer confidence and slight gains in Americans' spending and income.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index came in above analysts' estimates, boosting markets. Concerns about higher gas prices and inflation had knocked the gauge down in March and April.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 12,442 Friday.
The S&P 500 index rose 5 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,33.

at the risk of mixing metaphors, you would certainly have to consider the premise of the article (not to mention the conclusion of the survey) as a case of skating on thin ice.

nothing is quite so tentative and shaky as this purported economic "recovery." real estate is still in the tank -- and shows every indication of diving ever downward. no recovery there.

while the market may be up, that's mostly the work on the FED's easy-money policy, which keeps cash going into equities -- even if volume is pathetic, and the upward tilt shows every indication of being gamed by the big shots.

what's is most seriously lacking (aside from fiscal sanity in our debt-driven clusterfuck economy) is any pickup in employment, or rising wages. the percentage of working-age people not "participating" in the workforce is at record levels, and while corporate profits soar they aren't translating into more money in workers' paychecks.

how can consumers be confident in an economy like this? FED policies are driving up the prices of commodities, which are in turn running the cost of living up while real income is going down. not only gasoline, but foodstuffs and agricultural products like cotton are are rising at a breathtaking pace. even if the CPI is gamed so as not to take into account food and energy prices, joe and jane average know that they are getting shafted.

this is, of course, symptomatic of the demise of the independent news media, and its replacement by a corporate PR machine that -- on key issues like the economy -- speaks with one voice as it promotes the interests of the ruling corporate oligarchy.

the economy is improving, damn it. get that through your head and shut up!

any questions?

autopen question?... what a putz...

some halfwit georgia republican member of the house decided the squawk about obama signing the extension of the fatuous, flatulent patRIOT act with a gizmo called an autopen -- instead of putting pen to physical paper delivered to his white house desk from the capitol.

"Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia sent President Obama a letter today questioning the constitutionality of the president's use of a device called an autopen to sign into law an extension of the Patriot Act."

duh, dicklips, he's out of the country.

where was this whiney sack of warmed-over piss when the leadership decided to ramrod this excrement through congress without debate? why get stuck now on this autopen irrelevancy, when the real constitutional bloodbath took place behind closed doors, and with both parties completely complicit and in agreement with the aims and intention of this reeking assault on liberty?

if representative penis breath wants to get involved in something worthy of his talents, why doesn't he walk down pennsylvania avenue on all fours, and bark like a dog until a big great dane walks up and starts humping his fucked-out butt?

these guys certainly have a talent for showmanship. so let's have something worth watching, you insufferable maggot!

read 'em the pat-RIOT act!

the US supine legislative branch has once again proved its utter worthlessness and complete subservience to the security-state oligarchs by rushing the ironically named "patriot" act through both chambers for a rubber-stamp, 4-year extension.

after the demise of the "leader" of al qaida, mr. osama bin laden, you might think that they'd chopped the head off the snake, and otherwise emasculated terror, inc. this would've satisfied the objectives of the authorization to use military force, upon which the several military adventures of the bush years -- and beyond -- have been based.

about that, you'd be sadly, sorely mistaken.

and the same with this "patriot" horseshit that unites democrats and republicans behind an ever-expanding web of federal government control over ever facet of our lives. and this is hardly an exaggeration. even if 9/11 wasn't a false flag operation used to legitimize the expansion of the reach of the national security state, it has been liberally used in pursuit of control by the ruling class ever since. the patriot act, rather than making us safer -- to say nothing of freer -- has instead made us a little more than cowering slaves, who serve our corporate masters through our labor and aggregation of debt.

without rand paul in the senate, with his threatened filibuster unless he was allowed to offer 4 amendments to the act as proposed, this would've been a legislative slam-dunk -- with leaders on both sides of the aisle wishing to push this turkey through quickly, quietly and without debate. this should tell you all you need to know about how both parties are just two sides of the same coin, and the differences between them are mostly for show. regardless of the posturing and melodramatic freak show the legislature puts on when it comes to things like the debt limit, they truly all work for the same people, and play on the same team.

nothing in the "war against terrorism" precludes its tactics and methods from being used on the homeland. and this, unfortunately, is where the drone warfare and midnight smashing in of the front door is eventually coming -- to terrify a community near you!

the government exists to feed the beasts of corporate and military control over the planet. when you observe the rituals of congress playing out, focus instead on the results instead of the process. where there is the most conflict and consternation is over cutting budget on social programs -- being whatever government can do to benefit common citizens. the expansion of military spending, or the bailouts of mega finanacial institutions to the tune of trillions of dollars, seem to happen without a hint of division or disagreement between the two parties.

these are the actual constituents of the congress and government generally, and the rest of us are tolerated only to the extent that our labor provides the liquidity for the other side to squander. the fight over the budget is a mirage; the smooth sailing of the patriot act reauthorization is where it's really at.

the shrill, the squeaky and the obnoxious

sarah palin is crawling out of her hole -- after the furor over the giffords shooting has subsided a bit -- and feels the stirring inside, the fire in the belly, and the hand of god, all pushing her to run for the presidency. so she's started an exploratory campaign, where she's carrying her sorry ass on a cross-country bus tour to reconnect with her roots with the brainless, deep in the intellectually disconnected hinterlands. mercy me, her exploratory rhetoric makes me feel violated, like she's sticking a giant proboscis up my ass.

have you by any chance looked up palingenesis? (it's not parthenogenesis, as the spell checker suggests.) if you truly believe that there are strange forces at work in the universe, or that people sit on the stars and guide the planets -- as some of my neighbors actually believed when i was growing up -- then you probably have reason to fear the rise of the great palin.

sarah has to hit the road, of course, after having bought a nearly $2 million home in arizona... yep, that's going to be the nerve center of sarah's thrust to ram a thick rod of heavenly indignation right up america's poop-chute. she's going to give the national psyche a good reaming while the pickings are good.... there's nothing between sarah palin and even bigger paydays to come than a tragic faceoff against barack obama in the 2012 election. sarah may even be able to command her army of zombies to kill the negro! and find them all so stoked up by hannity and beck and o'reilly and limbaugh that they make night of the living dead look like prom night at the town high school.

speaking of the criminally insane, how 'bout our old boy jared lee loughner? if there was anyone to crucify, it was this guy, who by his impulsive behavior almost derailed the palin express. this miscreant pothead with leftish misleanings, who took the bulls-eye on gabrielle giffords literally -- i mean, who could have predicted??? -- and tried to cap the girl down at the safeway, almost robbed america of its destiny. but now that he's been judged incompetent to participate in his own defense, he automatically becomes a poster boy for how the left-wing ACLU lobby has destroyed everything good america ever stood for! sarah palin can proudly step up and claim the mantle of defender of the faith in the constitution and the american way! bring on superman, chairman of her campaign for truth, justice and the american way...

the truth about old jared is that he slipped the surly bonds of sanity a long time ago, and flew off the proverbial hinges while the rest of us where watching the conclusion of dancing with the numbnuts. loughner just sat mute in the courtroom, rocking and staring into that space behind his eyeballs. then he made an outburst and the judge removed him from the courtroom. when the judge asked if he'd like to return, he said he'd rather not. this guy was judged by two professionals to be a delusional schizophrenic, not able to assist in his own defense. frankly, under the circumstances i find that conclusion hard to argue against.

and yet, in the comments section following the story on USAtoday.com, there was such a thirst for blood and murder that you could easily conclude that this society is dedicated to the production of blood-thirsty killers. even those who express outrage at killing were shouting at the tops of their lungs for more killing -- most without even the pretense of a trial or any kind of due process. of course, this is also the position of barack obama and his administration -- who believe that they have the legal and moral authority to sentence american citizens to death on only the president's say-so. to say nothing of our brave fightin' men who control the video-game murders of countless innocents via remote-controlled instruments of death like our pilotless drones (pilotless implies no human agency, no culpability for murder). its the same sort of robotic killing machine that loughner became, and the same furious energy that palin inspired in 2008 when the mindless patriots of her movement were gungho to kill her opponent for not being sufficiently white or right. and yet he himself turns out to be just as savage in his disregard for human life (not innocent human life, in the gw bush formulation, presumably).

winky, binky and stinky all come down the line...

dick cheney says he would eat paul ryan's turds off the ground the man walks on. he's so in love with the guy who proposes to dismantle the social programs upon which the elderly barely survive upon. natch, he's got all that money from the revolving door hitting his ass on the way out... pentagon, halliburton, white house, board of directors... call me when the find a donor for his heart transplant, which will surely be paid by the taxpayers...

fart for truth, fart for victory! remember the troops on memorial day! they sacrificed so much so you can bury your face in a bowl of potato salad!

fuck it. i'm tired.

shit a brick, build a mansion... only in the USA!

we just barely escaped the rupture last weekend, and now what other challenges confront the might empire of wretched excess? the daily headlines point the way to our own eventual dissolution...

did you see the one about obama's jewish backers getting the cold feet after his speech of the middle east last week? he made reference to "1967 borders," the ones that israel ripped all to shit when it took over gaza, west bank, jerusalem -- and holds, contrary to international law, to this day.

it seems kind of a conundrum, that the jewish state wants to be secure within internationally recognized borders, but doesn't want to be held to international law. now, what's up with that? hell, if we want to be real about it, what's wrong with the 1948 borders, and the whole partition of palestine deal that the UN supposedly decided upon at the time? why isn't that the basis of any negotiated solution?

well, as netan-fuckin'-yahoo put it in his response to obama's speech, those borders are "indefensible." everything, of course, is premised on conflict and confrontation -- even though it seems oddly enough to be the israelis themselves who do most of the destroying and killing of anyone who stands in the way of the gradual absorption of the whole of "greater israel."

of course, to the impartial observer, the israelis are quite transparently not interested in negotiations leading to a resolution of all outstanding issues. in the dream world we inhabit, there are "facts on the ground" and then there are facts to be ground into the dust. conflicts are reduced to their most sublimely ridiculous basics by relentless public relations manipulations, until there is no reality but the manufactured one on TV. whatever the issue is, it gets sliced and diced and dissected and reassembled into something unrecognizable, before the story is retold in a more salacious and delicious, easy-to-swallow, sugar-coated, maggotty mess.

in the new, improved skrewtopia in the middle east, the palestinian people don't even really exist, exist as pests to be removed like fleas from your pet -- something to be managed and eliminated. memories of the palestinian people are ground into the dust, and replaced by the jewish settlements in the west bank that constitute "facts on the ground" that are irrevocable and non-negotiable. to claim, as the highly paid mouthpieces in the official media do, that there is some actual, good-faith negotiations, with some outcome besides the inevitable march of facts on the ground and the eventual disappearance of the palestinian people to some hitherto undisclosed location.

if obama and the rest of the political establishment weren't so craven and ethically weak, they might just let events in the middle east sort themselves out. the hell with this "special" relationship between the US and israel. what is that all about? there's a totally lopsided, against-the-national interest tilt of this country towards the zionist experiment in historical palestine, that exists primarily because of the political muscle of the pro-israel lobby and its sympathizers on the neo-con and christian right. if we took the slimy money out of the political equation, how much real sentiment exists to preserve this "jewish state" at all costs? and yet, the US government, since it's politicians are on the hook to the zionist lobby to heap funding on their pathetic and self-serving campaigns, is in a tail-wags-the-dog relationship with this boat anchor around its neck called israel.

arabs, muslims, palestinians -- i'm not especially partisan about them or their causes. likewise with the jews and the zionists. why is their conflict my problem, except that the US has proved to be the enabler for the israelis' crimes against the palestinians -- who were a simple, rural people far removed from the cultural and historical conflicts of europe and christians vs jews. by all accounts, there is no ancient blood feud between muslims and jews -- the way the current narrative has been constructed to explain the current conflict as deeply rooted in the history of the region. nope, we have brought the palestinians kicking and screaming into a different conflict of which they were never a party -- and now we expect them to suck it in and get the fuck out of the way while refugees from colonialist europe decided to invade and take over their land.

fuck obama, fuck netanyahu, to hell with all this gamesmanship where a foreign leader gets more respect from the US congress than a sitting president. who ever said partisanship ends at the water's edge, in respect to the nation's foreign policy, would be forced to amend his statement to reflect the new reality of twisted and absurd policies that guide this great, bankrupt wonderland of over-the-top self-contradiction and hypocrisy. be honest, you whores, and admit you have no love for israel or the jewish people, that you just love them and serve them as long as they have the checkbook out and are willing to string your worthless and craven asses along.

money greases the skid of this relationship, and as long as its based strictly on a quid pro quo of political donations in exchange for protection, then it ought to be obvious to those on the jewish side of the argument that this is a pretty flimsy and unreliable way to ensure the long-term viability of the zionist experiment. as soon as the money runs out on the one side, or the protector is unable to protect on the other, then the devil's bargain the props up and sustains the status quo goes down with the relationship, built on matchsticks as it is. the chinese, of course, have been more than willing to pay israel for US military secrets, selling out its biggest benefactor in a cynical ploy of playing both ends against the middle, but as a long-term strategy for survival, the jewish lobby can't buy the chinese communist party, inc., and play beijing the way it plays DC. when the worldwide balance of power shifts eastward, don't bank on there being a "special relationship" to protect a state that's existence merely antagonizes the states with the petroleum reserves that china covets.

it's always seemed clear that the arabs have more patience than we do in the west. the modern consumer culture has done nothing but accelerate the tendency of easy come, easy go. this applies not only for the latest gadget, but for friends and alliances as well. we'll go with the flow, and be your fair-weather friends until it's no longer expedient, at which time we'll move on to our next infatuation.

someday, long after obama and netanyahu have long ago passed from the scene, the remaining holdouts in israel will huddle around their nuclear arsenal and wonder what the fuck they do next. i'm glad i won't be around to see what they decide, but i can promise you it won't be pretty.

news consumers consumed by newsgatherers

how much distraction can a single person ingest?

that's the question that besets all of the members of this media generation -- or more aptly, the media degeneration that we currently give life to through our passive participation.

i run down the left column of the good news aggregator, and am greeted by a series of names in the news -- a kind of shorthand for the short attention span-afflicted consumers of this never-ending torrent of tripe.

randy savage, israel, barnes & noble, lance armstrong, johnny depp, dominique strauss-kahn... you get the picture, or rather the thousands of words, pictures and videos that titillate and amuse us until our eyeballs pop out and we're drooling and whacking off at the same time.

randy savage never made it to the rapture, as he suffered a fatal heart attack and wrecked his jeep down in the sunshine state. who knew he was a wrestling superstar? lance armstrong, on the other hand, is the guy who asked if we were tired of being tired, while pumping some performance-enhancing drug with the same vigor as his bicycle pedals.

what they have in common with the other people and places on the list is notoriety. we've heard of them, so what they do is assumed to have potential to draw us in with a click. the click will expose us to the scrutiny of a computer algorithm, which in turn will assess our propensity to purchase an advertiser's product. it's a very hi-tech flim-flam, where we trade a bit of our cognitive space for a glimpse of some headline-grabbing entity.

we call this news.

it isn't a whole lot different in theory, i suppose, than the way things were at the newspaper where i used to work. but it feels a whole lot different. for one thing, there's no such thing as the anonymous consumer of the content. i can understand the concept of reader/viewer as a "product" google delivers to the advertiser, but i never used to feel like the medium was a one-way mirror -- looking back at me while i was looking at the news. now that is a creepy sensation that seems to follow almost any site one visits.

can you even stand this BS?

the israeli PR machine is in high gear today, and US-zionist relations are at the "crisis" point after the Milquetoast obama's declaration in his speech yesterday that israeli should seek a settlement with the palestinians within the "1967 borders."

netenyahu is quite the showman when it comes to humiliating obama. when the US hoped to entice the israelis to suspend settlement construction around jerusalem last year -- in exchange for hefty inducements in terms of juicy giveaways of new military hardware with which to intimidate iran -- netenyahu responded by announcing more settlements, even as joe biden was winging in to celebrate the renewed spirit of negotiations.

so much for that old optimism shit. the rest of the world sees what the US is not prepared to view: that israel is in impediment to a solution to peace in the region, and that the US is not an honest broker between the two sides. broker should read broken: as in broken promises, and broken-down piece of shit. after all, the world's only remaining "superpower" is completely hopeless against the whims of its dependent client state, which takes the US' money and spits in the president's face when it comes to making even the most modest, superficial concessions in the interests of saving american face.

at this point, the israelis have proved to be on a mission of territorial expansion and domination of the region, and it uses its muscle-bound but dim-witted benefactor, uncle sam, as its enabler along the road to humiliating the palestinians in particular, and the arab and muslim worlds in general. while there may be a "peace movement" in israel, it is obvious to all who see facts on the ground instead of words in thin air that the israelis are imperialist and colonialists who've learned the magic incantations required to lead the US by the nose in support of its national interests -- even when they conflict with the US'. this is indeed a feat to be viewed in awe and wonder -- which in every respect is superior to the US' shock and awe.

the US is a bull-headed monster that is in thrall to moneyed interests that own politicians and fund their political campaigns, and the israeli lobby is particularly effective at manipulating the "democratic process" in such a way as to ensure that the relationship between the two nations is seen as the tail wagging the dog. while the arab street rocks the old order which took orders from washington and tel aviv, and threatens prospects for continuing US hegemony over the region, it is on the other hand being forced by its "little buddy" into an increasingly untenable position as a big, strong but stupid tool of its more clever and manipulative friend.

obama did indeed show a small amount of courage in crossing up netanyahu at the very moment when he intended to sashay into DC for AIPAC convention this weekend -- it was a bit of a payback for the humiliation suffered last year during the biden visit. it was a bit of political theater to be viewed with some relish, for being the most exceptionally rare instance of an american politican standing athwart the dictates of the israelis.

it will not amount to much of anything, however. the united states, when obama addresses AIPAC this weekend, will reiterate its unyielding commitment to the zionist expansionist regime, as well as its unhesitating willingness to provide the muscle behind israeli threats to iran. there will be talk about our shared ideals -- which will of course be true (although not the ideals we publicly acknowledge!), as well as our mutual and deep commitment to the peace process. at the same time, the US' will support without limit the zionists' "security" -- which is shorthand for shameless bullying of the inhabitants of the occupied territories in contravention of all international law and covenants. in short, business as usual will continue uninterrupted.

so what is this all about? pure BS. its nothing but a dust-up, a bit of diplomatic foreplay before the consummation of real screwing of the victims of imperial aggression -- both in palestine and around the world. it's vomitable, and its stands to reason that people around the world can no longer stand -- or stand for -- such egregious BS any more.

may 19, 2011 -- happy fuckin' day!

i always thought may 19 was some sort of special date, but outside the fact that a couple of guys i knew in my younger days both had their birthday on this date, i no longer think it has any particular significance. funny how such an irrelevancy can captivate our imaginations!

i think the same thing when contemplating the headlines today about obama's upcoming speech to the arab world. as the christian science monitor has it, "what arabs want to hear (and not hear) in obama's speech". we in the US continue to be so obsessed with what we think, and what we do -- and how it plays to the rest of the world. at the same time, that "rest of the world" is itself a caricature and a figment of our own self-referential imaginations, that we can't begin to see "those people" as people at all. they are more like the plastic army men me and my playmates would setup in our imaginary war games, only to knock down or blow up in various proto-sadistic scenarios. outside of our own conceit of a world of us vs them, to be stood up and thrown down at whim, nothing had any independent reality or existence.

when the US president speaks to the arab world, it's a lot like the childish games we played those decades ago, except that now the plastic figures are flesh-and-blood people, and yet they're no more considered living beings with hopes and aspirations, lives and families and intrinsic worth, than the plastic army men we setup to throw down in our mindless diversions underneath a giant oak tree down the street. obama will go forth with a lecture about the proper relationship between master and subject people, imploring the proper and expected deference of the unwashed, barbaric masses with their strange god toward the good, clean and proper white overlords with their ossified notions of hierarchy and protocol.

for the arabs, the best they can expect is to be junior members in the global banking cartel that makes money off speculation in the commodities that the arab lands hold in some abundance -- mostly energy resources vitally necessary for the continued operation of the global armies of exploitation and oppression needed to maintain the global top-down order. serve us, is the message, and we won't lay waste to your countries and murder your people. we destroy utterly those who oppose us, while raining the rewards of benign neglect upon those who obey. it's an offer they can't refuse -- never could.

the so-called arab spring is notoriously misunderstood by those of us the clueless USA. it is primarily a manifestation of the anger on the street of those who are feeling the actual sting of the collapse of this global banking cartel. its insatiable greed is driving the price of necessities beyond the reach of the majority of people, who see the ostentation of the porcine classes and contrast it with their own desperation, bringing with it a classic WTF moment. it's not about freedom or representation or a yearning to embrace the hypocrisy of whiteness -- it's about putting food on the table.

i'm sure if you asked the people on the arab street about mr. obama, most people would respond that they just wish he'd shut the fuck up and carry his shyster rhetoric back to the american people, who'd be a lot better off studying up on the obligations of citizenship in a democratic republic. with the government running amok to serve its corporate masters, the US has become a rampaging monster which, as it loses control of the rest of the world, will soon have to double down on its repression at home to keep the lid on creeping social disintegration sure to follow the burgeoning economic inequality in the land.

it just gets worse...

after laying off this emission from the depths of my sordid brain for a couple of weeks, i have decided to return for a brief look at some of the events that pollute the public space these days:

between the sexual indiscretions of dominique strauss-kahn and those of arnold schwarzenegger, i can't decide which is more ludicrous and more worthy of disdain.

the first, who is head of the international monetary fund and prospective opponent next year to nicholas sarkozy for the french presidency, seems to have timed his escapade especially poorly: exactly when discussions for resolving the greek debt crisis are really beginning to get interesting. he's a dude with a reputation, of course, which makes the allegations all the more believable -- except for those of us who've grown cynical bordering on bored with the evil machinations of the ruling elites when it comes to getting inconvenient players out of the way.

julian assange found out...

now, the trial of strauss-kahn proceeds apace in the press, with the predictable prurient interest among the american mob with the sexual peccadilloes of its ruling elites. the school-marmish mentality of the press establishment, holding european politicians up for heightened scrutiny in the american way, is almost incomprehensible to their home constituency -- where there exists no impossibly hypocritical view of politicians as moral paragons. the new york papers are all over it, of course, because even after elliott spitzer, there can be no satiating the need for cheap titillation by way of tabloid and 24-hour "news" channels.

did the dude "do" it? who the fuck knows, but if he did he's a lot stupider than anyone had a right to expect. so i figure at the worst they slipped him some kind of extra-strength viagra and he had a bad, bad case of priapism. after all, that is a side effect...

on the other hand, what of the arnold? just when donald trump ran out of gall on his quixotic quest for ratings for this cheap and exploitative "reality" show, we have the former gov of cali first separating from his celebrity wife, before all shit broke loose in revelations that he fathered a "love child" with a "servant" back in the late 90s.

this has chickenshit soap opera written all over it... arnold was well known to be a pig from back in his body-building days, and in the race for "governator" after the recall that toppled grey davis, it was alleged and alleged once again that the arnold was a beastly chauvinist with an inability to keep his hands to himself -- and an equally repulsive aversion to telling the truth.

and yet, the american public, in living up to its deserved reputation for complete lack of taste, coupled with its sick fascination with all things having to do with celebrities, could do nothing but elect this sorry sack of shit to the governor's office of america's most culturally trend-setting state. as a movie star, he may have had his charms -- can't say, cuz i've never watch one -- but as an administrator and a leader dealing with the complex issues facing the nation's most populous state, he came out leaving the state vastly poorer and in worse shape than he found it.

then, come to find out his personal life is in just as much a shambles as the state of california. it figures. what'd you expect?

as for the long-suffering spouse, maria shriver, they made such a perfect couple for the mass-media dreamscape that exists in the minds of EW.com and People magazine readers, defying all the odds and overcoming all the challenges of rich celebrity couples -- until, of course, the entire matter is revealed as a sham. shriver, for her part, goes to be consoled by oprah, before having lunch with her children in hollywood. here's one sliver-spoon shipwreck that will be refloated in the popular mind in two bats of the bitch's eye. this might be the biggest career move in her life -- even bigger than marrying the stupid lummox in the first place!

is this a great fucking country, or what?

meanwhile, while our two celebrity clowns deal with the downside of not being regular joe anonymous, we watch in trepidation as the nobel-prize-winning champion of change we sadly believed in is on his way to institutionalizing the permanent warfare state, including the deployment of combat troops in the homeland, as well as the use of pilotless drones as a fixture of "law enforcement" in the skies above american cities. while we're pleasantly entertained by the great follies of the powerful and famous, the very foundations of the american republic are being eaten away as wood by termites.

there's nowhere to go any more but down. so make the most of these last few months of relative normalcy, before you find yourself under siege and very, very afraid.

samba with obamba: the useless, the worthless and the pure shit...

one of osama's three wives, wounded in the storming of bin laden's lair, tells her interrogators in the wacky pakistani intelligence service that they lived in their luxurious abode for six years before the fatal onslaught of US storm troopers.

six years, during which the world's most-wanted man stayed ensconced within the walls of his compound, which was nestled in the heart of the pakistani defense establishment.

can this honestly be called a hideout, or was it something quite different?

the pakistanis are quite upset with the blatant disregard of sovereignty that the daring american raid displayed, threatening to no longer play along with washington if it ever happens again! that is said with the utmost seriousness, of course, but is laughable on its face. the ISI may work at cross-purposes with the CIA on occasion, but their relationship is nevertheless a special one -- as can only exist between nuclear-armed nations.

whatever the real deal is here, be assured that first, we don't know jack shit about what the real deal is, and second, that there is some synergy between the interests of the two nations -- on which they'll continue to cooperate.

it's a bit of a mystery, as one looks at news photos of the luxury accommodations of the al Qaeda chief, to square the description of the million-dollar palace with the actual images of a plain, boxy building with exposed plumbing and buckling plaster. the place looks like a dump, frankly.

bin laden's hideout, with passerby

we are also informed by the SITE terrorist monitoring service that al qaeda has acknowledged the loss of its leader, and is promising to avenge his death at the hands of "a clique of traitors and thieves," and "cleanse [pakistan] from the filth of the Americans who spread corruption in it."

BFD, as we're so fond of saying. with the terrible rep of this worldwide terror syndicate, they have very little to show for the rhetoric and the quaking fear they inspire in the west.

expect the sum total of zero as the consequence of the demise of the bearded one. there may be riots in a handful of cities over there -- we'd be as hard pressed to find them on a map as the taliban would be, if someone asked them to find NYC.

for all its fearsome reputation, and all the rip-roaring balderdash spewing from the official channels of the worldwide corporate oligarchy, there is no there there when we're regaled with tales of terror, inc.

in the days after 9-11, the typical response of a US male was summed up by a co-worker: "i've got to stay home and load my guns... i have to protect my family." nothing at all was spared in order to ratchet up the level of fear and apprehension at this all-powerful, all-pervasive menace -- a terrorist under every bed!

and it degenerated into a series of show trials of innocent dupes, tricked by FBI informants into swearing allegiance to al qaeda and agreeing in principal to doing some nefarious deed -- even if it was only to please the government's informant. all of this bullshit, cases so flimsy as to beggar belief, yet run as a scam against an ignorant and compliant population as a regime of authoritarianism was being established.

these threats of retaliation are more of the same, as the criminal syndicate that runs the show, murder, inc., moves to leverage its latest climactic turn in the great good-vs-evil melodrama being broadcast to subservient sheep across this great, bewildered nation.

bye-bye, bin laden, and thanks for the memories. you were a useful tool, and you were rewarded as befits one who played the part so well. we'll remember you when the next great menace to our way of life arises, as we refer to him as "worse than bin laden" -- the highest praise one can earn in the constellation of useful idiots.

osama: bird in a golden cage

at first the story of the great showdown at the okey-doke corral was that the coward bin laden held his pursuers at bay by hiding behind a woman, using her as a "human shield" (which is US-speak for not letting us get a clear shot without a lot of ugly "collateral damage").

later, it was admitted that osama didn't hide behind a woman after all -- that it was a shootout and he lost.

THEN, in a kind of "by the way" clarification, the white house admitted that bin laden didn't actually go down fighting at all. as he stumbled out of bed, he was greeted by the brave commandos of the US mercenary forces, who promptly shot him to pieces -- with what's called "extreme prejudice".

there's been a bit of controversy over this turn of events. when it asked whether the suspect (victim? sitting duck?) had been offered an opportunity to give himself up, there was the not-too-surprising prevarication, until the US government offered as how the troopers were not to accept surrender if there was the slightest chance that bin laden might be hiding a bomb under his garments.


think about it: you storm the guy's sanctuary, which is behind 20-foot walls and laid out for all intents as a fortress -- to not only keep intruders out, but also to keep the guest of honor in. and instead of him coming out at the troops with both barrels blazing, he's unarmed and not expecting any visitors...

then you blow his fucking head off, because he could have a bomb under his pajamas.

what kind of shit is this? and then the US government tops it off by rushing to televise the historic announcement, topping it off with a "god bless america" cherry on top.

if you've ever wondered what america these days is all about, this pretty much sums it up: cheap theatrics, shown off for the sake of a quick bump in the polls for beleagured politicos steering our teetering economy into the rocks.

this is such a grisly, repulsive tale, and every detail makes it more difficult to fathom the utter depravity of the US government. not only did storm troopers swoop in and gun down an unarmed man, but then like a bunch of gangsters, they snatched up the body and threw it into the ocean... according to muslim tradition? don't count on that, and today obama has finally decided there will be no photo of the body released. with the penchant of US troops for taking body parts as souvenirs of their exploits, who can imagine what was left of osama's remains when they got through with him?

finally, the icing on the cake was today's declaration by the US attorney general, eric holder, that everything  about the "operation" is on the up-and-up -- all completely kosher, according to international law... this from the same guy who hasn't yet found any wrongdoing by the financial wizards on wall street that damn near crashed the world economy, and whose boss decided that not only were no crimes committed by the previous administration -- but that their example for adherence to international law was in fact worthy of emulation!

i suppose i won't shed any tears for osama bin laden. he lived his life and did what he did, and probably had no regrets -- and probably expected to be taken out eventually anyway. one pictures him, however, as a bird in a proverbial golden cage over in pakistan -- kept on ice by the ISI (and probably the CIA, if truth be told) until it was finally decided the expedient thing to do now, for other reasons besides obama's "justice" canard. was to snuff out evil incarnate, in the form of an especially notorious canary.

did we get our money's worth?

the US government has been holding osama bin laden's dead sister's brain for years now, stored just for an occasion such as this.

according to a news report amongst the deluge of news reports following the assassination of the erstwhile evilist man in the world, and evil incarnate, the late bin laden sibling was eviscerated with the utmost respect for islamic law and tradition, so that her body parts could be used for DNA testing when the famous brother's remains would one day be scrutinized for a geraldo rivera TV spectacular -- like al capone's vault...

can we be serious for a moment? now that the hyped-up hoopla is beginning to subside, and the euphoria of our over-the-top celebratory binge has begun to wear off, the shell-shocked realization has set in -- that nothing has changed, and the USA continues its descent in a death spiral.

it was not enough in this spectacle-starved freak show to simply wax this creature of our dark imaginings with a hellfire missile fired by a pilotless drone. no, the hired assassins were brought in, a daring helicopter raid executed with military efficiency.

the last time we saw a mission completed with this kind of gung-ho determination was when the hijackers flew jets into the twin towers and the pentagon -- and they weren't even uniformed military.

or so we're told.

it was a hell of an operation, and it'll make a hell of a movie. in place of shooting a guy in his pajamas, we can have the apocalyptic last stand of the white hats against the black hats, and in this version of the story there's no ambiguity about who's who.

the last time osama bin laden had made a splash in the US media was when he endorsed the reelection of dubya bush back in november, 2004. even then, he was fading from the scene, replaced by other aspirants to the dark pantheon of america's sworn enemies. eclipsed by saddam, and soon to be overshadowed by zarqawi, it's tough work keeping atop america's enemies list...

yet somehow, osama endured while the others lost out in the elimination round of this most insidious form of the survivor franchise.

meanwhile, the empire has grown wobbly during the long, drawn out search for our nemesis -- the one who seduced us into joining this orgy of death and destruction that has gradually drained the treasury and shown us at our most un-idealistic. along the way, the world has gradually lost interest in the US' wailing and caterwauling about every little slight. instead of strength and self-assurance, the US has demonstrated that it is just another basket case, a banana republic.

nobody loves you when you're down and out.

the US has proved it can kill anybody it likes, but it can't stop gasoline from going to $4 a gallon, or even $5 or $6.

the wealthiest, most powerful nation in the history of the world could've ended in a better place than this, needing to kill its own creation just to buoy public spirits during a lengthening and deepening period of economic decline. osama is just an example of how this country treats its friends: a bullet to the head when one has outlived one's usefulness.

when you lose your job, your home is foreclosed on and you have to apply for foodstamps, it will be well worth asking, did we get our money's worth from our investment in this CIA asset from the 1980s?

osama and the audacity of a joke

bin laden is dead, long live osama!

people used to say, do you remember where you were when you heard john kennedy had been assassinated? i was walking home from school. i was in first grade, and the big 2nd graders, who had a radio in their class, told us the president had been shot dead. i didn't believe it; i had to go home and ask my parents what it meant.

the events of that weekend, so many years ago, are a confusing blur. my canary died then, since we'd neglected to feed and water him, and i remember how i cried. it was far more real to me than this dead president -- death and presidency being concepts far less material than my canary.

for the death of osama bin laden, i feel a similar sense of disbelief and need for elucidation.

did we really, really kill this man, who symbolized the dark, malevolent forces of the world, arrayed against us here on the shining city on a hill? and if our navy seals really planted one right between his eyes, what, can anyone explain, does it really mean?

america needs its bogeymen -- now, more than ever! osama bin laden served that role so effectively. besides robert fisk, no one with a shred of credibility i ever heard speak could actually attribute human characteristics to this enigmatic, cave-dwelling nemesis. fisk cut the man no slack, which led me to believe that the real osama was no great humanitarian.

on the other hand, he was a man with a vision, a man on a mission, someone who out of the billions of people who'd borne the brunt of american benevolence who actually took a stand against the deadly hypocrisy of the really evil empire.

here was a man who could be credibly called evil, but amongst peers in the imperial oligarchy that runs corporate america, bin laden was merely playing a dirty game with other remorseless mass killers -- guys with names like bush and blair, who are more likely to be feted than brought to justice in our twisted, rampaging, consumerist culture.

osama got no justice in this world, and what fate awaits him in another is beyond the scope of this discussion. the verdict of history, however, may very well judge him more compassionately than the lightning-strike intruders who likely felled a guy who was still in his pajamas.

the winners write history, of course, but our notion of winners -- and of winning -- has more to do with charlie sheen than thucydides, and is likely to have about the same relevance for anyone looking back without being beneficiaries of the prejudices at our times.

in short, the west's story is one of exploitation and oppression of the developing world in order to steal the resources required to fuel our always-on, consumption-crazed lifestyles, which pours the wealth of nations into the insatiable maw of corporations and the malevolent beings who control them -- and through them, the rest of us.

this regime controls incredible wealth, as well as a military machine unmatched in all of history. it has the motive and the means to dominate and ravish the entire planet -- or so the masters of this most inhumane system imagine.

if for no other reason than to disabuse them of this notion, one has to recognize the audacity of osama bin laden. he poked his former benefactors in the eye, as a fare-thee-well for his heedless and disrespectful erstwhile masters.

to bring down the soviets, the US would arm its enemies, including bin laden, and soon enough showed its equal disdain for friend and foe, when naked self-interest dictated it. recognizing the west's ideals are limited to expediency, osama unleashed the same treachery on the cynical manipulators who'd only recently been his ally.

ronald reagan's freedom fighters returned to fight another day, but this time it was the son-of-a-bush who would receive the taunt and the provocation that to this day consumes the innards of the vile empire like a lethal disease -- and will someday utterly destroy it, a victim of its own hubris and greed.

bin laden is always pictured with his AK-47 nearby. he was a fighter -- unlike the bush and cheney chicken-hawks, who found it sufficient to send others in their thousands and hundreds of thousands to their deaths. when bush took the bait of the 9/11 attack with relish and a flair for the dramatic, bin laden made for the thick of battle -- and perhaps bush can best explain why the US chose not to terminate bin laden at that time, when he was cornered at tora bora.

perhaps bush and cheney had bigger fish to fry: saddam hussein and the oil fields of iraq -- which had already been divvied up by cheney's energy task force. for whatever reason, aside for the occasional tape-recorded taunt, bin laden seemed to fade into an inexplicable obscurity. still, the visage of the bearded one, with his AK nearby, seems to be positioned for immediate access with circumstances called for something dramatic.

on the night on obama's announcement of the death of bin laden, there appeared to be a spontaneous outbreak of exultation from a generation of young americans who have grown up in the terrifying shadow of osama bin laden -- the young came out in revelry, and many a commentator compared the outpouring of emotion as more akin to a football championship that the death of a despised enemy of the state.

and yet, who could expect these youngsters to behave any differently, having been brought up in a media culture that only thinly divides reality from spectacle, and where there's almost no separation between manufactured and real emotion. the chants of USA, USA that seemed ubiquitous in this frenzied celebration of mayhem and murder, were a reminder that the reality of these party animals is completely wound around the false narrative of a bought-and-paid-for media establishment.

no one thought or bothered to question, they merely ripped their shirts off and drank liquor straight from the bottle. the exultation continued the next day, with people glued to FOX news.com for a fix of the straight patriotic dope from your friendly corporate sponsors of conspicuous, ruinous consumption. there, 15 minutes of narrative was spun continuously, hour after hour, by crazed senseless celebrants of the very decadent lifestyle that fueled bin laden's contempt for USA, USA!

still, in 500 years -- if we survive the madness that characterizes the age -- what will the people of that time make of 9/11? will they see the victims of imperialism striking back against the most potent symbols of the global corporate oppressor, bringing down the twin towers in new york city? or will they excuse the rapacity of the US and its partners in trying to establish unquestioned dominance over the energy resources of the planet, with the aim of maximizing profits for multinational corporations and enriching a small circle of insatiable capitalists? will they, like us, consider bin laden a savage enemy and a terrorist?

this seems too simple to me: the arc of history bends toward justice, after all. nor does it really make it any less true, that in his audacity the words were spoken by a hypocritical tool of the oppressing elites.