"40% of all workers in L.A. County are working for cash," a scurrilous attack on 'illegal aliens' just emailed me says, "and not paying taxes..because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card."
i.e. They are slave labor, used the same way we have always used migrants -- to do our shit work for barely starvation pay.
The fault lies not in the slaves, but in the slave masters, the corporations, and the wealthy ruling elite who employ them -- and the rest of us who pretend it's all the fault of the poor bastards being ground under our heels.
The corporate media is, as always, a major part of the problem by constantly writing stories blaming the slaves.
And as long as we tsk tsk about the slaves and demand we 'SEND THEM BACK' where they came from (impractical, insane, and inhumane), there will never be a solution.
Of course, if we ever actually did manage to send them back, it would be a disaster. Why, we would have to start paying decent wages to native-born Americans to do all our crappy miserable jobs.
Al Jazeera reports:
CHILDREN KILLED IN US RAID IN IRAQ
Five girls and a baby have been killed in a US raid on a house in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the US military has told Al Jazeera. The US military said two armed men had opened fire from the roof of a house on a US patrol disarming a roadside bomb, prompting the soldiers to reply with tank fire on Tuesday. Following the pre-dawn barrage, US troops carried out "an extensive search of the house and found one male and five females, ages ranging from infant to teenaged, dead", the statement said.....
AP REPORTS:
6 IRAQIS KILLED AS GIs FIGHT INSURGENTS
U.S. soldiers fought with suspected insurgents using a building as a safe house in Ramadi on Tuesday, killing one Iraqi man and five females, ranging in age from an infant to teenagers, the U.S. military said. Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, has been the scene of some of Iraq's fiercest fighting between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents. It is the capital of Anbar province, where many Iraqi insurgents are based.
The bloodshed came on a day that saw sectarian violence kill 10 other Iraqis and wound about 50, police said. The bodies of 50 torture victims also were discovered, most of them in Baghdad and the city of Baqouba to the north, police said. Several of the corpses had been dumped at a bus station or outside a government building....
"After the Thanksgiving Day Massacre of Shiites by Sunnis," Maureen Dowd says, "President Bush should go on ...Fox News and give an interview headlined: 'If I did it, here's how the civil war in Iraq happened.'"
Funny.
The NYT columnist adds that Bush could describe "a series of naďve, arrogant and self-defeating blunders, including his team's failure to comprehend that in the Arab world, revenge and religious zealotry can be stronger compulsions than democracy and prosperity."
Sigh, she started so well.
"...in the Arab world, revenge and religious zealotry can be stronger compulsions than democracy and prosperity" is pure BS, worthy of the Bushit master himself.
What went wrong in Iraq was the decision to invade and slaughter Iraqis. It had nothing to do with 'Arab revenge and religious zealotry.'
What we did was wrong. What we did was evil. And the corporate media, including Dowd's New York Times, bears a major responsibility for it.
Major corporate media spokesmen should go on Fox 'news' and say, 'If I did it, here's how I encouraged the cowardly attack on a helpless nation that had never done us any harm."
I once owned a Stinson 108-2 Voyager, a rag-wing tail wheel plane about the size of Cesna 172. I only put about a hundred hours on it before I ran into problems. The plane needed to be recovered, but when they pulled the old fabric off the wings, they found corroded spars. Basically, I sold it for scrap instead of getting it repaired, which was a damn shame. I was naďve.
Lovely plane. It flew like a much heavier plane, though landings could be a bit tricky. I always landed it three-wheel; I never mastered a wheel landing, a landing on the two main wheels. I tended to bounce down the runway when I tried.
I once flew up to Cape Canaveral, hovered at 7000 feet, and watched a manned Saturn rocket break through the clouds and head for the moon. Well, I sort of saw it. Just as it broke through the clouds, another plane, one of a dozen or so circling for the same reason I was, cut right in front of me for a better look. I had tp concentrate on him and didn't see much of the spaceship. C'est la vie.
Don't know whether I'll ever get to fly again -- I'm still basically one armed from the stroke -- but I hope to. I sure miss it.
In 1963, a Buddhist monk burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon. The monk,Thich Quang Duc, was protesting the repressive policies of the US-backed regime that controlled South Vietnam at the time. The picture of his burning body was astonishing and horrifying. It was on President Kennedy's desk the next day and it became an iconic image of the Vietnam war.
In the end, of course, it changed nothing, and the US war killed two million Vietnamese before it ended several years late.
Jump ahead 43 years. An American antiwar protestor, Malachi Ritscher, stood by an off-ramp in downtown Chicago set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire.
Nobody noticed.
His picture didn't get placed on President Bush's desk the next day. The corporate media didn't care. Nobody was horrified. If we don't care about 600,000 slaughtered Iraqis, why should we care about one American protestor?
His death won't change anything either.
One of mantras in WW2 America was “for the duration.”
You were in the Army “for the duration.” Butter and gas were rationed “for the duration.” New cars were off-limits “for the duration.”
“For the duration” meant for the duration of the war. It seemed like an eternity, but for Americans it was about 3 ˝ years until the war was won.
We have now been in Iraq for longer than we were in World War II -- and the war is lost. How many more will die before we finally admit it and cut and run?
A friend looks at this insanity that I ponderously pontificate about -- stolen elections, for example -- gives it a twist and turns it into inspired satire.
Here two detectives in a murder investigation discover how the Democrats got back in power:
“So why didn’t his hack work?”
“He believed he was out hacked."
“Out hacked?”
“He believed the other side hacked over his hack ..."
On an Amazon page for O.J. Simpson's book, 'IF I DID IT', customers created 333 discussions and 248 tags, Publishers Lunch reports.
Customers tagged this product with: pathetic, racist killer, boycott, disgusting, shameful, murderer, guilty, repulsive scum, shame on Amazon, sick, blood money, boycott Regan books, evil, liar, and killer.
Keith Olbermann of MSNBC is one of the few honest and sane voices in the corporate media. His essay the other day on the travesty of President Bush's trip to Vietnam is a must read.
But he does the same thing that hundreds of millions of Americans routinely do. In discussing casualties in Vietnam and Iraq, it's only American soldiers' deaths that are are of major importance. He barely mentions, it's almost beneath his notice, the millions of Vietnamese and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis we slaughtered.
Reader's Digest has a story about an American soldier who rescued a dog from Iraq -- A DOG!
We have murdered more than 600,000 men, women and children in Iraq, twice that number if you count the Iraqis who died from our murderous embargo under President Clinton and the ugly massacre of fleeing troops and civilians in the first war on Iraq.
And Reader's Digest and its readers gets misty eyed about a dog.
Americans need to join the human race.
Nearly always Yahoo News decides that the most important story of the day is something President Bush did, no matter how meaningless. Today it was how he asked China's help to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and encourage the Chinese people to buy more U.S. goods.
WOW. Heavy, man.
There are other lead stories that are bit more meaty:
* More than 50 killed in attacks in Iraq
* Israeli missile strikes car in Gaza
* Armed patient shot in hospital standoff
* India test-fires nuclear-capable missile
* More rights urged for birth mothers
But Yahoo has another category it labels
Top Stories and, and they are always a hoot!
* Nintendo launches Wii, challenging Sony
* Cruise, Holmes leave for honeymoon
* Jay-Z performs last of 7 concerts in day
* Top-ranked Federer wins 3rd Masters Cup
* Ohio St. tops Michigan in thriller 42-39
WOW. How can you go wrong following the lives of shallow entertainers, sports teams, and the latest must-have toy, eh?
The latest poll found 31 percent approval for President Bush's handling of Iraq.
Remarkable, or as Mr. Spock would say, Fascinating.
Nearly one person in three actually still thinks he is doing well in Iraq, even after:
* He invaded a country that had done us no harm and was no threat?
* Lied about the reasons (the only weapons of Mass destruction he had, we had sold him)?
* His war has left more than 600,000 Iraqi men, women and children dead?
* The cost for the war will approach $1 trillion in the end?
If we could get the names of these people who thinks Bush is doing well, we could make a fortune; they'll buy anything.
Don't you just love the euphemisms of war? Collateral damage, etc?
And then there is this one from Iraq, "American security contractors."
Love it, what a wonderful term for mercenaries -- killers and bullies who don't have to pay any attention to even the absurdly loose 'rules of war' of more organized armies.
And the corporate media, of course, is always so careful to use the euphemism, lest people get a glimpse of one of the truths of our obscene war* in Iraq.
* slaughter
The American people voted decisively against the Iraq war in the last election and as a result, the Democrats regained control of Congress.
So today the Democrats chose pro-war Rep. Steny Hoyer as the next majority leader, rejecting a bid by war foe John Murtha.
What, you expected something to change just because the left wing of the War Party won an election?
Michael Moore is circulating “A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives,” which is, of course, amusing.
Number 2 on his list, for example, says: “We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be ‘different" or "immoral.’ Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.”
And Number 8: “We will never stick our nose in your bedroom or your womb. What you do there as consenting adults is your business.”
But it’s pure nonsense to suggest that the “Democratic majority” is going to anything meaningful about No, 6, “when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water.”
Or to provide universal health coverage, or clean up our air and water, or end the Iraq war, or go after corrupt politicians.
The Democrats, of course, are not liberals and are not about rock the boat, though they may give it a gentle nudge from time to time.
As long as it doesn’t seriously annoy the ruling elite.
"There is a high cost for the low prices."
That statement, made by a protestor after demonstrators stormed a Mexican Wal-Mart, nicely sums up what's wrong with the company. The demonstrators were protesting Wal-Mart's policies of selling low-cost goods at the expense of workers, farmers and public markets.
Ruben Garcia said the discount chain's low prices take business away from the country's traditional public markets and depress wages for workers and farmers.
"If a cantaloupe costs 20 cents at a Wal-Mart, imagine how much the rural farmers are getting for this cantaloupe," Garcia said. "There is a high cost for the low prices.
"If Dems have not learned from what nearly happened to America’s constitution in the past six years, we are in deep shit. .... the elites of the Democratic leadership are immune to the real life consequences of their economic and political decisions.
"I seriously doubt that they will push for any of the things inherent to a civilized post-industrial society, such as ABSOLUTELY FREE universal health care, or ABSOLUTELY FREE universal higher education, or even letting the tens of thousands of poor hapless fucking potheads out of this nation's now privatized prison system. Or kicking McDonald's and Coke out of the nation's school lunch programs.
"And do you actually think they are going to address America's unspoken class system? Nope! But they will use the word class a bit more, just for its resonance of authenticity, but only should it become absolutely necessary."
Joe Bageant of http://www.joebageant.com
Before and after the election, Democrats have been bleating, 'no impeachment, no impeachment, no impeachment.'
Before the election, they worried that the 30 to 35 percent of voters who actually like Bush would be upset. More importantly, they worried that the raving rightwing pit bulls from hell who like Rush Limbaugh are are given free reign in the corporate media would tear them to pieces. Ludicrous and cowardly, but I suppose understandable.
But they are doing the same thing after the election that proved the voters don't support this inept and murderous regime.
Why, for god's sake, why?
Some Democrats say that it's not the time for partisan bickering. Instead they want to work on the Democrats agenda: repeal the tax cuts for the rich, raise the minimum wage, enact universal health care, work on global warming, etc.
Yeah, right. The Democrats are owned by the same corporations and rich oligarchy that own the Republicans, So don't expect anything beyond a tepid minimum raise hike.
Others say that impeaching Bush would mean that we would get the even worse Cheney. Un huh. If you see the mayor commit mass murder in front of City Hall, you don't decide to let it pass because you don't like his successor.
At any rate, Cheney is already president in all but name. If he succeeded Bush because of impeachment, he would be too hamstrung to do any more significant damage.
We can't let Bush go scot free. As Robert Shetterly puts it, what if after WW2 the Germans had said, “Look, we lost the war, our cities are rubble, our people starving, we have no infrastructure, don’t waste your money on some stupid, inflammatory trials at Nuremberg about the people who started this war or thought the Holocaust was a cool idea. Sure, mistakes were made, but let’s just get on with re-building.”
There is no chance of changing our imperialist policies without impeachment. Bush and Cheney will blunder along in Iraq and perhaps even start a new war with Iran, the Democrats will wring their hands, and hundreds of thousands of more will die.
Impeach the bastard.
“...the people that most desire (wars) never seem to fight them...,” LJ’S ginmar says.
I have a suggestion that would take care of that: Let the old men fight.
Throughout history, old men have been sending young men, children really, into battle. Sometimes the cause was just, the mission necessary. Nearly always, however, the cause and mission were the result of greed and hate.
Before we ever send our children to be slaughtered again, I have a modest proposal: For the first time, let us send the old men who vote for war into battle and leave the children at home.
We could start by passing a law requiring every government official who votes for war into the front lines. That's everyone -- from the president to freshmen congressmen, along with the White House aides, those unelected government officials who so often control our destiny.
Next we could reinstate the draft but change the age limits. No longer would we draft children. Instead, the draft age would begin at 30. The upper limit can be 70 or 80 – after all, it doesn't take a great deal of physical strength to drive a jeep or a tank.
We would need special elections to replace the officials marching off to war. A real boon.
Under the pressure of wartime deadlines, the government could throw the election open to everyone and finance the campaigns. That way, we could get rid of the institution of legalized bribery, the Political Action Committees, or PACs.
It's possible, of course, that once these proposals are implemented, they might never have to be put into practice. "Depend on it, sir," Samuel Johnson said, "when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
Perhaps if our leaders were faced with the prospect of doing their own killing and dying, we might get that same wonderful concentration – and a decision that the war wasn’t worth it.
Not when their asses are on the line.
The beltway pundits are agog. They see the election as an earthquake that devastated the political landscape.
As politics go, they may be right.But in the real world, nothing significant is going to change. All the monstrous sins of the Bush administration -- the near destruction of the Bill of Rights, the Iraq war with its hundreds of thousands of dead, our embrace of torture, massive corruption... well, make your own list -- were aided and abetted by the Democrats.
Which is why the Democrats are treating impeachment like a tool of the devil. Any attempt to impeach Bush would display their own moral turpitude.
They'll offer a few timid "liberal' programs and loudly boast how much better everyone is going to be under the Democrats.
In reality, it will be like the "peace dividend" we were going to get at the end of the Cold War. Remember?
I spent my dividend on a cup of coffee.
Bruce Guthrie, the Libertarian candidate for the Senate race in Washington, posted a succinct reply to my blog entry on how badly the corporate media treats third party candidates. "You are absolutely right," he said.
I gave my 20 years of my life to newspapers and while I had few illusions about the 'profession', it was generally a business I could be proud of.
Then President Reagan and Congress gave corporations the right to own and devour the country and one result was the massive concentration in the news business that led to a handful of giant corporations having a stranglehold on the news. The 1996 Telecommunications Act accelerated that trend to the point that 5 or 6 corporations control most of what we see and hear about the world.
Or don't see about the world.
World news that doesn't involve a celebrity -- usually doing something scandalous, or what rightwing extremists think is scandalous -- is rarely seen. Americans are thus almost totally ignorant about the world outside our borders.
And they aren’t much better informed by the corporate media about the national scene. Anything that challenges the worldview of the ruling elite is taboo, not to be covered, at least not in any detail. And since third parties always challenge the worldview of the ruling elite, they are to be ignored whenever possible.
I think the Russians under the Communists got more honest reporting from Pravda. Well, at least as honest.
If you ever wonder why third parties do so poorly in the United States, the Seattle Times coverage of the Washington state Senate race might give you a clue.
The lede to the story, of course, forthrightly tells how Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell handily beat Republican challenger Mike McGavick.
But there were other candidates in the race, and it is true that they were mentioned in the story -- in the very last paragraph of a 25 paragraph story.
"Others on the ballot — Libertarian Bruce Guthrie, independent Robin Adair and Aaron Dixon of the Green Party — were far behind."
That's it, that's all the corporate media thinks you need to know about anyone who dares to challenge the two-party system.
Not that we really have a two-party system, of course. We have one party, the war party.
Republicans will try to steal the election again, just they did in 2000 and 2004 -- and the mainstream corporate media will ignore the theft again, just as they did the last two times.
A group called ‘Video The Vote’ is trying to insure that the Republicans can’t do that again by enlisting people to videotape their local elections.
They say on their website: “In 2000 and 2004, problems plagued the polls in different parts of the country: long lines, eligible voters turned away, voter intimidation, misallocation and malfunctioning of voting equipment.... Starting this election ... people like you and me will document problems as they occur....to make sure the full story of our elections is told.”
If you have a video camera, join the fight.
Learn more about it at:
http://www.videothevote.org/