An Alternative Way to See the French Revolution

George Washington spent more than any other President, as a percentage of the budget, on spies and the like, maybe 20%. What was he doing with it? Well, some of it went to agitate for Republicanism in foreign lands. Like France. What did it get for France? Robespierre and the Jacobins. The origin of the word TERROR comes from the French "Reign of Terror," led by Robespierre. After that French Republic fell apart, France got Napoleon. So, the word terror itself is a result of US interference in foreign affairs. Not to mention our constant massive money flow to the repressive Middle East regimes, which, naturally, lead every middle eastern citizen to loathe our hypocrisy.

From Nepal

What I hope I would sound like if I were a rebel leader. From Baburam Bhattarai, International Department, Nepalese Maoist Rebels An Open Letter to the U.S. Ambassador. Linked from the slightly unusual (Kurds are Maoists?) People's War blog.

The story of the Chicken and the Other Animals

I am reminded of a story, about a little Chicken who wanted to make some bread. So, the Chicken went to the lazy snake and said "Want to make some bread?" and the Snake asked "How?" and the Chicken said "Don't ask questions, you stupid Snake, Yes or No?" and the Snake said "No." Next, the Chicken went to the Dog, who just liked playing. The Chicken asked again "Do you want to help me make some bread?" and the Dog asked the same question as the Snake, so the Chicken decided it better answer and said "By knocking over the gas station down the street." and the Dog said "I thought you said bread?" and the Chicken said "Sure, bread, dough, manna, moolah, 'BREAD'. That gas station has to be worth 6 trillion dollars (actual estimate of the value of Iraqi oil)" and the Dog said "No way!" and the Chicken said "If you reveal my plans, I will have you executed." and the Dog said "Whatever" and went off to play. Well, the Chicken didn't have any luck with the threats and the bribes, and eventually everyone in the whole farm knew the Chicken was planning to Knock Over the Gas Station, and the Chicken did. Afterwards, all the other animals came over to the Gas Station, to see what was going on, and they could see the Chicken was getting its feathers singed, that the gas station attendants were bound and gagged, and a few friends of the Chicken were putting up signs that said "Open for Business" and "Chicken is the Best Ever!" and trying to change the prices over the pumps. Not many people were buying, so the Chicken and Chicken's friends went to all the other animals and said "Fuck you, you stupid fucking animals, stop talking about what is going on, because that is irrelevant, the only relevant thing now is that you ALL CARE that the attendants are dying and I am getting my feathers singed, so fetch a pail of fucking water AND SNAP TO IT!" The other Animals turned away, made some animal droppings, and left. PEICE OF SHIT BUSH!

When should the troops come home?

The day Saddam is found, I guess. The trick is, of course, they aren't really looking for him. So, in addition to forcing the soldiers into an hour or two of arabic language training EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, would be to put them on the track of just hunting him. Everyone else should go home as civilian replacements (police) can be found. America doesn't have such police. So we are kinda fucked.

Antonin Scalia, a Moron (Relatively Speaking)

     Scalia believes in crap called "Original Intent," which, to the layperson's eyes, can only appear to be the position of a fundamentalist in a sort of religious war. (Scalia, being a devout Catholic, probably doesn't recognize the similarity between the Reformation (look to the Bible, not the Church) and his own philosophy of law). Original Intent means a person looks back to the writings of that day, and it tries to have its practitioner imagine what the people who drafted the early laws of this Country were thinking (what they "intended") .

     Scalia might have had the time to read most, if not all, of the different things James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and others, read, but that is not likely, since a lot of it is garbage now (Have you ever tried Francis Bacon? It was revolutionary... then.), and, I know in Thomas Jefferson's case, we don't know what he read before 1770, nor do I think Scalia has read much of the massive number of architectural and horticultural work popular back then, which we also know Jefferson was familiar with. Again, the Science of the day was pretty low, and a lot of is obviously low now.

     But even if he had, his "Original Intent" garbage philosophy does _not_ allow for the obvious, that each person can see a different intent. Setting yourself out as an expoert on what people were thinking 200+ years ago, when we only have a vague understanding of what they were doing, seems the height of folly.

     Antonin Scalia stopped the recount, constantly referring to the "intent of the voter." The intent of the voter is not necessarily what the ballot says, but what the voter intended.

     Antonin Scalia believes in judging the Constition based on the "intent of the founders." The "Original Intent" of the Founders is not necessarily what the Constitution says, but what the Founders intended.

Was McCarthy a traitor? Yes.

or, "Did McCarthy think Eisenhower was a Commie Spy?"

     McCarthy never had proof of squat, he was making it up as he went along, which is proved in the rapidly varying numbers of communists he cited.  Then, of course, there is the fact that Whittaker Chambers can not be considered without motivation.  To the best of my knowledge, Alger Hiss _never_ showed up in any of the post-Cold War released Soviet documents.

     But McCarthy was a traitor because IF there had been communist spies in the government, he should have brought that information to the proper authorities, instead of taking it straight to the press.  This makes it obviously a political ploy, grandstanding.  The President, then, Dwight David Eisenhower, is head of the Justice Department.  Even if McCarthy didn't trust the Attorney General, he certainly didn't think the 5 Star General was in on it. Ergo, he could have taken it to the proper authorities.

     The charges were bogus, he had little idea what he was talking about, but even if he had, he did an evil thing with the information, which UNDOUBTEDLY HELPED the Communists hide their behavior (stay low till the coast is clear, kinda thing).

     To me there is an important distinction between a person who believes in a freely elected government and more redistribution of wealth, and someone who was secretly working for the Soviets.

AHOH Part 2: We Get Big!

Around 30 mya (million years ago) the Alps and the Himalayas rose up and became the world's first major (tons of square miles) mountain ranges. If you were a boring old Wildebeest or even a Zebra, you wouldn't have much reason to venture up onto the rocky wastes of this new, more vertical, land. And if the victims of the great hunger hunt won't go up, neither will the predators. Of course, eventually, it is going to look like a good place to someone, and they are going to give it a try. Who is going to do well in this upright new world? Why not the little guys who already are used to scampering up and down trees? I wonder if we didn't go through a major bird-eating phase at this time, since birds would have had a good time up there, too. We were already used to thinking of the world in terms of up and down, along with right and left.

A History of Humanity

I am now going to describe the history of the human species on Earth. All mammals were born onto the Earth about 60 mya (million years ago). The salient features of these early mammals were four-limbs, good eyes, and a sense of smell that detects both natural smells and inter-species communication smells. The earliest main branch, a mere 6 million years later, has an important lesson for later human development, the hippos. The hippos are aquatic mammals. Aquatic mammals can live on the border between land and water, and can avoid predators in either realm (land or water) by moving to the other. Since their 1. aren't "amphibious" predators (hippos used to be smaller, but I am having trouble picturing a frog that big) and 2. no co-ordination between land and sea predators (Lions and Sharks Unite!), this was quite successful. The group of animals that eventually gave rise to humans are now called proto-simians, and are represented by the lemurs, tarsiers, and a few other rare cute, fuzzy animals. The main feature that this group had over the run-of-the-savannah mammals was the whole climbing thing. Up and down, in the branches, skipping away from lots of enemies if there is a nearby tree and the chaser isn't agile enough to leap from one tree to the next (since most predator cats can climb trees pretty well). This worked pretty well, but there were CONSEQUENCES (and repercussions). One, and I think this one was the beginning of the end for any chance that any other species was going to take over the planet, we started thinking about things NOT ONLY in terms of the grassy plains, and patches of grassland, bodies of water, and forests around, BUT ALSO in terms of up and down (3D!). Birds, of course, do this, but why would a lion? Of course, we still were pretty much small fry in the whole scheme of things, although some of them looked a little fearsome. Two, and this gets relevant more and more later, is that branches break off in our hands. What happens when this happens? Well, it might have happened a million or a trillion times before anyone did anything with it, but a broken branch has many potential uses. It is, foremost, captivating. "How come that monkey is making that rustling noise with that leafy, funny appendage, and how come the monkey all of a sudden seems so much bigger?" Spearing must have come much later, but, simply throwing sticks might prove to be a small advantage sometimes, if any early monkeys figured out to do it. Next: We Get Big!

Tom DeLay, House Majority Leader, Completely Batshit

In this article from the Washington Post, Tom DeLay, 2nd most powerful Republican (technically, more likely the 1st most powerful) in the United States House of Representatives said

Democrats want to return to the weak and indecisive foreign policy of the Cold War ... They seem not to recognize our nation is genuinely threatened by a real and dangerous evil, the destruction of which must be the single unifying purpose of our nation.

Dear Mr Loonypants. Who won the Cold War? How many millions of dead did it cost the United States? Answers? The United States won, and we never had to fire a shot directly at the Soviets. Now, Mr Loonypants, our nation is not threatened by terrorism. Our Nation came nowhere near destruction after the hijack-bombings at the WTC and Pentagon. Imagining the worst (don't, but, think about it sometime) attack possible by terrorists and still, our Nation would continue to survive. They are few, and relatively powerless. They can hurt us, make it sting, bring tears to our eyes, kill some milli-percentage of us, but they will never defeat us (I mean, as long as people like you don't let them, which you seem bent on doing). We can not destory "terrorism" anymore than we can destroy murder, or theft. Terrorism is a crime, and, like any other, deserves to be dealt with by the proper authorities. Dear Mr Loonypants, Tom DeLay, perjurer(seems so), laughable clown, go away.

Bush spits at United Nations

American media applauds range and volume. President Bush went to the United Nations to repeat the claim that he was, in fact, entirely justified in destroying a country that had no WMD, and hadn't been involved in 9/11. He wants, of course, your money and your support (he is a very practiced fundraiser) This reminds me of the story of the Chicken who walks to all the other animals and the Chicken paces back and forth and says to all the other barnyard animals... "Let's go knock over that gas station!" and all the other animals say no, and then the Chicken wants the other animals to chip in doing the jail sentence and paying the fines. Take for example, Bush's FIRST words to the UN. He brought up 9/11. The whole freaking point was that if Saddam HAD HAD something to do with 9/11, then, well, at least the war wouldn't have been illegal from an American perspective, although still a violation of international law. And, in fact, if Bush had tried to prove Saddam had been linked to 9/11, and been succesful, the UN would have, more than likely, gotten on board. But, despite the lame attempt to re-educate Americans about the truth, the first thing Bush says to the UN is "9/11 9/11 9/11" and that is supposed to do what? Confuse them? They are not as stupid as you hope, I fear(?)

Stupid Fascist Stooges

Who does Wolf Blizter think he is impressing? Will they kill his children (if that spermless wonder has any) if he reports something truthful? Ahmed Chalabi isn't controversial, he is a CONVICTED CRIMINAL. Not only is he wanted in Jordan for criminal behavior, but he is the MAIN SOURCE of all the LIES about WMD. This is the guy who said Saddam had WMD, and everyone in America (well, every STUPID person in America) believed him. The politicians ate it up. Chalabi should be in jail for life for falsely bringing our Nation to war. Wolf Blitzer is as bad as any Fox News Fascist Stooge.

I made it, I like it

I came up with a funny name for Bush's foreign policy, but I think it is quite apt. Oil Liberation Theology Reminds me of the time our current "President" Bush went to Nicaragua. He was there for one day, it happened to be the anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Romero, of the Roman Catholic church. Bush the Dumber didn't bring it up (Romero was killed by RIGHT wingers you see, so it must have been AOK) In fact, he was there to boost the reputation of the right wing government, which had recently won an election over Daniel Ortega, and had used this as a campaign strategy... Remember last time Ortega was in charge? Remember how the USA sicced the Contras on us? Do you want that again? I think anyone who threatens his population with US backed death squads deserves our support. And let that be a lesson to the rest of you. Vote for the pro-US candidate or your election means JACK SQUAT. I mean, ahem, we can't have elections getting in the way of US Foreign Policy.

Latvia, Two for Two

In the tiny, insignificant collection of countries that Herr Bush assembled before his monstrosity of a war, I noticed that very few were Republics at the Foreign Policy Level, but more noticeable was that, of the Republics, most had their elections on dates far in the future. Iceland's election was first, and proved to be the end of a career fortheir Prime Minister. He supported the Iraq War. Latvia's election was second. The minute after the election, one of the groups in the ruling coalition dropped out. In other words, if you have to face elections, you would have had to been stupid to back the latest Iraq War. In case you were wondering, Stalwart American ally, the King of Tonga, is still King of Tonga.

Berlusconi, Fascist at heart?

I have mentioned before that Bush&Co's only European allies were the Constitutional Monarchies (well, the UK doesn't even have a Constitution, but they stlil have a Queen), led by Queen Elizabeth the Second, King Juan Carlos, and Queen Beatrix. The exception was Silvio Berlusconi, who is a coalition government with the neo-fascists of Italy. In case you didn't think that was meaningful, check this out. Berlusconi recently said, in remarks he didn't intend to be public (as if that's some sort of excuse?) that Benito Mussolini was a "benevolent dictator" who sent his political enemies (and the Jews) "on holiday" and had "no blood on his hands" Italy sent 9,000 Jews to the death camps, almost 8,000 were killed. I worked for an Italian woman who was pressed into forced farm labor, and was forced to submit to sex with a soldier, all in the "Benevolent" Benito's Fascist Italy. Berlsuconi and Bush, axis to the end. I mean, Allies to the end. Perhaps there was some error in translation? Teach me some Italian, show me!

Bush, in league with the Tyrants

I am not talking about Bush being in league with the terrorist Orlando Bosch, which Bush&Co love. Bush loves terrorists, you just have to kill the right children. Bosch kills Cuban children, and that is why Bush loves him. Bosch tries to blow up Polish freighters, and we all know that if the Solidarity Trade Union movement in Poland hadn't happened, Reagan and the Conservatives would have had a MUCH easier time destroying the last vestiges of the right to organize in this country. Bush has simply declared that the terrorists want us out of Al-Iraq. He said it in such a way to make it sound like anyone who would suggest that we should get out of Al-Iraq is in league with the terrorists. Therefore, anyone who disagrees with Bush is a terrorist. Stalin couldn't have said it any better. The President really makes me angry, for sounding so insipid all the time. And he still is supporting terrorists within the United States, Bosch, and some guy in NYC.

Pathetic Fascist Line Up

After years of trying to convince people Saddam was connected with 9/11, and after more than a year of knowing that most people still think the two are connected (i.e. Saddam was behind it, rather than the actual truth, that a decade of sanctions for WMD that were destroyed in 1991 was Osama's 2nd best recruiting jingle, after the Israel/Palestine situation), our fraidy-cat President took a stab at being "Educator-In-Chief" and expressly stated that he had no reason to believe Saddam was connected to 9/11. Well, I sure don't fucking appreciate making this effort AFTER we already killed 10s of thousands of Iraqis. (Innocent civilian dead stand between 3 and 7K (not counting those that die of starvation, bad water, or because of the lack of infrastructure/services)) But most telling was WHO was sitting next to him when he gave this little "update" to the people. Rep. Tauzin (the fascist Cajun in Congress) and Sen. Pete "Pork" Domenici. Some of Tauzin's behavior is indicative of the worst in Congress. When the election 2000 races were called early (before the polls closed (Florida) and before the real count was known (nationwide), Tauzin led a press conference. 95% of journalists (seem) never dig beyond press conference information for their reporting. Anyway, Tauzin brought up the regrettable fact that the Florida race was "called" early, and mentioned several television stations in order to lay the blame. What the shameless Murdoch-ball-licking fascist negelected to mention WAS THAT FOX NEWS CALLED FLORIDA EARLY! Can you imagine it? One station jumped the gun, the other followed, and Tauzin lists the others, not his fascist leaders at FOX News. Damn them to hell. Sen Domenici, well, his long story can't be made short. The Senator will say the most outrageous GOP party-line crap and not bat an eyelash. Tauzin and Domenici are both horribly second rate men, both GOP "loyalists" (hacks) who can't reason, lack principles, and certainly deserve to be turned out, but, of course, the same industries they protect with their laws are the ones that get them re-elected. Tauzin recently cited a 5 year old study, that had been ENTIRELY DISCREDITED 2.5 years ago, to convince (lie to) the public to push through his corporate fascist energy bill.

1600 Potemkin Avenue, The White House

Biggest deficits in history. Most unstable foreign polocy situation since the Cuban Missile Crisis? And the Bush administration is going to spend millions, if not billions, to beautify Pennsylvania Avenue. Sounds like they already spent 100s of thousands of dollars, if not more, planning on it. The Potemkin Village was an invention of Russian government officials, I believe. If the Czar wanted to know how the peasants were doing, they'd put up a shiny new town-front, and walk the Czar through. Some suggest the recent expenditure of 1billionUSD+ on the beautification of St Petersburg for its 300th anniversary was a modern Potemkin Village. Sounds about right. A modern definition, for example, from InfoPlease

a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.

Point out the page!

I read some, and am working on more, of the Congressional report on the September 11th attacks. I don't think there is one problem revealed in the whole report that was fixed by the Patriot Act.

A most exact and technical crime of the Bush administration

P.O.W. status for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay NOW!

Reading some articles from Thomas Jefferson's Commonplace Book

I was trying to look up his thoughts on Montesquieu. This book, his Commonplace Book (legal, not literary) he worked on for many years, and was intended as a source book, containing a number of facts about cases and legal history that would be of use to a professional lawyer, as well as opinions and recitations of facts Jefferson learned from other writers. I was most interested in articles 775-, concerning Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, but am started with 735. 749 begins a discussion of Republics which are, Jefferson writes "worthy of attention in constituting an AMERICAN CONGRESS" [emphasis and italics from the 1926 edition from Johns Hopkins] Jefferson begins 754, with this...

All Europe was beholden to the Northern nations for introducing or restoring a constitution of government far excelling all others that we know in the world.

Here he is referring to Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Poland Holland: We call them the United Provinces now, but Jefferson called them "the united states" Switzerland: no canton could have its troops forced into a foreign war, for any reason Denmark Until 1660, the King of Denmark did not necessarily follow heredity, but could be chosen by a near universal suffrage. Jefferson does not say, but I presume he means male suffrage. Jefferson read Robert Molesworth "An account of Denmark as it was in the year 1692", London, 1694 for this information, which also related how the Danes would not suffer long if they made a poor decision, but instead would depose, or banish, or destroy the malefactor, formally or quickly. Sweden In the middle of the 1300s, Sweden also would elect her Kings, although generally following the rules of primogeniture. Interestingly, the wealth of the Swedish Kingdon was mostly in the hands of the clergy. I suppose that fits with my general conception of religious authority in the dark ages. The Swedish King was nothing more than President of the Senate in peacetime, and Commander of the Armed Forces in war. The Archbishop of Upsal filled in for any interregnum, yet, even before that, Jefferson writes "The Archibishop of Upsal was a senator of course." I mean, didn't you all say to yourselves "Of course, the Archbishop of Upsal, why wouldn't he be a Senator?"

Corporatism, Fighting Republicanism for Money

Top 5 countries in 2003 for foreign investments...

1. China (Tyranny)
2. Angola(massive mineral wealth, but I'm sympathetic)
3. Hong Kong (does that make China #1, again?)
4. Ireland (Tax dodge haven)
5. Malta (dunno)

Corporations invest money in places, they don't care about freedom, or Republicanism, just in profits.

Corporate Fascism on the Mall

That insipid tart, pandering for football. Corporate ads all over the public space in D.C. It's the first time in American History the Mall at D.C has been used for corporate advertising. By the way, Coors Light, Pepsi and AOL Broadband are ALL topped by big GOP contributors. Were liberal corporations allowed to advertise? The President is illustrating his utter hypocrisy even in moral issues, as long as money is involved.

Rumsfeld (i.e. Bush), trying to destroy Iraq

1. Rumfseld says the Iraqis need more troops, for their own protection, for the protection of their Nation
2. Rumfseld is not going to provide those troops, saying other people should
3. The USA is the sole governing authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer being the ultimate civiliian authority, a civil dictator

Basically, we know what they need, and they we are the only ones authorized to give it to them, but fuck them, we aren't going to pony up.

George Allen, Senior Senator from Virgina, Despicable

     This post has been edited to remove some of the cursewords.

     George Allen actually had the gall to call Miguel Estrada a "Horatio Alger" story.

     Most Americans can't remember the origins of the phrase, so I shall be remindful. Horatio Alger's stories were always of lucky, plucky, moral poor people who wind up acheiving great success. They are the classics of the "Rags to Riches" genre. Although all the success stories involved luck, no one could begrudge the lucky heros, because they were upstanding sorts in the first place.

     Miguel Estrada grew up among the elites in Honduras. His family has/had access to power and wealth.  His family also benefitted from being of Spanish descent in a culture that distinguishes between all sorts of mixes of Spaniard, African and South American (Indians) in a way that makes the former American Apartheid look positively open-minded.

     Anyone who tries to call elites "Horatio Alger storyies" is stupid, ignorant, evil or a patsy.

     What is George Allen?

     Not that Frist's comments weren't despicable, or that Specter's comments were defensible, but the Horatio Alger shit just stinks.

     Eh, who knows, maybe it can all be blamed on a hapless "aide,"

Riverbend and the Government of Reconstruction in Iraq

From Iraq, Riverbend writes

As May was drawing to a close, his [ed:Riverbend's cousin's] manager told him that someone from the CPA [ed: Coalition Provisional Authority] wanted the company to estimate the building costs of replacing the New Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they went out and assessed the damage, decided it wasn’t too extensive, but it would be costly. They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc. Let’s pretend my cousin is a dolt. Let’s pretend he hasn’t been working with bridges for over 17 years. Let’s pretend he didn’t work on replacing at least 20 of the 133 bridges damaged during the first Gulf War. Let’s pretend he’s wrong and the cost of rebuilding this bridge is four times the number they estimated- let’s pretend it will actually cost $1,200,000. Let’s just use our imagination. A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around- brace yourselves- $50,000,000 !!

IN OTHER WORDS, HALLIBURTON IS JACKING UP PRICES FOURTEEN HUNDRED PERCENT! The Republican Party, when it began, instantly became the most corrupt regime in U.S. History. The Republican Congress sold out America to the railroads, Oakes Aames, Conklin and the hapless U.S. Grant were constantly making money off America. The Republican party was started to end slavery. This goal is accomplished, let the party retire. Let their MASSIVE FRAUD AGAINST US TAXPAYERS, both during Civil War Reconstruction and Iraqi Reconstruction, can not be tolerated. OK, maybe Riverbend didn't actually get the numbers right the first time, and maybe she hasn't gone back to change them, but it still SOUNDS like it is worthy of an investigation... where's the press corps?

Bush's Labor Day speech

We might have had a recession, two years ago, but the economy is still shedding jobs. Every Bush tax cut has been bad for the economy. This is primarily because of the secondary effects. Even though the 1990s showed the greatest productivity growth in decades, wages did not rise as they normally did. In fact, at the bottom of the 1991 recession, people felt they had more job security than they did in 1996, at the height of the boom. Job security now is even lower than at the bottom of Bush's father's recession. This is fundamentally shaky ground is the context for massive upper clas tax cuts. The fact is, any President should be allowed to lie to America like Bush is doing, on the matters of our economic future. Sometimes realism is in order, but it isn't a crime to be optimistic. The crime is that the media just echoes what he says. The big American cable news stations emphasize his points for him. There is no questioning. We have to expect It is the Death of Critical Thinking. Isn't this the most anti-Intellectual age since the Dark Ages? Seems like it to me. Well, Bush had to go back to 1908, a terrible, corrupt time in the history of US Government, the most partisan and fractured time in our Nation's history, to make a point on how long workers used to have to work to afford a car. It was so bad in America, in 1908, that 1912 proved to be the most succesful year for a Socialist candidate for President in US History. Eugene V Debs. Excess by either side usually results in victory for the other. At least we can hope.