The Great Divider

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Today's New York Times Editorial highlights a trend in President Bush's speechs that makes me queasy:

In Mr. Bush’s world, there are only two kinds of Americans: those who are against terrorism, and those who somehow are all right with it. Some Americans want to win in Iraq and some don’t. There are Americans who support the troops and Americans who don’t support the troops. And at the root of it all is the hideously damaging fantasy that there is a gulf between Americans who love their country and those who question his leadership.

This rhetorical device, that somehow anyone who doesn't agree with him is at best unpatriotic, and at worst, treasonous, is extremely dangerous and divisive.  While Bush can't actually produce any of these straw men who want the U.S. to fail, he always attempts to make it seem like anyone who questions his actions or policies is anti-American.

What really frightens me, is that he might actually believe what he's saying.  For if, his political opponents support terror, as he insinuates, then what's the next step? 

If Mr. Bush truly believes that his political opponents want to to encourage terrorists, want the United States to fail in Iraq, and that want our soldiers to die, then why isn't he imprisoning them?

Are we a democracy or a dictatorship?  Do we treasure the free exchange of ideas and differing opinions, or are those who would dare to question him going to be declared enemies of the state?

Snarky Halloween History

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For your Halloween enjoyment, a snarky history of Halloween:

Its that time of year again, when the trees vomit colorful dead leaves all over your lawn and the weather can’t decide if it’s hot or cold, or even both at the same time (as Lewis Black once said, "it’s not weather, it’s malaria"). Yes, it is fall and we all know what that means -- Halloween, that festive time of the year when kids dress up in fantastic costumes, bob for apples, and go trick-or-treating. Well, unless they live in a community that has done away with Halloween because some Christians say it’s a holiday for Satan, or some Jews say it’s too Christian, or some Wiccans say it makes fun of their religion (which has as much to do with ancient witchcraft as P. Diddy has to do with Bluegrass, but that’s neither here nor there). Actually, all of those people are wrong about Halloween (plus they are morons). The real roots of Halloween dig deep into the past and are entwined with more than one culture and religion, with Satan and witches nowhere in sight -- well, until the Middle Ages, anyway.

The Beginning of the End of America

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Keith Olbermann continues to be one of the loudest voices opposing this administration, and the damage done to the writ of Habeas Corpus:

We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who may now, if he so decides, declare not merely any non-American citizens "unlawful enemy combatants" and ship them somewhere--anywhere -- but may now, if he so decides, declare you an "unlawful enemy combatant" and ship you somewhere - anywhere.

And if you think this hyperbole or hysteria, ask the newspaper editors when John Adams was president or the pacifists when Woodrow Wilson was president or the Japanese at Manzanar when Franklin Roosevelt was president.

And if you somehow think habeas corpus has not been suspended for American citizens but only for everybody else, ask yourself this: If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an "unlawful enemy combatant"--exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not? Do you think this attorney general is going to help you?

America's Dumbest Congressmen

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Via Radar Online, America's Dumbest Congressmen.  I find it incredibly absurd when people attempt to blame Jon Stewart for making young people cynical about politics.  When these dipshits we elected (and even worse, re-elected) are the best people their party could find, we should be cynical.  My favorite entry has to be the one about Donald Young:

 

The scene: Fairbanks, Alaska, 1994. Congressman Don Young, already in office for 20 years, is on the stump preaching the virtues of Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution to a group of high school students. Just look at all the wasteful things the federal government does with taxpayers' money, he tells them. The National Endowment for the Arts, for example, funds art involving "people doing offensive things ... things that are absolutely ridiculous." One student asks, "Like what?"

"Buttfucking," replies the great scourge of obscenity and instructor of youth.

A Dying Population - Los Angeles Times

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Link to A Dying Population - Los Angeles Times

The L.A. Times has an article about the declining population in Russia, and one of the reasons cited is the poor health of many Russians.  Indeed, that was one of the impressions that I had walking around Moscow and St. Petersburg when I was there.  Health conditions that would be routinely treated here are left untreated there, the majority of the population smokes, and pollution was rampant.

The scary thing is, here, we tend to think of most of those health problems as being long-term, and here they largely don't affect people of child-bearing age.  If conditions have become so bad across Russia that even the younger generation is having its fertility significantly reduced, then they are in serious trouble.

While we in the U.S. celebrated the fall of Communism, all has not gone well in Russia.  The "New Russians" (those who made fortunes in the unstable period following the collapse) are fabulously wealthy, the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg are full of luxury import cars.  But the "average" Russian makes $38 a month.  Think about that, I spent twice that much on my last pair of shoes.

I think the real danger in this is that Russia will turn away from Democracy, toward a more authoritarian state.  Putin has already assumed quite a bit of power, and moved to squelch dissenters, and the sense I got is that the Russians admire, and need, what they perceive to be a "strong" leader, more than one with strong democratic values.

Midwestern Mythmaking in Iowa

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Since Jim Nussle, our crappy congressman, is now trying to be our next crappy governor, that has left our congressional seat open, and a really nasty campaign is now underway to fill it.  The non-partisan Factcheck.org weighs in with reality checks on the campaign commercials of our two lead candidates, which are both bad, though I'd argue that Whalen's (R) commercials are worse than Braley's (D).  An out-of-context quote is pretty shitty, but calling someone a Communist and attempting to make a pre-9/11 defense budget strategy seem like a current plan to gut the military is prime Republican sleaze.  And, frankly, a candidate has no control over who "endorses" him.

So, I hereby form a group called "The Coalition to Force Our Children to Be Gay Atheist Terrorist FemiNazis" and I'm endorsing Mike Whalen as our choice for Congress.