For what I can only guess could be a lack of corporate interests offering to pay him to obstruct, Senator Lieberman did something admirable for once in his life by leading an effort to repeal DADT. The military’s bigoted practice of banning openly gay members from serving seems to finally be at an end. Sure, I’ve written here before about our need to end such a practice, but what does it mean to us as anti-war leftists? Doesn’t this just mean that the military now can draw from a larger pool of cannon fodder?
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Laughing tears is how I’d describe my reaction today to the morning’s news. I mean this shit is so predictable that I guess it’s pretty unsurprising when it actually happens, but a part of me always expects to be wrong; so when I am right I can’t help but be a little shocked. Now, what is it that is eliciting such a reaction from me on this fine December morning? Well, our sage president, guardian of hope, sentinel of change, has reached a “deal” with congressional Republicans regarding Bush’s tax cuts (set to expire in just a couple weeks) and benefits for the millions of workers unemployed by those receiving Bush’s tax cuts. The measures of said deal are so unapologetically classist in favor of bourgeoisie interests that I’m having trouble understanding how this in any way constitutes a “compromise” as it is being hailed by the powers that be.
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As more and more comes out of the Wikileaks’ latest deluge of secret documents released, the more I am shocked by what I learn. I’m pretty cynical by nature and yet some of this shit makes my jaw drop. I’ve already wrote about those that would rather stay asleep listening to Obama’s siren song and are calling for the silencing (or even killing) of these leakers. Now, I read on Mother Jones about how Obama worked with the GOP to quash any potential investigation into Bush’s torturous presidency. I guess at this point I shouldn’t be surprised.
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An eventful holiday season this seems to be! Right now, I seem to hear about the evils of Wikileaks from almost everywhere. Liberal blogs froth at the mouth, furious at the privilege of receiving more information on what their cherished Obama administration is really up to. I think it’s an anger analogous to someone refusing to be woken up in in the morning after a late night of drinking. The alarm goes off, but the rude reality – that it is indeed morning – is angrily denied and the alarm is silenced, or smashed. The ever-growing infamy of Julian Assange has become dangerous around the world. I wonder if he will take Ecuador up in their offer of residency? Will he be silenced?
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I’ll be travelling this week to see family, like many of you, and I simply can’t wait to see if I’ll be awarded the chance of either radiation dosage or molestation before being deemed “safe” to fly. These new procedures are an awkward attempt to make Americans feel like they are safe from terrorism in the air, that’s what this is all about, isn’t it? After all, these devices and procedures aren’t really here for our protection. Reactionary tactics like these and taking one’s shoes off while limiting the amounts of liquids allowed through security are just treating symptoms and ignoring the problem.
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Hilariously, the predicted outcome of this month’s election has yielded ever more predictable outcomes. Barack Obama, who has never been remotely interested in the progressive agenda – yet curiously courts a large portion of the progressive vote (or used to) – now has the perfect cover story for the demise of any cosmetic hope and or change he might have been politically forced to introduce. The Republicans, destroyers of all that is good and holy, have achieved a majority status in our sacred House of Representatives. How then, are any of the things that our beloved leader promised us (and proceded to sit on his ass and ignore for two years) supposed to pass into law?
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I love elections. For some reason, since I was a child, they have always fascinated me. Not because I have some vested interest in what the results are or because I have a stake in candidate X or Y. I’m not entirely sure why but because of this, I stayed up late watching the results of the election on television. Though I was completely sober, the layers of dishonesty displayed by pundits, candidates, and analysts were so thick that I felt drunk. Meaningless phrases like “discretionary spending”, “big government”, “1994″, “loud and clear message”, “small business”, and “runaway spending” were thrown around so often that I had trouble following what was even being said. What it did clarify was how Americans could time and again return these thieves to power: the dishonesty is so pervasive that it creates an imaginary world with problems that don’t exist and solutions that could never work. Like Greek sirens, listening to these people will cause you to fall into this imaginary world and only leads to ruin for us all.
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This just dedicated to all the people that will still argue with me on the merits of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. People who rage against Iraq but still, for some unexplainable reason, see our presence in Afghanistan as some sort of moral imperative – as some sort of cleansing of the world’s evil. I don’t know why I try to engage in these conversations still. My actions express a belief that I’m going to change their minds but my mind knows better and yet I try. One more time, here we go:
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Elections. Oh Elections. We know because of the media’s dialog this year that the public, like the dependable pendulum it is, is going to return Republicans to power this year and this is largely due to Democrats doing nothing but screwing us since ’06 (and really, since forever). Stepping aside the lengthy digression of why we seem only willing to continue returning those who have only ever hurt us to power; this seems to be a retaliation for the Democrats’ grandiose plans that we never got and were either scrapped, watered-down, or reversed entirely. Personally, I think it would be hilarious to see the Democrats keep their position of power, thus removing the inevitable excuse of “oh, if only the Democrats were in the majority, [bullshit] would be so much better!”, and forcing them to spend yet another several years showing us how eager they are to do nothing.
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We were told in February of 2009 what President Obama had in mind for our imperial ambitions in Iraq. The history of the state of Iraq is a sad story of Western imperialism. From the British border designations ensuring dependence on foreign powers, U.S. and British backed coups against emancipatory governments, installation of Western-friendly dictators who later became our enemies, and over two decades of bloody conflicts. The terrorism and destruction that is the history of Iraq can only be laid at our feet. The Obama Orwellian diatribe spoon-fed to us about ending combat operations can (and should) only be seen as a continuation of the horrific policies.
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