pat tillman

everyone remember purebred american hero pat tillman? the guy who had 224 tackles in one season? the guy who so valiantly gave his life fighting for our freedoms? the one who was killed by friendly fire? all the controversy over possibly altered testimony regarding his unfortunate death?

well, as it turns out, he was big noam chomsky fan as well. here's the article

He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author.

oh and his mother, mary tillman also said this:

Mary Tillman said a friend of Pat’s even arranged a private meeting with Chomsky, the antiwar author, to take place after his return from Afghanistan — a meeting prevented by his death.

suck it coulter. you too hannity. i assume you knew pat tillman better than his parents? cause you sure don't believe it. it must seem impossible to these people that a person can both serve their country and doubt or criticize the administration. that must be why we're losing in iraq - all those damn liberal traitors in the ranks.

i hope someone legitimately digs down to the bottom of the whole mystery regarding his death, and finds answers for his family. i feel so terrible that his memory has been manipulated for political capital, and i hope those bastards that did so pay the price. once again, helpless to do a damn thing in this situation except watch it unfold.

doesnt bother me though, im just too damn busy gloating at the neocons right now.

nine days

the protests went off in washington pretty much as expected. cindy sheehan got arrested for sitting on some concrete. whole bunches of people got fingerprinted and paid small fines. there were all different types of people, from the grandmothers and hippies of yore, to anarchists and communists, business men and even "bare-breasted women chanting 'breasts not bombs'." mebbe i shoulda been there.

i read somewhere that the estimated cost for rita is gonna be ~6 billion. where the hell are we supposed to come up with all of this money? im not even going to google up numbers on the deficit and budget, i dont need to feed my rage. just like carl sagan asked: what, exactly, are the conservatives conserving? i believe in conservation, and im a liberal *shudders* im still getting used to calling myself that. its truly amazing how well they condition and imprint us here in america. when you see your cage, you can begin to find a way free.

throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. to think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.

think for yourself; question authority. -- timothy leary

thats the advantage i have though.

their philosophy is based on the cult of personality, promoting neither competence nor experience, but total loyalty to dear leader and a constant denial of any or all mistakes. the neocons keep their sheeple in line with fear and an iron fist. the fundamentalists rule thru a rabid defiance of all science and logic, keeping their populace in such ignorance that they cannot even see their chains.

my philosophy is based on education as the primary means of life and independence. i know that knowledge is the purest form of power that exists. my experiences are naturally enhanced when surrounded by knowledge and correct data. i seek not to rule others, but to listen to and command myself. in this way, others will naturally fall into mutual sway, each of us attuning to the pure pearls of truth we all possess.

they will always be legion; hordes seeking to overwhelm the brief points of light in the dark. the contest is eternally fought on unfair ground, with unequal numbers. the mass insanity that consumes homo sapiens is a racial subsconsciousness. to deny the insanity of humanity demands a denial of all objective fact. that subconscious does not reason, it does not learn, and it does not evolve. that is the core weakness.

a few elite within their society are allowed to develop mental prowess and cunning. the rest are defanged as to not risk opposition. they remove potential risks, and in so doing, remove the primary means by which enhancement occurs - the predator/prey adaptations that necessity dictates.

where they utilize a tenth of a percent of their capacity, i attempt to maximize my efficiency. it is the tactic of guerrilas since time immemorial - play to your strengths, prey on their weaknesses, and above all else, stay mobile. oh, and let your enemies do your recruiting for you.

my mind boggles at the apparent ineptness of the current administration. one would think they would like to maintain their current dominance as long as possible. their current actions do not match up with assumptions of intent if viewed thru the lens of american partisanship. only once we step outside of the misinformation society created for us can we realize that even the current actions being taken by the corporate government are in line with their longterm intentions: subjugation of the american populace. we are offered a facade of democracy, constantly tempted to choose what appears to be the lesser of two evils. as a wise man once said, when offered a greater evil and a lesser evil, reject both.

the tree of liberty must be refreshed time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants alike. i say we recreate america in an image that transcends what even the forefathers had so poorly imagined. even if we must begin anew, as they did.

bill maher

i dont always agree with bill on everything, but ive never agreed with someone on everything. ive caught a couple episodes of his show on hbo at my cousins house. while browsing around tonight, bored out of my mind, i happened upon his website at hbo. i meandered into the previous episodes portion of the site and happened upon a whole bunch of quotes. this is a quote used in one of the quotes from the episode.

He is a half-baked man in terms of morality and a Philistene whom we can never deal with. His remarks often stun audiences as they reveal his utter ignorance.

obviously, this is in reference to our president. i completely agree. i know many americans who agree as well. maher followed the quote up with this question:

Now, if the Democrats had had the guts to talk about Bush like that, wouldn't we now be dealing with President Kerry?

would you be shocked to hear that the voice of reason in this case was not american, nor canadian, not even european. this piercing analysis of our "honored" president originated from one Kim Jong Il, who happens to be the head of a nuclear power, North Korea.

does this not disturb you? it shook my very soul. this is yet another example of how far this country has fallen. oh, and here's the cite. im still trying to find up a corroborating source. will post as an update if i manage to hunt one down.

potemkin villages

welcome to potemkin america, via msnbc:

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

if events like this happened rarely, it would be jumping to conclusions. unfortunately, this is the de facto norm in america.

stuff like this makes me sick to my stomach. the mind boggles when considering how bushco apologists will attempt to spin and deflect this little bit of information.

one nation under god

i recited the pledge of allegiance, and i never gave it a second thought. that was the environment i was subjected to.

some kids arent raised in that way. most children go to public school, if they go to school. a large majority of all private schools in my area were christian, and of course, catholic high. some parents are atheists, deists, agnostics, other formalized religions.

almost all of america was christian at the founding. a lot of the founding fathers were as well. some of them were not. the fact that 52 out of 55 constitutional delegates were evangelical christians is mentioned quite often. the term separation of church and state originates in a letter from jefferson to a baptist minister, not the constitution. ive heard all the arguments, i know them intimately; i had them force fed to me during 13 long years of christian school.

well, on wednesday this week, a 26yr senior us district judge followed 9th circuit precedent and ruled that reciting the phrase "under god" has a coercive effect on children of atheistic parents. he barred recital of the pledge of allegiance in three school districts, pending removal of the phrase. an immediate appeal was promised; it will return to the 9th circuit and new panels may be drawn up to hear the case.

now let's step back to 2004, when the supreme court reversed the 9th circuit 5-3 in elk grove school district v newdow. since scotus did not vacate the case, it looks like they upheld the 9th's reasoning, but instead reversed simply on procedural grounds. they declined to even address the constitutionality of the phrase "under god." why open that can of warms?

well, because, you get rulings like this. it gets people fired up over non-issues. narrow minded fundies get this obscene idea their religion is under attack by hippies and heretics. consider the outrage and hatred shown over gays in scouts. it comes down to the relevant text: congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof and the enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

here's my translation: the government may not abridge the free practice of any religion.

how then, can the government exert coercive forces on atheists?

why do we not swear "one nation under the constitution?" see also, James 5:12 - "above all, my brothers, do not swear - not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. let your yes be yes and your no, no or you will be condemned."

if the government governed instead of legislating morality, this and gay marriage, along with many other issues, would simply disappear. the clear fact of the matter is that government funds cannot be used to push any form of religion; it would violate the first amendment right of a non believer, whatever the contrasting religion may be. this is not open to debate, this is subject to logic, not faith.

sunday morning

newsweek says bush has a 38% approval rating. 55% of us dissaprove, 28% are satisfied. margin of error is four points. nothing new, really.

it is nice to be in the majority though. oh, and they mention that its 2 pts lower than when abu ghraib broke. i wonder whats up with the next court hearing for the FOIA request. if pictures of more torture, rape and murder incite the muslim world to riot and fuel the insurgency in iraq, then so be it. america desperately requires a sense of the consequences our actions in the rest of the world, iraq especially, precipitate in the long term.

a new generation of "terrorists" with a fresh atrocity to fuel hatred and vendetta? where's the safety and security in that? what are your plans president bush, if al-qaeda, coordinating with other terrorist groups, were to launch simultaneous actions of mass destruction against two or three separate cities? your splendiferous response to katrina and the nola tragedy is all we can expect? then i dont think we can even hope or pray you have plans.

lets take him out on the horse he rode in on: safety and national security. i still believe diebold played a big role in 2004, and have doubts about 2000, but let's do this one by the numbers, ok?

alright, time for bed, i have the steelers to watch at 1 pm tomorrow.

update: steelers beat the titans, 34-7. big ben was 9 of 11 for 218 yds and two scores, the first perfect passer rating since trent green in 2003. steelers football all the way.

im also going out of town tonight, and i wont be back until wednesday or thursday. have a good week folks.

the poor boys of the national guard

according to the Washington Post and 3 star general Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, possibly 2 out of every 3 national guardsmen in the united states will be called up over the next four months.

Blum also said that in a worst-case scenario, up to 50,000 additional Guardsmen per month will be needed in Louisiana or Mississippi over the next four months to continue providing relief, law enforcement and other post-hurricane services.

Those 200,000 troops, if needed, would represent nearly two-thirds of the approximately 319,000 Guard troops available nationwide.

General Steven Blum also has my respect as a patriot.

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said that "arguably" a day at most of response time was lost due to the absence of the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Infantry Brigade and Louisiana's 256th Infantry Brigade, each with thousands of troops in Iraq.

lie to me more, rumsfeld: "Anyone who's saying that doesn't understand the situation."

thats nothing anyone without an ounce of common sense couldnt have figured out. lie but a general, a 3 star general said it! another one of them has broken ranks. does anyone remember poor general shinseki anymore? i wonder if they'll privately horse whip blum and make him swallow his pride; will he have the honor to resign when confronted by the corrupt forces, or is he just another pawn, more disinformation. shinseki resigned. powell took it all, swallowed his pride, and blatantly lied to the american public. what will general blum do?

democratic rep Gene Taylor, whose waterfront home here was washed away in the storm, told reporters that the absence of the deployed Mississippi Guard units made it harder for local officials to coordinate their initial response.:

"The best equipment went with them, for obvious reasons," especially communications equipment, he added.

is that a subtle admission that we dont have enough "best" equipment to fight, the what, 2 different theater wars and a conflict/maintain security at home? hmmmmm... bush better pray that rove can spin another thirty or fourty issues. the grand jury runs out in octobor... lets see what comes up :)

but those poor boys... here's a caption from the picture in the article

Louisiana National Guards of the 256th Brigade Combat team leave the plane at the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana upon their arrival, Friday, Sept. 9, 2005. The first contigent of about 100 National Guards left Kuwait Thursday to return to the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. Guard officials say 80 percent of the returning force lost homes, jobs and family in the storm and flooding.

coming home to deal with that?! how much more can they handle? how much ecstasy will they need?

i wanna say we've finally "turned a corner" at home, but i cant feel joy when i feel a scintilla of the pain so many others must be suffering. i lost my dad when i was 15, but i didnt lose my mom, or my house, or a job. im 22 now, and im afraid if i came home from fighting this war, to find out my family and everything that meant anything to me was gone, id snap. sure, its not that bad for all of them, but four in five lost something incredibly meaningful to them. i feel like im gonna cry, so im gonna let go of this thread of thought and find happiness somehow.

compassionate conservatism

as many people, net denizens and real lifers alike have pointed out, we finally know the source of the president's "compassionate" conservatism.

on 9/5, dubya's parents were interviewed on NPR's marketplace (editor and publisher has her quotes here). obviously disconnected from real life in the states, barbara bush finally confirms the source of her son's compassion.

"Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

let them eat cake.

except, they didnt have cake, bread, water, or pampers. ill let the nuanced racism slide, because its not "its sort of scary those niggers want to stay here," although its damned close. the last quote is inexcusable. over 2/3rds of new orleans was black (the tenses get confused... are they still from nola?) and a shocking 30% lived below the poverty line. this means a family of four did not earn more than 16,700 dollars a year, before taxes. about 321 dollars a week income, before taxes.

look here. im not a bleeding heart liberal, i dont feel responsible for hauling failing lives out of the gutter. unless i or my country bears responsibility for their lives being in the gutter. almost a third of that city did not have enough money to feed, clothe, and house themselves in a fitting fashion. to insinuate that a hurricane is the solution to basic problems of structural poverty is asinine and absurd. french nobility lost their heads due to sentiments like this. and trust me, the bush family is as close as it gets to nobility in america - that should be apparent. christ, dubya's grandfather did business with the nazis until FDR activated the "trading with the enemy act." he received 1.5 million dollars in the 40s for one share of UBC (one of his interests siezed by the feds)

anyway, im getting far off the point. my point is that america bears responsibility for americans that live in poverty. waiting for a natural disaster to wipe their ghettoes out is not moral, ethical or humane. take the fight to the ghetto, and educate the poor. education has always been, and will always be the way out of poverty - you start with basic literacy, and encourage a love of learning, and the rest will work itself out.

dont get me wrong - there will always be poor. men and women are created with equal human and civil rights. however, all sentient beings are created unequal. the best society provides each with equal opportunity to float at his own level. i dont want to live in a society where we purposefully encourage poverty as a way for the elite-rich to grow even more wealthy. i want a society where everyone is granted equal opportunity to make what they can of their lives.

in summation, off with that cunt's head. she is a cunt of the highest order. 200 years ago, heads rolled for this kind of depraved indifference and condescension. if your god is real, barbara bush, im sure lucifer has contracted for a special part of hell for you and your kin.

in addition, the first lady has come out to defend her husband against kanye west's accusation that the president "doesnt care about black people." here's her response from cnn.com:

"I think all of those remarks were disgusting, to be perfectly frank because, of course, President Bush cares about everyone in our country, and I know that ... I mean I am the person who lives with him. I know what he is like, and I know what he thinks, and I know how he cares about people."

so i have but one pertinent, pseudo rhetorical, question to ask: would you lie to cover for him? i think you would... look what hillary did for bill. maybe its all the xanax, laura?

sorry kanye, but you got it wrong. bush doesnt care about any americans, except his big business interests, and the major campaign contributors. take it all the way, the whole way to truth, and ill have a lot more respect for you.

bush's overall approval rating...

is now at 39% according to an AP/Ipsos poll (+/-3)(pdf). 20(23) strongly approve, 11(10) somewhat approve, 8(9) lean toward approval, 14(13) lean towards disapproval, 5(5) somewhat disapprove, 40(38) strongly disapprove.

this means, more people strongly disapprove of the job he's doing than all that approve, combined. he even lost 3 percent of his base from the prior poll (the quotation numbers indicate the ratings from the prior week).

can we recognize what this means? he's cut off. he's immobile and wounded, and the only supporters he has left are his diehard fundamental christian base (throw in the extremely rich there, as well) now is the time to strike while the iron is hot. oh, and msnbc's homepage is reporting the AP story that mr brown has been removed from managing FEMA's efforts. a good news day, for sure.

all in all, excellent news. ill probably write more later, but i have to get something done today.

UPDATE: Vice Admiral Thad Allen has replaced Mr. Brown as leader of the rescue efforts in nola. Admiral Allen is the head of the coast guard - maybe we shall see real competence now? on a depressing side note, brown has returned to DC. he has not been fired, simply removed from the public eye. soon he'll be getting the medal of freedom.

science, religion, and evolution

i attended a christian private school k-12. we had trimesters instead of semesters, we studied greek and hebrew, in addition to latin and spanish. we had a bible class year round, as well as a math. the bible was the literal word of god. they did acknowledge that men decided what was canon and what was not. in some cases, different men, leading to different sects of christianity, disagreed. strict, biblical creationism was taught: 6 days, ~6000 years old.

now, since ive graduated and moved on from that school, my opinions have changed. sometimes, i still get drawn into a debate about creationism/intelligent design vs evolution. the truth is, there is no real debate. there's no discussion. science is doubt based, religion is faith based. we know the earth is billions of years old. the fossil record bears witness to the course of evolution - we share 97%+ of our DNA with our friends, the chimpanzees.

what is this debate all about? i never hear scientists discussing the validity of modern evolutionary theory. of course it changes! thats what science, as a fact, does. it culls false knowledge thru carefully controlled experimentation; it also enhances knowledge by cross checking against different human intelligences, a process called peer review. that is why scientific thought, applying logic, critical and rational thinking are so far superior to religion. science and spirituality can and should coexist. organized and dogmatic religion is the antithesis of science - it enslaves the majority instead of setting them free to reason for themselves.

im reminded of an exchange reported in carl sagan's science as a candle in the dark. carl sagan asked the dalai lama what his religion would do if science presented proof negating a specific belief. the dalai lama replied that they would have to change - science is indisputable. sagan pressed the question, asking what would happen if science disproved reincarnation, and the dalai lama replied that then, they must once again adapt; however, the evidence would have to amazing and incontrovertible.

creationism is foolish. the earth is far older than claimed, qed. some bishop in the middle ages added up numbers and came up with their timeline. intelligent design is not even subtle creationism - do its proponents have no brains in their heads? if intelligence requires design, the designer requires design, and you have meta-turtles the whole way down. cant these people follow a thought to its logical conclusion? maybe theyre capable, as long as it doesnt contradict their faith based delusions.

until someone with legitimate scientific credentials comes forth to challenge the basic tenets of evolution, this debate isnt even necessary. if creationists are reduced to pointing out my beliefs arent absolute truths, that they adapt to reality and discovery and change, i have no time. im pretty sure einstein proved relativity just like heisenberg proved indeterminancy; thats why i believe in a relativistic, constantly changing universe. if my answers scare you, cease asking frightening questions :-p

first post!!1!1!!oneone!!

here's the deal. there are two primary sites i read for information about the pulse of american net/grass roots politics. the liberal one is dailykos.com, the conservative one is redstate.org. im a libertarian personally. with enough noise from both sides, i can discern some kind of signal.

a majority of posters at redstate are fundamentalist christian conservatives. these men are the pharisees of modern america; american taliban like pat robertson who call for nuking the state department and assassinating hugo chavez. if jesus came back today, he'd be the bastard of an unwed, lower class mother. he'd be on welfare, and forced to flee cultural oppressions to survive; only to confront them, and be put to death in an electric chair for "hating america" and treason or terrorism; whatever was convenient.

to quote Nick Danger, a moderator of redstate.org:

No Purina Human Chow

Go away. I do not want to hear another word about how the poor were "left" to brutal neighborhoods, or how their neighborhoods were "left" in some state, or that the poor were "left to languish" somewhere.

These people are not your pets. They are human beings. It is not your place to feed them, to house them, to clothe them, or to "take care of them" as if they were children or morons.

To the extent that they got whacked by a hurricane or a flood, yes, by all means, we must help them get past that. But then we are done with them, as we must be if they are to have any human dignity.

If there is one benefit to this gradual rightward tilt this country has been experiencing, it is the end of this business of liberal do-gooders keeping vast numbers of human beings as pets.

There will be no more of it. So forget about it.

the overwhelming ignorance displayed is mind boggling. a large majority of people stayed in new orleans for two reasons - they either had no means of leaving the city, via buses, trains or cars; or, they feared that what little they had would be stolen or destroyed in the ensuing chaos. why not tough it out and save what you have? then theres the matter of 30 bodies found in a nursing home - how were THEY to pack their bags and be off to... where?

all levels of the government failed us. trying to spin any aspect of the catastrophic lack of planning and execution of emergency plans for katrina's eventual occurence into political gain is wrong. blatant, mindblank denial of the breakdowns is unexcusable. FEMA now falls under dept homeland security, downgraded from a cabinet level position after 9/11. mr chertoff (dept hs) and mr brown (fema) should both be fired for brazen incompetence. the consequences would be no less severe if al qaeda or some other terrorist group blew up the levees in nola. indeed, they'd be far worse, as the rich and middle class would be caught as well - without warning, just like the san francisco earthquake in 1906. the same disaster where they had troops on the scene, detonating houses to create firebreaks within the very day. this was scores of years before cell phones, email and satellites.

the goal is simple now: save lives. save as many as we can. there are still people dying, and we're going to be turning up bodies for weeks, if not months. i believe the state government is considering buying a massive plot for burials of all the victims (could be the locals though). then accountability comes. we dont need a republican, democrat or bipartisan committee to investigate the mistakes that occured; we require some real action. the mistakes are inexcusable, the lesson to be learned is inimitable: the government no longer cares for or executes its basic duties; the conduct of both parties is inexcusable, there is no real dissent or difference discernible to the unconcerned eye. subtle differences exist, with which to polarize and divide the populace into voting blocs.

need i remind us of the declaration of independence, one of the crowning moments of american democracy?

"we hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government ...all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invaraibly the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

the tide of ignorance drags on, thinly veiled in institutional wisdom. do we not require new, innovative solutions to our new problems? can we expect these answers to come from indoctrinated intelligences that dealt with problems in the past, and did it terribly? "the real problems in our world are not being confronted by those in power. in the guise of public service, they use whatever comes to hand for personal gain. they are insane with and for power ... the attack by those who want to die - this is the attack against which you cannot prepare a perfect defense." - the dosadi experiment.

so tell me, what is to be done? shall i surrender hopes of resurrecting the glory of american freedom? other countries exist where freedom has a larger scope, where one could reasonably expect to affect a positive change in the government. i feel helpless in america, i despair that our country is already treading the road to fascism and despotism that all governments eventually degrade into.

i guess i just hate america :/