A number of people have passed me this link about wireless networking being identified by the US Feds as the latest “terrorist tool” and how someone with an unsecured/open wireless network would be considered a “terrorist collaborator”. Let me be very clear on the future of the internet: the future of the internet is cheap, anonymous, untraceable, and unmonitorable. That's an unstoppable truth. The only way the US can avoid that is by cutting itself off from the rest of the world and throwing out the civil rights of it's population. Oh, wait…
Before I get into the heavy stuff, I was playing the latest PopCap game last night when Rachel walked behind me, started laughing, and yelled “screen capture! screen capture!” I didn't know why, since I was wrapped up in playing the game, but this is just too perfect:
I don't know if anyone's been paying attention to the story about the Israeli soldier that shot a UN official from close range in the back, but I think the British are crazy if they think they're getting an answer out of Israel. The last few years have made it very clear that nobody pushes Israel around, the US included. I'm sure there's a reason, I'm sure it's a reason the public wouldn't accept, and I'm sure they'll never hear it.
AntiWar.com just published an excellent article on “The Israelization of America” talking about how America is beginning to emulate Israel's policies — covert crimes becoming “points of pride”, pre-emptive strikes, militarization of politics, remote funding, human rights violations against its own people, occupations, and of course playing the terror card. Now, one might be able to make the case that Israel needs to play it that way to succeed. I don't agree, but one could make the argument. But America doesn't live in that world, and one can't make that argument for America without appearing ignorant under any objective scrutiny.
Most of you know about the criminal Poindexter (convicted of five felonies but given immunity for his testimony) being put in charge of the Total Awareness project, but now Elliott Abrams (seriously!) has been made the director of Middle Eastern Affairs. For those that don't know, Elliott Abrams is the aggressively pro-Israel neo-con that pled guilty in 1987 for withholding information from Congress over the administration's support of the Contras (he was then pardoned in 1992 by Bush Sr.). Abrams is also the author of “Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive In Christian America” and was a vehement objector to the Oslo peace negotiations.
People have this notion that countries like Iraq, Iran, and so on are these weird “rag-head” nations with people still living in the stone age — yes, that was close to the truth in much of Afghanistan, but rest assured that America would fall back a few hundred years too if it got bombed for twenty years. Take a look just at the photo at the top of this article from a student protest in Iran. The cars are different than you'd see in America, but there's not much different than you'd see in a poorer European country. The people look pretty normal, don't they? They obviously have enough civil rights to organize huge protests. Yes, there was skirmish with riot police, but guess what — that happens in the West too. At this point, thanks to new laws passed since September 11th, American citizens have less freedom than not only pretty much every Western nation, but many developing nations as well.
That said, this article does a pretty good job of characterizing the typical response to such statements:
A friend of mine is an Indian diplomat. He tells a story of being picked up by a cab driver in Texas for a long journey to the airport. The cab driver asked him to tell him something about India and my friend replied that it was a democracy of a billion people. The cab driver did not believe him. "A billion people?" the cab driver repeated. "Impossible. That's bigger than the United States."...Randomly selected voters were ... questioned on what they knew about America's defence against rogue missiles sent by, say, the North Koreans or Iraq towards the US. Every single participant in the focus group believed -- wrongly -- that the missiles would be shot down by a version of the American Star Wars system. The fact that Star Wars has never worked and may well not be operational for at least a decade had not entered their consciousness.
I'm absolutely blown away that the average American hasn't FREAKED about the civil rights losses in the last year. America is now a place where everyone is a criminal, all private records can be accessed by the government without warrant or probable cause, where uncooperative witnesses can be detained indefinitely and without access to counsel, tortured, and even killed legally, and wide classes of behaviour re-class citizens as “enemy combatants” including aggressive political protest, drug advocacy, and computer crimes, allowing the government to hold them without counsel indefinitely, and even legally execute them on the street without trial. Why are people tolerating these things? I can only assume that the average person is absolutely unaware of them.
As you may know, Iraq handed over its 12,000 page declaration of weapons capability to the UN inspectors yesterday. The US and Britain are pissed though because the UN refuses to hand over an uncensored version — you may remember that in 1998 the inspectors were tossed because it turned out they weren't there as UN inspectors, but were in fact CIA operatives spying. For the report to be complete and honest it has to contain some very sensitive information about Iraq's defensive infrastructures. If the US wants to play the UN game, it has to respect that process.
But we all know that this is warmongering, plain and simple. Let me repeat a truth that Veterans know all too well: War, even when justified, is horrible. War should be avoided whenever possible. War hurts. War kills. War destroys. War should be considered a last option. Look at the actions of this administration — it is very clear that they want war. They fight to make sure war happens. How can any decent person look at that and not see the face of evil? Even if one believes that sometimes war is required, no decent human should never lust for it.
Finally, this story really made me sad… Seriously, don't read it if you're feeling emotional, it's a really heartbreaking story.
Now off to the mines with me.
Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Murder Rag
"apologies to Country Joe & the Fish"Well come on all you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
Got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Afghanistan
Put down your mouse and pick up a gun
We're gonna have a whole lotta funChorus:
And it's one, two, three, what are we waiting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop's Afghanistan
And it's five, six, seven, open up the Pearly Gates
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
whoopie they're all gonna dieNow come on Wall Street don't be slow
We gotta pay 'em back for their terror show
There is plenty of money to be made
Supplying the army with the tools of the trade
Just hope and pray they drop The Bomb
Drop it on Afghanistan(Chorus)
Well come on Generals let's move fast
Your big chance is here at last
Now you can go out and get Rag Heads
'Cos the only good 'Ghanni is one that's dead
And you know peace can only be won
When they blow 'em all to Kingdom Come(Chorus)
Now come on mothers through out the land
Pack your boys off to Afghanistan
Come on fathers don't hesitate
Send your sons off before it's too late
Be the first one on your block
To bring their ears back home in a box(Chorus)
Post a Comment