Anent SCROODUS Chief Justice Roberts' Fall...

(Wherein I reinforce the impression of my intemperate-ness--or is it intemperance?)

I heard about Roberts' inexplicable fall, and thought "With ANY luck, it's symptomatic of a fell disease, which he will bravely resist, and to which he will tragically succumb, some time in early-to-mid 2009.

A Thoughtful Reply to My Allegedly Intemperate "Impeachment" Post

LittleBrother said...

Four years after the revolution,
And the old king's execution,
Four years after, I remember how
Those courtiers took their final bow.

String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests: Let them live on their fat
Four years after we started fighting
Marat keeps on with his writing
Four years after the Bastille fell
He still recalls the old battle yell
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their arse...

Mi hermano mayor, I admire your willingness to be a canary in this hellish deathtrap of a coal mine-- the apocalyptic New Amerikan Empire. But I see the reaction you inspire, perhaps especially the kind and sincere cautions, as more of a sign of the times than a refutation on the merits of your comments.

I'm probably looking for cats to comb, as my Sicilian grandmother used to put it, in the bilious backwash of the Ward Churchill and Norman Finklestein Ox-Bow Incidents. But when I read your putatively incendiary remarks, I take it as a dispassionate analysis, presenting the perfectly valid hypothesis that if a government deliberately eschews or vitiates mechanisms explicitly incorporated in its constitution to peacefully forestall or mediate conflict and crisis, that such government is perforce inviting anarchy and violence to fill the vacuum. I don't think a fair reading supports a conclusion that Woody is particularly advocating, much less encouraging, revolutionary mayhem. He's just pointing out the bifurcated trends resulting from the criminal administration's systematic annihilation of legal restraints and respect for law over power.

This may be a jeremiad of sorts, but it's hardly incendiary or inflammatory in its own right. But the people shushing you for your own good seem to feel that blogs, and you, simply can't risk presenting provocative comments in reasonable expectation of a fair reading and discussion. Anything "borderline" or hyperbolic or edgy should either be cleaned up ("self-policed") or tactfully suppressed.

The issue of the Homeland Security Nazgûl being ready to fuck up your shit, and the shit of the blogger you visit, on the slightest pretext is in my view problematic at best. It's not a question of whether this threat is real; it's a question of what it means to acquiesce to fear of persecution.

In recent weeks, I'm becoming more and more aware of a Nice-Nellie middle coalescing in mainstream blog sites. That twit Joan Walsh at Salon.com, and Arianna Huffington's trash-tabloid-skin "Huffington Post" are going back and forth about how comments should be controlled by the host.

There seems to be a depressing consensus that it is OK, and in accordance with ephemeral dogma about The Blogging Community and standards of decency, for sites to censor and moderate comments in order to weed out those perceived as mean-spirited or advocating violence or other illegal acts.

The practical consequence of this inanity on HuffPo, for example, is that some automated screening software, or perhaps a low-paid flack scanning a million incoming comments, will make a quick call to zap or not to zap. Smaller one-person bloggers are more capricious and arbitrary in banning and censoring, unapologetically exercising the Harsh Parent dogma of My House, My Say Who Lives Here. Yet bloggers often seem to resent having to discuss their editorial choices and methods, and in my view sites like HuffPo and Salon are trying to disingenuously have it both ways: encourage spontaneous comments, provided they are spontaneously in accordance with ambiguous Comment Policy rules. I doubt that they tangle themselves much in the sophisticated dynamics of free expression controlled by seemingly-benevolent cat-and-mouse methods composed of lethal paradoxical injunctions. One musn't be a "purist", after all.

For all of the nascent hope that the criminal regime is tottering and in free fall, it's painfully obvious that The Fear has settled like a fog onto the Bloglands.

I'm sorry that you're being marginalized and locked in the closet for your own good by the ostensible progressive blogging community. Although it provides more than my MDR for irony.

(Ed. Note: Thank you, Hermanito, for your patience, intelligence and understanding. What deTocqueville said 170 years ago still seems to apply: ""In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them."I should say, also, that--except for our mutual membership in the family of 'man'--we are not related.)

Impeachment

Is constitutionally designed to be the POLITICAL remedy to punish POLITICAL crimes. Especially those subversions of the Constitution which redound to the POLITICAL benefit of the malefactors in High Places.
At least that’s seems to have been how Madison and the others present at the Founding regrded it: "If [the President] be himself a party to the guilt[,] he can be impeached and prosecuted."- (THE RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTION OF 1787, at 626; Max Farrand ed., 1911) (reprinting James Madison’s notes).
The Pukes totally misused the process when they attacked Clinton; but they did it primarily to REMOVE impeachment as a viable remedy for the corruptions of power: to neutralize it in advance of the Fascist Coup they had already planned (as well as 'payback' for Nixon).
This presents the country with a difficult choice, if we wish to preserve our form of government: We can, through out legislature, bring impeachment; or we can rise in open rebellion, drag the criminal, corrupt fuckers into the streets, toss a coupla ropes over the streetlight poles on Penn. Ave, and pull a Mussolini on their fascist asses.
That's right, boyos, you got two choices--two choices, only two: impeachment or the guillotine.
Choose, you criminal fux! CHOOSE: Step aside or get it in the fucking neck!

(Addendum: A post substantially similar to this was deemed 'too' something--inciteful (pardon the pun)?--to be permitted to be read on Corrente. Not bitching, just sayin'.)

Drunk Astronauts? Sheeeit! The ONLY Way

you'd get me on one of those things would be cata-fuukin-tonic on gin-and-fuukin-tonic....

I'd hafta be Totally. Ripped. To. The. TITS!

No other possible way...

We Have Exteriorized Our Nervous System

Leonard Shlain is a very interesting dude.
In this latest book, he shows how human evolution changed completely when women discovered they could deny men sex:

Leonard Shlain is a medical doctor with a passion for evolutionary biology. His unique and intriguing views present new theories about many of the mysteries of human culture, from the genesis of patriarchy and misogyny to the role of female sexuality in human evolution. He explains, "When you read about a culture where they marry twelve-year-old girls off to old men, or practice honor killings, or female genital mutilation, or chastity belts, or any of these weird practices, what it's really about is that the men have been trying for the last hundred and fifty thousand years to regain the power they so emphatically lost when women gained veto power over sex."
In this provocative dialogue, Shlain outlines his perspective on how the unique features of human biology, sexuality and behavior impacted the evolution of our species. He suggests that the interplay between women's developing awareness of the risks of childbirth and her male counterparts' insatiable desire for sex led to a host of modern human traits including our awareness of time and mortality, the creation of art, and ultimately the patriarchal cultures we know today.

You can listen free through July 31

The Djinn's Outta the Bottle. Whom Do You Trust With The Power?

Over the last seven years, the Bush regime has arrogated to itself, and otherwise claimed extravagant, unprecedented powers and privileges in the accumulation and application of power. Evidently, from evidence available, they will NOT scale back the ever-expanding scope of their exercise of power through the last 17 months still remaining to them.

This got me wondering:

Does anyone think that, should they actually win election, ANY of the Democratic candidates would foreswear the appropriation and application of those powers as their own, were they still available to them; would relinquish them; would abandon them?

If so, who; and what about that one inspires your confidence in this regard?

And if you, as I, do not trust any of 'em with that kind of power, what are we citizens supposed to do to prevent them from passing to the next Regime, Puke of Dem?

(Cross-posted with My Left Wing)

Some Kinda Sovereignty!

There were pieces on NPR last evening and this, on the fates of Native women raped--usually by non-Native men, who are ignored and/or forgotten because of 'jurisdictional' differences nad disputes. By and large, it is an unpunished crime.

Got me thinking: Why, I wondered, are Indian police forbidden--they are--by Federal law to arrest/detain non-Indians for crimes on Indian land of which said non-Indians are accused?? And why are Indian courts forbidden--they are--by the same Federal laws from executing justice in such cases?

Me? I think it has mainly to do with the racist requirement to keep the natives down. It would never do if the savages were to begin to think of themselves as qualified to judge white folks. Ya never know where something like that might lead.

Left Behind -- Max Blumenthal at Christians United for Israel's annual Washington-Israel Summit.

These are some crazy, sick, twisted, dangerous, scary motherfuckers.

I'd not be averse to helping 'em along to their own lil individual raptures; let Pastor Hagee lead the way.


Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour
(from huffpost and Vimeo.)
I REALLY envy Max, cuz he's been 86'd from places I've never even been--though I HAVE been 86'd--multiple times--from BOTH Eschaton AND the Cantina bar at La Fonda in Santa Fe.
Top THAT, Maxie, ol' pal!!!

Seeing's Bee-leaving?

(Left: AMERICAN Bumblebee; Right: EUROPEAN Honeybee: Whose bee-side bee YOU on?)
There is a very learned, fascinating, unorthodox, and plausible disquisition, with references, on the apparent decline and fall of (European) honeybee culture as agents of USer corporate, agricultural hegemony posted by 'bringiton' over at Corrente.
As with so much in the 'natural' world, evidently there is both more and less to the declining populations of (european) honey bees than may bee immediately obvious. You prob'ly noticed ours are fuzzy, and much cuter. They don't make wax or honey, though. In fact, none of the over 4000 indigenous species of bees makes honey or wax.
I did NOT know that!
Still, there have also been serious declines in native pollenators, too.

Fight Roverian Cancer!

Doncha wish: Two members of the American People's Auto-Immune System expel the cancer from the White House...

Bush's Dementia Explained: I Guess If I Had A Buncha These Things Growing Outta MY Ass

...I might act a bit deranged, too. Wiping would be a dangerous act.

But seriously folks...This was my favorite headline of the entire event:

President's polyps benign
Mark Silva | Tribune national correspondent

If Silva's correct, and the polyps are benign, they may well be the only things about the entire Bushevik coup d'etat that is not malignant. Somebody oughta put 'em in a jar, and sell 'em on ebay. I heard he named 'em all "Turdblossom," in Rover's honor.

A Message for Sen. Leahy -- Reposted Today When The Questions COULD Be Asked

On the matter of the US Attorneys, I've got just a couple of really simple questions: If the 8 or nine who were fired were fired in effect--as it now appears--for insufficient loyalty to the Bushevik/GOP political agenda, and for inattention to the bare, base political needs of partisan operations on the ground,

WHY THE FUCK WEREN'T THE OTHER 85 OR SO FIRED, TOO? Were the eight or nine who got canned the ONLY ones with ANY integrity? If you're one of the others, how does it feel to wake up, and go to work, knowing you're sufficiently, reliably corrupt a party hack that Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove say your job IS NOT in jeopardy? I'd hang myself with a bed-sheet, before I'd live like that.

And then ya gotta ask: WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE OTHER UN-FIRED US ATTYs DOING SO THEY DIDN'T GET AXED? TO WHAT DID THEY HAVE TO AGREE TO, TO STAY OFF THAT LIST? Who'd they have to fuck up for the Party bigwigs, and how badly?

And finally: AND WHY THE FUCK HAS NOBODY ON ANY FUCKING CONGRESSIONAL HEARING PANEL ASKED ANY OF THESE INCREDIBLY FUCKING SIMPLE QUESTIONS?????

I Have A Pit-bull, Budreaux

I sent the following message to the NFL today, through PETA:
Mr. Roger Goodell
Commissioner, National Football League

Dear Sir:
Like many other citixens and animal lovers, I was appalled to learn recently of the vicious dog abuse and thoughtless slaughter of animals by Atlanta Falcon QB Michael Vick and his thuggish associates. Officials found 70 dogs on his Surry County, Virginia, property along with paraphernalia commonly associated with dogfighting. I hope that you take Vick's indictment seriously.

Animal abuse is a reliable precursor event indicating a predilection towards thoughtless brutality by the abuser that may not be--and rearely is--restricted to animals, but in fact finds expression in abuse of any weaker creatures and persons.

Your office, sir, MUST suspend the vicious sadist Vick immediately and indefinitely, preferably permanently. Show the world that the NFL has a no-tolerance policy when it comes to cruelty to animals by football players, evewn its stars. I, for one, shall NEVER attend another NFL function of ANY kind, nor shall I ever again watch ANY NFL game, of any kind, as long as the vicious, sadistic, gangster/thug Vick wears ANY NFL uniform.

Although I could be placated if the Falcon management treated Vick in his losses on the gridiron with the same casual. cavalier violence as he visited upon the innocent dogs who lost in the pit: to wit, dousing him, then attaching electrodes to his genitals and juicing the miserable excuse for a human being til he screamed, vomited and passed out.

Sincerely Yours
Woody, Budreaux's 'dad'

In The Latest News: W A S F

We Are SOOOOOOO Fucked!
Dunno if ya noticed this last week:

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and/or to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act. The executive order combined with the existing anti-terrorist legislation is eventually intended to be used against the anti-war and civil rights movements. It can be used to seize the assets of antiwar groups in America as well as block the property and activities of non-governmental humanitarian organizations providing relief in Iraq, seizing the assets of alternative media involved in a reporting the truth regarding the US-led war, etc.

Couple this with the provisions of NSPD 51:
NSPD 51 grants unprecedented powers to the Presidency and the Department of Homeland Security, overriding the foundations of Constitutional government. It allows the sitting president to declare a “national emergency” without Congressional approval. The implementation of NSPD 51 would lead to the de facto closing down of the Legislature and the militarization of justice and law enforcement. (For further details, see Michel Chossudovsky, Bush Directive for a "Catastrophic Emergency" in America: Building a Justification for Waging War on Iran? June 2007)

With the tools for the imposition of martial law and suppression of dissent in place, the next 'terror attack' will bring about the final revocation of the Constitutional form of government in the USofA.

And, of course, you understand: No subsequent Administration/Regime will happily or readily relinquish these powers.

'Scuse Me? Hello? I STILL Gotta Coupla Incredibly Fucking SIMPLE Questions About Firing The US Attorneys?

If the 8 or nine who were fired were fired in effect--as it now appears--for insufficient loyalty to the Bushevik/GOP political agenda, and for inattention to the bare, base political needs of partisan operations on the ground,

WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE OTHER 85 OR SO DOING SO THEY DIDN"T GET FIRED? TO WHAT DID THEY HAVE TO AGREE TO, TO STAY OFF THAT LIST? Who'd they have to fuck up for the Party bigwigs, and how badly? How does it feel to wake up, and go to work, knowing you're sufficiently corrupt a party hack that Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove say your jobs NOT in jeopardy? I'd hang myself with a bed-sheet, before I'd live like that.

WHY THE FUCK WEREN'T THE SLEAZY SONZABITCHES FIRED, TOO? Were the eight or nine the ONLY ones with ANY integrity?

AND WHY THE FUCK HAS NOBODY ON ANY FUCKING CONGRESSIONAL HEARING PANEL ASKED ANY OF THESE INCREDIBLY FUCKING SIMPLE QUESTIONS?????

Family Values, New Mexico Style

I bet you think that it's only the fundamental values crowds in the deep south, and the remotest middle-west that get to have all the fun with young, impressionable boys and girls.
Welcome to Aztec, where the deep south MEETS the remote middle-west, in beautiful NORTHERN NEW MEXICO!!!
From the foremost "If-it-bleeds" news source in the state:
Former Church Employee Accused Of Sex With Minor

AZTEC, N.M. -- The San Juan County Sheriff's Department took a former Aztec church employee into custody and accuse him of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl.

Deputies took Wendel Nix into custody and said he was a youth pastor. But church officials said that is not the case. "Basically, he scheduled bus routes to pick up children and come into the church," said Barry Quinn, a pastor at the Bible Baptist church where Nix worked.

One teen who spoke with Action 7 News said she stopped going to the church because of comments that Nix would make. "They said sometimes that he was like, he'd ask them, what size their bra was," said Lori Ramsay, who claims she stopped going to the church because of Nix.

"I'm completely surprised by that," Quinn said. "Had I been aware of any such conduct by Mr. Nix or any other church volunteer or paid staff, we would've taken quick and stern action."

Nix is being held at the San Juan Detention Center. He's charged with criminal sexual penetration and criminal sexual contact of a minor. His bond is set at $300,000.

Pretty little town, Aztec. There's an ancient pueblo ruin (Anasazi) right in the middle of town.

You'd Hafta Conclude Their Lives Just Aren't Worth As Much As A Human's Is

Below, I speculated on the gustatory likelihood of ANY USer trooper EVER doing really HARD time for killing Iraqis in Iraq.
Read'em and weep!:
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. --

A military jury at Camp Pendleton has spared a Marine of prison time for kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi man who was killed as troops hunted in vain for a suspected insurgent.Cpl. Trent Thomas was sentenced Friday morning to a bad-conduct discharge and reduced pay. A military jury of three officers and six enlisted Marines deliberated for less than an hour before returning their decision.Thomas, a 25-year-old father of two, faced a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. He was convicted Wednesday of kidnapping and conspiracy to murder an Iraqi man after a botched attempt to capture a suspected insurgent in the village of Hamdania in April 2006.

No prison: just loss of pay, rank and benefits, and a BCD (Bad Conduct Discharge).
Not a even a 'Dishonorable' discharge. Bad conduct? WTF? Yeah cold-bloodedly killing a non-combatant is fucking AWFUL conduct.
But I guess there's no 'Fucking Awful Conduct Discharge,' unfortunately.

Re: Our Max Beards The Young, GOP Lions

There was a long, thoughtful discussion today on Digby about Max Blumenthal's most recent, most courageous, most revelatory foray into the innards of the beast, the College Republicans annual meeting. Many commentors remarked upon their perception that those portrayed in the film were 'morons' or otherwise intellectually deprives.
I said:
I don't think they're stupid at all. It assuages the ego to think of them in that way, but it is--imho--wrong.
These are the scions of self-interest, wealth, privilege, and power.
They are utterly unscrupulous, vicious, vindictive,, and vain.
They know exactly where their interests lie, and will baulk at nothing to achieve them--except perhaps offering themselves to discomfort or danger.
You may deny it, it may nauseate you, it may offend you. But unless you are naturally of their class, they own you.
Go to war?
They are already there, and you/we are the enemy, in exactly the same way that the workers are known and regarded as the 'enemy' by their bosses...

If ANY Murkin GI Is EVER Convicted of Capital Murder

for killing any Iraqi in Iraq, I'll eat one of my (embarrassingly expansive collection of) hats.

Two US Soldiers Charged With Murder in Iraq

Megan Greenwell of The Washington Post reports, "Two US soldiers have been charged with murdering an Iraqi last month near the northern city of Kirkuk."

Addendum: Today, it was announced that another soldier charged with premeditated murder, but convicted only of lomewhat lesser charges, would re reduced in rank, and pay, and get a "Bad Conduct Discharge." Not a minute of prison. I think a BCD is appealable, after a certain term.

It is true that the troops are in an utterly, relentlessly, uncompromisingly, untenably bad position: a moment's hesitation in the wrong situation could cost you your life, and those of your buddies. And after all, if the haji you grease ain't the right one, well the mofo's prob'ly related. Being the occupier of a hostile land's just about the toughest job you can order a soldier to do. Under much less--arguably, only artificial--stress, the Milgram and Zimbardo experiments showed the limits of any 'civilized' human aversion to inflict pain.

I do understand. Unfortunately, it seems to me, too few 'volunteers' do, before it's too late.

Re: The Dog-Killer, Michael Vick

Two of his major endorsement deals are with Nike and Rawlings.
If you really want to get into his vicious, sadistic grill, the best thing is to write to these guys and tell 'em that you'll never again purchase any products from them as long asa the vicious, brutal dog-butcher is endorsing them. I have also writen to the NFL, promising not to watch another game on the Tube, or ever again to attend a game as long as Vick is on the active player list.

Nike: http://niketown.nike.com/niketown/info/privacy.jsp?item=privacy
there's also a snail-mail address
Rawlings: www.rawlings.com There's a snail mail address there too.
Finally, the NFL: http://www.nfl.com/help/emailtech

Write 'em and give 'em hell! And FUCK MICHAEL VICK!!!!

But don't expect it to achieve much, especially at Nike.