10.01.03
Posted in Politics at 9:54 pm by Leopoldo
I have been thinking a lot about the Democratic system of free elections recently, mostly wondering how a self-serving individual like George W. Bush managed to become president of our nation, and what it will take to replace him with someone that demonstrates some degree of decency. If you believe the line that ‘$87 Billion is required to rebuild Iraq’ then you are simply not paying a lot of attention. Those $87 Billion are pure pork barrel funds for Halliburton, Bush and Cheney’s little conglomerate of cronies. I guess I can see how this level of corruption can fly, the whole system is corrupt and beyond most people’s reach, however there is another gross failure of democracy happening this week that defies comprehension: California is going into a governor recall vote and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the leading candidate.
Stop and think about that for a minute, I mean really think about what is wrong with this. Arnold has refused all but one debate invitations (the one he accepted was formatted so the candidates received a questions list days ahead of time) because he knows that he is too ignorant and incompetent to be able to intelligently answer any campaign questions. Arnold has no political experience, and in the few public appearances he has made he has demonstrated a lack of political understanding. He has shown over many occasions that he is a misogynist with little regard for anyone who is not part of the white male ruling elite. The campaign manager for Arnold’s campaign is the one who managed Pete Wilson’s campaign (if you do not know Pete Wilson’s history go do a search on his name, he is one of the scariest human beings elected to office in recent history). It is not hard to realize that Arnold is little more than a puppet-spoke person for some rather scary conservative individuals who would rather stay behind the scenes and pull his strings. So I ask again, why is he the most popular candidate? The answer is: Because he is charismatic, has made some fun and exciting movies and the voting masses are too damned ignorant and easily manipulated. Do any of the people who have said they will vote for him really believe he will make a good governor? I seriously doubt it. People’s votes are determined more by how attractive they find a candidate than by the candidate’s abilities or aptitude for the job. As the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopracy said in the song ‘Satanic Reverses’ this is a world where “straight teeth in your mouth are more important than the words that come out of it”.
So I am left with the question: Does the democratic system work? Is the concept of letting the masses vote for the individual that most appeal to them flawed by nature or is it a solid concept that is not well implemented? How good a system of governance do we really have that allows an outrage like this to happen? We will have to wait until October Fifth to see what the outcome of the California recall vote is, but no matter what happens the results of the last presidential election an the current state of the California recall vote have significantly shaken my trust of democracy.
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06.13.03
Posted in Politics at 10:19 am by Leopoldo
A very curious web site is up claiming that the government is covering up what really happened to the Pentagon on Sept 11th. I am as dubious of the claims made by the web site as I am of… well… of the government.
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05.08.03
Posted in Politics at 10:13 am by Leopoldo
My friend Amy sent a great email out to friends going over some of the candidates and options facing Oregon Voters at this month?s election. My friend Sven misread the title “Army’s voting guide for this election” and wrote this great reply. It may not make as much sense to non-Oregonians, but for me it is very phuny and worth sharing:
Misread the title line at first as “Army’s voting guide for this election”.
Hmmm…..
——————————————–
Portland Mayor: George “W” Bush
Portland Treasurer: Big multi-national corporation du jour
Honcho of public schools: “Rummy” Rumsfield (he’ll put those kids back in
line)
Portland Police Chief: The Incredible Hulk
Department of sanitation: the Total Information Awareness Agency
Department of home-state security: Our personal lord & savior, Jesus Christ
—————————————————————
Measure 28: Vote YES for a hummer in every garage.
Measure 29: Vote YES; lowers price of gasoline; establishes “blood for oil”
program; requires donation of pint of blood each time a driver renews their
license.
Measure 30-12: Vote NO for continuing the inspections process in the state
of Washington
Measure 30-13: Vote YES to preemptively nuke Seattle
Measure 32: Vote YES to constitutionally define being black, latino, gay,
French, handicapped, homeless, or a Dixie Chick as a terrorist act.
Measure 35: Vote YES to amend state constitution to prohibit levvying taxes.
Ever.
Measure 40: Vote YES; replaces judiciary with a military court system;
amends Patriot Act to allow secretly arresting suspected terrorists for “that
naughty look”; requires criminals convicted of terrorism to earn money for
the state by working at Intel; requires state prison system to
single-handedly finance and balance the annual state budget.
Measure 43: Vote YES to allow Oregon to spend its rainy day fund on little
American flags.
Sven
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05.04.03
Posted in Politics at 12:41 pm by Leopoldo
A friend forwarded this analysis of the war taken from outside the country. I thought it was very well written and worth reading.
Which War Are You Watching? — The View from Spain
Dwight F. Reynolds
The American media’s portrayal of the routing of Saddam Hussein as a great military victory and a step toward world peace is almost incomprehensible outside of the U.S., for the rest of us have been watching a very different war.
Follow the link below for the rest of the article.
Read the rest of this entry »
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04.16.03
Posted in Politics at 3:24 pm by Leopoldo
NPR aired a report entitled Twelve Reasons Why President Bush Should Lead Iraq last week. The report was very funny. Follow the link above for an audio feee or read the transcript below:
1. Lots of guns.
2. Plenty of oil in need of drilling
3. Climate similar to Texas
4. Most Iraqi people also speak English with an accent
5. Changed it’s name from Mesopotamia to the easier to pronounce Iraq
6. Unmarried daughters have to live at home and stay out of trouble
7. No problem defying international treaties
8. No alcohol: No temptation to fall off the wagon.
9. No term limits
10. No annoying campaign finance rules
11. People will love faith-based initiatives
12. It’s got capital punishment… and them some.
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04.08.03
Posted in Music, Politics at 12:56 pm by Leopoldo
I was recently reminded of a great song I have not listened to in years. The song ‘Kinky Sex (Makes the World Go Around)’ from the album Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death by the Dead Kennedys is in the form of a phone call from the US State Department to the British Prime Minister proposing that ‘The companies want something done about this sluggish world economy … The companies think It’s time we all sit down … and start another war.” Once I remembered this song existed I was amazed I had not thought of it before. It should be the anthem to the current war in Iraq. I recommend it to anyone out there who is bothered by Halliburton having signed contracts worth over $73 million with Iraq before the war and now getting a blank check from the government to put out post-war oil fires. Until you get a copy of the song, here are a copy of the lyrics:
“Kinky Sex Makes The World Go ‘Round”
Greetings:This is the Secretary of War at the State Department
of the United States
We have a problem.
The companies want something done about this sluggish
world economic situation
Profits have been running a little thin lately
and we need to stimulate some growth
Now we know
there’s an alarmingly high number of young people roaming
around in your country with nothing to do but stir up trouble
for the police and damage private property.
It doesn’t look like they’ll ever get a job
It’s about time we did something constructive with these people
We’ve got thousands of ‘em here too. They’re crawling all over
The companies think it’s time we all sit down, have a serious get-together-
And start another war
The President?
He loves the idea! All those missiles streaming overhead to and fro
Napalm
People running down the road, skin on fire
The Soviets seem up for it:
The Kremlin’s been itching for the real thing for years.
Hell, Afghanistan’s no fun
So whadya say?
We don’t even have to win this war.
We just want to cut down on some of this excess population
Now look. Just start up a draft; draft as many of those people as you can.
We’ll call up every last youngster we can get our hands on,
hand ‘em some speed, give ‘em an hour or two to learn how to use
an automatic rifle and send ‘em on their way
Libya? El Salvador? How ’bout Northern Ireland?
Or a “moderately repressive regime” in South America?
We’ll just cook up a good Soviet threat story
in the Middle East-we need that oil
We had Libya all ready to go and Colonel Khadafy’s hit squad
didn’t even show up. I tell ya
That man is unreliable.
The Kremlin had their fingers on the button just like we did for that one
Now just think for a minute-We can make this war so big-so BIG
The more people we kill in this war, the more the economy will prosper
We can get rid of practically everybody on your dole queue if we plan this right.
Take every loafer on welfare right off our computer rolls
Now don’t worry about demonstrations-just pump up your drug supply.
So many people have hooked themselves on heroin
and amphetamines since we took over, it’s just like Vietnam.
We had everybody so busy with LSD they never got too strong.
Kept the war functioning just fine
It’s easy.
We’ve got our college kids so interested in beer
they don’t even care if we start manufacturing germ bombs again.
Put a nuclear stockpile in their back yard,
they wouldn’t even know what it looked like
So how ’bout it? Look-War is money.
The arms manufacturers tell me unless
we get our bomb factories up to full production
the whole economy is going to collapse
The Soviets are in the same boat.
We all agree the time has come for the big one, so whadya say?!?
That’s excellent. We knew you’d agree
The companies will be very pleased.
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03.10.03
Posted in Politics at 9:03 pm by Leopoldo
There is a fascinating analysis of the modern industrial age by Mike Floegel entitled “The Oil Moment” up at S O A P B O X Archives.
It is very much worth listening to. There is a transcript of the article up at ::vermont::indymedia::: newswire/292
Here is an excerpt:
The Bronze Age lasted 2,500 years; the Iron Age 1,100. As technology becomes more sophisticated one age is quickly overtaken by the next. What should we call the period dominated by petroleum products? “Age” seems too expansive a term for what will be an eyeblink of history; perhaps we should call it the “Oil Moment.”
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