All right, here are a few wild passes at some current issues.
Leaking the obvious. Now that there’s a concerted effort by telecom corporations to shut down access to Wikileaks and a man hunt underway for Julian Assange, perhaps someone should stop and consider how asinine this vendetta truly is. It’s the internet, for chrissake… if the documents get lifted, they will certainly be posted somewhere. And sure, the cables are embarrassing to diplomats, etc. But are any of the most publicized revelations in the latest Wikileaks document dump at all surprising? Consider…
- Iranian influence in Iraq. Well, there’s a shocker. Iran has been spending money in Iraq, has relationships with many of its senior leaders. Is it possible that anyone would be
surprised by this? Iraq is a majority Shi’a country, like Iran. There are longstanding cultural, religious, and political ties between these two neighboring states, and many Iraqi political figures took exile in Iran during the Saddam years. Speaking of which, Iran was attacked by a U.S.-supported Iraq in the 1980s, in an eight-year conflict that cost them probably a million lives. If I were them, I would be deeply interested in what happens in Iraq…. especially since we’re still the power behind the throne. - Yemen. The Yemeni leadership lied about their role in approving drone strikes against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Who would have guessed?
What else? The government in Afghanistan is corrupt? Pakistan doesn’t want us to control its nuclear materials? Colonel Qaddafi is weird? Here’s my shocked face.
Can you say “Stim”? Republicans claim to be looking for ways to create “growth” and jobs. Hey, Boehner, hey Cantor – stop looking! Unemployment benefits are just the ticket. They are conceded to be one of the most effective ways of creating economic activity, because it’s money sent to people who spend it right away. Analysts estimate that about a million jobs would be lost if the extension is passed. With the official unemployment rate nudging 10%, this is no time to demonstrate what cheapskates you are. So Dems, find your spine for five minutes. And GOP, get the hell out of the way. It’s not only smart economics – it’s the right goddamned thing to do.
I want to start this week’s “usual rubbish” blog with a thank you to all of those who helped bail us out of the Kaztropharian jail. (You know who you are.) Not sure how everyone worked out how the bail-bond system works on Kaztropharius 137b – must have looked it up on the interwebs. (You have to put up at least three cases of cotton swabs per pound of body weight. It can get costly… so hey, thanks.) Well, as much as I like it on Kaztropharius, we left the moment they opened the cage door, overdue as we were for the next booking on our super-fantastic ENTER THE MIND: THE ULTIMATE BIG GREEN EXPERIENCE interstellar tour. A little place called…. The “Goldilocks” Planet.
What was our Thanksgiving like? Well, about as good as it can get in deep space. We brought out a couple of days’ rations and squished it all together in the shape of a roasted turkey. Then we buried it, because it was disgusting. Burial in space, you understand… you put the waste in the wasted disposal tubes and order Marvin to hit the eject button. Then we gather around the starboard port, like the little family that we are, and watch the mangled wads of tofu disperse into the void. That’s what we call Thanksgiving.
No one seems particularly bothered about this, but Bush’s proud admission, along with Cheney’s, is basically a declaration that our justice system is in a shambles; that the law applies only to the powerless and that cruel and unusual punishment is acceptable. Torture is a violation of U.S. statute and of international conventions to which the U.S. is both a signatory and a primary participant. Waterboarding is torture; it has been recognized as such since the days of Torquemada and before, I’ll wager.