X-Tra Rant

Two fish are in a tank. One fish says to the other “Hey, you know how to drive this thing?”

(Yes, I ripped this off a guy who told it to Dave Attell on “Insomniac” on Comedy Central)

So first Corey Dillon gets traded to the hated Patriots, and then the NBA suspends Ron Artest for game 2 of the Pacers’ first round matchup with the Celtics tonight.

Not to mention Indy is losing their CHL hockey team now, to be replaced by a damn junior team.

Where’s a Dean scream when you need it? What next? Finding out the Colts lost one of their starting outside linebackers and two cornerbacks?

What you mean that already happened earlier in free agency?

ARGHGHGHHHHHHHHH

Looks like Bob Woodward isn’t the conservative pansy we on the left were beginning to think he was. I still think he’s got some interest in Bosh doing well in November, but his new book looks like it won’t exactly go easy on him.

What I get from reading about the 60 Minutes interview is that Bush is not a deep thinker and that while he might not have been the one pushing for war in Iraq so hard, he was easily bent to Cheney’s will to do so. he seems so anti-intellectual that it’s almost like he discounts anything anyone ‘intellectual’ or ‘elite’ says. Not good qualities for a president. But the part of the Woodward interview that makes me most angry is this:

Oh now NICE. So the Saudis have promised Bush lower oil prices right before the election. DAMNIT is the left the only part of the political spectrum that gets REALLY nervous about our deal-with-the-devil involvement with the Saudis?

Will the American public be fooled by a sudden drop in oil prices in October? I hoep not but I suppose we’ll just have to wait to find out.

I found Magnatune via Brad Sucks (if you haven’t checked out his music since I’ve started linking to him you MUST. Great stuff, and it’s all free. You can get his music at his site or at his Magnatune page.)

Anyway, Magnatune is a record label, but in a totally different sense. It shares profits 50/50 with its artists, offers free listening of the tracks made available by the artists on the label and you can choose to purchase the downloads, uses the Creative Commons licensing system and lets the artists keep control of the rights to their music. It’s a great model, hence their tagline “We’re Not Evil”.

Anyway, the band I’ve been digging on Magnatune lately is Electric Frankenstein. Check ‘em out. They doth rock. \m/

You can’t fight a war on “terror.” For one, “terror” will always exist in one form or another. We can’t fight with the hope of “eliminating all terrorists” - that’s a fight we can NEVER win, and in the end, the fight itself will just create MORE terrorists.

But above all, the big problem, the disconnect between reality and fantasy for those currently in power and the people that support them is this: they are viewing the “War on Terror” in the old, Cold War and anti-communist view of a “war” - that there is a central enemy with a central leader that we must fight. That “terror” only has to do with things like “they hate our freedom” and “they are evildoers.”

Look at Iraq right now. All the focus is on al Sadr as “the bad man” in the current uprising. Like if we take him out then the uprising will stop. (Just like killing Saddam’s sons would, or capturing Saddam, or the belief that capturing or killing bin Laden will stop al Qaeda). Don’t people see the fallacy in this?

The thing about terrorism and terrorist networks is that they are nebulous. They don’t rely on a central leader to inspire and lead them - their radical view of their fatih and perceived injustices against them inspire and lead them more than any single leader ever would.

(By the way, does “their radical view of their fatih and perceived injustices against them” remind you of anyone domestically? think about it. There will be a quiz at the end of this entry)

What we need to do is yes, take out the major cells that pose a threat to us. Deal with the problem as it currently exists in a tangible way (not just “we will use extreme force to get those responsible” and start shooting through a city). But the biggest thing that needs to be done is examine the reasons that people BECOME terrorists.

Economic opression, perceived injustices towards their religion and culture, imposition of Western ways of viewing consumerism and domocracy and capitalism on a society that, at its core, may not want it. We can help people in the Middle East without trying to make them just like us.

I’m not saying that “it’s America that caused terrorism,” but there is plenty of blame to spread around alot of people. Yes, some of our policies have done little to foster any love for the U.S. in some cultures of the Middle East. That’s something we can work on. Some nations do sponsor or support terrorism, and we can do something about that with sanctions, closing down money networks, etc. But the simplistic view of “they hate our freedoms and that’s why they terrorize us” is naieve and meant to keep us hungry for a war we can’t win with bombs alone.

I think the biggest thing we can do is work our asses off to eliminate our dependancy on Middle East oil (and no, not through more drilling HERE). We need to put Land A Man On The Moon type money into alternative fuel research. We need to make that a Big National Goal, like Kennedy made putting a man onteh moon and FDR made public works to get out of the Depression. If we can get rid of our oil/financial interests in the Middle East, we can approach the problems there objectively instead of with an eye towards keeping the Saudis happy.

Will this president do that? No. It’s easier for this president to prey on fear than it is to make a harder, more reasoned argument that contains nuance. It’s the curse of the TV age - nuanced arguments that take though don’t make good sound bites. Better are things like “get the evil doers,” “axis of evil,” “stay the course,” “they hate our freedom.” Not to mention his and his supporter’s major financial interests in the region.

Hopefully, as the itnernet and blogs stake our their part in the political process some nuance can be brought back. If not, I do worry about our future. Running a Democracy on buzzwords is a dangerous thing.

A: The radical right-wing Christians. Shooting abortion doctors. Imposing their beleifs on people through laws and lawmakers. A desire for a near-theocracy in the United States. John Ashcroft. Crying that they are being ‘descriminated against’ whenever anyone challenges their drives to impose Christian thought and morality on non-Christains. I’m not saying they are as bad as the terrorists. Hardly. But there are similar modes of thought.

The sit ewas down today. Somehow I filled up my drive space. I think it was the pictures of my brother’s wedding but they’ve been up for awhile. it’s like it just now decided there was a problem. So when I rebuilt the site with MT all the files went to 0 bytes. Oops.

Anyway, back on. Oh and if you’ve only been hearing the Drudge-The-Habitual-Liar version of the problems at Air America Radio, you should read what’s really going on from AAR themselves. Very funny.

Just a historical document huh? So what were these? Historical too? The article says things were “done” to counter the threats, but why did the counter terrorism group headed by Cheney STILL not meet at all before 9/11, even in the face of these memos? Why were the Gore Comission’s findings (one of which was to strengthen cockpit doors) still thrown out and not implemented in favor of the future findings of Cheney’s group (that never met)?

The Bush Administration keeps trying to spin this away saying “we didn’t have specific information. If we did we would have stopped it.” Well DUHHHH! Of course!!! But there was all SORTS of information lieing around to do more, protect more against hijackings, etc. Instead, the Bush Admin. decided to throw out everything Clinton was doing, stop the spy drones over Afghanistan, tell agencies to “back off the bin Ladens” and make terrorism a lower priority than the Clinton Administration did.

So of course they would have done something if they knew the exact specifics. That’s obvious and a stupid method to spin this administration’s ineptitude at handling terrorism.

As for last night’s press conference I missed it. Got my time zones mixed up since Indiana doesn’t change like everyone else. But from what I’ve read, it was pretty uninspiring and bumbling. Sounds like he invoked the Almighty alot in saying why we need to “stay the course” (way to re-use one of daddy’s stale lines from 1992). Is it just me, or is invoking a strong religious reason as to why we must “stay the course” in our occupation of another religion that uses religion to attack us a wee bit of a bad idea? Kinda like that “crusade” comment of his after 9/11?

Blah 3 has the best summary of the press conference.

Bush/Cheney ‘04: The Buck Stops Everywhere But Here

Spinning so fast she created her own magnetic field.

Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice’s Opening Statement - Center for American Progress

Just a few examples - there’s plenty more: