Crimes Against Humanity By Our Heros
Originally posted 7/24/06

goku88:

Neil_Bitch:

tulah:

goku88:
It's called war,turkey.

Abuses by one side in a conflict, no matter how vile, do not justify violations by the other side. This is a fundamental principle of the laws of war, which you should know.

Some here may recall the Nuremberg Trials from their history. The winners of WWII held trials and firmed up the existing international laws regarding acceptable conduct in a time of war by all participants.

Winston Churchill, of all people, wanted to summarily execute captured German leaders. The US pressured him to back off. Isn't it interesting how times have changed? Now Poopypants wants to kill everyone (especially those who know where the bodies are buried).

I get this mild urge to spit on those who advocate, encourage, and support violations of the laws of land warfare, including the Geneva Conventions, regardless of their ostensible motives. It's better than the nearly overpowering urge I used to have to backhand the bitches. Who says there's no progress these days?

You know whats funny Neil, It could have been the otherway around. If the german gamble at the Ardeens offensive payed off, the allies would have been cut in half giving the Nazis more time to finish with their bomb and used it on Zukovs boys. Then they would have built their New York bomber and finished off Manhattan. It's true,such a bomber was in the works. Then the war crime trials would have been with Ameicans and Soviets on the defence. History is written by the victorious,not the vanquished. You get it turkey?

So what? I won't even go into the more obvious demographic and industrial issues that would have made it impossible for the Germans to continue the war into the US, even assuming that the Allies lost the war (an incredibly unlikely event if you look at the comparative logistics).

Lets assume the Germans won the war. Now. How is acting like a total amoral asshole going to help those who survived? You wouldn't even make it to trial, obviously. Either someone in your platoon (probably your platoon leader), someone on the battlefield, or some random guard would kill you. What about everyone else? Does it make sense for the losing side to break every rule in the book? Do you somehow think that the winning side is going to forgive and forget?

Surely you aren't so stupid as to think that breaking the rules of land warfare will somehow intimidate the other side into losing? Major wars are won and lost on logistics, not whether one guns down unarmed military aged males. Minor wars are won and lost on (and I know this is going to hurt) perceived morality, the winner being the one with the highest morality, not the one that decapitates the most infants. And the US has lost every minor war except one in the past thirty years BECAUSE of that immorality that you demonstrate on here time after time. The one win? Kosovo, where the US and NATO demonstrated appropriate morality.

The war in Afghanistan is lost. The war in Iraq is lost. The war in Lebanon is lost. Not "will be." Not "might be." Is. Has been. Everyone on the ground in those places is utterly convinced of the rightness of their position because they have been violated in every possible way. The aggressors, us, are aware of this and we know that we are wrong. It translates on the ground. It always has; it always will.

Not, of course, that you get it.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

The Myth Of American Exceptionalism (the OP)
Originally posted 5/19/06

I just read a piece on Yahoo News that when combined with a post alma made got me thinking about that disgusting bullshit justification that is bandied about so fucking freely. How 'Merkins are so much better, morally, than other peoples. The myth of American exceptionalism. It's crap.

Take this juicy bit from Yahoo. Prisoners in Gitmo have been so abused, so tortured, that they now work together to commit suicide. Ain't we proud? How many other countries can claim to have such exceptionalism? The Nazis of the 1940s, perhaps.

Of course, that is just one (of hundreds) incident. I'm absolutely positive that the Rightie-Tighties will ignore this. After all, their entire world falls apart if they partake in any way of reality. Brings a whole new light to their strict belief in the myth of how Adam and Steve were banned from the Garden of Eden, doesn't it? In Rethuglicania, as in the Garden of Eden, any amount of self-knowledge or knowledge of the world is punished by banning. Shunning, if you will.

For those of us not stuck in some evil system of denial it is quite clear. Americans are no better than anyone else in the world. None. Not even slightly. We kill, maim, torture, imprison, and worse. We shoot women and children in the back of the head while they pray. We make shit up as a pretext to invade. Then we take what we want, shit on the rest, and dare anyone to so much as protest.

The United States is my country. I was born here. I defended it for fifteen years. I am ashamed of how we act now. I have nothing but contempt for those who support this shit.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

The Myth Of American Exceptionalism
Originally posted 5/24/06

almaward:
No, it is a deep and abiding despair and fear that those with whom he disagrees, who happen to now be in power, will never again not be in power. That those who are corrupt and who have corrupted the system to work perpetually in their favor will now forever continue to reign, to the detriment of those very values and that very weltenschauung to which you refer. That is not a hatred of the United States; that is a deep and abiding love of country that recognizes that the country is in serious danger. It concerns me that otherwise intelligent and rational people fail and/or refuse to recognize that love, and twist it so severely out of its real and natural shape. It concerns me that those who disagree cannot admit of even the possibility that they might be reading Neil wrong. And it concerns me that rather than admit that possibility, those who disagree with Neil would prefer to essentially brand him a traitor, rather than recognize him as a patriot.

That was lovely. Thanks.

Of course, I despair. Any thinking person would. And my anger is associated intimately with that despair. And make no mistake, I'm angry.

Hate America? Only a loon would assert that I hate America. I am one of the few who still get chills when I stand and salute the flag. And I do that when I choose to do it, not when some shit-sucking country-western asshole thinks I should.

Some people are willing to die for their country (none of them happen to be on the Right, obviously -- check the service records of those in power if you doubt me). I happen to be willing to kill for it. Or at least that was true for fifteen years. It is no longer. For my country no longer exists because it was a country of ideals and high moral conduct. It was not a country of greed, a country of hate, a country of fucking cowards. I despise those who uphold the current "values" of 'Merka.

If that makes you uncomfortable, then you need to look at yourself. Are you a corner-cutting, cheese-whiz swilling, cheating motherfucker? Then continue to vote Republcian and live in moral shit for the rest of your days. The rest of us know who you are by the way you act and the things you support.

My concept of what America is and should be is pretty simplistic and rigid. I think America is a democratic republic that does business internally by the rules laid down in the Constitution. Further, I say America is a country where we have one set of laws for every son of a bitch here. If I have to obey the FISA law, every cocksucker in government has to obey it, too. No exceptions. Ever. I won't get into the fairness issues, because I already know the Rightie-Tighties despise fairness. Punks.

Don't like that shit? Take your asses to China, bitches.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

The Myth Of American Exceptionalism
Originally posted 5/24/06

_heather:
Six! (And ditto on redbrat's comments, which I snipped for brevity.)

Here's the grand irony about Neil. If you look at his background, he's everything that should have become a Republican. In his 40s. Computer-ish sort making a decent income. Working-class family background. From the southeast. Has ties to a farming community. Was in the military for fifteen years. Dude, Neil is the Republican demographic.

But somewhere they lost him.

You know where? I read the actual Constitution. I read the actual Declaration of Independence. I wanted my life to count for something. I decided that if I was going to go around the world shooting at people, I wanted to shoot at the right bunch of people. I believed that there is a right and a wrong. And I'm pretty clear on which is which, unlike some others here.

For any decent human being, it takes only one exposure to the ugliness of being wrong to see the end results. Kill one wrong person, for whatever reason, and it'll haunt you for the rest of your life. Or so I'm told. I like my sleep, thankyouveryfuckingmuch. I've lived with those who had no ability to discriminate morally. I'm not comfortable with them. You always know in the back of your mind that you'll have to take them down at some point or you won't be able to live with yourself.

Against my will, I seem to have been born with some rudimentary conscience. At least in the larger, political scheme of things. Make no mistake. I still enjoy what I enjoy in terms of kink, but my kink partners are consensual. Few of us are consensually being fucked politically.

I'm no preacher, but I know it's wrong to kill, maim, and ass-[*****] for military advantage. Which, for reasons that I don't understand, puts me in a minority here. How sick is that?

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Why I despise Republicans
Originally posted 5/6/06

Republicans.

The party of death.

The party of torture.

The party of assassination.

The party of kidnapping.

The party of extortion.

The party of imprisonment (for all but their own, of course).

The party of corruption (anyone seen my $9 BILLION?).

The party of hypocrites.

The party of denial.

The party of felons.

The party of invasions.

The party of beating cab drivers to death.

The party of shooting wounded prisoners in the head.

The party of election rigging.

The party of SCROTUS packing.

The party of the police state.

The party of lies.

The party of hate.

Republicans HATE poor people.

Republicans HATE women.

Republicans HATE gays.

Republicans HATE people with brown skins.

Republicans HATE reality.

Republicans HATE the earth.

Republicans HATE me, and they HATE you.

So, in case you were wondering why I despise Republicans, I thought I'd drop you a little reminder.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

torture
Originally posted 8/18/06

LordNeuf:
I DEMAND PROOF THAT THERE ARE SECRET PRISONS IN FORIEGN COUNTRIES.

You really are a bottom, aren't you?

Secret world of US jails

Jason Burke charts the worldwide hidden network of prisons where more than 3,000 al-Qaeda suspects have been held without trial - and many subjected to torture - since 9/11

Sunday June 13, 2004
The Observer

The United States government, in conjunction with key allies, is running an 'invisible' network of prisons and detention centres into which thousands of suspects have disappeared without trace since the 'war on terror' began.
In the past three years, thousands of alleged militants have been transferred around the world by American, Arab and Far Eastern security services, often in secret operations that by-pass extradition laws. The astonishing traffic has seen many, including British citizens, sent from the West to countries where they can be tortured to extract information. Anything learnt is passed on to the US and, in some cases, reaches British intelligence.

The disclosure of the shadowy system will increase pressure on the Bush administration over its 'cavalier' approach to human rights and will embarrass Tony Blair, a staunch ally of President George Bush.

The practice of 'renditions' - when suspects are handed directly into the custody of another state without due process - has sparked particular anger. At least 70 such transfers have occurred, according to CIA sources. Many involve men who have been freed by the courts and are thus legally innocent. Renditions are often used when American interrogators believe that harsh treatment - banned in their own country - would produce results.

The Observer has obtained details of two incidents in which men have been detained by the US despite being found innocent by courts in their own country. In one, a British businessman called Wahab al-Rami, an Iraqi living in the UK and a Palestinian seeking asylum were arrested by US and local officers in Gambia in November 2002 as they stepped off a flight from London.

Et cetera, et cetera, et nauseating cetera, you jackboot licking peasant.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Atrios On Brand Democrat
Originally posted 7/31/06

I like reading Eschaton. Lots of good stuff there. But in this particular post, Atrios quotes an excellent piece by Mark Schmidt and makes a great point about those who call themselves Democrats, and what that means. Both use a recent legislative example, the pro-Citibank anti-human being bankruptcy bill, to underscore what that means on the ground.

Read it and weep, bitches:

Checklist Liberalism

Mark Schmitt writes:

[snip]

The second reason is that Lamont supporters actually aren’t ideologues. They aren’t looking for the party to be more liberal on traditional dimensions. They’re looking for it to be more of a party. They want to put issues on the table that don’t have an interest group behind them - like Lieberman’s support for the bankruptcy bill -- because they are part of a broader vision. And I think that’s what blows the mind of the traditional Dems. They can handle a challenge from the left, on predictable, narrow-constituency terms. But where do these other issues come from? These are “elitist insurgents,” as Broder puts it - since when do they care about bankruptcy? What if all of a sudden you couldn’t count on Democratic women just because you said that right things about choice - what if they started to vote on the whole range of issues that affect women’s economic and personal opportunities?

But caring about bankruptcy, even if you’re not teetering on the brink of it or a bankruptcy lawyer yourself, is part of a vision of a just society. And a vision of a just society - not just the single-issue push-buttons of a bunch of constituency groups - is what a center-left political party ought to be about. And at the end of this fight, I don’t expect that we’ll have a more leftist Democratic Party, but one that can at least begin to get beyond checklist liberalism.

[snip]

The bankruptcy bill is the perfect example of legislation no one claiming to be a Democrat should support, and more than that one that every good Democrat should have opposed by any means at their disposable (including filibuster, Joe). It's the kind of legislation which is often marked as "centrist" by the media, as it's supported by a coalition of evil Republicans and self-described "moderate" Democrats, but there's nothing centrist or moderate about it. Unlike some other awful Republican legislation which conservatives have been trained to support (any tax cut, tort reform...) there was no popular support for this bill. It was a complete givewaway. It was just stealing from people and giving to campaign donors.

Failing to oppose the bankruptcy bill is one of the reasons brand Democrat has such problems. It's the type of thing which shouldn't require outside pressure. The bill was wrong. Everybody knows that. It was an evil sadistic piece of legislation which will destroy lives. Good Democrats shouldn't have needed to be pushed to oppose it.

Then, he names names. Goddamn, that was good!

Emphasis is mine, bitches.

There really are a lot of people like me, who share my vision of what our society could be and ought to be. These people really do understand the issues and what they mean to average people. Oh, and not a goddamned one of you motherfuckers posting on here has enough money to be a real Gooptard constituent. You are just fucking yourselves (which is fine) and by doing so you are fucking others (which is NOT fine).

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Why I hate Chickenhawks.
Originally posted 6/26/06

sksadvntr:
The use of the term chickenhawk as it was used is an insult. It is obvious that we are not on the same page here... at least to me. You are arguing that the use of an insult is ok. I am arguing the exact opposite... that no matter how well intentioned, or not, it is not ok to insult someone... It is really a simple concept.

I love the shit-sucking morons of the Right. They are so incredibly two-faced.

It's OK to them to torture people. Hell, torture them to death, the Bushitters don't care. In fact, they feel BETTER if they know someone in their government is torturing people to death.

Ever wonder what it must feel like to be tortured to death? Ever wonder what kind of person can do that to another human being? Create so much pain and suffering that the other person dies, sometimes they die right there as you are touching them doing your torture? Ever wonder about that? Can you imagine the dynamics? The level of psychopathy that would require? Not just to do it once, but to do it day after day after day after day. Ever think about that?

That behavior is OK to an ass-licking Rethuglotarded chickenhawk motherfucker, but to use a word that he feels is offensive...WELL! To be responsible for the emotional distress that he feels! To have used those words and by extension have caused his suffering! That's just beyond the pale!

It's OK by them that US troops are raping and murdering 14 year old Iraqi girls. It's so fucking common that the Marine commander didn't even think it worth his time trouble to get in his Hummer to check it out. Ever wonder what it must have been like to be that family? Shot in the back of the head while praying to Dog that someone will stop this? What must the mother have felt as her infant was killed next to her? What must that little girl have felt as she was repeated violated before being killed? Did she feel "liberated," I wonder? But still, that sort of thing is OK to a Rethuglofuck. Hardly worth mentioning, really.

But goddamn it! Don't you dare impugn his courage! Don't you dare call him a word that correctly characterizes his actions! That is too uncivilized for words! Oh! The pain! The suffering! It burns! It burns!

The vile little necrotic scrotal cysts of the Rethuglofascist ilk continue to complain about the name calling. Ooh! They are so fucking offended! It's OK to kill 100,000 people who have done you no harm. It's OK to shoot people in the head while they lay there wounded. It's OK to torture brown-skinned muslims in another country. It's OK to rig elections so that the corporate elite continue to ruin your country. It's OK to do nothing as thousands in New Orleans are devastated by a hurricane that was on the news every motherfucking night for a goddamned week before it hit land as the most powerful hurricane ever. It's OK to lie to Congress. It's OK to lie to the UN. It's OK to lecture other nations on "democracy" as you rig your own elections, abrogate treaties when it suits you, ignore the UN Security Council when you feel like it. It's OK to be the fucking poster child for corrupt government all around the world.

But don't you hurt their widdy biddy feewings.

Words tend to fail me as I try to describe the level of contempt I have for those very people.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Katrina still pisses me off. Get used to it.
Originally posted 9/8/06

thezigg:
Nope dont remember the date of katrina.

I do.

August 31st, 2005. [yeah, I was off a day, so sue me]

I was there.

Shitty McFuckstick was in San Diego, playing air guitar for a Gooper-fuck fundraiser.

The next day, September 1st, 2005, Prezidiot McFuckstick journeyed to Arizona where he shared birthday cake with his bitch John "It's OK if you call my adopted daughter an illegitimate nigger bitch while I suck your flaccid cock" McCain as thousands of people were stranded in attics and on rooftops.

I remember it vividly. The oppressive heat. The lack of electricity. The lack of gasoline. The devastation. The dead people in the water. The living people jammed into wherever could keep them alive and out of the weather.

I remember the shots from the SuperDome. I remember the shots from the all-white Louisiana deputies keeping those darkies from marching OUT of New Orleans. I remember the gutless fucking New Orleans cops.

I remember Michael Brown's emails about how he got a new shirt and didn't he look good in it as thousands were without homes, without medical care, without hope.

I remember when YOUR prezidiot couldn't be fucking bothered to watch the goddamned evening news. I remember his staff had to make his pathetic ass a DVD to watch on Air Force One.

I remember him pretending to be a leader, stomping around a devastated New Orleans with a group of stage-prop fire-fighters who could have been out doing something useful, but instead were required to tag along with the Shithead-In-Chief as part of the mobile photo-op.

I remember living on MREs for months because there was very little else available. I remember the 6pm curfews. I remember seeing people's houses ripped off the foundations, roofs gone, windows gone, walls missing. I remember that my apartment was in the first line of structures that were still standing. Everything south of me was gone. I remember that the guy who worked next to lost everything.

I remember how the FEMA people were such pussies. They wouldn't go out into southern Mississippi without a goddamned COMPANY of National Guard infantry to "protect" them. I remember the National Guard people giving the FEMA people the finger and flying food and ice out in helicopters at 100 times the cash cost to deliver needed supplies to people who were quite literally sleeping the motherfucking mud next to what USED to be their home.

I remember the stupid rules about who could get ice and who couldn't. I remember people not being allowed to run into New Orleans with their own boats to rescue people off housetops. I remember the guy whose wife was dragged off the roof by the current during the second day of the flooding. Dragged right out of his hands. I remember the look on his face as he told people about it. I remember the government's response to it -- nothing.

I remember the guy I worked with who lost everything the year before he was to retire. I remember people who had just bought a new house in an area that was NOT supposed to flood and their house was just gone. I remember their shit-swilling ass-cheese insurance agents who refused to pay off because it was "water-damage" and not "wind-damage." I also remember the croooked fucking insurance agents who offered to write some people a $4,000 check, "Just sign here," but if you read the form, you gave up all rights to any sort of settlement by accepting that check.

I remember Katrina well.

I also remember the response by the Republicans. Those in the field, those in their air conditioned offices, and those on here.

Fuck you all.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Yes, I do have a lot to say about Katrina
Originally posted 9/9/06

KatieJ:
Thank you, Neil. You made it more real to me than all of the television broadcasts and news stories on Katrina.

You are more than welcome. Trust me. And thanks to all the other compassionate people here. I appreciate all the kind thoughts sent my way, I really do. But there are so many others who were nothing like as fortunate as I was. I get sick thinking about it. It seems that unless someone was actually there, they honestly can't "get it." I don't understand that, but then I was there.

My apartment was on Fifth Street; I have a distant cousin who lived on Second. Nothing on Second is inhabitable. The only thing that save me and what little I had was the railroad embankment that ran on the south side of Fifth St (about where Fourth should have been). Nothing south of the railroad was inhabitable. Some structures were simply gone.

All of the little bayou community of Waveland was gone. Not a single structure standing. Not one. Nothing but foundations and a little trash. Boats were sitting on the highway. Not dinghys, but big shrimp boats and yachts. In fact, there is STILL a big shrimp boat that is grounded near I-10, over half a mile from the water. Perhaps someday, the owners will find a way to get it to water again.

For the first few days, we drove around the boats. For the first several months we continued to drive over downed powerlines. There were plenty of organizations giving out medical care and food in the sweltering heat that is the Gulf Coast in the summer. Frankly, I don't understand how those people without access to air conditioning and running water made it. But they did.

My girlfriend at the time, we had a restaurant we liked down at the marina. The Whitecaps. There's no marina anymore. There's no aquarium (though I understand it's being rebuit). All the big structures down near the water, like the big Methodist church and the library are shredded. You can look inside and see what little is left as entire walls are missing. In the library, you could see a table and two chairs left on the second floor by the work crew who cleaned it up. The beach is a wreck. Downed trees everywhere, out in the water as far as a hundred meters or more.

Driving through the neighborhoods is a mess. So many trees snapped off about half way up. Every house had to be gutted because of the water damage and the black mold. The roads are lined with debris. The trucks come through, load up hundreds of tons of crap, and within a couple of days, people have dragged out more crap that needs to be hauled away and buried.

One of our guys took pictures as he went out on one of the first helicopter assessment flights. Where my Bell rep lived was nothing but trash and foundations. My Sikorsky rep got away with only six trees hitting his house. He was one of the lucky ones. The QC Officer was very lucky. He now has an ocean view as everything between him and the Gulf is now gone. He got a FEMA trailer to put on his lot after only three months of hasselling.

Yeah, I know it was a natural disaster. Yeah, I know Bush himself can't control the weather. My problem is not with the hurricane. People who live on the Gulf Coast understand that and accept the risks (unless they are total redneck idiots, in which case they simply don't think about it). My problem is with the stunningly poor response by the Republican administration. My problem is with the Republicans and their cheerleaders who went into vitriolic victim-blaming as it became more and more clear just how badly Bush fucked up. My problem is with the demonstrated, blatant, and unrepentant inhumanity of the Republicans.

If this is their idea of governance, count me among the anarchists.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

I survived Katrina, and I didn't even get a T-shirt, bitches.
Originally posted 9/8/06

_heather:

ali_n_jack:
Neil if there's anything you'd like to share about the south at this time please do so.

I can say in general that hurricane season is hotter than fuck, which sucks because the power goes out and with it the all-important air conditioning.

*yields balance of time to Neil*

Yeah, what she said, only worse.

It like living in the most depressing circumstances possible. Every single day that rolls around you drive to work through devastation. You work in devastation. You talk with people who have been made homeless, people who have no resources left, people who are so depressed they want to kill themselves. You have cold MREs for lunch, just as you will for supper. Then you get to drive back through devastation to get to your apartment where you were one of the incredibly fortunate who have something to live in, instead of the ones who are camping in tents on the golf course across the street from the airport.

And this was Gulfport. It was worse in New Orleans by an order of magnitude. They were still finding dead bodies from Katrina just last month. I simply cannot grasp that this is my country, the richest country ever in the history of the world, and we get treated like this.

Myself, I was lucky. I know SO many others who were not. One of my mechanics was in his last year before retirement and he lost his house, which was paid for, but he had no insurance. Along the Gulf Coast, hurricane insurance is hard to get, believe it or not. Most people don't bother (for what seemed like obvious reasons after the fact -- the adjusters are crooked, the insurance companies won't pay, and it's just another hoop you are forced through).

It continues to astonish me that more people do not know what its like there. I've taken people for short tours through Gulfport, and the devastation is like nothing they have ever seen. Apparently, CNN didn't really focus on what happened. Or the small screen just can't convey this sort of thing. You have to be there.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

The '04 Election

You know, I've been asking myself why so there are so many dickheaded jingoist pro-war assholes on this site. [Don't take it personally, unless you happen to be a dickheaded jingoist pro-war asshole, in which case, be my guest.]

I have an answer.

D/s is a power dynamic. Granted, there are those who are here simply for the kinky sex or cool clothes or whatever, but those folks are posers and in the minority. "Real" bdsm folks (it actually pains me to write "real", you have no idea) are all about exchanging power.

For the tops, we like to get power. We use power, we have no problems with taking power and humiliating the bottoms of the world. I think that's why so many tops are pro-war, pro-Shrub, and fundamentally fascist in their political outlook.

Bottoms like to give up their power. They have a need to submit to a powerful person, someone who will hurt them and take what they have. This is why so many of them are pro-war, pro-Bush, and have a fundamentally fascist political outlook.

For those of us who are able to rise about our sexual choices and not conflate a stripping of our civil rights with a consensual act, kudos. You know who you are.

For all y'all dickheaded jingoist pro-war assholes: Kiss my native-born manly masculine veteran American ass. You pervs wil be the first to go when the Shrub needs another issue to "activate the base." Hell, I may write him a letter myself.

Why yes, I *am* an agent of Satan, though my duties are largely ceremonial.

The Economics of Abortion (& women fearing antis)

Camillia brought up a very interesting point in the other thread. Rather than derail it from it's pre-destined lock-down for stupidity, I thought I'd start another thread. That way we'll get in a page or two before the maroons get too uppity. Rather than delving into why these ass-mongers fear the vagina, I say we look at the economics. It worked against Nixon, maybe it'll work against these fascists, too.

First, it's clear now that the whole outlawing of abortion thing is all about controlling women through sex. None of them even mention the man (without whom pregnancy is impossible). So, can we stipulate this and move on?

So, really. Who benefits from outlawing abortion? The obvious answer is that the rich benefit. How? Because they simultaneously keep women oppressed, drive up the number of available cannon-fodder, and create a new pool of criminals to be used to intiate a new round of fear and loathing amongst the moron classes.

That's right, people. It ain't the fucking Pope that benefits from this. It's the Richard Mellon Scaifs, the Rupert "fuck my dog" Murdochs, and other such vermin.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

Political tribalist or crossdresser? (an extract)

redbrat:
What about your own party support - do you challenge your party leaders, or do you blindly follow like sheep

I'm a "challenge the leaders of my party" kind of guy (this may be obvious). Clearly, the current Democrats are not the sort of populists that I grew up with. This has to change. I will NOT be a serf for any shit-sucking pro-corporatist motherfucker, regardless of the label du jour.

redbrat:
I take my politics from a mixture of Labour / Lib Dems with very little else as there is very little left that represents my views - so i guess rather than being a tribalist - as i have no tribe left - i am a traditionalist - in the socialist mould

I am a traditional populist cross-dressing as a social justice crusader. I can't spout the usual moronic pro-'Merkin rhetoric, but I'm a bitch when it comes to morality.

redbrat:
I see no evidence of a modern, open society working for the greater good...

That's because we no longer HAVE modern, open societies. Both the UK and the US have decided to go closed and traditional. Sick, isn't it?

redbrat:
what are you?

Devilishly good looking and hot for a date, babe. You?

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP Dick "I gots other priorities, bitches" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
-- Plato

The Official Neil_Bitch Roadmap Out Of Iraq

Just in case you guys want a way out within my lifetime.

George "Captain Bunnypants" Bush to get on his knees in front of the UN to beg for UN Peacekeepers. Make that bleeding ass-maggot John Bolton get on his knees, too.

Give the UN whatever the fuck they want. Abjectly apologize. Pay our fucking back dues. What cheap-fucks.

Rotate US troops OUT of Iraq as rapidly as UN troops can be rotated in.

UN to aid the Iraqi people to create their own government in whatever style they like, including some sort of Islamic theocracy, including partitioning the country as necessary to give each ethnic and religious group some acceptable level of autonomy, insuring an equitable means of dividing up the oil revenues.

The US to pay war reparations to Iraq for three generations, not less than $1,000,000,000,000.

The US to disarm and reduce military spending to $45 Billion per year total including everything, even veterans benefits.

Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, and whomever else is responsible for the invasion to stand trial in The Hague for Crimes Against Humanity.

The entire US gulag to be disassembled, prisoners released, and compensated at US $100,000 per year of incarceration.

Those involved in torture to stand trial along side Poopypants, et al.

--
"Go fuck yourself!"
-- VP "Dick" Cheney on the floor of the United States Senate
Some say we should light a candle rather than curse the darkness. I say we should first beat the living shit out of him, and THEN light the candle. Fewer witnesses that way. And I'm STILL a Nobel Prize Nominee, you fuckers! I've been nominated for the Fields Medal, too! So there!