Sunday, February 26, 2006

DISTRACTIONS

Right after this port issue came front and center, a number of things happened to distract the public. First and foremost in my opinion was the bombing of the mosque in Samara that touched off a firestorm of retaliation bombings and kidnappings and killings, which led to widespread hysteria/predictions about a civil war brewing in Iraq between shiites and sunnis. A civil war that the coalition forces would be stuck right in the middle.
Then, South Dakota put the kabosh on abortion rights for the women unfortunate enough to live there. This state legislation is an extention of a national agenda supported by the Bush administration, and is targeting the religio-nut voting bloc to come out in 2006 and vote for an abortion ban, plus a straight party ticket for the GOP. In addition to that, 16 states are pushing legislation to ban adoption rights to gays and lesbians...another ploy to bring the 40 or so percent of americans that should be summarily fed to lions out to the polls to vote for this legislation and,presumably, a straight party ticket for the GOP.
The GOP is in trouble, they break out the religio-facist-nutjob card.
Then they start the spin. I listened to this GOP asshole on one of the cable news channels (CNN I think) this morning who described the democrats raising the red flag on the ports security issue (remember that? or are you all wrapped up in this abortion/gay-lesbian adoption shit storm that just happened to come up?) as unconsionable, and described them as "falling over one another on the way to the podium to grab the latest soundbite" against the Bush administration. This asshat however, made no mention of the republicans speaking out against the port deal. Hmmmmm.
Also...Russia and Iran have reached a tentative agreement over the enrichment of uranium for Irans "energy needs". Yeah,ok...this doesn't stink of rotten fish heads. What with the current power in Iran issuing almost hourly edicts damning America and the west for anything and everything that is wrong in the world from immersion foot to the fucking clap. Plus, they are almost certainly fanning the flames of what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia has most certainly got something up it's sleeve, probably a shiv. Whose throat it's pointed at remains to be seen.
Then there's the shit in Nigeria...their little war and ensuing propaganda managed to raise oil prices 2 dollars a gallon. Thanks Nigeria.
And the cartoon thing just won't fucking go away...people are continuing to riot and kill over these drawings. Drawings...images on paper that you can line a birdcage with or wipe your ass in a pinch. Ink on paper...nothing.
Speaking of the cartoons, I read about a british conservative party that's main platform is the growing number of islamic people living in England. They plan to use the cartoon of the turban bomb wearing Mohammed in their campaign material. That's really smart innit? You fucking idiots. They say they owe it to the children of Britain to help them remember their christian roots or some such bullshit.
Which brings me to the racist part of this equation. And back to the port security deal that happened before all this other shit. Racism is a mechanism of a politically correct world, when we have the luxury to pander to apologists and pretend that we all love one another. Don't get me wrong, Bosnia is a prime example: of ethnic cleansing, and a reason to intercede. We did. But so was Rawanda (we didn't) and currently Dafur (we haven't). Which would lead one to infer that racism is a completely arbitrary phenomena. Whatever fits, I guess. Or what's at stake, and the humanity of it rarely plays a more than miniscule role. To that end, our involvement in the Bosnia thing was about a reason to intercede on humanitarian principles. That was Clinton.
Bush is clearly money and opportunity driven, to the exclusion of anything else. And his ignoring of Darfur( and other similar situations foriegn and domestic) says more about his character than anything else he has done ( or not done) since he was elected.
Distractions abound. It's hard to stay focused on what really matters. You have to choose what lame assed issue to grasp onto.
But me...I just learned the Subhumans are playing in Austin in April. I've latched onto that, and my gun cleaning kits.

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