the sawpit

A Global Protection Racket

Notes from Blighty – by Chris Cobb

The bully boys (aka the U.S. State Department) have just left town and while they were here many businesses were told that if they were trading with Cuba, they might want to reconsider. The bully boys didn't visit multinational corporations who all know better, they reached down to the level of the mom and pop stores. Now don't imagine these little people were visited by big guys with sharkskin suits and dark glasses ('Nice little store you got here, Mrs Brown. Shame to see something happen to it,' he said, tipping over a barrel of kippers), it doesn't work that way. They let the banks do the strong-arm stuff. Any British bank with ties to U.S. financial institutions (read all of them) were told if they wanted to keep their cozy relationship they had better lean on their customers who were defying the U.S. trade embargo. So a tobacconist who sold Cuban cigars or a commodities trader who was doing brisk business in organic Cuban sugar was informed by his bank that if he didn't want to see his loan threatened or his currency exchange mechanism turned off, he might want 'to make other arrangements'.

Needless to say, these small businesses, like the rest of the world, are hoping to celebrate an Obama election.

Buy Nothing Day!

In December, 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted on television sets across America. Some critics thought it lacked the humor of the comic strip, that it was too serious for a children's special. In fact, A Charlie Brown Christmas is quite remarkable since it simultaneously lambastes the commercialization of Christmas, and ends with Luke's account of Christ's birth. That connection between "peace on earth and good-will toward men" and Snoopy entering his doghouse in a Christmas display contest, is just where Reverend Billy and Church of Stop Shopping are coming from. Like most people I usually complain about the commercialization of Christmas, but then go right out and spend much more than I can afford anyway. Well, this year I am going to make a concerted effort to live up to my rhetoric by participating in Buy Nothing Day on the busiest shopping day of the year. This consumer protest event was started by Canadian artist Ted Dave and is championed every year by Adbusters magazine. November 24th is the official international Buy Nothing Day.

American Idiot?

A letter which claims daylight savings time effects global warming was recently published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A friend of mine sent the link to all her friends with a note stating: "I'm truly flabbergasted and have nothing to say." After reading the letter I noticed that it wasn't published on April Fools Day, so maybe it was real. Then I read it two more times. No, it's someone having fun with the editors, a fan of Lazlo Toth, or The Onion. Someone who also read the letter replied, "Funny how dressing up a web site to look remotely substantive can make incorrect info look good. Still smells like doo doo however." Another wrote, "It just shows that Conservative 'journalism' (I use that term loosely) is based on talking points that in no way converge with the facts." You decide, dear reader, whether we have a frustrated comic writer who was able to fool the editors of a respectable newspaper, or just another example of American idiocy — which never ceases to bewilder, frustrate, and amuse members of the reality-based community.

Daylight exacerbates warning

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they ? Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.

Connie M. Meskiment, Hot Springs

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007

Never Again

As U.S. troop casualties in Iraq continue to climb, we must honor all those who died for a lie. We must never allow our armed forces to be hijacked by our war mongering politicians for a war motivated by greed and oil.

Crazy All The Time

Jerry Falwell: segregationist, racist, homophobic, greedy, superstitious, spurious liar, and character assassin. Did I mention greedy? This was the man who had the audacity to partly blame feminists, gays and liberals for causing the attacks on September 11th, 2001. As the Reverend Barry Lynn wrote in his book, Piety and Politics, "Falwell's god is so alien to me that he might as well be worshiping Baal." Jerry Falwell will not be missed.

Flag of my Father

My father served on the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) from 1959-1961. Last year I received a call from one of his fellow sailors who hadn't seen my father since he had left the Navy. After spending days trying to find the right Ralph DeMarco, he was very surprised and relieved to have found his former Navy buddy's son, rather than just another wrong number. This made the news of my father's recent death from cancer in February 2005 all the more difficult to tell him about. He took it rather well and was interested in talking to me about my father life since his Navy years. I didn't have the heart to tell him that my father's life had slowly unraveled after his was forced to resign from the Rye Police Department, and his divorce from my mother in the 1970s. His self-destruction reached its worst when, about eight years ago, he chose to be homeless rather than pay money for rent. The money he saved on rent was spent on alcohol and drugs. The last time I spoke to him, he was in the hospital suffering from frost-bite. So I told him how proud my father was of his service, and how much he enjoyed reminiscing about his buddies who served with him. Before the call ended he asked if he could call me back sometime and talk some more about my dad. I told him that he was welcome to call back. When a veteran of our armed forces dies, his family is issued an American flag, folded neatly and placed in a triangular shaped box frame. It's a reminder to me of my father's service, and all the men and women who have fought for our protection and freedom. They deserve our appreciation.

Betrayed Memories

Just as the victims of Pearl Harbor were evoked by FDR to justify the war against Japan, president Bush continues to exploit the tragedy of September 11, 2001 by relating it to the war in Iraq. The difference is, of course, that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. And it turns out that there is no evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaeda either. I will never forgive those politicians who exploited the victims of 9/11 to further their agenda of war, occupation, and the imperial presidency. They have implemented almost none of the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Last year's report card can be found here. They continue to evoke 9/11 in order to justify their failed policies. They are all traitors to those who died on this day five years ago. May they rest in peace.

The Truth About De-Evolution

War Mongers, Religious Fanatics, and De-Evolution

Maybe the New Wave band Devo had it right all along: human kind is de-evolving back into the dark and murky past when superstition, fear of science and new ideas ruled the world. After the Lawrence, Kansas School Board's decision to teach Intelligent Design in their schools, a Devo fan suggested that it might be a good idea for them to perform in Lawrence. The band replied:

I think [the decision] opens the door to having Devolution taught in schools along side both Intelligent Design and Evolution since it's the only school of thought to bridge the gap between science and creationism. The argument, though sweetly tautological, is that the ruling in favor of teaching Intelligent Design as science is in itself proof of Devolution.

Maybe human evolution reached its peak with Albert Einstein and his warnings about war with atomic weapons destroying the world. Perhaps George W. Bush is the pus which has oozed to the surface of the fast-food fed, television addicted boil on the ass of America. As one of my friends used to say, "America gets the president it deserves." But I thought that the post-war dream promised a new era of science and enlightened thought. John F. Kennedy's 1960 nomination acceptance speech captured the spirit of those times:

We stand at the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. It will deal with unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

One of John F. Kennedy's achievements was establishing the Peace Corps in 1961. The Peace Corps was created to be a positive outreach in contrast to military conflicts which had brought so much death and destruction to the world. In the 1930s H.G. Wells wrote a novel called The Shape of Things to Come (adapted into a film called Things to Come) which imagined a fragmented post-WWII Europe made up of little Kingdoms dominated by war lords who learn to hate the civilized past because it threatens to destroy their isolated positions of power. The civilized parts of the world send out emissaries to offer brotherhood and cooperation to the fractured city-states. Of course, the war lords can only stall the inevitable for so long. Now it seems that religious and ethnic fanaticism will never be tamed by modernity. The Peace Corps now seems like a quaint idea, like the Geneva Conventions, and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

After WW II, George Orwell tried to warn the civilized world that the biggest threat to the future of humanity is the totalitarian state and its desire to control every aspect of people's lives. President Eisenhower warned the nation to "...guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Today we have neither security or liberty because we are led by corporate fascists who care only for ever-increasing profit regardless of the damage done to the world. America is being led by war profiteers who use fear as a weapon to squash dissent, intimidate the media, and bully those in government who dare to oppose their agenda. In the words of Smedley Darlington Butler:

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

After the Cold War ended, we were all expecting the Peace Dividend. But fifteen years later we are now being told that World War III has just begun. And so the question must be asked why the Bush administration has used war, and the threat of military action, against all those we consider enemies. The answer can only be money and power. Pat Buchanan and I don't usually agree on many issues. But when it comes to Israel's hold over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, he is one of the few voices of dissent on the right. Although his use of the words "un-American" and "un-Christian" are suspect, I admire his independence from the current political climate:

Let it be said: Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counter-attack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired and a right to occupy land from which attacks are mounted on her people.

But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests. It is un-American and un-Christian.

The problem for the Bush administration is its subservient role to Israel. Political pressure to support whatever Israel does in response to terrorist attacks only strengthens the Islamic radicals and weakens the influence of moderate and liberal forces in countries like Iran and Pakistan. By killing innocent civilians in Lebanon, Israel is assuring that Hezbollah-style militias will continue to find recruits for generations to come. You cannot defeat terrorism until you win the battle of ideas. Unfortunately, we have run out of ideas and are resorting to school yard bully tactics, and punishment of innocent civilians. Invade and bomb first - ask questions, and maybe negotiate later. The United Nations may not be perfect, but its charter is still relevant, regardless of what the new imperialists may think. These days, war is the new diplomacy in Washington and Jerusalem. A professional woman in Iraq recently discovered that she was not welcome at her job anymore because she is a woman. She said that Iraq has been set back fifty years. Devolution indeed.

Blizzard of 2006

You can see more blizzard pics here

The Death Penalty Must End

People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty... I have yet to see a death case among the dozens coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial.
— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2001)

The United States is the only democratic country in the world that still executes prisoners. The death penalty is nothing more than arbitrarily applied state-sponsored pre-meditated murder. Its application diminishes our common humanity and lowers us to the same level of those we seek to punish. I, for one, do not want the state to kill in my name, and I don't understand how people can allow the state to murder a defenseless prisoner in order to demonstrate that murder is wrong. Proponents of capital punishment simply exploit murder victims in order to justify this broken, immoral system of revenge. They should be ashamed.

Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die.
— Justice Harry Blackmun, Callins v. Collins, dissenting

Many of the proponents of the death penalty claim to be Christians. They go to church where their savior and spiritual teacher, Jesus Christ, hangs lifeless, nailed to a large wooden cross, a victim of the Roman death penalty. And these same people will read about how Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, and how he prevented an angry mob from stoning to death a defenseless woman accused of adultery. So how can these Christians justify unequally applied state sponsored murder? Well, they go back to the Old Testament's notion of "an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth" which is a terrible example of how to treat your fellow human beings and about as un-Christian as you can get. Of course it never occurs to them that "thou shall not kill" should be extended to the criminal justice system.

After 20 years on (the) high court, I have to acknowledge that serious questions are being raised about whether the death penalty is being fairly administered in this country. Perhaps it’s time to look at minimum standards for appointed counsel in death cases and adequate compensation for appointed counsel when they are used.
— Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (2001)

So, you might say, what does that have to do with executing murderers? After all, Jesus Christ was not accused of a capital crimes. Isn't it justice to take a life for a life? Well, if that's your argument, then you should also believe that everyone who is convicted of murder should be killed, otherwise it's not being fairly applied. If you are poor and black you are far more likely to receive the death penalty, especially if your victim is white. We know that witnesses lie, that police and prosecutors withhold evidence in order to secure convictions. Ironically, many of those who support the death penalty will rage against government tyranny and abuse of power, yet are willing to give that same government power over life and death. The United States will never be considered the moral leader of the world until it stops invading defenseless countries, advocating torture, and strapping convicts down to a chair and pumping them with poison in the name of justice.

Note: These quotes were taken from an excellent anti-death penalty resource: www.deathpenaltyinfo.org. Join the Campaign to End the Death Penalty by visiting www.nodeathpenalty.org. Also, check out www.prodeathpenalty.com to understand how people can justify this "cruel and unusual punishment."