American conservatism: the perfect combination of fascism and apathy.

Conservativsm is not a political position, it is a lack of a political position.
I've come to this conclusion after living in rural Kansas for three years and being in a community that has 50%+ Republicans, but they rarely debate or do any activism or anything. My area is seen my the conservatives to be completely dominated by leftists, because they are the only ones that do any activism and they run the important institutions.
Conservativsm certainly is not a lifesyle. When I browse Facebook I see many people with "conservative" listed under their political affiliation (often even conservative and Christianity/God listed under interests) with tons of pictures of them drinking and partying. A lot of these conservatives are ashamed of Bush, but really violently hate liberals. The difference between liberals and conservatives are that liberals are too pissed off to keep being silent, mainly based on being more informed about current events and how the world works.
American Conservatism is a not a political position, it is a culture. It is tied deeply to the dominant Christian views in America, which is a big part of this and can be viewed under this framework of a strange apathetic, reactionary, ignorant/apathetic, anti-modern, anti-liberal, hateful culture that produces right-wingers.
So many people I have talked to have said they are fed up with Bush, but we should just obey our government and we can not change anything. American Conservatism is largely based on apathy and nationalism, often justified by Christianity with a strong emphasis on Romans 13:1, rather than Acts 5:29 or other better verses more accurate to the early Christians who were radical and not obedient to temporal authorities. For example, Paul wrote many of his letters from jail and was executed by the Roman Empire. It really is a strange phenomenon, and certainly a recent, post-Vietnam phenomenon (Vietnam War, especially the Pentagon Papers caused widespread distrust and apathy toward government by people on the left and right.) Nonetheless, it is from this culture, which is very widespread, that our politicians must build a c onsensus base. There seems to be little base for anyone to build a campaign on then of hatred, rallying around the flag, idolatrous repetitive screaming of "God Bless America"(yeah, I do mean Kerry's concession speech, fuck you Kerry), militarism, and "staying the course" on every issue.

American conservatism: the perfect combination of fascism and apathy.

Evidence for this blend of unqualified nationalism and apathy is provided in an e-mail being forwarded around:
> WHAT\\'S ALL THE FUSS?
>
> "ARE WE FIGHTING A WAR ON TERROR OR AREN\\'T WE?
>
> WAS IT NOT STARTED BY ISLAMIC PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT IT TO OUR SHORES ON
>
> SEPTEMBER 11, 2001?
>
> AMERICANS, NOT BRUTALLY MURDERED THAT DAY, IN DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN, ACROSS THE
> POTOMAC FROM OUR NATION\\'S CAPITOL AND IN A FIELD IN PENNSYLVANIA?
>
> DID NEARLY THREE THOUSAND MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN DIE A HORRIBLE,
>
> BURNING OR CRUSHING DEATH THAT DAY, OR DIDN\\'T THEY?
>
> I DON\\'T CARE AT ALL.
>
> I\\'LL START CARING WHEN OSAMA BIN LADEN TURNS HIMSELF IN AND REPENTS FOR
> INCINERATING ALL THOSE INNOCENT PEOPLE ON 9/11.
>
> OF WHICH IS A CRIME IN SAUDI ARABIA.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI TELLS THE WORLD HE IS SORRY
> FOR HACKING
> OFF NICK BERG\\'S HEAD WHILE BERG SCREAMED
>
> THROUGH HIS GURGLING! , SLASHED THROAT.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE COWARDLY SO-CALLED "INSURGENTS" IN IRAQ COME OUT AND
> FIGHT LIKE MEN INSTEAD OF DISRESPECTING THEIR OWN RELIGION BY HIDING IN
> MOSQUES.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE MINDLESS ZEALOTS WHO BLOW THEMSELVES UP IN SEARCH OF
> NIRVANA CARE ABOUT THE INNOCENT CHILDREN WITHIN RANGE OF THEIR SUICIDE BOMBS.
>
> I\\'LL CARE WHEN THE AMERICAN MEDIA STOPS PRETENDING THAT THEIR FIRST
> AMENDMENT LIBERTIES ARE SOMEHOW DERIVED FROM INTERNATIONAL LAW INSTEAD OF THE
> UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION\\'S BILL OF RIGHTS.
>
> IN THE MEANTIME, WHEN I HEAR A STORY ABOUT A BRAVE MARINE ROUGHING
> UP AN IRAQI
> TERRORIST TO OBTAIN INFORMATION, KNOW THIS:
>
> I DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I SEE A FUZZY PHOTO OF APILE OF NAKED IRAQI PRISONERS WHO HAVE BEEN
> HUMILIATED IN WHAT AMOUNTS TO A COLLEGE HAZING INCIDENT, REST ASSURED THAT I
> DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I SEE A WOUNDED TERRORIST GET SHOT IN THE HEAD WHEN HE IS TOLD NOT TO
> MOVE BECAUSE HE MIGHT BE BOOBY-TRAPPED, YOU CAN TAKE IT TO THE BANK THAT I
> DON\\'T CARE.
>
> WHEN I HEAR THAT A PRISONER, WHO WAS ISSUED A KORAN AND A PRAYER
> MAT, AND FED
> "SPECIAL" FOOD THAT IS PAID FOR BY MY TAX DOLLARS, IS COMPLAINING
> THAT HIS HOLY
> BOOK IS BEING "MISHANDLED," YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART
> OF HEARTS
> THAT I DON\\'T CARE.
>
> AND OH, BY THE WAY, I\\'VE NOTICED THAT SOMETIMES IT\\'S SPELLED "KORAN" AND
> OTHER TIMES "QURAN." WELL, JIMMY CRACK CORN AND ---- YOU GUESSED IT, I COULD
> NOT HAVE SAID THIS ANY BETTER MYSELF!
>
> IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS VIEW POINT, PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR E-MAIL FRIENDS.
> SOONER OR LATER, IT\\'LL GET TO THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FR THIS RIDICULOUS
> BEHAVIOR! IF YOU DON\\'T AGREE, THEN BY ALL MEANS HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.
>
> SHOULD YOU CHOOSE THE LATTER, THEN PLEASE DON\\'T COMPLAIN WHEN MORE
> ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY RADICAL MUSLIMS HAPPEN HERE IN OUR GREAT COUNTRY.

"Facts were fixed"

Downing Street Memo = Remove Bush from power now!

A memo proving the Administration purposely fixed intelligence on the Iraq War, and also proving personal lies from Bush showing he was planning the war earlier than he told Congress. The "Downing Street Memo" made huge news in all the UK press, but the American press has been so sheepish because none of them want to be called "the liberal media" by all the right-wing pressure groups funding by oil companies and other corrupt lobby groups. View the memo here:

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/memo

Do what you can now to support justice and impeach Bush or hopefully even bring him to a war crimes tribunal.

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_memo
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0617/dailyUpdate.html

From http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0517/dailyUpdate.html

Among other things, the memo said:

Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The [National Security Council] had no patience with the UN route .... There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action. ...

It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.

The memo's authenticity was not disputed by Blair's office.

Quotations for your week

"But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
--Luke 19:8

It is time for some serious restitution from the rich in America to oppressed groups throughout the world and manipulated workers in America.

"He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and he who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty." --Proverbs 22:16

God here speaks not in literal terms that eventually if we sit around long enough, this person will become poor in the tangible sense. It is a play upon words to undermine the conventional terms of what it means to be "wealthy" so that those that are wealthy and exploit the poor are actually morally bankrupt, and thus have come to poverty.

That't our home state :-( ...

I did not get to learn evolution in high school thanks to the Kansas BOE, and it did not help me in college. In grade school, at my Environmental Magnet school, we had very old fossils to prove how old life was and how Kansas used to be underwater. My point is that as a third graders, I had more intelligence than the Kansas school board. Unfortunately, most future students will not:

The way to get creationism into school science curricula used to be by trying to make creationism look like science by calling it "intelligent design". Now there is a second approach: redefine science:

The Kansas school board's hearings on evolution weren't limited to how the theory should be taught in public schools. The board is considering redefining science itself. Advocates of "intelligent design" are pushing the board to reject a definition limiting science to natural explanations for what's observed in the world.

Instead, they want to define it as "a systematic method of continuing investigation," without specifying what kind of answer is being sought. The definition would appear in the introduction to the state's science standards.

The proposed definition has outraged many scientists, who are frustrated that students could be discussing supernatural explanations for natural phenomena in their science classes.

Three quotations to help you this week

One of the moderators of this blog, Ross, described the diminishing power of the U.S. Congres as such:

"They [Congress] basically only have the power to ask for the President to not donkey-punch them while he is ass-raping them"


"Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds." --Albert Einstein


They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
now will they train for war anymore.
Every man will sit under his own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid.
--Micah 4.3-4

First they came for the liberal judges... and I didn't speak up...

First reactionary right-wing factions before they destroy democracies try to purge political opposition from government by changes the rules to help them. Hitler did everything legally, he just had to CHANGE THE RULES.

On Sunday morning, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson told TV viewers nation-wide that the threat posed by liberal judges is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." When an incredulous George Stephanopoulos asked if Robertson really believed that these judges posed "the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War?," he responded, "George, I really believe that."

http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/robertson.html?id=5494-2967744-z9w7jbgRn8HQ8k4kpLBeCw&t=10

I pray we do all we can to keep these political demagogues, who hide behind a shallow heretical faith, out of power.

Shalom

The New Pope...

Looks like his 'intervention' in the election last year was trumped up by the SCLM.

Anyways, Musing's Musings had a great post about it, go check it out.

Or, if you prefer, just go to the US Conference of Catholic Bishop's statement

I hate it when I buy what the media tells me without first doing my own fact checks.

Torture and "National Security"

A high-level Army investigation has cleared four of the five top Army officers overseeing prison policies and operations in Iraq of responsibility for the abuse of detainees there, Congressional and administration officials said Friday.

I listened to the transcripts of the testimony in this trial and it was amazing. They just lined up one CIA officer after another who had been there to order and administer torture and all of them were able to claim secrecy due to "national security" concerns. This is undemocratic a possible. Yet againa a reminder that "national security" has nothing to do with what is best for the people, for whom which the government is here to PROTECT our rights. "National Security" is a meaningless term thrown around by neoconservative government elites while they advance their corporatist agenda. Rulers are here for our benefit, we are not simply here for theirs. The constitution makes that very clear.

Filibuster

Congress is so weak right now. If the Republicans pull off the "nuclear option" and repeal the filibuster, the only power Congressional Democrats will have is to request for the President not to donkey-punk them while he is ass-raping them.

Because the Democrats are acting like an opposition party, as mostof you all know, the Republicans want to eliminate the filibuster so that our democracy can further degernerate into a one party fascist state. They are hiding behind religious freedom to push through judges. See, this is exactly how it works. Pro-corporate, corrupt, cheating, lying, and yes EVIL (I said it) politicians like House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX). They manipulate people of faith, and then spend millions running ads trying to hide behind other people's God. Grrrr... Well,here are some decent links

Video about Republicans attacking religious people

Humorous video about saving the filibuster

Guantanamo Bay

This is a post to mourn for our oppressed brothers and sisters stuck in Guamtanomo Bay. Camp X-ray has two interesting signs on the chain link fence: one about how we are fighting for freedom, and another warning 'No Pictures Allowed'. Hmmm, what does freedom mean at the point we are fighting to destroy what freedom should or actually does mean?
The kind of torture happening down there is the kind 90% of Americans would be abhorred by. That is why we don't get to hear or see any of it. There have been court cases saying that U.S. citizens do not get the protection of the Constituion. In every time of war, our rights have been taken away by powerful elites who want to further their business agenda under the banner of "national security" (a phrase that means absolutely nothing). A peice of paper means absolutely nothing because whoever has the power makes the rules unless we stop them.
One of the biggest story everyday should be that we have torture camps holding people who know have no links to Al-Qaeda but we know releasing them would be terrible because they would tell others what is going on. The news media should run a sotry on this every day.

Ultra-Conservative Pope elected

It really isn't much of a news story when a top church hierarchy elects a conservative. The structure is based on confromity to doctrine and that's how you move up. So the people at the top naturally are the ones that best adhere to doctrine of 1800-200 years ago. Even when 53% of Catholics support women priests, my prediction is that we won't see that soon.

In case you did not already know, the Rule of Law is not objective or perfect, suck it Plato

POLICE PERJURERS

Tue Apr 19, 7:58 PM ET

Op/Ed - Ted Rall

By Ted Rall

Throw Lying Cops Off the Force

Ted Rall Related Links • Ted Rall's Editorial Cartoons

NEW YORK--Cops lie. Not all of them, but so many lie about their arrests, tickets and interactions with the public that it's a miracle anyone still respects the law.

Corrupt cops were around long before Serpico, but the problem appears to be getting worse. After the dust settled from the recent Rampart Division scandal, Los Angeles prosecutors were forced to drop hundreds of charges against innocent people sitting in jail, who'd been convicted of crimes invented from thin air by police officers willing to lie in order to embellish their arrest record. Now courts have found that New York City police, already facing multi-million-dollar lawsuits filed by demonstrators who were held in horrifying "Little Gitmo" conditions at the 2004 Republican National Convention, fabricated charges against nearly all of those they arrested.

The NYPD arrested 1,806 people during the RNC. "Of the 1,670 cases that have run their full coarse," The New York Times reported April 12, "ninety-one percent ended with the charges dismissed or a verdict of not guilty after trial."

Ninety-one percent!

Using a new tactic, protesters hired hundreds of anti-RNC cameramen to videotape their arrests. Their evidence proved that cops trumped up nearly every charge. Some of those arrested, it turns out, were passersby who didn't participate in the protests at all. The videos, reported the Times in its usual understated style, offered "little support [for police] or actually undercut the prosecution of most of the people arrested." After viewing the evidence, Manhattan's district attorney dropped the charges.

The newspaper cited the case of Dennis Kyne, the first RNC arrestee. At Kyne's trial for "inciting a riot and resisting arrest," NYPD officer Matthew Wohl testified that he had been forced to pick up the defendant "while he squirmed and screamed," grabbing "one of his legs because he was kicking and refusing to walk on his own."

The videotape, unlike P.O. Wohl, doesn't lie.

The tape "showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. Nor was the officer seen taking part in the arrests of four other people at the library against whom he signed complaints."

The prosecutor "abruptly dropped all charges."

In an Orwellian twist, the authorities even censored their own tapes to delete evidence of police lies. Alexander Dunlop, charged with pushing his bicycle into a line of police officers and resisting arrest, was seen on a police tape before the incident in question and sitting in handcuffs after his arrest. The D.A.'s office erased "parts of the tape that show him calmly approaching the police line, and later submitting to arrest without apparent incident."

Summer's convention demonstrations were one of last year's biggest stories, taking place in the streets of the nation's largest and most densely populated city--not to mention its media capital. If cops are willing to lie about events witnessed by hundreds of people in broad daylight, while the cameras roll, if they're unafraid to file phony charges against white college kids with rich parents who can afford good lawyers, one can easily imagine what they do to minority teenagers on the desolate streets of the slums. Who can blame urban kids for despising the police?

This clean-cut Ivy-educated white columnist has encountered enough instances of cops lying to reasonably conclude that the socially destructive phenomenon is widespread:

· A couple of years ago a Los Angeles police officer cuffed me while citing me for jaywalking--actually, I was in the crosswalk with the green "walk" signal in my favor--then tossed my ID into the gutter. The LAPD internal affairs division repeatedly ignored my complaints about this unprofessional goon.

· A Nevada state trooper, not content to ticket me for the 80 miles per hour I was actually speeding on a desert stretch of U.S. Route 95, wrote me up for a more ambitious but false 100 in a 70 mph zone. I was so incensed at the level of exaggeration that I later flew back from New York to challenge the ticket. I won.

· I'm currently awaiting the outcome of a ticket I was issued for violating New York's law against talking on a cellphone while driving, a rule with which I agree. First, I always use an ear bud--which is legal. And as my phone bill attests, I wasn't even using the phone at the time in question.

Why do so many cops lie? My pet theory is that, in the same way that Bill Clinton's sex scandals encouraged promiscuity among impressionable young people, George W. Bush's contempt for the truth and the law, including granting permission to torture and jail the innocent, set a tone that emboldens law enforcement officers to feel that they can get away with anything.

Whatever the cause, cops who slander the innocent unravel our respect for the uniformed authority figures who are the most public face of our government. Public contempt undermines the tacit consent of the governed, the vague but essential groupthink that perpetuates political legitimacy in any society. Lying cops imply lying leaders; lying leaders imply illegitimate rule.

Amazingly, police departments rarely impose sanctions against cops whose testimony is repeatedly found to be untrue by judges, prosecutors and juries. The prevailing attitude is: do whatever, say whatever, and see what sticks. But this has got to stop. Criminal policemen ought to face treatment at least as harsh as employees of other, less vital, professions who lie to their boss. When a judge or the prosecutor's office throws out a case because the evidence disproves a police officer's account of the incident, a warning should be placed in his file. The second time he bears false witness, he should be fired and ordered to find another, more appropriate job (political consultant, secretary of state, or CFO for a Fortune 500 company).

Gospel of Prosperity = Heresy.

This Gospel of Wealth/Prosperity that sees wealth as a virtue and says don't worry about the poor because God loves the status quo is flat out heresy and nothing more. Don't let wealthy right-wingers take over and control Christianity. The Bible clearly addresses poverty, land, labor, capital, and explotation in powerful and explicit language. The most known verse about the poor is "the poor will always be with you," (Matthew 26.11, Mark14.7) which has been twisted and manipulated into a bankrupt theological justification for vast inequality. What Jesus meant here is to not worry about the woman who was wasting perfume in an act of love by pouring it on Jesus' feet, because if you are a follower of Christ you will always be among the poor helping them, because that was so basic and central to Jesus' message. Only today would someone would interpret that verse so wrong heretical. Jesus is also attacking the purity system (the woman's public praise of Jesus was very taboo), and instead praising her love as part of his Gospel of Compassion. The Old Testament says Be Holy as God is Holy, while Jesus says Be compassionate as God is compassionate (Luke 6.36).

Here are some good verses amoung literally hundreds of why poverty is the biggest moral issue:

--"He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses." Proverbs 28:27
--"Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'" Matthew 19:21
--"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." Luke 14:13
--"When Jesus heard this, he said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'" Luke 18:22
--"Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, 'Here's a good seat for you,' but say to the poor man, 'You stand there' or 'Sit on the floor by my feet,' have you not discriminated among yourselves and becomes judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?" James 2:2-6
--"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

With actions. Now go read Jeffrey Sachs' new book 'The End of Poverty' because we now have a unique opportunity to fight global poverty. The U.S. needs to devote .5% of its GDP (.6% was devoted under the Marshall plan and about 2/5 of what is needed is devoted now). Demand you representatives to support this new development model that Britain has recently endorsed.


The Good News is so much better than you think...

Don't buy the Propaganda

The Godless Commie Hellhole know as Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the USA. (185th and 187th, respectively) This isn't according to some random leftist like me, but the CIA World Factbook. Generally rather reputable, it is. I don't care for Castro's politics one whit, but socialized medicare works. Given that Cuba's per capita GDP is about 1/13 of the USA, that it's medical care is about up with the USA, you have to realize something about how forked up Free-Market Medical Care in the United States is. Need a bit more proof, check out this. Nice liberal European democracies, wipe the floor with us in terms of healthcare. Next time you hear some drone whining on and on about the horrors of Canadian Healthcare, remember that they are the ones foolish enough to have an effective Medical system for anyone who isn't uber-rich (the Canadians, not the Drones). What is really sad is how much the very people who would benefit from a more equitable system are the ones who really accept the brainwashing.