Checks and Balances and the “F-Word”

Is there enough going on to make you nervous yet? The Vice President of the United States was the keynote speaker at a conference where other speakers called for “a new McCarthyism” to bring “terror” to intellectuals, saying “let’s oppress them [liberals],” and “the entire Harvard faculty” are “traitors.” A Congressman said, “America’s Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd,” ? Then he said, “We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq.”

This is an excellent post from a blogger who is getting real concerned about the direction of the ruling class. There’s nothing here that is news to us in the ANSWER Coalition, because we’ve been saying this for years. Yes, there is a ruling class. Yes, they have shifted to the hard right. But no, the public has not shifted. The populace has turned against the war, favors gay unions, etc. etc,- hardly a sign that the country has moved sharply to the right. The neocons, extremist to the core, are trying to control the government, while their lumpen howl loudly in blogdom. But they do not speak for the country. They are not the majority.

 Meanwhile, right-wing commentators talk about killing American journalists, their premier blogs talk about former president Carter as being on the side of the enemy and leftists have “seamlessly taken up the cause of Islamic fascism”. I have provided only a few examples.

When you hear threatening talk like this, in the company of the country’s leadership, you know that whatever comes next isn’t going to be pleasant. Things do not appear to be heading in a good direction at all. If you have been following this in the blogs, you know that more and more people are becomming concerned that the Right’s rhetoric is growing ever more violent and totalitarian. Serious people have started referring to the “f-word.” (See also here, here, here, here and many other places.)

The rhetoric of the Left is also heating up. “Two cultures clash.” The Left has already won the culture war. Now we need to win the political war. And it is a war.

 I think we are entering a new phase of American history. These are not normal times, the pendulum is not swinging back, and historical trends of American politics no longer apply.

Get in the streets. Organize. Get loud. Take risks. Major change in this country always starts with people in the streets. Whether it was women’s sufferage, labor union, civil rights, or the Vietnam war, the dissent started in the streets, spread, and eventually was victorious. We’ve done it before and we can do it again.

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From reader Ben

I read an article recently; a Democratic caucus for children and the family met to discuss how to improve education, health, nutrition, and reduce the effect of crime on young children.  The Republican caucus for children met to discuss how to get SpongeBob Squarepants off tv.

Family values. Glad I don’t have a family I value like the Republicans value theirs.

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“Mr. Thompson’s approach in many ways mirrors the style of modern-day bloggers”, NY Times

The LA Times has a lengthy front page obit today on Hunter, definitely worth reading for those not familiar with his life.

And finally, the good Doctor speaks

“We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world–a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us . . . No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us–they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them.”

-Hunter S. Thompson

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Environmentalists must alter tactics

“When you look at the string (of) global warming defeats under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, it is hard not to conclude that the environmental movement’s approach to problems and policies has not worked particularly well,” they wrote in a paper presented to an environmental donors conference last fall.

Global warming is accepted as a given in virtually every country except the US and Australia, with the governments of Europe and Japan actively looking for solutions. Therefore, the environmental movement has done fine elsewhere getting the global warming across. So, why is it different in the US?  Because, I believe, by the insistence of the neocons that business must be allowed to obtain maximum profit at all times, and screw the consequences of their actions. And in this belief, Clinton was every bit a neocon too. 

So, what’s their alternative? They argue that environmentalists should be working closely with business and political leaders to understand their views and jointly promote policies that will improve our air and water.

A far better tactic than this appeasement get-in-bed-with-the-wolf approach is what Rainforest Action Network does. Direct action. Yes, RAN works with the company  - but only after after their direct actions and consequent negative publicity for the company forces the company to relent. And they’ve had many victories with this approach, which works far better than the dull inside the Beltway approach of tired enviros like the Sierra Club.

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Los Angeles is not geared for heavy rain. The infrastructure can’t handle it. Streets and freeways flood, mud and rock slides close roads, destroy homes, and kill people. The canyon roads, many of which are major commuter routes, are twisty, water-clogged, and in steep ravines prone to rock slides which force closure of the canyon with the already terminally full freeways forced to take the extra traffic load.

The real danger for homes on hillsides will come a few weeks after the rains stop, the hills dry, and the cracks appear where the earth has shifted. These rains help our drought not at all. There’s no place to store the water, so it just dumps into the ocean. L.A. water comes from hundreds of miles away instead.

Over eleven inches of rain has fallen since last Thursday in the area I live in. It will rain most of today and tomorrow, with more rain coming early next week. Yikes.

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