Of Faustian bargains and disposable human beings

(I am dedicating this essay to the memory of the millions of victims of the Capitalist Imperial wars of conquest waged by the United States under the patently false pretexts of spreading freedom and liberty).

Rolling through virtually any reasonably populous city or town in America, one encounters a surreal landscape blighted by grotesque temples to America’s twin gods of Capitalism and Consumerism. As an increasing number of individual proprietors are driven to extinction, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and hundreds more leviathan corporations continue their rapid construction of more houses of worship to serve their zealous congregation. Once inside, many Americans gleefully sacrifice an abundance of their greenbacks at altars attended by Consumerism’s unwitting acolytes.

For appallingly meager wages and benefits, the cashiers tending the sacred Churches of Capitalism and Consumerism gather the offerings which enable their fellow faithful to reap the fruits of practicing their devotion.

Iraq.  For those of us steeped in fighting our government's occupation of  Iraq, the list of descriptors for the war roll off our tongue in our debates on subways and in supermarket lines: illegal, immoral, unjust, unnecessary...  Visual representations of the horrors in Iraq flash through our minds daily, fill up our email in-boxes: civilians being tortured, parents holding dead or dying babies, children with missing limbs, battered faces, screaming in pain.  We see soldiers and Marines kicking down doors, parents cowering over their children in feeble attempts to shield them.  We see men shackled, in hoods, dressed in orange if dressed at all, attack dogs lunging at them.

And then we hear of the activism of ordinary people nationwide, who are demanding that the billions -- no, the trillions -- of dollars being poured into the coffers of Halliburton, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, and the like be instead invested into maintaining a healthy society here: into our crumbling schools, our failing health care system, pension plans for our elders, and job training for our youth.

The 2006 Social Security Trustees Report, which includes the Medicare program, was released on May 1. The trustees projected the year 2040 as the depletion date of the Social Security trust fund versus 2041 in the 2005 report.

Thanks to the Greenspan Commission in 1983, the trust fund is running a surplus of Social Security taxes collected. Contributors include employees, their employers and the self-employed.

As in the 2005 report, the trustees still project 2017 as the year that the costs of the Social Security program will exceed its tax revenues. The trust fund is designed to address this estimated shortfall.

The New York Times ran a report (5/2/06) and the Washington Post a column (5/9/06) that ignored the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s projection of 2052 as the year for the depletion of the Social Security trust fund. This slip shrinks the context of Social Security’s future.

Further, the Post columnist wrote the bonds held by Social Security were “IOUs from the U.S. Treasury.” That is an odd description of such interest-bearing certificates.

Please!  Would somebody please tell me that the corporate news media is talking about U.S. war crimes in Iraq in addition to the civilians killed in Haditha?! 

I can only hope that my fellow citizens are not being told that this latest outrage tumbling out of Iraq is some isolated incident; that Herr Rumsfeld will diligently investigate it, and dispense timely justice to all guilty parties (below the rank of Lieutenant, of course).

JUST in case your Uncle Bob or Aunt Sophie has been asking you “Exactly what the hell is going on in Iraq?” and you’re looking for hard facts to help them get off the fence, here you are.

Keep in mind these are just a few instances compiled by one citizen sitting in Toledo with an old computer connected to the internet – an indication that there just might be even more going on.

Steve was always the one who'd get the rest of us out of jail. He had a knack for slipping away just before the police closed in, to find the lawyers, round up bail, or whatever else it took. Must have sprung me a couple dozen times.

Just before the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, I'd gone out to pick up one of our folks stranded hitchiking in a massive thunderstorm 30 miles out. I got lost, and in attempting a 3 point turn, got my van stuck in a yard in Raytown. The homeowner came out, naturally upset that my spinning wheels were chewing up his lawn. By this time I'd blown the radiator and flattened a tire, he called the cops, and I was hauled downtown on a damage to property charge.

Raytown was national headquarters for the Minutemen, not directly related to the anti-immigration zealots of today, but in their rabid anti-communism a similar social set, and this was reflected in their localpllitical establishment. The Raytown cops had such a bad reputation that the Kansas City Police Chief had not included them in his callup of suburban departments for Convention duty.

President Bush in Washington Monday told a room full of revved up anti-gay Christian conservatives that, rather than focus attention on the pressing issues of the day--Iraq, Iranian nukes, the economy, gas prices--one of the biggest priorities facing the country today is making sure homosexuals cannot legally marry. If you believe Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is critical to the moral survival of the country. No matter that recent polls show that Americans view the gay marriage issue as #7 on the priority list. We're in an election year here, folks, and these Repugs desperately need their wedge issue to rile up the base.

"Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them," Bush said in his speech. "And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure." Honestly, has there ever been a more non-issue than this?

He's getting quite creative, this coy former vice president of ours. When asked if he's running for president in 2008, Al Gore devises every possible answer to throw his questioners off the trail: "I have no intention of running." "I have no plans to be a candidate for president again." "I don't expect to run." "I can't imagine any circumstances in which I would become a candidate again." "Politics is behind me." Every answer, that is, except the one that has any meaning: "If nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve." That was the unequivocal answer famously given by Civil War-era general William Tecumseh Sherman when asked about his presidential aspirations upon retiring from the Army in 1884. Sherman, unlike Gore, left no doubt of his "intention."

"I haven't made a so-called Sherman statement, because it just seems unnecessary, kind of odd to do that....but that's not an effort to hold the door open. It's more the internal shifting of gears," said Gore in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

I just read an excellent book from http://www.endthewartour.org  called "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military."  Personally I was never attracted to the military because I could never stand having anyone tell me what to do – well, and because I had parents who helped me find other options in life. 

The military glorifies the giving and obeying of orders as somehow something good for its own sake, something called "discipline" or "character."  I can't judge whether I have either of those things, but I do know the last place I would ever have thought to turn for a career was an institution in which I would have had to do what a bunch of mean bastards said to do simply because they said to do it.  That wouldn’t have worked.  I'd have ended up a conscientious objector even in peace time.

The grass roots are just that--roots. The thought is often lost on those at the top of the political food chain. Without roots, the top topples. The grass roots are not impressed with the way that John Kerry conceeded in the face of overwhelming upset at fact and suspicions of foul play, fraud and supression. Some of the 'roots' are disillusioned to the point of jumping ship to Green territory. Some are just not going to choose any alternative. Some secretly wish Al Gore would reconsider and enter.

What the top seldom realizes as they create the campaign blueprints that they expect everyone like sheep to line up and follow, providing the competitive footwork and fund with every agressive email solicitation, is that the grass roots on the last campaign, staked not only their credibility, but took considerable abuse for doing so in backing Kerry. Many of them worked volunteer for many long months at considerable personal sacrifice and negative personal cash flow because they believed it that important to stop the agenda of this Administration.

The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
No Police State!

Carol Fisher is a 54 year old woman who was putting up "Bush Step Down" posters on telephones in Cleveland Heights. For this, she was assaulted by police, charged and convicted of 2 counts of felony assault on police officers. Carol is now in the Cuyohoga County Jail. On June 2, Judge Timothy McGinty sentenced her to 2 months in jail, 2 years probation with community service and mandatory "anger management classes."

This is an outrage! An appeal of her conviction has been filed by her attorneys.

This case has been reported on extensively in the Cleveland Free Times, The Sun Press, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and websites and blogs around the world.

A Fact Sheet on this case, complete coverage and updates available at www.worldcantwait.org

June 2, 2006 Sentencing Day:

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