japherwocky's posterous

Accurate history must include the fact that the earliest large-scale approval of extraordinary renditions occurred in the administration of Bill Clinton. Nor can it fail to remark that the Clinton-Blair NATO war against Serbia was a rehearsal for the war on Iraq. In the same way that many non-political Americans forget (even though they have heard) that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, most liberals have forgotten (though they once heard) that the pretext for the Serbia bombing, the supposed massacre of tens of thousands of Kosovars, was a fabrication thoroughly exposed in the aftermath of that war.

In related, good news: Joe Biden threatens to impeach Bush, should he bomb Iran without Congressional approval.

Nobody gives a flying fuck, really, what I think. I just want to vote to feel loved. And I think I'm smarter than most of you.

Here is a response to an email from my Senator. This is like, performance art.

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Japhy Bartlett to Senator

Hey, THANK YOU, for including me on an obviously automated mailing list, with your generic statement about Iran.

See, I cared so much about this, that I wrote you twice - and you were kind enough to REPLY to me twice. With the same standard statement.

Now Debbie, I'm OK with a newsletter. I would actually be pretty cool with you guys emailing me whatever press releases you give out. And I'll go a step further -

I run some websites for southwest michigan businesses, and I have a handy dandy, homemade newsletter mailing robot - which is smart enough to weed duplicate email addresses out of a mailing.

So EMAIL GUY:

c'mon dude, this is sloppy. but seriously, I'm on your side I think.

OK, now SPEECHWRITER GUY:

I think this letter sucks - and I'm going to point out why.

On 11/26/07, Senator Debbie Stabenow wrote:
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> November 26, 2007
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> Mr. Japhy Bartlett
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> 651 Territorial Road
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> Benton Harbor, MI 49022
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There was a shit ton of whitespace up there. It's not going on a
piece of paper, man.

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> Thank you . . .
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> . . for contacting me about your opposition to the Administration's policy
> on Iran. I appreciate you sharing your views with me on this important
> issue.
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I think that part was pretty classy, actually.

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> As you know, the Bush Administration has made critical comments regarding
> Iran's actions during the conflict in Iraq, as well as about the developing
> Iranian nuclear program.

ohkaayyy. Can we adopt a stronger stance, please, than 'has made _critical_ comments'?

I mean I guess 'hostile' is too antagonistic, but we are being dangerously subtle here. I don't know, sarcasm is hard to convey in
text.

> I agree with you that we should be working to
> establish peace and stability in the Middle East. Our relationship with Iran
> will likely be a continuing subject of debate in the Senate. I assure you
> that I will keep your strong views in mind as this situation develops.
>

I would kind of like to know, what Debbie Stabenow's actual stance on this situation is. Are we stalling to reveal our view for some tactical gain? I mean, maybe.. but I honestly think, right now, most people care more about their politicians taking firm, honest stances, that they can explain in a few sentences.

And there are some yes/nos that we kind of need:

Are you OK with torture?

Are you OK with our military trespassing on a sovereign nation? And by that I mean, in a legalese fashion, (btw, feel free to steal this stuff) is any country that we're not already in.

Give us that, at LEAST. There are so many people crying for this war to end, and we're still seriously not saying that we won't EXPAND it. There are still seriously people saying we should expand it. We have fucking lunatics in office?

Debbie, we are hurting bad back here in Michigan, and it's going to be a long cold winter.

Give us a position at least.

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> Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please feel free to do
> so in the future whenever I may be of help to you or your family.
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> Sincerely,
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> Debbie Stabenow
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> United States Senator
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> DS:jm
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and man, what the heck is DS:jm? this is the sort of kooky shit that feeds the paranoids. I mean, what the hell is that? Did someone just type gibberish at the bottom of the letter? Whatever vaguely reasonable answer I can come up with, I can immediately counter with a very harsh criticism, so maybe I will just shut the hell up.

Love,

Japhy

I think this is a good argument for working towards a common good.

I think that the point of separating Church and State, the spirit of the US, the pursuit of happiness - is that individuals can control their destiny. It feels incredibly presumptuous to think we can write some bit of legalese that can cover, fairly, all the subtleties and nuances that go into making a decision like this.

From a different angle, consider that if you're against abortion, and believe it to be the most wretched, abominable thing ever, you have the freedom to NOT get an abortion.

You can also work to spread your views - if it really is a morally superior argument, we shouldn't need a law to enforce it.

I have a long standing rant about positive/negative reinforcement, and how our governmental system is training us; let's consider this from that angle too. We all know from our Psych 101 courses that positive reinforcement is MORE EFFECTIVE than negative reinforcement.

So, if you are trying to abolish the practice of abortion, it would be MORE EFFECTIVE to reward people who chose to have children. Instead of investing all this god damned time and money into fighting against your countrymen and women, pool up your resources and give the parents of every newborn a reward. Make nice orphanages. Print propaganda talking about the joys and wonders of parenthood. Give every new kid's family $500 to help them out.

What do we do instead? We have to fight, to keep this divisive, presumptuous law out of our governments.

Pro-Life is Anti-Freedom, and stupid to boot.

The unspoken truth that every Israeli knows, uncomfortable as it may be to admit, is that occupation breeds terror. Every incursion, every raid, every curfew and collective punishment, drives the moderates into the welcoming arms of the militants, who promise to return their honour and their wounded pride by fighting the oppressors' fire with fire of their own. And that fact alone should be enough to shake Israelis awake and realise that the occupation has to end, as much for our own security as for the sake of the Palestinians that we're subjugating.

The unspoken truth that every Israeli knows American should know, uncomfortable as it may be to admit, is that occupation breeds terror. Every incursion, every raid, every curfew and collective punishment, drives the moderates into the welcoming arms of the militants, who promise to return their honour and their wounded pride by fighting the oppressors' fire with fire of their own. And that fact alone should be enough to shake Israelis Americans awake and realise that the occupation has to end, as much for our own security as for the sake of the Palestinians Iraqis that we're subjugating.

From John Kerry's Website:

Last Friday, Senator Kerry responded to an offer made by T. Boone Pickens to give one million dollars to anyone who could disprove any of the charges made by the SBVT group against him by taking him up on his bet. Mr. Pickens responded by trying to retroactively change the terms of his original offer to limit its scope and impose additional conditions.

Below is the text of a letter Senator Kerry sent to Mr. Pickens this afternoon in reply.
...
It is disturbing that in reaffirming the challenge you issued, your parsing and backtracking seems eerily reminiscent of the entire approach of the SBVT — say one thing, put out an allegation, then duck and weave, hedge and bob when your words catch up with you. I want to believe that this was not your intent because I am told that you are a man of your word, not “all hat and no cattle.”
...
As I’ve said to you before, I am prepared to prove the lie and marshal all the evidence, the question is whether you are prepared to fulfill your obligation — no variations, no back pedaling, no retreat, no new bets, no changing the subject.

The only thing remaining now is to set the date for our meeting in an appropriate forum, after which I look forward to you keeping your word and writing a check for one million dollars payable to the Paralyzed Veterans of America so that we can put your money to good work for veterans who have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sincerely,

John F. Kerry
United States Senator

(Homemade, dangit! I can't sell a damn thing!)

The heckling began early in the school year, according to group members. They say they were putting small posters promoting peace on friends' lockers with their permission. They thought it was OK, because the cheerleaders and football players had signs on theirs. Eventually, though, group members say they were told by the school's administration they could no longer hang up the posters.

"People tore them down and drew swastikas and 'white power' stuff on them," Lauren said.

Skylar had similar things written on her posters.

"Someone taped an 'I Love Bush' sign over my 'Wage Peace' sign," she said. "So I tore it down, threw it away, and the whole commons starting booing. I walk by later and find that someone has completely tore my sign down and placed an 'I Love America, Because America Loves War' sign up.' "

Give it 10 years, and see where these kids end up. I'd put my money on the Peace Shirt Coalition.

The US military says it will recommend criminal charges against an Associated Press photographer detained in 2006 on suspicion of helping Iraqi insurgents.

I remember when we first went to war with Iraq. I was at a liberal University, and was talking with some friends about it. At the time, I was of the opinion that Mr. Bush must know something we didn't - because otherwise there was no very compelling reason to go.

Of course, now in retrospect, I was being naive and trusting my government to do the right thing.

And of course, is why we need to declassify whatever the hell is going on with our military. When they arrest and throw Pulitzer winning photographers into jail for years without trial, on the grounds of "convincing and irrefutable evidence that Bilal Hussein is a threat to security and stability as a link to insurgent activity", without actually presenting that evidence, we need to call Bullshit.

I agree with her though, when she says:

Impeaching George Bush for lying to get us into war will not only protect us from him, but also send an unmistakable message to future presidents: Never again.

We all understand that our actions are not exactly popular with foreign countries. We all understand that anti-U.S. sentiment seems to be growing. In a completely American way, but pinning the blame on Bush and Cheney, and then publicly bringing them to task for it, we show the world that we are trying to be the good, noble America that we built our reputations on.

Basra attacks down 90% since British troops left.