Watched a PBS special tonight - (High Definition, babee) about the Marines.

They make a very interesting point - it's very easy to amputate the military from America - to say that's them, fighting for us, but really, it's US, fighting for us -

Every Marine was an American citizen who believed in fighting for and defending this country - it's sort of an implicit bargain - they defend us, and we don't put them in harm's way unnecessarily - our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens are the ones getting shot at, not some inhuman video avatar that is irrelevant - every one of them is an American citizen -

Instead, we have squandered their sacrifice for oilmen and defense contracts - pissed away the war on terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan because the oil fields of Iraq were of strategic value to the neocons - when Cheney says the war is going great, he means it - for a rich multi-millionaire with contacts in the Defense and Oil industries, life couldn't be better -

(great FARK line - Dick Cheney's plane forced to land after the VP damaged it practicing his force-lightning trick again)

Habeus Corpus is suspended, and barriers to declaring domestic Martial Law are struck down, and in the midst of a global warming epidemic, Bush is drawing up plans for an Iranian strike which, if rumors are to be believed, will result in several generals choosing to resign should it be announced. I bring up global warming only in the sense that nuclear power will be a requirement for future civilizations, and if we think we can bomb every nation we don't like because they're developing it, we're just tightening the noose around everyone's neck.

a limited and struggling Democracy is probably one election away from taking out they psychopathic president seeking to consolidate his power thru Military conflict - if he gets the conflict, it will consolidate his power and he will have already laid the legal groundwork to set up a dynasty and suspend elections indefinately -

which psychopathic president am I refering to? - your call - take either one -

but hey, poker is alive and well - hook it up to my veins - ooh wait - look at Britney Spears - keep looking while the last vestiges of your democracy melt away like the ice caps and glaciers in Montana

I miss America - I do not recognize the Amerika we have created today - I worry about Barack Obama because like the Kennedy's, his idealism and hope put a giant target on his chest that a radical fundamentalist would easily take aim at -

which form of radical religious fundamentalist zealot? - doesn't have to be Muslim, I'll tell ya that...take your pick.

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all the talk about mistakingly supporting the war on Iraq is bittersweet to me - Hearing some candidates backpedal on their war vote is ok, I guess, cause they presumed they were dealing with men of honor when this administration presented it's falsely manufactured and bullshit case for invasion - but it's extra bittersweet for me.

I spent about 2 minutes trying to recall whether I was a supporter of the Iraq war or not when it launched, then I remembered -

Oh yah, I had no position, I was living in a friend's spare bedroom, drinking a fifth of whiskey and praying for death on an hourly basis - I was, for all intents and purposes, asleep at the wheel when they pushed this thru - attached to this earth only by gravity -

and probably pissing my pants in the truck and seeing if I could avoid the Highway Patrol on the backroads on my way home.

how utterly symbolic of the path the whole nation is now on....

rb