Nice going. 655,000 Iraqi deaths due to our illegal and immoral invasion and occupation

Let's see... that's twice as many as Hussein killed in 25 years. That's over 200 times those killed in 9/11. That's over 230 times as many killed as US forces have lost.

Nothing succeeds like excess. Mission Accomplished!

From the Guardian:
'655,000 Iraqis killed since invasion'

The death toll among Iraqis as a result of the US-led invasion has now reached an estimated 655,000, a study in the Lancet medical journal reports today.

The figure for the number of deaths attributable to the conflict - which amounts to around 2.5% of the population - is at odds with figures cited by the US and UK governments and will cause a storm, but the Lancet says the work, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, has been examined and validated by four separate independent experts who all urged publication.

In October 2004, the same researchers published a study estimating that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war since the beginning of the March 2003 invasion, a figure that was hugely controversial. Their new study, they say, reaffirms the accuracy of their survey of two years ago and moves it on.

Have you actually read the Foley IMs?

Thanks to the two people who wrote my post for this evening...

Maf54 (8:03:47 PM): what you wearing
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:04 PM): normal clothes
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:09 PM): tshirt and shorts
Maf54 (8:04:17 PM): um so a big buldge
Xxxxxxxxx (8:04:35 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:04:45 PM): um
Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you
Xxxxxxxxx (8:05:08 PM): haha
Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake
Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab
Xxxxxxxxx (8:06:53 PM): not tonight...dont get to excited
Maf54 (8:07:12 PM): well your hard
Xxxxxxxxx (8:07:45 PM): that is true
Maf54 (8:08:03 PM): and a little horny
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:11 PM): and also tru
Maf54 (8:08:31 PM): get a ruler and measure it for me
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:38 PM): ive already told you that
Maf54 (8:08:47 PM): tell me again
Xxxxxxxxx (8:08:49 PM): 7 and 1/2
Maf54 (8:09:04 PM): ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Maf54 (8:09:08 PM): beautiful
Xxxxxxxxx (8:09:38 PM): lol
Maf54 (8:09:44 PM): thats a great size
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:00 PM): thank you
Maf54 (8:10:22 PM): still stiff
Xxxxxxxxx (8:10:28 PM): ya
Maf54 (8:10:40 PM): take it out

Ugh.

Activist burnout. It's not really that bad, but today I had something before work, work, and something after work. Tomorrow, I have work and something after.

I spend about two days a week doing media activism stuff, another doing spiritual stuff, and then, I have the blog.

I've enjoyed it, enjoyed the writing. It's been satisfying ticking off the small advances - two months now? The day that Mark gave me the hot link and I topped 50 visits. Woot!

I've also not done the promotion necessary; that was my goal, to write once a day and to promote once (like crosspost at Booman, or Kos, or blogwhore at Shakes, or drop a couple comments.)

But now, all I want to do is play Fate.

Tonight was cable-star night. Some of my media activism consists of sending things into the void of broadcast (like WAVE projects at KFAI) or tonight's little east metro cable show. It went pretty well - one of the reasons I posted the Media Self Defense 101 (Propaganda Model) post was because that's what we'd be doing on the show. But who watches, who listens?

At least with the blog I have hit counts. And maybe someday I'll have comments!

***

OK - just had the dog clean my face. And then I wrassled her to the ground and glommed on her ears. And then she fell asleep.

So I take back that Ugh.

Election Predictions

Pulled straight out of my butt, served to you here and now!

First, the scandal du jour, Mark Foley (R-NAMBLA) and the coverup by the phlegmatic Denny Hastert will continue and hurt the national Republicans BADLY. Nothing like a gay Rep coming on to 16-year olds to disgust your homophobic right-wing base!

Second, Karl Rove will try and pull something out of HIS butt, which may involve Iran.

Now, I know we all love the feeding frenzy surrounding the Foley page scandal. But there are two points to remember:

1) The corporate media is still corporate. The institutional biases against us are still powerful.

2) The Bush Regime is made up of evil motherfuckers who will do what they can to cling to power.

Now - I'm not saying that they'll just cheat their asses off and steal the election. Nope, while I don't doubt that they have a ton of dirty tricks, some involving computerized voting machines, these tools are just that - tools. They are not magic wands that give them what they want, each and every time. So they can affect some X amount of races - but if there's a massive 'vote the bastards out' sweep, they can only do so much.

What I am saying is that it won't be clear massive sailing all the way, at least in the CorporateMediaWorld.

Nevertheless, there are strong indications that nationally the Democrats will make major pickups. As in, Iraq sucks and people are pissed off, beyond the point of propaganda to hide it.

If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

(supposedly sourced to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels)

Since I am only limited in my omniscience, the following prediction is particularly full of hot air.

National Prediction: Democrats Take House +10, Republicans Control Senate +1

Go to a more inside-baseball site to read more on this. I just think that the local littler races will fall Dem, while the larger targets will be worked hard by the Reps.

Minnesota Predictions

US Senate: Amy Klobuchar 57%, Mark Kennedy 45%, IP-Guy 4%, Mike Cavlan 3%, Right of the Fetus to Buy a Gun with Gold Coins (Constitution Party) 1%

Start with the easy one. Mark Kennedy is a creep, and people know it. Amy's personable and seems tough. While my hope is that Cavlan breaks 5%, the media blackout on all Greens militates against it.

Governor: Mike Hatch by a hair

Not much to say about this. Pawlenty is telegenic, but also a fucktard. Hatch's campaign? I've not seen it. Don't know if it's in the grassroots, but with his top-down management style, I somewhat doubt it. Hutchinson, who is propped up by people who (so far as I can tell) were liberal when they were younger, but can't quite sell out ALL the way (but they sure don't like real populism), gets crap. And deserves it! (Ooooh! My greatest accomplishment was that I tried to privatize the Minneapolis School System! And I failed!) (wanker)

Attorney General: Lori Swanson

Because the Democrats are going to do well in the state.

Secretary of State: Mark Ritchie

Because more people are ticked off about Mary Evil Fucking Kiffmeyer than there are Republicans who really want to make sure she can bias elections.

Speaking of which, as I'm trying to find out who the hell is running for State Auditor, I've just spent 10 minutes trying to track it down. MPR and the Strib, being bastions of democracy in action (NOT) don't have the race listed in their 'Election 2006' coverage. To be more exact: the Strib covers the US Senate, the Governor's and the US Congress races (and has a broken MyVote link, that gives you primary results and not candidate listings, which it implies it will...) and MPR adds the Attorney General's race. Whatever credit MPR might get for adding that one race is lost in its 'select a candidate' quiz, which ignores the Greens and others. Losers.

So I go to the Secretary of State's webpage, click on Elections, and try and find a list of candidates. NOT THERE! I then click on the 'Candidates and Referenda' link, and get - what, a list of candidates? Nope! Crap for candidates running (how to file financials) and that's it! Referenda? Roads and the constitutional amendment, which has a 'list of groups for, against, or neutral', which lists Citizens for Bigger Roads. And that's it. (Another reason to vote against the constitutional amendment.)

FINALLY, I go back to the homepage, and there's the charmingly titled 'State and Federal Candidates for Partisan Office Advancing to the General Election,' which takes me to... a list of candidates? NOPE! An Excel database download (Don't have Excel? Don't get to find out!) which lists all the candidates in a crappy format!

God, I'll be glad to see the end of this woman!

Where was I? Oh, yeah.

State Auditor: Don't know, but the best chance for the Greens to get 5%.

So if you want to see the Greens returned to major-party status, so the corporate media (and their MPR affiliate) will need to come up with a new reason to exclude them from coverage, vote Dave Berger for Auditor.

Congressional races: Two DFL pickups

I think that Wetterling's going to beat Bachmann because of Foley. I think Rowley or Walz will win, but not both. I think Wendy Wilde will give Ramstad the best run for a long time. Ellison will win. And I will celebrate. The rest of the pack are going to stick with the incumbent, even though Colin Peterson's a Torture Democrat.

State House and Senate: Democratic wins

Even without Matt Entenza's wife's money, the national mood and the creepiness of Pawlenty and Kennedy will give the DFL what they need to take over. Jesse Mortenson, the only Green running for one of these seats (in Entenza's old district) will get in the high 30s.

So there you have it! Nihilix's predictions! Enjoy!

Olbermann, again

Very nice, this. Maybe my local cable company has a 'Daily and Olbermann Only' package...

Why has the ferocity of your venom against the Democrats, now exceeded the ferocity of your venom against the terrorists?

Why have you chosen to go down in history as the President who made things up?

Telekon

Oh, I just thought I'd keep a musical theme going... this my third Numan thingy...

There are cracks in my ceiling. There are those in the US who wish they had a ceiling to have cracks in.

My cousin who went to Iraq is back. He's wealthy, and re-enlisted in his 40s. At least he put his body where his politics are. Damn glad he made it back.

The hands on the artwork in the corner of my basement are hands which allowed communication to occur. We also joined hands - well, enough of us did - to make a union.

Remember where you came from, what you've done, and what others do with what they have.


there was a young blogger named gary
whose legs were uncommonly hairy
he said to his dog,
"When young, I would flog
my feet with the wings of a fairy"

(this message brought to you by maudlin literary nihilix. enjoy)

Impeach for Peace Thursday October 5 11:30 Federal Building

Get off your behinds and into the streets Thursday.

Protest for Bush's Impeachment!
Oct. 5 - The World Can't Wait!
• Protest for Accountability
11:30am at the Minneapolis Federal Building, 300 S. 4th St

• Justice March
From the Federal Building to Hennepin Ave then onto Loring Park

• Musical Celebration for Peace & Justice
In Loring Park, 3pm to sunset, with favorite local and guest bands.

see the pdf poster

or just watch the youtube

Iran, Foley, Fox, and the street thugs of the Right in the UK

Long day... recovering from last night AND other obligations... ahh, to have all my time free for computering. When I was 15.

This is the one that really creeped me out. You see, my contention is that the neo-fascists who are controlling the levers of power here will use violent paramilitaries to maintain their hold (once it starts slipping.)

In other words, they'll be sending their right-wing death squads out to fuck us up.

Never, you say? Fuck you, I say. As my last post pointed out, I'm not going to play that nicey-nicey game. And if you still think that the folks in power are nice, that they respect limits, that it could never happen: you're ignorant both of history and of the characteristics of authoritarian regimes. (And if you can't bear the thought that Wellstone may have been assassinated 'because of what that would mean about the world we live in', then wake up and smell the motherfucking cordite.)

And if my invective-laced prose doesn't shake you up, how about this (and I strongly recommend you read the whole thing):

Far-right UK website driving attacks on left-wing adversaries

Web of Hate
On the rightwing website Redwatch, hundreds of photographs of anti-war and anti-fascist activists are posted - with the message that they will 'pay for their crimes'. And now a number of those people have been attacked...

...The attack, which left the long-time union activist with serious injuries, was the latest and most violent incident in a campaign of intimidation that has been waged against opponents of the far right in the UK over the past five years. Like hundreds of people who have spoken out against the rise of the British National Party and other extremist groups, McFadden's picture and home address have been collected by far right activists and posted on a website called Redwatch.

The site, which has links with the neo-Nazi organisation Combat 18 and a host of European fascist organisations, is hosted in the US but registered and run from the UK. It lists the personal details and shows the photographs of anti-racists - many taken during protests against the British National Party - alongside the slogan: "Remember places, traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes."

And while we're at people's pollyanna-ish views on the reality of power, we're going to attack Iran soon. In order to save the 2006 election for the current regime.

Arthur Silber reports:

If the fallout from the Foley scandal makes it appear inevitable that the Democrats will take the House, the Iran card may be the surest one, and perhaps the only one, that the Bush administration has left to play. I am certain that the sons of bitches who call the shots in the administration have no intention of letting some annoying, whining pipsqueaks (as they undoubtedly view them) peer over their shoulders during the last two years of their reign, as they attempt to ensure American and Republican domination of this country and the world for the foreseeable future.

But-wait-there's-more, a pissed-off retired military dude who says we've already begun the attack on Iran.

Retired Col. Sam Gardiner says we’re in Iran right now
By: John Amato on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 4:45 PM - PDT

Col. Sam Gardiner says the US is already conducting military operations in Iran and a plan has been forwarded up to the White House. He broached this topic a few months back.

Gardiner: We’re conducting military operations inside Iran right now. The evidence is overwhelming. From both the Iranians, Americans, and from Congressional sources.

And as Silber points out, the fucking Democrats are rolling over in their military-industrial piles of cash, showing thier throats to the warmongers.

In the hysteria that would follow an attack on Iran, and in the ensuing, spreading carnage, enough people may well rally to the support of the administration to prevent the Democrats from making the required gains.

Have the Democrats been consistently and repeatedly speaking out in opposition to the administration's plans to bomb Iran, possibly even using nuclear weapons? No. Have the Democrats been building public opposition to such a criminal course of action? No. Have the Democrats been opposing the administration's plans in any meaningful way at all -- even though those plans have been absolutely clear for at least a year? No.

The trap has been laid. The time is rapidly approaching for it to be sprung.

And not one person of any national prominence has even a single word of significant opposition to offer. Not one.

And to top off the evil trifecta, we have the Ministry of Propaganda claiming that Republican sexual predator Mark Foley was a Democrat. Bill O'Reilly's show listed him as a Democrat. For real.

Lies, violent oppression, and war to save your asses. This is the true face of our American ruling system.

KMFDM and the Stormtrooper of the Mind

Fight the power
That chokes your speech
Fight the power
That makes you bleed
Fight the power
That propogates lies
To keep you weak
Keep you in line
Fight the power that reigns you in
Divides and conquers
Defines your sin
Fight the power
For one and all
Before the power swallows us whole

KMFDM



Another late night concert post.

How the hell do you write a feeling, an experience, sonic and somatic and endrocrinal?

Industrial shows have kicked my ass. KMFDM tonight, Gary Numan not too long ago, Prong in a converted u-bahn station in Germany in the 90s.

Now, the division of pagan/magical working into 'white magic' and 'black magic' is largely bullshit. Nevertheless, these shows manipulate 'red magic.' Red magic is magic of blood and body. It's magic of movement and anger.

I'm sick of passive responses to the heinous evil crap we have to deal with in this world. I think it's time to manifest some red magic.

And one of the first places we need to do it is in our minds.

I can feel it - blogging, reading, listening. The depth of the evil we face has made even banal moderation seem like a good thing.

The prime example of this is when we cheer on the CIA for standing up to being run over by the Bush regime.

I mean, this is the motherfucking CIA we're talking about!!! This is the organization that our government used to topple democratic regimes left and right during the Cold War when those darn foreigners kept on voting in people who did crap like nationalize oil or copper mines or what-fucking-ever. This is the CIA that, while they're playing palace politics with the radicals in the White House, have been running secret torture prisons and did you notice in Abu Ghraib there always seemed to be a CIA 'contractor' standing around and fucking giving orders???

Locally, take Colleen Rowley. Yeh, she'd be hellah better than that piece of crap John Klein. And yeah, she bucked the system when she blew whistles on Moussaoui and 9/11. She's still an ex-Fed. I don't know - maybe she'll be alright. (She was at the Stop the Merchants of Death show the night before last...)

This is running long, but a final example of banal moderation seeming like a good thing would be one John Kerry.

So we need to get the fucking blinkers off our heads, break through the crappy frames that bind us, and really really start thinking about what we WANT, not what is better than the shit we have now.


Free Your Hate

Silence is golden
Ingorance bliss
Better off not asking
What you'd rather forget

And as the vice grip choke holds
All of our freedoms are meeting their end
And for the wars they wage
Numberless troops lie wounded or dead

The beatings will continue
Until morale improves

Free your hate
Crusade in the days of rage
Perilous folly
Rise up against your fate
Free your hate
Crusade in the days of rage
Tireless cunning
Stampede and break your chains

Terror at gunpoint
Torture at large
Enemy combatant
Labeled a threat
Without trial or charge

Repetition of history
Messenger, prophet, martyr for god
All for once and for all
Reclaim your power
The tyrant must fall

The beatings will continue
Until morale improves


Written and Composed by: Lucia Cifarelli, Sascha Konietzko, Jules Hodgson, Andy Selway, Steve White

When the right knows it's wrong: hiding itself for the general election

I was perusing the Guardian and this little tidbit caught my eye... (note: David Cameron is the Conservative leader in the UK)

Cameron echoes JFK in pitch for the centre
Gaby Hinsliff and Ned Temko
David Cameron will echo one of President John F Kennedy's most famous speeches today when he asks the British public to stop asking what the state can do for them and instead ask what they can do for each other.

In a bold bid for the political centre ground, the Tory leader will respond to criticism that he lacks big ideas by insisting that Conservatives through the ages have believed that individuals have a responsibility to others.

Which got me to thinking about how Republicans, or the right in general, will sugarcoat or otherwise stuff their real agendas and priorities when the audience is the general public.

Yeah, yeah, it's 'running toward the center' (or centre, as the Brits would have it) but given the gap between right-wing rhetoric at these points and the reality of how they govern, it's more dishonest than how Democrats seem to do it - which is to sell out to the corporatist, military-imperial complex and then they're in the center. Wheras the Republicans will do things like front their 2004 convention will all sorts of pro-choicers (Ahnold Schwartzenegger, Rudy Guliani) and then sit on Plan B contraceptives for as long as they can.

Back to Merrie Olde England - the Guardian, being a non-profit, and therefore less likely to be filtered (see Why We Blog) point out that first, this is the new media-friendly Tories, and when push comes to shove, they'll still put the rich before anyone else.

The phrasing - far removed from Margaret Thatcher's dictum that there is 'no such thing as society' - is reminiscent of JFK's stirring 1961 inaugural address, arguing that Americans should 'ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country'...

He faces continued pressure, however, from the right to offer tax cuts. John Redwood, the right-winger heading a policy commission on the economy, will demand lower taxes in a report also expected to back vouchers for nursery education, and even selling the road network into private ownership.

The last time we saw the true fangs of the US conservatives was the infamous 1992 Republican National Convention, where Pat Buchanan let the cat out of the bag. Buchanan, prefiguring today's no-holds-barred character assassination as well as ending one step short of endorsing the Racial Holy War (RAHOWA) of the neo-nazis. And Pat Robertson, in a fundraising letter, announcing the depths of his hatred of women and other transgressors...

Buchanan:

The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America -- abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat -- that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country...

...Friends, in those wonderful 25 weeks, the saddest days were the days of the bloody riot in LA, the worst in our history. But even out of that awful tragedy can come a message of hope.

Hours after the violence ended I visited the Army compound in south LA, where an officer of the 18th Cavalry, that had come to rescue the city, introduced me to two of his troopers. They could not have been 20 years old. He told them to recount their story.

They had come into LA late on the 2nd day, and they walked up a dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every building but one, a convalescent home for the aged. The mob was heading in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s at the ready, the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage.

Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend. Here were 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their lives to stop a mob from molesting old people they did not even know. And as they took back the streets of LA, block by block, so we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country.

Robertson:

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." - 1992 Iowa fundraising letter

I only wish the feminist movement - which is pro-choice - was as pro-gay rights, pro-religious tolerance, and anti-capitalist as Robertson claims it is.