juxtablog

I have endured the hypocrisy and arrogance of the influential and the wealthy, and have tolerated the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of the compliant and the easily led. War’s malevolent benefactors, who pretend and profess their patriotism with bumper-sticker bravado, with word but not deed, intoxicated by war’s hysteria, from a safe distance. Appreciative of our sacrifices, they claim, as they applaud the impending slaughter, sanctioning by word, or action, or non-action sending other men and women to be killed, and maimed, and driven crazy by war.

    And when they benefit from the carnage no longer, their yellow ribbon patriotism and shallow concern fade quickly to apathy and indifference. The living refuse of war that returns are heroes no longer, but outcasts and derelicts, and burdens on the economy. The dead, they mythologize with memorials and speeches of past and future suffering and loss. Inspiring and prophetic words by those who sanction the slaughter to those who know nothing of sacrifice.

    I used to try to explain war to help them understand and to know its horror, naively believing that war was a deficiency of information, understanding, discernment and vision. But being crazy has liberated me, allowing me to see that war is not a deficiency at all, but an excess of greed, ambition, intolerance and lust for power.

t r u t h o u t | War Crazy

One thing is certain, however: it is an obscenity of the present moment that Iraq, still a charnel house, still in a state of near total disrepair, still on the edge of a whole host of potential conflicts, should increasingly be portrayed here as a limited Bush administration “surge” success. Only a country – or a punditry or a military – incapable of facing the depths of destruction that the Bush administration let loose could reach such a conclusion.

    If all roads once led to Rome, all acts of the Bush administration have led to destruction, and remarkably regularly to piles of dead or tortured bodies, counted or not. In fact, it’s reasonable to say that every Bush administration foreign policy dream, including its first term fantasy about a pacified “Greater Middle East” and its late second term vision of a facilitated “peace process” between the Israelis and Palestinians, has ended in piles of bodies and in failure. Consider this a count all its own

t r u t h o u t | The Ponzi Scheme Presidency: Bush’s Legacy of Destruction

Completely oblivious to the fact that all of the brutality came from her and Gee Oh Pee campaign operatives.

But she’s still got that spunk!  And that real America optimism!

“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” she said. “And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

Good Lord, woman, God just slammed that door shut in your face for being such a nasty bit of business.  And He’s opened another door for you!  It’s called the “Exit”.  

Don’t miss it, Sarahcuda!  Don’t let it hit you in your horse’s ass on the way back to Wasilla.

BottleOfBlog: What Part Of What God Just Said Didn’t You Understand?

I know this is old but I came across it today and it cracked me up STILL!  The rest of the post was quite good also too.

And who could forget her masterpiece of socio-political economic theory–The Umbrella Of Job Creation!

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?
PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we’re ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone tie it all together so neatly and thoroughly, and, dare I say it, brilliantly. I particularly like the part about how reducing taxes has to accompany tax reductions and tax relief.  I’ve often thought that that’s where a lot of economic theory went off the rails–by not including tax relief with tax reductions when talking about reducing taxes.

BottleOfBlog: That Gasoline Smell, It Smells Like Victory