Friday, March 31, 2006

Support Feingold, here's why...

Ever get the feeling that some republicans are even more in sync with you than democrats?
Except for Russ Feingold and his supporters? Here's another reason to think that your friendly democrats who won't support censure are not representing you. Contact your Senators to get on board with CENSURE!!!!!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

NSA shills in Congress ok warrantless wiretapping

Just one more reason to oust the bastard-shill-rubber-stamp-GOP senators out of Congress.
After all the concern coming out of Snowe and Hagel, a logical, reasonable human would think that something other than a rubber stamp for the administration would likely come about, but NOOOOO! The shills have shown themselves to be nothing more than that, shills.

Anyone who doubts that this Administration has complete control over our government ought to think twice. When all dissenting opinion is squashed (even from the controllers' own party) there is not democracy anymore. There is only totalitarian control. Sure, it may not be to the extremity of say Pol Pot or Stalinism, but how much further do we have to sink in order to realize what is happening?

Kieth Olbermann really is my hero nowadays and quite possibly the only one with enough stature to bring the Bush treachery out into the open. Lord knows, there's no other show out with such liberal leanings on any other news network. Save for maybe Bill Moyers....

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

Chris Matthews can blow himself....

I have had a teeter-totter opinion of Chris Matthews for some time, sometimes watching him and agreeing with him (like when he had Jack Murtha on), and sometimes disagreeing with him. But this has really changed my mind about this neanderthal. I thought It was bad that Kate O'Bierne was always on but to actually say that McCarthy was right(?) is just plain bananas.
Attytood has it right saying:

You know what Matthews' analogy is like? It's like saying that because there are some real terrorists, that invading Iraq wasn't really so bad. Oh wait, that's pretty much what Matthews' fellow and the other pundicrats have said, isn't it? (NOTE: Updated in fairness to some critical Iraq comments he made in 2003). In fact, Matthews might as well have said this:

"And the biggest nonsense of this sort of revisionist history is that there wasn’t a terrorist threat and that Bush was just an ex-drunken fool. Well, he may have been a former drunk – he certainly was – and he may have been unable to shoot straight, but there were lots of targets there. He just didn’t hit any.


I mean, how did we get to the point where saying that a communist witch hunt (which didn't even find any "witches") is acceptable now?

Now this is the part that makes me furious. In today's society we need now, more than ever, common sense approaches to this problem, not the knee-jerk reaction to radical Islam that has been playing out in the last 6 years. There is no way that this threat is any more necessary to curtail our freedoms than the Cold War was, and we made it through that without sacrificing liberty for security. I, and many others, would rather have our individual freedoms protected and have a risk of attack than to give all that up to a neo-fascist state-run militaristic dictatorship, which seems to be happening. The lying about Katrina efforts or lack thereof, the NSA warrantless spying, the leadup to the Iraq war; all these things reek with the stench of fear-mongering that has pervaded this administration. When people hear our president speak about a "mushroom cloud", it creates a very typical kind of response in people. The reacton creates a morphogenic (and illogical as evidence shows) spread of fear response in the populous. This is exacerbated by the media picking up the "story" and creating a facade that this is the most threatened we've ever been, and that is empirically false.

I have no problem with facing threats and fighting when a severe risk to our culture arises, but when we start curtailing and changing our culture and the freedoms we enjoy in that culture, we have an even more serious threat than those who would threaten us externally. For if the threat comes from the foundation of our government, that is the greatest risk we face. And if our citizens are crippled with fear, that threat becomes ever the more deadly to our civilisation.

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post about the fourth estate and how it fits into the NSA wiretapping scandal.
Check it out.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006















My Wonderful little lady...

I just had to show off my daughter, Marleigh Brynn, to anyone reading my blog...

I may be fairly pessimistic about the government,
I may be upset about my job sometimes,
but when it all comes down, I just look at her smiling face, and I know it'll be alright.
She is the greatest sunshine in my life, and My Wife and I couldn't be more proud to have Marleigh as our daughter...

I love you Marleigh.....

-Daddy
Anyways...

I was going to elaborate on my thoughts on the current administration, but I decided to close that post and start fresh here.

As I was saying in the last post, I have lost faith in the Democratic Party actually doing anything about the far-reaching corruption in the Bush administration. What seems to me to be happening has been a complete shutdown of opposition to this war machine that is the Bush monarchy. Why? There are so many signs that point to a perfect time to strike, ( i.e. Bush and Cheny's poll numbers, 34 and 18% respectively according to a current CBS poll, growing dissent in the repub ranks over the ports deal and the NSA scandal, and alluding to Glenn Greenwald's blog, the swift turn from conservatism to federalism). What is the issue that is stopping the Dems from actually fighting on these issues? Is it really the internalising of criticisms from mainstream sources and pundits? I don't think so. I think it's something else. I think the issue is scandal fatigue.
Look, there have been so many scandals emanating from the WH since Bush took office that it really is hard to keep up, and I know others have elaborated more on this, but I really think that the Democrats and us in the leftfield of the spectrum have grown so numb, even while being disgusted and outraged, to the plethora of issues that this admin. has either faltered, lied or completely fucked up on.

So how do we move past the quagmire of scandals that we find ourselves in?
Well, one way is obviously to vote. I know we liberal-trending citizens are in the Majority, so the most effective way to get past this it to vote Democrat. I know, I'm ripping the dems for not having a backbone on one hand, and tellng you to vote dem on the other, I'll get to that in a minute...
Another way is to contact your Congressmen, It may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many don't write or call or email their congressmen when there's an issue they care about.
Which brings me to my next point...
I have noticed that there have not been many serious protests in the streets by citizens who are fed up with all the lying, and misleading going on, but then I start thinking, and I truly believe that we as a nation have actually become quite complacent in our lives as we advance technologically. As we become more advanced in our technology, we ultimately become more compartmentalized and less sympathetic (as in communicatively) and synergistic with our fellow citizens. Now, I believe we should push towards a technological singularity that will break all class barriers and extend our lives as well as enrich them, but there are pitfalls.

In the 60's protests were widely attended and in fact, were shown on the television (which would and probably accounts for part of the lack of them now), and people seemed more mobilized to do something about the situations they found themselves in. I believe part of this stems from computers (and I am surprisingly very pro-computer!!!). I am noticing as the blogosphere becomes more influential, the standard of demonstrative power changes. We have just as many dissenters in America as we did during the Vietnam War (if not more), but now we aren't going out and voicing our opinions in the streets, we are doing so in our offices, our homes and elsewhere through the internet. Just as I type here during my lunch break, so to would I not move to organize a street protest specifically because I feel like I can get my views heard better through the Blog. This can be both positive and negative.

While the blogosphere has been a conduit for lightning-fast whistle-blowing and fact-checking,
so to has it been a hindrance to organized protest, which is much more visual in nature. Blogs seem to have the visceral impact of "Yeah, I just vented my criticism and WILL be heard!!!" while the sheer impact of an organized demonstration by 100,000 people on the steps of the Capitol is much more telling to a Congress disconnected from its constituency.

I hope we find the strength to overcome this almost tyrannical rule with the numbers of citizens willing to sacrifice time and money to make a "Regime Change" in Washington (to borrow a phrase), but it will take much more than the power of blogs to enable us to do that. I feel we will need a Party willing to stand up to the 'majority' and quite possibly the only way to get the Dems to hear us it to march down there and tell them to their faces.
What will it take? (and an introducton to my Blog..)

I am having problems with the Democratic party right now... When I see the Republican party in such turmoil over this NSA spying program, I think to myself, "where are the leaders of the Democratic Party, and what are they going to do about this serious lack of regard for the Rule of Law?" I feel abandoned by my party right now.
But first things first, welcome to my blog, Singularities and Sense, my first foray into building a blog. I've posted numerous times on other blogs, but thought building one would be exremely hard, hmmm, not so bad... I will be posting many different thoughts here, but most namely my
opinions on our current political landscape, and musings of mine since I am a musician.... I have no political clout, but that's the cool thing about blogs, I can voice my opinion anyway. So if you disagree with me, let me know, If you agree with me, let me know, and I hope all voices participate in this wee blog o' mine...
Thanks for stopping by....
LISTENING TO DEATH METAL

At work right now, listening to Cryptopsy and reading Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory...