We are hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords

john atcheson in common dreams...

Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment

We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world.  We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts.

[...]

Now, we seek to operate by revealed truths, not reality.  Decrees from on high – often issued by an unholy alliance of religious fundamentalists, self-interested corporations, and greedy fat cats – are offered up as reality by rightwing politicians.

For example, North Carolina law-makers recently passed legislation against sea level rise.  A day later, the Virginia legislature required that references to global warming, climate change and sea level rise be excised from a proposed study on sea level rise.  Last year, the Texas Department of Environmental Quality, which had commissioned a study on Galveston Bay, cut all references to sea level rise – the main point of the study.

We are, indeed, at an epochal threshold.

As Stephen Colbert so aptly put it: if your science gives you results you don't like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved.

Except it isn’t.  Wishing reality away, doesn’t make it go away.  Pretending that the unreal is real doesn’t make it real.

UN-fuckingly believable...

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Grand jury returns multi-count indictments against Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales for organized criminal activity

sweet...

A Willacy County [Brownsville, Texas] grand jury under District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra returned multi-count indictments Monday against Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, plus several other public officials.

The indictment accuses Cheney and Gonzales of engaging in organized criminal activity. It criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.

let's hope and pray this is just the start of many more...

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What have I done to deserve this?

my experiences of past winters in buenos aires have gone like this...

sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, rainy day, sunny day, all with pleasant, mild temperatures...

when i arrived back there at the end of july, it went like this...

rainy day, rainy day, rainy day, rainy day, rainy day, rainy day, sunny day, rainy day, all with chilly, damp temperatures...

i left buenos aires a week ago this past thursday... since then the weather there has been...

sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, sunny day, with very nearly perfect temperatures...

a week ago today, i arrived in texas, where it went like this...

hot humid day, hot humid day, hot humid day, hot humid day, hot humid day...

yesterday, i arrived back here in the high desert where it was in the high 70s and sunny... a few minutes ago, at 9 p.m., i took a break from playing a game with my grandsons to look out the window... it's snowing...

what have i done to deserve this...?

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Back in Amerika

and sitting in lax waiting for a connecting flight... all went smoothly from argentina to here via peru, so, other than the usual mental fog hanging around after an all-night flight, all is well... an la woman with a one-year old little boy sat next to me on her way back from visiting her parents in peru, and the kid was not a happy camper and fussed and cried off and on all night... but, ya know, both she and the kid were so sweet and pleasant (minus the crying), i just shrugged it off... besides, my industrial strength earplugs and eye mask take care of most of the outside world...

now, it's off to texas for a week in bubba-land...

i gather bush is still in office... < sigh >

chau for now...

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Juan Cole on the London car bomb threat: book a flight to London

i just checked in to my hotel in the n.e. part of the state in a smaller town where i will be teaching this evening and tomorrow... while driving over, i stopped a couple of times, once for gas, and the other for coffee... in both places, tv's in the cashier areas were on and tuned to the news which was showing breathless reporters describing the london car bomb threat... i couldn't help but think back to the end of april when an explosive device was discovered outside a women's health clinic in austin, texas, where abortions are performed... THAT story barely made a dent in the national newscasts, although it was at least as big a threat as the discovery in london...

juan cole doesn't seem too thrilled with the london coverage either...

As I write, London police are using a robot to investigate a parked car near Buckingham Palace. The operation comes hours after a car was discovered packed with explosives and ready to detonate outside a nightclub in Picadilly Circus.

The proper response of Americans to these events? Book a vacation in London immediately and make sure to visit Picadilly Circus.

Whoever planned this operation at the height of the tourist season is trying to hurt the UK economy.

Britain is perfectly safe, in fact the murder rate there, including political violence, is one-fourth that of the US. A ticket to the UK can be found inexpensively and there are reasonable places to stay, and as urban historians have pointed out, London is a giant toy that is endless fun to play with.

i've walked all over central london on numerous visits and i hope to be able to do it again soon... if austin, texas, had any attraction for me whatsoever, i would happily walk around there too... i am simply not going to buy in to the fear-mongering that our media so eagerly attempt to shove down our throats...

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All the Texans gone but one? No big deal. Only 19% of George's term left.

so, rove is the only texan left...? no biggie, at least not if you swallow the la times spin...

[Dan Bartlett's] departure leaves only political advisor Karl Rove among the Texans who arrived in Washington with Bush and worked closely with him in the White House West Wing.

[...]

There has been a steady turnover within the White House in recent months, and Bartlett predicted that others would make similar moves "over the course of the summer."

The pattern is typical for two-term administrations in modern times. Many who have invested years working for a president look to move into more lucrative, and less time-consuming, private-sector jobs before their cachet as Washington insiders evaporates.

typical pattern, eh...? hmmmm... lemme see... < counts on fingers > oops... not enough fingers...

Bartlett's decision to leave underscores the growing challenge the president will face in the last 1 1/2 years of his administration.

< counts on toes, too > hmmmmm... not enough toes either... ok, there's 12 months in a year, so that must mean that a half a year has 6 months... 12 + 6 = 18... wow...! 18 months to go... that's a pretty long time... 8 years in two terms x 12 months in a year = 96 months... 18 divided by 96 = DAMN...! that's almost 19% of george's presidency left and THEY'RE ALL BAILING... well, i suppose they're right, it's just typical... or... could it be that george has become radioactive and everybody's getting out before the house comes down around their ears...?

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Is Bush getting close to "little men in white coats" time?

hmmmmm... could be...

What's more, there is not much real give in the administration's policies. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other American diplomats met Memorial Day weekend with the Iranians in Baghdad (a good first move but limited, since the Iranians have most of the power because of our incredible stupidity in Iraq). But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."

it's certainly been clear that bush sees iraq as u.s. "destiny" and that, if he has his way, the u.s. will never, ever leave, but pounding himself on the chest and repeating "i am the president...?" oooooooo... not good...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Domestic terrorists "had enough armament to outfit a small army"

interesting... after posting the other day on the bomb found outside a women's health clinic in texas, here's another domestic terrorism story out of alabama...

if muslims had been discovered with a rocket launcher and a weapons cache of this size, the story would eat every available byte, pixel and drop of printers' ink for a week at least...

Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500 rounds of ammunition belonging to the small, but mightily armed, Alabama Free Militia.

Six alleged members of the Free Militia also were arrested by federal authorities and are being held without bond.

Investigators said the DeKalb County-based group had not made any specific threats or devised any plots, but was targeted for swift dismantling because of its heavy firepower. The militia, which called itself the Naval Militia at one point, had enough armament to outfit a small army.

"We classify these groups as violent and anti-government," said Jim Cavanaugh, who supervises the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operations in portions of the South. "They stockpile things and live off a fear, a paranoia they're going to need weapons and explosives because some event is going to happen when they will need them."

"Any time you have a self-appointed colonel or a self-appointed major and they've got weapons and explosives, it is a recipe for tragedy," Cavanaugh said.

they not only had plenty of weapons, they'd also constructed a defensive perimeter...

Agents encountered booby traps at one site. They found trip wires and two hand grenades rigged as booby traps at the Collinsville camper home of 46-year-old Raymond Dillard, who holds titles of both militia major and fugitive from justice on an unrelated federal case in Mobile.

"We were prepared," Cavanaugh said. "We suspect booby traps with these types of groups."

further proof, as if we needed any, about how terribly skewed our media coverage and national focus has become...

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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