Fast Blast: News 3.1.11

Having perused today's biggest stories, I feel confident in admitting that I have absolutely no idea which one to focus on - ergo, I give you many.
But first, I wanted to share a strange experience from last night. I went to a hockey game, which could seem odd for the simple fact that I live in LA, but something else happened, just before the game that sent chills.
As with any professional sporting event, there is the time before the first pitch, puck, punt or plunge where some adorable or fittingly famous person steps up to sing the National Anthem.
It was quiet, eerily so. I could barely even hear a chair squeak in the cavernous echo chamber that is Staples Center. Everyone stood, having sprung up at the mention of the Anthem, as if it were a knee jerk reaction, almost involuntary. I stood, slowly, surveying the crowd.
The little girl vibratoed her way through the Anthem at a snails pace, giving me more gloriously grotesque time to clench my fists and shudder.
Why are we standing? For what are we showing respect? What does the flag mean - to you, to me, to anyone in that crowd? It doesn't really have to mean anything. It's a program, a system. We stand and stare blankly upwards, at a strategically placed flag, mumbling the words to ourselves, eying the nachos on the floor, fidgeting with our keys. We become empty. And to ponder the inverse of this phenomenon, what are we full of? I'm not trying to be cheeky, I'd really like to know - what goes on in the hearts and minds whenever something nationalistic or patriotic is mentioned or performed? As a lyricist, I have an almost incessant need to dissect and analyze the lyrics to any song. If one were to listen to the lyrics of our National Anthem, really listen to them, not just through our ears but into our minds...would we still stare blankly - would it make us feel uncomfortable at the mention of a Utopian land of the free? A hearkening back to the days when our forefathers fought for the ideals we either don't have any more or are too far removed to protect and enjoy.
It made me wildly uncomfortable. If we, the people, if only for a moment, pondered the stark contrast between the lives we lead today, and the foundations of this country, we could start that revolution so desperately needed to effect change. Break the corporate chains, and do something.

Now for the news outside my head:

Two week notice: Just in the nick of time, the House has approved a measure to fund our gross spending another two weeks so they can talk and order more takeout, keeping Smokey the Bear in uniform and avoiding a shutdown...for now. In those two weeks, the bill will trim spending by $4 billion. It passed the House with a 335-91 vote. Republicans had originally hoped to pass the bill with $61 billion on the chop block but Obama vowed to veto that bill saying it would only escalate the economic problems by cutting back on necessary funding and programs. Ummm, I have a question? Is history still taught in schools? Or did the Texas board of education throw that out along with the mention of "separation of church and state," fossils and Europe? I seem to remember something called the New Deal, a series of public works projects aimed at bolstering the economy while putting the country to work...seemed to work pretty well. But hey, cutting education, health care, police, fire fighters and funding for MORE JOBS seems like a totally awesome idea too - keep up the good work!

The blame game: Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh blames the US and Israel for the growing unrest in the his country. Apparently, the spread of uprisings are " managed by Tel Aviv and under the supervision of Washington," Saleh said. "What do you have to do with Egypt or Oman? Are you president of the United States, or are you president of the world?" Well, to be honest, I don't even think he's doing a cracker jack job at the former. It must come as a shock to us, these fighting words, considering that last year alone, Yemen received $150 billion in military aid to fight Al Qaeda's insurgency, and just last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged another $75 million aimed at doubling the U.S.-trained Yemeni counter-terrorism unit. So, that's where that money goes - wonder if that was on the chop block...hmmm, probably not. Teachers are easier to cut off than military - they only have brains, not guns. Meanwhile, back in Yemen, there seems to be mixed feelings for the future. Sheik Abdul Majid al-Zindani, a "global terrorist," according to Washington, gave a speech promising that "an Islamic state is coming." However, more secular demonstrations have sprung from many of the Universities seeking the seemingly simplistic ideals of freedom. "We need freedom. Freedom from Saleh." Good luck my friend - I'm sure we'll be there when he eventually does fall to spend more money we don't have and piss more people off in the process. Until then, keep fighting the good fight.

Underground Dungeons: Further evidence of Gaddafi's cruelty was unearthed as revolutionaries in Benghazi wandered into the previously blockaded government and military areas of the city. Along with tales of torture, police brutality, and unexplained disappearances, the revolutionaries found underground dungeons - really just holes in the ground - held up by wood beams, with single pipes from the outside world providing air, keeping prisoners alive long enough to suffer the maximum. The revolutionaries had found bones and skeletons along with 7 men, still alive, who were taken immediately to the hospital. A 26 year veteran of Gaddafi's armed forces happened to be there as an ABC news reporter surveyed the scene. He had his four children with him, showing them the ruins of Gaddafi's home and compound. He told the reporter that they used to just throw people into the holes, forget about them - no one would ever come out alive. I wonder what dark secrets are lurking in the compounds of our red, white and blue...

Republicans hate nature: House Republicans want to sever ties with the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), pulling all their funding from the project. "It (IPCC) is an entity that is fraught with waste and fraud, and engaged in dubious science, which is the last thing hard-working American taxpayers should be paying for," Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer said. He also said, that "More than 700 acclaimed international scientists have challenged the claims made by the IPCC. These 700-plus dissenting scientists are affiliated with institutions like the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, the U.S. Air Force and Navy, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency." Ummm...since when were the armed forces the go-to-guys on climate change? Especially when their salaries lie in your grubby hands? Fuck, they'll tell you that goblins are falling from the sky if it gives 'em an extra bonus at Christmas time! The EPA? Really? They've been castrated and useless for years. The only difference between any of these agencies is who the corporate dick stick behind them is. As another thinly veiled fuck you to mother nature, tucked in the pages of the budget cuts, Rep. Ralph M. Hall, R-Texas, authored the prohibition of any funds to implement the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Service, on the 2012 requested budget from Obama....I was gonna write more but I think I'm gonna go outside while I can still suck in some clean oxygen without a tank on my back.

We will never win

One of the first books I can recall having an incredibly profound effect on my political mind is "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," the true tale of a man paid good money to ensnare poor countries in a web of corporate and militant mayhem, impossible to pay or politicize their way out of. One line in particular struck me and has never left me as I watch from afar our continued decent into a hellish snake pit of no return in the Middle East. John Perkins was working in the South Pacific at the time and went out to dinner with a few students and professors. This was at the height of the Cold War, and as they sat and sipped cocktails and enjoyed flavorful fare, one of the students made a prophetically morbid comment. The student said that victory against Russia was no problem, if in fact victory when not at war is possible. The student said that since it was government fighting government, Russia would eventually fold. However, in the future, the US would scratch the itch and venture into the Middle East and never be able to find the way out again. Why? Because you will be fighting a religion: ideals, beliefs dug thousands of years deep into a culture unfazed by Western influence. There will be no victory for their solid religious resolution will outlive your troops, by ten fold. And now here we are.
According to new reports, the insurgency in Afghanistan is gaining new strength, attacks being 59% higher than this time last year. Simultaneously, or the catalyst for all this being that in just the month of September, the U.S. Air Force has dropped 700 bombs throughout Afghanistan. Since July, they have dropped more than 2,000 bombs.
As of now, for every suspected militant killed by air strike, 25 civilians are killed. Apart from the UN and humans rights organizations wagging their fingers at us, Afghanis are less than happy with the above figures. Ummm...do you fucking blame them?!
According to a doctor working in the northern regions of Afghanistan, a record number of people have been coming in begging for sedatives, just to get a night's sleep, which very possibly could be their last. When you can't sleep, you see your neighbours, friends and family evaporate in ear piercing balls of fire, you do one of two things, run and hide or stay and fight. That's just plain old evolution for you: fight or flight. Flight being a rather ironic mention considering our favorite method of "dispatching insurgents," drone sorties.
A drone sortie consists of a single unmanned remotely controlled spy plane carrying up to four precision guided missiles. Drone sorties are characteristically carried out in pairs or sometimes even four to six participating in these "licensed to kill" missions.
So far in 2010, The Pentagon has authorized 21,000 of these unmanned drone sorties in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Now, if after reading all these figures, you haven't run through a wall and still have brain power enough to think, begin to think of the amount of devastation these missions cause on a country roughly the size of England, about 20,000 square miles smaller than Texas.
I find it hard to believe there are enough people still alive to man an insurgency. And if so, I'm amazed that we still have any troops alive on the ground. This is palpably absurd! What the fuck are we doing over there? Do you or anyone else even know why the hell we're still over there? Hasn't this just turned into Vietnam to the 100th power? Bin Laden is of no concern to us. The same people authorizing these missions had Bin Laden on their pay roll, even post 9/11. That's right - good 'ole Osama was a CIA employee. How's that for honesty and justice kids? How's that for Uncle Sam more or less cocking a loaded pistol and blowing away thousands of our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, friends - our own fucking people in the name of what - corporate payback, catastrophe cover-up?
No matter what the reason, this is where we are. And we're not gonna make it out like we did in Vietnam - clumsily grab our choppers and gangrenous limbs and fly back home claiming it was a draw. Nope. We're up against something far greater than the countries we invaded, far more dangerous than the bombs we drop. An idea can not die. A religion can not be bombed into submission. The people under the influence of a faith can not be conquered. Yet, because our education system shuns history as glorifying the past, we sit there with protractors and mathematically perfect killing machines while ignoring common sense, historical proof and sound judgement.
As our bombs continue to fall, anger, resentment and militant fervor grow under the watchful eye of a deep rooted faith and hard-as-nails ideologies rather effortlessly painting us as the evil in their midst.
God may bless the US, but I don't think even the big guy upstairs can save us from our own series of colossal fuck ups. I'll hate to say I told you so.