This Revolution Won't Be Televised Because It's Not Even Happening

So, I see they're having a discussion over at My Left Wing about taking it to the streets or, more correctly, the fact that the gripes of the majority of Americans are not being taken to the streets on any considerable scale. Yes, there's a mention of the immigration protests by one person, eugene, who concludes this:

But, obviously, clearly, it isn't having an effect. Or more accurately, it's not having the effect we hope, of ending the war, or ending immigrant-bashing, or bringing down Bush. Then again, I'm not convinced the antiwar protests in the 1960s succeeded in their aims either.

Obviously, that last observation is clearly wrong, but the first part of his comment reflects the views of a large number of people and that is one of instant gratification. It goes like this: 'if I do something and don't see results right away, why bother doing it at all?' and, not only that, the change must be one of immense measure such as "ending immigrant-bashing" - which was not what those protests were about in the first place.

Western society is plagued with people looking for quick fixes. Whether it's expressed in the form of chasing a high with alcohol or other drugs, believing that this week you'll win the lottery and life will then be wonderful forever, thinking that all you need to do to change a government is to show up on election day or living vicariously through others and letting them do the dirty work for you because you don't want to get your hands slapped. You want to stay safe, of course.

I think Americans sometimes forget that they're supposed to be involved in the pursuit of happiness which is far different than having it handed to you on a silver serving dish. And, of course, some believe that happiness is a goal that, once reached, is yours ad infinitum - unwilling to believe that the reaching of it ebbs and flows throughout life and that happiness is not some place you arrive at - only to stay in forever.

But, while there is a chorus of 'baby steps, baby steps' expressed in that diary's comments as well, there is a tone of obvious resignation and acquiescence to the power of corporations and the status quo of the political infrastructure. Once again, if it can't be fixed on a grand scale, then we'll just struggle for decades hoping our little actions might cause some change somewhere down the road.

There is no sense of revolution in America anymore. And, if America ever needed a revolution again, that time is now.

Our Damnit Janet is doing her best over there to explain that to MLWers, but the atmosphere of fear and 'I do what I can, what more do you want me to do?' is overwhelming. She's not the only shining star, of course. Witness Lilian Friedman who says she knowingly broke the rules at BT (Booman Tribune) by posting 6 diaries in one day asking why people weren't out on the streets and was summarily banned for being such an undisciplined shit-disturber. Did anyone over there actually realize she was trying to make a point? I don't know. I wasn't there at the time. But, she broke the rules and obviously had to be punished. If that type of reaction happens among so-called progressives, no wonder so many people don't want to risk what might happen if they actually do get out there and protest amongst those who oppose their opinions. (Janet can tell you stories about exactly what goes on in the face of dissent. Luckily no one can ban her from the streets. They've tried, but they haven't succeeded. We love Janet.)

What's with this culture of ennuie? This culture where staying safe is revered among all else? This culture of keyboard revolutionaries who often don't get beyond their own front door? This culture of endless hoping that someone, somewhere will change everything for everybody else? This culture that believes the only way to change the system is to work within it? This culture of defeatism? This culture of 'oh well, maybe next time'? This culture of only doing things that are comfortable? This culture that is so stunned it needs laugh tracks to tell people when to laugh and sad music to tell people when to cry? This culture that is so lazy it has lost the will of aggressive inquiry? This culture that obssesses over the murder of a child beauty queen 10 years ago while little Iraqi, Palestinian, Sudanese and [fill in the blank] girls are being murdered every single day?

You cannot change political institutions and corporations quickly, but you can change a culture. First of all though, you must have the willingness to do so. Unfortunately, the fear that holds too many back - fear that we on the so-called left often believe is the exclusive domain of those on the right who've bought into Bushco propaganda without even realizing that the Rove machine had beaten us as well - is the prime obstacle.

We say we're free. We think we're fearless. We believe we do all we can.

We are wrong.

('This Revolution Won't be Televised' is the name of a book by Joe Trippi)

See also: Call Me Old School: Protests Matter by me and Quit Your Bellyachin' About Antiwar Demonstrations by Meteor Blades.

Sunday Food For Thought

When I wrote on my door:
'Leave your traditions outside,
Before you come in,'
Not a soul dared
To visit me or open my door.
- Kahlil Gibran

Random News & Views Roundup

- Although Venus and Mars are alright tonite, Pluto's been turfed and Neptune may be next. I'm pretty sure this is a sign of the apocalypse...or something.

- The world is abuzz with the news that Iran has announced that it will continue with its plans for a heavy-water reactor with plutonium being one of the by products which is years away from becoming a reality. That, of course, won't deter Bushco from concluding that an iminent military strike is necessary. Will that be the October surprise?

- It sucks to be Bush:

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine, Aug. 26 -- At every wedding, it seems, something happens not according to plan. Expect the unexpected, planners warn. But how many brides and grooms expect a peace protest?

That is what happens when the president shows up for the ceremony in the midst of a polarizing war. About 700 demonstrators marched past the seaside church where President Bush's second cousin was to be married Saturday and then up to the checkpoint guarding the family summer compound to protest the war in Iraq.

The protesters left a few hours before the service so as not to disrupt the event itself, but they took advantage of the president's visit to make their point and showcase their opposition to a war that polls show has lost most of the public's support. Just as Bush found himself trailed to Texas by war opponents last year, now he has been dogged to his parents' getaway on the rocky shores of the Maine coast.
[...]
The protesters carried handmade signs with slogans such as "Stop Killing Our Children," "Bring Them Home Now," "We Have Nothing to Fear But Bush Himself," and "Liar, Liar, World's on Fire." In a school field where the group rallied after the march, speakers called for Bush's impeachment and sang specially written songs such as "Where is the Rage?"

Yay, protesters! Oh, and Barbara Bush wore a purple pantsuit to the wedding, in case you were interested.

- An IDF commander lobs some major criticism about the lack of preparedness of Israel's reservists in the Lebanon war:

More than 50 reserve soldiers, mostly married with families and businesses, died in the war. Last week reservists protested outside the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem as anger continued to grow over operational failures.

Some have accused the government and senior military of sending their comrades to unnecessary deaths. Amnon's admissions are particularly controversial as they have serious implications for some senior officers when pressure is growing on the government to conduct a state inquiry. The Israeli government is so worried about the political fallout that its Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, has banned senior military officers from speaking to the media.

Reserve soldiers make up 70 per cent of the Israeli army and, unlike the rest of the army, they are free to speak out. Many have echoed Amnon's concerns.

One, protesting in Jerusalem last week, said: 'Reservists got bad treatment, bad equipment and bad decisions.'

The protests outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have been growing daily, with some reservists bringing their families with them. As men, women and children waved protest banners, and chanted 'Olmert resign', Israelis arrived to sign petitions backing calls for the resignations. The war was supported by the majority of Israelis - but many are deeply dismayed by its conduct and outcome.

Olmert has defended his government and military, but is expected to announce some level of inquiry, having initially rejected calls for one.

Sound familiar? See above: Bush, wedding, protests.

And these are the two leaders who think it's a good idea to start a war with Iran?

Update: The Canadian Conservative party has been doing some photoshopping of a pic of Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy to highlight some beer bottles in the photo. Subliminal message, anyone?

FOX: Defending IDF Airstrike on Reuters Truck in Gaza

A Reuters armoured press vehicle, clearly marked as being such, was hit by an IDF missile strike on Saturday. Two journalists were wounded.

Michael Lawrence, Reuters Managing Editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We are deeply concerned at this attack on a clearly marked press vehicle as journalists were doing their job to report the story from Gaza.

"We understand that the army says it had no intention of targeting the media, but this incident is totally unacceptable and we urge a careful examination of how this happened to ensure there is no repeat."

One FOX news reporter on the scene (video at Hot Air, along with various denigrating comments about 'al-Reuters') snuck in a defence of the IDF's strike in the middle of his commentary:

An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles hitting an armoured car belonging to the Reuters News Agency moderately wounding 5 people including two cameramen. Now, we've just gotten word from the Israeli Defence Forces. They say the area is of high alert. They're searching for tunnels there, they're also looking for explosives that have been planted by Palestinian militants alongside the border fence. They say the car was suspicious. It was dark. They were not able to read the markings on the side and that the investigation is continuing. The journalists had the doors open and were about to get out of the armoured vehicle when it was struck by the missile coming from that Israeli aircraft.

Well John, the Israeli Defence Forces are in the process of investigating it right now. They do admit that they did hit a Reuters truck - Reuters SUV, basically - an armoured truck but, in their defence a liitle bit, it's an area of the Gaza strip where there's been all sorts of problems. There's been tunnels they've been looking for also some explosives were said to have been put alongside the Israeli border fence in that region. The Israeli Defence Forces say that they were working in that area. There were reports of this mysterious car. Of course, it's the middle of the night. It's very dark. To see markings of any sort is tough but the car was marked with 'Press' in English, in Arabic and in Hebrew. However the Israeli forces did that Reuters SUV. The cameraman was injured. A local photographer was also injured and 3 bystanders. At this point, we're told that none of the injuries are life-threatening but some of them were moderate, John.

FOX - They report. You decide get biased news coverage.

Is it too much to expect that they just report facts? Apparently so.

Israel has a long history of attacks on journalists and restrictions applied to those reporting on its conflicts in the region. (See also: In the Line of Fire). It's a contentious relationship that has yet to be resolved after years of complaints and inquiries. That is not to say, of course, that Saturday's attack on the Reuters truck was intentional. It certainly is incumbent on the IDF, however, to act more cautiously than it has when it comes to dealing with journalists covering war zones considering its seriously blemished history.

A Birthday of Note: Alice Paul

"I always feel....the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end."

- Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977)
Suffragist and author of the Equal Rights Amendment

Many of us are still waiting for liberty all over the world...vote or no vote. The mosaic of equality for women is far from being complete.

"Nato pilots accused of killing Afghan children"

Nato pilots have been accused of killing 13 Afghan civilians, including nine children, during an attack close to the British base at Musa Kala in Helmand province.

Witnesses and relatives of the dead, who were interviewed by The Independent at the town of Lashkargar, claim that on 31 July a family of 13 was attempting to flee the fighting in a rented pickup truck with three other men when an aircraft appeared overhead.

"We stopped the car," said Abdul Habib, 40. "Then the plane dropped a bomb ahead of us and went away. After a while we started driving again, but the aircraft came back. I told my wives to stand up so that the pilot would see they were women, but at that moment it opened fire."

"These were Taliban forces withdrawing after an attack, suggesting they were not civilians," Major Toby Jackman, the Nato spokesman, said.

The vehicle that the family say they had been using was of a type often used by Taliban forces.
link

Are the Taleban the only people in Afghanistan who drive 'pickup trucks', Jackman? And since when are children 'Taliban forces'? Bloody military apologists.

Mr Habib suffered extensive injuries to one arm, his shoulder, back and both legs. One of his sons and another man also survived with injuries. His two wives, 27 and 25, and children, Rafar, 10, Manan, eight, Mohammed, two, Nisar Ahmed, five months, Shabiqa, 11, Gulsoma, nine, Kasima, six, Shukria, four, and Shakoofa, two months, were all killed in the attack.

Babies - not terrorists - babies.

And look at this.

Nato officials have also claimed that the Taliban uses civilian areas and housing to mount attacks against Western troops, increasing the risk of civilian casualties.

Where have we heard that before?

Is that what Canada signed up for under NATO? Killing babies?

Friday Fun: What Famous Leader Are You?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Yikes!

(I took the test using 27 questions and my hair doesn't look like that - most of the time, anyway.)

h/t to Quaker Agitator for pointing the way to that test.

"I can't go out there and shoot at young children. I just can't go to Iraq."

Via The Independent:

While his peers from St Augustine's Catholic school were this month contemplating university careers or first jobs, Jason Chelsea was preoccupied with a different future: his first tour of duty in Iraq.

The 19-year-old infantryman, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was tormented by concern about what awaited him when the King's Lancaster Regiment reached Iraq, where 115 British soldiers have been killed since 2003.

He had even told his parents that he had been warned by his commanders that he could be ordered to fire on child suicide bombers.

It was a fear that he never confronted. Within 48 hours of confessing his concerns to his family, Pte Chelsea was dead after taking an overdose of painkillers and slashing his wrists.

On his death bed, he told his mother, Kerry: "I can't go out there and shoot at young children. I just can't go to Iraq. I don't care what side they are on. I can't do it."

Today, mourners including comrades from his unit will attend Pte Chelsea's funeral, wearing the colours of his two favourite football teams, Chelsea and Wigan. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to begin an investigation into his death, including allegations that the teenager was bullied. In a suicide note, the young soldier had said that he was "just a waste".

His parents said yesterday that their son's ordeal had convinced them of the need for an urgent review of the pre-deployment training given to British soldiers bound for Iraq.

"In training, they were made to wrestle with dummies. Jason said they were also told they might have to fight kids and that they might have to shoot them because they were carrying suicide bombs. He said the policy [where there was a suspected suicide bomber] was to shoot first and ask questions later."

His mother added: "Jason said that during the training for Iraq he had been told that children as young as two carry bombs and the time may come when he would have to shoot one to save himself and his friends. I think they need to think again about the training they give to young soldiers before Iraq."

more...

Too many people think of military heroes as those who return from war with medals and ribbons on their chests. Far too few give much thought at all to those like this poor, embattled British soldier, Jason Chelsea, who suffer so greatly from the horrendous thought of having to kill children that they either desert, resist or end up killing themselves.

Some people think there's no honour to be found in suicide. I'd challenge them to not find the honour in this young man's actions. He did the only thing that he could fathom at the time to ensure he would not end up killing children - an overwhelmingly sad reality.

May he rest in peace.

Mr Ralph Goes to Washington

Via CBC:

Ralph Klein continues to prepare for life after nearly 14 years as Alberta premier, confirming Thursday he has accepted another offer.

Klein said he will serve as a guest lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

The premier said he will be paid $5,000 US a month for the three-month term in the fall of 2007.

"Basically it's for retired politicians and academics," Klein said. "I'll talk about practical politics — street politics as I know it."

Ralph is already preparing a series of speeches about his 'street politics' methods which include:

1. How to get drunk and yell at homeless guys in a shelter.
2. How to throw books at legislative pages.
3. How to blow up hospitals.
4. How to kill people by holding back health care funding.
5. How to plagairize. (Although that speech may be canceled since so many politicians already have that down pat.)
6. How to call people "bums and creeps" and then get elected premier.
7. How to govern while drunk.
8. How to handle it when people find out you've been governing while drunk.
9. How to send poor people to other provinces.
10. How to undermine an education system.
11. How to keep big oil happy while decimating the environment. (To be co-hosted with Dick Cheney)
12. How to threaten to threaten to separate from your country if you don't get your way.
13. How to govern as an intellectually-inept good old boy. (To be co-hosted with George Bush)
14. How to govern as little as possible.
15. How to flip pancakes.
16. How to hoard money while children starve.
17. How to make poor people even more poor.
18. How to have an effective public tantrum.
19. How to pretend you know what you're doing. (To be co-hosted with Donald Rumsfeld)

And, lastly:

20. How to make $5000/month without even trying.

The Crumbling Empire

Has American imperialism, as idealized by the members of the Project for a New American Century finally met its end?

The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.
-William Kristol, Chairman

It's quite clear that 'diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle' were tossed out long ago by the Bush administration in favour of the Bush Doctrine*. And PNAC supporters like Charles Krauthammer who expressed 'Three Cheers for the Bush Doctrine' in Time magazine in the fall of 2005 continue to attempt to convince the American public that multilateralism and diplomacy are failed concepts:

Even the most ardent unilateralist always prefers multilateral support under one of two conditions: (1) There is something the allies will actually help accomplish or (2) there is nothing to be done anyway, so multilateralism gives you the cover of appearing to do something.

The six-party negotiations on North Korea are an example of the second. North Korea went nuclear a long time ago. Our time to act was during the Bush 41 and Clinton administrations. Nothing was done. And nothing can be done now. Once a country has gone nuclear, there is no return. The nukes themselves act as a deterrent against military measures. And no diplomat, however mellifluous, is going to talk a nuclear North Korea into dismantling the one thing that gives it any significance in the world.
[...]

Realistically speaking, the point of this multilateral exercise cannot be to stop Iran's nuclear program by diplomacy. That has always been a fantasy. It will take military means. There would be terrible consequences from an attack. These must be weighed against the terrible consequences of allowing an openly apocalyptic Iranian leadership to acquire weapons of genocide.

The point of the current elaborate exercise in multilateral diplomacy is to slightly alter that future calculation. By demonstrating extraordinary forbearance and accommodation, perhaps we will have purchased the acquiescence of our closest allies -- Britain, Germany and, yes, France -- to a military strike on that fateful day when diplomacy has run its course.

In Krauthammer's mind, any semblance of diplomacy is just a cover for urging allies to join in a military attack and, for the Bush administration, that certainly was the case in the run up to the war on Iraq. Bushco lied its way into convincing the coalition of the willing that the Iraq problem could simply and easily be handled by shock and awe. And look where we all are three years later.

Neocons like Krauthammer have learned absolutely nothing from the war in Iraq and his sentiments about how to deal with North Korea completely wipe out how the resolution of the Cold War came about. That's extremely dangerous selective thinking based on fantasy - not fact - and it's what's driving the current push for war with Iran, despite the fact that the intelligence to support such a pre-emptive strike doesn't exist beyond hyperbole and warmongering rhetoric.

An editorial in Friday's New York Times, 'Wanted: Scarier Intelligence' outlines the deja vu scenario of Bush administration officials pushing the intelligence community - which won't be fooled again - into making a case for action against Iran, just in time to boost the Republicans' so-called 'strong on terror' message for the November election. Some 60% of Americans now oppose the Iraq war for various reasons and it is doubtful that the majority of those would be quick to buy what they're being sold as far as justifications for a war with Iran goes. One would hope, anyway.

The Bush administration has consistently come under fire from its allies - current and former - not only over its handling of Iraq, but for its inaction and unwillingness to deal with the crisis in the Middle East.

There's a whiff of change in the wind.

Italian FM: Harsh U.S. approach to Mideast failed
By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent

ROME - If the planned multinational force in Lebanon succeeds, it might be possible to create a similar force for the Gaza Strip, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said in an interview with Haaretz.

D'Alema said that America's aggressive approach to the Middle East, which Israel shares, has failed, and has caused serious damage. Now, he said, Italy and Europe must prove to Israelis that only international intervention can bring them security.

The patience with America's superpower status has come to an end.

The empire is crumbling with Europe and China not only waiting in the wings but actively encouraging its demise.

And the current crisis proved, in your view, that the U.S. on its own cannot guarantee such security?

"This is obvious to me. The American policy, which Israel also supported, created an impossible situation. Just a few years ago, they foretold the demise of the UN. I recall that on the day Baghdad fell, Richard Perle wrote that along with Baghdad, the UN also fell. The thinking was that it is possible to control the world via the power of a hegemonic liberal power. This philosophy has created serious damage, and now the U.S. is looking for a logical way out."

The Bush administration's refusal to deal directly with North Korea and Iran along with its shunning of its own Road Map for peace may have appeased the PNAC neocons but these major foreign policy mistakes, that most of its allies now clearly see as weakness rather than strength, have diminished the status of American imperialism. The world has woken up to it now as have many Americans.

The Orwellian belief that peace can only be achieved by violence has been exposed for exactly what it is: a lie. And the quest for American world dominance by such means is now seen as a dangerous and deadly experiment whose time has run out.

Bush would do well to study the fate of the Roman Empire instead of relying on his neocon advisers, who selectively rewrite history to encourage their world view, if he truly wants to understand where his vision of America is headed.

How does the president think history will judge him for going to war in Iraq?

“After the second interview with him on Dec. 11, we got up and walked over to one of the doors. There are all of these doors in the Oval Office that lead outside. And he had his hands in his pocket, and I just asked, ‘Well, how is history likely to judge your Iraq war,’” says Woodward.

“And he said, ‘History,’ and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, ‘History, we don’t know. We’ll all be dead.’”
- Bob Woodward, CBS's 60 Minutes

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960

* See also: Chronology: The Evolution of the Bush Doctrine (PBS-Frontline)