Our Hearts go out to the Victims

The Quake and Tsunami casualty count has risen over 20,000. Our best wishes go out to the survivors. Look Mr. Preznit, international cooperation can work.

A Photo is a Dangerous Thing

Mother Jones Online has many photos that the Bush Regime does not want you to see! Study these photos and share them with your friends. Remind everyone that these are lives that the fuckers in the Bush misadministration are throwing away! At times like this I want a vengeful deity.

The Chimpy, Trusty, and the others in this misadministration have gone to fantastic lengths to hide the real and true cost to America, measured in lives cut short for no good reason. Lets hold their feet to the fire on this. Impeach Bush!

Note to Self

"In order to get ready for the various ways of how the "rapture" gets here, learn how to pronounce a new word.

sumumi
see-namee
suruni
sususudio
sue-nam-me

P.S. outlaw that whole silent "t" crap."

Important Public Service Announcement

We interupt the ususal discussion of politics on this site for a helpful PSA.

Ok, so you go home for the holidays, right? You have to interact with people you care for yet cannot stand their politics! So, how can Rising Hegemon readers deal with this perplexing problem. The family is conservative or worse neoconservative republicans who think that Bush and his ilk walk on water (oil is fine too). How do you manage the conversation when the topic inevitably turns to politics.

The administration here at R-H would like to make a few suggestions for conversation starters to help you through those awkward silences after you exhaust talking about the weather:

(1) So, how is that little war thing working out for you?
(2) Say, did they ever find those nasty weapons of mass destruction cause if not, how about we nominate this fruit cake?
(3) Which Bush daughter do you think is more slutty? Jenna or not- Jenna?
(4) How often do you think Cheney has to replace his heart monitor batteries?
(5) Exactly how much time does Bush spend at his ranch?
(6) Any plans on moving to Ohio?
(7) Do you think that the rapture will happen before we finish dinner? How about before new years day?
(8) So do you attend a mega church or conservative church or church of Bob or cult of the Rumsfeld?
(9) Can you explain the Bush tax cut plan to me? How will that help the poor? (after all it is the season where we are supposed to think about others, right? right?)
(10) Hey, did you know that social security is actually in pretty good shape?
While watching Fox News (11)So, do you think O'Reilly really had sex with that producer person who brought the sexual harrassment charges?
(12) Is it me or is O'Reilly losing his hair?
(13) So you watch Fox "news" all of the time? Doesn't it get a little weird watching them praise Bush all of the time?
(14) I have a question, where is the media headquarters for the liberal conspiracy anyway?
(15) How much money did you donate to Bush-Cheney Inc?
(16) So, who is hotter Laura or Lynne?
(17) Did you know that Lynne Cheney is a man? Does that bother you?
(18) who would win a wrestling match against Saddam: Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld?
(19) Got any scrap metal we can send to the troops for the holidays?
(20) So, now that Bush is about to be inaugurated, do you expect me to move to Canada?

We here at Rising Hegemon hope that this small public service will be of use for you.

Clearing His Head By Clearing Brush

Bush is "carefully monitoring" events in Asia from his home on the range as the death toll rises.

"He's been monitoring it very closely," White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters at a briefing here. "He's seen some of the images on television."

Yep, I'm sure he's really working hard at it. He has lots of thinkin' to do. In other words, he is cerebrating.

Bush also spent time clearing brush at his ranch and thinking about what he'll say in his inaugural speech and upcoming State of the Union address.

"Now is a time for him to, sort of, think about how he wants to address the American people," Duffy said, adding that there were no speechwriters at the ranch. "I think the best way to characterize it is there are some initial drafts."

Truth be told, that is probably exactly what he does: "sort of thinks".

So now we know what we call those brilliant ruminations he dutifully taps out on the old computer after coming in from his ranch chores. Probably gets Condi and the secret service detail to gather round as he reads aloud what he just wrote. I feel so much better knowing he is down on the ranch working off some of that stress and the extra 6 pounds he is carrying around. There's probably a kettle of pork and beans over an open fire, crackling and popping. The dinner bell rings as he is trying to polish off one last zinger for the state of the union address. Well, don't want to work too hard, need to go have a farting contest with the secret service after winning the who can eat more beans contest. Oh and tonight he gets a sarsaparilla for a special treat.

A Song for These Times

A poor man's wages carry their feet
A dead soldier today in the sweltering heat
A dynasty in power two wars to their name
An election by decree ain't this new world a shame
Ain't this new world a shame

And I can't stop thinking that it doesn't have to be this way
It doesn't have to be this way

Vindictive leaks what's it all about
Racist commentators leaving no doubt
Oil powers the economy tax breaks for the Humvee
Ain't this new world a shame
Ain't this new world a shame

And I can't stop thinking that it doesn't have to be with way
It doesn't have to be this way

--Jay Farrar, Doesn't have to be this way, 2004
from the album Stone, Steel, & Bright Lights

Farrar was one of the founding members of Uncle Tupelo and has recorded several albums both as a solo artist and as the driving force behind Son Volt. He has also quietly contributed to numerous progressive causes and used his music as a vehicle for social commentary.

Now more than ever we need the efforts of musicians like Farrar, Steve Earle, and the other bands involved in the Vote for Change and several Anti-Bush compilations. Past events in England can serve as a lesson of the influence of music on culture.

During the 1980s while England suffered under the reign of "lady" Thatcher, a group of socially progressive musicians banded together to influence politics under the banner Red Wedge. While this group of activists were not successful in reshaping British politics their efforts did assist, at the time, a less oppressive regime in coming to power. We can debate the progressive credentials of Tony Blair and other labor party leaders but imagine if the Tories in the image of Thatcher had control.

The point is: music can help create the change that we so richly need.

Now, how do we get a double bill of Steve Earle and Jay Farrar or better yet maybe its time for a consistent progressive music wedge against the neocon agenda before its too late.

First We Binge, Then We Purge

Having first binged in the aftermath of tax cuts, we have no choice but to make drastic cuts in spending. Get ready folks, 'cause here it comes.

But the surpluses have turned into record deficits. President Bush is not about to take back his tax cuts, but in setting spending levels in the budget that he will deliver to Congress in the new year, he will single out a loser — perhaps several — for every winner.

Guess who's taking it in the shorts? Bush wouldn't spite the hand that fed him so he'll go right after the poor and elderly.

Medicare and Medicaid are prominent on Bush's likely hit list.

Doctors who serve Medicare patients are already threatened. Under current law, they will absorb a 5% reduction in their government reimbursement for treating Medicare beneficiaries as of Jan. 1, 2006.

Doctors barely headed off 4.5% cuts scheduled for 2004 and 2005 when Congress, in the bill establishing the Medicare prescription drug benefit, replaced those cuts with 1.5% increases.

The ultimate losers, he said, would be the elderly insured by Medicare. Before Congress reversed the cuts scheduled for 2004 and 2005, he said, a survey showed that 24% of family doctors would stop taking new Medicare patients if the cuts held up.

So now Bush sells it as no choice. If this guy won't roll back a tax cut or two in the name of war, then it is never going to happen. He has to prove he is better than his old man. Has there ever been a more bloody or expensive example of a son proving to his father that the son is better than the dad?

Will the Democrats be able to do anything but whine? Will they mount any sort of a defense? Or will they accept it as a done deal and try to just trim the edges? And all this as the next supplemental appropriation for our wars comes in at the $80 billion range. He is such an insufferable asshole. Bush and his wealthy cronies like Lil' Russ, everyone at Fox, Tweety, and the MSNBC crew have nothing to worry about because he is doing it for them, so it looks like we're on our own.

Lil' Russ's Encore

Now that he has done a little quality time with Jerry Falwell and Dr. Phil, what does Lil' Russ do for an encore?

Talk to the dead, don't you think?

Lil' Russ's Adventure in Public Masturbation

MTP's featured guest: Dr. Phil.

Holy Shit-th.

Please add your thoughts.

History will not be kind

To Bush.

But also not to the amazing number of morons that voted for this guy when it was self-evident by November 2004 that he deserved termination over any number of his policies particularly Iraq. Let me tell you, trapped as I am in Arizona how hard it is not to look at my parents across the table and ask them...

WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?

Not very Christmakkakwanza-ie though is it?

Yesterday the Washington Post had something that summed it up:

The U.S. military invaded Iraq without a formal plan for occupying and stabilizing the country and this high-level failure continues to undercut what has been a "mediocre" Army effort there, an Army historian and strategist has concluded.

"There was no Phase IV plan" for occupying Iraq after the combat phase, writes Maj. Isaiah Wilson III, who served as an official historian of the campaign and later as a war planner in Iraq. While a variety of government offices had considered the possible situations that would follow a U.S. victory, Wilson writes, no one produced an actual document laying out a strategy to consolidate the victory after major combat operations ended.

THAT is goddamned unforgivable!!! Frankly, in my opinion if it is possible to impeach someone for incompetence, let the hearings begin.

But we've known this for goddamned months, it was not quite a year ago that James Fallow's "Blind into Baghdad" came out describing the complete lack of post-war planning. Now we find out there was NO post-war plan from a military insider, and chief historian of the operation? How the hell can we allow them to get away with this?

It was only in November 2003, seven months after the fall of Baghdad, that U.S. occupation authorities produced a formal "Phase IV" plan for stability operations, Wilson reports. Phase I covers preparation for combat, followed by initial operations, Phase II, and combat, Phase III. Post-combat operations are called Phase IV.

Many in the Army have blamed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon civilians for the unexpectedly difficult occupation of Iraq, but Wilson reserves his toughest criticism for Army commanders who, he concludes, failed to grasp the strategic situation in Iraq and so not did not plan properly for victory. He concludes that those who planned the war suffered from "stunted learning and a reluctance to adapt."

...

"Reluctance in even defining the situation . . . is perhaps the most telling indicator of a collective cognitive dissidence on part of the U.S. Army to recognize a war of rebellion, a people's war, even when they were fighting it," he comments.

Because of this failure, Wilson concludes, the U.S. military remains "perhaps in peril of losing the 'war,' even after supposedly winning it."

Overall, he grades the U.S. military performance in Iraq as "mediocre."

Wilson's essay amounts to an indictment of the education and performance of senior U.S. officials involved in the war. "U.S. war planners, practitioners and the civilian leadership conceived of the war far too narrowly" and tended to think of operations after the invasion "as someone else's mission," he says. In fact, Wilson says, those later operations were critical because they were needed to win the war rather than just decapitate Saddam Hussein's government.

But, but, the FoxNews Zoo Crew & Rummy say we are ignoring all the good stuff we are doing!

...

In his analysis of U.S. military operations in 2003 in northern Iraq, Wilson also touches on another continuing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq -- the number of troops there. "The scarcity of available 'combat power' . . . greatly complicated the situation," he states.

Wilson contends that a lack of sufficient troops was a consequence of the earlier, larger problem of failing to understand that prevailing in Iraq involved more than just removing Hussein. "This overly simplistic conception of the 'war' led to a cascading undercutting of the war effort: too few troops, too little coordination with civilian and governmental/non-governmental agencies . . . and too little allotted time to achieve 'success,' " he writes.

Gee, an Administration that has as its highlight, a staged landing and a stuffed flightsuit proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" being simplistic. Who'd have thunk that except virtually every Democrat not named Zell?

Irony--It Ain't Just a River in Egypt

Christmas wishes from the President:

President Bush (news - web sites) issued a Christmas Day call for compassion toward the sick and suffering, urging Americans to volunteer to help the neediest among their fellow citizens.

"The Christmas season fills our hearts with gratitude for the many blessings in our lives, and with those blessings comes a responsibility to reach out to others," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty, others fight cruel addictions, or cope with division in their families, or grieve the loss of a loved one," he said. "Christmastime reminds each of us that we have a duty to our fellow citizens, that we are called to love our neighbor just as we would like to be loved ourselves. By volunteering our time and talents where they are needed most, we help heal the sick, comfort those who suffer, and bring hope to those who despair, one heart and one soul at a time."

Bush also assured U.S. troops overseas that they are in the thoughts and prayers of their fellow Americans.

If it were not so tragic I would laugh. Here is a guy I wouldn't go out of the way to wish a Merry Christmas (though I might pay good money if he sat in a dunking tank).

But to those of you stopping by, whether you are celebrating or not, I wish you a peaceful day.

Forty-Five Seconds is enough

Despite my anonymous existence, I will give you a short Christmas insight into family dynamics over the holidays.

Not having broadband is an annoyance, but I'll take the slow connection rate and the light blogging it causes over the other scourge of my short-period of co-existence with my parents here in retirement land.

The fact that the default channel is the FoxNews Channel.

We do our best to deter them from watching it, but like Pavlov's dogs Attaturk's parents, generally otherwise fine people, cannot seem to not watch it.

My father and I had controlled the television for most of the afternoon, watching the latest in a long history of Minnesota Viking choke jobs. By the way, I believe that Paul Wolfowitz and Rummy are actually the Viking's Defensive Coordinators and Douglas Feith is coaching up the linebackers.

Sorry, I'm bitter.

Anyhoo, late yesterday afternoon, after my brother -- the diva of the family -- managed to seize control of the remote and watch the ultimate in high-brow entertainment, VH-1s Most Awesomely Bad Songs of all Time. When he and I left the room for a moment, like a bad apparition, my father turned to listen to the deep philosophical rantings of one Newt Gingrich.

And what was Newt on and on about?

Why the moral deterioration of the country because the liberal elite won't let people be Chrisitian!!!

Thrice married Newt said this.

As it is Christmas, allow me this special exclamation!!! CHRIST ON A CHRISTMAS CRACKER! When VH-1 has more intellectual content than a so-called news channel, consistently that is a bad sign.

So now you know why I cannot blog about anything substantial. I'm burying my anger in pounding egg nog.

Never Subjective... Super Fantastic Amazing Best Music of 2004

Since these 'best of' lists are never subjective and always true to the idea that the music matters, after much thought I have crafted a list of what moved me this year. Not to mention that we all need to spend the holiday gift money we will get for the holdiays (especially the after holidays shopping spree). In the spirit of smug superiority, I thusly and humbly nominate some of the following as possible inclusion in your 'must buy' music lists:

1. Chris Stamey - Travels In The South (one of the very best of the year! Founding member of the DBs, producer extraordinaire, and great song writer. Terrific pop -- that is when the term pop music meant something real and not some half belly clothed singer)

2. Green Day - American Idiot (pseudo punk grows up and well, damn if those punksters got something)

3. Keane - Hopes and Fears (How can anyone overlook this band! Amazing lead singer, fully fleshed out songs that transport the listener to some place in their imagination. And no guitar!)

4. Tom Waits - Real Gone (One of the most gifted song writers in contemporary music -- ignore that Rod Stewart cover of Downtown Train and check the original. No one does pathos like Waits. He could read the paper and I would be creeped out but glued to the ipod)

5. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (This is how a rock band does it.)

6. Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now (This is real protest music folks, here's to Earle who has lived the hard life, done time, and made some great music. And you have to love his politics. Read his Doghouse Roses, if you have not already.)

7. This is Americana Compilation (21 songs of various alt country/Americana that covers the spectrum of the genre, there is some good music here.)

8. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (While I still miss Summerteeth era Wilco, this one has more layers than an onion or Sgt. Pepper's record and yet still evokes strong emotions.)

9. Elliott Smith - From A Basement On A Hill (This is the late singer's last effort, achingly sad and beautiful on several levels.)

10. Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper (Gifted performer whose DIY illustrates why we no longer need major labels.)

11. Paul Westerberg - Folker (The ex-Replacements songwriter and frontman continues to evolve as a stripped down song writer under his own name and a rollicking rock performer as Grandpa Boy.)

12. Prince - Musicology (The Prince returns, all hail the prince... awesome. This belongs in everyone's collection)

Honorable Mentions:
Drive By Truckers - Dirty South
Peter Himmelman - Unstoppable Forces
Guided By Voices - Half Smiles Of The Decomposed
Silos - When The Telephone Rings
Jar Farrar - Stone, Steel & Bright Lights
Los Lobos - The Ride

Missing:
Where is the next recording from Rebecca Gates (ex-spinanes)??? Those Spinanes records made me pick up my guitar and try to play. Is GNR mach two ever going to release Chinese Democracy? Do any of us care at this point? Of course, after that awful cover of Sweet Child of Mine, nothing is going to bring this band back, right?

Overblown that music lovers could have lived without:
Velvet Revolver (Did this record change anyone's life for the better?)
A Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and all those other nasal bands... can we collectively get them some therapy and something for their sinus infections?

I want to encourage and welcome others to share what they thought were the best (aw... hell or the worst) of 2004. What do you consider a must buy??? Comment below. I'm waiting.

Snow in Ohio

Hello there fellow progressives, radicals, free thinkers, and enjoyers of debate and chocolate!

I write to you from the secondary headquarters of the Rising Hegemon in the snow encrusted state of Ohio. Over 20 inches here at the RH2HQ. So, if the need for snow removal interferes with the volume of output by yours truly, I am sorry. Believe me, I am very sorry. I hate to shovel snow. I would rather listen to Mr. Preznit telling us that mission has been accomplished or lying that the troops are coming home soon rather than shovel snow. Ok, I'll take the snow. But not by much.

Fucking snow.

Question of the Week

Why is it that a system that tries and convicts a human being of a capital crime for which they will be put to death or spend their life in prison is a system that works while the same system that awards a couple million bucks to a person against a big corporation is a system that needs fixin'?

Jonesin' for Good Judges

I guess I'm jonesin' on this whole judicial appointment thing and here's why: I believe if most people knew the negative effect conservative idealogues have on people's lives, we would see less of them appointed.

Here is an example of the justice system at work, all its flaws and strengths in plain view.

Shown by DNA testing to have been wrongly convicted of rape in 1988, Mr. Moon was released from prison at a court hearing here on Tuesday afternoon - the latest among 154 men and women in the United States exonerated by such tests.

Mr. Moon and his parents were in the packed courtroom to hear the El Paso district attorney, Jaime Esparza, apologize for the wrongful conviction, for himself and for the State of Texas. With them were Barry Scheck, a lawyer from New York whose 12-year-old Innocence Project has accounted for more than half of those exonerated, and another lawyer from Mr. Scheck's office, Nina Morrison.

I guess it is good news it didn't take more than 17 years, but holy crap, 17 years is 17 years. The whole system has to be in balance for people to make it through fair and square, fair prosecutors, defense lawyers, invetigators, jusges, and juries. It makes a huge difference in any case to have a fair judge in control.

And despite all the good work good people do, think of the thousands of people in prison, including death row, who are not guitly of the crimes they are charged with committing. No worry for Mr. Preznit, once their appeals are exhausted he figures they must be guilty, lets get on with things shall we? people like Bush don't understand that conviction is not the same thing as guilt. That's why we must reduce the margin of error by appointing good judges, not the idealogues Bush nominates.

Friday Miscellaneous Lifeform Blogging

The ghostly spirit of a blogger not actually posting (or anticipating such) presents this, perhaps the most predictable Miscellaneous Lifeform Blogging ever...short of reindeer (but that's next year).


Mistletoe. No tongue this time grandma!

Bring me the metaphorical Head of Dickie Myers.

The lack of broadband is making it hard to post out here in the boonies Attaturks parents live in, called PHOENIX, ARIZONA...okay, they don't have broadband is all. And they are staunch Republicans and watch FoxNews incessently. Except for the fact that they are loaded to the gills with food and appliances, and live in a moderately posh retirement community, it might as well be hell. No broadband, oh the humanity!

Anyhoo, the lack of broadband, has, as expected deterred my blogging efforts. However, this little nugget from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard "Yet another Dick" Myers requires a post.

"This attack [in Mosul], of course, is the responsibility of insurgents, the same insurgents who attacked on 9/11"

Ah, the idiocy.

There will be no Questions...

Like a ethereal ghoul, Donald Rumsfeld decided to try to save his job today by visiting the army "he had" when Bush led them to war.

Whether or not he brought along a prop turkey is unknown at this time, but I'm sure he had an aide available with prefabricated signed photographs.

"Happy Holidays,

I'm going back to the States...you?

Donald "Call me Mr. Secretary" Rumsfeld"

Lets Get Ready to Rumbllllllle!

Bush sure must like those mandates. They have left him feeling emboldened. Or is it when he feels emasculated and impotent in one area (the Iraq debacle) he exercises power where he encounters little resistance.

So now he is going to renominate 20 judges previously rejected by the Senate, or more accurately, by Democrats in the Senate.

President Bush plans to renominate 20 candidates for federal judgeships who have been unable to win confirmation in the Senate, the White House said today, in a signal that the president is ready for a showdown early next year.

Among the judges Bush plans to renominate are William Pryor, Priscilla Owen, and Janice Rodgers Brown. Now we'll hear the typical flowery BS about all of them from their home state Senators but make no mistake, they are all hostile to the notion of individual rights, civil rights, and privacy.

Regarding Owen, during the confirmation process the first time around, Democratic Senators expressed dismay at two things in particular, one being Owen's favoring, contrary to a majority of the Texas Supreme Court, that a minor seeking an abortion should show that she had considered, among other issues, the religious significance of the decision. The other issue was a concern that she often dissented from majority opinions that favored individuals and consumers; her dissents being uniformly in support of corporate and business interests.
Janice Rogers Brown is, if anything, even more extreme in her views than Owen.

Specifically, the October 22 hearing reinforced serious concerns about Brown in five areas: 1) her troubling dissents concerning discrimination, consumer rights, and other issues; 2) her disturbing disregard for precedent, especially with respect to constitutional and civil rights; 3) her ultra-conservative ideological views as reflected both in her speeches and judicial opinions; 4) her strong support for extreme “private property” rights theories, including long-discredited legal theories that threaten important governmental actions regulating corporate behavior; and 5) her troubling disagreement with constitutional protection for fundamental rights and liberties. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has concluded, Brown’s views are “far out of the mainstream of accepted legal principles” and she is “not qualified for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.”3

Of these three, Pryor may be the worst.

Pryor is one of the architects of this movement and has been a leading activist in these damaging efforts. He personally has been involved in key Supreme Court cases that, by narrow 5-4 majorities, have hobbled Congress’ ability to protect Americans’ rights against discrimination and injury based on disability, race, and age. Worse, he has urged the Court to go even further than it has in the direction of restricting congressional authority.

Moreover, Pryor has advocated the view that the Constitution should not apply to some of the most critical issues pertaining to individual rights and freedoms — including reproductive choice, gay rights, and school prayer — and that these matters should be decided by the states, based on majority vote, regardless of whether constitutional rights are violated. Pryor’s ideology would effectively create a balkanized America in which individual citizens may have fewer constitutional rights depending on where they live.

To be sure all of these nominees have been caught in the politics of the process but they have been caught for a reason. Bush has nominated and had confirmed the vast majority, around 90%, of all the names he has sent to the Senate. The Democrats must fight some of the appointments on idealogical grounds, not just nominees to the Supreme Court, but also to the circuit courts, and even occasionally those nominees to the district (trial) bench. Most people don't understand the imortance of these nomineess becasue most are lucky enough to not have to need court intervention directly in their lives. Jeebus help them if they ever get the crap beat out of them by a cop, are charged with a crime and are dealing with an over-zealous prosecutor, or fired from a job because they are a person of color.