YOUR TIME IS UP

What's wrong with me? I'm sick of these idiots. I should just chill and enjoy being an apathetic, slacker hipster -- make art, listen to music, watch suitably ironic shows on my flat screen, stop and smell the artificial roses. In the greater scheme of things, after all, we're just a speck in the cosmos.

What does it matter if these monkeys in suits drop bombs, trash the woods, shred the constitution, destroy the planet? Look at them. They drive me insane with their arrogance and greed, their stupidity, their sense of superiority, their imaginary inside track with God. I guess enlightenment will have to wait. I can't seem to transcend the bullshit.

I've always rooted for the underdog. It started on the playground, back in first grade. I can't help it (lowly evolved creature that I am) when some little David gives a hulking Goliath a good crack in the mouth. I'm a monkey, too, I guess. I may never get that placid, glazed third eye look of those smug seventh level vegans smoking cigarettes out on the Ave. The know-it-alls, world weary at twenty two. Maybe someday a good mortician will fix me up with a smile like that. In the meantime, all the joy and rage will be real -- including my rage against this ugly war machine. To help get through it, here are some soulful troubadours on the dark edge of the empire.

A Veterans' Day Jukebox:
First, a cry of love from a psychedelic ex-paratrooper from Seattle named Hendrix called "Machine Gun."


Next up, old man Dylan plays a song about a soldier named "John Brown."


Finally, the Roots perform "Masters of War," setting the lyrics to a familar tune. Check it out:

BUSH SAYS TORTURE NOT TORTURE

President George Bush explains that torture is not torture. We don't like that word. Besides, we don't torture people. But if we did, we'd have a good reason to. But we don't. But if we did, we wouldn't have to tell you about it, either. But we don't. Period. Okay?



For more, see NYTimes story below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/us/nationalspecial3/06interrogate.html?ref=us

WAR NOT GOING SO WELL

"A majority of Americans say the United States made a mistake getting involved in the war in Iraq, and the increased numbers of troops in recent months has either made things worse or had no impact at all, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll."
-NY Times, Sept., 9, 2007

Let's face it. The war is a disaster. The only people benefiting are politicians and private contractors. But you know that.

It's an old story. War profiteers cashing in on death didn't start with Haliburton. Read a history book, America. Do your homework.

This Iraq War was a con job from the start, since the initial "lying" period of WMDs, yellow-cake uranium, and the Afghanistan bait-and-switch. The "plan" isn't working. The "surge" hasn't helped. Troops have been stuck over there three, four, five tours, unable to come home. Even the president isn't smirking so much anymore, and he sure hasn't put on that photo-op flight suit again. No "Mission Accomplished" banners this time. The rats are leaving the sinking ship, or being thrown off. Goodbye Rumsfeld, Rove, "Scooter," Alberto. It took the people long enough, but they aren't buying it anymore. History has shown that eventually people catch on to a con job...at least until the next war.

War Minus Zero (No Limit)