Cheney. What more can I say about this dude? If you are in here reading me, it is either because you agree with what I say or you are planning on kicking my ass, consider me a dangerous radical (or at least a dog that barks when you come to the door, and at least looks like it might have some bite) who has to be monitored, we are related... or you are just a psych. student using me as an example of the various mental defects that appear in your texts books (you people have to quit writing me; and while I am at it let me add that I do not need ANYONE to send me pamphlets about therapy, let alone you , mom). I write for the audience of folk who are either like minded or open minded enough to consider others opinions in the mix of their cosmologies -- though occasionally I like to make sure the FBI is on their toes and write something bloody enough that I can be sure that in twenty years, when I get around to using the freedom of information act to see what they were thinking when they intruded into my life (not only them, but they are convenient), that I will be in for a few laughs between my bouts of righteous indignation and murderous rage. Yes, but... enough of that. I am here to write about Cheney.
He is in a party that is desperate for leadership. They need an attack dog. Cheney is most comfortable when he is attacking someone else, because that is about the only way he can avoid being attacked himself. This guy is simply off his fucking rocker. America at it's brain-washed, populist worst. He crept into power through the back door because he gave most people the creeps. The kind of egotistical, ideological nut that is so feared will rise on the left, when in fact working 'for the people' instead of the elite -- say the difference between Cesar Chavez and Little Bush -- leads to the humility that a real leader needs.
Cheney is not a leader. He is a bully and a criminal, who will do anything to get his way. Even 9-11. I tried to ignore this. But whenever I look into the bombings of the Twin Towers, it seems like we were manipulated by another false flag operation. Of course I Said it could not happen in my country. That the world is full of people who believe things that are not true. I knew about the Gulf of Tonkin, which was used as an excuse to attack Vietnam, but a False Flag Mission in downtown New York? You can't say they don't know what will work. Do you honestly think these people are beyond doing this? Collateral Damage is how they refer to deaths like these. Like the tens of thousands of civilians killed in the middle east. They barely register on their warrior mentalities. They want the Objective to be reached, and the end justifies the means -- as we see in how they stripped those who fight us of all the rights that this country was built to preserve (not to mention the invasion of privacy of the new Total Awareness technology that literally monitors every word spoken on the phone, every word typed into the net).
Speculating on this is like the Kennedy Murders. I think most people feel that his desire to, as he said, "Spread the CIA to the wind," got him shot. His brother was too close, too... probably figured out who really killed Jack. Who knows? What can I do with such knowledge, other than assure myself that I am awake enough not to buy every lie my government tells me? I don't dwell on this. It was horrible. Two good men with visions of a better future who had enough money, charisma, and power to drive a popular movement that was going to seriously challenge the status quo. Like 9-11, there is nothing I can do about what they did. I do not expect the government to suddenly start going after presidents. Bush and Cheney are probably going to live out their lives just fine... they are saying now that Cheney was much more evil than Bush, and the W regrets going along with some of his schemes. Basically, he was the cheerleader, and Cheney was the quarterback on the field. Who knows if that is true, or just a spin on his legacy.
Cheney's psychotic. He loves the idea of death. Hates his enemies true and deep. Surrounds himself with people who think he is just the shits. So now he thinks that he can come out and dis Obama for something they did much worse on; it took their regime, that stolen presidency, six days to respond to the shoe bomber. Obama came out in 72 hours. His criticism is just stupid, and plays into the hands of our enemies. He needs to get much less press than he has, or more... if it is reaming him.
The Citizens of the United States generally hate the idea of War. The isolationist and the pacifists and the general feeling of living in a land that hasn't seen a war on our soil in over a 100 years or so combine to make us skeptical of war, and especially in the Middle East, where we had already fucked up so bad by creating the Shah, the Taliban, etc... all the armies that came back to bite us in the ass. We bred them mean ass fighting dogs, plugged them into radical religions that gave them the idea to use suicide bombings. We, USA, our CIA, ran the war where these suicide bombers started. You can bet we encouraged this development. Drove out the Soviets, and became the Gold Standard of bombing attacks.
Speaking of terrorists, and that is what this essay is about -- I wrote last week about the Ball Burner, who tried to blow up a plane on Christmas 09... and ended up charring his crotch. I concluded that if they were strapping bombs to their crotches, that the asshole was sure to come next. No sooner did I write this than I began to come across articles talking about how the but was the next logical step. Showing, once again, that when it comes to Anal Related Issues, I do my best to keep my dear readers informed. Assholes are the great misunderstood organ. I mean, no one is ashamed of their hands, but you try to show strangers your asshole and they will more than likely have you arrested. Where is the sense in that? Assholes should be made public and shown with grace and sexiness. I have believed this for years, and have on many occasions encouraged women to show me the little rose bud in their backside, making for some tense subway trips after they freaked out... don't bring this up with strangers. It does not work. Or family. Mostly it is a question best reserved for very flat women, on computer screens, in porno flicks and mags.
Cheney is not afraid to show his face, which is just one big rancid asshole spewing grotesquely shiny, sickeningly stenched, brown and yellow blasts of shit. He popped up this week to come down on Obama for not responding immediately to the terrorist attack. Even though, anyone who is sane would say, "Well, he is in meetings with people about this terrorist attack, hearing all about the files on the guy, and trying to trace back where he came from and bust those people. This is Obama's priority, not coming on Meet The Press for a meaningless smooze job to reassure the citizens and our enemies that we are going to get justice on this one, trace his origins back and destroy the forces that armed this young man and filled the gentle head of a young scholar with hatred and dreams of joining the Martyrs that hang on their walls and are eulogized in speeches, spoken of with reverence and joy, as it is assumed that in conversation, at least, everyone agrees to pretend they are in Heaven.
Last night I kept thinking about how the hatred that the countries where we have troops must be misplaced. I know that war is horrible, and no one wants one in their backyard and things are worse there than they were under Saddam. We did not invent war for the Iraqi's. First Iran and then Kuwait fought Saddam. I am not going to say that I think we should have invaded Iraq, but there is a part of me that thinks that Saddam was our creation to a huge degree. We stood by him until the Kuwait war. Our ambassador to Iraq at the time told Saddam that the USA was basically okay with his plans for an invasion. So, they either tricked him into a war or this woman, whatever her name is (again, if that fact is important to you, use google you anal assholes), had no idea what was happening in the chain of command, and when the president and the intelligence community and our friends in the middle east found out they objected to the move. At the time I think I wrote I THINK WE SHOULD STAY IN IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN UNTIL WE HAVE KICKED 'PRE-SCIENTIFICA-HEADINTHEASSICA'S ASS. I made a cartoon guy standing on a pier saying this, then put it on a flyer for a weekly reading and open mic that I was running at the Big Star Cafe. They were right next door to a resale shop, where a Vietnam Vet Peace Protester ran the place. He was always really cool to me, until he saw that flyer. Really, really hated me afterwards. Like I was a war monger. My thinking at the time was that we need to move beyond religion, become more humanistic and atheistic (oh the irony of this sort of man suddenly waking up from a coma believing Jesus has manifested in his flesh and hijacked his poetry)
A pair of christians, ex-missionaries came to hate me for my jokes about their religion. I was pretty harsh and unrelenting. While I was nice to everyone, no matter what they believed, and basically put what they believed behind how they behaved on my priority list, I thought all religion was a sort of mental disease, that one had to avoid like the flu, pretty much. Brain washed or sloppy thinking folk who just accepted what they were told. I used to envy them their belief, the peace I thought must come with a relationship with God... a real one, not like mine, where most of the time I went with Buddha, who said not to speculate on questions about after lives and gods, to just focus on being better in the day to day. AA encouraged me to have a vague higher power, who I could pray to for strength, and have with me every second of the day, in my head, encouraging me to live right, straight, to leave the drink alone . . . the bibles can all be dissected and found wanting. Let's face it, this was the best writing the ycould do at the time with the knowledge they had. This is why the King James Bible was a compiled bit of ancient writing, the words that fit with the prophet story that the originators of the book wished to teach. These were writers who wrote for their time, not for posterity. All you need to do is find all those silly commandments in the bible that no one talks about that include all the absurd rules about how to treat your mules, slaves, women, etc... really stupid shit that no one follows, let alone preach about.
How can humyns' describe their spiritual life? In the language of his times. What will they write -- laws that make sense in his or her time, but which society has basically moved beyond now, destroying a bit of the credibility of the document along the way. Again, this is why I like the Mormons. Well, that and they predicted the coming of Christ in the States. And when I was in the first hospital, suffering from amnesia, I asked for a bible, and they brought me a catholic one with a green cover, and something in me was reppelled, and I asked for the Mormon Bible. When I read it, I seemed to feel the spirit of Nephi. The words made a sense that I never expected from a bible, but that did not mean that I really knew much about their religion, let alone would I follow it for any reason that I can think of. But I am not going to dismiss everything about the religion, because there are prophets all over the place, and surely some of them are mormons... problem is, as they learned in the 1800's when they slaughtered a wagon train of people trying to get to California, because their elders had a vision that they wanted to kill their leader. Truth is, there are ten false prophets for every true one, at least. My vague fondness for Mormonism is basically based on really not knowing shit about their religion. I have studied their beginnings in Anthropology, but not their creeds and beliefs. I was surprised the other day to hear that they think they become Gods after death, and get their own universe. Nice dream for a religion where all the men are called Saints and are considered Missionaries and possible conduits for the word of God; they take a lot of their clues from leaders having 'spiritual contact with a higher power and being commanded.' Not surprisingly, these leaders once banned blacks from entering their religion, considering them evil, and marked by God for some sin... they then reacted to the Civil Rights movement ,and the basic destruction of the idea, among most, that a person's race is a way to judge an individual, by welcoming blacks. The missionaries have now made such huge inroads in the black population that they have contributed to unprecedented growth in the their religion. I mean, it sounds good, right? Everyone healthy, smoke and drug free, living in harmony with one another. So why do they take more anti-depressents in Salt Lake City than anywhere else in the states? There are cracks in every theology. That is where the new ones grow, like weeds popping out of a chip in a sidewalk. In essence, the religion is allowed to react to radical shifts in the mental paradigm of the world around them by having a 'vision' that makes their religion reactive to modern realities, thus preserving it in a way. Catholics have the same out with the Pope. New radical preachers come out of all religions when society feels that religion is behind the times, and they will declare a new vision, that people can obviously see is better than the old, making them seemingly trust worthy. From Self-Help groups to the Trooper of The Decade, Oprah Winfrey...
Say what you want about the queen of talk shows, she uses her shows in ways that improve society, and the lives of a lot of individuals. I did not watch the show much, just when a guest really interested me, but when I drove cab they were one of our accounts, Harpo studio, and everyday women downtown in hotels were taking cabs to to the shows, so I was there a lot, and just being in Chicago meant I was going to read about her a lot in the newspapers. I could have gotten free tickets, but after going and seeing Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones splattering lust and violence and sickeningly private seeming secrets all over my eyes, I was gun shy.
I started watching her more during my campaigns early convulsions, after finding out Oprah was one of the early readers of my blog. I was very proud to find that out. Honored. She has to be fairly open minded I guess to do the show she does.
Cheney and Oprah. Look at the difference in how they use the media. Oprah is using a talk show to build a better world, get people reading good shit, showing a wide range of spiritual avenues people can follow. Sure, you may be like me and think a lot of it is all bullshitty in a way -- especially if you are a man, since the show caters to women -- all of the new age stuff that tries to make people into warrior--salesmen, but we are not the ones who need it right now. There is no denying that a lot of times her topics are simply edifying. She tries to be. That is rare. Cheney on the other hand, uses the media to tear at President Obams's popularity polls, to destroy our confidence in the president, how he is fighting the war, and stopping terrorist attacks. The creator and the destroyer. The good woman offers healing, while the old troll lives to strike wounds. He creeps up to microphones and says shit like yesterday, Where CHENEY SNEERED AT OBAMA BECAUSE HE MIGHT OFFER HUMAN RIGHTS TO TERROR SUSPECTS, Cheney basically said that there are no human rights. Scary stuff. He is untouchable now... basically given amnesty for his sins. Sad.
I think I speak for most of the world when I say that I would trust Oprah to run this country a hell of a lot more than Cheney. In fact, I would love to see Oprah take over the Mayorship of Chicago. That would be so cool.
First our enemy loses the basic rights of prisoners in most wars by being declared enemy combatants, and now Cheney thinks they all should still be tortured. Even though all the studies show and most experts agree that there are much better ways to get the information. Cheney implied that if we were still torturing people, this guy might not have gotten on the plane. Of course, I do not believe for a second really that all torture has stopped in our so called War On Terror, because they have all those secret prisons, and there is a reason they do not want the public eye to see in those little chambers of horror (one guy had six people hanging from chains in his back room, who he was interrogating as a contract laborer for the CIA). . . still, I am glad it is not systematic anymore.
Is it any wonder they hate us? We are losing the ability to wear that white hat, day after day. Black water, now called, interestingly enough Xe (I made a big deal about X during my campaign, to the point a lot of people got this tattooed on their bodies, a film the spies showed me when they decided, at my urging, that they should let me know what was happening with the people inspired by my writing, because I wanted to help calm people down and give them a peaceful direction.
My war views ended up being enough like Bushes that I confused readers as to what my politics, including Bush, who thought I backed him. I wanted to see the women free to go to school, dress how they wanted, not be stoned to death for getting raped, and crazy shit like that. I also thought we owed these two countries our help, because we have been involved in making them fight for decades. We sold a shit load of arms to him during their Iran War, which was a brutal, bloody war that showed us children being sent out into mine fields to clear a path for the older soldiers by dying as martyrs. They would send packs of them out to fucking blow up because they did not have the sophisticated bomb detection equipment. Anyways, considering how my politics usually are, backing a a revolt among the people for better human rights or going into a lawless region, like the Congo, does not seem crazy to me, but almost a God given directive. Total Fucking War For Total Peace. We could stop anarchy in a country like that. Free slaves, save people from starving, free child soldiers. But, no, we are little too selfish for that. And why should we be the world's cops? Well, someone has to face the idea that we live on a very small planet, that the airplanes make smaller every day.
I am not against the one world government, but I do not think most countries want to give up what little bit of sovereignty that they have to join, and I understand their fears of a dictator enough to think they may be right. I do not want to live by some world vote that makes Sharia the Law here in the states. Can you imagine a law that says 12 year old boys too must be covered all the time because they are so sexually attractive? There is a realization there that the lusts of some could despoil their child. This is where this came from. Most societies however have simply created mindsets where children are not sexualized. I could not finish Lolita because he sexualized young women so effectively that it made me uncomfortable; that book was banned in various countries because of this effect.
I make the usual imperialistic assumption that we are the world's savior... that we can spread human rights, environmentalism, etc. Sometimes we do just the opposite, though, if it is going to keep something we consider vital to our countries well-being, like Oil, flowing from a country, our intelligence agencies and Exxon have eagerly worked with dictators and murderers, to the extent that Exxon hired a private army to kill the environmentalists protesting the open pits of oil waste that Exxon was basically destroying land with - something long banned here in the states, that they do in a lawless country where they can get away with it... the same cut throat mentality that buys clothes or shoes or whatever from factories that employ children, or keep the women in camps away from their family working as barely paid slave labor. I know these things exist, but I see something beyond them.
Our stated reasons for being in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan is chasing terrorists. I wanted something more, nations left cleaned up and made into Democracies, or Socialists, or what the people want, instead of the tribes with the most soldiers. The problem with this is that Democracies without stringent laws become corrupt almost immediately. Too many people with competing needs, instead of one apparatus with the goal of making a better government. We throw money at these countries and billions are lost to simple fucking employee theft. Without cops there to bust them, they get away with it. It is just the way things are with their peers, as well. It is war, so if they can profit enough to get the hell out, or live in an wealthy suburb with closed gates and armed guards, they feel compelled to take care of their own. Who can blame them?
We cannot even get supplies to the troops without hiring contractors who pay the Taliban to use the roads. That is some fucked up shit. A country that we are not in control of. How do we change all that? Send in more troops and take over the roads. Either the present governments or the Taliban is going to offer the justice they obviously crave. Like before, when Afghanistan chose the Taliban over the patchwork of warlords presiding over the heroin trade and extorting at check points.
We are fighting an enemy that wants us to leave, among a population where a good many want us gone too, in a region that outright considers us to be Christian Crusaders defiling fellow Muslims, Occupiers. Can we get control of Iraq and Afghanistan enough that we can hand over the reigns to a democratically elected leader, and a police and military structure that can defeat what is left of the Taliban? Will the 30k troops be enough? A lot of people do not think so. Everyone worries about the soldiers, seeing them deployed again and again and coming home bearing the subsequent scars. The sacrifices we offer the gods of justice . . . the blood we pay to keep our ideals alive, and almost as importantly, to stop terrorist attacks here, and retribution against those who have helped us there, when we do leave. Are the people who work with us, the interpreters and young soldiers, going to be left at the mercy of an enemy that would like to behead them? We left the Kurds in Iraq before, and the Taliban, after we infused religious fervor in them so they would fight the Russians and won their war, we did not come in and help them rebuild. Over there in the war zone, the population knows all of this well, and it effects how much they hate us.
Some know that most of our intentions are good here in the states, but if someone blows up buildings in downtown New York, we are going after your ass. Whether 9-11 was a false flag or not, it was effective at galvanizing the USA's hatred for repressive regimes that create what are basically government cults. North Korea is flooded by the cult of personality around Kim Little Dong or whatever his name is. Mao. Reagen. Symbols that want us to forget all of their sins and pretend we are a race of heroes. The Taliban, and I would say any government that mixes too much Church in The State, inevitably goes the fascist route. No one, priest or whore or prophet, deserves to make everyone.s decisions in life for them -- there is no accounting for taste, and that is the spice of life that I would sure as hell miss if I had to live under such a government.
So... in conclusion, all praise to Obama, who realizes that whatever was the reality ten years ago, we are now fighting a war to leave the country better off than when we landed. He also has limited the time our blood will be expended trying to save someone else. He is saying, though, we are going to stop the military operation, then help them set back up their infrastructure, provide experts and advisors, etc... UNLIKE CHENEY, OBAMA HATES WAR.
In him we do not see the arrogant cowboy or the swaggering cop, we see a man who has been forced by fate and his brethren to take over a horrible conflict, that if he does not fight right, will leave his domestic policies aborted in four years. No one except the soldiers on the front have more to lose than Obama in these wars. The sadness of a man who is facing the realities of this brutal world was in his voice as he told the stoic soldiers at West Point that he was sending them back into the horror of the wars.
Cheney is setting up his defense, for posterity and possibly the courts, and certainly public opinion, by saying that they were right to torture, use extraordinary rendition, and yes, even the death squad that Cheney was running, which was reported by the press for awhile, though they later changed the story to say that the squad never became operational, even though I had read that it was stopped because a Major in the Army was concerned about all the civilian casualties.
Funny, I read conspiracy sites which are sadly enough either right or left wing nuts, and some just see Obama as the new face of the elite, or the Bilderbergs (that Obama and H. Clinton both went to their secret meeting of the financial elite is not discussed in the press, of course-- more fodder for those who make up the world from scrapes of disturbing facts like this), or... what is it the Nazi's think they are fighting, some international Jewish Conspiracy? And Obama is supposed to now work for them. Others say the Military Industrial Complex is winning the war. That people who profit from war promote it, lobby for conflicts, etc. What the hell is the big picture?
I am as afraid to say I know what is going on with politics as I am with Religion. I have my ideas about how both should manifest, but I am not locked into the idea that I right. I want to learn as much as I can, be a student of what is happening in the world, instead of someone who uses the news merely to prop up an idealized version of my philosophy. These wars keep testing me. I want to see all the different perspectives. I started out wanting everyone to just forgive each other and go home. Try to be people who have to find a way to put these conflicts in our past. I appealed to Obama, long before he ran, by putting posters in my windows on Lake Shore Drive reading Obama Forgive Osama. Send All The Warriors Home. I really had these powerful spiritual feelings when I did this, and it came after being so out of politics that I did not even realize I was supporting a Republican when I backed a neighbor who found Ruby one night when she ran off. I had searched frantically for her for hours, bemoaning her fate almost as much as my own.... the Obama posters after the seizures and amnesia and waking up feeling like Scott Ridgway was gone, and I was about to discover what I really am.
I felt this mad power around me, and everywhere I was seeing signs of God, and others belief in me, as a leader and to some, a God. I fought this. I was more about showing people that Christ was human, because it seemed to me that by taking on demonized persona's , I was showing them that they need to forgive themselves and others for stupid, god given shit like sexuality. I cannot explain this very well, and it boring to people who know the story and follow this blog. Suffice to say, the spirits that be seemed to tell me that Bush would not end the war, the senate and congress could not--- they tried damn hard, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.... I have a great respect for their impassioned fights for peace. They laid a foundation for Obama to be elected, because with his no vote on the Iraqi invasion, he had set himself apart from every other fucking politician in the Senate. A peacemaker. Exactly what this world needs after Bush. I mean, he was about to put a bunch of Nukes around the Soviet Union and start a new arms race, while Obama says let's stop this shit right now and reduce our bombs. Say what you will about him, he is getting a lot of shit done. He has said that we pull out such and such a day. He has also said that he is taking the fight to al queda, giving them no peace anywhere on the planet.
Cheney wants Obama to be like him, a vampiric figure lurking the history books of other nations under the title of murderous thug. I think he is something altogether different. I project myself onto him. I could send soldiers to their death if there was no other choice than leaving a couple countries in the hands of armies that are intent on bombing our country, and another that could be taken over and give the terrorists nuclear bombs. They would use them. Retaliatory attacks just send them to Heaven after all.
These wars are important. We have to fight fire with fire, and if there wasn't one before Bush invaded, there sure as hell is now. Obama has to decide what kind of shape he is going to leave these countries in when he pulls out the security of the troops. Has to think about the civilians who worked with us, and what the future will bring as a result of what is happening. I understand. For awhile, I just hoped they would win the war and come home, period. I felt the soldiers needed to be brutal, too, because war is a law unto itself, no matter how many low level grunts we punish for manifesting the culture of the actual culprits in positions of power. Like Henry Rollins said about his tours for the troops, something to the effect of You do not want to destroy their ability to motivate themselves.
What is my conclusion? Cheney should shut the fuck up. We as a country have turned our back on you. We have seen you as you are and we are sickened... you are a criminal. Period. If justice ever comes to this countries shores for real, for real... you will end up in Jail. We know you lied us into a war that has inflamed the middle east, threw gasoline right on that fire. Your tactics of torture insured that it would be easy to recruit people to fight you. And we know about your death Squads and we are not going to shut up.
