Walking on Thin Ice

MONSTERS HAVE APPETITES LIKE BLACK HOLES (a lullaby)

Exxon Spawn by Lady K (foto by Smith)

Exxon Spawn by Lady K (foto by Smith)

Why I no longer like Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s status as a liberal icon has always been based on leaps of logic, as opposed to her record.

As the first lady, she actively supported Bill Clinton’s anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-human rights trade policies, from the North American Free Trade Agreement to permanent most favored nation trading status for China.

from ” Hillary Clinton Hardly a Liberal Icon” by John Nichols

One of the reasons I don’t like Hillary Clinton is that she’s married to Bill Clinton, who is a war criminal and economic disaster maker. I figure she’s kinda like an Imelda Marcos or the wife of Hitler.

During Clinton’s presidency, I blindly followed him. I voted for him and I was in anguish over his impeachment, which was done for an entirely wrong reason. But I’ve done some reading since then and I cannot in good conscience say he is a good man or even a decent man or even a man I’d want over for dinner.

With his inhuman sanctions, Bill Clinton is responsible for almost a million dead Iraqis, half a million of them children. (Yeah, sure, the Iraqi population could “rise up” and overthrow Hussein. Right. Just like we’re rising up and overthrowing our illegitimate president, right?)

An excerpt from Z Magazine, “Clinton Is The World’s Leading
Active War Criminal” by Edward S. Herman:

The most monumental of Clinton’s war crimes, however, has been his policy of sanctions on Iraq, supplemented by the maintenance of intense satellite surveillance and regular bombing attacks that have often resulted in civilian casualties. UNICEF reports that in 1999 more than 1 million Iraqi children under 5 were suffering from chronic malnutrition, and some 4,000-5,000 children are dying per month beyond normal death rates from the combination of malnutrition and disease. Death from disease was greatly increased by the shortage of potable water and medicines, that has led to a 20-fold increase in malaria (among other ailments). This vicious sanctions system, causing a creeping extermination of a people, has already caused more than a million excess deaths, and it is claimed by John and Karl Mueller that Clinton’s “sanctions of mass destruction” have caused “the deaths of more people in Iraq than have been slain by all so-called weapons of mass destruction [nuclear and chemical] throughout all history” (Foreign Affairs, May/June 1999). U.S. mainstream reporters, who have so eagerly followed the distress of the Kosovo Albanians, somehow never get to Iraq for pictures of the thousands of malnourished children.

Bill Clinton is partly responsible for the devaluation of the peso and subsequent raiding and impoverishment of Mexico with NAFTA, the IMF and the World Bank. (By the way, read _Letters From Mexico_ by Stan Gotlieb. What happened in Mexico in the 90s sounds a lot like what’s happening right now in the US with currency devaluation and foreclosures.)

It’s just like one of the scripts we follow in the other countries we’ve impoverished. Read _Shock Doctrine_ by Naomi Klein. It’s essential. Bill Clinton was following the script.

From Gotlieb’s book:

In December 1994, as you may recall, the Zedillo government, at the urging of the IMF, the World Bank [which the US controls] and others, allowed the Peso to “float” against the Dollar. In the debacle that followed, the Peso sank like a stone. By March 1995, the Peso settled at just about half its previous value.

When Mexico’s money was devalued by half, Mexico became half as rich. Because its debts to foreign banks and countries are in Dollars, it became twice as much in debt. Practically overnight, Mexico lost over half of its billionaires when Peso holdings are measured in Dollar terms.

Mexican banks, desperate to rebuild their hard currency reserves, raised the interest rates on credit cards, mortgages, and business loans. At one point in the spring of 1995, it had gotten so bad that one bank took out big ads in the national newspapers to advertise a “new low rate for credit cards” of “only” 67% per year (some cards were costing 97%).

So this was because of the IMF and pals, who are led by the US, who were under Clinton during this time.

And not only this, there is NAFTA. NAFTA was pushed through by Clinton. And the Mexicans are really angry at us for this.

Entire towns in the Mexican countryside are missing their young men because of NAFTA. Millions of Mexicans used to make a living as farmers, but they can’t compete with the US’s subsidized crops. The men can no longer make a living doing farming here, so they have to migrate north to find work.

From the 2006 Idaho Observer:

Mexico is a country of about 105 million. Estimates of undocumented Mexican nationals currently in the U.S. range from 11 million to 30 million. The figure is scandalous for two reasons: 1. Our best guesses of the undocumented (illegal) population in the U.S., during “wartime,” are equal to a hole big enough for 19 million people and; 2. The conditions in Mexico are such that 10 percent to 30 percent of her total population has already left.

My Spanish teacher told me about what it’s like to live up north as an illegal immigrant. You are paid very little money, not enough to live on, so you have to live in an apartment with 24 other people, essentially in a flop house.

The latest phase of NAFTA passed a couple days ago. It eliminates the tariffs on beans and corn from the US. This will hurt many more Mexican farmers and increase immigration to the US.

Subsidized crops are not free trade. This is pure evil.

1995 article on impact of devaluation of peso on immigration and Clinton upping border control

I don’t like Hillary Clinton specifically because of three things:

She voted for the Iraq war and in 2004 said she has no regrets about it.

She uses incendiary rhetoric like “no option can be off the table” and plays games that might lead us into war with Iran.

By the way, read this article about how Iran’s president’s supposed remark, “Israel Must Be Wiped Off The Map” was MISTRANSLATED. He didn’t actually say that. He was actually calling for regime change in Israel, which I’m all for. Heck, I’m for regime change here.

Third, Clinton’s health care plan is not a good solution to the health care crisis. She would make it mandatory that everyone have it. If you aren’t covered by your employer, you have to buy it. And she would do nothing to make it single payer; private insurers would actually get a big payoff from this because now everyone would HAVE to buy their product. The only plus I see to Clinton’s plan is that supposedly insurers could no longer refuse to cover people and that it is supposed to be made “affordable”, whatever that means. I suspect Clinton’s opinion of “affordability” is vastly different from mine.

I don’t buy the defense that her plan is “practical”, not when I’ve experienced the wonderful cheap and decent health care in Croatia, not when Mexican national health care costs only $500 a year per family and US citizens flood in to buy Mexico’s pharmaceuticals and dental care, not when all other European nations have single payer. We can do better than Clinton’s proposed plan. We could at least meet Mexico’s level of benefits, no?

We have the RIGHT to single payer. We have the RIGHT to have a government which actually represents its citizens. We’ve gotta stop letting these politicians and corporations from feeling they are “endowing” us with whatever dribbles we get. We’ve gotta stop giving welfare to corporations. We’ve gotta stop skimming taxes from citizens to pay this corporate welfare. And we’ve gotta start being good world citizens lest we experience more blowback.

“Clinton, Health Care Industry Get Cozy” by Dave Zweifel, Madison Capital Times

“Clinton is advocating the Marie Antoinette approach to health care: ‘Let them buy their own coverage.’ She is attempting to force middle class families to buy coverage without making it affordable. Clinton wants to keep the private insurance industry in the middle of the system.”

Ruby

Thinking about a woman we met the other day, “Ruby.”

She’s Smith’s age.

I asked her, “Was the strike in Oaxaca a life-changing event for you?”

“No, because I’m an activist. I’ve done this all my life. I’ve lived in Central America, in Nicaraqua, in El Salvador. On the other hand, it was life-changing in that the sheer scope, the size of the movement was impressive. It offers hope.”

“Why do you think the movement had such support from the community?”

“Well, everyone knows a teacher. These are people who can’t be stereotyped as revolutionaries. So there was all this resentment already in the community, and then then URO broke up the encampment in the zocalo after three weeks, the rest of Oaxaca really came in to support the teachers.”

“Are many people still disappeared?”

“Yes, to this day. I expect we’ll have trouble tomorrow [New Year’s Day] because it’s the first day office holders take their office. Many of the office holders are there as a result of election fraud. URO says Oaxaca is peaceful but it’s not. It’s bubbling beneath the surface and this is not really visible to casual visitors.”

“We hope to be more than visitors,” Smith says. We tell her about his upcoming social security, about our hope of staying here longer than six months.

“Well, how much will you make?” Ruby asks Smith.

He tells her.

“That should be enough.”

I say, “but that’s just him. I don’t make any money, nothing significant. I think they’ll require more income for two people. I’m his dependent.”

“Hm. I don’t know. Are you married?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“You could try. I really don’t know.”

I say, “All *I* know is I don’t want to live in the US for a long time.”

I want to ask her if she thinks Smith and I are foolish for wanting to stay here. Oaxaca seems closer to heaven and closer to hell.

Ruby learned Spanish in a language school in Nicaragua. She’s also done a home stay for a month. Regarding her language and cultural prowess, I feel I did a rude thing. Ruby translated the daily menu for us, spending a couple minutes explaining the dishes. But I really wasn’t hungry, so I ordered a fruit salad off the main menu. And I was hoping Smith would order something that Ruby translated, but I didn’t want to control him, either. So he also ordered something else.

I hate appearing insensitive but I really didn’t want all that food.

Ruby sets up community radio. That is the form her activism takes. During the strike, radio was the best means of informing people. The strikers took over the college station, had to defend it from the police.

She also helps a native coffee grower, a woman. She comes into town two days a week and sleeps on Ruby’s sofa.

I have lots to learn from her.

When we left the restaurant, Ruby invited me to come walk with her up some stairs. She does it every day with a fellow who wrote the appendix of a book about the Oaxacan movement.

“That’d be great, but another day. I walked at least five miles already today.” I took her hand and shook it, wrapped my other hand on top. “It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“I would like to see you again. I live down this street…”

“Definitely. I have your email address.” (Worry that I appear too brusque.)

I do want to see her again. I have lots of questions for her. I feel friendly towards her. I hated to reject her offer of climbing stairs, but I didn’t want to overstretch Smith and we had to get the the bank.

I am proud of myself. I looked into Ruby’s eyes without flinching, I wasn’t overly giggly, and my nervous chin wobble seems to have evolved away. I used to be unsure of myself in the face of really accomplished people. Especially after I was laid off; my engineering career was the only pillar holding up my self esteem. But since then I’ve accomplished some decent art and photography and I’ve traveled places many people are afraid to visit.

Eyes: I’ve learned to focus on one eye–the person’s left eye–rather than flit from eye to eye, because that gives me and the other person too much information. With just one eye, I’m comfortable. I observe it like it’s a dumb little animal. What is it about two eyes in combination that creates something larger than the sum of the parts? And is it only the person’s left eye that is comfortable to me? My right eye is my dominant eye; maybe right eyes really are more lively, more intelligent, and that is why left eyes seem dull.

I want to believe in an absolute reality

friend’s studio, photo by Lady

I haven’t read much about post structuralist thought but I was talking to someone who had. He said that everything is subjective - historical narratives, ideas of good and evil… something to think about.

My mind tends to reject complete subjectivity. I want to believe in an absolute reality. Yet the more I see, the more I realize how incomplete our understanding of basic human reality is. The academics, scientists and engineers all have their own very special blinders… I have an electrical engineering degree. I used to think I was hot stuff intellectually but now I realize how very blind I was. The “best” educated brains among us are those who are most brainwashed when it comes to humanitarian and historical issues. They are the ones who buy in, wholesale, to the narrative of globalization.

Our specialization is going to kill us.

I do believe in “underground” education - independent media, anti-academic works of thought. I believe in Bukowski.

State education is necessary but it’s been co-opted by authoritarians and “pragmatists.” It raises us to accept invisible chains.

WHEN YOU’RE HEADING FOR THE BORDER, YOU GOTTA CROSS THE LINE

friend’s studio - photo by lady

“Why do I feel guilty?”

You’re a good rat. Don’t worry. We’ve ordered a guilt-free brain for you.

“Hm.”

It hasn’t arrived. They’re like free range chickens. Free range brains.

“Hm. I like the idea of a guilt free brain. But people can rationalize anything, can’t they.”

One can if one is good. That’s one of my potential jobs, professions I could have. I can spin anything, no matter how ludicrous. But there’s a difference between spinning for humor and spinning for morality.

“Don’t you mean humor and exploiting something?”

I can only spin guilt-free in morality-free situations. I can’t spin right and wrong. But I can make fun of it. Especially wrong. If we all made fun of wrong, it’d go away.

“You really think so?”

Yes.

“Ah. So this is a defense for the rhetoric of ridicule…”

Not ridicule. More laughing in the *face* of. Evil don’t like to be laughed at. That’s why Dick Cheney has no sense of humor. Wait, you don’t need to write that down. We don’t need Dick Cheney.

“I like that. It’s relevant.”

I’m trying so hard not to be nasty.

“No, it’s OK to make fun of Dick Cheney. Really. He probably won’t find us and kill us…”

He did shoot his friend in the face.

“No really, I’m not afraid of Dick Cheney. Are you?”

I fear anything that moves…

“That moves?”

And even some that haven’t moved yet, like falling rocks.

“Ahhhh. I understand completely. If you’re heading for the border, you gotta cross the line. If you’re building ‘detention’ camps…”

Make the future ‘detainees’ pay for it.

“Wow. Yeah. I didn’t even think about that. You afraid to post this?”

Nope. Not. Besides, he’s a lousy shot.

(brought to you by Thin Ice Productions)

IMPORTANT: contact congress today - urge judiciary committee to go forward with Impeachment

This is from myspace blogger Jennifer Hates Hubris:

First Step of Redemption
Congress has taken the firsst step, they may just be on their way to redeem themselves. Moments ago the House of Representatives passed the vote on Kucinich’s bill to impeach the Dick…Cheney. It’s official, the process will go to the Judiciary Committee.

What does this mean on a global scale? Plenty! For Congress to recognize that they suspect war criminal activities have been going on within the executive branch, is HUGE. Watch as the whole world stops breathing for a moment, and takes pause to see how this will effect our international policies - it WILL happen. If this actually comes to fruition, it could also mean a little redeption for all of us in the world’s eyes.

I’m so choked up right now, I can’t write anymore. I’m a VERY proud American today, and so should all of you that took the time to call your representatives to support this measure. Good work Patriots!

peace, love…and IMPEACHMENT!!!
mmmmm….YUMMY!!!

UPDATE:
So like Cynic said, we’ve got 48 hours worth of time to hit DC hard if we want this vote today to actually amount to something! Our leadership is subverting our will, and they need to know PLENTY about how that makes us feel.

Here are a BUNCH of contact resources:

Toll Free:
1-800-828-0498
1-800-862-5530
1-800-833-6354
These are probably bogged down, and will be more difficult to get through on so…below are the regular lines. I’m also posting FAX numbers for a very good reason - use them ALL!!! Pass this on in a hurry too. 48 hours, 48 hours, 48 hours….and then, I’m hoping to see some serious shit-eating grins by the end of this week!

DC Switchboard (202) 224-3121
Just ask for whomever it is you want to talk to.

I believe this are Pelosi in DC direct (as well as C-SPAN’s below):
(202) 225-0100
Her fax: (202) 225-4188
Her email address:
AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

C-SPAN lists these numbers for her in DC:
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Fax: (202) 225-8259

Her office in San Francisco:
(415) 556-4862
Fax: (415) 861-1670

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., immediately moved to table it after Kucinich introduced it. So I think he needs a little hammering too, so give him a ring-a-ding-DING:
(202) 225-3130 or (202) 225-4131
Fax - (202) 225-4300
His email:
http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/email.asp
District office contact info:
Voice: 301-843-1577
FAX: 301-843-1331

Behind Blue Eyes posted this petition today for you to sign too:
http://www.pelosiwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=195
Thanks Lady!

I suggest telling whomever answers that we can’t afford to shelve the motion because of Dick’s increasing aggressive posturing towards Iran. If you really want a comprehensive understanding of the bill, you can have at it here:
http://kucinich.house.gov/SpotlightIssues/documents.htm

I also highly recommend we call the reps that voted not to table it today and thank them for representing us well. That may be the very encouragement they need to keep it up, and they may be the ones that prevent it from being shelved. However, it wasn’t the Dems that did it…

Here is the roll call that passed NOT to table:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1037.xml
It was the Republicans that ended up passing this vote…we gotta LOT of calls to make, emails and faxes to send people.

Find your rep here:
http://capwiz.com/c-span/directory/congdir.tt
or here:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

TOMORROW:
Conyers, Chairman of the Judicial Committee will de making a decision on whther or not to move forward on the investigation. Contact him ASAP to let him know he MUST:
http://www.judiciary.house.gov/Contact.aspx
phone: 202-225-3951

48 HOURS TO GET IT DONE!!!
PASS IT ON NOW

Xtians “LIKE US”

Krakow, Poland (photo by Smith)

Having grown up in a relatively free albeit sheltered society, my impulse was to think that fascism could never happen here.

But fascism is more common than not, and the US sponsors it in all these other countries. Why is it so hard to believe they’d dare to do it to our own country as well?

It’s sobering to witness the systematic dismantling of our rights. Goodbye, habeas corpus! Goodbye, freedom of speech!

The latest scary thing I read was that in February 2008 the gov will require US citizens to “apply” before they are allowed any foreign travel. I don’t know if this is a rumor, or true, but it is from this article by Naomi Wolf: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/05/5018/

It’s also disconcerting hearing some of the remarks of people in public. A vendor at the West Side Market (a huge traditional food marketplace) appealed to our “patriotic” fears in trying to get us to shop his stall. He said the other row was owned by foreigners. I understand protectionist sentiment, but it feels icky in this context. And another vendor asked us how our travels went, then asked if we had trouble getting through passport control. She then said, “I wish they’d only allow Christians LIKE US into this country.” Wow. Why would she assume that Smith and I are Xtians?

CIVILIZATION vs STRATEGIC THINKING SYNDROME

Tremont, Cleveland (Photo by Lady)

When anthropologists uncovered more about Neanderthals, they were amazed to find burial rituals. Civilization. In civilizations, people have concern for others.

In the most civil civilizations, all people have an opportunity to survive and thrive. Civilization provides a means for individuals to become socially and financially mobile and it protects and honors its citizens.

I believe in social security, free education, free health care, full representation, small business rights, anti-trust laws, lawyers, free speech, freedom of religion, and the constitution.

I am far far left of the mainstream. But twenty years ago I’d probably be considered dead center. I believe in a mixed economy and social freedom. I believe in a government that serves and represents its citizens. Democracy.

In this era, most do not keep abreast of news and nuance, and intelligent discussion is not valued. I wish we didn’t keep falling for these people who claim to be for our interests while stabbing us in the back in smoky back rooms.

I think a lot of the liberal left falls victim to “strategic thinking” syndrome. They want all or nothing support for their party without any critique.

The problem with strategic thinking syndrome is that it doesn’t really advance one’s causes. If politicians can’t be held accountable, then we are not being represented, and we’ve not really achieved anything.

Strategic thinking syndrome is a dead end. It allows Democrats to fall to the easiest political path while taking psychic advantage of the left. The left is always told that Democrats are for its interests, but to just wait, that it’ll improve step by step. Well, at this rate, it’ll take a thousand years to have citizens’ interests represented. The Democrats say they have to deal with “real world” politics, meanwhile they conspire with oligarchic corporations, making the “real world” even worse.

real demons

Prospect, Cleveland (photo by Lady)

REAL DEMONS

I would like to know why it is necessary for the see-i-a to:

- put hoods on people when they take them away
- diaper people and shackle them to the floors of planes
- keep people in solitary confinement long enough to make them crazy
- h2o-board prisoners

#3 & 4 seem like definite torture to me. #1 & 2 could be rationalized as not causing permanent damage (tho I wouldn’t be one to rationalize this).

People have died during “interrogation.” Methinks that would only happen if the interrogation crossed the line into torture.

Does power know that it is evil? What do the soldiers or agents think when they hood and shackle and diaper a person? Do they feel remorse? Do they sleep at night?

Many of these detainees are simply people who had enemies from their home countries and are pointed out because of personal vendettas. I’ve read reports that people are captured in Pakistan and put in containers and sent to secret camps for reward money from the US. Some of these prisoners die en route.

If you believe you are fighting evil and that you are good, why would you torture? Isn’t torture indicative of your own evil? How is this rationalized as a good thing? (The ‘ticking bomb’ scenario is a disingenuous explanation.)

I really want to know the inside of these guys’ minds. Do their acts of exploitation bother them? Does this even hit the radar of their consciousnesses, or are they conscious?

I don’t like to demonize, but it’s difficult for me to see the power class and its enablers (both the GOP and the DLC) as something other than demons.

Ontario and Prospect, Cleveland (photo by Lady)

BLIND AFFILIATION

We protested Tuesday outside the Union Club in Cleveland, a venue hosting a $500 breakfast fund raiser for Guiliani. His speech was canceled so we took our “SUPPORT THE TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME NOW” signs to a traffic-laden corner.

Some demonstrators ridiculed the people in suits who entered the Union Club. I don’t think wearing a suit is an offense. I joke about “suits”, but I’m not hostile to someone wearing one, and I’ve worn my share. I feel sad for someone in a suit. It seems like a prison uniform.

One demonstrator tried to get passersby to sign a petition to put the Libertarian candidate on the ballot. He approached one man who didn’t even wait to hear what the inquiry was about. He dismissed the lot of us saying, “I’m a Republican.”

I don’t see Republicanism and peace as opposing concepts. A “limited government” party that examines itself should have qualms about spending 750 million dollars a day in Iraq and bloating the debt.

The demonstrator approached another guy who just said, “F- off.”

Blind team affiliation is a natural and regrettable behavior. I used to be a Democrat. I just assumed that the Democratic party was “for” my interests. I didn’t bother to dig deeper and see if the party’s actions followed its words. After more research, I see the Democratic leadership as corporate kowtowers.

I remember the viciousness directed against Bill Clinton, his daughter and wife. I couldn’t understand then how people could be so cruel, and I didn’t think Chelsea deserved scrutiny. That viciousness is repeated in the personal attacks against Bush and his family. Yes, I’ve relished the attacks because Bush and Cheney are de facto mass murderers and their crimes arouse ugly feelings in me. But the problem with hostile discourse is that it undermines opportunity for constructive dialogue and change.

It’s important to recognize that there is a class war in this country, and the class war is escalating, and it has real consequences for most people in this country. But it’s also important to recognize the potential for change in individuals. Ridicule reinforces boundaries. We need to try to get beyond boundaries and parties and classes. We need to try to humanize and empower each other rather than demonize. (I appeal to my better nature here, but I expect relapse.)