America the Tyranny
Behold and bear witness to what has become of America, in this era
of uncertainty and bewilderment, in this time of fear and intimidation,
that since towers were brought down and demolished has methodically
fallen into the viper pit of neocon decadence, becoming, as it stands
today, an authoritarian’s heaven and a corporatist’s promised land, its
people ignorant, as always, to the barrage of waves systemically
eroding centuries of rights, freedoms and liberties. From sea to
shining sea, despotism is what today those who pay attention see.
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Branch Warfare and the Evolution of Aggression
Civilised (adjective): cultured, educated, refined, enlightened, polite, elegant, sophisticated, urbane
There’s nothing more disturbing than knowing that an alcohol-addled
megalomaniac has his sweaty fingers on the Big Red Switch and that with
one little tug he could ignite the world like a Roman candle. 
Most of us know David Brooks as the balding goofball on “The Jim Lehrer
News Hour†who shrugs his shoulders and giggles gleefully whenever he’s
asked a question. He’s actually a political pundit whose far-right
analysis of culture and politics appears regularly on the op-ed page of
the New York Times. Like fellow-traveler Tom Friedman, Brooks loves to
offer his sage advice to Muslims about how they can improve themselves
in the eyes of westerners and, thus, limit the relentless bombing and
massacres brought on by a belligerent American foreign policy.
Eager, as always, to make both first call at the bar and an early
getaway, the bicameral two ring circus of embezzlers, extortionists,
buffoons, car dealers, and lawyers known as the US Congress stirred
itself last week to raise its right arm and wield its mighty rubber
stamp.
It was another bad week in Iraq. While
bodies were piling up in the Baghdad morgue and the militia
fighting steadily intensified, the Bush administration was hit
with a rash of PR scandals that are bound to erode public
support for the war. The worst of these is the National
Intelligence Estimate (NIE) which was leaked to the New York
Times and which stated that “the American invasion and
occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic
radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since
the 9-11 attacks.â€
I’m a big fan of Robin Hood, the 12th century noble highwayman who, from his lurk in Sherwood Forest would prey upon the fatted courtiers of an evil, usurper king and bedevil acolytes of the pretender’s enablers, Guy of Gisbourne and the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham; all in the name of good King Richard Coeur de Lion, engaged as he was in crusading to free and defend the distant Holy land. So it was with heavy heart I heard this week of the death of all Robin engendered, and the end to the dreams he and his merry men held for an eternal abolishment of the tyranny and despotism King John represented.
“Imagine what it's like
to be a young person living in a country that is not moving toward reform.
You're 21 years old, and while your peers in other parts of the world
are casting their ballots for the first time,
you are powerless to change the course of your government.
My fellow Americans, it is
with a heavy heart that I must confess. I have transgressed. I have
committed the most heinous crime of our great land. I have been… hang
on... OK.... the lawyer firm, which represents me, Dewey, Cheatem and
Howe, has plea-bargained my sentence. If I plead guilty, I will not
be charged for high treason for wearing the 
George W. Bush's innumerable sycopants like to potray him as a down-to-earth man of the people:
a man's man, tough and fearless, a good-ole-boy Texas rancher more at
home in the scrub brush and desert dirt than in the clean, carpeted
corridors of power in Washington.