~ note: this rant was actually composed on independence day, but our office’s internet connection was severed, due to our inability to pay the bills, before we could post it. we are going to use our phones for further posts, at least until our phone is also disconnected:
elanor clift in newsweek:
“Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is a former Baath Party member who turned against Saddam Hussein and has longstanding ties to the CIA. He is a potential dictator – a Saddam Lite, if you will. ‘But he’s ours,’ says Kemp. The Iraqi people want security restored far more than they care about western fruits of democracy like civil liberties.”
the chilling hints of ‘our man in baghdad’ notwithstanding, let us take this fourth of july – which is not actually the birth of our country, as the declaration of independence is unrelated to the 1787 conception of the united states or its birth two years later, but as there is a time to pick nits and a time to watch explosions in the sky to the soundtrack of don mclean, we will let this rest for now – to reflect on how freedom is defined in the united states. since the erosion of our civil liberties commenced immediately after september 11, 2001, with twisted assaults on our rights such as the patriot act and its sequel, a day has not gone by that one does not hear a butchered misquote of benjamin franklin’s statement concerning liberty and security. if the information in the above excerpt is to be believed, that would make iraqis the complete opposite of americans, in that they are more afraid of someone shooting up their car than they are of being shoved around by cops when they speak their minds. on the other hand, fearless amercians like ben franklin are long dead, and when the people who have taken their place watch a cop hitting someone in the head with a flashlight, it is only on television, and it is just for a few seconds, and maybe they will hear about it when there is a hearing or panel or some shit about police brutality five years later, while iraqis seem to have no problems with burning down police stations when cops act like assholes. has this whole mess been worth anything, when in the end, the americans who are in charge of iraq are going to resort to the same kind of jackass who was running the show before the invasion? have we learned that iraqis are just like americans, because we would both exchange our rights for uninterrupted cable service and protection from ethnic strife? or have we learned that we are totally different, because iraqis want to be sheltered and have their hands held, while americans are ready to fend for themselves, crawling – unshowered – through the mountains with daggers in their teeth, while the terrorists and killers continue to bring it on? is michael moore less of an american because he wastes his time asking whether or not we could have an executive administration that is more concerned with regular folks, if not like him, then at least like us, when moore easily could buy a pad in paris and bitch from afar, like that guy from ‘edward scissorhands’? are there any cooler fireworks than those that burst white for a second, then disappear, then come back as red or green or blue? does every american have the right to bike to the local fireworks display and to weave between the frozen sea of cars and vans, free from being screamed at by the drivers who can not navigate the streets and have to listen to the show they are missing while their kids cry in the back seat?
in any event, ‘civil liberties’ do not spring forth as ‘fruits’ from democracy, as the excerpt implies; they are writ in the same document that also defines that the republic will governed by a democracy. democracy is a civil liberty, not the progenitor of them
~ also, despite our use of the term ‘american’ for inhabitants of the united states, we are aware that there is no ‘america’, there is no ‘american flag’, and no ‘’americans’. we use the term to communicate with our base readers, but we do not accept it.
~ putting the ‘red’ back into the angry red planet, can be interpreted literally, if one considers the milky pink of a 2nd degree sunburn to be a shade of ‘red’.
~ when listing the superhuman features, such as elongated femurs and an enormous heart, with which lance armstrong has been blessed, perhaps one could also consider that he has a melanin content of 1000%, or however it is measured and however high it can be for a white guy from texas. or maybe he wears sunblock all the way from atlanta to stone mountain and back — whilst laughing and not vomiting.
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