August 14, 2007 by karateexplosions.

Bush supporters have pretty stressful lives these days. They get up every morning and brown people are still walking freely around the Middle East. Liberal and progressive activists have not yet accepted their subjugation to an authoritarian daddy-state. Some people are even saying that we should bring our troops home from Iraq!

Certainly, it’s a difficult time to be a right-wing nutjob Bush supporter and Iraq war cheerleader. But when these people get stressed out, they take comfort in thinking back to a time when things were easier, simpler, better. A time when you could win any argument simply by uttering the words, “Nine eleven”, as demonstrated in this transcript from the now-canceled CNN debate show “Crossfire”:

BEGALA: We all agree that Saddam is a bad man, but–
NOVAK: Osama bin Laden is a bad man too. Saddam is just like Osama.
BEGALA: I’m not defending Saddam Hussein, I’m just –
NOVAK: Nine eleven!
BEGALA: (stunned silence)
NOVAK: That’s right, Paul. Nine eleven.
BEGALA: Oh my God, Bob. You’re right. We should send thousands upon thousands of troops to die in Iraq for no reason.
NOVAK: If we don’t, then the terrorists have won.  (Wraps self in cape, turns into a bat and flies away)

For several years, conservatives would utter the words “Nine eleven” and they would get whatever they wanted — vast authority to spy on innocent Americans, the power to deny people the right to a trial, broad powers to limit free speech and assembly, and even a blank check to invade a sovereign nation which posed no threat to us. Those who did not immediately submit to their whims were labeled “Un-American”, “unpatriotic”, and “traitors”.

But conservatives have overused this tactic over the past six years and it is becoming increasingly ineffective. People are realizing that the Republicans have simply been manipulating their fear.

So now when these whack-jobs get down on their knees at night to say their bedtime prayers, they ask God for just one tiny little thing:

America’s fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater. What would sew us back together? Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again? If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America’s righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

Yes, right now the American people are arguing about whether our soldiers should be dying for an unnecessary elective war, or whether we should allow the government to spy on us, or whether Constitutional protections such as free speech and due process should be scrapped in the name of fighting terrorism. But man, just think how much better it would be if thousands of people were just violently massacred in a horrific terrorist attack in a heavily populated area! We could all be at a Lee Greenwood benefit concert right now!

Posted in Outrages, Terrorism, Politics | 1 Comment »

August 6, 2007 by karateexplosions.

At this point, there can be no doubt that the Bush administration supports the troops more than anyone. They give them training, they give them weapons, they give them explosives and body armor and money. The problem is that I’m referring to the insurgent troops.

The US has lost track of about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents, according to an official report published in Washington. Among the missing items are AK-47 rifles, pistols, body armour and helmets.

Keep in mind that there are approximately 160,000 troops in Iraq now, which means that we have lost more weapons than we have troops in Iraq. And did you catch that last part about the body armor? Well, guess how OUR troops are getting the body armor they need?

Still, she tried to remain supportive of her son and his fellow Marines. She helped organize a local bake sale that raised $4,000 for body armor to send over to Iraq.

At least the Bush administration supports SOMEBODY’S troops.

Posted in Iraq, Outrages, Politics, Current Events | 4 Comments »

August 2, 2007 by karateexplosions.

With the tragic events of last night’s Minneapolis bridge collapse during rush hour still dominating the news, some reporters and media personalities have begun asking the obvious questions of whether this disaster should have been foreseeable and whether the I-35W bridge disaster is just a horrible freak accident or a bellwether of things to come. A May 2006 Downtown Minneapolis Freeway Study has this to say:

I-35W Mississippi River Bridge, Industry Square/Washington Ave. Interchange (south of the River), and SE University Ave.–4th Street Inter-change (north of the River)—This area includes an important bridge over the Mississippi River that will need to be reconstructed or replaced in the coming years; it also includes interchanges with important local arterials near each end of the bridge.

But structural bridge repairs had been delayed as Minnesota legislators attempting to pass a gasoline tax to fund bridge repairs such as this one were met with veto threats by Republican governor Tim Pawlenty. When the legislature finally did pass funding initiative, Pawlenty made good on his veto threat. As Dr. David Levinson, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota and part-time blogger going by the name of “The Transportationist“, noted:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently vetoed a legislature-passed increase in the gas tax that could have raised money to repair bridges like this one. The latest gas tax would not have solved this problem, but previous taxes that were not passed (due in part to Pawlenty’s previous veto threat) may have, had the money been spent on this kind of thing.

But Governor Pawlenty is only part of the problem. For years, the Republican administration and Republican Congress have slashed funding for state programs and projects — projects including critical infrastructure maintenance, repair, and replacement.

Instead, a large amount of our federal dollars have gone to the war in Iraq. The Iraq War was a voluntary war; a completely optional military action. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, was not involved with al Qaeda, and had nothing to do with 9/11. Our sanctions had impoverished, sickened and starved the population and they were not a threat to anyone — much less the biggest superpower in the history of the world.

$450 BILLION later, Iraq is a total disaster. Al Qaeda has resurged in popularity and influence as a result of our actions, and are able to operate relatively unmolested while U.S. troops remain pinned down in the middle of a sectarian civil war. And after five years of trying to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure — some of which we destroyed in the first place, some of which has been attacked by insurgents as a result of our presence — many Iraqis still only receive one hour of electricity per day. One hour of electricity in 130 degree heat.

So what could that $450 billion have bought us if we weren’t pissing it away on an unnecessary war? Well, first of all, levees in New Orleans. According to a Washington Post article from 2006, the cost to rebuild the New Orleans levees to federal standards (there’s a scary phrase, “federal standards”) was $10 billion — “and there might not be enough money to fully protect the region”.
So we spend the $10 billion out of the $450 billion and that leaves us with $440 billion. So now what could we buy? How about a new I-35W bridge? Though I don’t know exactly how much it will cost to clean up and rebuild the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, I can compare some bridge construction proposals over in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky where an 8-lane major interstate bridge in or near a large metropolitan area would cost approximately $1 billion.

So that leaves $439 billion left over. What’s next? Well, we could just build 439 more eight-lane metropolitan interstate bridges over the Mississippi just for the hell of it. But that’s probably not necessary. Maybe we should spend the money to renovate and repair other critical bridges and avoid a situation like this one happening. According to The American Society of Civil Engineers, it will cost $9.4 billion per year for 20 years to “eliminate all bridge deficiencies”. That’s $188 billion (not adjusting for inflation), leaving us $251 billion in change.

So what can you buy with $251 billion? Well, you could hire a $1 billion hooker for each Republican member of Congress and hope to get them to resign in shame and humiliation. Either that, or give 12 million students four-year college scholarships. Head Start for 33 million kids. Two million public housing units.

No amount of money can give us yesterday to do over again. It can only prevent yesterday from happening again tomorrow. And no amount of money could restore our national dignity if the richest nation on Earth allowed our critical infrastructure to literally fall around our ears. 99 days out of 100, “national infrastructure” is one of the most politically un-sexy topics out there. If we are to act on what we know, we must do it now, while people are finally, but no doubt briefly, paying attention.

Posted in Iraq, Outrages, Politics, Current Events | No Comments »