I Want a PS3. And a Pony. And a New Vice President.

In conjunction with the interview in the last post, and the recent revelation in mainstream circles that yes, Dick Cheney is in fact seriously disturbed; The American Prospect ran a post speculating about Cheney’s immediate future:

(...)Cheney is the final sacrifice -- the last layer between Bush and the disapproving public, the skeptical media, and the angry Democrats. In one sense, having him there has always provided Bush a human (and humanizing-by-contrast) buffer against the hordes who oppose him and his policies. To sacrifice Cheney is therefore to have sunk to but one level above the very bottom, the core of the presidency itself. When Cheney goes on television, as he did last week with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, proclaiming the Iraq war a success, he demonstrates that he is either (a) unhinged from reality; or (b) playing a willing role in his own, inevitable discrediting and marginalization.

Under either scenario, his neck is moving slowly but inevitably toward the noose. Somebody, after all, has to pay for the complete collapse of the Republican majority and the conservative agenda. And since Bush himself has never paid the price of his own failures in life, it is Cheney who will pay for them next.

I wish it were that simple. The Vice Presidency of the United States is a constitutional office, meaning that the President does not have the same control over it as he does many cabinet posts and staffers. First, this means that any replacement would have to be appointed by a Democratically controlled congress; but even more pressing, Cheney would have to accept the President’s call for him to resign as he cannot be fired. Furthermore, as it has been made explicitly clear; any attempt to discipline the administration through judiciary action taken by Congress will be met by a White House obsessed with litigious self-preservation. There is a definite question as to when time will run out on the Bush administration before it receives the results of true oversight.

I do not believe Cheney would ever step down, unless he knew that he was subject to impending impeachment by Congress. His ability to speak to the American press (and, by proxy, its people) entirely disconnected from reality and his executive zeal in creating an autocracy in the White House structure only goes to display his lust for unquestionable control at any cost. Every day as the Libby trial progresses, and the subterranean methods used to undermine logical arguments against his ideology and positions are unearthed, it becomes more obvious than it was yesterday (and it was fairly obvious yesterday) that this is a man who values power above all else; even at the expense of the country to which he professes allegiance. I don’t blame anyone for harboring wishes of his removal from public office; however I know every time I buy a lotto ticket, I’ve wasted a dollar on an impossible hope. But maybe one day, if we’re lucky, Mr. Cheney’s number will be called.

The Disconnect

And Tonight We're Going to War Monger Like it's Fall 2002

Bush OKs Countering Iranians in Iraq

By TERENCE HUNT

Jan 26, 11:25 AM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has authorized U.S. forces in Iraq to take whatever actions are necessary to counter Iranian agents deemed a threat to American troops or the public at large, the White House said Friday.

"It makes sense that if somebody's trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said. "It's an obligation we all have ... to protect our folks and achieve our goal."

The aggressive new policy came in response to intelligence that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is providing bombs - known as improvised explosive devices - and other equipment to anti-U.S. insurgents.

"The president and his national security team over the last several months have continued to receive information that Iranians were supplying IED equipment and or training that was being used to harm American soldiers," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"As a result American forces, when they receive actionable information, may take the steps necessary to protect themselves as well as the population," Johndroe said.

Bush referred to the new policy in his Jan. 10 address to the nation in which he announced a buildup of 21,500 troops in Iraq. He said the United States would confront Iran and Syria more vigorously.

While promising tougher action, the White House said the United States does not intend to cross the Iraq-Iran border to attack Iranians. (Read More)

I’m sure we have multiple carrier groups in the Persian Gulf just to stop the Iranians from ‘supplying’ the Iraqi insurgency.

Ultimately, the Bush administration, in looking for another party to blame for their failure in Iraq, often undercuts their own argument, with the zeal of their claims often overriding a basic level of believability. Earlier in the occupation, the Iranians were blamed for offering material support to the mostly Sunni insurgency; however, after the explosive rise in ethnic cleansing at the hands of Shiite militias, it was alleged that the Iranians were involved as well. Knowing the differences between the two sides, and knowing the connections between the leaders of several important Shi’ia factions and Iran, the idea that it would be so easy to play both sides is entirely dubious. It is obvious that the administration is looking for escalation, and they will use any propaganda tool to accomplish their goals.

Meanwhile, after I nearly (nearly) fell into the trap of ‘mobile weapons productions facilities, aluminum tubes, yellow cake from Niger, Mohammed Atta meeting an Iraqi agent in Prauge, etc.’ in my more impressionable youth, and seeing the resulting chaos and misery; I am now completely immune to any and all lies told by this administration. Not only is an attack on Iran immoral and unnecessary, it is also ill-advised and a difficult proposition to see the U.S. military completing successfully at this time when also involved in two seriously deteriorating occupations. The difference between evil and madness is in the insistence on fighting an unnecessary war, and insistence on fighting an unnecessary war you can’t win.

Oh, I get it now! Wango-Tango...

If only all of the right-wing blogosphere was self-aware parody like Stephen Colbert, I might feel slightly less guilty for being so entertained by the stupidity that founds their superficial belief structure.

Take, for instance, Love God’s Way, a fundamentalist Christian ministry that has put out a list of subversive music designed to integrate homosexual behavior into the American mainstream.

It begins:

One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy.

By far, my favorite of all the selections has to be Ted Nugent.

It appears that Mr. Nugent, I’m sure completely unwittingly and certainly unwillingly; has such alpha-male appeal that the sight of him in a loincloth is dangerous to all impressionable teenage boys who are still in the formative years of their sexual identity. It is alleged that Ted Haggard was driven to homosexuality by the guitar solo in ‘Cat Scratch Fever.’

And that’s not all! Ted Nugent isn’t the only current hit pop act our hetero-protectorate need to be on guard from. Other hot recent bands with the secret intent on driving the homosexual agenda include Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Motorhead, and Frank Sinatra. Here’s hoping Isaiah Washington can save us from the phallic-rock attack on American values.

Can I Get my Hearts and Minds Well Done?

Military shows off new ray gun
By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 25, 5:43 AM ET

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. - The military calls its new weapon an "active denial system," but that's an understatement. It's a ray gun that shoots a beam that makes people feel as if they are about to catch fire.

Apart from causing that terrifying sensation, the technology is supposed to be harmless _ a non-lethal way to get enemies to drop their weapons.

Military officials say it could save the lives of innocent civilians and service members in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

…

During the first media demonstration of the weapon Wednesday, airmen fired beams from a large dish antenna mounted atop a Humvee at people pretending to be rioters and acting out other scenarios that U.S. troops might encounter in war zones. (Read More)

Well, this is good news. I don’t know about you, but when I’m a disgruntled citizen of a country under occupation, nothing makes me happier, and want to cooperate more than feeling like I’ve been set on fire.

But I Wanna be the Only Kid on the Block with an Anti-Satelite Laser!

Flexing Muscle, China Destroys Satellite in Test

By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER

Published: January 19, 2007

China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.

Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.

Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an antisatellite arms race. Alternatively, however, some experts speculated that it could precede a diplomatic effort by China to prod the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.

…

White House officials said the United States and other nations, which they did not identify, had “expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese.” Despite its protest, the Bush administration has long resisted a global treaty banning such tests because it says it needs freedom of action in space.

…

In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests. The policy said the United States would “preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space” and “dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so.” It declared the United States would “deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.”

…

The Bush administration has conducted research that critics say could produce a powerful ground-based laser weapon that would be used against enemy satellites.

The largely secret project, parts of which were made public through Air Force budget documents submitted to Congress last year, appears to be part of a wide-ranging administration effort to develop space weapons, both defensive and offensive.

A while back, I was confounded by an Associated Press article in which a Bush administration official threatened of the vulnerability of American satellites to ‘terrorists’ and ‘rouge nations.’ (All emphasis in both articles via bold, underline and italics are added by me)

U.S. warns of threat to satellites

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

…Undersecretary of State Robert G. Joseph also reasserted U.S. policy that it has a right to use force against hostile nations or terror groups that might try to attack American satellites or ground installations that support space programs. President Bush adopted a new U.S. space policy earlier this year.

…

Joseph, the senior arms control official at the State Department, said nations cannot all be counted on to use space purely for peaceful purposes.

"A number of countries are exploring and acquiring capabilities to counter, attack, and defeat U.S. space systems," Joseph said

He also said terrorists "understand our vulnerabilities and have targeted our economy in the past, as they did on 9/11." He said terrorists and enemy states might view the U.S. space program as "a highly lucrative target," while sophisticated technologies could improve their ability to interfere with U.S. space systems and services.

Joseph did not identify terror groups or nations that might have such motives. An aide to Joseph, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, said that information was classified.

…

"No nation, no state-actor, should be under the illusion that the United States will tolerate a denial of our right to the use of space for peaceful purposes," he said.

Now that it’s clear that the commentary was delivered preemptively toward China, the irony and hypocrisy inherent in the Bush Administration’s position is unbelievable. First off, the idea that the Chinese, or any other world power are under any obligation to report their activities to the United States, while CIA operatives are actively kidnapping innocent foreign citizens in their home nations and rendering them to torture and interrogation in secret prisons around the world, is condescending and naïve.

Second, once again we have a prime example of how the White House manipulates the canard of terrorism into unrelated policy debates. Is the People’s Republic of China a terrorist regime, or rouge nation? If not, why confound the issue by attempting to convince citizens that our satellites are under imminent threat from terrorists? If terrorists have the ability to launch weaponry that can break the Earth’s atmosphere, we have problems of greater significance than worrying about our spy satellites. It is the patent dishonesty in the administration’s wielding of terrorism as a tool to push forward their ideological viewpoint that makes them entirely untrustworthy.

The fact of the matter is that the Bush Administration, and as result the entirety of the United States is attempting to avoid an international accord to restrict the proliferation of anti-satellite weaponry. Mr. Joseph and other administration officials are willingly attempting to convolute the issue by incorrectly claiming that the United States is creating such weaponry to defend itself and its spy satellites from attacks by terrorists. The irony is, and will remain that while we spend countless millions (billions?) on developing this unnecessary technology, and borrow billions from China to waste away in our unnecessary war in Iraq (whose estimated cost rises above the trillion dollar threshold); our economic health languishes, and perpetuates the eventual demise of the United States unquestioned hegemony.

The Beggining is the End is the Beggining

Welcome to Slactivism. I am the sole editor and publisher, Micheil Yohannes. I am many things. A social and economic progressive. A writer and performer. A life long resident of New York City. However, some things that I am not are a professional economist, historian, or trained expert in international diplomacy.

The question you may be asking yourself in the face of this admission is why. Why should you offer your time to read my analysis of national and geo-political policy, current events, and social issues? The only response I can offer to this is my work. I feel I have a voice that is worth listening to, however the ultimate proof of this will be encapsulated in what I produce. The new frontier of the ‘blogosphere’ has created a rare American meritocracy, and so I only ask for the chance to fail. Perhaps I may surprise you, and become a trusted resource for under-reported news and commentary.

- Micheil

Oh, and please forgive the rough layout. I just launched, and hope to refine the site over the next few weeks.

And please feel free to email me with any questions, suggestions or comments at micheil.slactivism@gmail.com