Alright kids. I would like everyone to give a warm welcome to a friendly guest blogger. Little Flower has some ass kicking to do on those that call dissent treason. (And now a line from a Seater Kinney song stuck in my head- “Dissent is not treason but they talk like it’s the same)

Here it is: Winning Enemies and Influencing Terrorists by Little Flower

Is anti-war sentiment tantamount to being pro-terrorist? To anyone with an ounce of nuance in their brain — or a shred of decency — the answer is a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, lacking brains and decency is a requisite in the bizarro country of Joe Scarborough. Last night, Joe and his guest, Nevada Senator John Ensign, pushed the
latest GOP-hack version of the old saw that patriotism means never criticizing a Republican.

Said Ensign: “Well, what I‘ve said is political leaders need to be careful when we are at war on the words they say and how they say them because the insurgents and the terrorists that are around the world will use those words to recruit, they‘ll use those words to fund-raise and if they can think they are breaking our political will back here, it will just encourage them to carry the fight on.”

Asked for an example by Unholy Joe, the divorced defender of the Catholic faith, Ensign said, “Well, Senator Kennedy when he was talking to Abu Gharib compared those to the Soviet gulags. To compare Americans with the old Soviets I think is just outrageous and the Dick Durbin talked about Guantanamo Bay and compared us to the Nazis down there. And I just think that comparisons like that do a real disservice as to American soldiers and marines everywhere. And I think it‘s irresponsible and I do think it gives some recruiting efforts a boost to the terrorists. It increases the fundraising and it gives them the political will to fight on saying they think that America is a paper tiger and if they stay the course, that they will break us. They think it happened in Vietnam and they think it will happen here in Iraq … I think any time a country is divided, it plays into the enemy‘s hands. Lincoln talked about this. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Even going back to the civil war, General Lee looked at the press that was happening in the North. It‘s a reason he took the battle to the North and figured if he just had one or two more victories up there, the political will in the North would be shot and he would have victory. And the insurgents overseas are looking at our political will back home …”

Now one could go into the history of Vietnam, or the Civil War, to refute his individual points, and give Ensign deference due a senator. But a proper reaction is more visceral: “Stop lying, you anti-American asshole.”

Terrorists are not encouraged or emboldened by the dissent of American politicians, be they Democratic or the growing number of Republicans. Those Iraqis that attack U.S. soldiers are encouraged and emboldened by the fact that we are occupying their country, have killed tens of thousands of innocents, imprisoned tens of thousands more — most of them innocent, by our own military’s account — trampled on their religion and generally turned their lives into bloody hell.

The whole killing-them-to-make-them-like-us meme is doomed to fail. Because the act of killing creates hatred that doesn’t quickly go away. It always has and always will, at least until Jesus comes back, which he had better do soon if the neocons stay in power because otherwise there might not be anyone to save.

It is not that John Murtha talked about soldiers murdering an innocent Iraqi family that makes the terrorists want to kill us — is the fact that we slaughtered an innocent family that breeds the lust for revenge.

It’s not that Seymour Hersh wrote about Abu Gharib that breeds enemies — it is the fact that we are torturing and raping and killing Iraqis. Before Hersh exposed the scandal, we might not have known about it here but they sure as hell knew about it there.

Does an unemployed Iraq man — whose brother was shot dead at a roadside stop, whose cousin is in jail for no reason, who doesn’t have electricity most of the time, whose kids can’t go to school for fear of being kidnapped, who has to carry a gun to buy food, who can’t go out at night without fear of being murdered by his ethnic opponents — does he wake up in the morning and say to himself: “That Ted Kennedy doesn’t like Bush. Praise Allah, now I can find the heart to join the resistance.”

The answer is obvious to any person with a functioning brain. The fact that people like Scarborough and Ensign — who are not brain-damaged, they just play the part on television — know what they are saying is horseshit …

Worse, it is anti-American. True patriots speak their minds. Ruling over a silent oppressed minority is the fervent desire of Communists or dictators, which is a point that needs to be made over and over.

An article in the NY Times points to the other side, but seldom heard part of the debate: selective immigration. As I pointed out before, the immigration debate when it comes to jobs that pay poorly is different than the one for high-skilled positions: Congress wants to raise the quota for immigrant nurses. This action hurts poor countries in many ways that are better explained in the article. But there’s more. There are enough qualified applicants for nursing positions in this country, but not enough people willing to accept the lousy pay to teach them. Hence, our misguided one-sided, every nation must bow to us attitude not only drains much needed asssitance in places where it is needed, it also prevents willing participants here from taking jobs that would help the economy and their local communities.

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems!

Cause I’m doing *actual* work today.

Alternet has a sweet interview with everyone’s favorite history proff, Howard Zinn.

Greg Palast thinks we’ve either hit the peak oil point or it’s just a made up number. I love Greg Palast, but I am not sure what to make of this.

The Stranger has an interseting article about my ulta-progressive congressman, Jim McDermott and the republicans that are out to get him.

The Guardian has a story about a prototype nuclear fusion reactor.

Also from the Guardian (and one of my hot brains- George Monbiot) about the selfishness of second homeowners in Britian.

I have said that the only thing that would ever tempt me to marry would be if I could elope to Venice with Cary Grant. But actually it is the character that he plays in this movie, People Will Talk, that I really want to run away with.

This movie, made in 1951, is still timely. The movie mangages to cover topics like evolution, farm subsidies, unplanned pregnancy, academic snobbery, unjust legal systems, and everything that makes my heart beat a little faster. It does have a bit of 50’s chauvinism, but for the time it was made it is deliciously progressive.

If you need a happy little pick me up and like watching small-minded men made smaller by their own devices- watch this movie.

There is a bit of a debate ranging in the parts of the blogosphere over a the use of the term big girl to describe a male senator from Kansas. The break down is this- the guy that wrote it is a gay democrat and defends his use of the word because it’s part of the gay vernacular. When confronted with the fact that people find it offensive- he thinks that there are bigger problems in the world and we should concentrate on those instead of fighting over the use of sexist insults.

What he doesn’t get, and what his defenders don’t get is that this is the basic fight. Everything else is just gravy. You either think that each individual person should be judged on their own merit, or you believe that there are special groups that are more deserving of consideration than others. While you may not consciously subscribe to the second group- every time you disparage someone based on their sex or race or who they have sex with, or every time you use a group based on their sex or race or who they have sex with to insult someone- you are showing yourself to be someone who thinks that people do not all have the same basic human value.

Next time you go to throw an insult at someone- think about what you are really trying to say. Are you trying to call someone a coward- try spineless, gutless wonder or milquetoast (one of my faves) instead of calling them a pussy. Want to call someone weak- how about jelly fish, sad sac, or big baby instead of calling them a girl.

Or you can just use generic insults with modifiers. Two of my personal favorites are asswipe and fuckwad. I think belching fuckwad works great for someone with a big mouth and no sense. Itchy asswipe is good for people who are just annoying.

Ruthzilla is visiting my couch for a bit and we walked down to the the Red Apple to get dinner fixins (turkey tacos if you must know). Upon reaching the store- she realized that we were in front of The Red Apple of the Stranger police blotter fame.

Having lived and worked in this neighborhood for years, I am well aware of the soulful greatness that is played while I cruise the aisles. Mephistopheles has noticed the music too and (except for the wine selection) really likes how much cooler the people and the music in my ghetto grocery store are than the up-tight, rude, wealthy, pasty types at his Magnolia Thriftway. (FYI- Thriftway is the exact wrong name for the place- a better name would be Overpriced Pretention Shop).

It is not unusual for the Kid, the Devil, or me to be humming (sometimes outright singing) to Respect Yourself or I’ll Be There while trying to figure out what the heck to have for dinner. If anything by James Brown or Curtis Mayfield comes on – I may shake my ass a little. It’s impossible not to.

The only problem is Sunday evenings (when the neighborhood gentrifiers come out to shop) the music changes to some crappy 80’s schlock. Hopefully this is just a fluke and that I will always be able to get my soul fix in the same place that I get the cheapest avacados on the west coast.

UPDATE: According to the Devil, the Red Apple was playing soul yesterday instead of the 80’s crap. Maybe the Stranger piece helped end that little bit of hell.