Stay the Course!

Finally, a Plan For Victory! Oh, sure, the GOP may not have any real plan -- and the Democrats may be even worse -- but at least the Bushites have the good sense to put up big signs all around the stage reading "Plan For Victory" whenever President Chimp gives a speech. All the Democrats have is Howard The Duck, living in a party he never made.

Seriously, the Bush Regime flacks must have assumed Americans are even stupider than they actually are to serve up that old Reagan-era bromide "Stay The Course" when, in fact, there were a goodly number of us who remember that load of bullshit from back when it was still fresh and steaming. The war in Iraq is shaping up to be a Fail even more epic than Vietnam, and all President Chimp can think of is to say "Stay The Course". What was that old Pete Seeger song... "waist-deep in the Big Muddy, and the big fool says..."



In 1989, one Dr. Francis Fukuyama penned what had to be one of the most conceited loads of triumphalist blathering ever, The End Of History, in which he claims that the fall of the USSR and its satellite regimes in Eastern Europe heralded the end of the struggle between Good and Evil (aka Capitalism and Socialism, or the absurdly distorted, simplistic media images thereof). What I found especially laughable was Fukuyama's treatment of the USA as a state that was somehow immune to collapse and above it all, the "winner" of the aforementioned struggle when, in fact, even as US politicians and pro-capitalist idealogues celebrated the victory of "freedom", the first rumblings of the collapse of the USA could be heard in the form of NAFTA and George I's initiation of renewed imperialist adventurism in Panama, Iraq, and Somalia.

The end of history? No, sorry, Dr. Fukuyama, what you heard in '89 was just the first shoe dropping. Seriously, Dr. F, didn't you realize that if a regime the size of the USSR could end up as historical roadkill, it could just as easily happen to the USA? Jeezus, what is it with these goddamn' Harvard jerks?

Medium-res jpg image, 903k

169,000 New Jobs!

Almost as if on cue, USA Today, in its classic "everything's OK, don't worry, be happy, nothing to see here" fashion, ran a big-ass front-page story this week trumpeting in its headline that the economy was "surging". Now, if you know anything at all about USA Today -- or, as some of us wags call it, USA Hooray -- when you see them using words like "surging" in a headline on an economic news story, you can be sure it's 99 & 44/100% pure bullshit.



But, anyway, assuming you believe USA Today, the economy's surging again! And, if you checked out the actual breakdown yourself at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you'd see that a pretty good chunk of them are rock-bottom-wage "service" jobs, not including the handful of "freelance" categories you see here -- including a newly-emerging job category showing a huge upswing at the end of the month, shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.

Medium-res jpg image, 1mb

Katrina Marches on Washington

As public outrage over the Bush Regime's handling of the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina began to grow and spread, I thought it might be a good idea to create a second poster for the upcoming national antiwar mobe based on this theme, to tap into that sentiment and spur more intense involvement in the demonstrations.

At last, here was one that President Chimp and his lapdog Congress and media couldn't spin their way out of. "I didn't expect the levees to break", easily one of the most incredible whopping lame-assed "dog ate my homework" excuses ever, was a comment I couldn't help laughing at in spite of everything because it was just too damn' much like watching Saturday Night Live.

So, to help juice up peoples' attitude at the upcoming events in DC, a little something in solidarity with the dispossessed in Fallujah, Iraq, and her sister city, New Orleans.

Medium-res jpg image,608k

Fallujah Minuteman

God damn, well, I declare! Have you seen the like?
Their walls are built of cannonballs,
their motto is 'Don't Tread On Me'!
--grateful dead.



In 1776, gangs of raggedy-assed guerrilla resistance fighters took on the largest, best-equipped, best-trained Imperial Army on the planet, and dished them out a harder licking than they ever expected...and you know the rest. So it is in 2004, when gangs of raggedy-assed guerrilla resistance fighters take on the largest, best-equipped, best-trained Imperial Army on the planet, it's looking once again like King George's goons are going to get a worse whuppin' than they ever expected. Seems as if even as they crow about how much of Fallujah they "control", the largest, best-equipped etc. Imperial Army is actually being surrounded, jumped, and sucker-punched every time they turn around by the aforementioned raggedy-assed guerrillas, as the Resistance spreads across Iraq, and King George's boys are left "squeezing Jello" in Fallujah. And it's to them, the Iraqi resistance, the "Minutemen" of Fallujah, I dedicate this cartoon. Viva la Fallujah!

Medium-res jpg image, 1.1mb

Only YOU...

As I write this, the annual Rainbow Family Gathering is being set upon by US Forest Service and other police forces in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest for infractions such as gathering without a permit and having muddy license plates.



Women are being chased, thrown to the ground and dragged by USFS cops on horseback, charging through Rainbow Family camps, video cameras are being seized and smashed by USFS cops -- even as the Forest Service celebrates its 100th anniversary with a big PR exhibit on the National Mall, at the Smithsonian's annual Festival Of American Folklife.

Roads are being blockaded in and out of the Monongahela National Forest by US Forest Service police, and gatherers are being ticketed en masse; the USFS has set up an impromptu "court" at a "Nature Center" in Monongahela.

Medium-res jpg image, 1mb

The Colonist: Knocking the Cover Off It for DC Statehood

So, anyway, just to recap: we pay more taxes here in DC than many actual states, and have lost far more citizens in places like Vietnam and Iraq. For many a decade now, this city, its citizens and its alleged government have been the Feds' test bed for its policies in places like El Salvador, Palestine, and Baghdad, and the IMF/WorldBank's policies in places like Indonesia and Africa.



No control over our budget, no ability to collect taxes on outfits like the World Bank, or on all the suburban yahoos who roll across the river to Washington Nationals home games and kiss off and spit on any folks from DC who show up to publicly speak out on this predicament.

And, oh, yeah; it's just been leaked that the current budget estimate for shoving an entire neighborhood across the river and building a brand-new monstrous stadium for the ex-Montreal Expos to continue to play suck-ass ball in is now in the billion -- with a "B" -- dollar "ballpark".

Medium-res jpg image, 645k