When the Hammer Falls Everywhere, Hammer Back

A funny thing happened on the evening of Dec. 1, after the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act with amendments allowing the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil by military authorities. Conservative groups, including both Tea Party and Libertarian factions, reached out to Occupy and progressive groups to suggest joint efforts to work for the impeachment of every senator who had signed on to the so-called "Levin-McCain Compromise," which really was a blanket surrender to military law-enforcement power. The movement is like a miniature, grassroots version of the wider "Kick Them All Out" campaign, to simply remove everyone from Congress and start over.

If the end-of-year exasperation begins to sound like nihilism at its least useful, there's a reason for that. The wheels have fallen off the great machine of empire, and there is simply nowhere left to go but dissolve the body-politic of the great republic.

This past week, we lived through an example of that when the Occupy Colorado Springs movement-in-exile went to Venetucci Farms to challenge Gov. Hickenlooper while he dedicated a solar farm. Now, don't misinterpret this, SunShare is a great little startup that is encouraging cooperative solar gardens for shared photovoltaic electricity use, and Colorado Springs Utilities is to be commended for signing up to the concept. The intent of the mic-check was not to pick on Venetucci or the solar garden, but to chase down a governor who has been denying his partial responsibility at unleashing the goons of the Denver Police Department on state-land encampments. (Even former city employees now charge the DPD with having a culture of violence). The mayors of Colorado Springs and Denver, Republican Steve Bach and Democrat Michael Hancock, are equally to blame for being just like the mayors and city councils of most major U.S. cities who are quashing dissent.

In fact, I lost a few friends at Venetucci when I said that in 2011, liberal Democrats have been as much to blame for repression as conservative Republicans. Too bad if they don't get it. It's time to bring the system down.

First Save the World, Then Watch Cartoons

Just started playing with a new cartoon-creation tool this weekend, from Xtranormal. I can make cartoons ranging from the political:



.. to the absurd...

OK, It's Over, and Congrats

I really never had a doubt that this would happen. Obama's acceptance and McCain's concession speeches were both classy. The only thing not classy is this die-hard core of neocons and oddballs with strange beliefs about Obama bringing about a "socialist USA" (hell, he's a centrist). Look, we had to put up with eight years of the biggest global terrorist imaginable in the Oval Office, so just shut the fuck up, OK?

John and Barack Sitting in a Tree...

The Progressive magazine always goes out of its way to be provocative in both artwork and essay content, regularly spurring squeamish readers to go through the "Cancel My Subscription!" ritual. They've topped themselves with the October issue's cover art by Sako Shahinian. Not sure what is being said here, but I'll cherish this issue as a collector's item.

FARC Follies and Ergenekon Eruptions

Forget Seymour Hersh's obsessions with a U.S. invasion of Iran, the real action is going in the peripheries, places like Colombia and Turkey. In Colombia, we can all give loud "huzzahs" that the FARC hostages are free, while realizing the political benefits John McCain will just happen to realize by just happening to be there when a Colombian military commando operation freed 15 hostages held for up to six years by the FARC. Let me say up front that I may not like Alvaro Uribe and I smell the hand of Bush everywhere, but I consider the FARC an illegitimate gang of thugs with no claim to a coherent political agenda. Hell, even Hugo Chavez says he doesn't like them any more. But before we say, "Job well done!" to the Colombian military, we have to ask how this all just happened to coincide with the McCain visit. Uh huh. Right. (Meanwhile, Obama visits Colorado Springs and waxes poetic about faith-based initiatives, even as his supporters chide him for caving in on the NSA-telephone-company-immunity issue. Politics as usual.)

The current Turkish comedy of terrors is harder to decipher. Over the past few days, 21 nationalist militants have been arrested for being members of Ergenekon, yet another secret Turkish fascist society dedicated to preserving secularism and eradicating Muslims. Now, in past coups -- 1960, 1980, 1997 quasi-coup, take your pick -- the CIA has clearly been involved in funding groups like Gray Wolves. Hell, in 1980, even mild-mannered Jimmy Carter was directly involved in supporting the Turkish military in crushing citizen democracy movements.

The AK Party of Recep Erdogan represents a different beast. Many players in the Bush administration, particularly in State and Treasury, see the Muslim party ruling Turkey as one that aids the economy and respects democracy. In fact, the European Union has warned Turkish judicial sources that any attempt to remove AKP will virtually end Turkey's chances of joining the EU. And yet, there seem to be members of the U.S. defense and intelligence community who have secret admiration for the attempts by the Turkish chief prosecutor to bring the AKP before the constitutional court as an illegitimate government. Certainly, US Vice President Dick Cheney does not tolerate the concept of Muslims running democratic governments, and probably admires the Ergenekon efforts to prod the constitutional court with a little organized violence. Where does the CIA stand? The Pentagon? The EU? US Congress? These seem far more interesting questions than ponderings on Iran.

[JULY 6 UPDATE: Two more key generals were arrested over the weekend for Ergenekon involvement. The leader of the Republican People's Party says that those in favor of Kemalist secularism are under attack. Try "those that are opposed to democracy by supporting secularism through fascist systems."]