Big ups to Daddy--bringin’ things into focus at just the right time. Given what I’m about to write it seems reasonable to guess that what I got out of his post is likely much different that what others may have pulled out of it. That being said…..

I was going to try and scratch out a quick post today, maybe a few news articles that caught my attention and my thoughts on them, or maybe a quick bit about different things I found to be particularly odd or annoying this week--the usual tripe. It should go without saying that I would have been struggling throughout the thing to hold back another inanity about how busy things are. No shit. So is everyone else. Say something fucking interesting.

Then, taking a break from scraping and sanding my ghetto-ass neglected “deck” (which, in my defense, was like that when I bought the place) I popped into the house for some water, a sit, and a check of the mail. The mail had a surprise.

“I knew you would be so sad in your predictions about action against Iran. Even as Iran continues to wage war on the US. Supplying weapons, training, and taking hostages.

No, those Iranians are innocent.

For one that blames the media on a lot of items, you seem to fall in line with Al Jazeera pretty quickly in spreading the propaganda.”

Guess who?

Scraping and sanding the deck has been postponed to a different time. Clear my schedule and let me get at this.

I’m not sure whether to be angry or utterly despondent. More the latter than the former, I suppose. There’s anger that I’m forced to deal with such imbecilic vitriol, but more utterly despondent that it exists so pervasively in the first place. Let’s start with the first sentence.

“I knew you would be so sad in your predictions about action against Iran.”

First, let me say, how very kind of you to revel in my (assumed) sadness.

Second, let me point out that I did not “predict” anything with certainty. What I try to do, and did, and will continue to do, is point out whatever I see that shows how very close we keep creeping towards this new disaster. I never deigned to set a date certain, only point out likely time periods and precipitating events. I still am very much of the mind that we edge closer every day towards an attack against Iran, as little or nothing so far has slowed the direction of the grand neoconservative plans to plunge that entire area of the world into a chaotic stone age once again. It is still very likely that we will be attacking Iran in 2007, and likely no later than the end of September if things continue on their present course.

Which brings me directly to Third. If I am wrong about the “predictions” above, then I will not be sad, just as I am in no way sad right now about not being at war with yet another nation. Every week that goes by basically finds me ecstatic that we HAVEN’T invaded Iran because I’m actually aware of the likely fallout resulting from such an action, both literal and figurative. Why on earth would I be joyful that a prediction for war came true? Do you think me some kind of fucking monster?

I doubt it, only because someone using such “nyah, nyah” thumb-on-the-nose fifth-grade playground tactics doesn’t usually get that far down the thought path. It is the phraseology of someone who has not only NOT been there, but the words of someone who hasn’t made any effort to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, as it were. In short, it is the language of the ignorant.

And speaking of….

“Even as Iran continues to wage war on the US. Supplying weapons, training, and taking hostages.”

It’s difficult to even know where to begin with this one. I’ll leave alone the inherent asininity of Iran waging war on the US, as though they are the aggressor and we are merely innocent bystanders caught up in an unfortunate mess we had no hand in creating.

Let’s say that what you are asserting is completely correct and true, in which case I refer back to the “mile in someone else’s shoes” point.

It has been reported on for some time that for at least the last year, the US has been funding and training terrorist groups (again, MEK is a good example of this, a group that even now is on the State Department list of known terrorist groups—something I’ve mentioned several times before) in southern Iran to wreak havoc and further destabilize the country and situation. The special-ops guys also haven’t been left out of the cross-border fun either, as they’ve been making plenty of incursions of their own.

Let’s also not forget snatching diplomats in Irbil (in country at the invitation of the “democratic” Shiite Iraqi government, who have a great many natural ties to Iranian Shiites), alongside various other assorted kidnappings, extraordinary renditions, and assassinations. Diplomacy? Fuck that. Lying and promoting the maximum amount of fearful hysteria and violence is the way the US does things now.

If you are Iran, do you just quietly take the US bullying lying down? Something to ponder. If our roles were reversed and Iranian intelligence agencies had fomented the overthrow of Truman in ’53 and had him publicly executed (as we did with the democratically elected Mosadeq) installing in his stead the brutal Shah and his SAVAK secret police who’s reign of terror on the population lasted for many, many years, don’t you think US citizens would be harboring a great deal of animosity and don’t you think they’d be right in doing so? Why is it okay for us, but not for them?

Did you know about these things? If not, do these things being pointed out give you any pause whatsoever or have you already dismissed them out of hand as untrue? Your continued silly comments answer that sufficiently, I think.

“For one that blames the media on a lot of items, you seem to fall in line with Al Jazeera pretty quickly in spreading the propaganda.”

Well, I cited several sources in that last post, but none of them were Al-Jazeera who is, by the way, a well-regarded international media outlet. I’m curious what it is exactly that makes Al-Jazeera such horrible “propaganda”. Is it the scary Arabic name or is it just that King George doesn’t like it, which must mean it is evil? They are actually one of the few places that have done any real war reporting, which is to say, showing pictures of the death that is its reality. We can’t have that. After all, if people faced uncensored pictures of elective wars they might not be so keen to allow their governments to wage said wars.

For an outlet to report on an event is not propaganda. What should concern you is that dead Anna Nicole’s baby daddy saga received ludicrous amounts of coverage and airtime while this large protest was barely mentioned in our national media. Kind of like the Pentagon protest in March. Kind of like the massive worldwide protests, pre-invasion 2003.

And just what is the propaganda you refer to when you accuse me of “spreading the propaganda”?

The fact that you continue to line up behind the confirmed liars and criminals that currently lead our government is shocking and frightening. The unbridled support of a leader who has referred to our Constitution, the basis of our national existence and all we purport to stand for, as “a goddamn piece of paper” simply defies explanation. You rally behind the denigration of integrity by our leaders and cheer their systematic elevation and continuation of rampant deception and corruption.

And you want to try and imply that I am somehow the dupe? If so, then perhaps you can hold forth as to how and why I am wrong rather than simply declaring me so.

Wake up, man. Enough with the juvenile Bill O’Reilly flavor comments. They only serve to illustrate your very shallow understanding of not only current events, but history as well. Frankly, I’m pretty goddamn sick of hawkish and fantasy-based jackassery from people like you who haven’t spent a single day in the military or the Middle East. You’re a continuing insult to the people who have and are.

Indeed, the humanity

"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."--Dick Cheney

"I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude."--George W. Bush

Photo from IHT/(Ali Abu Shish/Reuters)

Irony at a base level. Oh wait, I'm sorry, those are terrorists. I forgot.