Caliban - Opinion and Righteous Anger

Barack Obama makes me sick.

Here he is, on my TV, condemning his former pastor for the allegedly "appalling" and "outrageous" remarks said pastor has made in public. According to Obama, "They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans."

It's bad enough that the US is the kind of place where a politician feels compelled to defend or distance himself from remarks made by someone only vaguely connected with him, but when that politician does succumb to the urge to prevent further damage to his image caused by such a vague association, he should not be so arrogant as to profess to have gauged the feelings of an entire nation, such that he may now speak on their behalf.

Sarah, for one, does not feel insulted by the Rev. Wright's remarks. Nor, for what it's worth, even though I'm not an American, do I.

Amongst other things, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has said he believed the 11th September attacks were retribution for years of malevolent U.S. foreign policy that has caused huge numbers of deaths overseas.

Hmm, what is "outrageous" or "appalling" here? The only thing that's outrageous about this remark is that it's patently true. Obama's dismissal of the remark is what I find appalling.

Obama goes on to say that the Rev. Wright's remarks are "divisive and destructive" and that they "give comfort to those who prey on hate". Clearly, Obama needs a better speech-writer to convey the pretence of eloquence, since "those who prey on hate" are presumably those who do good in the world; or so I would have thought.

Now, make no mistake, the Rev. Wright has said a few things that are, at best, hard to prove. More probably, they are simply untrue. Take, for example, the assertion that the US government has spread AIDS in order to wipe out black people. The spread of AIDS amongst certain groups of the American population may, at one time or another, have raised cheers behind closed doors in Washington, but that's a far cry from their having deliberately propagated and spread the virus.

Nevertheless, Wright's entitled to his views and Obama should be defending his right to make them, even if he doesn't agree with the views themselves. Similarly, if he feels that guilt by association is damaging to him with the judgemental electorate, he should merely distance himself from Wright's remarks, rather than condemn the man himself.

Let's get one thing straight here. The attacks on American targets on 11th September 2001 were unquestionably the result of the US's ruthless foreign policy over the last few decades. The terrorists have even said as much. Does Obama perhaps think the US was picked at random and that there's no rationale behind the attacks? Why is the idea of looking inward to seek the motivation for the attacks anathema to him?

Another thing, Obama said that Wright was equating America's "wartime efforts" with terrorism, but Wright referred explicitly to foreign policy, not wartime efforts. Of course, you could argue that American foreign policy effectively amounts to war in many territories, but one can't help but think that Obama wasn't acknowledging that. rather, he was twisting Wright's words to be more worthy of the condemnation that was about to follow.

So long as the US continues to take no responsibility for its actions on distant shores, it shall surely know no peace. We all suffer as a result of America's tragically myopic, unsustainable and pathologically self-serving foreign policy. In fact, I might even go so far as to call such policy "appalling" and "outrageous", "divisive and destructive".

I'm glad I can't vote in American elections. What a responsibility to have to pick the next leader of the most powerful nation on Earth from the pitifully lamentable stable of wankers on offer at the moment.

Between Obama's spineless and transparent attempts at voter salvage and Clinton's sublimely ill-conceived decision to lie that she had been under sniper fire during a visit to the former Yugoslavia in the nineties (not to mention her camp's distasteful negative campaigning against Obama), you could be forgiven for being driven into the arms of McCain. Well, almost.

As usual, it's all about the public image. In America, sound-bite politics are served to a fast-food culture, and every serious candidate will say or do anything to get elected. Obama is not one iota different in this regard.

Jason sent me this excellent article by Noam Chomsky on how Iran's nuclear programme is a direct response to the historical danger posed in the region by the US, and how the answer to the issue may lie in promoting democracy back on American soil.

It's an extremely eloquent and incisive piece of prose.

You've got to hand it to the American Democratic party, when it comes to backbone, they don't have a vertebra between them.

Tens of thousands of people marched in Washington yesterday against Bush's illegal war in Iraq. Guess how many of them were Democratic politicians. Any idea? The answer is: one. That's right, only one of them had the balls to stand up and be counted.

Why not more? you may be wondering. Well, the answer is as simple as it is depressing.

You see, many of those involved with yesterday's march are calling for Bush to be impeached. After all, he lied to the world in an attempt to morally justify an illegal and bloody war against the people of Iraq, selling it to the gullible American public and his reluctant European allies under the monicker of freedom and democracy, when really it was a quest to secure oil supplies.

That's pretty despicable, I think, and pretty much everyone I know seems to agree. So, given that this man has disgraced his nation worldwide and contributed to the image of America as a greed-ridden playground bully with more brawn than brain, you'd think his political opposition would be making the most of a demonstration against his continued pursuance of oil for blood, wouldn't you?

But they're not. The Democrats don't want to burn their fingers on calls for Bush's impeachment. No-one wants to bite off that much political commotion to chew. Perhaps it's a case of people in glasshouses not wanting to throw stones, but I can't see it as anything other than what it appears to be at face value: rampant cowardice.

So, whilst the Republicans went all-out to impeach Clinton for the actions of his penis and his lies concerning those actions, the Democrats are not prepared to return the favour for Bush, whose actions have left more than 3000 American soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Whose is the greater crime? I ask you. A man with an errant penis who lied under oath, or a man whose actions have left more than a hundred thousand dead in their wake and rendered the entire world a less safe place to live for all of us?

Don't get me wrong. I have no respect for Bill Clinton, but the damage he did whilst in office pales into insignificance next to the war crimes perpetrated by Bush and his puppet-masters.

Whilst raging against the Democrats, an honourary mention must, however, be made of Dennis J. Kucinich, the Democratic representative for Ohio, who was the sole Democrat to turn up and even speak out against the bloodshed. Good for him.

But where was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton?

And where was Senator Barack Obama?

Both of the above are presidential hopefuls for the next general election and yet neither of them has the backbone to stand up for what is right. No, there might be too much of a political backlash to such a gesture. The cynical Democrats know that concepts such as the truth and justice are double-edged swords. They can be used to further one's own career or, if wielded clumsily or in the wrong situation, can impede that same career. As such, noble concepts become political expedients, just more weapons in the arsenal of hollow rhetoric to which we've become so accustomed. Fortitude and integrity are nowhere to be seen.

When you apply this knowledge to the Democratic party as a whole, you quickly realise how the current American government obtained carte blanche for their rampage of terror, torture and bloodshed from the deserts of Afghanistan through the plains of Iraq to the bunkers of Guantanamo Bay.

Sometimes, it's difficult to know who I despise more, the Republicans or the Democrats. Are the accessories to the crimes not just as guilty as those who perpetrate them?

In a new report published by the press organisation, [Reporters Without Borders], The Netherlands has managed to achieve equal first ranking on the list of countries with the greatest press freedom. It shares the top spot with fellow Europeans, Finland, Ireland and Iceland.

This is especially encouraging, given the current political climate sweeping the globe, which threatens personal freedom and privacy on many levels, not least of which the ability of the press to go about their business unmolested.

A free press is something that ought to be able to be taken for granted, especially in countries that make a very vocal point of proclaiming freedom as their very raison d'être. How does the freer-than-thou US fare in this report? It comes in a depressing, yet not altogether surprising equal 53rd, alongside Croatia, Tonga and Botswana. Even Chile and Israel score better. Dude!

The US's great ally, the UK, another chest-beating, rabble-rousing champion of liberty, manages a slightly better 27th place. By Jove, surely not?

My conclusion: just as countries with the word 'Democratic' in their official name seldom actually are, so, too, should nations that harp on incessantly about freedom be mistrusted. Those countries that actually do offer their citizens a semblance of liberty generally seem to get on with it in silence. Perhaps that's because only illusions need reinforcement.

Forgive me if I sound a little smug. I'm not; I assure you. There is much for me to be concerned about, but, for one brief moment, there is also something to actually smile about.

As Israel continues with its latest criminal rampage, I've been noting how Israeli government officials interviewed on television love to cite UN resolution 1559 and allege that the Lebanese government has failed to comply with it. This, then, supposedly forms some kind of implicit justification for the ongoing collective punishment of the Lebanese people.

Why do the reporters doing the interviewing not bring up the fact that Israel, too, has had a washing list of UN resolutions issued against it, each of which it has arrogantly flouted? Indeed, most recently, Kofi Annan himself condemned Israel for its disproportionate response to the Hezbollah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.

Why do the Israelis believe that all countries except Israel must comply with UN resolutions? Why does the spineless international community allow Israel to get away with incident after incident of collective punishment of other peoples, including Palestinian and Lebanese civilians? Why aren't all countries subject to and held accountable under international law?

The picture wouldn't be complete, of course, without a dishonourable mention of the US. Whilst channelling billions of dollars in military aid to Israel with the left hand, the right hand now adopts the pretence of intending to broker peace in the Middle East. And yet, Condoleezza Rice rejects the idea of an immediate ceasefire. What kind of diplomat doesn't want the fighting to stop, so that the parties in question can sit around the negotiating table and hammer out some kind of enduring agreement? As if a short-term ceasefire precludes some more sustainable agreement for the long term.

And so it's really just business as usual, isn't it? The US protectorate of Israel does whatever it pleases, US hegemony intimidates other nations into shrugging their shoulders and looking the other way, the UN issues perfunctory condemnations that no-one heeds, and another Lebanese child loses her parents and her eyesight.

I started this entry by talking of UN resolutions directed at Israel. You may be interested to know that there are no fewer than 65 such resolutions in existence.

From my well-travelled friend, Zain, comes this article about the sad state of geographic knowledge in the US. Not only is global geography desperately poor; the full report demonstrates that the average 18 to 24 year old American doesn't know much about his or her own country, either.

Some choice findings:

"Told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, only two-thirds could indicate which way northwest is on a map."

"Despite nearly constant news coverage since the war there began in 2003, 63 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 failed to correctly locate the country [Iraq] on a map of the Middle East."

"Seventy percent could not find Iran or Israel."

"Half could not find New York State on a map of the United States."

"Nine in ten couldn't find Afghanistan on a map of Asia."

"Fewer than three in ten think it's absolutely necessary to know where countries in the news are located."

"Only 14 percent believe speaking another language fluently is a necessary skill."

And the conclusion:

""It's discouraging that so many young Americans have so little understanding of the world."

And that's an understatement, since the rest of us have to live in that same world that young Americans (who -- make no mistake -- become older Americans) care so little about. Indeed, one has to wonder if the foreign policy makers of the US would fare any better in the survey.

We're not so much keeping busy these days as unavoidably being kept busy. Honestly, who would have thought that retirement could be so much work?

Sarah and I have been busy trying to prepare our Dutch and American taxes. Given the fact that we have both been resident in two countries during the last fiscal year, can no longer file a joint return in America as in previous years (due to my partial resident status for last year), liquidated lots of stock, have bank accounts in multiple currencies and places, purchased a house, etc., our taxes are really quite complicated this year.

Add to that the fact that we're missing or have incomplete documentation in some cases, especially around the period of our international move, and you have the basis for some very time-consuming and tedious work, e-mailing and phoning people for the missing data and trying to make sense of all manner of forms and statements.

Also, because our situation is no longer easily classified, none of the tax forms we have to fill in are fully applicable, so we keep having to annotate things and explain our unique circumstances. You end up wondering if the return you end up filing will make any sense or even be accurate.

In the midst of this, we're also trying to sort out our estate planning once and for all. Estate planning is the financial world's soothing euphemism for getting one's affairs in order before one pops one's clogs. Not that we're planning to shuffle off this mortal coil in the near future, but very few people do, which is precisely the reason one needs to spend time on this stuff while one is still of relatively sound mind and something approaching sound body.

Dealing with the estate planning is as tedious as dealing with the accountants, and as complicated, too. Marriage to a foreigner with lifelong tax obligations to the country from which she happens to hail can really complicate your life. And Eloïse , too, is an American citizen by dint of her mother's nationality, which further complicates our estate planning, as no money can be deposited in her name unless we're prepared to pay tax to the US on any interest it earns.

Want my advice? Don't marry a foreigner, especially an American, unless you're up for a shitload of hassle, trying to prevent a greedy foreign government from staking a claim to assets to which it has no moral right. Of course, even if Sarah and I hadn't been married, Eloïse would still be American, because she was born in the United States.

American citizenship is viral, you see. It's like a hereditary disease. As soon as you start to earn money abroad, the tumour begins to grow. The only known cure is the abandonment of one's citizenship, which still leaves you with a 10 year fiscal obligation. That's the price of freedom, folks; you pay for it the rest of your days, even if you're a dissident in some far flung part of the world. Well, you're obliged to pay it, that is; whether or not you actually do so depends on your stance and the amount of bone marrow in your spine.

Basically, though, you can't marry an American without marrying the American tax system.

This article , sent to me by Ome Geoff, demonstrates how the US is (ab)using the Patriot Act via the FBI to spy on its people.

Yet another reason that I sleep more soundly for having left the shores of that paranoid country.

What do tobacco companies and military recruiters have in common? Not much, you say.

Well, take another look. It seems that cynical and devious marketing plays a significant role in the agenda of both branches of, er, industry. Come to think of it, both can end up killing you, too.

In an effort to cure me of any misplaced homesickness I might be harbouring for the US, my good friend Geoff sent me this article, which shines the spotlight on the techniques used by American military recruiters to bait and hook the young and vulnerable of America for use as cannon fodder.

Geoff's strategy worked. Whilst I might, indeed, be missing my friends and the Californian climate, I could never feel at home in a country that cynically exploits its youth like this. Consequently, I am feeling less of a hypocrite since our return to Europe and am glad that Sarah and I will be raising our daughter here.

Finally, I can reveal to you the plan that has been in place for, well, I no longer even know how long; more than one year, but less than four, that's for sure.

So, without further ado, beating about the bush, procrastination, delaying tactics or stalling: Sarah and I are moving to The Netherlands on 12th August; back to Amsterdam, to be precise.

In anticipation of this move, I have resigned from my position at Google and am now serving out my notice. My last day of work is expected to be 2nd August, but I'll be using up a couple of weeks of accrued holiday prior to that.

We have also given notice on our house, so we've pretty much sealed our fate on this side of the Atlantic. On the other side of the ocean, we have rented a house in the gezellige neighbourhood of Amsterdam known as de Jordaan and are looking forward to moving in.

As most of our friends know, we've actually had the plan of moving back to The Netherlands every year since 2002, primarily because I would reliably reach an annual point whereby I felt I couldn't stand another moment living in the US.

Somehow, with considerable encouragement and propping up from Sarah, I would manage to find it in myself each time to persevere with the pursuit of significant financial gain, rather than yield to the more immediately gratifying option of resigning and leaving behind the misery of living in the US.

The idea was that, if I could just bend over and take it like a man for a few more years, it might just end up being the very last time that I would be beholden to another person or institution for a living. Sarah was right; it made sound financial sense, but it went against the grain, because I have never before opted to remain in a situation that I felt was soul-destroying. It was hard and there were a multitude of moments along the way at which my spirit flagged.

This all makes it sound as if Google has been a horrible place to work, but that's actually far from being the case. On the contrary, the company has been incredibly good to me, paying me handsomely, feeding and massaging me, taking care of all of my US immigration bureaucracy and, most recently, allowing me a stupendous seven weeks of paternity leave. It's hard to have complaints about treatment like that.

No, it's more the case that the US for me, personally, has shown itself to be an incredibly suffocating and toxic place to live. I could ramble on incessantly about my experiences as a stranger in this strange land, but suffice it to say that I have experienced this country as obsessively politically correct, environmentally irresponsible, globally contemptuous, geographically ignorant, woefully poorly educated, historically oblivious, gullible, jingoistic, beligerent, falsely proud, maniacally religious, selfish, greedy, poorly integrated, uncaring, apathetic and generally bereft of any sense of community or collective purpose beyond self-aggrandisement, a pursuit fuelled by the usual government-instigated sabre-rattling and concoction of a common enemy du jour.

As usual, the rest of the world gets dragged along in the wake of this clumsy playground bully of a nation, sending shockwaves rippling across the entire globe, consequences with which the rest of us must live.

Again, another disclaimer is perhaps in order. I have nothing against Americans as individuals. I have many good friends who happen to be American (er, Sarah, for example) and they, too, are appalled by what they see happening to this country. They, too, are sickened by the religious psychosis of their so-called leaders and the apathy or resignation with which this is generally met by their fellow citizens.

It seems that after decades upon decades of being governed by self-serving profiteers in a two-party system, Americans as a people have come to expect no better. Huge numbers of them are resigned to the fact that, no matter who is in power, they are pretty much fucked anyway and at the mercy of whichever flavour of glib liar happens to inhabit the whitehouse at the time.

As an alien (such a lovely word), it's time to put my money where my mouth is and extricate myself and my family from the system. My feet are itching to walk on board a plane and distance myself from all of the god-fearing, Bush-voting, flag-waving, chest-beating, SUV-driving, latte-sipping numbskulls with a 'Support Our Troops' bumper sticker. You may all collectively kiss my arse.

It's time to pull the plug and resume real life where I left it five and a half years ago, far away from the tinseltown that is Silicon Valley. Thankfully, Sarah shares my belief that a better life awaits her elsewhere, so there's never been any disagreement over the decision to leave. With little Eloïse recently having put in an appearance, the timing really couldn't be better, as Sarah's life has also reached an important watershed.

Will I miss anything about the US? Definitely. Friday lunches with friends at Clarke's; free refills on soft drinks; criminally good milkshakes at The Creamery; Krispy Kreme; Pizza Chicago; the innumerable good places to get breakfast at the weekend; the scenery of the hills around the peninsula; biking up the beautiful Marin Headlands and looking down over San Francisco Bay; the Californian coastline; the wonderful National Park Service; the many squirrels in our area; the colourful birds that fly in our skies; the balmy climate; the relatively close proximity to Hawaii (a pleasant 5 hour flight from here); the amount of personal space living in an uncrowded part of the world affords you; and, not to be forgotten, having worked for one of the hottest and most influential companies currently on the planet, alongside the smartest team of sysadmins I have ever had the pleasure of calling my colleagues.

But that really does sum up the good points about living here, as far as I'm concerned. Every other aspect of living in the US irks me and has slowly eroded my patience to the point whereby I can no longer leave the house and walk in any direction of the compass for sixty seconds without being riled by some trivial, yet cogent testament to stupidity or grotesqueness. Fuck this shit; enough is enough.

So, what's next for us? In the immediate future, full-time parenthood. Eloïse won't be a baby for long, so we intend to enjoy every moment of her burgeoning youth and miss out on nothing. Obviously, that means that neither of us has any plans to work for the foreseeable future.

Naturally, some things cannot be put off. Sarah will enrol in Dutch language classes and I will be attempting to shed the 20+ kilos of tripe and flab that I have gained since moving to the US. Both of these projects will take some time to complete, although I sincerely hope to no longer be a fat bastard some time before Sarah can speak fluent Dutch.

Our new home is a six month lease with the option to renew for a further six months. We chose this particular construction, because we intend to quickly begin the search for a more permanent home to purchase. (Thanks, by the way, to Marc and Jo for viewing the property and voicing your opinions.)

In the meantime, the supermarket is just a few doors away, with a natural supermarket just a little further up in the same street. In fact, our street has its own home page, with a list of every business that operates there.

It's going to be so nice to be able to push Eloïse in her pram when we need to do groceries, rather than having to take the car. Indeed, we have no plans to own a car in Amsterdam, as bicycles and public transport will cover almost every eventuality. For the other occasions, there's Greenwheels.

In the longer term, Sarah and I will both need to find ways to socialise and achieve intellectual fulfilment, the most obvious voids created by the vacuum of our abandoned jobs. Sarah will have her Dutch classes and a mother's group; I have a number of computer projects that I can work on, but those are solitary pursuits, so the need for socialisation will remain.

I may therefore look into starting my own company. I'm currently considering what exactly such a venture would offer, but I'm sure it would have something to do with the Internet and possibly also music. I'm also entertaining the idea of running a coffee and cake shop, although I'd probably want to find an experienced partner to join me in such an endeavour, because I know bugger all about the catering business.

Lastly, I intend to show Sarah around Europe and then the rest of the world. We have a lot of ground to cover before Eloïse reaches schooling age. I've promised friends in Switzerland and New Zealand that we will visit them soon after relocating, so I have to make good on those promises, too.

So, just in case you were in any doubt, I can assure you that we're going to have no shortage of things to do. Between caring for Eloïse , Dutch lessons, house-hunting, world travel, our hobbies and looking into business ventures, we're not going to find ourselves twiddling our thumbs in boredom any time soon.

Sarah and I are both very excited at the prospect of living in Amsterdam (again). Whilst we've been extremely privileged during our time in Silicon Valley, it's been taxing, too, and I, for one, am feeling quite exhausted after the last half decade here. I'm looking forward to slowly recharging my batteries over the course of the next couple of years, Eloïse 's demands notwithstanding.

As luck would have it, we already have our first visitor booked to come and stay with us. My good friend Geoff has already purchased his plane ticket and will be coming to stay with us for a week in October. That's going to be a lot of fun.

If you're interested in the area in which we're going to live, check out some of the links below:

• De Elandsgracht

• Photos of the Elandsgracht

• Where is the Elandsgracht?

• Businesses along the Elandsgracht

• Het Claverhuis Community Centre

• Jordaan Info (Dutch)

• Jordaan Info (English)

• jordaanWEB

• Jordaan Online

• Streetmap of de Jordaan

Whilst idly browsing -- well, I was reading about Janeane Garofalo, if you must know -- I chanced upon this Salon article about the use of thimerosal in American vaccinations given to babies and small children up until a couple of years ago (and still sent overseas to developing nations).

It makes for pretty shocking reading. Read how the CDC and FDA conspired to suppress research that demonstrated a link between thimerosal and autism in those injected with it.

I bet they injected me with that shit a couple of years ago, when I was forced to subject myself to certain immunisations as part of the green card process. Never mind the fact that I'd already had the diseases as a child, which gave me immunity against them; I couldn't prove I'd had them.

In tabular form, here's a concise overview of US military intervention over the last hundred years.

Man, they sure export a lot of democracy over here.

Marc Felt recently revealed himself to have been the character known as Deep Throat in Woodward and Bernstein's exposure of the Watergate scandal.

Ever eager to polarise issues and people into convenient, bite-sized chunks of good and evil for the unthinking masses to digest, the American media have largely painted Felt as a latter-day hero for his part in bringing down Nixon. Few sources seem interested in also examining the deeds that comprise the rest of Felt's career with the FBI.

Doug Ireland recently published an interesting article on Felt's involvement in COINTELPRO, a constitution-usurping campaign of terror on the left wing of the day. Felt was even convicted of conducting illegal break-ins, but later pardoned by Reagan. These details are conveniently left out of the articles written by those who would paint Felt as a brave and selfless bastion of good, rather than a self-serving figure with a grudge against Nixon.

I don't know the truth, of course, and this posting should not be mistakenly interpreted to indicate that I'm a fan of Nixon or, by extension, Republican politics. I'm just someone who finds it predictably lamentable that shades of grey are, as always, missing from journalism in this country.

Newspaper and television journalism in the US seem not intended to promote and provoke thought, but to present a sequence of pre-deliberated bullet points, so that the busy reader, whose modern lifestyle allows precious little time for deliberate thought, instantly knows where he or she should stand on a given issue.

The trouble is, who is to say what conclusion the hapless reader would reach on his own? Is it not the job of the media to present the facts, which may then be carefully weighed by the reader, allowing him or her to reach his or her own conclusion?

That's how it still is where I come from and I like to think the US must once have been like that, too. These days, however, as many facts are omitted as are presented, and the conclusion is happily provided by the opinionated reporter, as having to reach one's own conclusion has become yet another time-consuming inconvenience, along with manual transmission cars, cooking for oneself and getting up off one's arse to change the television station.

Using a new tactic that the Scientologists can only wish they could adopt, the US Marines have taken to kidnapping reluctant young men and applying the techniques of deceit and treachery in their rather desperate attempt to recruit bodies for the ignoble cause.

That one came in from Geoff. Geoff, when are you going to get a blog up and running, so I can send you a trackback ping?

Updated 18th June 2005

A follow-up article with readers' reactions has been published.

The following State of the Union speech by George Bush was just brought to my attention. The audio editing is really very good.

The Canadians are taking pity on Americans and are now offering to marry them to get them out of the country and into a more progressive land.

From their site:

You can help. Open your heart, and your home. Marry an American. Legions of Canadians have already pledged to sacrifice their singlehood to save our southern neighbours from four more years of cowboy conservatism.

I'd offer to do my bit, too, but I've already married one and bigamy's illegal even when it's just a marriage of convenience.

Although I often agree with their views, I'm not normally a fan of the rather simplistic and unnuanced writing style of the Daily Mirror.

Nevertheless, it's hard to find fault with the sentiments expressed on today's front page.

Greg Palast makes a compelling case for the notion. There's an lot of supposition in the article, but there's a lot of intrigue, too. It's not beyond belief.

...but the new lines have been drawn.

Johnathan Freedland has produced a very eloquent write-up of how the Tuesday's American general election completes the Republican revolution.

He goes on to explain how people's motives for voting have exposed two entirely divergent cultures within the US. This is a very well written article and I strongly encourage you to read it.

Thanks to Geoff for sending in this excellent article offering insights into the mentality behind Christian America massively backing Bush in this week's election. It's an excellent read and lifts the veil on a phenomenon that is rather impenetrable for those of us with a more secular background.

Who will win the presedential election? Things seem to be leaning in the direction of the world's most accomplished terrorist, George Bush, but we may yet be surprised. Even if Kerry wins, however, it looks like W has the popular vote sewn up, whereas that boot was squarely on the other foot four years ago.

While the mantra of "4 more years" sounds more like a sentence than a cry of victory, I'm bound to ponder the fact that a vote in the US election is really just the exercising of one's right to attempt to influence the guardians and perpetuators of the status quo over the next four years.

For if Kerry gets in, will we see the US join and sanction the International Criminal Court? Will we see the death sentence repealed? Will we see the billions of dollars in military aid to Israel halted? Will we see a concerted effort to reduce America's grotesque reliance on fossil fuels?

How much would really change?

Noam Chomsky summed up the presidential choice rather well:

"In the forthcoming presidential elections in the US, there is a choice: between two candidates who were born to wealth and political power, attended the same elite university, joined the same secret society that instructs members in the style and manners of the rulers, and are able to run because they are funded by largely the same corporate powers."

Whoever you vote for, the government wins.

After an entry on sarcasm, here's one on irony.

The Google adverts down the right-hand side of this page are now proudly trying to encourage you, the humble blog reader, to depart this site in favour of those extolling the virtues of the Republican cause. That's right: all my railing against Bush has convinced Google that I must be a big fan of this intellectual midget. Now, that's irony!

One of the adverts, however, is simply too crass to pass up. If you thought the next American election would be fought on foreign policy, taxation or something similarly banal, think again. The real action is on the dining room table, where condiments are the new weapons of mass distraction.

I hope you care as much as I do about which way your ketchup will vote.

Europeans often tell me that Americans have no appreciation for or even perception of sarcasm. Indeed, I have noticed that many people here will sometimes say, "I was being ironic", when they wish to indicate that they were attempting to employ sarcasm, not irony, in something they just said.

At the recent SANE 2004 conference, a Frenchman remarked to me how sarcastic my accompanying colleague, Geoff, was and how surprising he found this, coming from an American.

Well, Geoff's not the only one, as this article about maintaining one's belief in George Bush demonstrates. Thanks once again to Sarcastic Geoff for this one. It's nice to see George's long list of successes so cogently stated, so that we may all admire them and the figure responsible for them.

Thanks to Geoff for sending in this story.

That Bush's supporters are so patently stupid that many of them believe whatever the right-wing extremists tell them is not news to anyone, but that they choose to believe statements that even Bush and his cronies (no longer) claim to be true, should give you some clue as to how deep in the shit the US now is.

Apparently, 75% of Bush's supporters still believe Iraq was providing substantial aid to Al-Qaeda. But wait; it gets worse. 51% believe Bush favours participation in the Kyoto treaty, something for which our least favourite babbling baboon has never even tried to conceal his contempt. The mind boggles at the extent to which people will go to delude themselves.

Perhaps the only rational explanation is that, when something like the Kyoto treaty is explained to people in a political survey, they conclude that their president simply must be in favour of it, because it's so obvious a good cause and one that should be supported. But then, the discovery that their beloved president is against it would shake their world to its core and cause them to have to rethink their loyalties.

As Kevin Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, says in American Beauty, never underestimate the power of denial.

Geoff pointed me in the direction of David Neiwert's blog this morning. I haven't had a great deal of time to peruse it, but my eye was caught by the first instalment of a six-part article entitled The Rise of Pseudo Fascism.

I urge you to read this. It's not very long and it very eloquently addresses an important concern: the American neo-conservatives are not conservative at all. They are radical and extreme, and their movement has taken on many of the tenets of fascism. Only a few key elements are still absent, which is why the author talks of pseudo-fascism, as opposed to the real thing.

I won't bother paraphrasing or quoting chunks of the article here; it's better that you simply read it for yourself and think about the issues raised, especially if you are an American citizen or a resident of the US. This lays bare the tactics being used to demonise all who oppose the so-called conservative movement's agenda, branding dissenters as weak and un-American.

Thanks to Geoff for this list of the bumbling baboon's greatest achievements. It's obviously strongly biased, but the numbers and stark juxtapositions make for interesting reading, nonetheless.

The world's slowest immigration queues...

Puddles of piss in front of every urinal, presumably due to a fear of contracting something nasty from the porcelain...

Unintelligible airport staff...

Ants in the house...

That's right... we're back.

A family member sent me this article, which once again raises the spectre of conscription in the US.

The American government once again claims that no such move is being considered and that this simply constitutes a routine recruitment drive for the draft boards, whose job positions are currently 80% vacant.

This gives rise to the following thoughts in my head:

• Why were those positions allowed to become 80% vacant? I have to assume they were not needed, or else they would never have been cut in a country that has never shown any aversion to adequately budgetting for so-called defence.
• Why are they being filled now if no draft is forthcoming? Is it simply an oversight that these jobs were vacated and then not filled? I doubt it.

As usual, read the article, consider the facts and make up your own mind.

Geoff alerted me to this story in The Guardian.

According to the story, the US is preparing to reinstate conscription, more commonly known as the draft in the local lingo. I didn't need yet another reason to be enthusiastic not to be an American citizen, but thanks, anyway, Mr. Bush.

The article states that conscription could be reintroduced as early as June of next year. Unlike its previous incarnation, it will not be possible to dodge it on educational grounds, nor can you expect to make a shrewd exit via Canada. The devious bastards have already plugged those holes, signing the smart border declaration with the neighbours to the north.

If you are a young American man under the age of 30, I would start looking for a new country in which to settle. Otherwise, before you know it, you could find yourself standing in some far-flung country with your dick in one hand and an M16 in the other, fighting an unsanctioned war in Bush's barmy army.

Many members of the professional services have clearly had enough of this country's state-sponsored terrorism and are not re-enlisting. This fascistic government's cynical response is to instead send its nation's youth to kill or be killed. My advice: don't hang around until it happens. Conscientious objection is unlikely to hold much sway in a society without conscience.

In case you didn't know, free speech and the freedom of expression are alive and well in the good old US of A. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

This is old news now, but since no mainstream news sources have picked up on the story, I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Basically, there is evidence to suggest that Nick Berg was, in fact, beheaded in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Yes, the very same prison in which the American military has been torturing Iraqi citizens.

This conclusion was reached after analysis of the infamous beheading video.

Another suspicion that is doing the rounds is that the victim was actually already dead before he was beheaded. Before I heard this rumour, I had already wondered the same thing myself after watching the video, as there is no arterial gushing as the alleged killers cut into Berg's neck. Rather, the blood simply pours out, as if not under pressure.

There are numerous other sources discussing the matter and reaching their own conclusions, some quite calm and rational, others a little more excitable and based on a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Anyway, as I said, the mainstream media seem to be staying away from this for some reason. There's a lot of smoke there, but there's some fire, too, and some of these findings should have you demanding answers to the the questions they raise.

Since ridding the world of this madman would cost you your liberty and most probably your life, you can, instead, act out your fantasies with the Anti-Bush On-line Video Game.