damnable conservative brownshirts

a guest post and alert from linda douglass, to whose white house office you may forward any health-care-reform disinformation advertised by your sucker conservative brownshirt nazi scum-friends. that disinformation, of course, includes accurate quotation of the president.

anyway, here is her alert on the looming fascist menace, as posted by iowahawk:

Know Your Town Hall Mob Agitators!

By Linda Douglass
Deputy Assistant Under-Minister of Truth
White House Health Care Task Force

Greetings citizen! By now you may have heard scattered rumors of state and party officials encountering reactionary resistors at local health care reform information programs. Do not be alarmed, for our 5-year plan for citizen health proceeds without delay. Remain stalwart! The truth can be told at last, that these so-called "protests" are merely the desperate rear flank mob actions of dead-end bandits and saboteurs in the pay of enemy insurance agents.

Pay them no heed, for these outside agitators in no way represent any threat to our great patriotic push forward for increased citizen heathfulness! These well-dressed prep school gangsters of reaction seek only to frighten and demoralize and intimidate you, with their confusing "facts" and hob-nailed Sperry Topsiders. Unfortunately they are joined in conspiracy by a well-financed network of unlicensed blogs and talk radio traitors, who exaggerate their numbers and percolate disinformation -- even cleverly staged YouTube videos of an impostor President Obama saying "quotes"!

Remain strong, citizen, for the day of their comeuppance is near! Patriotic spontaneous volunteers from MoveOn.org, Organizing For America, HCAN, SEIU, AFSCME, ACORN, NPR, and MSNBC have all pledged independent grassroots efforts to spread the word about the health-hating tricksters and their transparent astroturf agitation campaign!

You too can help by remaining ever-vigilant for health traitors in your local sectors. But beware: though small in number the state health reform enemy is clever, and well trained in subterfuge and disguise by his monopolist paymasters. Your job is to recognize his signs, and report any fishy-seeming protest or blog activities to me or other official authorities within the Health Care Truth Ministry. Here is a visual training course to help you in the execution of this important patriotic duty.

At the Health Care Town Hall

We have taken great care to insure that the site and times of local sector health care town hall meetings are known only to a specially-selected cross section of ordinary grateful citizens and responsible media outlets. Yet, in some cases, saboteur mobs have infiltrated and ruined the 11 PM news footage. Until we can find the fifth columnists who are leaking this classified information, it is important that you alert security forces to possible organized infiltrators before they enter the building and disrupt the applause sign schedule. Please study the following photos:

Here we see typical everyday hometown American citizens freely expressing their spontaneous health care opinions in an uncoordinated manner. Note the fine grassroots sanserif display font typography of their signs, spontaneously designed for maximum television legibility. Note that these citizens have coincidentally chosen their signage to color-match with their t-shirts. This will help independent grassroots organization leaders locate the citizens to distribute town hall seat assignments and bus departure schedules. You may also note that these hometown neighbors are carrying spontaneous chant cards.

Truly, this is Democracy in action. By contrast, let's look at this set of photos:

Behold the face of infiltrators and saboteurs, citizen! Look at the surly anti-American anger and carefully practiced dishevelment. Note that their signs are scrawled, fiendishly tricking cameramen into closeups. All are expertly handmade, an expensive graphic design luxury only affordable to their puppet masters in the drug and insurance cartels. Note these mobs are so well paid for their agitation that they actually arrived in their own cars and expensive non-matching t-shirts. Fishy? You bet! Report them at once!

Online

Spotting potential health care traitors online at first seems trickier than in person, until you remember that behind every opponent site lies a web of anti-patriotic conspirators. Often these sites will mask their treachery behind a clever veneer of "sarcasm" and "CBO data." A careful Google Image Search may be helpful in determining his true loyalties. First consider this photo of a random blogger.

Note how gaily he smiles behind the wheel of his decadent sporting-car, an obvious bauble provided by his oligarch masters in the pharmaceutical and blender industries. "Whee!" he seems to sing, blissfully ignorant to the plight his 47 million uninsured co-citizens. Calm your rage at his heartless insolence citizen -- his tune will soon change!

And what of this blogger?

The days of your deviltry are numbered, well-dressed running-dog lackey of gangster insurance plutocrats! You and your $250 suit are now entered into our monitoring data base!

In addition to reporting suspected health care blogoteurs, it is important to remind your fellow citizens to practice "safe surfing" when looking for health care reform information. Links to approved, citizen-driven, spontaneous grassroots websites can be found at Organizing for America, Health Care for America Now!, and ACORN. Until further notice, all other health care opinions are considered hostile disinformation from highly coordinated state enemies!

In Your Home Sector

Rooting out the deceptive web of anti-health propagandists must not only take place at our town halls and on line. If we are to defeat the forces of reaction, we must expose and isolate these sinister elements in all local sectors. Be alert and report all telltale signs of membership in secret Republican cabals: elite extremist plutocrats...

Extreme Texans...

religious extremists...

Southern gun extremist...

and extreme religious gun extremists.

All are potentially dangerous, so report first and do not try to confront. Most of all, keep your eyes alert for the most diabolical cabal standing in the way of our great push forward for your health!

That is all, citizen! Remain steadfast in your grassroots vigilance, and a healthy tomorrow will be yours!

on the attributes of God

[the following is something I've meant to write about for a while, so here goes]

truth. love. mercy. justice. these are human words that we use to describe ideals our world approaches, but never quite reaches. and since it is humans that utter these words, different people consider these ideals to mean different things: when one man speaks of mercy, another hears its absence. the ideals represented by these words vary wildly from person to person, leaving us with a question - whence good?

this question does not have a definite answer attained by human means. the most we can do, unassisted, is to note the appearance of a 'natural law' that usually holds in the heart of man.* this 'natural law' usually takes the form of a moral substrate, giving rise to the basic presuppositions that lead even many atheists to hold their moral reasoning in high regard. of course, conscience is not binding and so this 'natural law' may be rejected (by choice) and replaced with a new substrate ["without immortality.."], but the rejection is still present.

we then have a potential (but otherwise unbinding) definition of the good, namely that afforded by 'natural law.' but if it is a choice to reject natural law, it is also a choice to affirm it, and so the 'good' is only a signifier of one's choice. such a definition is then weak (but not meaningless), providing a moral realisation of the starry light kant gives as its partner.

the same holds for all purely human notions of ideal qualities.

but we are not bound to the purely human - for God has revealed Himself to mortal man! on the basis of revelation, without which we could not know anything outside of our experience, we have knowledge of God from God. that knowledge leads us to know God's perfect love for us and how we have rejected Him, choosing sin and death over Love and Life Incarnate. there is therefore an infinite gulf that only God can remove and not by the works or human love we can attain, for the gap is infinite and even the best of our love is tainted with death.

it is into this despair (under the power of sin) that Christ and His Gospel enters: that He came to remove our separation from God and reconcile us to Him, that He came when we were yet in rebellion, that He came knowing that He would die at our hand, and that He was resurrected into eternal glory (for our death and sin has no power over Him). glory be to God!

through the justifying work of Christ, we have received the mercy and pardon of God. amen.

---

as we pair these words - justice and mercy - we realise that our human notions of the good must be subsumed by the Absolute and Actual, realised in the person and attributes of God. 'natural law' must bow before the Source of Law and so must we. and so it is here, in the triune God, that we find the origin and definition of the Ideal. it is here that we find perfect Truth and perfect Love dwelling in absolute unity. it is here that we must look to know Justice apart from self-righteousness and Mercy apart from empathy. and it is here that we learn that these Ideals are not realised in isolation.

the perfect Love of God is accompanied by the root and knowledge of perfect Truth. that Truth does not bind the Love of God, nor does His Love blind Him to His creation. He sees all and loves all, and if He saw any less His love would decrease as it only loves an avatar of the creature before Him. in turn, if He loved less, His vision would become constrained by hardness.

so it is with God and so it is with His children. knowledge esteemed above love will harden a man's heart, but the opposite will blind him and render his love meaningless. this dialectic does not hold in pairs, but in full generality: the fullness of Love is inextricably linked to Justice and Compassion and Righteousness and Power. all of these attributes are only rightly understood in God, and it is there that they are only rightly understood in their union.

and so - called by God, reconciled by Christ, and led by the Holy Spirit - we imitate God and Christ and learn Ideals from His Hand. as He develops His attributes in us, we are continually linked to Him, lest we consider our love or justice to have any value or life apart from His covering work in us. He thus covers us with His righteousness, teaches us how to love as He does (and then covers it yet again), and instructs us in the way of justice. in this, He keeps us close from the temptations away from Him back into self-righteousness and poison.

we are not good on our own merits, but on His. in turn, the person (and its attributes) He grows in us must not be rooted in us, but in Him. that He does this in the present is His promise, accompanied by His present indwelling.

again, glory - glory! - be to the God who does and is all this! may we ever be connected to Him as He is, and not merely as we conceive Him. amen.

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*if you disagree, steal and wreck a foucault-fan's car. observe the results.

stimulus

"'Decide Yourself who was right: You or the one who questioned You then? Recall the first question; its meaning, though not literally, was this: "You want to go into the world, and You are going empty-handed, with some promise of freedom, which they in their simplicity and innate lawlessness cannot even comprehend, which they dread and fear -- for nothing has ever been more insufferable for man and for human society than freedom! But do You see these stones in this bare, scorching desert? Turn them into bread and mankind will run after You like sheep, grateful and obedient, though eternally trembling lest You withdraw Your hand and Your loaves cease for them." But You did not want to deprive man of freedom and rejected the offer, for what sort of freedom is it, You reasoned, if obedience is bought with loaves of bread? You objected that man does not live by bread alone, but do You know that in the name of this very earthly bread, the spirit of the earth will rise against You and fight with You and defeat You, and everyone will follow him exclaiming: "Who can compare to this beat, for he has given us fire from heaven!" Do You know that centuries will pass and mankind will proclaim with the mouth of its wisdom and science that there is no crime, and therefore no sin, but only hungry men? "Feed them first, then ask virtue of them!" -- that is what they will write on the banner they raise against You, and by which Your temple will be destroyed. In place of Your temple a new edifice will be raised, the terrible Tower of Babel will be raised again, and though, like the former one, this one will not be completed either, still You could have avoided this new tower and shortened people's suffering for a thousand years with their tower! They will seek us out again, underground, in catacombs, hiding (for again we shall be persecuted and tortured), they will find us and cry out: "Feed us, for those who promised us fire from heaven did not give it." And then we shall finish building their tower, for only he who feeds them will finish it, and only we shall feed them, in Your name, for we shall lie that it is in Your name. Oh, never, never will they feed themselves without us! No science will give them bread as long as they remain free, but in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us: "Better that you enslave us, but feed us." They will finally understand that freedom and earthly bread in plenty for everyone are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share among themselves. They will also be convinced that they are forever incapable of being free, because they are feeble, depraved, nonentities and rebels. You promised them heavenly bread, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, eternally depraved, and eternally ignoble human race? And if in the name of heavenly bread thousands and tens of thousands will follow You, what will become of the millions and tens of thousands of millions of creatures who will not be strong enough to forgo earthly bread for the sake of the heavenly? Is it that only the tens of thousands of the great and strong are dear to you, and the remaining millions, numerous as the sands of the sea, weak but loving You, should serve only as material for the great and the strong? No, the weak, too, are dear to us. They are depraved and rebels, but in the end it is they who will become obedient. They will marvel at us, and look upon us as gods, because we, standing at their head, have agreed to suffer freedom and to rule over them -- so terrible will it become for them in the end to be free! But we shall say that we are obedient to You and rule in Your name. We shall deceive them again, for this time we shall not allow You to come to us. This deceit will constitute our suffering, for we shall have to lie. This is what the first question in the wilderness meant, and this is what You rejected in the name of freedom, which You placed above everything. And yet this question contains the great mystery of this world. Had You accepted the "loaves," You would have answered the universal and everlasting anguish of man as an individual being, and of the whole of mankind together, namely: "before whom shall I bow down?" There is no more ceaseless or tormenting care for man, as long as he remains free, than to find someone to bow down to as soon as possible. But man seeks to bow down before that which is indisputable, so indisputable that all men at once would agree to the universal worship of it. For the care of these pitiful creatures is not just to find something before which I or some other man can bow down, but to find something that everyone else will also believe in and bow down to, for it must needs be all together. And this need for communality. of worship is the chief torment of each man individually, and of mankind as a whole, from the beginning of the ages. In the cause of universal worship, they have destroyed each other with the sword. They have made gods and called upon each other: "Abandon your gods and come and worship ours, otherwise death to you and your gods!" And so it will be until the end of this world, even when all gods have disappeared from the earth: they will still fall down before idols. You knew, You could not but know, this essential mystery of human nature, but You rejected the only absolute banner, which was offered to You to make all men bow down to You indisputably -- the banner of earthly bread; and You rejected it in the name of freedom and heavenly bread."

---

our conception of love and compassion is often at war with Christ's.

property and community

viewed from a christian perspective:

"property is owned by the individual" - idolatry of the self.

"property is owned by the community" - idolatry of the community, that is, of every self.

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there are idolatries, self-contradictions, and both.

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any secular political system will allow idolatry. from the christian perspective, we must therefore ask if such a system allows the self a free choice between idolatry and submission to God in the various expressions of life (worship, money, time, work, &c). if that system maintains..
- an individualistic view on property: the self clearly has such a choice with respect to that property.
- a collective view: that choice is removed; the self at once has everything, and nothing.

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finally, self-contradictions should not be enthroned as defining presuppositions.

some random music selections

for the wedding. awesome:
1. sadie hawkins dance - relient k.
2. ugly day (a.k.a. the original 'rhubarb pie') - five iron frenzy.
3. stickshifts & safetybelts - cake.
4. the cure for pain - jon foreman.
5. do you remember - jack johnson.

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25 days!

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p.s. getting a marriage license is a strange experience. if you've gone through it, you know what I'm talking about.

start the day with a smile..

hey, someone's still got brains and that old enlightenment crap going for them:

Dan Rather’s conspiracy theories about CBS make about as much sense as a two-story outhouse, the network says.

Rather and his old bosses were facing off in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, where the former Evening News anchor was seeking documents he says will prove his storied career there was sacrificed to appease the Bush administration. ...

“We allege this was a sham investigation on be half of CBS so they could mollify the right” and get rid of Rather, who’d been a thorn in Bush’s side, Gold said.

In their court filings, CBS states, “Rather’s position defies logic and common sense.”

“Rather’s theory is that CBS News commissioned a costly panel, in order to criticize itself, exonerate Dan Rather, and give themselves cover for doing something that it had a contractual right to do anyway,” which is remove Rather from his anchor seat, the filing says. CBS lawyer Jim Quinn said that while the report found Rather did nothing wrong, it “excoriated CBS.”

“If that’s a sham, it’s the dumbest sham I’ve ever heard of,” Quinn said.

just to remind folks of the backstory, this goes back to a 60 minutes ii episode about president bush's national guard service that was all well and good.. modulo the fact that it was based on completely (and rather obviously) fradulent documents supplied by a democratic party operative.

now, if folks would only apply the same sort of argument-ad-absurdum from the self-interest perspective w.r.t. iraq, we might have more intellectually honest dialogue about the history there..

good day!

damn straight

will bunch gets it:

"Yes, they’re voicing outrage today inside the sacred sanctuary of the Temple of Objective Journalism, where the celebrants nervously fingered their rosaries rather than confront the Constitutional bonfire that was building outside.

But for eight years now, there’s been an out-of-control fire raging outside of that temple – a fire that was built upon the USA Patriot Act and Guantanamo and rendition and torture and signing statements and 16 words in a State of the Union Address. Ultimately, saving the last fabric of democracy is more important than worrying about what contrived commandments of journalism were stepped on while the blaze was finally extinguished.

I myself would call it truth-telling, and honest journalism, but now we have some who want to call it “media bias.” That’s fine with me, but understand this.

"Media bias” may have just saved America."

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seriously! out with the arrogant bums who suppress truth in favour of their own vision for what's best for our country! let's save democracy by getting rid of 'em.

"paging george orwell.."

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jeff goldstein has the best reaction to this nonsense:

"Objectivity suppressed in the name of the Greater Good.

Call that attitude fascist, and you’re a crazed wingnut. Because in the world of the progressives, the highest form of patriotism is a willingness to cast off bourgeois conventions (when to do so is convenient, of course — just call it “pragmatism”) if in the final analysis the Greater Good is the result.

Never mind that presuming the Greater Good is yours to define against the will of an informed electorate is anti-American (and so de facto unpatriotic). The solution to that is simply to redefine patriotism in a way that matches your agenda.

The ends justify the means. And if a democratic republic consistently proves itself incapable of doing the right thing, the right thing to do is to make sure that they no longer trip over their own persistent idiocy.

As defined by progressives.

Welcome to Hotel Orwell. Free cable — but no Fox News."

as for me and my vote..

local:
- governor. I voted for rossi on three major grounds:
1. divided government. letting a single party run olympia for nearly twenty years has induced massive amounts of inefficiency, corruption, and the generally salient features of any one-party state that you expect, regardless of what name they bear. consider sheena's situation at public health: massive services for, you know, poor people are being cut while management positions in bright, new, and really shiny buildings are added. along with sophisticated and awe-inspiring technology for those managers to manage their now-dwindling functions really really well.
2. fiscal responsibility. our state's response, I suspect largely due to its nearly one-party governance, to any kind of financial difficulty is invariably to say "we can't do this! we must raise taxes so that we can provide new services! help yourselves by helping us." or rather, post-2004-election, do this under the guise of 'emergency legislation' and charge .15USD/gallon statewide in new gas taxes to 'fund' non-existent transportation projects around puget sound that will in fact be funded by tolls and new taxes installed at the time. see, that way, voters forget about the old massive tax hikes you installed to pay for your promised pretty roads and then you can tax them again later on and they won't know the difference. because they're just going to vote for a democrat anyway. thus encouraging accountability for politicians. anyway, rossi's clearly not from this pattern. I'm not expecting great things and perhaps he'll go too far (doubtful with a democrat-controlled state legislature; people forget these things..). in which case, we'll then have another fifty million years of one-party democratic control after him during which things can slide completely in the opposite direction for like, forever.
3. somehow my third reason got absorbed into #2. don't ask me why. maybe it's because I'm still pissed about the post-2004 debacle and general mismanagement of resources with our government.

- initiative 985. I voted no. summary:
1. another classic tim eyman initiative that sounds flippin' awesome at first and then becomes more and more sour; leaving you with a sort of bitter feeling as you realize you got taken in by a guy who's likely more about himself than actually helping traffic congestion.
2. I liked: the carpool lane, roadside assistance, and toll limitation bit. the last one I thought was important: just like new taxes, new tolls should be passed by a simple legislative vote instead of instituted by fiat.
3. but anyway, the thing meddles way too much with telling state & local government how to manage minutiae. that strikes me as a bad precedent for good governance from either the right or the left.
4. but seriously: having come from the east coast, the washington DOT is one of the most absymal organizations I've ever seen. seriously. and their knee-jerk taxation impulse for anything new just indicates some of the institutional non-accountability I hinted at in the governor description.

- initiative 1000. I also voted no on this one.
1. as a small 'l' libertarian (long discussion there), I was naturally predisposed to vote 'yes' for something like this. as contrasted with abortion where we don't have a clue about a fetus' consciousness or potential volition about whether or not it would like to be crushed or maimed or dead.
2. but the decisive thing here was what happened in oregon after they passed a similar initiative. essentially, the matter comes down to insurance.
2a. down there, they've had a number of cases where insurance companies would tell terminally ill patients that they would not help fund expensive, life-prolonging medication (which they funded before the initiative passed) in lieu of a much cheaper assisted suicide option.
3. which is the generally scary thing about government-run health care, now that I mention it. the availability of health care and its options should never be subject to perceived social interest. ever.

- initiative 1027 (I think). I voted yes on this one.
well, it seemed rather obvious. quality control for long-term care is just as important as quality control in the hospital. and the utter absence in the former (and associated horror stories from nursing homes) is pathetic.

- president. I voted for mccain/palin.
1. much like the governor note above, there's this whole divided government thing that I value. essentially, ideological 'movements' based upon bettering the people and sweeping out old corruption tend to very quickly settle into new corruption and new problems that are just as immature and/or, well, problematic. divided government at least ensures that the progress of such rhetorically boldened movements is kept pretty close to earth, if only by slowing its rate of 'progress.' there's also much better public accountability this way. which brings me to my second destructive reason..
2. essentially, the prospect of having a man in the white house who engages in the foundational lie and isn't called on it by a supposedly interested media scares the shit out of me w.r.t. the health of the republic. don't get me wrong: all politicians lie to a greater or lesser extent. the beautiful thing about our republic is that we have (i.) at least one opposition party and (ii.) a private media who both have self-interest in rooting out lies/deception to make the other party look bad or make news [of course, they often generate fictional or assumed 'deceptions' that lots of really smart people then process without ever worrying about whether or not they are verified; but that's a separate issue]. here though, no one really believes a word coming out of the republican party (for better or worse) and the media has been permanently engaged in worship mode for months. as a result, we've seen justification and rationalization for all sorts of massive lies/self-contradictions from obama's campaign and obama himself. not at all limited to:
- preconditions in negotiating with iran
- free trade
- foreign policy in latin america
- addressing russia
- iraq and the success/failure there
- israel
- tax increases/decreases
in additional to the foundational lies about obama himself and his transformative lightworking being, including:
- post-partisanship
- campaign finance
- his pastor and other radical associations
- any pretension or claim to being 'moderate'
- copious amounts of vacuous rhetoric and empathy that shrouds a very different policy vision
as I said, all politicians engage in a massive amount of deception. obama is no different in that. the crucial difference to my eye is the willingness for large numbers of smart/educated/important people to rationalize obvious self-contradictions into suave arguments for his awesomeness. the fact that the media has assisted this is abhorrent and sets awful precedent for future governance. it essentially introduces the possibility of no electoral accountability for a man who mouths the 'right' sort of words (judged by some informational elite), even if they sometimes include statements like "black is white." and even if mr. obama doesn't misuse that lack of accountability to his advantage, like I said: it sets awful precedent for the future.
2a. if you don't agree, imagine karl rove as president with twelve versions of fox news broadcast in every cafe. with everyone smiling knowingly about all the things they don't actually know, but merely assume. because, well, it's true dammit. then you'd live in my world - in reverse. either way, it's bad.
3. oh, and the last destructive reason that's more me-oriented rather than more global: I don't actually agree with him on, well, anything policy-related. and while it's very nice of him to consider little people like me that probably got brainwashed into a non-progressive value set, his voting record indicates that his consideration is purely abstract. I personally have no use for such big-minded people.
4. now, on to constructives. economically, if we have to choose between, say, increasing capital gains/property/estate taxes on the 'rich' (while crucially affecting small business and investment incentives for the not-so-rich) and not, then taking option 2 will be healthier for everyone - period. if you want to prolong whatever recession and economic troubles are country is plunging into, then a good way to do that is to motivate rich folks and corporations to move their money overseas by taxing the shit out of them. see, that way, you increase unemployment (since the jobs left) AND decrease economic output (since the money left) AND generate even more despair as your economy suffers even more, which naturally leads itself to invest more power in government to help out further. this was the good old great depression model that - not to be too blunt - prolonged the depression far longer than it would have likely lasted under a more minimal government approach. but hey don't believe me, listen to this guy. anyway, that's a long way of saying that populist rhetoric is all well and good (if entirely unjust: an extra zero on your tax return suddenly kicks in conditional social ethics that make theft legal and appropriate), but its historical effectiveness for, you know, actually helping the poor is actually poor itself. all the while, it also decreases individual conceptions of responsibility for their fellow man. because, well, Jesus didn't reaaallly call you to love your neighbor you know, yourself. that's government's job to 'make sure it happens;' your free will and love pale in comparison to the act of achieving nominal dependence on some impersonal entity.
4a. not that mccain's that great in this region either; but he's certainly better.
5. iraq. well, not that anyone cares about that place anymore not that it's doing so much better, but I do. and pissing away achievements there and disengaging from active conflicts with AQI and others to.. umm.. fight them in afghanistan even though they're primarily localized near iraq.. umm, oh I lost myself again. oh yeah: pissing away those achievements is quite dumb. tackle afghanistan/pakistan soon; secure one front first and then move on. you know, like you learn from basic military history.
5a. random interlude: I'm terribly sick of the fact that many smart people think of iraq entirely in terms of the 2003 invasion. you know, the folks that love to contextualize everything simply fail to contextualize this: that regardless of how you felt about whether or not we should have or should not have invaded iraq, we are there now. and we will be there for the near future. this act of presence can either be something that benefits the iraqi people, the middle east, and us, or it may not. the ethical question of 2003 is now a historical question; saying 'we shouldn't have gone there' is fine, but the statement 'and so we shouldn't be there now' does not logically follow. obama half-falls into this nonsense (likely for political reasons, thereby engaging much political support from the perpetually outraged) while also advancing this "they're in afghanistan! seriously!" business that, were it true, would be much more advanced in convenient leaks by higher-ups in the defense dept. in some fashion that shows that they aren't simply convenient for obama's benefit, but convenient toward shaping public policy.
5b. people forget, after all, that people and institutions act primarily out of self-interest. the defense department & co. have a vested self-interest in actually doing their jobs well. which means they usually know a helluva lot more what they're talking about than the vocal lot that make it onto sunday morning talk shows. of course, they also have a self-interest in manipulating publicly released information as well. but here, a hyperactive and tourettes-like press is actually useful.
6. for all that people have made fun of palin (to the point of absurdity), her policy outlook is actually the closest to my own; namely, small 'l' libertarian. not that people care about that when they can butcher quotes to prove that she believes in holy war; you mess with the narrative when you do that. not that it terribly matters anyway; vice presidents, even cheney, don't do that much compared to other offices.

hmm, that seems like a sufficient summary for now. I need to actually mail my absentee ballot and then get back to work.

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all in all though, none of this truly matters on an eternal timescale. I have voted my conscience while recognizing that my hope and duty does not reside in politicians or our republic, but rather in our God and King. it is my desire that beyond my vote, that His Will is done and that our government and its function reflects His wishes and desires. that whoever He wants in office will be elected.

but now I go back to my duty: love for Him and love for my neighbor. those He will lift me up to pursue independent of who is in earthly power. and as my hope lies in Him, He will bring about the change He desires in me, the change and redemption that I cannot bring to myself. praise be to God.

derek webb on the election tomorrow

and that well said.

from patrol magazine - how then shall we vote?

Part 1: A Brief Statement On Matters Of Conscience

Depending on when you’re reading this, we could be on either side of one of the most evocative elections in our country’s recent history. It shouldn’t really matter, as this writing isn’t necessarily about our current election but rather on living an honest and integrated political life. Even so, there is no time for clever stories or introductions. I’ll cut right to the chase: ultimately our problems will not be solved by the right man (or woman) in the White House. It simply doesn’t work that way. We live in a democracy, a representative form of government, where it’s as much if not more our responsibility to love and take care of our neighbors than our politician’s responsibility. Real and lasting change comes from knowing and loving the folks who live in the houses that sit next to ours rather than saving all of our longing and hope for the voting booth.

Now that’s not to say that we shouldn’t make informed decisions, be involved in the process. Of course we should. I mean, if your conscience allows, you can even vote. But that’s tricky, especially in a two party system (but I definitely don’t have time for that).

But in all seriousness, I want to be perfectly clear on this point: it is never advisable, in any decision that you make, to violate your conscience. As it applies to this election, you might have serious moral conflicts with both candidates, and therefore feel as though you must vote in a defensive manner or for the lesser of two evils.

Now let me say before I go any further that that may not be you. And in terms of the body of followers of Jesus, it would likely be sinful if we were all reaching the same conclusions on how to best love our neighbors, so there’s plenty of room for a difference of opinion there. But if that is you, I have a few suggestions:

1. Look through your bible for a mandate that you must vote.

2. When you don’t find one, listen to that conscience of yours. That’s what it’s there for, to be a guide and a red flag when you’re making difficult and significant decisions.

What I’m not saying: you should not vote.

What I am saying: if your conscience is seriously conflicted over both candidates, you are at liberty to not vote.

Part 2: Some Common Objections

Some would say that not voting is giving your vote over to those who seek to use the governmental process for evil. I would actually argue the opposite. By voting, especially when based on just one or two issues, you’re giving your ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ to that party’s entire platform, which likely goes far beyond the statement you’re trying to make on these few issues. This is certainly more perilous and less nuanced that abstaining altogether. No party can co-opt a vote that isn’t cast.

Others would say, ‘Jesus said to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Therefore we have biblical an obligation to vote.’ And of course Jesus said that. That’s why I pay my taxes and try to drive the speed limit. These are among the laws of the land. But my conscience doesn’t belong to Caesar, therefore I don’t render it unto him. Caesar cannot force me to violate my conscience. Voting is a legal right, like carrying a gun or having an abortion. And I can abstain from doing anything that I have a legal right to if it violates my conscience.

Some say that we’ll never completely agree with the agenda or platform of a politician, that if we wait for a candidate that we line up with 100% we’ll never vote. I completely agree. There are many issues upon which I can disagree with a politician that don’t amount to a crisis of conscience. So there will always be necessary and acceptable compromises to make when engaging in the system of politics, but never when your conscience is on the line.

Which brings my to the last common objection: our forefathers fought and even shed blood so that we would have the right to vote. While there’s obviously nothing in this statement that I would disagree with, there is a context to consider. Even greater than our forefather’s sacrifices are those of our heavenly Father, who also shed blood in order to stir in us an allegiance greater than that of nation. We have an ultimate allegiance to our King and the Kingdom he’s building in and through us that trumps all others.

In the early 1520s Martin Luther famously stood before a general assembly in Germany, at the beginnings of what’s known as the protestant reformation. In his legendary speech Luther risked excommunication and death in order to keep from violating his conscience when he said, “To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot, and I will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

These matters of conscience are serious and should be considered at great length. I have many friends who have considered the issues of this current election in all their nuances and have chosen to vote for either Obama, McCain, or a 3rd party candidate, and I support them in doing so. Again, we are diverse members of one body in our following of Jesus. It would be suspicious if we all reached identical conclusions to such complex problems. So again, maybe there is no conflict of conscience for you in this election. By all means vote. But if there is, be at liberty not to vote.

Our ultimate hope is not in politicians or powers or governments, but in a day coming when all things will be made right. And our ultimate concern isn’t success but faithfulness. So if you find it necessary to abstain from voting in this election because to do so would be a violation of your conscience, be at liberty to remain faithful and leave the worry of success or outcome to God. He, after all, created governments in the first place.

---

yes.

"..And whatever is not from faith is sin." - Romans 14:23b

(see the rest of the chapter for the appropriate discussion on conscience; see also 1 john)

d-bags for obama

easily the funniest thing I've read this election cycle.

from iowahawk:

Obama Pix Hipster Prix to Reclick with Stix Hix

Rural Michigan-bound Hipster douchebags train in hyperbaric sarcasm chamber at Obama training center

Denver - With new polls showing Barack Obama's once-commanding lead over John McCain all but evaporated, the Obama campaign announced today it has begun deploying its vast volunteer army of downtown hipster douchebags to help reconnect the presumptive Democratic candidate with middle-American voters.

"Unlike Iraq, this is one surge that is actually going to work," said Obama campaign manager David Axlerod.

Sources within the campaign say the new strategy was prompted by recent national poll trends indicating McCain pulling even with, and in some instances even overtaking, Obama. More troubling for the campaign were internal tracking polls that show the candidate losing significant ground in key Midwestern, Southern and Western battleground states. As the numbers dropped, some within the campaign were left in stunned disbelief.

"It really didn't make sense," said Carly Voorhees, an East Village experimental performance poet, Cooper Union graduate student and member of Obama's 600-expert foreign policy team. "We knew in theory there were a handful of stump-toothed biblebillies and neocon dead-enders out there, but by all rights we should have had at least a 60%-75% lead. Even after Barack threw that awesome victory rave in Germany, the numbers kept deteriorating."

"At first we were stumped," she added. "Then it dawned on us -- McSame's subliminal attack ads were stoking the deep-rooted, latent racism of white middle America. We needed to warn these uneducated simpletons that McSame was exploiting their superstitions and genetic bigotry. The big question was -- how?"

A Few Good D-Bags

At first, the Obama team looked into major media buys in key battleground states. But with a campaign budget already strained by price increases in arugula and Hawaiian airfare, the impact was deemed to be minimal. Instead, they turned to a key campaign asset -- a dedicated cadre of young urban hipster douchebags willing to take Obama's message of change to America's small town streets and rural blacktops. An intensive eVite recruitment campaign on websites like the Daily Kos and Huffington Post yielded over 1,500 volunteers for the potentially dangerous mission.

"I couldn't be prouder of all of you wonderful young indy rock assholes," said Axlerod at a swearing-in ceremony at the campaign's official training center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. "You represent our party's finest, the best of best -- you are our Douchebag Delta Force."

Highly motivated, and with skills ranging from post-modern gender theory to espresso cafe blackboard chalk art, the volunteers were eager to get to work on the campaign trail. But before deployment Obama officials insisted that all recruits undergo an intensive training regimen to prepare them for the rigors of life in Red Country.

"A lot of the plebe douchebags come in here full of swagger, thinking all it takes is a few hours of FM country music endurance training, and I have to tell them they have no idea what they're up against," says Ethan Dodge, a Seattle conceptual theater set designer and veteran douchebag of Obama's Iowa caucus campaign. "Believe me, I've been to Dubuque. I know."

Douchebag DI Dodge: "They don't what they're
up against"

To toughen up the recruits for the task ahead, Dodge and other drill instructors take a direct approach.

"We tell them straight up: we aren't your mommy or daddy or your au pair. There aren't any independent lesbian film festivals in Youngstown, and just because Iowa has a lot of farmers it doesn't mean they are going to see a lot of Sunday chill-out farmers' markets," says Voorhees. "After that shock wears off, we tell them about how the natives drink Pabst unironically."

"Sure, it scares some recruits off," admits Dodge. "But the ones who stay are much less likely to crack under the pressure of a two week isolation from American Apparel or Urban Outfitters."

According to trainers, one of the toughest obstacles to building a cohesive field team is overcoming natural hipster douchebag one-upsmanship.

"Most douchebags take pride in being in on trends and bands before anyone else, and abandoning them before anyone else," says David Forrester, a grant composer for an Austin non-profit community public radio art advocacy outreach agency who serves the training center chaplain. "When we tell them their conversion target is fat middle-aged western Wisconsin Wal-Mart moms, it creates an ethical dilemma in many of them. They have fears that the mission success conflicts with their own finely-tuned sense of douchebag exclusiveness and superiority."

"I counsel them that they are serving Obama, and a greater hipness," he explains. "Still, I admit some harbor thoughts of abandoning the campaign for edgier, more-out-there bands like Nader or Ron Paul."

Fighting Back for Barack

While training continues at the Williamsburg facility, an advanced detachment of Obama hipster douchebags is already on the ground in several electoral hotspots throughout the Midwest and the New South's notorious "Nascar Triangle." Led by Los Angeles guerrilla marketing douchebag Benjamin "Benjamin" Lorenz, the elite edgy squadron contains some of the Obama campaign's top flamewar-hardened Farktards and Digg dipshits, and has been spending several days preparing the American election battlefields for the Obama douchebag airlift expected later this week.

"After all those hours simulating, training and trolling on wingnut message boards, it's good to finally be on the ground," said Lorenz, landing at the airport in Wisconsin's hotly contested Fond du Lac province. "Which way to the free public yellow bikes?"

Lorenz: wooing Midwest senior voters through
snark, attitude-y posing in gritty alley doorways

According to Lorenz, winning back fence sitters to the Obama column takes a disciplined three-pronged attack of sarcasm, irony and condescension, which he demonstrates on a diner at a Fond du Lac IHOP.

"Excuse me, who are you voting for?" Lorenz asks the elderly man.

"Oh, I don't know, McCain I suppose," the man answers.

"Yeah, I guess you senile old fucks need to stick together," says Lorenz. "That way you can stay safe from those scary Muslim nee-groos."

"See?" observes Lorenz. "Now that he's been properly shamed out of his racism, he'll think twice before pulling any lever for McBush."

Outside Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC, elite douchebag and Berkeley environmental street theater expert Jeremy Bremer uses a similar approach -- with a green message.

"Hyuk hyuk hyuk, lookie me, Ima inbred Republican hillbilly drivin' round in circles, jist lak that thar Nafcar," shouts Bremer, pantomiming a race to boombox banjo music. The scene quickly draws a curious throng of onlookers, when Bremer suddenly stops.

"Except I'm not destroying the planet," he shouts angrily.

When a McCain supporter from the crowd responds, Bremer removes a video camera and begins filming her.

"Guess what, bitch?" taunts Bremer. "You just been rickrolled on YouTube."

"I'd like to see her show her face again after that," laughs Bremer after the incident. "Totally PWN3D."

Obama douchebag Meilani Cohen poses
atop her MFA thesis, perhaps ironically

In Perrysville, Indiana, special forces douchebag Meilani Cohen uses a softer sarcasm approach when wooing Hoosier swing votes to the Obama column. For the last week, Cohen has been conducting a traveling one-woman show of "Six Years of Tuition," the pink fiberglass rock that was her Yale Art School master's thesis.

"The piece is a great conversation starter with the local proletariat," says Cohen. "I use it to demonstrate how Obama is all about change and unity, and cutting edge postmodern sculpture, and how he will fund public arts programs to bring it to their dismal little hellhole towns."

"Occasionally I will run into a McBush supporter, and I will pull out two campaign posters and let them compare," she explains. "Obama: Shepard Fairey. McCain: Copperplate Gothic. Then I ask them - are you really going to vote for someone that out of touch with graphic design trends?"

In Urbandale, Iowa, a six-member Obama douchebag team seeks converts through music. Squad leader Xander-Kai Topher says the group was an outgrowth of a 2005 NYU Semiotics class student project, and describes their style as "Hopcore Acoustotrance."

"Semiotic theory shows that messages become persuasive through repetition," Topher explains as we walk the streets of this quiet Des Moines suburb. "To win back Obama voters, it will take a lot of chanting."

To demonstrate, the group rings the doorbell of Debbie and Mike Lefko's split level ranch, whose tidy lawn features several John McCain signs. When the Lefkos emerge, the group treat them to a 7-minute performance of the campaign's official headbobbing hypnochant "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma," punctuated by soulful, if off-key, glissandos.

Clearly moved, Debbie Lefko retreats into the house and gives the group a $10 campaign donation.

"I had heard that schizophrenic homelessness was on the rise, but I had no idea," said a tearful Lefko. "My God, those poor people looked like they got their clothes out of a Salvation Army dumpster."

The Fog of War

Whether Obama's douchebag heartland surge will ultimately succeed remains to be determined, but longtime political analyst and What's the Matter With Kansas? author Thomas Frank thinks the basic strategy is sound.

"Unfortunately this election comes down to winning the hearts and minds of whitebread, middlebrow, middle-class, middle-Americans," says Frank."This effort shows that Obama troops are willing to reach out and condescend to them, one-on-one, no matter how pathetic and stupid they are."

"I think the energy and diversity of these young douchebags will really help Obama in the swing states," agrees longtime political watcher David Gergen. "It shows that the appeal of Obama transcends Chicago government union thugs and celebrity shitheads."

But others say the Obama douchebag surge is already stalling. New polls conducted after the surge indicate further polling losses, and the frustration is showing in the field.

"I've seen some poor morale," says Richard Greil, a Chicago Tribune reporter embedded with Obama's 131st Douchebag Infantry in Northeast Missouri. "It goes beyond the usual grumbling over lack of graffiti art and gritty-yet-trendy warehouse districts. These volunteers are being dropped into areas largely unfamiliar with irony and snark, and it can be completely disorienting. They call it the 'hundred yard Farm & Fleet stare.'"

Some volunteers worry that indigenous population has recognized the strategy and already adapted.

"After I talk with some of these morons, I'll ask them, 'so you're going to vote for Obama, right?' and they're like, 'ya, sure, you betcha,'" says a weary London Whitworth, 26, outside a Brainerd, Minnesota strip mall. "But in the back of my mind I can't help shake the notion that they're using sarcasm too."

In an ominous sign for the campaign, there have also been recent scattered reports of some volunteers going AWOL -- and even defecting. One such defector is Chael Martin, 25. The former Echo Park douchebag and Obama community organizer fled his post Wednesday and now spends his days sipping Miller Lite and playing skeeball at a Glenbeulah, Wisconsin tavern, where he talks about his dissolutionment with the surge.

"Dude, Obama like an hour ago," says Martin. "These Republicans are so far out, they're in.

love it.