Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
The American War Criminal Quiz
Nice mickey..
another quiz…
you have to choose a leader for yours or a n other country, your options are…
1. A teetotaller who was decorated by the military and is a regular churchgoer.
2. A former opium addict with a drinking habit who was in charge of several military disasters.
Ok, if you went for option one - you just chose adolf hitler, if you went for option 2 you just chose winston churchill
i am obviously not an admirer of either of them
Posted by michael from exile on 01/10 at 05:20 AMGood morning, michael...Yes, the other WC is a good one. Too bad most in the usa don’t get it.
Mickey says,
“...Into the vacuum left by the eventual overthrow of Barre, the U.S. pushed an International Monetary Fund structural adjustment program on a nation besieged with drought conditions. This was a recipe for disaster and the resulting famine killed an estimated 300,000 people, mostly children....”
The IMF has probably done more harm than Hitler and Churchill did. It’s all about the money. Predatory Capitalism is the root of the problem.Keir...it was great to see that you were here last night. You have been missed.
Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 01/10 at 09:03 AMGood morning, Mickey, Michael and all.
Are there no men and women at all in the political arena who are persons of integrity? Is there not one individual who can be trusted to carry out the will of the people? Perhaps there is someone here could throw out a name or two, just to give us a little hope.
A bit cooler here in Montreal this morning but still not feeling like winter.
Posted by Canadian Observer from on 01/10 at 09:03 AMMorning all.
RMJ, I can’t agree more regarding the IMF. I’ve been reading up on Argentina the past few days, and it is yet another example of what happens when countries accept IMF’s “help”.
Great article Mickey. I’m going to have to pick up some of your books, that much is obvious!
Posted by Deb from NoVa on 01/10 at 09:12 AMCanadian Observer...we were REALLY symultyping. I often have the question that you ask in my mind. A few years ago, for a few brief moments, I thought that Kucinich might be that one person of integrity. Then he caved in to the political pressure of the party machine. I will not be fooled again. I cannot name one elected official who is willing to stand up to the pressure....hummm, possibly Barbara Lee??? I am not sure. That is why I like Ralph Nader. I think of him as a Statesman and humanitarian, not a politician. My dream ticket for the race for the office of President would be Churchill/Nader or Nader/Churchill. It will never happen because the power of the party machine is too great to overcome. Even a simple thing like opening the debates does not happen. Here in my tiny hometown, third party candidates that were on the ballot recently were not allowed to participate in the forums that were held in public tax supported buildings. usa voters get what they vote for, and then almost immediately they get “voters’ remorse” and spend the next 4 years whining. Somebody needs to tell the voters that they had a choice. They could have written in “Nader” or anyone else. Instead they are led to the polls like lemmings.
Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 01/10 at 09:18 AMHi Deb...Have you read “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins?
Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 01/10 at 09:21 AMI missed you too RMJ.
I know some people here don’t particularly like Harper’s, but I just read something like “What the Democrats Should Do Now” in the current issue by Lewis Lapham about how impeachment should be very much on the table. After reading MZ’s post today it gets me thinking that Bill C. should also be retroactively impeached (for indiscretions a bit more substantial than banging his intern while on our payroll). After Billy and Georgie are impeached, they ought to be fed to rats. Hopefully someone will be standing by with one o’ them cellphone videocameras.
Posted by Keir from back in the hague on 01/10 at 09:44 AMGood morning Expendables old and new,
I’ll chime in to add my compliments on your fine article, Mickey; and that it was nice to see Keir drop by last night.(even if I only knew about it this morning)
My 2 pennies: Persons of integrity who feel compelled to enter politics are either chewed up and spit out by the system, or their integrity is eroded to a near useless if not downright detrimental level.
Consider Ralph Nader...I think his ideals are or were in the right place (or at least closer to it than most of the other options) but in order to be allowed to be part of the system in the sense that he might actually have a shot at true power he watered down his rhetoric. Granted, his rhetoric is still ‘radical’ when compared to the average bullshit spewing from most politicians, but Nader stopped calling a spade a spade for the sake of expediency.
I’m quite certain my rambling could have been phrased better, my apologies.
The status quo cannot be changed from within, although that’s entirely the opposite of how I generally find myself reacting to the question of ‘how to make real change’ in the world.
Maybe it just goes to show what a giant mess we humans have made of our collective sense of self.
I’m sure there are many people who quite possibly deserve to called ‘two-bit pricks’, but I’m just as certain that it’s not an entire nation of people. (maybe just their politicians)
Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 01/10 at 09:45 AMKeir! Think of the possible rat mutations! We could end up over-run by power hungry rodents!
Oh, on second thought....
Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 01/10 at 09:46 AMever see the Ridley Scott film about the heroic deeds in Somalia, Black Hawk Down? that put me off watching movies for so long, these moist-eyed lantern jaws braving off the Somalis, who were portrayed as little black shadows, poorly-defined and scuttering around like rats. Reminded me a little of Joseph Conrad´s description of the Africans as shadowy savages in Heart of Darkness, using lots of nodescriptive adjectives such as inscrutable, unknowable, mysterious.
Posted by owen from sea turtle massage parlour on 01/10 at 10:09 AMowen...are you massaging the sea turtles or are they massaging you?
morning all…
Posted by JOS from Chicago on 01/10 at 10:25 AMA symbolic hello to all my Expendable comrades—old and new—from a slightly chilly Astoria. Thanks for the great comments and for the kind words, re: the Somalia article. It’s sad how so many of my articles (and this one is nearly 3 years old) remain timely. As long as the opposition is symbolic, we can expect more of the same.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 01/10 at 10:44 AMfound this on my My MSN homepage this morning:
“Democracy gives every man a right to be his own oppressor.”
James Russell Lowell
Posted by JOS from Chicago on 01/10 at 11:41 AMMZ 12: News has a way of remaining newsworthy. Only gossip is urgent, in the sense of “time-sensitive.”
Oh my, another perfect day...68F, sunshine, breezes, miscellaneous gorgeousness.
Predatory capitalism: The IMF is a predatory institution. It is, basically, the Capital One charge card issuer of choice to the rubes (like the Murrican Masses) controlling governments not rich enough to afford the luxe and louche lifestyle we here in Murrica extol and export for fun and profit.
It’s a revolting Ponzi scheme of an economy and its time should be passing...though what replaces it will inherit a very depleted and disenriched planet. It will be a painful, protracted adjustment. I don’t look forward to this adjustment. Things must become far, far worse than they are now for the Masses to revolt. Then, uinfortunately, will come the gummint desired by the Masses. That’s never in all the sweep of history been a good thing.
But it’s a beautiful day today. I focus on this in order not to sob uncontrollably. Sunshine and Toad the Wet Sprocket on the CD player. Ahhh.
Posted by Mudge from Austin, Texas on 01/10 at 12:10 PMOwen (10) ... yeah I saw it. Repulsive piece a work.
Posted by Keir from back in the hague on 01/10 at 01:00 PMfunny thing was how I fell for the trailers of that film, thinking it might have been an expose of scurrilious military doings in Africa - things are fiendishly marketed these days, if you´re looking for something subversive it reflects that appeal, if you´re looking for something broadly patriotic, well there´s that contained in it too.
p.s. JOS the sea turtles come in messed up by boats and fishermen´s nets and the like, we patch em up, feed them, give them physio if they have mobility problems.
Posted by owen from sea turtle massage parlour on 01/10 at 02:32 PMexcellent owen…
Posted by JOS from Chicago on 01/10 at 02:48 PMHi Owen, Keir, Mudge, Amelopsis, Mickey…
JOS # 13… Voting gives every man the right to re-elect his oppressor. I have not heard one elected official call for a livable wage, but today the politricksters are getting a lot of mileage out of the minimum wage debate. The dems were saying that a small increase would solve the poverty problem. The repubs were saying that increasing the minimum would make poor people poorer.
Does everybody have their popcorn ready for tonight’s horror show?
Mickey, great graphic on today’s front page.My captcha word is “trouble”. I love it. I actually have a bright red jacket that says “Here comes trouble”.
Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 01/10 at 03:18 PMHello, Expendables. The weather today in Eastern MA is Really Like Late Fall. I’m in fear of ice forming someplace. The good news is that it’s soup season (iced tea for Helga).
MZ, I failed the War Criminal quiz - thought it was RMN talking about the Saigon embassy being overrun during Tet. Does this mean I have to stay after genocide? For a movie recommendation, I offer “Lord of War” with Nicholas Cage. The title sequence alone is worth it.
Career (sic) News: in less than two weeks I begin a master’s program in library science. My tool kit for another turn in higher ed (am I a masochist, or what?) is wicked low expectations (classes) and a sense of humor (student debt).
Other News: I don’t know how it got by me, but Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Paulson made their trip to China in mid-December. The much-ballyhooed mission to convince China to join us in our fiscal/economic suicide (Mortgaged Gunboat Diplomacy, if you will) was an utter failure. The dollar is finished - only a matter of time, even with half a dozen nations furiously propping it up even as we blog.
Posted by Zenprole from S of the Border on 01/10 at 04:33 PMI only have a moment, but Zenprole’s movie suggestion Lords of War is a good one. I heartily recommend it also.
Posted by Amelopsis from Canada on 01/10 at 05:33 PMThought the answer was (B), Mickey! Am right but only intermittently.
And who is Janet Hook - this condescending piece was just spotted by me:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0110-08.htm
The corporate press just can’t let go of their benevolent views of Bush, can they - and of preaching to those Dems who actually want to do something about the war and other things?
‘Hi’ to Michael, Rosemarie, Canadian Observer, Deb, Keir, Amelopsis, Owen, Jos, Mudge and Zenprole - what illustrious company. Have a good afternoon/night.
Posted by Helga Fremlinl from Daylesford, Australia on 01/10 at 05:56 PMHey Empress and Zen, check it out:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/mickeyz190905.htmlPosted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 01/10 at 05:57 PMDeb #4: all of Mickey’s books are great - you take your pick!
Captcha: ‘amount’: and they come at a reasonable amount as well, so go get some of his books.
Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 01/10 at 06:25 PMHi Helga # 21...I agree, the linked article is troubling....Moveon in my opinion has moved on from a real anti-war position.
News is reporting that the SURGE has already started. 90 additional troops have already invaded with more to arrive soon. I hope that all of those who voted for the dems are happy.Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 01/10 at 07:22 PMI’ll be interested to see who will be willing to push against a troop increase. I’m smart enaough to know that Bush can go around the Dems to get what he wants but I want someone who says they are against the war to actually vote as if they are against it.
I am expecting to be disappointed.
Posted by David from Louisville KY on 01/10 at 08:04 PMI’m smart enough to know how to spell “enough”. Sorry!
Posted by David Waddle from Louisville KY on 01/10 at 08:06 PMI sure feel better knowing he has a better plan for Iraq, Iran, & Syria.
I hope I’m wrong but I believe a lot more blood will flow before this is over.
Captcha says “final” as in chapter.
Posted by David Waddle from Louisville KY on 01/10 at 11:10 PMWhy is this not as inspirational or whatever as it might be?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rep__den_070108_the_kucinich_plan_fo.htmBecause we know he caved in to Kerry at the end last time anyway? Because he’s just not charismatic enough? Because it’s almost 4a.m. and it’s just too much to read?
Is he really going to call for impeachment like those commenters there ask for?
Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen on 01/11 at 03:54 AM
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