After a long dry spell, last night I did my first political protest since the march in Boston back in 1970. It didn’t have the zest and zeal of the Vietnam protests but it was refreshing. An old black woman with a bullhorn was the spirit of the protest. She sang a song continuously throughout the protest as the crowd of about 7-800 waited for McCain to show up for his tribute. The lyrics were the main point of the protest: “It’s a rich man’s war. What’s the poor man fightin’ for?” I’m sure McCain didn’t hear it. It wouldn’t have affected him anyhow. The agenda of the warmongering empire builders is set in stone kind of like McCain’s face. And American’s have little taste for protest let alone meaningful political self-analysis. Enough for the sublime.
Then, to get right to the absurd, I had to wake up to read Hobbes-alicious to find we are hiring a Public Information Officer. How utterly embarrassing. Do we have to do everything they do in national politics. What a freak show! I hope this guy is brighter than Dana Perrino who didn’t even know what the Bay of Pigs was. Peck used to work for Zombie International, oops excuse me, that’s Zogby International. He has been known to even do “analyses,” statistical of course, and he even writes. I hope he can also walk down the street and chew gum at the same time. If he can’t, he’ll fit right in.
Do we need this? Of course not. I suggest we deep six the PIO and the Homeland Security Czar and hire two more philosophy professors at NCCC.
While we should be on the streets stopping thousand of trucks laden with PCB’s we’re debating whether we are going to hire punk Peck and waste more taxpayers’ much too hard earned money.
Maybe the mafia had it right. Avoid the rich man’s wars. Avoid the rich man’s politics since they’re rigged anyhow. And then just make money anyway you can. Isn’t that what the capitalists and their plethora of toadies and minions do anyhow?
Let the dazed and confused, who fight these capitalist wars that are in no way in their interest, do what they have to do since they haven’t seen the writing on the wall yet. Some day they may, hopefully.
One thing I've learned in 5 years living in Niagara County, politicians on both side in local, county and State level take the serious steps and actually find new 21st solutions instead of re-visting the old arguments about how to tax, levy fees, etc. for commercial toxic waste landfilled into WNY. Today in Buffalo News, with the help of Representative Louise Slaughter, we will get 1M dollars for environmental remediation in Niagara County. I trully hope we see some of it to protect the communities instead of just big corporation's land in Niagara County. I'm talking about remediation for Lewiston Rd, and "areas of concern" identified by US Army Corp, and other sites like our public schools where INDIVIDUALS AND NEIGHBORHOODS do not have money or lobby power to persuade our State agencies and politicians. I've personally asked Representative Louise Slaughter and Senator Clinton and the only REAL response and action has been from Representative Louise Slaughter.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have been there to support our troops to come home. After reading the Buffalo News and other papers, again, they diminished the protest and the numbers of people attending. It's the same old story, hide the numbers, distort and minimize the demonstration.
ReplyDeleteI remember the anti war demonstrations in Washington DC before we went to war in Iraq. The media hardly reported the demonstration and minimized and reduced the actual number of people attending.
While war profiteering goes on, the poor, middle class, children and elderly is left with the crums to fight for. Can anyone tell me what happened to those millions of dollars went missing from the war? Did we get any money back from the "no bid" contractors who stole, over charged, or charged us with work they never did?
What did you expect larry, now we have a propagana minister to go along with the homeland czar, now we just need an Adolf.
ReplyDeleteAnon #1: Good post and inspiring to see you are so active. It is a shame though, as you point out, that we have to worry that the million will go to the right places and people. We’d better keep a real close eye on that money. Or the Leg may hire a new PCB Disposal Czar with it. If I understand you, you seem to have more confidence in our representatives than I do. For me there’s too much evidence of corruption, being out of touch, getting caught up in the “way of doing political ‘business’” to essentially trust the system as it exists. But thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteAnon #2: I think the unwillingness or disinterest in fairly and accurately reporting the anti-war protests around the country and the world is a sign of the lack of belief that the protests will really make any difference or that anyone is really listening. Of course if they got violent and heads were rolling and blood flying, then they might report it for the spectacle. The meaning of the protests doesn’t seem to be enough for big time media.
Joe N.: Yeh, this PIO bullshit is just over the top. An embarrassing joke. As I said when I called Leffler’s show this morning, this guy will just be another buffer between the politically disenfranchised people and the political bureaucrats. Why do we have to mimic the way they do things in Washington. Of course we don't but for some strange inexplicable reason we do. I hope this guy at least isn’t as stupid as Dana Perrino. Maybe he’ll turn out to be a latter day ‘Scott McClellan.’ Niagara County is so small we should be having Town Hall Meetings as the central and official forum of government as far as I’m concerned.
I couldn`t agree more Larry.
ReplyDelete