Duty to Warn

President Bush just told reporters that he has no intention of setting any timetable for withdrawal. "Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending herself," he said. Powerful pundits keep telling us that a swift pullout of U.S. troops would be irresponsible. And plenty of people have bought into that idea -- including quite a few progressives. Such acceptance is part of what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of militarism."

Sometimes, an unspoken assumption among progressive activists is that the occupation of Iraq must be tolerated for tactical reasons -- while other issues, notably domestic ones, are more winnable on Capitol Hill. But this acceptance means going along with many of the devastating effects of a militarized society: from ravaged budgets for social programs to more authoritarian attitudes and violence in communities across the country.

At least well-dressed wealthy people who smell good will get it. Christopher Hitchens’ story in the March 2005 Vanity Fair sums it up well under the headline: “Ohio’s Odd Numbers.” It reads like, well, a Free Press article. Hitchens finds “Ohio’s polling results impossible to swallow” and insists that, “Both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines.” Here, Here!

Recruiters have to be brave in order to keep working. They have to make dozens of calls every night to high school students at home. They are in essence nothing more than super aggressive sales people trying to sign young people up to a life of killing and violence.

Surveys show that fear of death is a powerful motivator that keeps those same students out of the military, even with the bribes of college tuition, sign up “bonuses” and the supposed benefits of “honor”, medals and more.

One survey shows that those fears doubled from the year 2000 to 2004, despite assurances from the administration that the war in Iraq is good for everyone. What is war worth if it means getting killed, especially when that war was based on lies and deception, (as most wars are)?

The military faces a huge problem because they base their fundamental strategy on an all volunteer force. Recruiting volunteers is a policy that has been in place since 1973, when the draft was eliminated.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The John Wesley Hardin Died for You Society has a theme song that goes: "He wasn't really bad. He was just a victim of his times." I sometimes find this useful in trying to explain Texas political ethics to outsiders.

My theory is that few Texas pols are actual crooks, they just have an overdeveloped sense of the extenuating circumstance. Woodrow Wilson Bean once warned himself that he was skatin' close to the thin edge of ethics. After a moment, he concluded, "Woodrow Wilson Bean, ethics is for young lawyers."

We had a governor who was caught in a big, fat lie about a football scandal (serious stuff) and explained, "Well, there never was a Bible in the room."

Some civilians believe the definition of an honest Texas pol is one who stays bought. But among pols of the old school, the saying was, "If you can't take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in the Legislature." Many of our pols have the ethical sensitivity of a walnut. All this has led many to conclude erroneously that Tom DeLay, an alumnus of the Texas Legislature, is somehow our fault.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Calling all conservatives. Yo, libertarians. Also, wing-nuts, believers in black-helicopter conspiracies and mouth-foaming denouncers of government and all its works -- yoo-hoo. Where are these people when you need them?

THEY are making us pay to have ourselves brainwashed. All good conspiracy theories begin with "they" -- and in this case, it's the usual suspect of the right wing: the ever-evil federal government. Rush Limbaugh, get on this case. Stealth propaganda now goes by the beguiling moniker "pre-packaged news." And our government, the one supposedly run by us, is using our money to secretly brainwash us. Is this gross, or what?

No joke, this is seriously creepy: The U.S. government is in the covert propaganda business, and it's not aiming this stuff at potential terrorists, it's aiming it right square at your forehead.

The New York Times did a huge Sunday take-out on the practice of "pre-packaged news" by government agencies. "The government's news-making apparatus has produced a quiet drumbeat of broadcasts describing a vigilant and compassionate administration."

We sure have our priorities right in this country of ours. According to my daily habit, I flipped on the TV after an early lunch at about 11:45 this morning, E.S.T. Thought I’d check on the latest developments in Iraq, Lebanon, and Capitol Hill. I started with CNN, then flipped over to Fox, then MSNBC.

None of three had anything to say about international or domestic affairs. All were maintaining a breathless vigil outside a courtroom in Santa Maria, California, because Michael Jackson, whose name is somehow still preceded by the adjective “superstar,” had decided to stop at a hospital en route to his trial for child molestation. It seems the single-gloved wonder was suffering back pains that had required emergency treatment; unfortunately, he didn’t have permission from the court to show up late.