Sarah Palin Vs Syria

Ever the genius (and craving media attention), Sarah Palin took to Facebook to voice her opinion about the U.S. possibly taking action in Syria, in a post called Let Allah Sort It Out:

“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?”

 Well, Mrs Palin, if you put it that way, then, yes, you truly are.

Which doesn't mean I support a military intervention. At the most, I think the capitol building in Damascus should be destroyed, as well as other key government decision-making places and perhaps a few army buildings. Take away their permanent locations so they have trouble orchestrating dangerous maneuvers against outsiders and mass quantities of their own people.

However, I am against an occupational invasion (as always), and even a single civilian death or the destruction of anyone's home is unacceptable. Let's not forget we're talking about one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world, home to 2.5 million people.

This particular revolution is (yet another) previously-unseen situation, two years in the making: in the wake of the Arab Spring, millions of Syrians took to the streets in 2011 to protest against the government, which not only stayed in power defying its citizens' will, but effectively ordered its troops to shoot at protesters with live ammunition, even going so far as to go door-to-door to find some and execute them.

What started as a peaceful protest turned into a Civil War in the Fall of 2011, when army defectors started a counter-army (Free Syrian Army) and enlisted volunteers to join their ranks.

In terms of a Revolution, this one was ''going by the book''; ideally, you want to skip the armed conflict, but humans are prone to violence, and not everyone can achieve a ''peace process'' without resorting to guns - for every Slovakia there are dozens of Chechnyas. Even the Chinese went to war to unite; the United States revolted against the British to form several states, then went to war with each other to unite (and eliminate slavery).

But this one took so long to bear its fruits that the inevitable (for the region) happened: ''terrorists'' started helping revolutionaries. So instead of remaining a battle between ''good and evil'', it's ''the enemy of my enemy is my friend''. And while the world watches in horror as the State uses deadlier weapons against its own people every time, pressure is mounting on the U.S. to intervene, as the world's largest military structure.

Except the U.S. has already invaded two countries - one in a disproportionate retaliation, the other without a valid reason other than to depose its leader and take over their economy - in the past decade or so, now have a President who has vowed to not repeat his predecessor's mistakes, and - more importantly - would now be working hand-in-hand with some of their enemies to defeat Bashar al-Assad.

Which puts Barack Obama in a hard place.

Already labeled weak by his opponents, he is now forced to play into the Republicans' hand, who win on all sides: if he forgoes intervention, he's ''soft on terror''; if he decides to act, he's reneging on his promises - and going opposite his Nobel Peace prize - and ''working with the terrorists''. Which is likely just what some forces in the Middle East wanted to test him on. The United States remain the military equivalent of boxing's heavyweight champion - to get him on his knees even by means of an illegal blow is a feat worth bragging about, and to have him withdraw from combat even more so.

What's funny about Sarah Palin is she was probably explained all of this but didn't understand a thing, other than the conclusion: ''you mean to say I can still say the exact opposite of what Obama says, and this time I'd even be right? Bring me a laptop!''

Ironically, one of Obama's most ardent allies on this issue now is John McCain, the man responsible for giving Palin her platform. After toying with the idea of not supporting Obama on this matter, he had this to say this morning:

A rejection of this resolution would be catastrophic, not just for him but for the institution of the presidency and the credibility of the United States.

Ever the politician, he realizes image counts for a lot, particularly when it comes to pretending to have the means to take over the world.

Which is also the reason why everyone else on the planet is against a strike.

Is John McCain Becoming Human Again?

John McCain used to the the Right's Conscience, the guy who embodied cautious responsibility in management, preferred smaller government, and fought for ''freedom'' and ''individual liberties''. With a military background (and former POW star-status), he was pretty much what Republicans are trying to make us believe Ronald Reagan was.

Then he lost the GOP nomination to George W. Bush, whose cronies destroyed his public personae as a means to show him ''how to play the game''. In the 8 years of the Bush Administration, the U.S. (and Republicans, mostly) became a caricature of its former self, with talking points turning to extremes more and more every day - and baseless insults to put down the opposition became the norm.

That's when a Democrat comes up with an idea - even if it was proposed by a Republican first - it'll inevitably be taxed as ''communist/socialist'' and irresponsible. The only things politicians should advocate is lower taxes, tax cuts for the rich, war and other types of death (no to killing future babies, yes to killing as many adults as we can), less laws (but, ironically, stronger penalties to those who commit crimes).

And, above all, ''less - smaller - government''. Yet no Tea Party-related cronies are willing to sacrifice their own healthcare-provided jobs to make a point and/or get the ball rolling. No, in Congress and the House - strength is in numbers. Duh.

In any event, McCain has not only been a shadow of his former self, he's also gone against just about everything he's ever stood for (''no wall to separate us from Mexico'' / ''build the damn fence''), a position most thought would end with the ''Sarah Palin as running mate'' debacle, but he continued in his Senate race two years later. Jon Stewart had a great bit about that, look it up.

But now, he's standing up Palin 2.0 - Michele Bachmann - on the Senate floor. Now, we're still a far cry from the reasonable guy of yore, the score's still 45-3 and he has a long way to go before making amends for his temporary fit of being delusional, but he hasn't given up quite yet. Let's see where this goes.

The Birth Of Hope

It's a wonder why I'm not already in bed.

Tomorrow should be a new day, full of hope. Maybe even a New World.

It's hard to imagine drastic changes in the Machine that makes the world turn, it is has more cogs and screws than you can throw a plumber at, be it Joe or any other. But there was one thing people needed more than change anyway, to keep this machine turning.

Hope.

Hope that everything's possible. That the strongest political machine can be defeated. That it isn't wrong to help others in need. That, albeit with a lot of effort, Right will triumph over Wrong in the end. That we will live to see another day. That reason can exist, coexist with and overcome unthought aggression and brash stupidity. That things can be better, and are going to.

Hope. Hope in the exact Machine we might have needed to stop believing in so we could be free. The Machine that crashed the markets so the already-rich could buy once-and-future cash cows at the lowest possible prices; the Machine that sent people to the poor house and seized their homes while people running for office can't even count the amount of property they own; the Machine that even French President Sarkozy said needed a complete overhaul.

Hope. The Rebirth Of Capitalism, Federalism, the American Dream (and the American Imperialism), hot dogs, baseball, 24-hour news networks with barely 5 hours of news on them; sounds a lot like the Clinton years, and we know what happened as soon as someone else took over.

And guess what? It's still a whole lot better than the alternative of more wars, more debt, less government intervention in the wrong (right?) places, more tax breaks for the rich, and possible setbacks in the areas of women's rights and civil liberties.

And here I hope: that Barack Obama really becomes what he says he will. He won't part the waters, won't even get nearly half the things done that need to be done; the Machine he's given us Hope in won't let him, it has mechanisms to keep him from changing too much of it, but here's Hoping the Machine doesn't rein him in and break him like it did John McCain in the past year.

When Republicans Choose Obama

First it was Colin Powell, decorated former General, Bush's first Secretary Of State, whom the White House humiliated by sending him in front of the whole world to support the WMD theories. That wasn't all that much of a shock.

Then came Bush's former official mouthpiece, Scott McClennan and Arne Carlson, former Governor of Minnesota. Considering McClellan had also publicly said he had been manipulated when came time to defend the Iraq war, that wasn't a huge surprise either. Loyalty only goes one way so far before enough's enough.

Today, it's William Weld, former Governor of Massachussets, and Charles Fried, a McCain advisor who used to work for Ronald Reagan.

Just when I was thinking that McCain's new strategy of abandoning certain states and having advisors publicly backstabbing each other in newspapers might be Karl Rove's new strategy to keep Democrats at home thinking a landslide was coming and getting the Republican vote to come out and mean something might be genius...

It doesn't really look like a strategy anymore.

Have we all overestimated America's racism? Could they really go back to being the force of Progress and Reason on this big blue globe? Could it be (gasp)... HOPE?

I'm still doubting. Hopeful, but doubting.

And the New York Times endorsed Obama today. Considering their recent track record, that may not be the best idea.

Family Guy Has Balls

I haven't always been a fan of Family Guy. I've thought their strong points, the only funny parts, were in bits that usually had nothing to do with the story line, as opposed to, oh, say... The Simpsons, who fit their jokes into a story line, which when done right is much better, subtler, smarter, but when done wrong becomes obvious, apparent, contrived and cheap. In recent seasons, The Simpsons have gone back to doing it well, for a viewership in the modern era, when they had gone more '50s and forced on their base in seasons previous.

But Family Guy has taken a few bold stances worth noticing recently, and it would be wrong to not mention it at all. For instance, this clip takes a bold stance on the upcoming U.S. Presidential election by showing a nazi who supports the McCain-Palin ticket - of which I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

It remains to be seen whether Family Guy can go the South Park way and become a quintessential big-audience animation show that ignites position-taking and provokes thoughts on a constant basis (on current divise issues, more often than not) rather than just go for a cheap pop-culture laugh - and I'm not even sure it's their intention to get there either. But this particular shot was bold, and deserved mention.

On either side of the political spectrum, when someone has balls, it's good to talk about it; even more when they're on the right side.

John McCain's Sidejob

So...

Just how old is John McCain anyway? Well, on weekends, he's been used as Gene Simmons' double when KISS plays the Heartland...