I’ve been listining to a local radio talk show, a host I actually respect (Doug Wright) even though his politics and mine don’t always match. Today a caller called in and mentioned the “Program for a New American Century” by Wolfowitz et. al. and Doug poo-poo’ed him and basically said it was a nutty conspiracy theory and said that he’d never heard of documents describing these things.

My heart sank, because it made me realize (yet again) that the Bush administration is so far right (as in Nazi party right) that most people simply don’t believe that they’re as bad as they are. Such things just don’t happen in America, as far as most are concerned.

PEOPLE! Go to your librarian and ask for a copy of the “Project for the New American Century” by Wolfowitz et. al. Read it. Read about this “possible” strategy for American supremacy that seeks to a) colonize the Middle East in order to re-gain financial control of its resources, b) minimize the political leverage of western Europe and the United Nations and c) guarantee long-term supremacy of the American military by pre-emptively removing any competing military that proposes to expand its capabilities beyond mere fundamental levels.

Understand what this program proposes and then look at the actions of the United States of America since Bush was elected, and at who’s in charge (Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.) and realize that we are living this document now. After you’ve read the “Project for the New American Century” go back and read the now famous document on national defense strategy (read: preemption) released by the Bush Administration late last year.

We are living the “Program for a New American Century” right now, as we wage our “war on terrorism.” In terms of implementation, the two are nearly indistinguishable. You, kids, are living in the middle of the new Nazi regime, and the lovely postmodern irony bit is that it’s precisely because it’s so conspiritorial and so aggressive (i.e. so completely unbelievable) that it’s relatively little-known, even though the cabinet members themselves have written the compelling (and frightening) roadmap documents.

Gotta get outta here, folks.

Taylor Branch of the New York Times today has a column celebrating the 40th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech. In it, he makes the insightful statement that Dr. King has become another of our founding fathers. What a simple, profound insight! It’s the first time in living memory I’ve actually appreciated the use of the phrase (“founding fathers”).

Just finished “Bowling for Columbine” (finally). As is my wont, I avoided any reviews until I had actually seen the piece and formed my own opinion about it. I then went online to read a few reviews and got more or less what I expected… A lot of people who worship Moore and a lot of people who feel that he is the antichrist second coming of Lenin, full of commie lies and America-hate.

But what really got me writing here is that in reading this latter group of reviews I again saw many instances of a kind of sideways reference to America’s urban areas that paints them as some kind of lunatic fringe. The statements go something like: ‘The only way you’ll buy this liberal garbage is if you live in San Francisco. Only people in Hollywood and South Central Los Angeles like this bleeding heart crap. Only America’s urban populations, which are clearly biased toward the left and elected the likes of Hilary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi will believe these kinds of hate-America-first facts.’

My rhetorical question is this: why do so many people (including many in the media) often use minimizing qualifiers like “only those people in places like …” when discussing San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York or other urban areas in the context of left-wing politics?

Only? Do any of these rhetorical wizards or the people who listen to them ever stop to think that these “looney left” urban areas actually represent fully fifty percent of the American population? I get tired of people treating the entirety of San Francisco or New York City as though they were tiny specs of fringe liberalism in an ocean of proper “American” evangelical conservatism.

Oh well. Let California fall into the ocean because who needs those damn commies anyway, and in the meantime, Don’t Mess With Texas, right?

I am often at odds with myself over my decisions in life. I am sitting here having a beer and listening to Latif Bolat. Turkish folk music has a way of reminding me that there are things I’d rather be doing… that I’m not doing.

Why am I not doing them?

I dont’ know. I’m schooling instead. I’ve no idea why, beyond a few petty ego issues. I realize completely that I’m going spend years and go into debt to get my Ph.D., only to throw it all away. I know I’ll throw it away because I’m incapable of doing anything else; on the day that I die, I want to die a simple man, not a “doctor.” But while I’m still alive, not dying, I want to be a “doctor.”

People are funny things, aren’t they?

I have to go now so that I can clap my hands and dance around to the Sufi music.

“…and if you don’t believe the sun will rise…
stand alone and greet the coming night
in the last remaining light.”

(and anyway, ain’t nobody nowhere on the road to

I’m sitting here watching C-SPAN2, Conference on Black Youth & Media. Aaron McGruder just spoke at length, and now Cornel West is on. It’s like porn for the thinking man. Beautiful.

And as a side note, seeing him here brought back an odd image from the recesses of my memory. Is it just me, or did Cornel West appear once on Sesame Street when I was small?

I was watching CNN Presents and in it heard perhaps the most insightful argument I’ve heard in a long time. What the world currently faces is not a fight between Islamic Fundamentalism and “freedom.” What we face is a fight between Islamic Fundamentalism and American Fundamentalism.

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with that phrase, to realize that you know what it means.

American Fundamentalism.

It is the new willingness to attribute to George Washington and his ilk, in their trinity of roles— that of white-man-warrior and slave owner, that of currency and capitalist face, and that of omniscient elder statesman– those same powers traditionally attributed to the Christ or to Allah. Supernatural powers. Omniscient moral authority.

You know you’ve seen it, when that car drives through your neighborhood… the one with no fewer than twenty U.S. flags attached to it, with the stickers on it that say “Liberals go to Hell” and “Sand Niggers Die of Thirst.” It is every bit as ugly as Osama Bin Laden’s vision for the world.

And whichever wins– Islamic or American fundamentalism– is perhaps the Great Satan of our time. Hopefull we’ll be able to forge a third option, an alternative. The only question is whether the adherents to both sects will be swayed, or whether they will continue on their gleeful marches of hate and death… leaving the rest of us to try and pick up the pieces of whatever is left…

I begin to get older. I begin to wish for a clearer picture of future events, in particular… my future events. I routinely find myself wondering about the future… ten years from now… twenty years from now… I begin to think about progeny.

Quote of the day:

“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours… everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

(Ariel Sharon, 1998)

Who you gonna join?