The only thing that the Democrats have to say to the Bushtrash is what Leo Amery said to Neville Chamberlain in April, 1940.  “Go, in the name of God, Go.” (he was quoting Oliver Cromwell).

Well, Boston got shut down because of a publicity stunt advertising a cartoon.  Can you say over-react.  Publicity stunts have an honorable and amusing history (think David Merrick’s famed quote ad; think David Merrick’s famed attack on the actor in Look Back in Anger, thank God Merrick isn’t alive, he’d be in Gitmo by now. 

Get a grip. 

This reminds me of what happened in Northern Ireland during the troubles in the 70’s, soldiers were told to confiscate all Republican liberature (meaning of course IRA); well they confiscated someone’s copy of Plato’s Republic. 

Really seems to me that we need to question who the terrorists really are.

If democracy means anything (and I know in this country right now it means little if nothing) then one administration or legislature cannot bind its successors.  Hoping as I do for impeachment and removal, I would like to see a successor before 1 20 09.  However, as an opponent to the invasion of Iraq, as Iraq under Sadaam had nothing to do with 9/11 and our presence in Iraq both fuels our enemies and distracts us from serious tasks at hand, my policy would be immediate and total withdrawal.  There is no reason we cannot withdraw everyone in a few hours.  This is what we should do.  That, yet another post WW 1 artificial state falls apart says more about the arrogance of the ‘peace’-makers of that era.  Yes, it would be better if Iraq could fall apart peacefully as the Czechs and Slovaks did. 

I am more and more convinced that the notion of a clash of civilizations is nonsense.  Why?  It takes two to tango, as it were.  I see the ‘civilization’ of the Islamic world as dead and dead for a very long time  probably since the writings of al-Ghazali. 

Name the Islamic Shakespeare or Bach or Mozart or …  Compare South Africa with any Islamic country and my point is made.  Where is the the Iraqi Mandela?

What bothers me most about Bush et al is that they want to kill our culture as dead as the Islamic world. 

My point is simple, get out of Iraq and lets talk about more important things.  Universal health care, the trade deficit, the income gap, bigotry and homophobia, the rise of India and China, a smaller and more flexible millitary,  and GLOBAL WARMING.  Frankly, Iraq is a waste of our time, treasure and military. 

It is the Bush war, not an American or Vermonter war.  We have no responsibility but to withdraw all troops NOW.  The fact that yet another post WW I faux state is falling apart is just that — a commentary on the hubris of that war and era. 

If Wilson, Lloyd George etc. were blinded by hubris, Bush is only blinded by sheer evil and stupidity. 

Yes, it would be nice if Iraq fell apart the way the Czechs and Slovaks divorced, but it was never to be.

Think of it this way.  No weapons of mass destruction, no Saddam.  False alarm.

Even more it was the commander in chief who called in the false alarm.

No one penny more.  Not one person more.  No more lies!  NO MORE

Why do these things go together?  It’s the stupidity, stupid.  All the talk about a clash of civilizations misses a crucial point.  As the old song says, it takes two to tango.  Frankly, Islam is not a civilization, it is a late civilization.  It probably died because of the writings of al-Ghazali, a thousand years ago.  al-Ghazali slammed the door on new ideas and any sort of cross fertilization. 
In any event, Islam is fairly primitive in many ways.  Whatever the merits of the theological disputes in Christianity (even admitting most of them are really about power), the major split in Islam (Sunnis and Shiites) revolves around a dispute about dynastic succession about thirteen hundred years ago.  While it is true that Christianity has much to be guilty about in terms of forced conversions; it initially gained traction by the force of its ideas until it became the established religion of the Roman Empire.  Judaism has always been in house, as it were.  Islam from the get-go was militaristic and imperialistic. 

A civilization boasts its on-going traditions of art, music, literature.  Japan, China, India boast large and vast cultural treasures.  Name one Islamic movie?  Name one Islamic opera?  Name the Islamic Shakespeare.  They don’t exist.

Living in a dead culture only produces resentment and hatred as all creative pathways are foreclosed. 

George Bush is doing his best to kill our civilization.  He really is not different from Osama Bin Laden except he’s chalked up a larger body count.

So the question is: how far has Bush gotten in his murder of our culture?

Watching the reality show about casting the leads in a forthcoming Broadway revival of Grease, I am sorry to say that the patient is in critical condition.  Here’s why.

The contestants sang songs from Grease.  In the real world of a living culture, one never auditions with songs from the show you’re auditioning for?  Why?  A nano brain cell will tell you that the director of the new production will have his or her own concept and will not want to hear someone else’s (the original?) take on the role.  Those who sang other songs missed the point as well: sing a song that demonstrates your range as being appropriate for the role you’re auditioning for.  Why anyone would sing a song from Guys and Dolls in an audition for Grease makes no sense.  More importantly, the general level of denial of reality is so high as to make me believe that the mass of Americans have gone mad.  Sandy is supposed to be an attractive high school student.  Why would an obese thirty-something even consider auditioning?  Why would someone think that telling the panel that he’s auditioning for his late brother is a plus?  Why would the program hire a Bush (they really did!) who, on the first, episode even broke the rules of the bizarre contest — family tradition I guess.

I know this sounds trivial in light of the paragraphs above, but this really is how a culture dies.  Grease isn’t even that great a show.  I wonder what its shelf-life will be.  It is competent enough, but it was a nostalgia show for adults remembering their high school days.  High school is so different now that the new nostalgia will be very different..

But there’s some good news on the cultural front: Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens.  The first is a high school musical about what it’s really like being an adolescent  and the most exciting musical about  adolescence I’ve seen since the original production of West Side Story.  In the second, Christine Ebersole gives a performance as incredible as the storied Laurette Taylor in The Glass Menagerie.  Wow!!!  People will be talking about this for the next century, if we have a next century.

I just checked the Auditor’s website and Randy Brock is still the incumbent.  Has the there been a delay because of the recount?  When does Tom Salmon take over?

Although Randy was my friend and Frat brother at Middlebury, I could not bring myself to vote for a Republican.  I actually was glad when Tom Salmon won.  I was also glad that the recount demonstrated just how honest our elections are in Vermont in comparison with states that end with a vowel.

Sociopath/psychopath — the difference is only that a sociopath is less organized than a psychopath.  To get to the Presidency, even by fraud, requires a degree of organization that promotes Bush to psychopath. 

He is a murderer, liar, crook, and he and his administration have destroyed the rule of law, the constitution, and common decency. 

To have anything to do with them is to become an accessory after the fact.

Despite what the wingnuts say, the houses of Congress are based on the the houses of Parliament.

An ancient liberty of the lower house is the right to slam the door in the monarch’s face. 

This is just what the House of Representatives should do when the texas tyrant appears for the State of the Union.

The they should defund the White House itself — except for the Presidential salary which is constitutionally protected.  No staff, no heat, no light. 

If you look at the particulars against George III and his Parliament in the Declaration of Independence, Bush et al make the earlier George and his enablers look like amateurs.  If you look at the powers Bush has taken upon himself outside the Constitutution, a good case can be made that we don’t have a federal government, we have a tyrant.  The social contract is disolved  and we owe no duty to Washington at all. 
It is time to bring VT troops home from Iraq and order the national guard to protect the state from the tyrant.
Comments and debate wanted.

Impeachment comes from Britain.  In Britain, it’s very similar, the House of Commons impeaches and the House of Lords holds the trial.  Like much of the American Constitution, American impeachment is a codification of the British. 

At the time of the adoption of the US Constitution, impeachment was very much a big deal in Britain as the House of Commons impeached Warren Hastings several times for what today we would call human rights violations in India.  However, the House of Lords would not convict.  As a result, though impeachment remains on the books, the vote of confidence essentially has replaced impeachment as a way of removal from office.

Unlike the morons who drool such phrases as original intent etc., a constitution is not just words on a page but it is also custom and usage.  In fact, in countries like the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the office of Prime Minister rests entirely on custom and usage. 

Our constitution is really no different and it is time to catch up with our fellow English speaking democracies. 

The new Congress should immediately vote non confidence in the Bush administration.  No, I don’t think they’ll resign, but it will deprive them of legitimacy and begin to establish a new usage. 

It would be right and proper for heckling to take place during the State of the Union Address.  Quoting Oliver Cromwell “Go, in the name of God, go!” would be just the ticket.  Or, maybe, “to the Hague to the Hague to the Hague”

In theatre, we have the concept of subtext.  This reflects the reality that people don’t always say (or even know) what they have in mind.  People say one thing and mean another or talk around the point.  (Bt the way, the thing that makes a soap opera a soap opera is that there is not subtext.  It’s all out in the open.)

So here’s my point.  When Bush, who had been told that Sen-Elect Webb’s son in Iraq had been in serious danger, asked Webb: “how’s your boy doing?” he really was saying “I have the power of life and death over him and there’s nothing you can do about it.” 

Let’s not miss the point, Bush is a psychopath.