Because it is that time of year when we have to endure lists, and because all of the other lists are going to be some version of a Barbara Walters soft white light view of the world, I give you some holiday party talking points for what should be the top 10 news stories of 2010.
#10. Obama’s Health Care Reform
Depending on your point of view, Obama either accomplished something that many presidents have failed to do or he created what amounts to a huge gift to anyone with health insurance stock in their portfolios.
Either way, most of the meaningful provisions of this historic legislation don’t even go into effect until 2014 and in the intervening time the Democrats will be so busy trying to prevent Sarah Palin from becoming our next President that the they will acquiesce to amendments and compromises to the bill that will strip away all of the good and make even the cost of Advil out of reach for most Americans.
Isn’t that always the way with Democrats though, one baby step forward, 10 Andre-the Giant steps back?
#9 World Cup in South Africa
Most Americans would rather watch badminton, curling, or avant-garde French cinema than what the rest of the world calls football and we belligerently refer to as soccer.
Why?
Because football is for men and steeped in war metaphor with bombs and blitzes and aerial attacks. Football is American. Soccer, the ultimate team game, is for commies. If soccer were to catch on in the USA, what would be next, National Health Care? That is why the success of the World Cup offers a glimmer of hope to Godless commies marooned here in the USA.
The 400, 000 documents released several days ago will take years for historians to go through, but the Pentagon wasted no time framing WikiLEaks as public enemy number 1.
“The battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world. Intelligence sources and methods, as well as military tactics, techniques and procedures, will become known to our adversaries. This department is conducting a thorough, aggressive investigation to determine how this leak occurred, to identify the person or persons responsible, and to assess the content of the information compromised.”
No Bobby, I think it might be the trail of death and destruction in the wake of the United States exporting, correction: violently shoving democracy down the throat of the world that is damaging our reputation.
“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family. Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we’ve been given, but don’t put those who willingly go into harm’s way even further in harm’s way just to satisfy your need to make a point.”
Sorry Mike, but the blood is on the hands of those who would implement our insanely homicidal foreign policy. Mike, the blood is on your hands. The blood is on the hands of the Bush administration. The blood is on the hands of President Obama, and truth be told, the blood is on the hands of the American taxpayer, many of whom, though they may have never been to an anti war rally, will make a pilgrimage to DC this weekend to attend a rally held by a comedian asking us all to just take a deep breathe, get along and restore some sanity.
Suggesting that WikiLeaks and their source has blood on their hands is akin to saying that a TV station reporting on a fire is guilty of arson, or a reporter filing a story about a rape is accessory to future rape. At the end of a horror movie, when a light is cast in a dark basement revealing the cave of the mass murderer, one does not prosecute the light.
Do we need any more metaphors, or are you with me here?
Your logic, Admiral, like the foreign policy you implement in your starched and pressed boy scout outfit all pimped out with pins, stars and the skulls of murdered children is about as warped as the corpses of the innocent civilians lying in the streets of Iraq that now number – in the low estimates of the US military ( I know this courtesy of wikileaks) to number over 66 thousand civilians.
What I also know, courtesy of WikiLeaks, is that in this hellfire attack (pictured in video above)-the civilian walking by is not listed in the report of this incident.
So what is the real number of innocent civilians dead, admiral? Furthermore, in the cost to benefit ratio, how many Iraqi civilian deaths is to high a price to pay for us to continue pursuing our Manifest Destiny?
♦
ω
Feel free to repost all or part of this on a non-commercial blog/website. Always credit “Davis Fleetwood” as the author and include an active link back to the particular blog post.
A freelance writer, Davis Fleetwood has worked as a writer/ media consultant for Dennis Kucinich’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as a contributing editorial commentator for The Uptake. His videos have been seen by over 18 million viewers. He has been called (among many other things) “one of the most prominent voices in YouTube politics.” (-You Tube News & Politics chief, Steve Grove) He was a “Best of YouTube, 2007” nomination. His book DROPPIN’ KNOWLEDGE LIKE A CLUMSY LIBRARIAN, is now available from No Cure For That Press, and his first full length feature documentary, MANIFEST DESTINY’S CHILD, is due out on DVD this January.
The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.
It is commonplace to refer to veterans of the Vietnam War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the “war on terror”, as heroes.
Are Veterans heroes?
Consider the recently released classified US military video showing the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff and several children.
To those of you who can watch the video and still support the illegal invasion and occupation of the U.S. military in Iraq; to the Kool-Aid drinking Christian Republican conservatives out there, to the don’t tread on me, Hummer driving, steroid popping pigs amongst us, to the self congratulatory Democrats with Obama goggles so thick that you refuse to protest the Bush doctrine because it is now perpetuated by Obama- I just want to remind you that we all sprung form apes. Unfortunately you didn’t spring far enough so we’re going to have to put you back in the zoo. It’s the only safe place to observe you until you evolve.
Watching defenders of the War on Terror spin your rhetorical web is a bit like watching Planet of the Apes movies dubbed into Farsi without any English subtitles. I just can’t- given the benefits of modern life- how you people are, well, human.
It is commonplace to refer to veterans of the Vietnam War, the Afghan War, the Iraq War, the war on terror, as heroes.
Are Veterans heroes?
Vietnam was immoral, you Ass-hats. The domino theory of spreading communism was falsified. And our government entered the war secretly and then lied to the American people and congress to escalate the war. Gulf of Tonkin… sound familiar?
So, let’s agree that war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq are of no service to our country whatsoever.
None.
Are Veterans of those wars heroes, then?
Pilots dropping bombs over Baghdad were following orders. They were not protecting America. They are not heroes. They are victims. They signed up to serve a country they believed in, to defend democracy, or at least get some money for college and get out of their shit hole towns- and if necessary to be used as a last resort in conflict resolution. Instead, they are being used as pawns in an Armageddon chess game.
Look at the amount of unemployed in the U.S. The amount of foreclosures. The sorry state of our public education system, and other items on an ever growing list of domestic priorities and ask yourself what reasonable person can defend the expenditure of 400 million fucking dollars a day on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?
To supporters and defenders of the war on terror, to those who blindly elevate veterans to the status of heroes, please, try evolution. It’s not just for apes anymore.
ω
click for most recent episode
A freelance writer, Davis Fleetwood has worked as a writer/ media consultant for Dennis Kucinich’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as a contributing editorial commentator for The Uptake. His videos have been seen by over 14 million viewers. He has been called (among many other things) “one of the most prominent voices in YouTube politics.” (-You Tube News & Politics chief, Steve Grove) He was a “Best of YouTube, 2007” nomination. His book I Stay In So You Can Go Out, is due out in May from No Cure For That Press, and his first full length feature documentary, MANIFEST DESTINY’S CHILD, is due out on DVD this June.
THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a sometimes serious, sometimes satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.
Depending on your point of view, Obama either accomplished something that many presidents have failed to do or he created what amounts to a huge gift to anyone with health insurance stock in their portfolios.
Most Americans would rather watch badminton, curling, or avant-garde French cinema than what the rest of the world calls football and we belligerently refer to as soccer.
