AIPAC of wolves in the halls of power

M and 9th Streets NW, Washington DC: Big-head war-criminal Bushie and a Code Pink activist duke it out like champions outside the Washington Convention Center during this morning's bit of the AIPAC conference.

As I was strolling past on my way to work, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and House minority leader John Boehner were inside the Convention Center doing.... whatever it was they were doing in there.

AIPAC? That's what this was?

Living in DC encourages news-junkie behavior, and I'm as guilty as anyone. But I need to detox once in a while, and go into a self-imposed current-events exile. It's like a purification ceremony.

Thus, I've been in total news-blackout mode for a while, and I had no idea the big American/Israeli dry-humping fest was going down. All I knew was, for the past three days, there have been an UNGODLY amount of chartered buses traveling in police-escorted convoys across downtown, to and from the Convention Center.


I hop off the 79 bus at 9th and M for work, so that puts me in the thick of the action in the morning. Yesterday, I finally looked past the dozen or so idling buses at the fluttering banner and saw it was the annual American/Israel policy conference.

Ah. Okay, so that explains it.

But still, I don't care who you are: Congress-folk, executive branch, visiting foreign heads of state: Ain't NOBODY important enough to warrant all that noise and gridlock.

These are supposed to be the leaders of democratic nations, right? So how the hell can they be expected to sensibly govern the "free world" if they're carted around like emperors? Sends the wrong message, says I.

If you're a high-ranking diplomat and you're due to attend or speak at a conference of global importance, just book a room at a decent hotel somewhat close to the venue and get there early, like any of us normal peons would. Jesus Christ, y'all, you'd think there was an air-strike on Capitol Hill or something.


And that's another thing: seems like it's wasting the DC Police Department's time, putting too many officers on duty guarding empty buses while they idle outside the convention center.

At least Code Pink was there to lighten the mood this morning.

STATE OF THE EMPIRE 2

The victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia's recent election is fantastic news, and a great opportunity for the USA to learn something about Democracy, our alleged drug of choice.

Much of our media has been preoccupied with the "worrisome" (says Rumsfeld) developments in Latin America, what with Castro, Chavez, and now Morales...and thus, the arrogance of our nation is laid bare before the world yet again. Morales did not rise to power by staging a bloody revolution or by slaughtering innocents or by cheating the electoral system... his victory was the result of Classic Democracy, of the sort the USA has been preaching for ages.

So here we have a strong leader who's primary interest is making his nation stronger, and it appears to be making the Bully Nation nervous. Nationalizing Bolivia's gas reserves and liberating his nation's coca farmers from the deadly effects of Bush's insane "war on drugs" is exactly what Morales SHOULD be doing. It's no small detail that Morales is also the first indigenous person to lead a nation in the western hemisphere: a huge victory right there.

Reaction to all this from the States has been very telling indeed. For instance:

We have very rigid national borders: from the high walls and armed checkpoints abutting Mexico, to the truckloads of arrogant redneck vigilantes calling themselves "minutemen", patrolling day-labor sites. Our borders can be very tangible at times. But when it's convenient, our nation's borders can stretch to encompass everything we see, as evidenced by our habit of referring to central and south america as OUR BACK YARD.

What arrogance! A "back yard" is where you send your dog for a quick pee. Perhaps that's what we've done, considering our Secretary of Defense's recent comparison of Chavez and Morales to Hitler.

Go outside, Rumsfeld, and pee on Latin America. Good pup.

Perhaps the biggest lesson the USA should take from all this is one of perspective and humility. We did not invent "democracy" and we hold no control on it's execution throughout the world. Therefore, when a popular vote installs a cultural hero like Evo Morales, or thrusts a group like Hamas into a position of great responsibility, we have NO GROUNDS on which to claim "democracy" wasn't done right. We are certainly not the most persuasive teacher on the subject.

And with that said, I'll stash the soap-box and return to whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing. More typical IntangibleArts musings next time.

STATE OF THE EMPIRE 1

It's been several days since Bush's State of the Union address, and I'm still chewing on the greater sermon we seem to be preaching to the world. I don't normally go around tubthumping my politics (or lack thereof)...ask anyone unfortunate enough to know me personally. So, this is a rare treat.

AMERICA, at its primal core, idolizes the old Roman Empire. As a nation, we're delirious for its symbols, its arrogance, and its immunity against conscience. And it's getting worse with each administration.

Our current President is behaving like an insane mortician, exhuming the graves of the Caesars and wearing their skins like a mad king's robes, strutting across the earth in a fever dream of conquest. And he's doing this on television, yet.

Too heavy a metaphor? I doubt it: the warning signs have been here for some 200 years in downtown DC, where the Federal buildings all echo the architecture of Rome. The Stink of Empire permeates the marble columns. If that unholy Babylon was our diplomatic model, we were doomed from the start.

So this President we enjoy today, wearing his Caligula-skin, stands before the world and declares that WE WILL BE A SINGULAR FORCE AGAINST TYRANNY. Isn't that a tyrannical threat? By definition, one nation enforcing its will upon ALL NATIONS is "tyrannical". To do such with military force could easily qualify as "terrorism".

To see our inarticulate Commander in Chief mumble such grandiose atrocities in our name is more than a little embarrasing: it reduces us Proud American Citizens to lobotomized drones.

So evidently, we have made it our business to root out "tyranny" and smash it. By "we" of course, I mean the Executive Branch of the United States government, not to be confused with the will of the people or our international allies. Thus, the USA is free to define "tyranny" on the fly, in response to almost anything that doesn't please the Administration. Those who are not FOR us are AGAINST us.

(Is it just me, or is it getting awfully New Testament in here?)

How can a nation behave this way, unchecked?

Moot question. "Approval ratings" are a thing of the past, baby; we've moved on. Today, the Executive Branch can launch wars without the consent of Congress or the United Nations, can spy on its own citizens, can indulge in the buying of Votes and Favors, etc. This is political Darwinism at its eerie best: A superpower can change the rules in mid-game. That's why they're called Super Powers. The biggest rats always eat their young.

Anyway, the result of all this nastiness is a new breed of American President: A smiling tyrant. Currently, it would be King George II. FrankenCaesar.

But it seems there might be hope out there, beyond our borders. There are signals that small pockets of the world refuse to lie on their backs, submissively peeing in the air like epileptic spaniels. But it takes work to find those stories, because our own domestic news media seems so self-absorbed, you'd think we were the only nation in the world. Praise all the gods that's not so.

For that, tune in next time. Afterwards, we'll get back to more light-hearted blog fare, here at the Intangible Ashram.