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| One was Texas Medicine |
Today as we near September 11 we also approach another invasion of another Middle Eastern country.
This time some of our allies have had to cut the U.S. Wartocracy trance loose, and go with the sensibilities of their citizens.
A majority of American citizens have cut it loose too, but nevertheless it hangs around like a voodoo medicine man making deja voodoo war over and over again.
Our warmongering Wartocracy, which the feudal lords like to call "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", is a constant lie storm like a haboob that migrated to their homeland from the deserts in the east.
The deserts they have bloodied with their spells and fits of blood-oil-lust for a century (Universal Smedley - 2, Viva Egypt - 2).
Congress is being sold on the Railroad Gin again, as if it was Texas Medicine.
Sold on it by the rainman, the Pentagon ... those who rain down fire and brimstone but call it "peace."
Sometimes a musical riff describes a government caught in a trance, and sometimes lyrics will help to do the job competently:
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again."
--Bob Dylan
Sometimes the stark truth will do the job nicely too, so you fill in the blanks in this speech given prior to another war in a previous time:
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution.(The Stark Truth, 2009). Hear hear!
I am deeply troubled that lives may be lost without a meaningful attempt to bring [nation x] into compliance with UN resolutions through careful and cautious diplomacy.
The bottom line is I don’t trust this President and his advisors.
Make no mistake, we are voting on a resolution that grants total authority to the President who wants to invade a sovereign nation without any [conclusively proven] act of provocation. This would authorize the United States to act as the aggressor for the [nth] time in our history.
It sets a precedent for our nation - or any nation - to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.
Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a President who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence.
...
What is most unconscionable is that there is [inconclusive] evidence to justify the certain loss of life. Do the generalized threats and half-truths of this Administration give any one of us in Congress the confidence to tell a mother or father or family that the loss of their child or loved one was in the name of a just cause?
...
Aside from the wisdom of going to war as [president ???] wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination.
The Administration admits to a cost of around [$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$.$$]!
Now, wealthy individuals won’t pay. They’ve got big tax cuts already.
Corporations won’t pay. They’ll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the [politicians].
Rich kids won’t pay. Their daddies will get them deferments ...
Well then, who will pay?
School kids will pay. There’ll be no money to keep them from being left behind - way behind.
Seniors will pay. They’ll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war.
Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won’t be any money for a drug benefit because [president ???] will spend it all on the war.
Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights.
Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality.
And the entire nation will pay as [president ???] continues to destroy civil rights, women’s rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.
The questions before the members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from [nation x]. The call for war is wrong.
And what greatly saddens me at this point in our history is my fear that this entire spectacle has not been planned for the well being of the world, but for the short-term political interest of our President.
Now, I am also greatly disturbed that many [political party] leaders have also put political calculation ahead of the President’s accountability to truth and reason by supporting this resolution.
But, I conclude that the only answer is to vote no on the resolution before us.
Deja voodoo all over again -- CONGRESS -- snap out of the trance of Glory Daze.
Yes it's no use saying that you don't know nothing
It's still gonna get you if you don't do something
Sitting on a fence that's a dangerous course
Ah, you could even catch a bullet from the peace-keeping force
Even the hero gets a bullet in the chest
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Mother Mary your children are slaughtered
Some of you mothers ought to lock up your daughter
Who's protecting the innocenti
Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we're gonna do what's best
You guess once upon a time in the west
-Mark Knopfler
Tom Dispatch has an interesting piece on this matter too: Link
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