America is a big baby!

[Andocrates]

I am in the US now till June. It's really a bad time to be here because America is so afraid of terrorism, it's sickening. Let the towel heads come and we'll shoot them down like dogs in the street. Every rumor and fart out of an Arab makes us tremble like little girls.

We are the most powerful nation in the world and we quake in terror over some unorganized animals. Now Japan seems to be afraid to send troops to Iraq because of the same vague threat. The day anonymous threats can freeze a nation in her tracks is the day it's time to move to the mountains.

Bin Laden got really lucky with the 9/11 and America was very sloppy at that time. Every day we vacillate in Iraq another GI dies, Bush is an ass, I never thought the day would come I'd miss Bill Clinton. Bush deserves to lose the next election, but like politicians before him it's young men paying the real price.

Rant off

[devicenull]

america sucks for many more reasons than that my friend... the entire idea that the majority must change their habits so the minority feels comfortable is the greatest social injustice in recent times

[Caustic Saint]

america sucks for many more reasons than that my friend... the entire idea that the majority must change their habits so the minority feels comfortable is the greatest social injustice in recent times

My favorite quote for times like these is: ''Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.'' Ben Franklin said that, and it was never more true than it is today.

We've got crap like the USA Patriot Act (sequel act coming soon), the DMCA and corporations having more say in our government than the people it's supposed to be "of, for and by."

I spent this past summer (May through August) back in the US, and it didn't feel like home anymore. In many ways it was still the same, but the overall "vibe" was very different. I was planning on staying for a while, but just got sick of it and bailed after 4 months. I can honestly say I have no intention of living there again if things keep going as they are.

[AssKissinger]

I haven't been back home (in America) since before 9/11 but from the news it doesn't seem like civil liberties have really been trampled that much. Free speech is obviously still intact as evidenced from all the demostrations against the War In Iraq from NY to SF. In a lot of ways, to me it's surprising how moderate Bush has been. Lower Manhattan looked like Sarajevo. Compare that to how we reacted to Pearl Harbor where we responded by putting the Japanese-Americans in concentration camps and ultimately Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My biggest complaint against Bush is that when you fight a war you fight to win, not this half-assed Vietnam style bullshit. Either America's national security is at stake or it isn't. If it is we must annihilate the enemy with our full military might and if it's not we got no business killing anyone or getting our boys killed.

[rmpfreeman]

Lower Manhattan looked like Sarajevo

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

[AssKissinger]

Lower Manhattan looked like Sarajevo

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

I never said they did.

[rmpfreeman]

Read your post carefully, note the direction of the thread and you'll see that you implied it. This may not be deliberate on your part but it's part of the general fog of misinformation (possibly created by the US goverenment) that is getting people killed daily.

[AssKissinger]

I didn't imply shit and I'm not part of any fucking fog either. I expect people to know the difference between Saddam and Bin Laden. I expect college students in Texas to be able to find Mexico on a map but it's not my fault they can't.

[rmpfreeman]

didn't imply shit

Which is exactly (minus the profanity) what the US government is now saying. 'We didn't imply Iraq was linked to 9/11"

In your case you may not have intended it that way so that's ok. You've been cleverly taken in, like many others, before the war. However we know you don't have the power to send people off to be killed. The US goverenment does.

[devicenull]

america was sucking loooong before 911.. it just added a new dimension to the sucktitudinal nature of america. i wish people could still call a spade a spade and say what they mean... THANK YOU SOCCER MOMS WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO THAN FORCE PC CULTURE ON US.

[soulkraka]

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_18/b3781703.htm

interesting article

and also check:

http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/index.cfm

a brief synopsis:

in the manufacturing sector british CEOs make an average of 24 times as much as their average employees, German CEOs 15%, Swedish CEOs 13%..........on the other hand US CEOs make an average of 411 times more than their average employee!!!!!

IMO a change in government wont change a thing. democracy , socialism whatever. what needs to change is conciousness. dont buy into all this fear that the US is trying to shove down your throat. The extremely powerfull/wealthy have to WANT to make the world a better, fairer place. Will this ever happen? Is it our very nature to claw our way to the top at the expense of others? Is that a good, or even neccessary, thing?

[AssKissinger]

One thing's for sure. This Iraq War sucks more and more every day.

[url=http://www.yahoo.com/homer/?[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716][/url] Iraqi Teenagers Bash Americans' Heads In[/url]

About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks

[Neo-Rio]

I heard some leader after 9-11 mention something about taking Iraq.... not because it had WMDs or any of that nonsense.... but becasue Osama really wanted to have Saddam Hussein ousted himself.. in fact Osama wants all so-called Islamic countries with despots and kings taken apart and ruled instead with a fanatical clergy of Taliban. All he really wants to do is take over the world and impose Islam on everyone.... so unless we fight the terrorists and all their ilk... they were just going to bomb everyone anyway.

I also remember hearing something about how the Iraq war aimed to distract terrorists in the region. Instead of trying to sneak into the US and bomb more innocent people, these terrorists can try taking on the US army instead.

[Shinigami]

I'm getting sooooo siiicccckkkkk of that quote.

Ben Franklin never had to worry about WMD's

[devicenull]

I'm getting sooooo siiicccckkkkk of that quote.

Ben Franklin never had to worry about WMD's

you are just lucky that he missed out on the main barbary pirate conflict...

edit: also... number of "WMD"* deployed against the US : 0
and car accidents and smoking each kill more US Citizens every day than "terrorists" have ever killed.


*at the very most, "WMD" includes biological and nuclear warfare... chemical is only area denial.

[Caustic Saint]

I'm getting sooooo siiicccckkkkk of that quote.

Ben Franklin never had to worry about WMD's

Nobody who lives in America (or many, many other countries) does either. If you think they do, you've bought into the lies.

[Neo-Rio]

The only WMDs in Iraq are the terrorists themselves.

All this WMD stuff is just bull anyway.... but then again, they couldn't just say "We're trying to lure all terrorists in the region, so our army can take a crack at them".... otherwise the terrorists wouldn't come and fall into the trap.

...but then again... who's trapping who?

[kamome]

For those in an America-bashing mood, read Michael Moore's books "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country?". He does a decent job of detailing how Bush stole the 2000 election, how the Bushes are in bed with the Saudis, how the Bush administration implied (erroneously) that 9/11 and Al-Qaeda were linked to Saddam, etc. Great reading.

[Neo-Rio]

I saw a stack of books like that in Shinjuku's Kinokuniya....
I saw another one entitled something like "How Amerca can't stop it's love for militarism" and a few other things.
In fact, there seems to be plenty of US bashing publications out at the moment. I don't know if this is a good thing or not.

One thing I am certain of is though, is that the security of the world depends on a strong America at the moment. Should America fall to bits, who knows what the despots of the world will try to pull?

[Caustic Saint]

For those in an America-bashing mood, read Michael Moore's books "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country?". He does a decent job of detailing how Bush stole the 2000 election, how the Bushes are in bed with the Saudis, how the Bush administration implied (erroneously) that 9/11 and Al-Qaeda were linked to Saddam, etc. Great reading.

I wouldn't say that Moore is bashing America, so much as what's been going on in America. His books serve as sort of a "real state of the union address." In all of his stuff that I've read, I get a sense that he truly loves his country, but hates what's been happening to it. I haven't read "Dude, Where's My Country?" yet, but "Stupid White Men" was a decent read.

Sure, he's pushing his own agenda, but the message behind his stuff is a pretty decent one. "America has lost its way and things are only getting worse. As long as politicians and the people whose pockets they're in are calling the shots, things aren't going to get any better."

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

[cstaylor]

They have been bashing the marxists to long.

Besides Marx and Engels, how many true Marxists have you seen? Most of those so-called "marxists" are pigs walking on two legs...

[Andocrates]

Personally I think Michael Moore is as big an ass as Bush. he's the exact duplicate of Rush Limbaugh and that ilk, same bullshit different accent.

He's not telling you the truth he's pushing his own agenda and selling books. No one is in charge of the truth, nor indeed can be. The truth comes from the collective mind of a people.

Anyone can make there case if they are allowed to voice their opinion without debate.

[jez]

He's not telling you the truth he's pushing his own agenda and selling books.

What agenda? His quest for the truth perhaps? All authors sell books. Does that make them all wrong.?You have committed what is called an ad hominem, I'm afraid.

[jez]

read Michael Moore's books "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country?".

On a more 'serious' note, read what Noam Chomsky and others have been writing for decades.

[Andocrates]

Noam Chomsky? good god I feared you were a liberal but I never dreamed you were an anarchist. I think I would do pretty good in your visionary world, being that I'm American and got all these guns lying around.

No seriously, America needs to come back to the middle, not the left. But as long as there are republicans vs democrats it will never happen. China will rise up and eventually America will fade away.

I wonder, when China becomes the world super power, what will happen to Japan?

[cstaylor]

I wonder, when China becomes the world super power, what will happen to Japan?

They'll probably launch Ishihara and his ilk into the Sun on the next Shenzhou.

[GomiGirl]

No seriously, America needs to come back to the middle, not the left. But as long as there are republicans vs democrats it will never happen. China will rise up and eventually America will fade away.

in the book I was reading a book yesterday I thought the following was interesting..

(Paraphrasing)

"The far right and far left need each other to survive. If one ceases to exist then the other loses it's relevance and will also cease to exist."

[cstaylor]

Would anybody miss them if they both disappeared? Show of hands?

[kamome]

Personally I think Michael Moore is as big an ass as Bush. he's the exact duplicate of Rush Limbaugh and that ilk, same bullshit different accent.

He's not telling you the truth he's pushing his own agenda and selling books. No one is in charge of the truth, nor indeed can be. The truth comes from the collective mind of a people.

Anyone can make there case if they are allowed to voice their opinion without debate.

Moore is not the equivalent of a Rush Limbaugh. Rush is an admitted conservative and political commentator (and a pill-popping racist pig, but I won't go there). Moore takes pains to distance himself from both the Republicans and Democrats. He does a fair amount of Clinton-bashing in his books. I think he's more in the Green Party-Ralph Nader camp.

I wouldn't say that Moore is bashing America, so much as what's been going on in America. His books serve as sort of a "real state of the union address." In all of his stuff that I've read, I get a sense that he truly loves his country, but hates what's been happening to it.

I have to agree with you there. He's not exactly bashing America, just the politicians and corporate interests running it.

No seriously, America needs to come back to the middle, not the left.

The American "middle" is far to the right of the middle in most democracies. When Americans say "middle", we're talking British Tories. The whole American political landscape is skewed to the right. Democrats in the US would be considered moderates or even right-of-center in many countries.

Maybe you could say Moore's position is more in line with the European Left, rather than the American Left.