AngryYoungMan - reporting live from blogistan

democracy in action (or: ha ha!)

So Hamas has won a huge election victory to take control of the Palestinian Authority. Well that is pretty damn funny! How dare they, some say, we gave those people the gift of democracy and now they elect people we don't like? Ungrateful bastards!

But seriously, I find it hilarious when we preach the wonders of democracy abroad and then get our undies in a bunddle when elections don't go the way we wanted them to. Just check out Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Venezuala to see some examples of how crazy we act when the people of a given nation use democracy to elect leaders we don't like. It's pretty ugly.

In this case the US and EU are thinking of halting all aid to the PA because Hamas is so openly hostile to our precious friend Israel (in fact calling for its destruction) and Israel may not give tax revenue owed to the PA because of the election resaults. Very mature...

Well, now that we've shown the Palestinians that elections are not the answer, what'll they do next? I don't know, maybe fall back on terrorism again?

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 10:31 AM 0 comments

*update!*

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago, but here's an update on the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes (you know, the brown guy London police thought was a terrorist and summarily executed). My initial post on this got some good responses, so I thought I'd throw the new facts out there:

When this dude entered the tube station he was walking calmly, not running as had been reported. Eyewitnesses said he was running from police, but CCTV shows him unsuspectingly going about his business, even pausing to pick up a free paper and look through it. Eyewitnesses also said he was wearing a suspiciously bulky jacket, but no he was wearing a light denim jacket.

Police initially said he was tackled and then shot in the back of the head, but it turns out he was shot up to 11 times in the face and shoulder over a span of 30 seconds by more than one officer as the first officer on the scene held de Menezes in a bear-hug on the seat (he had stood up when he heard someone yell police, the officer forced him down with his arm pinned at his sides, he had been sitting calmly waiting for the train to start like any normal person).

He did not leave a 'known terrorist safe-house', he was under observation because he 'looked like' one of the suspects.

Oh, so I guess he wasn't doing anything stupid, like all of the racist apologists initially insisted he was. I guess he was just going about his normal routine. He must have been awfully fucking surprised when all of the sudden a cop was forcing him back into his seat and even more surprised when fellow officers decided to shoot him several times in the face at point-blank range. See, the policy was wrong from the start. There is no excuse what so ever for this killing. White people could sit back and say, oh it was a tragic mistake but at least I feel safer while brown people have to worry about getting shot in the face by the police next time the city is on high alert.

I guess the actual facts of de Menezes' murder should serve as a big ol' glass of STFU for an awful lot of people...

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 11:09 AM 0 comments

seriously, WTF?

what else is making me angry today:

new census bureau report shows 37 million people living in poverty and 45.8 million without health insurance...those are just ridiculous numbers...and, remember that half of the un-insured are children. Great. I wonder if this has anything to do with the $5 billion a month we are spending on war/occupation. Nah...

Benjamin Netanyahoo is launching a comeback...great...let's insert a borderline-fascist, hyper-nationalist into an already tense situation (yes, he's crazier than Sharon). Let's keep building that wall, let's re-open and expand settlements. Hey Ben, why not just bulldoze all of those Palestinians into the sea and be done with it?

I also saw a little blurb that said most people think that creationism and evolution should be taught together. I love how many people think evolution is 'theory' (even though we are watching other species evolve as we speak and the evidence that we are evolving is pretty fucking solid) while creationism is a 'fact'. I respect people's religious beliefs, but a 'fact'? Come on, that is pure faith people. If it is what you believe, teach your kids, but don't keep everyone else's kids from learning about evolution or try to force them to learn about your beliefs while in science class.

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 1:22 PM 0 comments

no no no, this can't be!

Extremely funny televangelist Jack van Impe has come out as the voice of reason on the Pat Robertson/Hugo Chavez incident. Van Impe, the voice of reason?! Wow, the evangelical movement is scarier than I thought! If you've never seen Jack's show, it consists of a woman feeding him news headlines which he than interprets as signs of the coming apocalypse using scripture. And he's the voice of reason?! Wow, I'm, flabbergasted...

In case you missed it, Robertson said that if Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez thinks the US want to assassinate him, then the time has come for us to do it. Advocating the assassination of a democratically elected foreign leader? I'm not sure that's what Jesus would do (Pat obviously forgot to look at his WWJD bracelet before opening his fucking mouth). The best thing about Robertson is that he constantly makes insane statements like this, tries to deny them, and then apologizes for them. And worse yet, his followers always forgive him (and even worse yet, many of them probably agree with him). Everyone in the current administration has said Robertson's comments are inappropriate, but none of them really disagree with him. He was just honest/stupid enough to say it out loud. I wonder when we are going to invade Venezuela (and spill that over into Columbia and Cuba)...

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 9:14 AM 0 comments

don't let the facts get in your way

Hmmm, look what I found: the constitutional definition of treason! From Article 3. Section 3:

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 8:18 AM 1 comments

tellin it like it is...

I have been noticing an ever increasing phenomenon of right-wingers writing books about how liberals are destroying and/or hate America, and while this attack dog mentality is nothing new, the personal nature of the attacks is increasing. For instance, journalist turned professional whiner Bernard Goldberg now has a book where he lists 100 people who are "screwing up" the country. This is pretty much just a boring rant by a bitter old codger, but people might take this naming of names serious and really think people like Michael Moore and Al Gore are screwing up America. I'm sure if I was famous enough I'd be on this list and on any list of people who "hate" America because we aren't afraid to dissent and work for change. Now adays wanting change has suddenly come to = hate, but I guess that's a different rant. So, in the spirit of naming names, here are 25 hate-filled tired old neo-fascists who could really "screw up" America, if not completely fuck it up (thankfully some are just stupid, and by stupid I mean not very smart, pundits) :

Ann Coulter (literally makes me wanna barf), Bill O'Reilly, Lynn Chaney, Sean Hannity, Karl Rove, Tucker Carlson, Zell Miller (don't you know whata metafer is!), Rush Limbaugh, Fred Phelps, William F. Buckley Jr. (once threatened to punch Noam Chomsky in the goddamn face), George Will, Tom DeLay, Rudy Giuliani, Dr. Laura, Robert Novak, televangelists, right wing bloggers, Joe Scarborough, Rick Santorum, Norm Coleman, Brit Hume, Newt Gingrich, Michael Savage, David Horowitz, and of course Bernard Goldberg.

It's not an exhaustive list, but it's a start. I don't hate any of them (except Ann Coulter), but I'd kick them in the balls if given the chance...you'll also notice that they are almost exclusively privilaged white people, imagine that!

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 1:24 PM 0 comments

the hell you say?

Razzie just sent me this story on how local governments throw money at corporations to bring in jobs (that frequently) never materialize. I've been thinking about this phenomenon for a long while, always wondering why taxpayers don't get upset when you give a giant corporation millions of our dollars to create a dozen jobs, but go ape-shit if you try to spend that money on helping the homeless (most of whom have jobs, at least in Minnesota) or building better public transit. It is the same phenomenon that sees us throwing billions of dollars at the war in Iraq while some 20 million Americans don't have health insurance (half of them are children) and college tuitions are pricing poor/working class kids out of higher education. Why do we allow this to happen?

One reason is that all of this mis-spending of tax money really only affects those lower down in the wealth/power scale. I mean, who is working at that call center that gets built with millions of local dollars and huge tax breaks only to have the company move it to India within a couple of years? Who needs to take the bus/train to their poor paying job? For most Americans, if they are not directly impacted they don't give a shit, and the people adversely affected by these spending patterns are too busy trying to scrape by to fight. When your job leaves town you need to find another one ASAP, you don't have time to get mad about it.

Another reason this happens is that we are constantly told this is benefiting us, and the government wouldn't lie to us would it? The must really be trying to bring in jobs or protect us from evil abroad, it couldn't possible just all be thinly veiled corporate welfare given to their campaign donors could it?

Here are some things to think of next time your local government is talking about 'growing the tax base' or 'creating jobs.' 1) Northwest Airlines has taken millions and millions of dollars from MN in the name of creating jobs, which it has never delivered on, and now it is on the verge of bankruptcy, which could cost the state thousands of jobs. Oops! 2) WalMart moves into your town after the town gives them free land and tax breaks because it will create jobs. Great, everyone who owned a store or worked downtown is now unemployed, so they have to go work for half the money they used to make and no benefits at WalMart. The locals can shop for less, but they have less income and there town is dead. Great! 3) Most of the money given to the military ends up in the hands of private corporations for 'research,' or for no-bid service contracts, or for grossly over-priced equipment. It does not go paying soldiers better or giving them better benefits when they leave the service. Who knew?! 4) If your city gives a big corporation huge tax breaks to build there, how is that growing the tax base? And where do those millions thrown at said corporation come from? Oh yeah, out of your pocket! Well, let's just build some luxury condos so we have more property tax revenue to through at more developers
and corporations! Who cares about schools, transportation, the fire dept, etc.!

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 8:12 AM 1 comments

ireland's true shade of green...

The government of Ireland has officially given out a 600 million Euro contract to two firms to build a toll road very near to the Hill of Tara, which will probably bury some important artifacts/archeological sites and will definitely ruin the tranquility of the surrounding valley. If you don't know, Tara was the seat of many of the High Kings in Ireland (and almost always the seat for the Kings of Leinster), and as such is one of the most important historical areas of the country. Not to mention the fact that the valley is absolutely one of the most beautiful places in the country. But, 'progress' must prevail. There is taxpayer money to be wasted (this road would only link two small county towns) and kick-backs to be had. Who cares about heritage and quiet places when there is land to be exploited...er, I mean developed? I guess this kind of b.s. is the inevitable by product of suddenly finding yourselves to be a growing, prosperous country with money to spend. So, if you've always meant to go to Ireland, you'd better head there before all of the natural beauty has been paved under and everything of historical interest is buried under asphalt...

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 8:04 AM 0 comments

d'oh

Two people have left us who's passing shouldn't go unnoticed: Ibrahim Ferrer and Robin Cook. I'm not one to write elegies or anything, but these folks should be missed.

Ferrer was the cutest most grandfatherly little Cuban jazz man and he put on a great show, even though he wasn't 'discovered' until he was almost 70. I give him credit for giving me a push to start learning Spanish and giving us a peak into Cuban culture, which we as Americans are seldom allowed.

Cook was the big voice of reason and dissent in the Labour Party in the run-up to this Iraq war. Advocating that containment was working and knowing that it was the wrong war at the wrong time, he made his voice heard and it cost him his job, but he left with dignity and not acrimoniously. Definitely the man who should have been Prime Minister, and idealist who stayed true to his convictions and called everyone on their bullshit, regardless of their party.

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 6:31 AM 0 comments

bring out your dead

It has been a particularly deadly week in Iraq with at least 20 soldiers getting killed, so of course the president has been brought out by his handlers to tell us how brave they all were and how we appreciate their sacrifice (sacrifice being such an appropriate term here) and how we're winning the war on terror because of their brave effort. The worst thing about the escalating death toll, which is now well over 1800 Americans in a what was supposed to be a quick and easy punitive expedition against Saddam, is that it helps Bush wrap Iraq into the war on terror. Americans are sick of Americans being killed by shady elements in Iraq who may or may not be an indigenous rebellion against our occupation. We are sick of the war, but as long as we believe it is a part of the war on terror, we'll support our jackass president. And you know, it is becoming a part of the war on terror now because we have made it that way. We invaded a stable, secular, country in the middle east, got rid of its only leader of the past 20 years, and then are amazed that everything has gone to hell and Islamic fundamentalists have moved in because we have given them easy targets to strike back at the US through (namely, our soldiers). Saddam was a brutal fucker who deserves to rot in jail next to Milosevic, but there is absolutely now way this war was justified at the time, and more and more Americans realize we were lied to and misled and not have almost daily reports of dead Americans to listen to. Don't worry though, I'm sure our blind patriotism will pull us through these hard times, as it always has in the past. Most people who oppose the war keep that opinion to themselves unless it is in a poll, because Fox News tells them the hate their country and are traitors if they express their opposition. We are also reassured by the fact (and the "liberal" media) that even though Iraq wasn't a den of terrorists when Bush told is was, it sure is now and so he must have been right all along. Jesus, Orwell must be laughing at us.

But, back to the all of those dead soldiers. When I was in DC this spring, I came across this very interesting art exhibit showing all of the dead soldiers at that point in time.


The exhibit made me so angry and sad, especially looking at all of those reservists with big smiles on their faces and notes from their wives and kids tucked in behind the paintings. None of them ever thought they'd get stuck in such a shitty dangerous place thanks to our army being over extended and our leaders turning the whole world against us (one weekend a month, eh?). I even feel bad for those over testosteroned marines who act so tough and unflappable, because most of them are just stupid kids. Younger than me and with no way to make a life for themselves other then through the armed forces. They are "braver" and more macho then the reservists, but that's because they are brainwashed to be like that from the second they hit boot camp and they tend to not be the smartest members of the service. They're more robots than people at times, but they are still dead and they still have loved ones grieving for them back home.

I though this show was a great way to start to remembering that real people are dying over there, which we sort of forget because the media refuses to show us the flag draped coffins coming home and the families who are torn apart because of their loss. They only bust out the people who support the president no matter what and keep telling us how proud they are of their loved one and how they died making us safer. I hope that helps them though their grief, but those folks died for nothing. No WMD, no terror links, no threat to us, just a ruined nation with a sick leader. But looking at these soldiers reminded me of our last big loss of life abroad, which was of course Vietnam. Also pointless and based on lies. So, here are some pics of the Vietnam War Memorial:





To the soldiers: I wish you were all home with your loved ones and that our draft-dodging leaders were there in your place. They sent many of you to your deaths, but the rest of you, keep safe.

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 5:55 PM 3 comments

I guess you told me!

Some folks do not like the seperation of tirades and pics into two sites (I would say STFU, but they friends not random viewers), so let me assure you that both sites will have both components. One will be art & culture oriented (AYA), and one will be political w/ random thoughts (AYM). I'll try to work up a rant and a pic for this page today.

posted by AngryYoungMan @ 9:09 AM 1 comments