Iran .... All The Way Home .....

hey .... it's me again .... i thought i lost you when i said we should bomb kansas; did that frighten you? were you scared? nobody wrote in saying "yah, bro' .... right on! let's bomb kansas!" where were all the kudos? i don't think bombing kansas is over the top; we've had years of chanting and ranting and panting about how we should "bomb bomb bomb .... bomb bomb iran; bomb bomb bomb .... bom bom iran ....." why, that was even a presidential party platform in the last election, and nobody looked askance at it .....

although now the chant's changed a little, hasn't it? now the news goes like this: "republicans criticize obama for not taking a stronger line with iran ...." that's news, isn't it: republicans criticizing obama? ..... wow, i'm shocked: republicans criticizing obama! who woulda thunk it? but .... doesn't criticizing a wartime president constitute treason? hey, that's what i was told last time around; when did the rules change?

just kidding of course .... ha ha .... i know how the rules work: democrats exist for republicans to criticize, and the "media" exists to promote and propagate this bullshit; what i don't get is, how do republicans know who's a democrat these days? i mean, we have the democrats enthusiastically taking charge of and expanding the wars they got into office opposing and floating more dollars i'm told we don't have to promote those wars, just like all the democrats are forking over wheelbarrow loads of moolah to big banks that are now touting record profits and handing over huge bonuses again so they can "keep the best talent" because they don't want all those bright folks who tanked the world economy to go someplace else with all their smarts and when it comes to healthcare and you read the polls which, as questionable as they are, now indicate a preponderance of americans want a single payer healthcare system so they can have insurance without having to peddle their butts on downtown street corners, the democratic chairman of the committee that's supposed to evaluate healthcare modalities won't even put single payer care on the table because "insurance companies can't compete" but "the government would run things badly" and that would be "soshalism" which as we know won't wurk here like it doesn't work in sweden and england and canada and .....

boy, that socialism ..... thank god i don't have soshalized medisin where i live now, a very affluent part of america in a very affluent part of californya, where it took three months to get my boys in to see doctors, just as it took me three months to get to see a doctor, by which time all our symptoms had disappeared; is that how medicine works now in this country? if you take long enough the symptoms will go away .... or you'll die .... in which case we can enter you in the statistics as "cured ......"

there are lots of things i could criticize obama and his boys for, like .... where are the war crimes trials? but .... this "why isn't he taking a hard line with iran" isn't one of them .... how would we have responded if the iranians had, back in 2000, invaded the united states to preserve democracy in the face of the blatant electoral theft perpetrated by the republicans--abetted by the supreme court--in florida? "hey, guys ... thanks a lot! thanks for helping us save our freedoms! down with the usurping dogs! down with the corrupt corporate plutocratic hegemony that stifles dissent and tramples the rights of the people! and while you're here, don't forget to have some conch fritters .... and you gotta try the stone crab!"

why are we critical of the iranian regime? let's see .... their establishment has stolen an election .... hey ... we do that shit all the time .... massive demonstrations are ignored .... or outlawed .... just like us! hey, when we do it, when our "leaders" ignore popular opinions and pursue disastrous corrupt evil policies we call it "fearless leadership" so why don't we just snuggle up to the iranian Supreme Leader and make him an honorary republican? i know it's been a while since, like kent state, we shot demonstrators in the streets but we can't be far behind in this respect, can we? i mean, how can we give up the moral high ground here? i've always felt that non-violent protests were dangerous, that people peacefully protesting against wars posed massive threats to our security and that non-violent people should be treated as violently as possible: it's the american way, and our ways are the best!

of course, america has a hallowed tradition and history of supporting freedom and democracy in iran; just like southerners haven't forgotten the civil war the iranians still recall america's involvement in their politics, with highlights like the CIA toppling the democratically elected mossadeq government in 1953 and replacing it with that icon of freedom, shah rezah pahlavi .... it's a tossup, isn't it? should we bomb them because we don't like that ass-a-hole-a ayatollah? because we disapprove of the mad, bad ahmedinajad? or should we invade them and have diebold install new voting machines to preserve the integrity of their electoral process? we're experts on the integrity of the electoral process, from mississippi through the fifties and sixties and seventies and eighties and florida in the nineties and ohio in the new millenium and i know i'm missing about forty-seven other states and isn't the timing of our indignity and moral rectitude spectacular? with the supreme court upholding the Voting Rights Act of 1965? except for that recalcitrant holdout cl*r*nce th*mas? yeah, that f*ggers, all right .....

“The historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable,” the chief justice [roberts] wrote. But these days, he went on, “things have changed in the South.”

“Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.” of course, things have changed in the south, and now the discriminatory practices held sacred by southerners have been adopted by states like ohio .... or florida ..... or anywhere voter turnout might give democrats an electoral edge .....

you know, not too long ago we read, ever so briefly, about populist rage in the face of the unabashed greed of our financial masters of the universe; we never saw any of that ....ha ha .... populist rage manifested over stolen elections ..... or ten hour waits in the rain to cast a vote that'd be disallowed ..... too bad the only protests over stolen elections came out in favor of them ......

etc. etc. etc. .... etc. etc. etc. .....

you know, i'm so despondent about, well ..... just about everything on the political scene .... i'm thinking of heeding the advice of some of you readers, who suggested that i write about other things, things like ..... my boys' first day at camp! or how about the upcoming 40th anniversary of woodstock! or how about a treatise on how it's not just that we're old ....

it's that today's "music" really does suck .....

next: dr. pete takes a vacation