Hopefully some good can come of all this nonsense; There is a serious derth of good people running for office these days, but it seems there are now quite a few well qualified men and women available. It would be wonderful if even half of these attorney's were so angered that they ran for office- any office- in the next elections. If they are refused the opportunity to serve their country by appointment of their elected leaders, maybe they will be motivated to serve at the will of the people.

The idea that these replacements are being given opportunity and experience to fulfill later roles higher up in the government is, I think, an uncomfortable reality. But doesn't that mean that those who were displaced are already in a position to use their experience to affect change from a the position of popular authority? Even better that they now have deeply personal motivation and focus-- in opposition to the current administration and its ideologies-- to work for universal justice in their country. I would hope that this very dark cloud over our republic will be found to have a few silver linings in the end.

Draft the US Attorney Seven!

I posted this to the Afghanistan story yesterday, but just replace all the military references with political ones and it still fits the theme:

It seems that 6 years of craven incompetence and patronage-style leadership has poisoned our military to the core. It starts at the top, with able and reasoned commanders being dismissed for rightly disagreeing with CIC Bush's war plans (if you can even call it that). It starts at the top and trickles downward, with conniving, ambitious, weak-willed men being promoted for their subservience and acquiesence to the idiots at the top. It infects our military with rewards for capitulence in stead of honor, falling in line, in stead of holding the line.

With each commander dismissed for standing with honor against the chicken-hawk civilians who would send troops into harms way without care or consideration- for political gain and ideological fantasy- the disease spreads. It passes down the chain of command, choking dissent and realistic opposition to failed and faulty tactics, like some toxic sludge dumped into the source of a river. It spreads like a virus and cancer at once, assimilating once-healthy tissue to further its own twisted growth, devouring good and useful organs and displacing entire systems with a useless, indistinguishable mass of death and pestilance. It filters down from the highest rank, where political savvy and the ability to compromise personal and traditional values for success are the theater of battle; it filters down like black shit-bile to rain on our troops. The symptoms are everywhere- an epidemic spreading from the White House to the Pentagon to Walter Reed to Iraq and Afghanistan to the forward operating bases where our soldiers are forced into impossible positions by circumstance and poor leadership. It makes me sick.

Maybe the once-hesitant, rightfully-skeptical AfAm bloc has had enough time to be reassured by their caucasian friends and neighbors that yes, America is indeed ready for a black president. Maybe by presenting such utterly ridiculous positions as Debra Dickerson's, the debate has been opened and the truth revealed: Black in America is Black, and America is just fine with Black.

The demographic of young trend-setters has finally been filled by people who grew up in the era of hip-hop, and matured alongside real and metaphorical mash-ups like Danger Mouse's 'Grey Album', a musical marriage of the Beatles' White album and Jay-Z's 'Black Album'. The band who brought modern rock to the US and solidified the British dynamic between Indian's and Anglicans through music was retrofitted to blend perfectly with our nation's top renaissance man. This new generation was raised in schools with newly implemented diversity education plans, just as rap overtook rock as the backbone of pop music, and Martin Luther King Jr. was more of a historical hero than JFK (for me, at least). White kids in the rural south are emulating inner-city blacks, not redneck Klansmen. They identify with the punk movement of violent opposition to skinheads and bullies of all kinds. The Emo movement, part of the 'de-masculination' of the American male comes as a by-product of an increasingly inclusive culture, which is in turn increasingly ubiquitous in the age of the inter-webs. Maybe the polls are catching up to the people on this one, and maybe the AfAm community is regaining its self-confidence and self-love.

That's so cute-- CheneyCo. are match-makers! So nice that the Taliban and al-Quaida are finally sharing what they have in common, rather than focusing on petty tribal differences. I'm sure the people of Afghanistan are overjoyed at this new union-- bringing suicide bombings and one more crime syndicate to their little corner of the world. BushCheneyCo. really are uniters, not dividers.

Bastards.