Where Are The Angry Hordes Today?

With news that billions in American aid to Pakistan wasted due to lack of Pentagon planning and accounting, I’m sure we’ll hear about all those truly concerned grass-roots-types calling their Representatives and Senators and demanding that the government stop foreign aid to the nuclear country.  Right?  Right?

I mean, after all, their outrage wasn’t manufactured or focused on what a handful of corporations wanted them to be, was it?  That’s what we kept hearing from all of them – “Nobody is telling me to be out here with my Obama=Hitler sign.  I’m real and I’m angry, dammit!”.  So where are they today?  Are the phone lines in Washington jammed with thousands of angry citizens demanding to know why the Pentagon threw away $6 Billion?  Are the servers crashing from all of the traffic as people demand to know via email where their taxpayer dollars are?

Of course they’re not.  Because the outrage was manufactured.  Because the military can do whatever they damn well please with taxpayer dollars.  The righties aren’t concerned about their fellow Americans’ health.  Somehow, they’re just fine with the idea that $6 Billion of our dollars went to Pakistani economic subsidies, including fighting with India, instead of tracking down and killing terrorists.  They’re not truly angry that the government is getting involved with things … as long as the government is involved in the things they want it to be.  The tea-baggers and anti-health care reform mobs that descended on town halls this summer were as fake as can be.  Few of those people would have gotten out to the town halls if they weren’t organized by firms who specialize in such things.  The fact that the people didn’t know they were being used could be considered sad.

But I don’t waste any pity on those who don’t truly care for their fellow citizens.  They deserve to have billions of their tax dollars flittered away by their political leadership.

Sound bites

I just read this over at SquareState. Part of me applauds Rep. Udall for making the trip to Afghanistan to get a better idea of what conditions might actually be like over there. Another part can’t give a shit less. It’s all words – Democratic politicians just want to make enough noise in the press to make it seem like they really care a lick about what’s going on in the region. If they really felt that Afghanistan and Pakistan posed the kind of threat they talk about, they would have forced Bush’s hand by now. But somehow, they view the situation as politically expedient for themselves as well.

And note: despite Udall’s mention of Pakistan, where was the announcement of a plan to do something about that country? A nation (with a former U.S.-supported dictator re-exerting dictatorial rule) that we arm and supply to the teeth has a governmental crisis on its hands. Oh, and they have nuclear weapons at their disposal. But where is the rebuke to our Dear Leader to stop bullshitting about Iran and get serious about Pakistan’s crisis?

Another thing that has bothered me about the Iraq/Afghanistan debacle is the amount of taxpayer dollars being funneled into the toilet. You’ve probably heard that argument before, but here’s my more personal take on it. Every dollar we spend over there is one less dollar for our single-payer health care system. It’s one less dollar for public education funding preschool through college. It’s one less dollar going to fight the greatest threat that we are facing: global warming. Folks, this planet will change in ways we can’t imagine. The Earth my children (if I ever have any) grow up in will not be recognizable to you or I today. And every dollar we waste on financing mercenaries and fraud is a dollar that should have gone to mitigate our horrendous treatment of this planet.

Every dollar we waste to fund an illegal occupation means we’ll have to waste more and more dollars to react to the next series of terrorist attacks. And we’ll face more attacks, but not for the reasons the fringe right would have you believe. We’ll be attacked again because we have a military presence in other people’s countries. And forget the bullshit that neocons spout about that’s the responsibility of being a superpower. Why shouldn’t being a superpower include supporting the will of the world’s populace? The vast majority of us just want to live our lives. Why do we continue to prop up dictators and governments hostile to their people’s interests? That’s why America’s standing in the world is in the toilet.

So stop sending out releases like this, Rep. Udall.  Or if you truly believe the words you put in them, then pay attention to the people you’re paid to represent.  Take action and show some guts.  If you don’t, why should I donate to your campaign?  Why should I vote for you?