- Davis Fleetwood

Yesterday, Professor Glenn Beck informed his viewers, or should I say the scholars enrolled in his course “Obama- Will-Be-Rounding-You-Up-and-Jailing-You-Any-Day-Now -101” that a looming violent event is coming in America. Now, no prerequisites are required to enroll in Professor Beck’s class, as a matter of fact, the lower your level of education, the more likely you are to excel. Prof. Beck does not want anyone tainted with the brainwashing doled out by the liberal education system. No, the ideas of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny were taught in one room school houses like those on the Little House on the Prairie, and our education system need not instill us with any more than that.

Isn’t that so, Professor Beck?
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Watching George Bush do his publicity talk show tour to publicize his memoir, DECISION POINTS, I could not help think- how impotent does one have to become, Matt Lauer, before you hand picked among the impotent members of the fawning corporate media to pitch soft balls to a living former president who will ride his blithe and arrogant admissions of war crimes all the way to the top of New York Times Best seller list?

But then I immediately think the following: George Bush and Republicans all, every last one of them, are shit stains on the sweat drenched panties of a 2 dollar street walker who is suffering from rectal bleeding in the aftermath of a Taco Bell binge on humid night on mean streets of Memphis.

Is that clear?

I know that Jon Stewart is riding his wave of lets all be nice nice and meet in the middle for polite, sane hyperbole free conversation, grabbing enough moderate slacktivist with him to overtake, for the first time ever, Letterman and Leno in the late night ratings game.

But Stewart, whose heart was in the right place, never the less made a few boneheaded, narrow-minded errors while contorting himself to give equal criticism of the left and the right in the lead up to his million moderate meh fest.

Bill Mahr recently pointed out that Stewart was critical of both sides using overheated rhetoric in that the right was equating Obama with Hitler and the left was calling George Bush a war criminal. Except, thinking Obama is like Hitler is utterly unfounded, but thinking Bush is a war criminal? That’s the opinion of General Anthony Tugabu, who headed the Army’s investigation of Abu Ghraib.

One bit of stigma that liberals and progressives need to get past is the idea that we are elitist snobs. In trying to accommodate all points of view and invite debate, we progressives have been to accommodating and ignored one simple fact: we are right. Republicans, Conservative, Tea baggers are regressive. They are wrong.

I know at times it is difficult to see the forest through the trees, but think:

When conservative forces in the south were arguing for separate but equal facilities for blacks during the civil rights struggle, does any version of history look back and exonerate the apes that held onto the conservative position?

With the benefit of hindsight, is there anyone who can say that the toll, in human lives was worth out involvement in the Vietnam War? It was progressives who wanted us out of that war based on lies sold to us by men like Robert McNamara.

Twenty years from now, when you are trying to explain to children why there was so much debate over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Gay Marriage, whose side will you be on? The Fred Phelps hate mongers and Military macho dick wavers who want to keep gays in the closet?

No. Twenty years from now, you will look back at this time and think, what was the problem? Why were we dragging our knuckles like apes?

Place yourself in any one of those historical struggles I mentioned and ask yourself, whose side would you want to be on?

Progressives are so named because we favor progress towards a more equitable and just world, not just change for change sake. To be anything but a liberal progressive is to be regressive.

George Bush is a war criminal. The disparity between the rich and poor in not acceptable. Health care for all, while cutting out the profit based insurance companies- is a non negotiable. Expensive, illegal wars of aggression must end.

On these and so many more issues, there is no middle ground. There is no compromise. And unless you look at the world through confederate flag lenses or clutch to your dashboard Jesus so tight that you are not willing to say with certainty whether the world is 6 thousand or 6million years old, you know this.

It is time to start fighting for it.

Democrats, who in 2006, 2008, and 2010 tried to find a middle ground between the two parties – a middle ground that keep drifting further and further right- need to energize their base of liberal progressives or their base needs must flock to a third party.

by Davis Fleetwood

The 400, 000 documents released several days ago will take years for historians to go through, but the Pentagon wasted no time framing WikiLEaks as public enemy number 1.

As Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it:

“The battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that key part of the world. Intelligence sources and methods, as well as military tactics, techniques and procedures, will become known to our adversaries. This department is conducting a thorough, aggressive investigation to determine how this leak occurred, to identify the person or persons responsible, and to assess the content of the information compromised.”

No Bobby, I think it might be the trail of death and destruction in the wake of the United States exporting, correction: violently shoving democracy down the throat of the world that is damaging our reputation.

Admiral Mike Mullen went even further:

“Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is, they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family. Disagree with the war all you want, take issue with the policy, challenge me or our ground commanders on the decisions we make to accomplish the mission we’ve been given, but don’t put those who willingly go into harm’s way even further in harm’s way just to satisfy your need to make a point.”

Sorry Mike, but the blood is on the hands of those who would implement our insanely homicidal foreign policy. Mike, the blood is on your hands. The blood is on the hands of the Bush administration. The blood is on the hands of President Obama, and truth be told, the blood is on the hands of the American taxpayer, many of whom, though they may have never been to an anti war rally, will make a pilgrimage to DC this weekend to attend a rally held by a comedian asking us all to just take a deep breathe, get along and restore some sanity.

Suggesting that WikiLeaks and their source has blood on their hands is akin to saying that a TV station reporting on a fire is guilty of arson, or a reporter filing a story about a rape is accessory to future rape. At the end of a horror movie, when a light is cast in a dark basement revealing the cave of  the mass murderer, one does not prosecute the light.

Do we need any more metaphors, or are you with me here?

Your logic, Admiral, like the foreign policy you implement in your starched and pressed boy scout outfit all pimped out with pins, stars and the skulls of murdered children is about as warped as the corpses of the innocent civilians lying in the streets of Iraq that now number – in the low estimates of the US military ( I know this courtesy of wikileaks) to number over 66 thousand civilians.

What I also know, courtesy of WikiLeaks, is that in this hellfire attack (pictured in video)-the civilian walking by is not listed in the report of this incident.

So what is the real number of innocent civilians dead, admiral? Furthermore, in the cost to benefit ratio, how many Iraqi civilian deaths is to high a price to pay for us to continue pursuing our Manifest Destiny?

This article was cross posted on No Cure For That

(video) An Open Letter To Jon Stewart

Mr. Stewart

I am one of the growing legion who plan on attending the Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30th, and my hopes are high. Why? Because I am going insane and I would like very much thank you to have my sanity restored.

Click image for video

And because the world we live in, the unfolding 21st century with America behind the wheel is currently in a slow motion suicide; a tragedy fit for Shakespeare, or at the very least-a new Showtime series. And in Shakespeare, it is often the court jesters who exhibit the most wisdom. On Showtime it dope dealing single Mom’s. As appealing as  Mary Louise Parker is on weeds, I doubt future generations will be gleaning life lessons from the “Tao of Nancy Botwin.”

So, I’m hoping, Mr.Stewart, that you are onto something as wise – and as funny, as a Shakespearean fool.

Even though my political leanings and yours tilt the same direction, Mr. Stewart, I am going insane.  Why? Even just reading the news on a regular basis, and skipping the hyperbolic commentary from the talking head performance artists employed by the FUX news network is enough to make one insane.

For example-take the recent story about US Soldiers in Afghanistan who allegedly keep the fingers from Afghan civilians they had killed as war trophies.

Now, many people will say, you know, that war is ugly. These things happen in war. Don’t criticize the soldiers you pinko commie fag or the next time I see you on the street I will rip your trachea out, put it on a kabob,  BBQ it and feed it to your mom! Soldiers fight and die to preserve our way of life-if they want a few fingers then hell, let them take fingers, toes,let them have all the Temporomandibular joints they want!

To which I respond, have you ever had BBQ’d TRACHEA? And, oh, bye the bye, the idea that soldiers fight and die to preserve our way of life has about as much veracity as the combined myths of the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, and of since the end of WW2, war-covert, overt or otherwise, is the default setting for the US.

Making us a society living in denial. A homicidal denial that has made us – according to your arguments, a very rich people unbothered by the blood on our hands. Is that who really are? A nation of MacBeth’s married to Martha Stewart, with enough products at our disposal to wash all the blood from our hands. “Out Out damn spot?” No problem! Guilt free world domination and a living room ready for a pictorial spread in next months’ Architectural Digest.

So, what is a peace loving pinko commie fag to do? Take to the streets, like they did in the 60s? What did the 60s teach us? After they killed Kennedy Malcolm Martin and Kennedy again, what happened? All those baby boomer hippies put their tails between their legs, got hair cuts, went to work for Wall Street or pharmaceutical firms, getting rich off of creative complex derivative markets and Viagra.

And all of this time US foreign policy has been much the same. Whether it be Jimmy Carter or George Bush in the White House,  since Fat Man paid a visit to Hiroshima the underlying assumptions that govern the US role in the world (i.e., – the world is a bad place that needs a cop, and that the US – not the UN or some other coalition-is the only force with the will and moral authority to act as this cop) has not been challenged by many elected officials and by exactly zero Presidents.

And it is this foreign policy-not the fact that Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton walk the red carpet panty-less, that has made radical Islam our enemy. And that is why some of us here on the left have lost our sanity. As distasteful and insane as Rev. Wright can sound, the chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

It has been suggested to me that your call, Mr. Stewart, for a restoration of sanity  (equally calling out the extreme elements on the left and the right) is a truly subversive gesture. That reality and sanity, as you have said, have a liberal bias. That the true moderates, the people you affectionately refer to as the “busy majority” want calm dialogue, will become progressives, if given the opportunity to actually have that dialogue.

Or are you just doing this for the ratings?

I suppose to have any kind of effect at all you’ll need both the former and the latter.

written by Davis Fleetwood cross posted at No Cure For That

Shakespeare and Jesus sit atop the heap of historical figures about which the most has been written. Add to that list, like it or not, the woman who has captured the zeitgeist of the moment: Lady Gaga.

watch the video

Not only are every one of her growing legion of pubescent twitter and facebook little monsters taking to typepad and blogspot to deconstruct her latest video, but a growing legion of pundits, pop critics and philosophers are laboring to see both the forest and the trees and connect Gaga to this historical moment.

While many of us of a certain age see this particular moment in history as one where the United States has risked, and in some cases lost our moral, military, and economic superiority all in the name of fighting a war based on lies, Gaga and her little monsters have grown up with war as an inevitable and, according to the lame-stream media, often un newsworthy fact of life.

Before Gaga lit her g-string on fire or doused her see through dresses in blood like liquid in an effort to complicate what are otherwise conventionally sexualized performances, before she channeled Duchamp and discovered Dada (she recently inscribed a functionless white urinal “I’m not fucking Duchamp but I love pissing with you,”) Gaga was a teenager in New York; a West Side Girl going to an East Side private school when the towers came down.

Since that day, the U.S. has come together to, in the words of Alternet writer Sara Jaffe and

“We have made monsters out of others in order to kill them without fear. Gaga makes herself a monster to try to show us ourselves.”

Like Archie Bunker, Gaga so fully embodies what she wants us to think what she is satirizing (post feminism, post Madonna, post Pop and Imperial America that it matters not whether one in on the joke, if indeed there is one. Her reach is so obtuse and indiscriminate, like the current U.S. foreign policy that James Parker of the Atlantic argues that she is eviscerating pop, that she is in fact the last pop star.

And Tom Ewing at Pitchfork wrote of Gaga entering her “imperial phase”, noting:

“It holds a mix of world-conquering swagger and inevitable obsolescence. What do we know about emperors? That they end up naked: The phase always ends.”

Yet another Tom, this one of the political pundit variety, Tom Dispatch, connects Gaga to the current zeitgeist moment for weaponry, writing:

“If there are zeitgeist moments for products, movie stars, and even politicians, then such moments can exist for weaponry as well. The robotic drone is the Lady Gaga of this Pentagon moment.”

Funny thing about those drones. With production costs for Unmanned Ariel vehicles in the millions, it would take Billions of dollars to pay for these and fund the Obama escalation in Afghanistan. To achieve this, Obama needed congressional support to approve of the 59 billion needed to fund his war escalation effort. And before Congress recessed for summer vacation, not nearly enough of them stood on the house floor and said something like what Dennis Kucinich uttered when he said:

“Wake up America. There is unlimited money for war. Money for a corrupt government in Afghanistan. When U.S. money is not going to the Karzai mob’s personal use it goes to help the Taliban kill our troops. There is money for a corrupt government in Pakistan which helps the Taliban in Afghanistan kill our troops…. (Our) governments out of money…. Wake up America. How can we solve the worlds problems, when we can’t solve our problems here at home.”

With 1 out of every two tax dollars funding war, certainly some of the “problems here at home” could have been addressed with an emergency piece of legislation that was focused on domestic issues.

As a report from the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives makes clear, the largest income stream for the Taliban is the U.S. taxpayer. The report documents payoffs to the Taliban for safe passage of U.S. goods, payoffs very likely greater than the Taliban’s profits from opium, its other big money maker. And this is neither new nor unknown to top U.S. officials. But it must be unknown to Americans supporting the war. You can’t support a war where you’re funding both sides unless you want both sides to lose. We lock people away for giving a pair of socks to the enemy, while our own government serves as chief financial sponsor.

And yet, that is what Congress just authorized.

This was declared a big win for the white house. Looking at the forest and the trees, some Orwellian optimists point to one narrative that posits that Obama wants to withdraw from Afghanistan but does not think he can get congressional support for such an action before he escalates the war. If we buy into this narrative, Obama is like Lady Gaga: playing the part of a Hawkish war monster to show us ourselves and achieve peace.

And, as the saying goes, if you buy that, I’ve got a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn to show you.

If Lady Gaga is, as Sara Jaffe contends, is in fact a Pop Star for a Country and an Empire in Decline, than how do we reconcile that with the following facts

1. Empires end. Maps change. This happens through violence and coercion. And;
2. The United States is the first post-nuclear Empire. In other words, the endgame strategy for all military conflicts involving the end of our empire does not involve pickaxes, but rather nuclear weapons. And;
3. The mythmaking machine holds up soldiers as heroes and relegates peace activists to the fringes of society. And;
4. War is still more profitable than peace. And;
5. We live in an era where Lady Gaga has more facebook followers than Barack Obama.

The answer to the current catch 22 cluster jam of biblical proportions that is this historical moment in time is for the U.S. to stop playing a global version of the boys game known as king of the hill, climb down peacefully before the maintenance bill on the Empire breaks us financially and backs our once great nation into a corner, alone with our manifest destiny and our nuclear arsenal to play out what George Bush refereed to as the last chapter of history.

What kind of pop star would capture the zeitgeist of the peaceful decline of an empire?

I’m not sure, but we better find her quick.

by Davis Fleetwod

Most people here in the United States would rather have a colonoscopy administered with a cactus branch dipped in Ass Reaper Hot Sauce than watch a world cup match.

Spain

In fact, it is the usually divisive figure of one Glenn Beck who has clearly articulated the how the American (I mean, I guess one should not say American as if the U.S. speaks for Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil- and so on) but anywhoo) how citizens of the USA feel about the World Cup when he said recently:

“It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us. It dies not matter how many celebrities you get. It does not matter how many bars open early. It does not matter how many beer commercials they run. We don’t WANT the World Cup. We don’t like the World Cup. We don’t like Soccer. We want nothing to do with it!”

True, because FUTBOL, it turns out, is un-American. Which is one reason, I suppose, that I love it so much.

As I said in an earlier episode, tongue only half in cheek, Futbol is a socialist plot to subvert capitalism and take over the world.

To which Glenn Beck, and most of America, uh – I mean the U.S.A. would respond:

“The thing about Soccer is I hate it so much probably because the rest of the world likes it so much”

That “I hate it so much probably because the rest of the world likes it so much” is a by-product of a resurgence in the idea of American exceptionalism, itself the offspring of the idea of Manifest Destiny.

I like to call it Manifest Destiny’s Child. *

A quick tangential history lesson is needed here (from the introduction of my forthcoming documentary):

In June of 1846 what we now know as California was part of the sovereign nation of Mexico. On July 7 1846, California was annexed to the United States of America. Annexed is a cute little term to throw on civic exams so not to upset youngsters too much about the blood on the hands of their ancestors. It means, quite simply, that American settlers can (and did) say, “I’m bigger than you, I’m stronger than you, I’ve got more gun powder than you, and if that ain’t enough I’ve got God on my side. I’ve got manifest destiny.” It means, moreover, that those same American Settlers could say to the Mexicans, who (bye the bye) were residing on their own land, California, in 1846, something like: “Excuse me Cesar or, Excuse me, Esmeralda: We are going to give you two choices. One: We learned a lot about rape and murder during our genocide of the Native Americans. We can demonstrate that knowledge to you can and soak the land of this beautiful oceanfront real estate with the blood of your people or, B: just run along south of the border and then wait a couple of generations, have some kids, and then send them back here and we will put them to work in construction and the lawn care maintenance industry, and some of the best fine dining establishments this country has to offer (in the back of the house, of course). So, will it be door number one, or door number two? What say you?”

This “American can do” attitude that begets murder, occupation and colonization in the name of divinely ordained American destiny and exceptionalism continues today in the preemptive strategy of American imperialism abroad implemented by both Bush and Obama; an arrogant, blowback inducing foreign policy that, in the post nuclear age, is doing nothing less than expediting the end of the world as we know it.

This, in a nutshell, is MANIFEST DESTINY’S CHILD. *

So perhaps, my fellow Americans, uh- I mean, fellow citizens of the U.S.A., we should start finding some common ground with the rest of the developed world. Healthcare for all? Not for you USA? Okay, uh… A foreign policy that did not expand upon the Bush Doctrine? No, you’d rather be the colonizer and police force of the world. Well, it is hard to argue with you gringo, GOD is on your side, after all.

If nothing else, how about you walk into your neighborhood pub Sunday afternoon, order yourself a Cervaza and join the rest of the world in watching the most exciting sporting event on the globe?
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

* MANIFEST DESTINY’S CHILD is not only a catchy phrase that will sweep the nation and the world, as the title of my first feature length documentary, available in September 2010, it is also a shameless bit of self promotion. (support it here)

by Davis Fleetwood
Are you ready for some football???

“For the last six months all we’ve seen is U.S.-England,” said Landon Donovan Wednesday. “And so, if you were a casual sports fan at home, you might think that this was the World Cup final, U.S. vs. England.”

Actually Landon, the casual sport fan in the U.S., after they say, “Landon who?” Is more likely to be saying “Soccer, please God no. Give me badminton, give me curling, give me single A Baseball- gives me the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Vs. the Winston Salem Cancer Sticks. No, you know what, give me avant-garde French cinema. Give me Un Chien andalou and put that scene with the razor blades over they eyeball on repeat for the entire month give me anything but don’t give me soccer- and don’t you dare call it football. Football is for men and steeped in war metaphor with bombs and blitzes and aerial attacks. Football is American. Soccer is for commies!!!

But I am not like most Americans Landon. I have not been so excited for a sporting event since my 9-year-old football travel team, the Sachem Redskins, played for the Suffolk County Championship. Our coaches whipped us into a frenzy by having us sing this song on the bus to the game- imagine a group full of 9 year boys frothing at the mouth and singing:

Blood on the saddle
Blood on the ground
Great big puddles of blood all around
Pity on Wyandanch, isn’t it sad?
Great big Sachem stomped on their heads!
U! U! U! U! U!
UPSIDE THEIR HEADS!
U! U! U! U! U!
UPSIDE THEIR HEADS!

Yeah. American youth football culture is all kinds of fucked up.

Why is the America the lone holdout in the entire world to hold real football in disdain? Cuz we are Cowboys. We are Hypercapitalist war mongering Cowboys.

Listen: It is not only a side effect but also an object of American Football to hurt your players. Embedded in both our pop and youth culture, it prepares us for war. In Soccer- or real football – they trade jerseys after the game.

America celebrates the individual. Soccer- or real football- is about cooperation. No one player can impose their will on the game Kobe Bryant style. It is the ultimate team sport.

Remember, we are Cowboys.

Plus (and here is the real problem)the game never stops, when are we supposed to air commercials? How are we supposed to use this sport to hypnotize our consumers that they should drive to Wal-Mart after the game and rack up credit card debt trying to make our living rooms look like the latest spread in Martha Stewart Living?

And that right there, as any good Any Randian Regressive Tea Bagging American will tell you, is where the problem lies: Soccer- or real football- is a socialist plot to subvert capitalism and take over the world.

For the love of humanity, we can only hope so.

(video)

The former Miss Wassilla 1984 wants Barack Obama to pick up the phone and call her so that she can leverage her extensive executive experience and help the President navigate the increasingly murky waters of the BP OIL disaster.

I kid you not. I’ve got another idea; Obama should be calling in the Gambino family to deal with this mess.

Palin wrote that Obama’s comments amount to “further proof that it bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office,” and added that the president should call experts who lived through the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska – including herself.

“Based on my experience working with oil execs as an oil regulator and then as a Governor, you must verify what the oil companies claim – because their perception of circumstances and situations dealing with public resources and public trust is not necessarily shared by those who own America’s public resources and trust.”

Okay, I will not waste time absolving Obama here. Despite his recent claims that he is going to whoop some ass, delivered in the same polite tone one might use to deliver an elementary school commencement speech- the white house is to intertwined with wall street and big business to do anything meaningful on the ass kicking front.

However, if Palin is going to suggest that any involvement she- or any other executive in Alaska- had a relationship with Exxon that resulted in anything other than a rape – on so many levels- a casebook study in how corporations violate the citizens of this country while our elected officials stand impotently on the sidelines, then a quick review as some basic facts is required:

1. For the liability incurred for the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill that stretched 1,200 miles from the accident site, and covered 3,200 miles of shoreline and an incredible 10,000 square miles overall Exxon was taken to court. 22,000 plaintiffs sued Exxon.

2.  A jury awarded the plaintiffs $5 billion in damages, equal to what was, at the time, a year’s worth of Exxon profits. This was cut by half by a U.S. appeals court, then finally lowered to just over $500 million by the Supreme Court. During the 20 years of court battles, 6,000 of the original plaintiffs have died. ExxonMobil, with its billions in annual profits and armies of lawyers, can tie up the Valdez case in the courts for decades, while the injured commercial fishers slowly die off.

3. While a whole generation of plaintiff’s waits for justice, the first quarter profits for Exxon in 2010 were 6.3 Billion, up 38% from the first quarter in 2009.

4.  Legal teams for Exxon are currently working overtime in an effort to create the legal framework for a corporate takeover, Gordon Gecko style, of BP. Why would any company want to buy BP, given the liability of the cleanup costs and future lawsuits?
Well, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, BP’s liability for economic devastation — above the cost of the cleanup — is capped at $75 million. BP CEO Tony Hayward has publicly declared to go above that cap and pay all legitimate claims. The legitimate comes in very old school blue blood British quotation marks, however. Further more, if Exxon were to buy BP, Tony Hayward would just be another unemployed billionaire whose promises will be just another rubber check delivered to the American people.

So, no Miss Wassilla 1984, Barack Obama should not be calling you, or any other wall street executives to seek guidance on how to handle BP.

My hope, for the American people and for justice, is that Obama consults the Gambino crime family. Because while fishes still do exist, it would be nice to see some of the executives swimming with them.

(video)
While a few out of work gulf fisherman are earning extra cash skimming oil for BP, bankers and lawyers are working overtime as well, drafting bankruptcy papers and takeover deals. Before you cheer the downfall of BP, ask yourself: where will all of the liability go?

According to Andrew Ross Sorkin’s article in the New York Times: “The idea that BP might one day file for bankruptcy, particularly as part of a merger that would enable it to cordon off its liabilities from the spill, is starting to percolate on Wall Street.”

Wall Street. It is not only the street with the highest concentration of grade A asshats in the entire world, a collection of leather soled empty suits without whom the world would be an infinitely better it is also the title of the most misunderstood movie of all time.

“Greed,” Gordon Gecko famously said in Oliver Stone’s- yes Oliver –I’m-pals-with-socialist-Hugo-Chavez” Stone wrote and directed the 1987 classic Wall Street- “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” The only problem is, Stone intended his film to be a satire. He wanted us to be horrified with Gecko, not to emulate him. As far as pop culture icon’s go, Gordon Gecko may be more misunderstood than Archie Bunker. I doubt if Archie Bunker ever inspired anyone to join the KKK, but many a young Wall Street suit has accosted Oliver Stone over the years to shake his hand and thank him, to let him know that Gordon Gecko was the reason that he got into finance. How many hot shots behind the credit default swaps, tor in the derivatives game were inspired by the “greed is good” ethos? How many more among that happy band of Hypercapitalist brothers are holed up in an office right now, contracted by BP or potential takeover bidders Shell or Exxon Mobil creating the legal blueprint that would allow BP to file a prepackaged bankruptcy and separate the costs of the cleanup — and potentially billions of dollars in legal claims — into a separate corporate entity.

What then would come of Tony Hayward’s promise to “pay all legitimate claims”?

While these same layers and bankers will make you feel as if you have committed a moral sin if you try to walk away from an underwater mortgage, they will turn around, and claim it is good capitalist practice to limit losses and liability and utilize the tools the system has installed to keep the rich super rich and the rest of us grateful for whatever toxic scraps fall from their banquet. And if you bitch about it, if you raise your voice and say “Greed is not a good thing you illiterate bastard, Gordon Gecko is making fun of you, he is held up as an example of everything that is wrong with the world” you get labeled a socialist.

How rich do the rich have to get and get that way by raping the economy, the environment and even by raping the Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck fans to dumb to know that they are being raped before Capitalism becomes the dirty word?

Jon Stewart didn’t bitch slap Helen Thomas earlier this week, so much as he ushered her quietly out the door. Thomas, the dean of the white house press corps who is being sacrificed on the alter of AIPAC after she made some admittedly insensitive remarks about Jews residing in Israel, will be remembered for saying that Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Germany and Poland.

Stewart sarcastically asked: “Why did the Jews ever leave Germany and Poland?” True. The holocaust is a horrific reminder just how awful humans can be to fellow members of the species when under the powerful spell of nationalism.

Speculating on who would get Helen Thomas’s seat in the White House Briefing Room, Stewart said: “You know who is going to get her seat? Elijah.”

Funny. For those of you a few dead brain cells removed from your religious indoctrination, Elijah is A biblical prophet who, according to the book of Kings “brought fire down from the sky, and ascended into heaven accompanied by chariots. In the Hebrew bible Elijah’s return is prophesied “before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord,” making him a harbinger of the Messiah.

But as Helen Thomas rides off into the sunset, can we at least acknowledge that the Hebrew Bible, like the Christian Bible and the Qur’an belong in the mythology section of the bookstore next to the Iliad and the Odyssey? If we can get a critical mass to somehow buy into that, then the whole claim that Israel has to their homeland in Jerusalem would hold about as much water as the any claim that the growing number of tweens immersed in the Greek mythology inspired Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief have to establish settlements on Mt. Olympus.