Bush v. Reagan

I’ve written this week’s column, which will go up later today, concerning the similarities between Gov. Dubya and Ronald Reagan. But there’s also a major difference.

When George W. Bush dies someday, please bear in mind that, unlike Ronald Reagan–a duly-elected president–Bush will not be entitled to a state funeral or placing flags at half staff. As an illegal usurper who seized power extraconstitutionally, Bush should be buried at sea, in a simple shroud, and returned to the sharks that spawned him. Reagan, for all of his faults, should at least be acknowledged as a former president.

More Hate Mail Follies

The Drudge Report has linked to my blog (see below), and the right-wing psychos are back at it again! Here, for your entertainment, are some of the lowlifes who inexplicably enjoy the right to vote:

From damnuebay@yahoo.com:

Former President Reagan has done more for this country than you ever will, or could dream of doing, you are pathetic speaking about people that can no longer defend themselves. I hope we don’t have to wait very long till you join the dead.

From rjohns9797@sbcglobal.net, who sent me more than 30 threatening emails during the Tillman thing:

Re: Ronald Maximus Reagan would have laughed

In the presence of greatness your tiny little prick, just shriveled up, didn’t it?

By the way, did you ever get that body guard?

Do you stay off subway platforms and away from dark streets?

You should, you know…

He also sent this:

DO YOU AVOID DARK STREETS?

YOU SHOULD, YOU KNOW…

ALL IT TAKES IS ONE…

SOME DAY, SOMEONE WILL DECIDE TO DO THE WORLD A FAVOR…

YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED…

From SrChief5473@aol.com:

I have finally identified you. You are a miserable little piece of shit

lying on the sidewalk.’

Fathered by a pig and mothered by a dog.

From JJMc@pge.com:

MAY YOU DIE SLOWLY OF STOMACH CANCER YOU PIECE OF CRAP. YOU WERE NOT FIT TO WIPE RONALD REAGAN’S ASS. YOU WOULD BE QUALIFIED TO REPLACE MONICA AND SERVICE THAT TRAITOROUS COWARD BILL CLINTON ON YOUR KNEES.

Dig the username: RomanticArtwork@aol.com:

YOUR OPINION COUNTS…….NOW HERE’S MINE. YOU LOOK GAY AND PROBABLY LIKE

IT IN THE ASS SO I BELIEVE YOU WILL DIE OF AIDS. Anyway, I’m sure YOU’LL BE

turning crispy brown ONE DAY SOON. I ONLY WISH S0ONER. YOU ARE LIBERAL TRASH.

OUT YOU WILL GO. THIS IS NOT A THREAT JUST FACT AND WISHFULL THINKING.

From Bmorganrey@cs.com:

If Ronald Reagan is in hell, I am sure he will save you a seat. Move to

France you piece of scum. If it weren’t for people like Ronald Reagan you wouldn’t

be able to write your garbage.

God Bless President Reagan, America, and most of all you ,

Brent Reynolds

From Rabel873@aol.com:

I hope you die in prison you SOB!

From ehagemeyer@sbcglobal.net:

Hey Ted,

I’m just writing to say what a sniveling little bitch you are. Why

don’t you go join the Iraqi resistance? It sure would be wonderful if

the next thing I read about you said, “Ted Rall Killed by American

Troops in Iraq.” That might hurry along your own trip to Hell… where

I’m pretty sure they reserve the best spots for pathetic whiners who

can’t get their cartoons published.

Fuck you!

Evan Hagemeyer

From justin@redrightandblue.com (this kind of personal threat is commonplace among Republican emailers):

Im going to post your fucking address everywhere I can.

Enjoy you sorry bastard.

Justin Warlick

www.redrightandblue.com

From Kspearmank@aol.com:

Ronald Reagan was a great leader. You are a socialist bastard.

From Tony.Reeves@sourceonehealth.com:

You better hope that for your sake there is no GOD, because as sure as I

am typing this your sick ass is going to burn in hell for eternity and

according to Webster’s that is a mighty long time. I am sure your

children are proud of “daddy”.

How Sad…

…that Ronald Reagan didn’t die in prison, where he belonged for starting an illegal, laughably unjustifiable war against Grenada under false pretenses (the “besieged” medical students later said they were nothing of the sort) and funneling arms to hostages during Iran-Contra.

Oh, and 9/11? That was his. Osama bin Laden and his fellow Afghan “freedom fighters” got their funding, and nasty weapons, from Reagan.

A real piece of work, Reagan ruined the federal budget, trashed education, alienated our friends and allies and made us a laughing stock around the world.

Hmmmm…sounds familiar.

Anyway, I’m sure he’s turning crispy brown right about now.

Depressed in Europe

Just got back from France and Italy. The food was awesome, the people interesting and the weather better than usual. But the usual subject of discussion–the United States and its foreign policy–proved more depressing than ever.

Abu Ghraib was the reason. But not why you might think.

When I mentioned the Iraq prison abuse scandal, people shrugged. “So you murdered maybe 25 people in prison,” one woman told me in Mantova, the setting for “Romeo and Juliet.” “So what? The U.S. kills thousands every year.”

Conservative Bush apologists, it seems, are correct. Abu Ghraib isn’t destroying our reputation overseas. Not at all. The truth is, our rep was already so atrocious before–due to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (both of which are equally despised abroad), our support of Israel in its genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, and years of hypocritical imperialistic misadventures from Kosovo to Somalia to Central Asia–that Abu Ghraib didn’t do anything to make it worse. Nothing could.

So maybe it is time for people like me to stop worrying about the torture of prisoners. Truth is, our rep has already hit rock bottom. This is no big deal by comparison.

It’s also true, of course, that the French and Italians read reports of abuse in U.S.-run Afghan and Iraqi gulags dating back several years. And they’ve also published far more graphic photos from Abu Ghraib than we’ve seen here.

But the bottom line is that Abu Ghraib has only shocked one constitutency: us.

Better late than never. I guess.

From The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON – Democrats were crowing yesterday about snatching a U.S. House seat in South Dakota from Republicans. But to 2,000 liberal warriors gathering for a conference here called “Take Back America,” the result is just a tiny rumbling of something much bigger.

On the defensive for more than a generation, the American left is seeing signs of political revival. Recent polls show more Americans are calling themselves “liberal” — a term that had been considered something of an epithet — and fewer are identifying themselves as “conservative.” Liberal groups, from the National Organization for Women to Moveon.org, are enjoying a big fund-raising surge. The flagship publication of the left, the Nation, claims to have captured the highest circulation of any weekly political magazine.

“The plates have all moved,” argues Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. The combination of hostility toward President Bush, anxiety about the war in Iraq and concerns about tax cuts and other economic issues “make it possible for something fundamental to happen in this election,” he says.

Republican strategists say liberals are delusional. Since Republicans seized Congress in 1994, Democratic predictions that they would recapture control have repeatedly proved false.

Still, the proportion of Americans calling themselves “liberal” edged up to 21% in Mr. Greenberg’s May poll from 16% a month earlier. Self-identified “conservatives” dropped to 37% from 41%. Similarly, last month’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed 42% of voters identifying themselves as Democrats, compared with 39% who say they are Republicans. Two years earlier, Republicans had a 37%-to-36% edge.

The same Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed Mr. Bush’s job approval rating at 47%, the lowest of his presidency.

Liberal organizations devoted to feminist, labor and environmental causes are displaying unusual coordination in hopes of electing John Kerry. Sen. Kerry drew $31 million in donations in April, doubling the take of the President Bush, as liberal groups like Moveon.org, whose antiwar membership helped fuel Howard Dean’s political rise in 2003, ape the aggressive funding and recruitment tactics that helped Republicans mobilize grass-roots support in the 1980s.

The National Organization for Women reports daily contributions up to roughly $22,000 from $17,000 a year ago, and estimates attendance at its recent abortion-rights march on Washington was one-third higher than a similar event in 1992.

Liberals also see hope in more anecdotal evidence. Books attacking President Bush, with titles like “Worse than Watergate” and “The Politics of Truth” are selling briskly. The Nation has seen its circulation grow to 160,000 from nearly 140,000 in mid-2003 and just over 102,000 in June 2001. The latest figure exceeds the circulation of longstanding conservative stalwart National Review, which is roughly 155,500, down from about 159,000 in mid-2001.

“When the other side’s in power, your people get angry,” laments National Review editor Rich Lowry. Under Republican rule, “liberals have become more muscular,” argues David Corn, the Nation’s Washington editor and author of “The Lies of George W. Bush.”

And activists were cheered by the squeaker in South Dakota Tuesday night, in which Democrat Stephanie Herseth edged Republican Larry Diedrich in a special election. That win, like the victory of Kentucky Democrat Ben Chandler in special election earlier this year, came in a state that Mr. Bush carried in 2000 over Democratic nominee Al Gore.

Readers of my new book:

already know that I’ve anticipated this leftward shift and explained why it’s occuring and will continue to do so. Moreover, I also explain how the left and Democrats can exploit disgust with the Republicans to recapture Congress as well as the White House this November and in future election years.

Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline Project Update

Bushie apologists, and far too many anti-Iraq war progressives, continue to believe that the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan had nothing to do with oil. No evidence, they say, despite mountains thereof.

Most recently, that left-wing bailwick the US Department of Energy issued its June 2004 country factsheet for Afghanistan. Among the goodies are this overview of Afghanistan’s supposedly fictional energy reserves:

Energy Overview

Between the 1960s and mid-1980s, the Soviets had identified more than 15 oil and gas fields in northern Afghanistan. Only three gas fields — Khwaja Gogerdak, Djarquduk, and Yatimtaq – were developed in the area surrounding Sheberghan, which is located about 120 kilometers west of Mazar-i-Sharif. Afghan natural gas production reached 275 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the mid-1970s. The Djarquduk field was brought online during that period and boosted Afghan natural gas output to a peak of 385 Mmcf/d by 1978. About 100 mmcf/d of this amount was used locally in gas distribution systems in Sheberghan and Mazar-i-Sharif as well as at a 100,000 mt/y urea plant located near Mazar-i-Sharif. One oil field, Angot, was developed in the late 1960s, but aside from production tests, oil production was intermittent, with daily outputs averaging 500 b/d or less.

Northern Afghanistan has proved, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). This area, which is a southward extension of the highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin, has the potential to hold a sizable undiscovered gas resource base, especially in sedimentary layers deeper than what were developed during the Soviet era. Afghanistan’s crude oil potential is more modest, with perhaps up to 100 million barrels of medium-gravity recoverable from Angot and other fields that are undeveloped. Afghanistan also may possess relatively small volumes of gas liquids and condensate.

Outside of the North Afghan Platform, very limited oil and gas exploration has occurred. Geological, aeromagnetic, and gravimetric studies were conducted in the 1970s over parts of the Katawaz Fault Block (eastern Afghanistan – along the Pak border) and in the Helmand and Farah provinces. The hydrocarbon potential in these areas is thought to be very limited as compared to that in the north.

The Soviets had estimated Afghanistan’s proven and probable natural gas reserves at up to 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in the 1970s. Afghan natural gas production reached 275 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the mid-1970s. The Djarquduk field was brought online during that period boosted Afghan natural gas output to a peak of 385 Mmcf/d by 1978-79. After the Soviet pullout and subsequent Afghan civil war, most gas wells at Sheberghan area fields were shut in due to technical problems and the lack of an export market in the former Soviet Union.

At its peak in the late 1970s, Afghanistan supplied 70%-90% of its natural gas output to the Soviet Union’s natural gas grid via a link through Uzbekistan. In 1992, Afghan President Najibullah indicated that a new natural gas sales agreement with Russia was in progress. However, several former Soviet republics raised price and distribution issues and negotiations stalled. In the early 1990s, Afghanistan also discussed possible natural gas supply arrangements with Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and several Western European countries, but these talks never progressed further. Afghan natural gas fields include Djarquduk, Khowaja Gogerdak, and Yatimtaq, all of which are located within 20 miles of the northern town of Sheberghan in Jowzjan province. In 1999, work resumed on the repair of a distribution pipeline to Mazar-i-Sharif. Spur pipelines to a small power plant and fertilizer plant also were repaired and completed. Mazar-i-Sharif is now receiving natural gas from the pipeline. The possibility of exporting a small quantity of natural gas through the existing pipeline into Uzbekistan also is reportedly being considered.

Soviet estimates from the late 1970s placed Afghanistan’s proven and probable oil and condensate reserves at 95 million barrels. Most Soviet assistance efforts after the mid-1970s were aimed at increasing gas production. Sporadic gas exploration continued through the mid-1980s. The last Soviet technical advisors left Afghanistan in 1988. After a brief hiatus, oil production at the Angot field was restarted in the early 1990s by local militias. Output levels, however, are though to have been less than 300 b/d. Near Sar-i-Pol, the Soviets partially constructed a 10,000-b/d topping plant, which although undamaged by war, is thought by Western experts to be unsalvageable.

Petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel are imported, mainly from Pakistan and Uzbekistan, with limited volumes from Turkmenistan and Iran serving regional markets. Turkmenistan also has a petroleum product storage and distribution facility at Tagtabazar ( Kushka – it’s on the Turkmen side) near the Afghan border, which supplies northwestern Afghanistan.

Besides oil and natural gas, Afghanistan also is estimated to have 73 million tons of coal reserves, most of which is located in the region between Herat and Badashkan in the northern part of the country. Although Afghanistan produced over 100,000 short tons of coal annually as late as the early 1990s, as of 2000, the country was producing only around 1,000 short tons.

Then there’s this bit on the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline project (italics are mine):

Afghanistan as an Energy Transit Route

Due to its location between the oil and natural gas reserves of the Caspian Basin and the Indian Ocean, Afghanistan has long been mentioned as a potential pipeline route, though in the near term, several obstacles will likely prevent Afghanistan from becoming an energy transit corridor. During the mid-1990s, Unocal had pursued a possible natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad-Donmez gas basin via Afghanistan to Pakistan, but pulled out after the U.S. missile strikes against Afghanistan in August 1998. The Afghan government under President Karzai has tried to revive the Trans-Afghan Pipeline (TAP) plan, with periodic talks held between the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan on the issue, but little progress appears to have been made as of early June 2004 (despite the signature on December 9, 2003, of a protocol on the pipeline by the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan). President Karzai has stated his belief that the project could generate $100-$300 million per year in transit fees for Afghanistan, while creating thousands of jobs in the country.

Given the obstacles to development of a natural gas pipeline across Afghanistan, it seems unlikely that such an idea will make any progress in the near future, and no major Western companies have expressed interest in reviving the project. The security situation in Afghanistan remains an obvious problem, while tensions between India and Pakistan make it unlikely that such a pipeline could be extended into India and its large (and growing) gas market. Financial problems in the utility sector in India, which would be the major consumer of the natural gas, also could pose a problem for construction of the TAP line. Finally, the pipeline’s $2.5-$3.5 billion estimated cost poses a significant obstacle to its construction.

All of this, including my longstanding assertion that the TAP project would likely never occur, jibes perfectly with what I’ve written in essays and my comprehensive survey of TAP, GAS WAR: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF AFGHANISTAN.

Most recently the website Hi Pakistan reported on May 20th as follows:

U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan hold trilateral meeting

ISLAMABAD: Finance Ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan and Deputy Secretary of US Department of Treasury held a trilateral meeting in the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of Asian Development Bank, in Jeju Island, South Korea.

They reviewed the economic developments in the region and discussed a number of initiatives to foster close economic links between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the region in general. The meeting noted that the level of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan was rising rapidly and was likely to touch the billion dollars mark during the calendar year.

It was pointed out that there was scope for further expansion in trade provided new border points were established and transit trade arrangements further simplified.

A number of issues related to fast and unhindered movement of goods were examined. Shaukat Aziz, Finance Minister of Pakistan pointed out that Pakistan was in the process of acquiring scanning machines to be placed at the border points that would discourage smuggling and pave the way for use of trucks for movement of Afghan transit trade cargo.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and noted that Asian Development Bank would soon finalize its report after which further examination of this project will be undertaken.

Because Bushies are stupid, the dream lives.

The Wonderful Horrible Life of Ahmed Chalabi

Time was, Ahmed Chalabi was Donald Rumsfeld’s main man. Sure, the Iraqi National Congress leader claimed the right to rule Iraq after Saddam even though he hadn’t lived in the country since he was 9 years old. Sure, he was a convicted bank embezzler and con man. (Chalabi claimed the Jordanian government framed him.) But he was a smooth talker, and the neocons—themselves so used to conning others that they were all the more easily taken themselves–in the nascent Bush Administration literally bought–at a cost of millions of dollars–his fictional intelligence.

Invading Iraq, Chalabi told Cheney and Condi, would be a cakewalk. Flowers on the streets.

So the Department of Defense flew Chalabi in with the invading forces, against longstanding US policy, to take over the Iraqi government. The 50 guys you saw celebrating the Marines’ pulling down of the Saddam statue at Farbus Square in Baghdad were all Chalabi’s INC goons. Really. You can look it up.

Of course, naysayers on what the rightist maniacs call “the far left”–in truth, no one from the far left has gotten a word into print in the United States in decades–pointed out that Chalabi was full of shit. Now the rightist maniacs are coming to the same conclusion. In today’s news, it seems that Chalabi may have betrayed the fact that the CIA had broken Iranian code to the Iranians, who are fellow Shias. And the Bush Administration, which went so far as to seat Chalabi next to Laura Bush at the State of the Union address earlier this year, has decided that Chalabi (gasp!) falsified intelligence.

Like the war itself, anyone with half a brain could see that no good could come out of this. And lots of people with that perceptiveness said so, loud and clear. Now would be a good time for the rightist maniacs and their mouthpieces in the mainstream media to admit that, as usual, they were wrong and we were right. Better yet, now would be a good time for them to promise to stay out of politics once and for all. America just can’t afford the rightist maniacs and their incessant fuckups anymore.

Pat Tillman Killed by Friendly Fire

Obviously I had no way to know this when I drew That Cartoon, but major press outlets are reporting that former NFL player Pat Tillman was killed by “friendly fire.” The following comes from USA Today:

FRIENDLY FIRE PROBABLY KILLED PAT TILLMAN

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — Former pro football player Pat Tillman was probably killed by friendly fire as he led his team of Army Rangers up a hill during a firefight in Afghanistan last month, the U.S. Army said Saturday. Pat Tillman, a member of the elite Ranger unit since 2002, was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star. Tillman walked away from a $3.6 million NFL contract to join the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Previous military statements suggested he was killed April 22 under enemy fire.

“While there was no one specific finding of fault, the investigation results indicate that Cpl. Tillman probably died as a result of friendly fire while his unit was engaged in combat with enemy forces,” Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensington Jr. said in a brief statement to reporters at the Army Special Operations Command. Kensington said the firefight took place in “very severe and constricted terrain in impaired light” with 10 to 12 enemy combatants firing on U.S. forces.

An Afghan military official told The Associated Press on Saturday that Tillman died because of a “misunderstanding” when two mixed groups of American and Afghan soldiers began firing wildly in the confusion following an explosion. The Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also contradicted U.S. reports that the American soldiers had come under enemy fire.

Kensington, who heads Army Special Forces, took no questions Saturday morning after reading the statement.

When Tillman was awarded the Silver Star, the Army said he was killed after his platoon was split into two sections for what officials called a ground assault convoy. Tillman was in charge of the lead group. His group was safely out of the area when the trailing group came under mortar and small arms fire, according to the Army, and he ordered them to return.

“Through the firing, Tillman’s voice was heard issuing fire commands to take the fight to the enemy on the dominating high ground,” the award announcement said. “Only after his team engaged the well-armed enemy did it appear their fires diminished. “As a result of his leadership and his team’s efforts, the platoon trail section was able to maneuver through the ambush to positions of safety without a single casualty,” the announcement said.

Tillman, a member of the elite Ranger unit since 2002, was posthumously promoted from specialist to corporal and also awarded a Purple Heart.

“The result of this investigation in no way diminished the bravery and sacrifice displayed by Cpl. Tillman,” said Kensington, who heads Army Special Forces. He took no questions Saturday morning after reading the statement.

A woman who answered the phone late Friday at the home of Tillman’s uncle said the family would have no immediate comment.

At a memorial service in his hometown of San Jose earlier this month Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called him “a most honorable man.” “While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one,” McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said at Tillman’s memorial service.

The friendly fire account was first reported by the Arizona Republic and The Argus of Fremont (Calif.) on Saturday. “It does seem pretty clear that he was killed by friendly fire,” Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Republic. Franks said his panel was alerted to the information by the Army’s Legislative Liaison Office.

The Afghan official told the AP that two groups of soldiers had drifted some distance apart during the operation in the remote Spera district of Khost province, close to the Pakistani border. “Suddenly the sound of a mine explosion was heard somewhere between the two groups and the Americans in one group started firing,” the official said, citing an account given to him by an Afghan fighter who was part of that group, not Tillman’s. “Nobody knew what it was — a mine, a remote-controlled bomb — or what was going on, or if enemy forces were firing. The situation was very confusing,” the official said. “As the result of this firing, that American was killed and three Afghan soldiers were injured. It was a misunderstanding and afterwards they realized that it was a mine that had exploded and there were no enemy forces.”

U.S. military officials in Kabul had no immediate comment.

So much for the argument that Tillman died fighting for his country. Or for the bullshit cover story concocted by the military to justify awarding him a posthumous Silver Star. I wonder if the Pentagon will have the integrity to revoke it?

So, to recap: Tillman gave up $3.6 million to get killed by his fellow soldiers. I guess I do owe an apology after all, but not for calling him a sap: In my cartoon, I said Tillman got offed by the Afghan resistance. That part, as it turns out, wasn’t true.

Bushie war apologists may email their apologies to MSNBC, which canceled my cartoons as the result of my cartoon. And prospective soldiers may want to take this opportunity to reconsider the wisdom of enlisting. It’s bad enough to get killed by friendly fire; it’s still worse to get killed by friendly fire while fighting an unjust, illegal and unjustifiable war.

Here’s their May 15th review of my new book:

Aghast that America has gone to the far-right dogs, editorial cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall wants it back in commonsense—that is, liberal—hands.

Democrats and Republicans alike have ceded the communal high ground, he writes with particular energy, and radical conservatives are ramped on greed and self-righteousness. What we need at this closing-on-fascism juncture, Rall declares, is a reformed Democratic Party, longtime purveyor of a liberalism that aims to “help the downtrodden, not coddle slackers” and can prudently protect our nation without giving up basic liberties—indeed, that will protect individual rights via the Bill of Rights. America has never been a conservative nation, the author asserts: in the 20th century alone, it tamed the Industrial Revolution with regulation and labor laws, set up a social safety net, fought fascism, expanded civil rights, and lifted the sociopolitical status of minorities. Not perfectly, Rall admits, but at least the angle was correct. Is it right for a CEO to pay himself millions as he lays off thousands, or for someone to kill a man because he is gay or Iraqi, or for hospitals to allow people to die because they can’t pay for medical help? It’s not just a matter of statistics, he argues, though those also help prove his point; an instinctive “no” to all of the above is part of the American persona. How has the Republican right virtually consumed the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government? Because of the Democratic Party’s lack of focus, its lack of cool, its unwillingness to approach politics as a barroom fight rather than a tea party, states Rall. He tenders an encouraging Democratic platform, with winning issues from minimum wage to college tuition to vacation time.

Senator Kerry could do worse than to read closely this flurry of smart advice (aside from the author’s fondness for they-pull-a-knife, you-pull-a-gun politics), which serves as a quick, bracing, and welcome series of wake-up slaps.

Greetings from Gitmo

Still doubt that the right-wing bloggers are off the hook? Check this out! Scroll down and you’ll find an actual, bonafide writing campaign to Attorney General John Ashcroft about little old me. Their goal: to have me thrown into a U.S. government gulag, and presumably executed (yes, really), for treason. Treason, it seems, means disagreeing with the Bush Administration, the Republicans, and their wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a follow-up to the cut-and-paste Ashcroft letter–which ought to give the chills to any American, regardless of political persuasion–blogger J.B. Corrigan adds:

First, I want to thank everyone who sent me copies of their messages to Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding the acts of Treason committed by Ted Rall (see previous entry). It is gratifying to me that so many people are willing to stand up and fight such despicable actions. Now it will be up to the U.S. Department of Justice as to whether the law as defined in the Constitution will be enforced.

However one whiner wrote in to make the predictable charge that it was ‘censorship’ and a violation of the First Amendment to take Rall to task for his Treason.

And to that I say: BULLSHIT. Rall committed Treason, and that Treason is perfectly defined by Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution…

And Rall? It is my fervent prayer that I might live long enough to see that S.O.B. lined up before a firing squad and executed for that act of Treason. Tell me where that dirtbag gets buried and I’ll join the long line of real Americans who will no doubt be ready to p*ss on him.

My.

I scoured the rightist blogosphere for reactions. I found positive responses at Blogs for Bush, Pardon My English and elsewhere. Not one right-winger had a problem with this.

These are the kinds of people we’re dealing with, folks. If they had their way, they’d recreate Nazi Germany right here in America. That’s why we must make certain they NEVER get their way.

P.S. If there’s a good lawyer reading this, I’d appreciate an email (chet@rall.com) advising me what to do about this extreme form of harrassment and abuse of government agencies. I should probably start by filing a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover the names and addresses of the individuals who filed these “treason” complaints against me, but can I/should I protect myself legally? If so, how?