Washington is Run by Zombies that Want to Eat Your Souls

[McCamy Taylor]

I. They Want to Eat Your House




This week, I have been thinking a lot about the things which our President and Democratic majority Congress have not done. Today, McClathchy had an article about how folks who thought that they were going to be able to keep their homes through federally mandated mortgage rescue programs have been let down.

Ten months after the Obama administration began pressing lenders to do more to prevent foreclosures, many struggling homeowners are holding up their end of the bargain but still find themselves rejected, and some are even having their homes sold out from under them without notice.
These borrowers, rich and poor, completed trial modifications of their distressed mortgage, and made all the payments, only to learn, often indirectly, that they won't get help after all.

http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/1839114.html

Turns out that the banks are allowed to decide that a home owner is not “qualified” to stay in his or her home---if they can find a buyer for that home. The implications here are obvious. Friends of bank officials can cherry pick the houses they want. Bankers get to keep collecting money on the houses and have a tenant to maintain the property until they sell it to a buddy. This was the plan all along under the George W. Bush administration. His dad’s Carlyle Group runs one of the big “vulture funds” (see my old journal “The Carlyle Group is Run By Zombies Who Want to Eat Your Brains”).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5166720

Score one for the banksters and zero for us. The really insidious thing about this scheme---it is designed to lull Americans into a false sense of security. It declares “We are all in this together” and then picks us off one by one. In our false complacency, we become one of the zombie pack, docile and unquestioning.


II. They Want to Eat Your Sons and Daughters



Before September 2008, the war was the single defining issue of the last election. After September 2008, it should have continued to be a defining issue, since the federal bankruptcy under Bush was caused by runaway war spending (and tax cuts for the rich). The newly elected Democratic majority in DC should have committed to run, not walk, away from our business wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That did not happen. Instead, on the eve of his Peace Prize ceremony, President Obama announced that he was escalating the war in Afghanistan. Nixon (that zombie master extraordinaire) came into office declaring that four years was enough to end a war and then he escalated the Vietnam conflict, too. Obama was compared to a lot of ex-presidents before he was elected. Usually JFK, but sometimes FDR or Carter. Who would have thought that he would choose to emulate the second worst Republican President of this century, committing more of our troops to a conflict in a region notorious for its hostile terrain and never ending wars, so that a natural gas pipeline could be built?

The casualties in Operation Enduring Oil Company Profits have not stopped. The press has simply stopped reporting on them. Here is a list of U.S. military personnel who have died in Afghanistan. Note how many were killed in 2009.

http://icasualties.org/oef/ByTheatre.aspx

The Washington Post has their photos. Remember how we demanded the right to show the flag draped caskets of killed servicemen and women, so that America would remember the cost of war? That was then, when it gave the Democrats a political advantage. When was the last time that Keith Olbermann reminded us of the number of days that have passed since victory was declared in Iraq?

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/

III. They Want to Eat Your Conscience, Part I. Burma




Obama got a Peace Prize for not being W. America patted itself on the back for electing a president who was not W. This year, our whole foreign policy was supposed to change. Under the leadership of a new president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we were to become the friends of democracy again.

Yeah, right.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington is reviewing its policy on Burma to see if it can find a better way to influence the country's military leaders.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-02-17-voa28-68797302.html

That is code for ending sanctions. Against the country that thinks nothing of murdering/terrorizing/starving its own citizens to keep them good little zombies. Against a country which happens to be sitting upon a bunch of natural resources which the west craves.

Nyo Ohn Myint said, the new policy, while incorporating both sanctions and engagement, would be largely legitimizing the junta.

“Once there is a channel of engagement, without any pre-conditions, it would only legitimise the junta. So, under the new policy, though sanctions are not abandoned, will send a message to the generals that they are being accepted and recognised by the US,” Nyo Ohn Myint said.

http://www.mizzima.com/news/world/2816-clintons-burma-policy-preview-for-better-or-worse.html

Why the rush to start doing business with the junta? From the U.S. State Department:

Burma is a resource-rich country with a strong agricultural base. It also has vast timber, natural gas, and fishery reserves and is a leading source of gems and jade.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm

IV. They Want to Eat You Conscience, Part 2, the Congo

“Millions have suffered the disastrous effects of armed conflict in each of these African countries,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council should urgently address serious human rights abuses with national leaders and the African Union.”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, killings, rape, abduction, and displacement persist, and the humanitarian and human rights situation in eastern Congo remains dire.

http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/05/16/congo-violence-deja-vu-all-over-again/

Note that the photos that accompany the above article are much, much worse than any of the zombie pics in this thread.

For a summary of the foreign powers (including the U.S.) who are funding the wars in the Congo, see my old journal on the subject.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4904803

As in Burma, the prize is the regions’ vast supply of natural resources. Rich, western countries arm the combatants in exchange for diamonds and other treasures. People are enslaved, children are conscripted, women are raped. Recent UN action has only intensified the violence. Here is a report about one American company that continues to do business with military combatants.

The U.N. report mentions the Nevada-based Niotan Inc. in connection to John Crawley, who is a director of the company. Crawley, the report says, is also a director of the Hong Kong-based Refractory Metals Mining Company Ltd. (RMMC), which was formerly called Niotan Ltd. On the same street in Hong Kong is another company, African Ventures Ltd. (AVL), which the report says was set up by Crawley's father. The section of the report on the mineral cassiterite mentions John Crawley and the network of companies under the subtitle "exports to international markets."
The U.N. report traces minerals from mines in the Congo to "internal buying networks," and to export companies that sell the minerals to companies abroad, including AVL.
The GlobalPost report of Dec. 3 also relied on an investigation by the Washington-based Enough Project, headed by John Prendergast. Enough is the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress. Their research, including shipping records, “suggests” that Niotan, Inc. is “currently supplying the U.S. electronics industry with tantalum from rebel-held mines in eastern Congo,” according to a press release issued by Enough.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/diplomacy/091202/us-company-fuels-congo-war-un-report

I really truly hoped that the new crop of Washington Democrats would do something to end the bloody war in the Congo. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued some nice sounding words on the subject:

Mrs Clinton, who is on a seven-nation African tour, said she had "a very frank discussion" with President Kabila on sexual violence.
"We believe there can be more done to protect civilians while you are trying to kill and capture insurgents," she said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8194836.stm

Clinton misses the point. As long as we continue to encourage the various sides in local political squabbles to take up (foreign made) arms rather than negotiate, there will be violence against civilians—that is how modern wars are fought. And violence against women inevitably involves rape. Maybe, instead of scolding fighters in the Congo, Clinton should seek to shut down U.S. companies, like the one above, which help fund the war.

But I forget. This is a business friendly administration.

V.They Want to Eat Your Conscience, Part 3 Gaza

The US House of Representatives has rejected as "irredeemably biased" the findings of a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip.
The house on Tuesday voted 344 to 36 in favour of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report, which was written by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/11/200911320434191455.html

The last time I was this ashamed of my country was last winter, when the former President and the last Congress gave their seal of approval to the invasion of Gaza. At the very least, civilians were killed because of imprudent, indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in a crowded city. By most people’s definition, that counts as a “war crime”. But we can not even investigate? Why not? Winston Smith of 1984 would recognize this America. It has its very own Ministry of Truth, and it is called the U.S. Congress.

The civilian death toll in Gaza increased dramatically today, with at least 12 members of an extended family, including seven young children, killed in an air strike on their house in Gaza City while the bombing of two United Nations schools being used as shelters took 13 lives.
The bodies of the Daya family were pulled from the rubble of a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun area after it was hit by two Israeli missiles. The dead included seven children aged from one to 12 years, three women and two men. Nine other people were believed to be trapped in the rubble.
Israeli missiles also struck a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp, which was being used as a shelter by people forced from their homes by the fighting, according to news agency reports. Ten of the refugees were killed.
Hours earlier, three young men – all cousins – died when Israeli forces bombed Asma elementary school in Gaza City. They were among about 400 people who sought shelter there after fleeing their homes in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/06/gaza-israel-palestinians

If only the U.S. determination to whitewash every Israeli action was motivated purely by a sense of justice----Hitler killed millions of Jewish people and therefore Israel is allowed to use any methods to ensure its safety. However, money is the real tie that binds our country to the handful of extremely wealthy families that control Israel. The safety of the Israeli people is not important. Like U.S. citizens, they are considered zombies, to be used and discarded at the whim of their masters.

VI. They Want to Eat Your Brains (and Livers and Kidneys and Hearts)



Healthcare was a hot issue in the last election. Most Americans agreed that their access to necessary care was limited—by lack of insurance, by high deductibles and co-payments, by insurance restrictions. They demanded that something be done.

And boy, has the Democratic Congress delivered something . What exactly that something is I am not sure. I suspect that there is very little “health” involved. And I am pretty sure that only a minority of them really “care.”

As things stand now, we will soon be forced to pay higher taxes and spend money that we do not have to buy over priced insurance policies that will have higher deductibles, higher copayments, more limited service...and no state regulation in case something goes wrong. The health insurance companies have bragged that the Senate Bill fulfills all their dreams. Folks on the left finally seem to have gotten the message, and now they are attempting to shoot down the bill, presumably because they know that the health insurance industry wants it so badly that they may be willing to have their paid Congressmen negotiate on a few issues…like the Medicare buy in?

A year ago , we were promised affordable, comprehensive health care for all. Now, we are reduced to begging the insurance companies to let us include older, sicker (uninsurable) Americans in our federally funded health insurance plan, Medicare. Does anyone else see the irony in this? Or, have we all eaten our own brains?

. VII. They Want to Eat Your Labor

But after a year in office--during which Obama made concessions time and again on promised policies and programs, and hired no one but mainstream advisers straight out of the political and corporate establishment--this rings hollow. It makes much more sense, in light of the record, to recognize that Obama is a part of the same corporate money-soaked system he claimed in his campaign speeches that he wanted to change.

On this point, it helps to remember that Obama and the Democrats displaced the Republicans as the primary recipients of political donations from a number of industries in 2008, the financial sector among them. As a New York University finance professor told the Washington Post, the threat of re-regulation on Wall Street meant that hedge funds "have a strong interest in becoming involved in the political process, and that is really the whole story behind their support of Obama...It is very much in their advantage to have a strong voice with him."

Seen in this light, the Obama administration's generous bailout terms for Wall Street, reluctance to restrict pay for financial executives and hesitation to push for stronger rules to regulate the banks are easier to understand. The hedge funds did, indeed, buy "a strong voice" in the new administration.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/12/18/yes-we-can-to-no-we-wont

I am still waiting for the Employee Free Choice Act . This was supposed to be a priority. It was introduced way back in March. Al Franken decided to cosponsor it. And yet, it just languishes in Congress.

How hard could it be for 60 Democratic Senators to pay back the unions which propelled them into political power in DC? Those same politicians have no trouble returning the favor for insurance companies, drug companies, bankers. Why do they consider their promises to one of the core Democratic constituencies to be optional? Do they think that the workers of America have been so devastated by the recession that they will be grateful for any crust that is tossed their way? In the movies, you have to kill a man before you can make him a zombie. In the United States you kill a man’s spirit before you reduce him to an undead existence.

VIII. They Want to Eat Your Freedoms



Since when did Americans have to give up their Roe v. Wade rights in order to get health care? This is like telling someone “We won’t kill your son----but you have to give us your daughter.” Mobsters make declarations like this. How did Congress become a freaking wing of the Mafia?

How long will our current government continue to make honest sexuality and military service mutually exclusive?

When will they fix the broken election system that allows a few VIPs to veto the wishes of the electorate?

How can a party which campaigned against Bush era civil rights abuses continue to deny political prisoners humanitarian rights? How can they continue to spy? And withhold information that should be made public, according to post Watergate Reforms?

W. was partially right when he said “They hate us for our freedoms.” We just did not know that he was talking about corporate America and their paid zombie minions in Washington.

IX. They Want to Eat Your Future

So, have your credit card rates come down since the change in political power in Washington? Have you been able to declare bankruptcy and start over after catastrophic medical debt wipes out your savings? Has your bankster been held liable for reducing the value of your pension? Do you feel more empowered? Do you think that the future will be rosier, brighter, because the face of corporate America's elected puppets is fresher, kinder?

Here is the face of Washington.



Enjoy your lobotomy.

[leftstreet]

1. Politicians have the only jobs that don't require skills or experience

Their job applications are brief:

1)Can you raise money?

2)Can you convince people to vote for you?

3)Can you raise money?

Imagine if we used the same standards when hiring engineers, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc

K&R

[Echo In Light]

4. Sad they can so easily & predictably rely on the obedience of our TV Baby populace

[ZombieHorde]

2. Shaun of the Dead, Magic the Gathering, and Resident Evil? You get a big rec from me.

[shadowknows69]

8. +1. I remember my zombie master deck well.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Undead Warchief is even better. I'm gonna gave to make a Legacy

Zombie deck, in honor of our leaders in Washington.

[JonQ]

3. I object to that unfair characterization

zombies eat brains and or flesh not souls. Also they have no control over their actions, they are mindless automatons following basic urges. It is unfair to compare them to politicians.

[laughingliberal]

5. +100000. Lambs to the slaughter with no clue how bad it's about to hit them nt

[Laelth]

6. Excellent exposition. k&r for the ugly truth (buried under a little hyperbole). n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[shadowknows69]

7. I've always known it. Romero was trying to warn us.

[Javaman]

9. SOLYENT GREEN IS ZOMBIE FOOD!!!

Meh, tastes like chicken, anyway.

[Jane Austin]

11. WRONG!

Washington is run by Zombies who want to eat your souls!

[moodforaday]

12. One of the best DU posts *ever*, and

only 13 recs, including mine?

[Vinnie From Indy]

13. One of DU's best posters right here!

Salute!