Russia and Chechnya

I would like to just add my voice to those already pointing out two recent and thoughtful posts from lenin and young hegelian.

Putin is predictably responding with neocon rhetoric, and there is outrage to requests for explanations from Europe. "Blasphemous," to simply request a report on why this might be happening in Russia. Just as blasphemous as a recent T-shirt in NY that read: "Down with King George; Off with his Head," one supposes. That particular blasphemer was arrested and secretly held without being charged for several days, as is now SOP in kindler, gentler, lockdown America. But "Let Freedom Reign" is apparently just the finest. Nausea.

What is really meant by "zero tolerance" is "zero charity." This is where the doctrine gets its substantial energy. Meanwhile, increasingly wealthy democrats continue to run on an outmoded platform of charity, which continually renders them both hypocrits and stupid. But new stirrings are afoot. The hope - the need - is for a new, self-aware politics to emerge - one seeking to acknowledge deep and inherent contradictions - before Karl Rove and Richard Pearle get to ignite their new nuclear toys.

Could one reason the poor vote their "values" instead of their pocketbooks be that they desire to forget their pockets?