Certainly nobody likes bad news.

Who wants to be constantly reminded that our nation is entrenched in at least two wars and carrying out untold other military adventures around the globe, spending Trillions of dollars we don’t have, makings god knows how many new enemies who will grow up with their sole wish to exact revenge on the United States?

Who wants to read about America's new vast security culture which is so widespread and so interwoven that no one really knows how big it is or what all it entails? Who wants to hear that our own government is collecting data on us with every email, every phone call, every credit card transaction and every punch of a keyboard?

How depressing would it be to learn that the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list includes 440,000 people, none of whom can get information as to why they are on the list or how they can be removed from the list?

Most Americans, it seems, don't want to consider that our national debt, currently approaching $14 Trillion, even as we shred social programs, education, and anything that benefits our own people Congress silently slides another $725 Billion for more war spending in fiscal year 2011.

People who were unhappy with the direction the U.S. was going under Bush can now see that the man people clamored to looking for HOPE and CHANGE is ultimately about business as usual. They now realize that it doesn't matter if you have a farmer, an actor, a lawyer, a hayseed baseball team owner or a suave, charismatic, worldly community organizer in the White House, the policies change very little and, in some cases, may actually go in the opposite direction expected.

It just seems like too much to consider. People feel helpless, impotent, scared or just disinterested and so most people choose not to talk about it, speak out against it, challenge it or even acknowledge it.

It's so much easier to zone out on a "reality" show, follow a celebrity's demise (and inevitable come back), play games on the computer or "socialize" on Facebook.

For all those who'd just rather not even think about all this, here you go-- something special to ring in the New Year. Enjoy!

Habits of a perennial hawk

Still shot from a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack on civilians in Baghdad made public by Wikileaks.

On December 17 with almost no public or media attention, the House of Representatives passed legislation that commits an additional $725 Billion in FY2011 to military and war spending. According to the National Priorities Project, Hawaii’s tax payers have already spent more than $3.6 Billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone since 2001.

Now, with virtually no debate, dissent or discussion, this additional sum was approved overwhelmingly by both Democrats and Republicans including Kauai's Congresswoman Rep. Mazie Hirono (Rep. Djou did not vote). Then, three days before Christmas, the Senate approved the bill unanimously. This vote makes it clear that the U.S. Government, together with an under-ambitious and under-funded media, unable or unwilling to report matters of grave importance, and a citizenry too distracted, dislocated, and disinterested to voice its concern, have successfully made funding America’s endless war programs and policies a non-issue.

In spite of the ongoing economic woes of our nation, this state and its local communities, Americans seem unable to make the connection between our government's insatiable appetite for war and military spending and the self-evisceration of our own society. Even as we continue to neglect our nation’s physical infrastructure, forfeit opportunities to advance and lead in innovative technologies that can face the challenges of climate change, energy and food crises, and poverty here in the U.S., our government shows itself to be a perennial hawk with both its left wing and right wing flapping in unison to ensure the country’s largest corporations, defense contractors, lobbyists and wealthiest minority are continuously grossly over-funded while we, working class tax payers, are left to fight over scraps, expected to accept less and less each year while even our so-called “progressive” representatives in Washington support unspeakable amounts of money for war without so much as a word of explanation to the people who voted for them.

NORAD forces down low-flying craft after entering U.S. airspace

BREAKING  (Updated 2 min ago)

NEWS ALERT 

NORAD forces down low-flying craft after entering U.S. airspace

New York law enforcement is questioning an unlicensed pilot in Buffalo.

HONOLULU (Press Wire) – President Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, was awoken his first night away from Washington by a call from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) headquarters in Colorado after F-15 fighter jets were scrambled along the U.S.- Canadian border in response to a lone individual attempting to enter U.S. airspace over upstate New York.

A NORAD spokesman said tracking satellites detected a small low-flying single passenger aircraft flying less than 500 feet over residential areas in Ontario, Canada. The craft appeared to be dropping objects in and around houses and apartment buildings and had crossed to the U.S. side of the border when it was intercepted shortly after 3 a.m. local time.

The pilot and nine reindeer were forced to land north of Buffalo when the craft, described as a “large sleigh,” failed to respond to warning transmissions.

Local law enforcement officials, the Air Force 101^st Intelligence Squadron and Homeland Security were immediately dispatched after a single male was taken into custody for questioning.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Kathryn Killmore said, “a suspect in his 80s lacking personal identification, a pilot’s license or registration documents, carrying a large bag of wrapped packages that included an ‘unusually large amount’ of items not associated with a single man is currently being detained.”

The suspect, described as a “heavy-set bearded male,” initially waved the fighter jets away and refused to land. The sleigh’s pilot, identifying himself only as “Father Nick,” wore heavy black boots, gloves, a red cape with what law enforcement officials said appeared to be a thick belt similar to those favored by suicide bombers.

White House spokesman Michael Aaronson said, “at this time there is no reason to believe this individual posed an imminent threat to U.S. citizens or property, but he will remain in custody for further questioning. During the holiday season, all Americans are asked to remain extra vigilant and report suspicious activities to local law enforcement and DHS.”

In response to the incident, Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano said DHS would be re-examining all “terror chatter” and beefing up efforts to track suspicious activities.

“We’re making more lists. We’ll be checking them closely, in fact, checking them twice,” Napolitano said. “This Christmas we’re not taking anything at face value.”

NORAD tracking satellites can be viewed here:

Time to take exception

Indicative of American Exceptionalists, Mitt Romney's book is entitled No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness

On any day of the year, but especially Veteran’s Day, we should be asking ourselves, “why is it that we have so many military veterans?” What is it that we do that produces so many men and women who have served in the military, so often fighting wars far from home?

The reasons are many, but today let’s just focus on one. This huge number — according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, there were 21.9 million military veterans in the United States in 2009 — is, in part, the result of the notion of “American Exceptionalism” — that is, the idea that the United States is somehow special among all nations, past and present. This doctrine assumes that the United States is not just “exceptional,” but that it is superior to all other nations.

And this, dear reader, I would argue plays a huge role in why we as a nation are so frequently involved in both peace time and war time military adventures, occupations and outright bullets-flying-wars which, of course, results in lots of war veterans.

Here is one simple, very recent example of what I am talking about. Last week, following his victory in the campaign to become Florida’s new GOP senator, Marco Rubio said, “Americans believe with all their heart, the vast majority of them, and the vast majority of Floridians, that the United States of America is simply the single greatest nation in all of human history. A place without equal in the history of all mankind.”

Wow. Got that? “…simply the single greatest nation in all of human history…a place without equal in the history of all mankind.” Not bad for a country founded 234 years ago. 

America is simply the greatest nation there has ever been, just ask Marco Rubio

Clearly Marco Rubio believes, or at least wants people to believe, that he thinks not only exceptionally high of the United States, but that this country outshines any other nation that preceded it in thousands of years of human history — Egypt, Rome, Greece, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, China, India, France, England, Russia, Holland, Spain — all of you, step back, if you please. This first spot up front is reserved for us, The United States of America (hold your applause please).

As for you other obscure little poor countries — Angola, Nepal, Comoros, Gabon, Tonga, Belize, Kiribati, Djibouti, Vanuatu, Canada and New Zealand — two steps back please, and would you mind not standing in our shadow? We do so admire the way our form darkens the earth.

Mind-boggling, I know. Certainly the other 6,570,000,000 who were not lucky enough to be born in God’s gift to the world, must be drooling with envy.

If you have ever spent five minutes in the company of someone who happened not to have been born in the greatest nation in human history, you maybe have been impressed, and certainly surprised, at how similar they seemed to yourself, at least in appearance. All the human flaws and charms randomly scattered amongst Americans, it would seem, can be found in all those not from the greatest nation in human history. And yet somehow they are different. They are, after all, not American.

This notion of American Exceptionalism, which Mr. Rubio encapsulated so well, is a widely held notion, one we can hear repeated again and again by politicians like Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and mama grizzly, half-term Governor and Drill-Baby-Drill squad leader Sarah Palin, to name a few.

Of course, when our African Muslim Socialist radical left wing President Barack Obama said of American Exceptionalism: “I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British Exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exptionalism,” he was roundly critized for not lining up in the “America is better that everyone else” camp.

George Carlin, who was never known as a great American Exceptionalist warned of such talk. Carlin said:

"Be on the alert for phrases such as Old Glory; Main Street; the stars and stripes; the heartland; all across this great land of ours; from Maine to California; and, of course, on American soil. And don't forget all those freedom-loving people around the world who look to us as a beacon of hope. Those, I assume, would be the ones we haven't bombed lately.  And you'd also better be ready to be reminded, over and over, that you live in a country that somehow fancies itself leader of the free world. Got that? Leader of the free world. I don't know when we're going to retire that stupid shit, but personally, I've heard it quite long enough.

“And what exactly is the free world, anyway? I guess it would depend on what you consider the non-free world. And I can't find a clear definition of that, can you? Where is that? Russia? China? For chrissakes, Russia has a better Mafia than we do now, and China is pirating Lion King DVDs and selling dildos on the Internet. They sound pretty free to me.

“Here are some jingoistic variations you need to be on the lookout for: The greatest nation on Earth; the greatest nation in the history of the world; and the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. That last one is usually thrown in just before we bomb a bunch of brown people. Which is every couple of years.”

Carlin saw this talk of American Exceptionalism for what it truly is: a big steaming sack of bullshit.

Sarah Palin: pining for the days of a national security policy of  "We win and they lose."

Mikhail Gorbachev, being a statesman, had a more diplomatic phrase. He called it “winner’s complex,” a disease, he said, which was worse than AIDS.

This notion that we don’t merely have an edge in some areas, or perhaps aren’t just better at some things than others, but are, in fact, flat-out, no holds-barred, simply “the single greatest nation in the history of mankind,” isn’t just ludicrous, simple-minded, juvenile and astonishingly laughable, it is dangerous. Absolutely deadly.

Because once you start spouting that your nation is superior to anything that exists or has ever existed, then you are going to start acting as though you are a type of God, or at least a Superman, Superwoman, or in America’s case, a Super Power.

This will lead to all sorts of foolish and brazen acts, not the least of which will be reckless wars to control resources, countries, and even entire regions, all in support of your self-proclaimed greatness.

Gotta stop that country from getting WMD – call in the Army!

Gotta tell that wacky dictator we aren’t putting up with any guff – call in the Navy!

Gotta get back at that country for knocking down our towers – call in the Air Force!

Gotta push those dirty, god-less (fill in the blank) out of this district, call in the Marines!

Gotta clear this square of unarmed civilians –  call in the private military contract mercenaries!

Gotta flush out the bad guys in that impenetrable rugged border region – call in the unmanned Predator Drones!

Gotta make sure that country doesn’t attempt to get the same type of weapons we have huge stockpiles of – call in the crippling sanctions!

And on and on and on, the result being, we have a lot of men and women who put on uniforms with American flags stitched just above the heart who are trained to believe that they are defending The Greatest Nation on Earth.

This is a big part of the problem. As long as we have politicians leading the charge of “American Exceptionalism” combined with a large electorate which knows virtually nothing about the world beyond its own Super Walmart and Mega Church complex, a population who couldn’t individually or collectively think its way out of a 1-ply square of toilet tissue, you end up with a country where people sit by idle and compliant while its own government, the body supposedly charged with looking out for the country’s best interests, is actually squandering its own human and financial treasure, and the well-being of the nation itself on mindless, self-defeating wars fought far from home and largely out of view and beyond scrutiny.

Echoing the bleating of Senator-elect Marco Rubio, Sen. Sam Brownback said, “this is the greatest nation in the history of mankind.” He implores Americans to “look up to see the greatness of America today.”

“That greatness is built on goodness. And if we ever lose our goodness, we will surely lose our greatness,” Brownback said, repeating quotes attributed to Eisenhower and, before him, Alexis de Tocqueville.

On this Veteran’s Day, a day meant to pay tribute to the men and women who serve this nation, often sacrificing themselves and their families, we should be asking ourselves who all this talk of being “the greatest nation on earth” is serving.

Newt Gingrich: supremely confident in America's power and ready to project it against other nations

Such chaff may garner a few cheap applause if you are standing in front of a giant American flag at a campaign rally, but it does nothing more than delude ourselves into a cult of self-aggrandizement. Worse still, it sets the stage for a nation frequently, and now seemingly, perpetually at war. It leads to the destruction of other people and places, it cheapens our own value as a society, and it invites deep scorn and hatred as it imperils us as a nation and the soldiers and veterans that we claim to honor.