A kid talks about current affairs: "That war is on crack!"

This morning I was talking with a friend about the current situation in the Middle East. "Looks like Lieberman's defeat sent a message to Bush, Olmert and AIPAC." sez me, "that they had better think twice before blatantly massacring women and children again."

Up until now, the Bush mafia, Olmert and AIPAC have been acting too sure of themselves, thinking that they can do just about ANYTHING and get away with it -- and trick us naive American taxpayers into paying for it too!

"But after the Lieberman defeat, it looks like Bush and them are gonna have to step up their game in order to stay in control. They are gonna stage a lot more of their water-bottle-waving, airport-clogging terrorist alerts -- if not actual 9-11s -- in order to keep voters' minds off their massive policy failures and intimate friendship with Diebold."

Of course my friend agreed with me. And, according to the latest polls, most of America does too. But that's old news. My friend and I were basically just chatting in the blogger-type shorthand that most sane people use these days while waiting for the rest of America to wake up.

"And that whole Lebanon ceasefire thing and Olmert taking advantage of it to seize all of Lebanon up to the Litani? That's outrageous! That's like a football referee blowing his whistle for a time-out but the quarterback keeps running with the ball, runs into the end-zone and then expects the ref to award him the touchdown. And the ref does!" That's just wrong.

My friend's 12-year-old son piped up at this point. "I wonder who won the 49ers game last night?" I looked at him. He looked at me.

"Hey, you're a smart kid," I said. "What do YOU think of the various wars in the Middle East?"

"Nothing." Nothing? This is Berkeley! Former home of the peace movement before it moved to Crawford! You gotta think something!

"Can you even find Iraq on a map?"

"Yes."

"And surely you see stuff about the war on the TV news?" Yes. "So what do you think about that?

"I think it's stupid. I don't even know why they are fighting. They're killing millions of people. That's stupid. This war is on crack."

If that's what the next generation of voters is thinking, Bush and Rove had better step up their war-crack-selling game immediately or approximately ten years from now they will be out of a job. Older Americans who should know better may still be buying Bush's war propaganda crack on every street corner -- but the younger generation already knows that Bush's war-crack may get them high once or twice -- but eventually the effects will wear off and they, like Bush, will have to steal from honest citizens in order to pay for their stash.

PS: My efforts to embed in Iraq are going poorly right now. No matter. I've still got lots of time. If it will take the younger generation another ten years to grow up, get sick of "war," tax repression and stolen elections and finally kick Bush and Cheney out, the war on Iraq will still be going on ten years from now and Bush and Cheney will still be in the White House in 2016.

I still have PLENTY of time to get embedded in Iraq.

PPS: Another friend just sent me a video showing some "doctored" photos from Lebanon, making it appear that all that tragedy, death and destruction didn't really happen but was just a result of the illicit use of PhotoShop. Whew! That's good news! For a few weeks there, I thought Israel had ACTUALLY bombed Lebanon to cinders. I'm glad that it was all just an illusion created by Reuters, Associated Press and PhotoShop!

Reuters! AP! Call me! I PROMISE that all my pictures will be taken with a Walgreens disposable camera! Hey, I'm a Notary Public AND a techno-dunce too. The State of California has made it illegal for me to lie. Plus I don't even KNOW how to doctor a photograph.

Want someone to embed in what is left of Baghdad, Fallugah, Beirut, Tyre, Bethlehem, Jenin, Haditha, Gaza or Kabul? Call me! 510-843-0581.