Translation of Osama bin Laden's latest release

This is a translation of the transcript of Osama bin Laden's latest videotaped message.  You can find the original at Cryptome, along with translations from Reuters, Associated Press, and the BBC.  Read it, and think about it -- preferably before you vote.  He is not without a point, his motivation is understandable, and quite frankly, he's on the mark about Bush.

I won't suggest for a moment that anything in this transcript excuses 9/11.  But when you view it in light of the background he cites, it is an understandable response.

Naturally, this is not an unbiased view, and there's a certain amount of pure rhetoric in it, not least putting words into the mouths of the dead of 9/11.  How the hell would you know, Mr. bin Laden?  You weren't there, and few if any of them got a chance to leave testaments.  There's plenty of hyperbolic rhetoric concerning the war in Iraq, too; to hear bin Laden tell it, you'd think US armor advanced over a carpet of dead children.  And naturally, he thinks divine power is on his side, and wearing the Allah hat, just as Bush is unshakeably certain it's on his side and wearing the God hat.

But the most important words in this transcript come right at the end, and are undeniable in their truth.

"In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida.

"No.

"Your security is in your own hands.  [...]"

He has a point there.

Anyway, here's the full translation, behind the cut.  Read it, and think about it, as an insight into how bin Laden thinks, and into how the Muslim world sees America and America's foreign policy in the Middle East.  Think about whether you want to be a citizen of the world's bully, and then think about the wisdom of voting for either side of the Two-Headed Big Government Party that will continue the policy of trying to make the world over in an image that it's not even honest enough to follow itself, that thinks that ensuring the security of America means taking away the freedom of Americans.

America is America's people.  Not the land, not the government, the people.  Land is just that, land, and the administration guiding our government has become so detached from that identity of the nation as the people that it regards the American people as just one more enemy to be overcome in the pursuit of its oligarchic vision, to be lied to, to be distracted with gewgaws and promises while they squander our children's and our grandchildren's inheritance.

Today is your chance to change the world.  All you need is the courage to forget that straight party ticket and do it.

( Translated transcript )

Emergency Preparedness?

In Case Of
Electile Dysfunction,
BREAK
GLASS

Note:  The author does not recommend nor advocate the action suggested in this satirical image.  Broken glass is sharp; you could cut yourself badly.  Besides, decent cabinetry repairs are expensive, and that's some nice etching.

Killer Klowns from Kampaign Space; or, the rigged game

So, lemme see.... here we are on Clown Selection Day.  If Bush wins, America loses.  If Kerry wins, America loses.  If neither Bush nor Kerry achieves the 270 electoral votes required to win (electoral-vote.com currently has them at 262 Kerry, 261 Bush) then the House selects the President and the Senate selects the Vice-President, and probably America loses.  (But maybe not quite so badly, if the House and Senate pick clowns from opposing parties.)

I personally believe there are possible outcomes of this election in which America does not lose.  Unfortunately, I don't see any of them as particularly likely, because way too many people -- even though they don't like either major-party candidate -- have bought in for far too long to the idea that it's a good long-term strategy to vote for the guy you'd sooner sell your wife to slavers than vote for, in order to get rid of the guy you'd sooner sell your daughter to slavers than vote for.

This is a really, really terrible long-term strategy.

Why?

Because it guarantees that the major parties (or party, depending on your viewpoint) can continue forever cramming absolutely appalling candidates down your throat, worse and worse each election cycle, and you'll continue to vote them into office each time, because at the time of the election, it looks as though the challenger may be marginally less repulsive than the incumbent.

Meanwhile, there's candidates out there that are a lot better than anyone offered on either the Democrat or Republican ticket in, say, the last 20 years.

"Aha," you say, "but they have no chance!  A third-party vote is a wasted vote!"

For this election, you're probably right:  Third-party candidates stand little to no chance at the national level in this election.  But why is that?  It's because you, and tens of millions of other people just like you, "know" that they have no chance, and therefore you won't vote for them, holding your nose and voting instead to keep one or the other faction of the Big Government Party in power, and fulfilling your own prophecy.

"It's too important to defeat $INCUMBENT this election," you protest.  "Maybe next election."  And what happens when $CHALLENGER turns out to be almost as bad as $INCUMBENT, just in different ways?  Or equally bad?  Or worse?  Will you hold your nose again next election, and the one after that, and the one after that?

This is how the game is played.  Third parties will never have a chance until you start voting for them, and you won't start voting for them as long as the Big Government Party's two branches can keep you holding your nose and voting for one of them to get the other out of office.  The game is rigged, and the Demoplican and Repubocrat political machines are playing you, the average voter, like a cheap guitar.

Yeah, that's right -- they can keep the electoral process locked up between the two of them, as long as they keep offering you awful enough candidates.  The moment they start offering you candidates who are actually half-way decent, and one of them gets elected, you'll have a breathing space, and you'll figure you finally have a chance to look around you and vote your conscience -- "Because, y'know, this guy's really not that bad, so if he gets another term, it's no big deal, and we'll have another chance in four years."  And that's the beginning of the end for them.

They don't want that to happen.  They want THEIR agenda enacted, not yours.  The strategy of offering you god-awful candidates has proved highly successful at shutting out third parties, and they're going to continue doing it as long as it keeps working -- which means as long as you all keep buying into the lesser-of-two-evils strategy.  What's more, all the partisan dirt and skulduggery both sides pull is a distraction; as long as they can keep your attention focussed on which of their two branches is stealing votes from the other, they figure you won't notice that the whole system is rigged to keep you voting for them.

So you say you only realistically have the choice of Chump A or Chump B this election?  Well, there's a simple solution:

STOP VOTING FOR THE CHUMPS.

That's all there is to it.  So, go out and vote, if you haven't already; but think about the way the system works.  Make it work for you, not for them.  If you EVER want it to get any better, then sooner or later, you have to start voting for change, instead of for a continually-worsening status quo.

And if not now .... then when?

Tom Engelhardt on Clown Selection 2004

Go read.