Olivers Army Re Re visited — give me my Habeas Corpus Back

You can have your name added to a list of libe­rals at the bot­tom of this post at Ame­ri­can Pros­pect Online, at post tit­led, We Ans­wer to the name of Libe­rals .

Way too con­ser­va­tive for me, but some of you might fit in to their very spe­ci­fic cate­go­ri­za­tion.

No red pinky fin­ger allo­wed and a group men­ta­lity is a must. 


Kevin at Slant Truth won­ders why not a lot of con­cern that our rights have been strip­ped from us  — although there is stuff out there peo­ple do seem rather ambi­va­lent about this.

I know some of you more dis­cer­ning blog­gers have writ­ten about it, but ove­rall the outrage is minimal.

There’s a good post in regard to it  here – > (are you the enemy? ) and here —>
(Habeas Cor­pus Why You’ll Miss it when it’s gone ). There there is a little poll at the end asking if you have con­tac­ted your Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves about this.

Well have you? 

We should be ques­tio­ning more.

 The iner­tia is stag­ge­ring. That is my new clutch phrase by the way because it fits most situations.

Has it come to this?

It sounds all good, like they are only going to throw foreig­ners who abso­lu­tely pose a threat in jail; it won’t be “our rights” tram­pled on, only the rights of would be terrorist…but just wait until they take your newly min­ted red hot lover, your child, your grand­mother or your Pila­tes Instructor.

I am not sure why it seems that the most impor­tant thing is who will win in Novem­ber, or who will get the nomi­na­tion, and not so impor­tant that an inno­cent little blog­ger could be thrown in jail because she photo shop­ped a pic­ture of her­self with Karl Rove and called him “her daddy”. ( she is taking no chance that pic­ture is long gone).

You think that’s not what this means. I think you’re wrong.

It does con­cern her some, in light of all this, that she has had a large num­ber of hits from various govern­ment agen­cies (over two hun­dred a week for the last two weeks) to a very old post, a kind of stu­pid post — ( which she loves  and will repost totally beneath the “more” sign to force you to read it, because she knows your lazy asses rarely click out) — she wrote in June of 2005, she was barely twenty — surely they won’t hold her res­pon­si­ble .……call her a threat to the government…


We are all stu­pid if we just let this pass.

The post below was writ­ten six­teen months ago, six­teen months ago a — barely — twenty year old girl knew we should never have gone to Iraq.….. 


Don’t start that tal­king
I could talk all night
My mind was sleep wal­king
While I’m put­ting the world to right
Call careers infor­ma­tion
Have you got your­self an occupation?

I had a post writ­ten; the post was pre­ci­pi­ta­ted by my revie­wing my links list from the bot­tom up and clic­king on Revo­lu­tion in the Head , which poin­ted out Costello’s “I Want You”, so I lis­te­ned to it.

Good song btw.

I was dis­trac­ted — star­ted lis­te­ning to a bunch of Cos­te­llo — then deci­ded to play with the lyrics to Oliver’s Army — as I am sure many peo­ple have done over the last twenty something years.

Not being a poet, or a lyri­cist this was not a good thing, but it ser­ved my purpose.

Most of it did not even have to be rewritten.

The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army is here to stay
The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
than
here
today


The powers that be, wha­te­ver they are, evi­dently didn’t want that pos­ted and somehow shut the word pro­ces­sor off prior to saving the post, so la, la the post was gone.
I thought just as well it might have offen­ded some peo­ple, and I don’t want to do that. I already receive hate mail about past entries and that was only due to Africa and abs­ti­nence; it might just be bet­ter to keep all opi­nions to myself.

I then star­ted a write about Bob Dylan. (Pro­vo­ked by a brief aim with someone regar­ding Mr. Tam­bou­rine man.)

There was a Check­point Char­lie
He didn’t crack a smile
but it’s no laughing party
When you’ve been on the mur­der mile
All it takes is one itchy trig­ger
One more widow
One less white nigger

After star­ting the post on Bob Dylan I rea­li­zed that no mat­ter how sig­ni­fi­cant Bob Dylan might have been — as a poet/ songw­ri­ter, peace acti­vist, com­mu­nist, drunk, doper, pop cul­ture icon, and no mat­ter how much I love some of his lyrics and can relate, as can many of my gene­ra­tion, (cool dude I’m like so into Dylan man); it doesn’t really matter.

What mat­ters is that my gene­ra­tion needs to become more aware of the war in Iraq, and the fact that we need to get out a plan.

I am not a wri­ter or a poli­ti­cal colum­nist, there are plenty of them around though and some are even worth rea­ding; bear with me here.

The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army is here to stay
The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
Than
here
today

Let us insist on lea­ving plan,a plan, and a plan. We know they can’t leave imme­dia­tely, but some of our peo­ple are going to end up living a good part of their lives there, they will die there.

They are not the sons and daugh­ters of the powers that be; they are the sons and daugh­ters of the powerless.

Pakis­tan is up for grabs
Bei­rut is full of Arabs
We could be in Afgha­nis­tan
Ove­rrun by the Tali­ban
With our boys Sines and Keith
deri­ding Dixie Chicks and Penn

Let us not allow the per­fect Ani­mal House Cheer­lea­der and his Pep Squad, (thanks Wom­bat), to keep us totally blind in this. Let us insist on get­ting out a plan, a plan, and a plan.

But there’s no dan­ger
It’s a pro­fes­sio­nal career
Though it could be arran­ged
With just a word in Mr Bush’s ear
If you’re out of luck,
you’re out of crack
We’d be glad to send you to Iraq

The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army is here to stay
The Uni­ted Sta­tes Army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else �..
than
here
today

And I would rather be anywhere else �..
than
here
today

And I would rather be anywhere else �..
than
here
today

Just a Plan.

Sing to Oliver’s Army. 

Mostly intact ori­gi­nal lyrics by Elvis Cos­te­llo Slight mas­sacre by Alice in Won­der­land or Not Sing to Oliver’s Army

Thank You.


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18 Comments

  • A friend of mine, a bloggin´mama, in your face for­mer jour­na­list and fellow femi­nist, has fre­quent govern­ment visits to her blog, Queen of Spain, as well…

    Words can­not desc­ribe the shock at the outright and bla­tant vio­la­tion of rights that is ongoing… I can­not wait to get back and to get­ting my ass in gear…

    Loved both posts…

  • If you’re get­ting fre­quent visits from the gover­ne­ment than you had bet­ter think of clo­sing down shop, they don’t like snotty assed college stu­dents making fun of their hit men. ;)

    Too bad, those were funny pictures.

    I remem­ber and loved that Oliver’s Army
    Post.

    They do seem to have the rules of Libe­ra­lism spe­lled out now don’t they?
    I pre­fer to call myself pro­gres­sive and call it a day.

  • Coo­per, again, you are dead spot on. I can’t believe that this is being
    gree­ted with such a huge yawn. Did you see Olberman’s com­ments on
    this? Really great.

    By the way, when you and I get thrown into that sec­ret pri­son, I call top bunk.

    I.D.

  • Uh, where to start. Coo­per, you are right. This should be your gene­ra­tions fight, but theyr’e so used to havint their parents do everything – why not fight for them?

    You do rea­lize that your blog ser­ves its own and great purpose?

    And any govern­ment agency that reads your blog – well, they let it be known. Can see it now: A blo­gosphere effort to get Coo­per out of jail.

    Somehow I think that it’s worse than you being attac­ked per­so­nally, and that most peo­ple don’t unders­tand the part that blog­gers play in this war of retai­ning rights. Just the impeach Bush, which we all know won’t hap­pen, but­ton is a sign to some peo­ple of our disloyalty

    Frankly I don’t unders­tand why your entire gene­ra­tion hasn’t taken to the streets. I know there isn’t a draft to rise against, but there is something worse that most peo­ple just don’t get

    Hasta la vista to the Constitution

  • Oh it was a won­der­ful post – for a 20 year old girl with blog or for anybody

  • This is a good post but I must disa­gree with something you said… kind of struck me off guard… although I do believe we need a plan… a plan to leave Iraq… that I do agree but your lyri­cal phrase…

    “If you’re out of luck,
    you’re out of crack”

    My best friend Ethan and my friend William… have neither been out of luck nor “out of crack… not that they have ever been on crack :) ” when they chose to join the army… they knew the num­bers of our mili­tary dead… they knew that they may not come back… they knew the job was high risk… with all those risk up against them… THEY CHOSE to defend. I don’t think that it has ever been said that their mis­sion was “no dan­ger” involved…

    I know I am pro­bably taking a lot of this to heart due to being layed up in bed and preg­nantly emo­tio­nal… but I just don’t want our guys and gals (my friends) potra­yed as idiots for ser­ving their country.

  • I agree, but con­tac­ting my repre­sen­ta­tive (Mike Rogers? Don’t make me laugh) would be com­ple­tely use­less. Get­ting Democ­rats elec­ted, on the other hand, may even­tually bring about change. Remem­ber how fast Clin­ton tur­ned around the worst Reagan/Bush poli­cies? Par­ti­cu­larly rele­vant was his rolling back new sec­recy rights Rea­gan had asser­ted, the­reby allo­wing more access to govern­ment documents.

  • Miz Bohe­mia: I knew you were wel­come in the pre­sence of Queens, I also can’t wait for you to get your ass bac­kin gear.:)
    First you have to get to San Fran­cisco. There are a lot of sti­rrings here; if you mean online its true there is much less of a call to arms about it than I would have guessed.

    Joe: you calling me a snotty assed college stu­dent?
    I think it’s sup­po­sed to be snotty nosed.

    Dedd: You can’t have the top bunk if you’re going to pass gas all night though. I did see Olber­man and am happy that there is one news per­so­na­lity – because we know they are not really jour­na­list or repor­ters any more – saying the truth and not bac­king down.

    Pia: When you have never been arres­ted and when you have lived a fairly pro­tec­ted life full of rights like they see no where else on earth and when you do not believe that what is hap­pe­ning is really hap­pe­ning due to living in a fan­tasy world pro­mo­ted by the govern­ment and by the media it’s hard to get off your ass and fight.

    Not to soley blame my gene­ra­tion though I don’t see many peo­ple over the age of thirty five get­ting their pan­ties in much of a wad over this either.

    Shayna: As with anything there are those who wish to serve but they rec­ruit a lot of peo­ple who do not know any bet­ter, do not have paren­tal sup­port or anyone to help them make a ratio­nal deci­sion, do not have any money. They tell them fibs, and it’s gene­rous of me not to call them lies.

    Young men sent to war on false pre­tense, our young men who are dying for something that has nothing to do with us, dying due to the arro­gance of a pre­si­dent. A man who was going to go into Iraq one was or the other.

    Please get back to bed and do not read anything that will cause undo stress. Stic­king you fin­gers in your ears and going la la la la la la la la la helps.

    I want you to be ok and I want little coo­per to be ok.

    Weirsdo: where have you been did pansi have you tied up naked in the clo­set? I mis­sed you.

    I am hoping the democ­rats can get into office and effect some change, I’m hoping the peo­ple of this country wake up enough to hold their repre­sen­ta­tive responsible.

  • Coo­per, I’m not sure I ever read that post on Oliver’s Army. No, I’m sure I wasn’t rea­ding you then.

    If I had I would have been here sooner.

    Stict cate­go­riz­tion of anyone is harm­ful to either party.

    It’s little jaco­bia not little coo­per. ;0

  • Thank you for the link, but my name is on another list. ;)

    Check out Elvis’s glas­ses. Get out of here.

    “No red pinky fin­ger allo­wed and a group men­ta­lity is a must”

    The truth zings.

    Proud to know you coo­per girl, don’t let them take you, make you, bake you.

  • I don’t like the thought of any­body inter­fe­rring on someone’s right to say wha­te­ver he or she has to say. I applaud anyone who, under the threat of govern­ment scru­tiny, still for­ges ahead with their message.

  • I’ve been mea­ning to spew about this, thanks for the reminder!

  • I don’t unders­tand why your entire gene­ra­tion hasn’t taken to the streets

    Me either. Well, unfor­tu­na­tely, maybe I do. And it’s a little more than just being rai­sed “cushy”. The Viet­nam War pro­tes­tors mostly had their lives han­ded to them on a sil­ver plat­ter too.

    Maybe there would be an erup­tion today, if there were a draft.

    Maybe all of our “noble” sen­ti­ments are really that selfish.

    Well it’s one, two, three
    What are we figh­ting for?
    Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn,
    Next stop is Vietnam …

    Sigh.

  • de-link, de-link, de-link. Is that a word?

    Loves ya from Cor­nell coop.

    No groups for the wise.

    Noted.

  • I don’t know what a libe­ral is any­more. They’re like con­ser­va­ti­ves in that res­pect. Can I just endorse the inno­cent little blog­ger who pho­toshop­ped her­self on Karl Rove’s arm?

  • I don’t know what has to start hap­pe­ning before peo­ple wake up. Do friends and neigh­bors have to start disappearing?

  • You do a nice job wea­ving the song into your post – we live in dif­fi­cult times.

  • For some rea­son, I can’t write but a one line post.…