"Go Ahead and Die" From the Pirates of the Health-Care-ibean. This video was posted in 2006, but is more relevant today than ever.

Open thread below...

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Before yesterday's remarkable success story on the high seas off the coast of Somalia, the right-wing yammerers were calling Obama "President Pantywaist". One of these blogs had the following classic line:

Navy SEALs are certainly no pantywaists, but unfortunately their commander-in-chief is.

Fox News, as you can see in the video above, was littered with similar yammering.

Now the best part: It turns out that "President Pantywaist" overturned George W. Bush's timid dithering on the issue last year in unleashing those Navy SEALs:

President Barack Obama issued a standing order to use force against pirates holding an American captain hostage — including giving a Navy commander the authority to act if he believed the captain’s life was in danger, two senior defense officials said Sunday night.

Navy snipers aboard the USS Bainbridge on Sunday shot and killed three of the pirates after the Bainbridge’s commander gave the order, when a pirate was spotted aboard the lifeboat pointing an AK-47 rifle at Capt. Richard Phillips, one defense official said.

You see, back last November, George W. Bush punted on the matter:

U.S. President George W. Bush has been briefed about increasing attacks by Somali pirates off east Africa, and the United States is consulting with other U.N. Security Council members on ways to combat the threat, the White House said on Wednesday.

Calling it a "a very complicated issue," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino gave no hint of what, if any, action the United States might take following the hijacking earlier this week of a Saudi supertanker with a $100 million oil cargo.

Obama signed the order giving the Navy the go-ahead to take these people out when they had the opportunity in February.

But the mighty armchair generals of the right will never acknowledge this, of course.

Johann Hari from The Independent:

In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence".

No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." William Scott would understand.

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.

You can read the United Nations report here.

I wonder which principled member of our corporate media will point out that, in the big picture, the Somali pirates are acting in self-defense?

Bush campaign pirates popular song without composer's permission

The following is a letter sent to C&L and to the press by friend Larry Hoppen, a 30-year member of the group, Orleans:

The Bush Campaign has recently been using the 70sclassic hit "Still The One" as their theme song in these final days before the Election. Contrary to usual practice when a song is used for promotion and/or advertising, the Campaign did NOTseek permission to use the song or the original recording. They could have EASILY found us, we have a website and we don't live in caves. The use of the song as a theme cleary infers that the artist - Orleans, my band of 33 years - supports George W. Bush and what he stands for.
THAT IS NOT THE CASE.

Still The One, one of the most-recognized, most-aired and highest-testing-at-radio hits of the last 30 years, is a hallmark of my career and life's work. I am proud of it. My parents were proud of it. In fact, one of my brothers is also an original member of Orleans, both of my brothers perform with me now in Orleans along with John J. Hall who co-wrote the song. Because this is America, I was able to make my dream a reality. I support my family - a wife and twin girls - to this day solely by my work in the music industry. To have my God-given talent and unique work product hijacked for promotion of something I don't support is extremely painful, disturbing and troubling. Because we were not asked, I presume there is no intention on the Campaign's part to pay for the use of our work. I intend to find out.

What is the difference between this behavior of the Bush Campaign and, for example, Chinese businesses ignoring U.S and International Copyright Law for their own profit? Setting aside the reality that I have used my music, time and money to help sick children - a nonpartisan cause - and setting aside the reality that Orleans and myself have always been active in supporting progressive social / political causes and candidates, by itself the pirating of our work is an outrage. It's made worse because the Bush Campaign and Administration have a pro-business stance but clearly they are not playing by standard business rules. Worse yet as they profess fairness and morality.This is hardly an example of fairness. America truly is Still The One. George W. Bush is NOT.

Sincerely, Larry L. Hoppen

Lucky for Bush, Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever" is probably available. Any other songs you think Bush should play at his rallies?