I hardly go out any longer. Instead, I invested in a flat screen TV. There are several programs that Melody and I enjoy and I like to keep up with the news and commentary. A few posts ago, a commenter to this blog suggested that anyone that vexes himself over political matters as much as I must have other issues. At first I laughed it off as a "no one is blinder than he who won't see" remark, but then I began to worry that someone had posted the results of my Minnesota Multi-Phasal Personality Index on the net and I had to reconsider the commenter's statements.
I am by nature reclusive, but even I can recognize this last round of social withdrawal as pathological. If I were female, I might say that after the Cohen primary victory, I was so shocked from backing a winner that I went into a sort of post-partem depression from dealing with these unfamiliar feelings; or a Jimmy Carteresque malaise waiting for the other shoe to drop. Since I was diagnosed twenty years ago with a genetic pre-disposition for depression, these episodes don't concern me as much because I understand them now and know they will pass. Still, I feel like I should call my friends and apologize for going missing in action, but this frame of mind also accepts that most people are so self-absorbed they never notice the comings and goings of anyone else, and my real friends understand anyway.
Of course my days are colored by the tenor of the times and I remain disconcerted about the workings of this government. But the discord created by this administration manifests itself in almost every other aspect of life. In every arena of public life I am daily disturbed by the combative, confrontational, inconsiderate, or just plain mindless attitude of people's interactions with others. I have previously written about the chore driving has become. When Melody and I go anywhere, she insists on driving because my explosive responses to the cell phone talkers and bad drivers were not disturbing anyone but her. An example; today, we were driving behind a new Escalade driven by some unconscious preppie wannabe, and there was a brand new "W" sticker on the rear window that said "Still the President." I wondered if it was necessary to continue to remind us? The polarization that exists in general society today makes me nostalgic for Nixon.
I watch my wide screen and wonder how the Evangelicals must feel hearing their born-again President compared to the Devil at the United Nations, to the general amusement of other world leaders. I see Bush's approval ratings above 40% and wonder who can still be defending this Chucklehead when he says to Matt Lauer about the terrorist threat, "This is people who want to come here and kill your families." I hear Darth Cheney brag that there have been no further acts of terror on our soil since 9/11 and I immediately search for a wooden surface to knock on. I think that before any "alternative" interrogation techniques are approved for use by our forces, that Bush should have to try them out first. The way they make it sound, waterboarding is a pleasant summer sport. I try to put this growing hatred I feel towards the members of the Bush administration in context and tell myself that it is their policies that I hate, although it's difficult to make the separation with this strutting, stammering fool in your face all the time who feels he can better make his point by saying the same thing, only louder. I wish Bush's handlers would just tell him to shut up and go to Crawford and do no further harm, but he consumes my reality with his arrogance and constant hurtling toward further wars. I wish there were more I could do to hasten the day when accountability arrives, but I fear that the Bush group will use future conflicts or aggressive actions to fan the flames of nationalism for their cynical partisan use.
But I'm just one man looking for a brighter day when my sense of humor returns and I can enjoy the simple comforts of time passed easily with friends. This election is only 46 days away. If by some chance the Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I honestly don't know what I will do. I could benefit from the use of a psychologist, but I am one of the uninsurables, and psychotherapy is a luxury for which I cannot afford to pay retail. I had health insurance once, but the company dropped me because I needed it. Until then, you are my psychologist and I thank you for withholding your bill until times get better.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Rove Rage
All right, I admit I am disappointed. Karl "The Unelected President" Rove somehow escaped indictment by the Grand Jury in the CIA leak case . That doesn't mean he has been left unscathed. Like many others who have read about and observed Rove's political tactics, I truly believed that the sort of smarmy payback meted out to Joseph Wilson through the outing of his wife as an agent was a typical Rove operation. So did James Moore and Wayne Slater, authors of "Bush's Brain", which I have referenced before, in updated material in the latest edition of the book.
"No one who knows Karl Rove has been surprised to hear his name as a prime suspect in the scandal involving the leak of a CIA agent's name. That is how Karl Rove has operated in the political arena for his entire career...The greater shock for Washington, and journalists who have reported on Karl Rove's career, would be if he were not involved in outing undercover agent Valerie Plame.
Well, we know from two sources that he was involved. I don't know what sort of deal he made with the Special Prosecutor to save his hide, but even if Rove wasn't the primary source for the leak, a pertinent question must be asked. What was the President's political advisor doing with information about clandestine CIA agents in the first place? Who ever cast a single vote for this guy other than the Young College Republicans in 1973, when he was accused of stealing the election? His opponent was the chairman of the College Republicans for Nixon in 1972 at the University of Michigan. I remember well the Republican Convention of 1972, after Nixon paraded out Henry Kissinger to say "Peace is at hand." That was his last trick to get re-elected. Rove and his fellows were the young people so incongruously packing the galleries in their straw boaters and neckties chanting "Four More Years." What must go through a young person's mind when he is draft eligible, his President has bombed and destabilized two adjacent countries to the already ravaged Vietnam, his fellow students are being gunned down on college campuses for war protests, and he wants four more years of Nixon's plan. It wasn't that they were so pro-Nixon, as anti-hippie. So was G.W. Bush, who's cheerleading career at Yale was disrupted by those shaggy war protesters. This is where the "culture war" began.
It was still a mistake for the Democrats to have put all their eggs in Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's basket. Although there are revelations to come, Karl Rove has been unleashed. Now that Rove is free to publicly question the patriotism of the administration's critics, the Democrats need a bold voice to counter the vitriol that will only build as the mid-term election grows near. The Democrats take Rove's bait every time and it is entirely possible that they could blow this election despite the President's and Congress's record low approval ratings. Gary Hart wrote a piece this week in The Huffington Post, that the public should be alerted to the possibility of an "October Surprise." Hart surmises that even though the mantra is still "stay the course," Rove will find a way to declare victory in Iraq, or at least enough progress to begin plans to withdraw troops. Rove knows Iraq is the albatross around the Republicans neck and he must address it. Hart warns that whatever the administration promises are only plans to get them through this election. Rove trades principle for politics every time.
I hope the electorate sees through the cynical attempts of this bankrupt Republican administration to hold on to its power. It was reported yesterday that Rove contacted Joe Lieberman with an offer to help him in his independent run for Senate Spoiler. Is there any better validation for Lieberman's loss to an unknown in the primary? Only a change in Congress can begin to inquire why Karl Rove was in possession of classified and sensitive information. Does he even have a security clearance, and if so, why? And how did one political operative that G.H.W. Bush hired as his special assistant at the Republican National Committee come to accrue so much power after this article from The Washington Post from 1973?
"Republican National Committee Chairman George Bush (the first) has re-opened an investigation into allegations that a paid official of the GOP taught political espionage and "dirty tricks" during weekend seminars for College Republicans during 1971 and 1972. Some of the 1972 seminars were held after the Watergate break-in. Bush said he will urge a GOP investigating committee to "get to the bottom" of charges against Karl C. Rove, 32, who was executive director of the College Republican National Committee."
Bush's Brain, Ibid
It is a continuous line from Karl Rove to Lee Atwater, Donald Segretti, G. Gordon Liddy, John Mitchell, and Richard Nixon. Karl Rove may have escaped indictment from the Fitzgerald jury, but he may yet face it from the American public. The people got wise to Nixon. They will ultimately see through his disciples as well.
"No one who knows Karl Rove has been surprised to hear his name as a prime suspect in the scandal involving the leak of a CIA agent's name. That is how Karl Rove has operated in the political arena for his entire career...The greater shock for Washington, and journalists who have reported on Karl Rove's career, would be if he were not involved in outing undercover agent Valerie Plame.
Well, we know from two sources that he was involved. I don't know what sort of deal he made with the Special Prosecutor to save his hide, but even if Rove wasn't the primary source for the leak, a pertinent question must be asked. What was the President's political advisor doing with information about clandestine CIA agents in the first place? Who ever cast a single vote for this guy other than the Young College Republicans in 1973, when he was accused of stealing the election? His opponent was the chairman of the College Republicans for Nixon in 1972 at the University of Michigan. I remember well the Republican Convention of 1972, after Nixon paraded out Henry Kissinger to say "Peace is at hand." That was his last trick to get re-elected. Rove and his fellows were the young people so incongruously packing the galleries in their straw boaters and neckties chanting "Four More Years." What must go through a young person's mind when he is draft eligible, his President has bombed and destabilized two adjacent countries to the already ravaged Vietnam, his fellow students are being gunned down on college campuses for war protests, and he wants four more years of Nixon's plan. It wasn't that they were so pro-Nixon, as anti-hippie. So was G.W. Bush, who's cheerleading career at Yale was disrupted by those shaggy war protesters. This is where the "culture war" began.
It was still a mistake for the Democrats to have put all their eggs in Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's basket. Although there are revelations to come, Karl Rove has been unleashed. Now that Rove is free to publicly question the patriotism of the administration's critics, the Democrats need a bold voice to counter the vitriol that will only build as the mid-term election grows near. The Democrats take Rove's bait every time and it is entirely possible that they could blow this election despite the President's and Congress's record low approval ratings. Gary Hart wrote a piece this week in The Huffington Post, that the public should be alerted to the possibility of an "October Surprise." Hart surmises that even though the mantra is still "stay the course," Rove will find a way to declare victory in Iraq, or at least enough progress to begin plans to withdraw troops. Rove knows Iraq is the albatross around the Republicans neck and he must address it. Hart warns that whatever the administration promises are only plans to get them through this election. Rove trades principle for politics every time.
I hope the electorate sees through the cynical attempts of this bankrupt Republican administration to hold on to its power. It was reported yesterday that Rove contacted Joe Lieberman with an offer to help him in his independent run for Senate Spoiler. Is there any better validation for Lieberman's loss to an unknown in the primary? Only a change in Congress can begin to inquire why Karl Rove was in possession of classified and sensitive information. Does he even have a security clearance, and if so, why? And how did one political operative that G.H.W. Bush hired as his special assistant at the Republican National Committee come to accrue so much power after this article from The Washington Post from 1973?
"Republican National Committee Chairman George Bush (the first) has re-opened an investigation into allegations that a paid official of the GOP taught political espionage and "dirty tricks" during weekend seminars for College Republicans during 1971 and 1972. Some of the 1972 seminars were held after the Watergate break-in. Bush said he will urge a GOP investigating committee to "get to the bottom" of charges against Karl C. Rove, 32, who was executive director of the College Republican National Committee."
Bush's Brain, Ibid
It is a continuous line from Karl Rove to Lee Atwater, Donald Segretti, G. Gordon Liddy, John Mitchell, and Richard Nixon. Karl Rove may have escaped indictment from the Fitzgerald jury, but he may yet face it from the American public. The people got wise to Nixon. They will ultimately see through his disciples as well.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Content of Their Character
Since I live in Tennessee's Ninth District, I received an interesting piece of mail today from the Nikki Tinker for Congress Campaign, co-sponsored by Emily's List. Since Ms. Tinker is a political novice running for an important representational office, I would think any slick mailers would be for the purpose of introducing the candidate and enunciating her views on local and national issues. But the picture on the cover was that of State Senator Steve Cohen. They used to say that any publicity is good publicity, but this desperate attack from Ms. Tinker borders on the scurrilous. This shows that any organization such as Emily's List, that ordinarily does good work, in their zeal to promote an attractive woman candidate, can sometimes overlook the best candidate.
Ms. Tinker's flyer attacks the attendance record of Senator Cohen between 1998 and 2004, conveniently overlooking the fact that those of us who put him in the State Senate know that he has been there for 24 years. There was corporate money spent to say in her ad that "Senator Cohen led efforts to allow sex shops to stay open on Sunday." To make such a bizarre accusation, regardless of which postscript of obscure legislation that you pulled it from, reeks of desperation. In fact, it seems like a campaign engineered by Karl Rove. To attempt to somehow link Steve Cohen with sex shops is laughable, but the brochure contains a lurid color photograph of a eerie green, neon sign that says "Sex Shop; Projections," and questions Senator Cohen's ability to fight for "our families" in Congress. Ms. Tinker also combed through Cohen's votes and found he declined to grant money above that budgeted for some unnamed "K-12 Education Funding." In fact, every college student who benefits from the Hope Scholarship, be they male or female, black, white or Asian, and whether the institution is a state university or a community college, should say, "Thank you, Steve Cohen, for your years of persistence in creating the Tennessee lottery." I know I do. My stepson attends Christian Brothers University and receives a grant from the Hope Scholarship which is projected to produce a billion dollars in four years. So what is Ms. Tinker really trying to say?
I think that "content of their character" speech by Dr. King in 1963 didn't sink in with some people. A July 5 edition of the Tri-State Defender ran a banner headline asking, "White Chocolate, or opportunist; can Sen. Steve Cohen represent Black people?" The article points out that since 1974 the Ninth Congressional District has elected an African-American to represent them and proceeds to chronicle the struggle of Black people through the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Rev. Benjamin Hooks is quoted as saying a Cohen victory would be devastating for Memphis' majority population. Of course Steve Cohen can represent Black people. The problem is the Ford family dynasty has controlled the seat for so long that they believe they own it. In the crowded race to succeed Harold Ford, Jr. in Congress, there is a Ford brother, a Ford cousin, and Ms. Tinker, widely known to be Harold, Jr.'s campaign manager, advisor and protege. Judging from Junior's Congressional record, where he voted to ban same-sex civil unions and against raising the minimum wage, it often appeared as if he were positioning himself with conservative Republicans to make himself more palatable to a national audience. Ms. Tinker's campaign slogan was "Running for the right reasons." If her voting attitude reflects that of her mentor's, those are the very "right reasons" that I'm afraid of.
From Julian Bolton's comments about Mr. Cohen's "complexion," to the hysterical ravings of TaJuan Stout Mitchell, the African American political community has launched a "Stop Cohen" campaign filled with the same sort of racist arguments that white candidates used to make in the bad old days. Consider this excerpt from a letter to the Memphis Commercial Appeal; "The candidate's ideology should represent the majority of residents in the district rather than the majority of the votes in an overcrowded race. Most Ninth District residents do not support same-sex marriage, the legalization of drugs, Sunday liquor sales and restricted prayer, and some citizens do not support the lottery. Most of the district's constituents are of the Christian faith and would be offended by an elected official who would vote to curtail their free expression of religion or suggest that a pastor be told not to say, 'In the name of Jesus.'" If you read that comment on it's own without knowing the author or the context, you might think it was someone in league with Jerry Falwell or Tom DeLay. But it's old fashioned fear-mongering by Councilwoman Stout Mitchell. Only Ms. Mitchell ads the touch of reminding voters that Sen. Cohen is not Christian. In fact, it will be refreshing to vote for someone who will be a genuine liberal Democrat in Washington, and not someone who tempers his votes with an ambitious eye toward national office. I am one of the Ninth's constituents Ms. Mitchell speaks of that doesn't support the lottery. Only, I just don't buy a ticket. But you go ahead, and thank you for the revenue.
This sort of inflammatory rhetoric should be insulting to thinking people of all races. If Congressman Ford wishes to be a Senator he must court the white vote, why then, should African-American politicians encourage Black people to only vote for a Black candidate? It has been a long time since the mid-seventies and Harold Ford, Sr.'s infamous "white devils" quote. I believed the election and re-election of Willie Herenton and A C Wharton showed progress on behalf of Memphis' electorate that promised to reach beyond the politics of race. It may have been more accurate to say that moderate white voters made progress by voting for African-American candidates based on their abilities. But judging from the level of vitriol coming from the Black community toward Sen. Cohen, there are still some old-time Memphis politicians, and some new ones, too, that still just don't get it.
www.cohenforcongress.com
Ms. Tinker's flyer attacks the attendance record of Senator Cohen between 1998 and 2004, conveniently overlooking the fact that those of us who put him in the State Senate know that he has been there for 24 years. There was corporate money spent to say in her ad that "Senator Cohen led efforts to allow sex shops to stay open on Sunday." To make such a bizarre accusation, regardless of which postscript of obscure legislation that you pulled it from, reeks of desperation. In fact, it seems like a campaign engineered by Karl Rove. To attempt to somehow link Steve Cohen with sex shops is laughable, but the brochure contains a lurid color photograph of a eerie green, neon sign that says "Sex Shop; Projections," and questions Senator Cohen's ability to fight for "our families" in Congress. Ms. Tinker also combed through Cohen's votes and found he declined to grant money above that budgeted for some unnamed "K-12 Education Funding." In fact, every college student who benefits from the Hope Scholarship, be they male or female, black, white or Asian, and whether the institution is a state university or a community college, should say, "Thank you, Steve Cohen, for your years of persistence in creating the Tennessee lottery." I know I do. My stepson attends Christian Brothers University and receives a grant from the Hope Scholarship which is projected to produce a billion dollars in four years. So what is Ms. Tinker really trying to say?
I think that "content of their character" speech by Dr. King in 1963 didn't sink in with some people. A July 5 edition of the Tri-State Defender ran a banner headline asking, "White Chocolate, or opportunist; can Sen. Steve Cohen represent Black people?" The article points out that since 1974 the Ninth Congressional District has elected an African-American to represent them and proceeds to chronicle the struggle of Black people through the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Rev. Benjamin Hooks is quoted as saying a Cohen victory would be devastating for Memphis' majority population. Of course Steve Cohen can represent Black people. The problem is the Ford family dynasty has controlled the seat for so long that they believe they own it. In the crowded race to succeed Harold Ford, Jr. in Congress, there is a Ford brother, a Ford cousin, and Ms. Tinker, widely known to be Harold, Jr.'s campaign manager, advisor and protege. Judging from Junior's Congressional record, where he voted to ban same-sex civil unions and against raising the minimum wage, it often appeared as if he were positioning himself with conservative Republicans to make himself more palatable to a national audience. Ms. Tinker's campaign slogan was "Running for the right reasons." If her voting attitude reflects that of her mentor's, those are the very "right reasons" that I'm afraid of.
From Julian Bolton's comments about Mr. Cohen's "complexion," to the hysterical ravings of TaJuan Stout Mitchell, the African American political community has launched a "Stop Cohen" campaign filled with the same sort of racist arguments that white candidates used to make in the bad old days. Consider this excerpt from a letter to the Memphis Commercial Appeal; "The candidate's ideology should represent the majority of residents in the district rather than the majority of the votes in an overcrowded race. Most Ninth District residents do not support same-sex marriage, the legalization of drugs, Sunday liquor sales and restricted prayer, and some citizens do not support the lottery. Most of the district's constituents are of the Christian faith and would be offended by an elected official who would vote to curtail their free expression of religion or suggest that a pastor be told not to say, 'In the name of Jesus.'" If you read that comment on it's own without knowing the author or the context, you might think it was someone in league with Jerry Falwell or Tom DeLay. But it's old fashioned fear-mongering by Councilwoman Stout Mitchell. Only Ms. Mitchell ads the touch of reminding voters that Sen. Cohen is not Christian. In fact, it will be refreshing to vote for someone who will be a genuine liberal Democrat in Washington, and not someone who tempers his votes with an ambitious eye toward national office. I am one of the Ninth's constituents Ms. Mitchell speaks of that doesn't support the lottery. Only, I just don't buy a ticket. But you go ahead, and thank you for the revenue.
This sort of inflammatory rhetoric should be insulting to thinking people of all races. If Congressman Ford wishes to be a Senator he must court the white vote, why then, should African-American politicians encourage Black people to only vote for a Black candidate? It has been a long time since the mid-seventies and Harold Ford, Sr.'s infamous "white devils" quote. I believed the election and re-election of Willie Herenton and A C Wharton showed progress on behalf of Memphis' electorate that promised to reach beyond the politics of race. It may have been more accurate to say that moderate white voters made progress by voting for African-American candidates based on their abilities. But judging from the level of vitriol coming from the Black community toward Sen. Cohen, there are still some old-time Memphis politicians, and some new ones, too, that still just don't get it.
www.cohenforcongress.com
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The Ugly American
I squirm every time I see President Jethro promenade across the world stage, but this trip that just ended was particularly painful. On his way to the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, the prospect of peace in the world's hot spots was as dire as I can remember. Over 160 people murdered on trains in Mumbai, more sectarian atrocities in Iraq, and the bludgeoning response of Israel toward the Lebanese infrastructure, and there stands Bush at a press conference in Germany talking about the pig that they have prepared for him for dinner. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but when a journalist asked him whether he was worried that Israel's military response might trigger a wider war, he said, "I thought you were going to ask me about that pig." Bush supporters seem to like his schoolboy type of humor, but I don't get it. It seems inappropriate and distasteful considering the circumstances.
Then came the press appearance with his pal Vlad "Pootie-poot" Putin. Trying to look tough, President Jethro said that "In Iraq they have freedom of the press and freedom of religion. A lot of people in our country would like to see Russia go the same way." Putin grinned like a Cheshire Cat while responding, "We certainly wouldn't want the same type of democracy they have in Iraq," to the laughter of the world press. But Chucklehead, always needing the last word had to yell out "Just wait," like a petulant fourth grader shouting back "Am not!" I guess former head of the KGB Putin isn't Bush's soul mate, after all.
After Bush blocked Russia's entrance into the World Trade Organization, the G8 Class Picture looked like a gathering of statesmen and Bush, President of the United Redneck States of America. All that was missing was the Stetson. It became more revolting when his candid chatter was captured by an open microphone. I don't object to his profanity so much as the context in which it was delivered, beginning with, "Yo, Blair!" His simplistic remarks while stuffing his face, his condescension towards the British Prime Minister, rebuking his suggestion to visit the Middle East, his James Dean adolescent body language, and his inability to have an intelligent conversation should be an embarrassment to those who remember Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton.
What is profoundly unsettling is that this third generation of an Ivy League political dynasty has absolutely no couth. His father was a worldy man, but the son seems not to have even learned basic manners. He has no curiosity about how the rest of the world lives, aside from the occasional photo-op. Why would the leader of the free world go to India and not take his wife to the Taj Mahal, even to the point of being gently chastised by his hosts who apologized to Mrs. Bush on his behalf? He spent exactly three days in China. If you're going to spend a day and a half on a plane, wouldn't you like to do a little sightseeing before you return to clearing brush at the ranch? Incurious George wants to instruct the world in democracy, yet he couldn't point out the continent of India on a map.
Now that he's safely back in the White House, 25,000 Americans are in need of evacuation from Lebanon. The governments' leasing of a cruise ship from Cypress that holds 750 people at a time is at best a Katrina response, and at worst, a catastrophe waiting to happen. I understand the ship will be escorted by Navy vessels but God help the shortsighted people who could not see the obvious danger; that if Hezbollah, and thus Iran, can hit an Israeli ship with a missile, they can hit a Cypriot Cruise ship also. And the State Department under Dr. Rice was supposed to be so much more efficient.
Tomorrow, the Senate will pass a resolution lifting a government ban on further stem cell research. The President has promised to use his first veto to assure that those unused embryonic stem cells from fertility clinics hit the dumpster rather than a Petri dish. I hope that he does. I think that will seal his reputation as "Luddite in Chief," and not even his hard core conservative base, the right-wing Evangelicals, or Fox News can sway public opinion away from the conclusion that we elected a stupid man with a stupid plan. The emperor not only has no clothes, he has no sense either. The political season begins in earnest in just a couple of weeks. Will you help stop this insanity?
Then came the press appearance with his pal Vlad "Pootie-poot" Putin. Trying to look tough, President Jethro said that "In Iraq they have freedom of the press and freedom of religion. A lot of people in our country would like to see Russia go the same way." Putin grinned like a Cheshire Cat while responding, "We certainly wouldn't want the same type of democracy they have in Iraq," to the laughter of the world press. But Chucklehead, always needing the last word had to yell out "Just wait," like a petulant fourth grader shouting back "Am not!" I guess former head of the KGB Putin isn't Bush's soul mate, after all.
After Bush blocked Russia's entrance into the World Trade Organization, the G8 Class Picture looked like a gathering of statesmen and Bush, President of the United Redneck States of America. All that was missing was the Stetson. It became more revolting when his candid chatter was captured by an open microphone. I don't object to his profanity so much as the context in which it was delivered, beginning with, "Yo, Blair!" His simplistic remarks while stuffing his face, his condescension towards the British Prime Minister, rebuking his suggestion to visit the Middle East, his James Dean adolescent body language, and his inability to have an intelligent conversation should be an embarrassment to those who remember Kennedy, Reagan, and Clinton.
What is profoundly unsettling is that this third generation of an Ivy League political dynasty has absolutely no couth. His father was a worldy man, but the son seems not to have even learned basic manners. He has no curiosity about how the rest of the world lives, aside from the occasional photo-op. Why would the leader of the free world go to India and not take his wife to the Taj Mahal, even to the point of being gently chastised by his hosts who apologized to Mrs. Bush on his behalf? He spent exactly three days in China. If you're going to spend a day and a half on a plane, wouldn't you like to do a little sightseeing before you return to clearing brush at the ranch? Incurious George wants to instruct the world in democracy, yet he couldn't point out the continent of India on a map.
Now that he's safely back in the White House, 25,000 Americans are in need of evacuation from Lebanon. The governments' leasing of a cruise ship from Cypress that holds 750 people at a time is at best a Katrina response, and at worst, a catastrophe waiting to happen. I understand the ship will be escorted by Navy vessels but God help the shortsighted people who could not see the obvious danger; that if Hezbollah, and thus Iran, can hit an Israeli ship with a missile, they can hit a Cypriot Cruise ship also. And the State Department under Dr. Rice was supposed to be so much more efficient.
Tomorrow, the Senate will pass a resolution lifting a government ban on further stem cell research. The President has promised to use his first veto to assure that those unused embryonic stem cells from fertility clinics hit the dumpster rather than a Petri dish. I hope that he does. I think that will seal his reputation as "Luddite in Chief," and not even his hard core conservative base, the right-wing Evangelicals, or Fox News can sway public opinion away from the conclusion that we elected a stupid man with a stupid plan. The emperor not only has no clothes, he has no sense either. The political season begins in earnest in just a couple of weeks. Will you help stop this insanity?
Sunday, July 16, 2006
On The Brink
In its' 58 year history, Israel has been more than capable of defending itself. In this latest spiral of violence, it is worth pointing out that the provocateurs of this action are Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors in Iran and Syria. As the violence extends deeper into Lebanon and Gaza and once again threatens the region and the world, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seems to be lashing out Bush style. The Israeli government is correct both politically and morally to punish the murderers and kidnappers of Israeli soldiers through the cross-border raids of terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza. But to declare that this was an act of war by the Lebanese government is a mistake.
To obliterate the constant menace of Hezbollah requires striking them in southern Lebanon and in South Beirut where their offices and power bases are located. This is how the Israeli army uprooted the P.L.O. from Jordan in 1971. After the P.L.O. launched assaults on Israel, King Hussein, tired of retaliatory attacks by the Israeli army, expelled Yasir Arafat and his colleagues from Jordanian territory and joined in peace efforts sponsored by the U.S. saying, "There must be peace, or war." The Lebanese government has announced the risky proposal of sending the regular army to take control of the South. After fifteen years of civil war and the occupation by Syrian troops, Lebanon's government is fragile and lacks the backing of the other Arab states. And their army may not only be outgunned by Hezbollah, it is questionable whether Lebanese soldiers would fight their countrymen who are in league with the militants. Israel would do well to remember that only last year, the Lebanese people conducted massive street demonstrations to force Syria to remove their army. Outside of Israel, this was the only popular uprising favoring democracy in the Middle East that I can remember.
Although Israel has dropped leaflets warning civilians in Lebanon to stay clear of Hezbollah's installations, their massive response plays into the hands of Iran and Syria, who want war. Every civilian death is a tool for jihadists to "prove" that Israel devalues Arab life and is a recruitment bonus for terror organizations. For Israel to bomb Lebanon's infrastructure and fuel depots punishes the wrong people and Hezbollah knows it. It offers the opportunity for jihadists to further radicalize the Lebanese and moderate Arabs in the area against any peace plan with Israel. While U.S. troops are bogged down in Iraq trying to create a democracy in the Middle East, the one successful democracy in the region is fighting on two fronts. The terrorists know they cannot defeat Israel militarily. They are hoping that Israel's response will be unfocused and indiscriminate enough to rally sympathizers to their cause and create the wider war against the West that they desire. Al Qaeda's own propaganda states, "Today London, Paris, and Madrid; tomorrow Los Angeles and Melbourne."
One thing the current crimes by Hamas and Hezbollah should lay bare is the fiction that the problem has been Israel's occupation of Arab land since the 1967 war. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip unilaterally, Hamas had the opportunity to actually govern Palestinian territory. But instead, they used it as a base from which to attack Israel with rockets and bombs. The Palestinians could have a state tomorrow in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem by recognizing Israel's sovereignty and reigning in the terrorists, but their desire to kill Jews seems to be greater than their desire to live next to the Jews. Now we know why Yasir Arafat could not deliver for his people in 1999. Had he accepted a peace agreement with Israel, he would likely have suffered the same fate as Anwar Sadat. In an early video appearance, Osama bin Laden urged jihadists to kill Americans and Jews. He never mentioned Israelis by nationality. The underlying message to Hezbollah and their Iranian sponsors is to never make peace with Israel. Their goal is not a Palestinian state that would co-exist with Israel, but one that would replace Israel. Is there any question that if Iran were to acquire the technology to produce a nuclear weapon, or a dirty bomb, they would use it on Israel?
As the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. told his Lebanese counterpart yesterday, both Israel and Lebanon will benefit from the destruction of Hezbollah on Israel's border. The Bush administration's newly discovered interest in diplomacy will not work here. The war in Iraq has cost the U.S. its' traditional roll as a fair broker of peace because of wide distrust in the Arab world. Critics who claim the war in Iraq is really to further protect Israel will have to live with the irony that the Israelis had to approach Putin and the Russians to exert any diplomatic authority over Iran. The Muslim world was already a tinderbox before George Bush set a fire in Iraq like David Koresh in Waco. Now that the Islamic reactionaries have become emboldened and the region is ablaze again, we can only hope the flames will be contained by responsible diplomacy before they engulf us all.
To obliterate the constant menace of Hezbollah requires striking them in southern Lebanon and in South Beirut where their offices and power bases are located. This is how the Israeli army uprooted the P.L.O. from Jordan in 1971. After the P.L.O. launched assaults on Israel, King Hussein, tired of retaliatory attacks by the Israeli army, expelled Yasir Arafat and his colleagues from Jordanian territory and joined in peace efforts sponsored by the U.S. saying, "There must be peace, or war." The Lebanese government has announced the risky proposal of sending the regular army to take control of the South. After fifteen years of civil war and the occupation by Syrian troops, Lebanon's government is fragile and lacks the backing of the other Arab states. And their army may not only be outgunned by Hezbollah, it is questionable whether Lebanese soldiers would fight their countrymen who are in league with the militants. Israel would do well to remember that only last year, the Lebanese people conducted massive street demonstrations to force Syria to remove their army. Outside of Israel, this was the only popular uprising favoring democracy in the Middle East that I can remember.
Although Israel has dropped leaflets warning civilians in Lebanon to stay clear of Hezbollah's installations, their massive response plays into the hands of Iran and Syria, who want war. Every civilian death is a tool for jihadists to "prove" that Israel devalues Arab life and is a recruitment bonus for terror organizations. For Israel to bomb Lebanon's infrastructure and fuel depots punishes the wrong people and Hezbollah knows it. It offers the opportunity for jihadists to further radicalize the Lebanese and moderate Arabs in the area against any peace plan with Israel. While U.S. troops are bogged down in Iraq trying to create a democracy in the Middle East, the one successful democracy in the region is fighting on two fronts. The terrorists know they cannot defeat Israel militarily. They are hoping that Israel's response will be unfocused and indiscriminate enough to rally sympathizers to their cause and create the wider war against the West that they desire. Al Qaeda's own propaganda states, "Today London, Paris, and Madrid; tomorrow Los Angeles and Melbourne."
One thing the current crimes by Hamas and Hezbollah should lay bare is the fiction that the problem has been Israel's occupation of Arab land since the 1967 war. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip unilaterally, Hamas had the opportunity to actually govern Palestinian territory. But instead, they used it as a base from which to attack Israel with rockets and bombs. The Palestinians could have a state tomorrow in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem by recognizing Israel's sovereignty and reigning in the terrorists, but their desire to kill Jews seems to be greater than their desire to live next to the Jews. Now we know why Yasir Arafat could not deliver for his people in 1999. Had he accepted a peace agreement with Israel, he would likely have suffered the same fate as Anwar Sadat. In an early video appearance, Osama bin Laden urged jihadists to kill Americans and Jews. He never mentioned Israelis by nationality. The underlying message to Hezbollah and their Iranian sponsors is to never make peace with Israel. Their goal is not a Palestinian state that would co-exist with Israel, but one that would replace Israel. Is there any question that if Iran were to acquire the technology to produce a nuclear weapon, or a dirty bomb, they would use it on Israel?
As the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. told his Lebanese counterpart yesterday, both Israel and Lebanon will benefit from the destruction of Hezbollah on Israel's border. The Bush administration's newly discovered interest in diplomacy will not work here. The war in Iraq has cost the U.S. its' traditional roll as a fair broker of peace because of wide distrust in the Arab world. Critics who claim the war in Iraq is really to further protect Israel will have to live with the irony that the Israelis had to approach Putin and the Russians to exert any diplomatic authority over Iran. The Muslim world was already a tinderbox before George Bush set a fire in Iraq like David Koresh in Waco. Now that the Islamic reactionaries have become emboldened and the region is ablaze again, we can only hope the flames will be contained by responsible diplomacy before they engulf us all.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Kill the Messenger
Other Presidents have lashed out at the press when it suited their purposes. Jack Kennedy famously called and cancelled his subscription to the New York Herald Tribune and was rightly chastised for it by Richard Nixon who later tried to cancel the entire New York Times for publishing the Pentagon Papers. Nixon unleashed the criminal Spiro Agnew on the press and they ended up doing a jig on his political grave. So now the Bush leaguers want to take on the New York Times with righteous indignation about the newspaper revealing yet another secret executive power grab of questionable legality. Taking on the press is fair enough, but there should be one rule. Before you start criticizing a newspaper, you must first have to read it.
The Presidents red-faced tirade about the Times revealing the government's secret sifting through Americans' private bank records, calling it a disgrace that gave aid and comfort to the enemy was transparently rehearsed. Cheney's speech was just plain eerie. Cheney must be wondering who they are going to cast in his role in the movie. Is Donald Pleasance dead? Then Anthony Hopkins it is. "Hello Clarice." What took them two days to work up sufficient rage about the story? The fact that they used the Times like they were Jeff Gannon/Gunterts for hire to plant favorable stories about their rogue schemes, then allow one of their reporters to twist slowly in the wind, and the Times has the gall to turn on them? Every day, someone, somewhere reveals another of this regime's secret dealings and it is frightening.
This photo-op, propaganda saturated administration is like a bad dream that just won't quit. Look at these guys. The speaker is Denny Hastert, the majority leader is Bumbling Bill Frist, the political guru is Karl Rove, and the President is George By-Damn Dubya Bush. They are like the Student Government at a bad community college. The only thing they are capable of doing is choosing the band to play on the Washington mall this fourth of July. I'm certain it won't be the Dixie Chicks. I'd like to see them get Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood, Hank, Jr., and Charlie Daniels too, for a grand old Texas style celebration of xenophobia and ignorance. And nobody better burn a flag, Hoss, even though that jingoistic screed went down in flames in the Senate. Here's a solution to the flag burning amendment. Pass a law that says real American flags must be made of non-flammable material. They did it for children's' pajamas. Then anytime someone burned a flag, you would know it wasn't an "official" flag.
If the carnage in Iraq continues at the current pace, we'll need all the flags we can get to fold up for our servicemen's families. The Senate Republicans scorned the Democrats as cowards and traitors for suggesting a timetable for troop withdrawal, then General Casey announces just such a plan. I'll take my troop withdrawals any way I can get them, but it seems particularly sinister to release a token group of forces from their grinding duties just in time for the fall election. How cruel it must feel to wake up in a war zone knowing that you just missed a politician's required quota of troops to go home. If Cheney turns up with Bin Laden's head on a pike in time for the next presidential election, I won't be surprised. Everything the Bush leaguers do is for political effect.
This is the result of an electorate so distracted and delusional they will elect a President according to reality television rules. Outlast, out wit, out survive. This President came to office with no real vision for the nation, he just hired his Daddy's old administration, and they had a metaphoric hard-on for Saddam Hussein. The Bush Posse seized power after being appointed by the Supreme Court, with no mandate, and proceeded to operate government according to their own narrow ideology. They believe that government functions to reward your friends and punish your enemies, like the Baathist Regime. But for them to use the worst attack ever suffered on this soil to sell the American people a bill of goods including mushroom clouds, enrichment of uranium, and biochemical weapons factories on wheels, is beyond cynical. It is evil.
I still hope for some miracle of diplomacy to bring a political solution to the Iraqi insurgency. The hard figures require a miracle to even begin to reconcile the irreparable damage that the Bush government has done in our name. Beyond the 20,000 American casualties, the journalists kidnapped and killed, the beheadings, and the other atrocities, there is one stark figure that screams out; 50,000 dead Iraqi civilians whose only crime was being born. That's going to take more diplomacy to resolve than Karen Hughes can provide. I want every cabinet officer of this administration to remain hale and healthy. I want President Shemp to mountain bike, jog, and clear some brush. He'll need all his stamina for his trial in the Senate next year. And Daddy's Boys are ripe for an appearance at a war crimes tribunal in the Hague. It would be fitting for "Old Europe" to decide what punishment befits new world liars and warmongers.
The Presidents red-faced tirade about the Times revealing the government's secret sifting through Americans' private bank records, calling it a disgrace that gave aid and comfort to the enemy was transparently rehearsed. Cheney's speech was just plain eerie. Cheney must be wondering who they are going to cast in his role in the movie. Is Donald Pleasance dead? Then Anthony Hopkins it is. "Hello Clarice." What took them two days to work up sufficient rage about the story? The fact that they used the Times like they were Jeff Gannon/Gunterts for hire to plant favorable stories about their rogue schemes, then allow one of their reporters to twist slowly in the wind, and the Times has the gall to turn on them? Every day, someone, somewhere reveals another of this regime's secret dealings and it is frightening.
This photo-op, propaganda saturated administration is like a bad dream that just won't quit. Look at these guys. The speaker is Denny Hastert, the majority leader is Bumbling Bill Frist, the political guru is Karl Rove, and the President is George By-Damn Dubya Bush. They are like the Student Government at a bad community college. The only thing they are capable of doing is choosing the band to play on the Washington mall this fourth of July. I'm certain it won't be the Dixie Chicks. I'd like to see them get Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood, Hank, Jr., and Charlie Daniels too, for a grand old Texas style celebration of xenophobia and ignorance. And nobody better burn a flag, Hoss, even though that jingoistic screed went down in flames in the Senate. Here's a solution to the flag burning amendment. Pass a law that says real American flags must be made of non-flammable material. They did it for children's' pajamas. Then anytime someone burned a flag, you would know it wasn't an "official" flag.
If the carnage in Iraq continues at the current pace, we'll need all the flags we can get to fold up for our servicemen's families. The Senate Republicans scorned the Democrats as cowards and traitors for suggesting a timetable for troop withdrawal, then General Casey announces just such a plan. I'll take my troop withdrawals any way I can get them, but it seems particularly sinister to release a token group of forces from their grinding duties just in time for the fall election. How cruel it must feel to wake up in a war zone knowing that you just missed a politician's required quota of troops to go home. If Cheney turns up with Bin Laden's head on a pike in time for the next presidential election, I won't be surprised. Everything the Bush leaguers do is for political effect.
This is the result of an electorate so distracted and delusional they will elect a President according to reality television rules. Outlast, out wit, out survive. This President came to office with no real vision for the nation, he just hired his Daddy's old administration, and they had a metaphoric hard-on for Saddam Hussein. The Bush Posse seized power after being appointed by the Supreme Court, with no mandate, and proceeded to operate government according to their own narrow ideology. They believe that government functions to reward your friends and punish your enemies, like the Baathist Regime. But for them to use the worst attack ever suffered on this soil to sell the American people a bill of goods including mushroom clouds, enrichment of uranium, and biochemical weapons factories on wheels, is beyond cynical. It is evil.
I still hope for some miracle of diplomacy to bring a political solution to the Iraqi insurgency. The hard figures require a miracle to even begin to reconcile the irreparable damage that the Bush government has done in our name. Beyond the 20,000 American casualties, the journalists kidnapped and killed, the beheadings, and the other atrocities, there is one stark figure that screams out; 50,000 dead Iraqi civilians whose only crime was being born. That's going to take more diplomacy to resolve than Karen Hughes can provide. I want every cabinet officer of this administration to remain hale and healthy. I want President Shemp to mountain bike, jog, and clear some brush. He'll need all his stamina for his trial in the Senate next year. And Daddy's Boys are ripe for an appearance at a war crimes tribunal in the Hague. It would be fitting for "Old Europe" to decide what punishment befits new world liars and warmongers.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Queer Baiting
Let's all go Bill Fristing down memory lane. For the next three weeks, while our democracy is challenged from all sides and both borders, our eminent Senator/Doctor has determined the schedule for topics of debate in the Senate; a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a bill, approved by the ruthlessly ambitious Hillary Clinton, criminalizing flag burning, and the repeal of the estate tax, also known in the Orwellian world of Karl Rove as the "death tax." Does Frist know how to do the bidding of his masters, or what? If this guy thinks he's going to be President, he is even more deluded than I imagined.
Frist has not only been a failure as an effective representative, he has failed himself as a human being. As a surgeon, Frist took the Hippocratic Oath, "First, Do No Harm." As a Senator, he took the Hypocrite's Oath, "First, do no harm to conservative, wealthy Republicans." Here is a scion from a family who's fortune comes from the broken and derelict health management industry, who gave up a career as a healer to become one of the most mean-spirited, lock-step lackeys in government. He was, and is, a political novice who never held elected office, spending millions in both personal and public dollars to win a Senate seat from a conscientious legislator like Jim Sasser to fuel his misguided fantasy of being President of the United States. It will never happen.
The utter collapse of the "gay marriage amendment" should be an embarrassment for conservatives enlightened enough to tell when they are being used like a strap-on, yet Frist promises to bring the issue back up in a matter of months. It's ironic that this hate screed against homosexuality is called, "energizing your base," but let's be honest. Homosexuality is the tip of the iceberg for this gang of moral absolutists. It is sexuality itself that makes them uneasy. The "faith-based conservatives" are opposed to any sort of sexuality beyond the bonds of matrimony, and even then, the preferred manner is under the covers and in the dark and never in an upright position, lest they be accused of dancing. There is even a lunatic fringe that believe a "homonucleus" exists in every sperm cell. Is it that far of a stretch to imagine an attempt to pass a bill criminalizing Onanism? After all, if a little man lives in each sperm cell, then masturbation must surely lead to serial murder.
And this Doctor, like Mengele, will do anything to further his party's cause, even if it means misdiagnosing a brain dead woman by videotape as a viable member of society. This man of medicine was one of the architects of the pharmaceutical friendly Plan B for Medicare. Yet he doesn't want the Plan B contraceptive to be readily available for women, even though the FDA finds no reason why it should not. Nor does he favor sex education, legal and safe abortion procedures, universal health care, or same sex partnerships, even though the retiring Archbishop of Chicago said he could "live with the concept of civil unions." In this devastating age of AIDS, wouldn't you expect a doctor to see the value of committed relationships to our society regardless of the genders involved? But Frist prefers the "slippery slope" argument that gay and lesbian unions will naturally lead to inter-species unions.
So let's stop playing semantics. Stop persecuting people for the way they were born into this world and we'll reach a compromise. Conservative Christians can call their bonds "marriage," and same gender partnerships can call their bonds "civil unions." It's not the label, but the bonds that matter. Grant the same rights to all and cease this cruel stigmatization of gays and lesbians as evil. The evil is in the persecution. I understand the biblical reference of man not "lying with a man as a woman." Does that mean lesbianism passes muster, or was that covered by something Saint Paul said to the Corinthians?
There are thousands of Holy Scriptures in this world. Hinduism teaches that every soul is bestowed with a spark of life by it's Creator that is the equal to every other soul. By persecuting someone for their transient sexual nature in this corporal realm is a sacrilege against one of the world's major faiths. To intentionally harm anyone is an affront to God. And need we be reminded of the words of two other world religions; "Love Ye One Another," and "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself." The oldest faiths teach service to all mankind as akin to being service to God. This hysterical tormenting of individuals that mean no harm to you, or your marriage, is evil, plain and simple.
When Frist brings up the "death tax" he isn't talking about you. This is in the interests of families that have amassed great wealth and wish to pass it along to their heirs "en toto," without feeling a need to chop anyone's estate up to feed the needy. This only exacerbates the already disparate chasm between the rich and the poor, and leads to the sort of class society that brought about the French and British Revolutions. Don't be concerned. Frist and friends are ready to trickle down on you. As for Frist's bosses in the Party of Hate, this attempt to create discriminatory law is a violation of that oath that promises to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
I would suggest that Bill Frist forget about politics and return to the nobility of his former profession. I understand that he was an excellent surgeon. What a sin to trade healing men's hearts to hurting men's souls. And as for Frist's pandering to the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party to curry favor for his intended run for the nation's highest office, he would do better to ask them to pray for his soul. In terms of Eastern religion, he has a lot of bad karma to resolve.
Frist has not only been a failure as an effective representative, he has failed himself as a human being. As a surgeon, Frist took the Hippocratic Oath, "First, Do No Harm." As a Senator, he took the Hypocrite's Oath, "First, do no harm to conservative, wealthy Republicans." Here is a scion from a family who's fortune comes from the broken and derelict health management industry, who gave up a career as a healer to become one of the most mean-spirited, lock-step lackeys in government. He was, and is, a political novice who never held elected office, spending millions in both personal and public dollars to win a Senate seat from a conscientious legislator like Jim Sasser to fuel his misguided fantasy of being President of the United States. It will never happen.
The utter collapse of the "gay marriage amendment" should be an embarrassment for conservatives enlightened enough to tell when they are being used like a strap-on, yet Frist promises to bring the issue back up in a matter of months. It's ironic that this hate screed against homosexuality is called, "energizing your base," but let's be honest. Homosexuality is the tip of the iceberg for this gang of moral absolutists. It is sexuality itself that makes them uneasy. The "faith-based conservatives" are opposed to any sort of sexuality beyond the bonds of matrimony, and even then, the preferred manner is under the covers and in the dark and never in an upright position, lest they be accused of dancing. There is even a lunatic fringe that believe a "homonucleus" exists in every sperm cell. Is it that far of a stretch to imagine an attempt to pass a bill criminalizing Onanism? After all, if a little man lives in each sperm cell, then masturbation must surely lead to serial murder.
And this Doctor, like Mengele, will do anything to further his party's cause, even if it means misdiagnosing a brain dead woman by videotape as a viable member of society. This man of medicine was one of the architects of the pharmaceutical friendly Plan B for Medicare. Yet he doesn't want the Plan B contraceptive to be readily available for women, even though the FDA finds no reason why it should not. Nor does he favor sex education, legal and safe abortion procedures, universal health care, or same sex partnerships, even though the retiring Archbishop of Chicago said he could "live with the concept of civil unions." In this devastating age of AIDS, wouldn't you expect a doctor to see the value of committed relationships to our society regardless of the genders involved? But Frist prefers the "slippery slope" argument that gay and lesbian unions will naturally lead to inter-species unions.
So let's stop playing semantics. Stop persecuting people for the way they were born into this world and we'll reach a compromise. Conservative Christians can call their bonds "marriage," and same gender partnerships can call their bonds "civil unions." It's not the label, but the bonds that matter. Grant the same rights to all and cease this cruel stigmatization of gays and lesbians as evil. The evil is in the persecution. I understand the biblical reference of man not "lying with a man as a woman." Does that mean lesbianism passes muster, or was that covered by something Saint Paul said to the Corinthians?
There are thousands of Holy Scriptures in this world. Hinduism teaches that every soul is bestowed with a spark of life by it's Creator that is the equal to every other soul. By persecuting someone for their transient sexual nature in this corporal realm is a sacrilege against one of the world's major faiths. To intentionally harm anyone is an affront to God. And need we be reminded of the words of two other world religions; "Love Ye One Another," and "Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself." The oldest faiths teach service to all mankind as akin to being service to God. This hysterical tormenting of individuals that mean no harm to you, or your marriage, is evil, plain and simple.
When Frist brings up the "death tax" he isn't talking about you. This is in the interests of families that have amassed great wealth and wish to pass it along to their heirs "en toto," without feeling a need to chop anyone's estate up to feed the needy. This only exacerbates the already disparate chasm between the rich and the poor, and leads to the sort of class society that brought about the French and British Revolutions. Don't be concerned. Frist and friends are ready to trickle down on you. As for Frist's bosses in the Party of Hate, this attempt to create discriminatory law is a violation of that oath that promises to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
I would suggest that Bill Frist forget about politics and return to the nobility of his former profession. I understand that he was an excellent surgeon. What a sin to trade healing men's hearts to hurting men's souls. And as for Frist's pandering to the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican party to curry favor for his intended run for the nation's highest office, he would do better to ask them to pray for his soul. In terms of Eastern religion, he has a lot of bad karma to resolve.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Collateral Damage
"Within minutes of their approach, a mine was tripped, and the men of Bravo Company heard screams. One was killed and four GIs were seriously wounded... Frustration reached a fever pitch...(It) was a confluence of disasters- inexperienced line officers, edgy troops, higher ups who covered up and eventually got off scot-free, inept intelligence..and an endemic, pervasive feeling in the military that wasting 'mere gooks' was of no great consequence."
Myra MacPherson; "Long Time Passing; Vietnam and the Haunted Generation"
All people have a right to be shocked about the emerging story of the murder of Iraqi civilians at Haditha, but for the Vietnam generation it is certainly no surprise. We have been through all this before. The massacre of 400 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968 came to be the epiphanous moment when we realized that in times of war, the U.S. is not always on the side of democracy and justice and that in dehumanizing conditions, our forces, too, are capable of evil. The similarities between the atrocities at My Lai and those at Haditha are uncanny and differ only in the magnitude and terrain in which the events took place.
"War changes men's natures. The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is these barbarous acts are committed by normal men in abnormal situations."
Soldiers' Defense Attorney; "Breaker Morant"
The apologists for the Bush government have been arguing vociferously that we should not confuse Iraq with Vietnam, when in fact, Iraq is becoming exactly like Vietnam except the blood is absorbed by the desert rather than the jungle. The U.S. forces, whose mission in Iraq is now unclear, are fighting an enemy without uniform that sets land mines by night and blends back into the population by day. We are supporting a fragile government without popular support and our soldiers are unable to tell friend from foe because of the indigenous nature of the insurgency. The official cover-up of My Lai lasted a year; Haditha lasted seven months. This incident, and the others under investigation, are bound to happen when you demonize the enemy and devalue the lives under your subjugation.
"You had the whole chain of command trying to keep My Lai quiet. In any war where you lose so much, soldiers will want revenge. Anytime you have a losing situation, you've got a potential My Lai. That is when it is up to the commander to set the tone, to halt it."
General Eugene "Mike" Lynch, who fought in WWII, was an aide to General Matthew Ridgeway in Korea, and served in Vietnam.
Ibid. MacPherson
Donald Rumsfeld might have foreseen this since he was a Navy pilot. But the rest of the lot; Cheney, Rove, Rice, and especially Bush, have known not war, nor protest, nor conscientious objection or personal loss. Yet they pursue an ideological and political war with other people's children and misuse those same courageous forces for their own ends. Bush rightly claims that the individuals who participated in this atrocity will be punished, but the lessons of Vietnam tell us that responsibility goes beyond the soldier who's finger was on the trigger. The only man convicted for the My Lai massacre was Lt. William "Rusty" Calley, who served about half of his seven year sentence confined to his own quarters until a chorus of hawks and conservatives persuaded a pardon out of Richard Nixon. This investigation needs to go straight up the chain of command and place the culpability with the people who put our young men and women in this untenable position.
So, how should one feel upon hearing that this type of terrible event has happened again? After humiliation that this was done in my name, I feel sadness. I am saddened for the innocent Iraqi people who were killed and their families left to grieve them. I am saddened that our excellent troops working in impossible conditions will be tarred with the despicable acts of cruelty of a few. I am saddened for the Reservists and Guardsmen who joined the military to earn money for college or for their families, and are now on their second and third tours because our Commander in Chief doesn't have the luxury of a military draft. And I am sad for this country , involved in a war with seemingly no end, led by inexperienced and intractable "yes men" for geopolitical purposes. Surely pressure must now be applied to bring this horror to an end, because the saddest thing of all is that it never had to happen.
I have mentioned Robert McNamara's book, "In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam," before. It was published in 1995. Rumsfeld, the neocons, and co-members of the Project for the New American Century were so certain in their militaristic theories that they did not even ask the advice of Bush the Smarter. So why should they consider consulting with the architect of our nation's most tragic foreign misadventure? Perhaps because McNamara, unlike Rumsfeld, assumes responsibility for his mistakes and urges others to learn from them. With Rummy, "stuff happens."
McNamara enumerates several "Lessons of Vietnam" that were the "major causes for our disaster." Some of the cogent ones are, "We misjudged then, as we have since, the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries, and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions."; "We viewed the people and their leaders in terms of our own experience. We saw in them a thirst for, and a determination to fight for, freedom and democracy. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country."; "We failed then, as we have since, to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment...We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture."; "We did not realize that our leaders are not omniscient. Where our own security is not directly at stake, our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interests should be put to the test in open discussions in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose."; and most prescient, "We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action, other than in response to direct threats to our own security, should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces fully supported by the international community." In conclusion, McNamara stated that in future "limited" wars, that "our leaders, and our people, must be prepared to cut our losses and withdraw if it appears our limited objectives cannot be achieved at acceptable risks and costs."
The risks and costs of this war are now beyond unacceptable. Only real investigations into the selling of this war can make clear how we got to this terrible place. And these investigations can only come about by individual and personal determination to create a change in the political dynamic of the United States. If we attempt to punish a handful of soldiers while the administration and higher-ups in the military washes theirs, we will miss this lesson as well, and can expect a My Lai or a Haditha again and again.
"We should strive to do things in (Ghandi's) spirit. Not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil."
Albert Einstein
Myra MacPherson; "Long Time Passing; Vietnam and the Haunted Generation"
All people have a right to be shocked about the emerging story of the murder of Iraqi civilians at Haditha, but for the Vietnam generation it is certainly no surprise. We have been through all this before. The massacre of 400 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968 came to be the epiphanous moment when we realized that in times of war, the U.S. is not always on the side of democracy and justice and that in dehumanizing conditions, our forces, too, are capable of evil. The similarities between the atrocities at My Lai and those at Haditha are uncanny and differ only in the magnitude and terrain in which the events took place.
"War changes men's natures. The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is these barbarous acts are committed by normal men in abnormal situations."
Soldiers' Defense Attorney; "Breaker Morant"
The apologists for the Bush government have been arguing vociferously that we should not confuse Iraq with Vietnam, when in fact, Iraq is becoming exactly like Vietnam except the blood is absorbed by the desert rather than the jungle. The U.S. forces, whose mission in Iraq is now unclear, are fighting an enemy without uniform that sets land mines by night and blends back into the population by day. We are supporting a fragile government without popular support and our soldiers are unable to tell friend from foe because of the indigenous nature of the insurgency. The official cover-up of My Lai lasted a year; Haditha lasted seven months. This incident, and the others under investigation, are bound to happen when you demonize the enemy and devalue the lives under your subjugation.
"You had the whole chain of command trying to keep My Lai quiet. In any war where you lose so much, soldiers will want revenge. Anytime you have a losing situation, you've got a potential My Lai. That is when it is up to the commander to set the tone, to halt it."
General Eugene "Mike" Lynch, who fought in WWII, was an aide to General Matthew Ridgeway in Korea, and served in Vietnam.
Ibid. MacPherson
Donald Rumsfeld might have foreseen this since he was a Navy pilot. But the rest of the lot; Cheney, Rove, Rice, and especially Bush, have known not war, nor protest, nor conscientious objection or personal loss. Yet they pursue an ideological and political war with other people's children and misuse those same courageous forces for their own ends. Bush rightly claims that the individuals who participated in this atrocity will be punished, but the lessons of Vietnam tell us that responsibility goes beyond the soldier who's finger was on the trigger. The only man convicted for the My Lai massacre was Lt. William "Rusty" Calley, who served about half of his seven year sentence confined to his own quarters until a chorus of hawks and conservatives persuaded a pardon out of Richard Nixon. This investigation needs to go straight up the chain of command and place the culpability with the people who put our young men and women in this untenable position.
So, how should one feel upon hearing that this type of terrible event has happened again? After humiliation that this was done in my name, I feel sadness. I am saddened for the innocent Iraqi people who were killed and their families left to grieve them. I am saddened that our excellent troops working in impossible conditions will be tarred with the despicable acts of cruelty of a few. I am saddened for the Reservists and Guardsmen who joined the military to earn money for college or for their families, and are now on their second and third tours because our Commander in Chief doesn't have the luxury of a military draft. And I am sad for this country , involved in a war with seemingly no end, led by inexperienced and intractable "yes men" for geopolitical purposes. Surely pressure must now be applied to bring this horror to an end, because the saddest thing of all is that it never had to happen.
I have mentioned Robert McNamara's book, "In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam," before. It was published in 1995. Rumsfeld, the neocons, and co-members of the Project for the New American Century were so certain in their militaristic theories that they did not even ask the advice of Bush the Smarter. So why should they consider consulting with the architect of our nation's most tragic foreign misadventure? Perhaps because McNamara, unlike Rumsfeld, assumes responsibility for his mistakes and urges others to learn from them. With Rummy, "stuff happens."
McNamara enumerates several "Lessons of Vietnam" that were the "major causes for our disaster." Some of the cogent ones are, "We misjudged then, as we have since, the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries, and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions."; "We viewed the people and their leaders in terms of our own experience. We saw in them a thirst for, and a determination to fight for, freedom and democracy. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country."; "We failed then, as we have since, to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment...We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture."; "We did not realize that our leaders are not omniscient. Where our own security is not directly at stake, our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interests should be put to the test in open discussions in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose."; and most prescient, "We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action, other than in response to direct threats to our own security, should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces fully supported by the international community." In conclusion, McNamara stated that in future "limited" wars, that "our leaders, and our people, must be prepared to cut our losses and withdraw if it appears our limited objectives cannot be achieved at acceptable risks and costs."
The risks and costs of this war are now beyond unacceptable. Only real investigations into the selling of this war can make clear how we got to this terrible place. And these investigations can only come about by individual and personal determination to create a change in the political dynamic of the United States. If we attempt to punish a handful of soldiers while the administration and higher-ups in the military washes theirs, we will miss this lesson as well, and can expect a My Lai or a Haditha again and again.
"We should strive to do things in (Ghandi's) spirit. Not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil."
Albert Einstein
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Goodbye Humvee
On this auspicious occasion that General Motors announced it will no longer produce the Hummer I for public consumption, I would like to take a moment to bid farewell to the worst, most wasteful, quasi fascist automotive fad to ever come down the road. In this monkey see culture, Arnold buys a fleet of Hummers and suddenly they are on the streets of your city. Imagining the arrogance it takes to drive one of these garish vehicles, I tried never to confront one of the owners personally to avoid bloodshed, probably mine. But I had to express my outrage somehow and ordered a package of fake parking tickets from an online prank company. They look very much like a government regulated citation and say "Violation, $100.00 Fine." Then they give you a list of offenses that you can check off. For the Hummer I usually checked the boxes next to "Driving a Hunk of Crap," and "Mentally Handicapped Driver," then put them under the wiper and slunk into the night with silent satisfaction. In fact, it felt so good, I started to put them on some of these Suburban Assault Vehicles. Maybe I gave one to you.A Disclaimer: I am the co-owner of a red Ford Explorer that I inherited in my wife's divorce from her previous husband. It was either that or a pick-up truck. But it's paid for and we will probably drive it until the wheels fall off. But if I had my druthers, I'd trade it in for one of those sleek Japanese sedans. A solid and low highway bullet that needs minimal maintenance and has a tight turning ratio and responds to your urgings. That's the same symbolism the auto industry used to sell the SUV. The populace sees O.J. fleeing the police in a white Bronco, and suddenly our streets are filled with mammoth, gasoline swilling boxes of steel and chrome that obliterate all trace of the station wagon, which at least you could see over and around. Advertising emphasizes the security, but tests show that a 7000 pound vehicle rolls more easily than a 3000 pound vehicle. I ask my friends why they buy them and the answer is always the same; The Kids! I never had the obligation to take the children to soccer practice and I know it takes some space. But when I am in traffic, nine times out of ten the SUV contains only the driver, usually a woman and more often than not, on the phone. I am not attempting to be sexist. That's just how it is. Try the experiment yourself. No matter what time of day or night, the half hour of 3:00 to 3:30 aside, while you sit at a light, observe the SUV. If ten pass, they usually contain ten people.
Then there is always the response, "It's my money. I earned it and I can do damned well what I want with it." All these sentiments are undeniably true. But living in a civil society sometimes requires you to be cognizant of those around you. It requires more than ostentation, of doing things merely because you can. Civility is based on empathy, of imagining the consequences of your actions on others. Back in the day when our hair was long and our eyes were bright, I drove a Volkswagen mini-van until I realized what an enormous mistake I made in acquiring it. I couldn't park it or maneuver it, or heat it for that matter, but for a while it gave my self esteem a boost to be sitting up there high looking down on the other drivers. Now that it costs $80.00 to fill the tank, there are less expensive thrills. There will always be those who operate these vehicles regardless of the price of gas and the meager mileage because they wish to prove that they are able to do whatever they want. For anyone with a conscience, the game should be about over.
There is no real reason for optimism according to a poll run by Kelley Blue Book, (KBB.com). According to a survey that asked what a customer would be willing to sacrifice to achieve five more miles per gallon, only 27% were willing to step down in the size of their vehicle. And an additional 27% said that they were willing to sacrifice nothing. And every day the streets are more clogged, manners are non-existent, and the air is fouled. I used to love to drive. I hate it now. I have passed up opportunities to be with friends and family merely because I wanted to avoid the rage that encompasses me from here to there. It wasn't always this way.
I also once truly believed that by the turn of the century, we would have perfected the electric car. And instead of filling stations, there would be charging stations all up and down the highway. And you could zip along cleanly and quietly and drive into the heart of the city and still be able to breathe clean air and see the sun. Our energy dependence would be over and we could be about the business of cleaning up some of the century of automotive mess we've made. But, on the good side, I guess we're not going to Mars anymore. A good start would be to cease electing to public office those who feel obligated to dole out favors to Big Oil.
Jimmy Carter tried to tell us. We were too weary of the stage managed fireplaces and cardigan sweaters to remember the first campaign promise Carter made, "I will never lie to you." And he didn't. Considering that Carter was two helicopters short of being a national hero, the truth might have cost him the election. Carter's warnings about our energy dependence created a shift to more efficient cars and created an atmosphere for Saturn to begin. Too bad they made lousy cars, but it was the right direction. We need to right our course again and send a message to Detroit that the day of the family monster truck is over. Now that the kids are teenagers, maybe it's time to consider taking up less space on the road. A killer sound system always sounds better in a compacted space and increased fuel efficiency will drive down the price of gas. And imagine being able to park again. Until then, I need a ride.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The Real World
And here I sit so patiently/Waiting to find out what price/You have to pay to get out of/Going through all these things twice.
Bob Dylan, "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again"
Now that everyone I see, hear, or talk to is outraged, furious, or frustrated, I would like to pose a question. Who could have imagined that electing a political novice as president, a Texas one and a half term governor who was incompetent and unprepared for the job, would have turned out so badly? I couldn't. I thought President Jethro would be a caretaker who would try to reverse the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson, at worst. When Dubya made his speech to the joint session of Congress after the attacks of 9/11, I not only thought it was a great speech, I thought it was one of the best speeches I had ever heard. But Dubya's posse had a chip on their collective shoulders from the unfinished business of Bush the Smarter in Iraq. They rolled an amiable dunce into believing he was Charlemagne. Perhaps Secretary Rumsfeld should have read Robert McNamara's book, "In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." Does that say it plainly enough?
Most frustrating is the mirror image of the war in Iraq with the war in Vietnam. Out of the whole bunch, only Colin Powell seemed sobered by that war and learned its painful lessons. The tag-team of Rummy/Cheney came aboard during the Ford administration after the war had ended. President Jethro was partying hardy and the neocons who participated in planning their war fantasy in Iraq never got a whiff of gunpowder. Neither did a lot of people who's lives were torn asunder by arrogant politicians who refused to admit their errors. But this regime never participated in the protests but, rather, had contempt for the protesters who they felt aided the enemy. History has disproven this lie as history will reveal the current lies. The people who are now shouting the loudest about accountability for the warmongerers are those same people who helped drag the Vietnam War to its inevitable conclusion through outrage and protest. They are attempting to keep up the pressure to end our presence in Iraq quickly, before the body count is to ghastly to conceive. The rage is the result of most 60s protesters believing they would never have had to experience such a tragedy again.
But the Vietraq comparisons will be the same at the end as they were at the beginning. Here is how I know. The turning point in the Nixon administration's intransigence began when the soldiers who fought came home and founded the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and marched on Washington. That was John Kerry's finest hour, unfortunately. Two weeks ago in New York there was a protest march attended by 300,000 people and it was led by soldiers disillusioned by their tour of duty in Iraq. You would think a third of a million people in the street would be banner headlines and leading news stories on the networks, but the corporate press was too busy covering the phony "crisis" in illegal immigration. This Rovian scheme to make illegals into felons even fooled the immigrants. Their turnout for amnesty was the result of the fear of being criminalized for existing, but it overshadowed the war protests.
Unprecedented, however, is this revolt of the retired generals and the mutiny at the CIA over the very real possibility that the Bush regime is going to bomb Iran. A great many people feel we have a score to settle with Iran over the humiliation of the hostage crisis during the Carter administration. Most don't know that in 1953, the CIA and the British Secret Service arranged and executed a coup to overthrow the democratically elected President of Iran, Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, because he would not allow foreign interference in Iran's oil industry. Instead, our government re-instated the Shah, who's brutal secret police terrorized the citizenry until the Iranian revolution of the 1970s. Our government created the environment for the mullahs who now rule Iran to come into power. These are the unlearned lessons of intervention and intrigue. Was that those chickens I heard coming home to roost? I just hope we can impeach President Jethro before he starts World War III.
On this, the cusp of Karl Rove's indictment for perjury, and the eve of a breaking corruption scandal that will make Watergate look like Travelgate, it's good to reflect on the abuses of power that led to Richard Nixon's impeachment. No leader since Nixon has been more deserving of impeachment than President Jethro, maybe since Andrew Johnson, who botched Reconstruction. This President, however, if impeached and put on trial in the Senate will not only be removed from office, he will be sent to jail or The Hague, along with his fellow travelers who have caused so much misery and instability in the world.
We cannot afford to allow another three years to pass without holding the offenders accountable. The hapless and spineless Democrats are no lead pipe cinch to win back the House because they are busy pandering to the cult of personality that elected Bush. The only politician other than Russ Feingold who has been consistently anti-war and vocal in his denouncement of this cynical cabal has been Al Gore. If one potential freshman Congressman or Senator would run for office on the promise of initiating real investigations with subpoena power into this regime's deceptions, that would be sufficient reason to vote for them. The only political progressive with those kind of guts plays a funny conservative on TV with the courage to risk public condemnation in order to tell the truth.
Mealymouth Republican candidate for president George Allen of Virginia recently said, "We need people like Tony Snow, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh to speak out. They know what's going on in the real world." That is akin to the Democrats urging Courtney Love to be more outspoken. While Limbaugh was swimming in a sea of Oxycontin, in the real world a local home moving business has to drastically raise prices to put gas in their trucks. In the real world, a round trip from Memphis to Nashville in an SUV costs nearly as much as an airline ticket. In the real world, if you own stock in Exxon you're doing fine, but if you need Exxon to get to work, you're in trouble. And ultimately, in the real world, this president is not "The Decider," you are! It is past time that we should remember that.
Bob Dylan, "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again"
Now that everyone I see, hear, or talk to is outraged, furious, or frustrated, I would like to pose a question. Who could have imagined that electing a political novice as president, a Texas one and a half term governor who was incompetent and unprepared for the job, would have turned out so badly? I couldn't. I thought President Jethro would be a caretaker who would try to reverse the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson, at worst. When Dubya made his speech to the joint session of Congress after the attacks of 9/11, I not only thought it was a great speech, I thought it was one of the best speeches I had ever heard. But Dubya's posse had a chip on their collective shoulders from the unfinished business of Bush the Smarter in Iraq. They rolled an amiable dunce into believing he was Charlemagne. Perhaps Secretary Rumsfeld should have read Robert McNamara's book, "In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." Does that say it plainly enough?
Most frustrating is the mirror image of the war in Iraq with the war in Vietnam. Out of the whole bunch, only Colin Powell seemed sobered by that war and learned its painful lessons. The tag-team of Rummy/Cheney came aboard during the Ford administration after the war had ended. President Jethro was partying hardy and the neocons who participated in planning their war fantasy in Iraq never got a whiff of gunpowder. Neither did a lot of people who's lives were torn asunder by arrogant politicians who refused to admit their errors. But this regime never participated in the protests but, rather, had contempt for the protesters who they felt aided the enemy. History has disproven this lie as history will reveal the current lies. The people who are now shouting the loudest about accountability for the warmongerers are those same people who helped drag the Vietnam War to its inevitable conclusion through outrage and protest. They are attempting to keep up the pressure to end our presence in Iraq quickly, before the body count is to ghastly to conceive. The rage is the result of most 60s protesters believing they would never have had to experience such a tragedy again.
But the Vietraq comparisons will be the same at the end as they were at the beginning. Here is how I know. The turning point in the Nixon administration's intransigence began when the soldiers who fought came home and founded the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and marched on Washington. That was John Kerry's finest hour, unfortunately. Two weeks ago in New York there was a protest march attended by 300,000 people and it was led by soldiers disillusioned by their tour of duty in Iraq. You would think a third of a million people in the street would be banner headlines and leading news stories on the networks, but the corporate press was too busy covering the phony "crisis" in illegal immigration. This Rovian scheme to make illegals into felons even fooled the immigrants. Their turnout for amnesty was the result of the fear of being criminalized for existing, but it overshadowed the war protests.
Unprecedented, however, is this revolt of the retired generals and the mutiny at the CIA over the very real possibility that the Bush regime is going to bomb Iran. A great many people feel we have a score to settle with Iran over the humiliation of the hostage crisis during the Carter administration. Most don't know that in 1953, the CIA and the British Secret Service arranged and executed a coup to overthrow the democratically elected President of Iran, Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, because he would not allow foreign interference in Iran's oil industry. Instead, our government re-instated the Shah, who's brutal secret police terrorized the citizenry until the Iranian revolution of the 1970s. Our government created the environment for the mullahs who now rule Iran to come into power. These are the unlearned lessons of intervention and intrigue. Was that those chickens I heard coming home to roost? I just hope we can impeach President Jethro before he starts World War III.
On this, the cusp of Karl Rove's indictment for perjury, and the eve of a breaking corruption scandal that will make Watergate look like Travelgate, it's good to reflect on the abuses of power that led to Richard Nixon's impeachment. No leader since Nixon has been more deserving of impeachment than President Jethro, maybe since Andrew Johnson, who botched Reconstruction. This President, however, if impeached and put on trial in the Senate will not only be removed from office, he will be sent to jail or The Hague, along with his fellow travelers who have caused so much misery and instability in the world.
We cannot afford to allow another three years to pass without holding the offenders accountable. The hapless and spineless Democrats are no lead pipe cinch to win back the House because they are busy pandering to the cult of personality that elected Bush. The only politician other than Russ Feingold who has been consistently anti-war and vocal in his denouncement of this cynical cabal has been Al Gore. If one potential freshman Congressman or Senator would run for office on the promise of initiating real investigations with subpoena power into this regime's deceptions, that would be sufficient reason to vote for them. The only political progressive with those kind of guts plays a funny conservative on TV with the courage to risk public condemnation in order to tell the truth.
Mealymouth Republican candidate for president George Allen of Virginia recently said, "We need people like Tony Snow, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh to speak out. They know what's going on in the real world." That is akin to the Democrats urging Courtney Love to be more outspoken. While Limbaugh was swimming in a sea of Oxycontin, in the real world a local home moving business has to drastically raise prices to put gas in their trucks. In the real world, a round trip from Memphis to Nashville in an SUV costs nearly as much as an airline ticket. In the real world, if you own stock in Exxon you're doing fine, but if you need Exxon to get to work, you're in trouble. And ultimately, in the real world, this president is not "The Decider," you are! It is past time that we should remember that.
Friday, April 07, 2006
My Exit Strategy
ISLAMIC PEACEKEEPERS! How much louder can I shout it, and why haven't I heard this suggestion from anyone in government? The Bush administration's reckless adventure in Iraq is fast approaching the time when it will be beyond our ability to influence events on the ground. Our soldiers are in the crosshairs of every wanna-be jihadist with a weapon and the elected representatives of the Iraqi people refuse to compromise on a coalition government despite the prodding from Dr. Rice to hurry up and get something done before the U.S. mid-term elections.
This is something President Bush could accomplish on his own, without the coaching of his failed policy-makers or his soon to be jailed political advisor. President Bush has assets he could yet bring to bear toward a favorable outcome in Iraq. He has old friends in the Saudi Royal Family; an ally in Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; a convert in Khadaffi of Libya; a grateful populace in Kuwait; and emerging Arab states like Qatar and the U.A.E. who wish to prove to the U.S. that they are trustworthy enough partners with which to do business. The President could appeal to these nations and leaders personally, or through Secretary Rice, to provide troops to act as peacekeepers while the Iraqis determine their own future.
This would relieve the American military of daily and deadly street patrols and allow them to redeploy to what John Kerry called in a N.Y. Times editorial, "a garrisoned position, over the horizon." Kerry failed to note that U.S. trained Iraqi security forces are not yet capable of suppressing the violence, either against coalition forces or against Iraqi civilians. If the American and British forces were removed from the equation and replaced by Muslim troops, proportionately Sunni and Shia to the Iraqi population, neither Al Qaeda nor home grown Iraqi insurgents would be so zealous to kill them in the name of jihad. The U.S. could prove to the Iraqi people that we have no permanent designs on their country by withdrawing our forces to secured positions and allowing those Arab states that claim to be America's friends, to stand up and prove it and assist us in our time of need.
The time is running out in this endeavor. If the breaking news concerning the Scooter Libby testimony to the grand jury proves to be true, the President is about to become embroiled in a maze of political and legal difficulties that will dominate the remainder of his term, however long that may be. President Clouseau promised to get to the bottom of who was leaking classified information from his administration, but he forgot to get a "lizenze for his minkey," and found the leaker in the mirror. The President claims patriotic amnesia. While mountain biking in Crawford, he heard one too many Toby Keith songs on his iPod and felt justified in trashing the reputations of the sneaky traitors who dared question the true lies that the White House Iraqi Group so meticulously concocted. Jethro's in a heap of trouble this time.
But our soldiers in Iraq can't afford to wait for legislative justice to be meted out to the neo-cons and war planners who's bankrupt ideology put them there, along with the President who said of Iraq that "God told me to strike them, and so I did." Unless God suddenly changed His mind and decided, "Blessed are the warmongers," Bush was probably hearing the voice of God through Dick Cheney. It is now clear that both Cheney and Rumsfeld believe that if Bush the Elder had given Norman Schwartzkoff one more week, he would have been in Baghdad and either captured or killed Saddam. But Poppy Bush wasn't interested in the uncertainty of a long term occupation of Iraq. That's why Bush the Clueless wasn't interested in asking his father's sissy advice and instead claimed council from a "Higher Father." It's tough to argue with schizophrenics or politicians who claim they hear voices.
Everyday the status quo is maintained in Iraq, is one day farther from resolution, and another day of bloodshed. The discredited architects of this conflict are now obligated to extricate us from it. They should, without delay, impose upon the President to call on America's Arab friends, cowboy hat in hand if necessary, to request military assistance in helping to lessen the turmoil in Iraq. It is in the interest of modern Arab states to assist first in ending the slaughter of Muslims by their fellow Muslims; to pacify the home grown insurgency and restrict Al Qaeda targets by limiting the American military presence; and to assist in encouraging the emergence of a representative Iraqi government that could put a check on Iranian ambitions in the region.
The question is, can this macho, posturing administration find the humility to ask for help? Our armed forces have done everything that could possibly have been asked of them and more. The American military cannot impose a political solution on the Iraqis, and their presence is now a flashpoint for Islamic rage. Bush is the first president since Nixon with a daily body count. And though Nixon was elected on a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War, over 20,000 more soldiers died before the "secret plan" was implemented. Will Bush's Urban Cowboy attitude cause him to keep our forces in Iraq beyond the point of their usefulness? A personal appeal for Muslim troops may yet earn Bush his coveted place in history as the man who was brazen enough to alter the Middle East political landscape. Then this President can honor the service of the men and women he placed in danger by returning them safely to their families.
This is something President Bush could accomplish on his own, without the coaching of his failed policy-makers or his soon to be jailed political advisor. President Bush has assets he could yet bring to bear toward a favorable outcome in Iraq. He has old friends in the Saudi Royal Family; an ally in Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; a convert in Khadaffi of Libya; a grateful populace in Kuwait; and emerging Arab states like Qatar and the U.A.E. who wish to prove to the U.S. that they are trustworthy enough partners with which to do business. The President could appeal to these nations and leaders personally, or through Secretary Rice, to provide troops to act as peacekeepers while the Iraqis determine their own future.
This would relieve the American military of daily and deadly street patrols and allow them to redeploy to what John Kerry called in a N.Y. Times editorial, "a garrisoned position, over the horizon." Kerry failed to note that U.S. trained Iraqi security forces are not yet capable of suppressing the violence, either against coalition forces or against Iraqi civilians. If the American and British forces were removed from the equation and replaced by Muslim troops, proportionately Sunni and Shia to the Iraqi population, neither Al Qaeda nor home grown Iraqi insurgents would be so zealous to kill them in the name of jihad. The U.S. could prove to the Iraqi people that we have no permanent designs on their country by withdrawing our forces to secured positions and allowing those Arab states that claim to be America's friends, to stand up and prove it and assist us in our time of need.
The time is running out in this endeavor. If the breaking news concerning the Scooter Libby testimony to the grand jury proves to be true, the President is about to become embroiled in a maze of political and legal difficulties that will dominate the remainder of his term, however long that may be. President Clouseau promised to get to the bottom of who was leaking classified information from his administration, but he forgot to get a "lizenze for his minkey," and found the leaker in the mirror. The President claims patriotic amnesia. While mountain biking in Crawford, he heard one too many Toby Keith songs on his iPod and felt justified in trashing the reputations of the sneaky traitors who dared question the true lies that the White House Iraqi Group so meticulously concocted. Jethro's in a heap of trouble this time.
But our soldiers in Iraq can't afford to wait for legislative justice to be meted out to the neo-cons and war planners who's bankrupt ideology put them there, along with the President who said of Iraq that "God told me to strike them, and so I did." Unless God suddenly changed His mind and decided, "Blessed are the warmongers," Bush was probably hearing the voice of God through Dick Cheney. It is now clear that both Cheney and Rumsfeld believe that if Bush the Elder had given Norman Schwartzkoff one more week, he would have been in Baghdad and either captured or killed Saddam. But Poppy Bush wasn't interested in the uncertainty of a long term occupation of Iraq. That's why Bush the Clueless wasn't interested in asking his father's sissy advice and instead claimed council from a "Higher Father." It's tough to argue with schizophrenics or politicians who claim they hear voices.
Everyday the status quo is maintained in Iraq, is one day farther from resolution, and another day of bloodshed. The discredited architects of this conflict are now obligated to extricate us from it. They should, without delay, impose upon the President to call on America's Arab friends, cowboy hat in hand if necessary, to request military assistance in helping to lessen the turmoil in Iraq. It is in the interest of modern Arab states to assist first in ending the slaughter of Muslims by their fellow Muslims; to pacify the home grown insurgency and restrict Al Qaeda targets by limiting the American military presence; and to assist in encouraging the emergence of a representative Iraqi government that could put a check on Iranian ambitions in the region.
The question is, can this macho, posturing administration find the humility to ask for help? Our armed forces have done everything that could possibly have been asked of them and more. The American military cannot impose a political solution on the Iraqis, and their presence is now a flashpoint for Islamic rage. Bush is the first president since Nixon with a daily body count. And though Nixon was elected on a "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War, over 20,000 more soldiers died before the "secret plan" was implemented. Will Bush's Urban Cowboy attitude cause him to keep our forces in Iraq beyond the point of their usefulness? A personal appeal for Muslim troops may yet earn Bush his coveted place in history as the man who was brazen enough to alter the Middle East political landscape. Then this President can honor the service of the men and women he placed in danger by returning them safely to their families.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
I Have A (Bad) Dream
I have a bad dream today. That one day, this militaristic administration will realize the dire conditions in which they have placed our armed forces, and try to find a premise to re-institute the draft, just as they found one to invade Iraq. Because of Secretary Rumsfeld's complete misjudgment about the forces needed to control Iraq, along with our soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and around the world, our military is stretched like a taut rubber band. Ask any member of the cabinet or the Congress and they will say that there is absolutely no popular support for a draft. Yet, they don't rule it out. And with our armed forces missing their volunteer goals month after month because war doesn't seem like much of a career choice for someone who is merely trying to raise money for college, we simply need more soldiers. This means that any provocation against the United States, be it along the Iranian border, or another attempt to strike at a major American city, can be used by experienced propagandists to stir up patriotic fervor to, by God, raise an Army large enough to crush our enemies.
Please don't think I am being paranoid about a draft. After all, the Selective Service system was never disassembled after the draft was ended by Congress in 1973, and it is still the law for young men to register with Selective Service on their 18th birthday. Though representatives from both parties continue to repeat that proposing a draft would be the political kiss of death, Salon.com reported that on an obscure federal web site devoted to the war on terror, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to restaff and restart the regional draft boards that men from the Vietnam era remember so well. The announcement read, "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men...receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service." The only thing that has changed about a potential draft are the rules.
Neither President Shemp, Deadeye Dick Cheney, or Karl "The Konquerer" Rove, ever had to worry about the draft during the Vietnam War. Cheney, the king of deferments, merely stayed in college until it was over, and Rove was likewise disqualified. President Shemp, of course, was in favor of the war in Vietnam and allowed the military to train him as a jet fighter pilot. Only, that was sufficient. He didn't really want to fight or nothin'. Now we see that the National Guard and the Army Reserve are no longer safe havens from combat and if required to confront North Korea or Iran, we don't have the manpower to do it. Under current law, if the Congress and the President agree that military forces are needed in the defense of this country, the President's signature re-activates the draft. Federal law then requires the Selective Service to immediately set up a lottery and begin to send out induction notices. And you can forget about that college silliness. New law states that students who's lottery numbers are picked would only be permitted to finish their current semester and then it's "grab your toothbrush and get on the bus."
In addition, a proposal from Selective Service director Lewis Brodsky to senior Pentagon officials, just released under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004, suggests for the first time, that women should also register for the military draft and that young Americans regularly inform the government if they have acquired any "niche specialties" needed in the armed services. If you think you are too old for the draft, Brodsky also proposed extending the age of draft registrants from the present 25, to 34 years old. If the war in Iraq continues to be, in Rumsfeld's words, "a long hard slog", where will the new soldiers be coming from? Just this week, the Supreme Court ruled that any University that accepts government funds must allow military recruitment on campus. This riles former Vietnam era students who rallied to prevent military recruiters on campus when their only purpose was to find warm bodies for the meat grinder in Southeast Asia.
We have been told by leaders of both parties that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" there is another attempt at a terrorist attack on this country. This administration is filled with master manipulators, and it would take very little to appeal to the sort of patriotism we saw after 9/11 to raise the forces necessary to fight Bush's wars. My observation is that young people, especially college students today, are on the whole a patriotic group and would be inclined to serve if their country called. They should remember the words of Mark Twain that "Patriotism is being loyal to your country all of the time, but to the government only when they deserve it." I try to emphasize to my 20 year old step-son that it's important to differentiate between the nation and what it stands for, and a regime, only temporarily in power, that uses jingoism and patriotism to achieve its political agenda.
This is my bad dream and greatest fear; that this government will attempt to rob young people of their plans and futures in order to fight in a rich man's war. Already, this new conversation about a "War on Christianity" has Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it. This is a blatant attempt to create an emotional wedge issue in time for the 2006 mid-term elections. Banging the drums of war hysteria accomplishes the same purpose, and what better issues for the Republicans to run on than God and War? Already, congressional leaders have proposed bills to introduce some sort of mandatory "national service" for young people, be it in the military where they are needed, or some quasi-altruistic program based on Peace Corps ideals that they haven't thought up yet, but will be impossible to join because of the waiting lists. Here's the most frightening part. Should President Shemp sign legislature re-instituting a lottery draft, federal law requires that the first group of conscripts be processed and ready for boot camp within 193 days of the program's start.
I can't tell my step-son what to do. The best I can tell him is how the draft affected every aspect of my young life, and put strain and anxiety on me and my family who were frustrated at my inability to resolve this personal crisis by appealing to the Draft Board. And I was one of the lucky ones. I avoided killing or being killed in an unjust war of choice, begun by a lie. We don't need another memorial wall on the Mall in Washington. This latest rumbling about a draft must be opposed at all costs. And if my step-son should come to me for advice about what to do should he find himself in such a situation, I will tell him to do the honorable thing and go to jail.
Please don't think I am being paranoid about a draft. After all, the Selective Service system was never disassembled after the draft was ended by Congress in 1973, and it is still the law for young men to register with Selective Service on their 18th birthday. Though representatives from both parties continue to repeat that proposing a draft would be the political kiss of death, Salon.com reported that on an obscure federal web site devoted to the war on terror, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to restaff and restart the regional draft boards that men from the Vietnam era remember so well. The announcement read, "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men...receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service." The only thing that has changed about a potential draft are the rules.
Neither President Shemp, Deadeye Dick Cheney, or Karl "The Konquerer" Rove, ever had to worry about the draft during the Vietnam War. Cheney, the king of deferments, merely stayed in college until it was over, and Rove was likewise disqualified. President Shemp, of course, was in favor of the war in Vietnam and allowed the military to train him as a jet fighter pilot. Only, that was sufficient. He didn't really want to fight or nothin'. Now we see that the National Guard and the Army Reserve are no longer safe havens from combat and if required to confront North Korea or Iran, we don't have the manpower to do it. Under current law, if the Congress and the President agree that military forces are needed in the defense of this country, the President's signature re-activates the draft. Federal law then requires the Selective Service to immediately set up a lottery and begin to send out induction notices. And you can forget about that college silliness. New law states that students who's lottery numbers are picked would only be permitted to finish their current semester and then it's "grab your toothbrush and get on the bus."
In addition, a proposal from Selective Service director Lewis Brodsky to senior Pentagon officials, just released under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004, suggests for the first time, that women should also register for the military draft and that young Americans regularly inform the government if they have acquired any "niche specialties" needed in the armed services. If you think you are too old for the draft, Brodsky also proposed extending the age of draft registrants from the present 25, to 34 years old. If the war in Iraq continues to be, in Rumsfeld's words, "a long hard slog", where will the new soldiers be coming from? Just this week, the Supreme Court ruled that any University that accepts government funds must allow military recruitment on campus. This riles former Vietnam era students who rallied to prevent military recruiters on campus when their only purpose was to find warm bodies for the meat grinder in Southeast Asia.
We have been told by leaders of both parties that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" there is another attempt at a terrorist attack on this country. This administration is filled with master manipulators, and it would take very little to appeal to the sort of patriotism we saw after 9/11 to raise the forces necessary to fight Bush's wars. My observation is that young people, especially college students today, are on the whole a patriotic group and would be inclined to serve if their country called. They should remember the words of Mark Twain that "Patriotism is being loyal to your country all of the time, but to the government only when they deserve it." I try to emphasize to my 20 year old step-son that it's important to differentiate between the nation and what it stands for, and a regime, only temporarily in power, that uses jingoism and patriotism to achieve its political agenda.
This is my bad dream and greatest fear; that this government will attempt to rob young people of their plans and futures in order to fight in a rich man's war. Already, this new conversation about a "War on Christianity" has Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it. This is a blatant attempt to create an emotional wedge issue in time for the 2006 mid-term elections. Banging the drums of war hysteria accomplishes the same purpose, and what better issues for the Republicans to run on than God and War? Already, congressional leaders have proposed bills to introduce some sort of mandatory "national service" for young people, be it in the military where they are needed, or some quasi-altruistic program based on Peace Corps ideals that they haven't thought up yet, but will be impossible to join because of the waiting lists. Here's the most frightening part. Should President Shemp sign legislature re-instituting a lottery draft, federal law requires that the first group of conscripts be processed and ready for boot camp within 193 days of the program's start.
I can't tell my step-son what to do. The best I can tell him is how the draft affected every aspect of my young life, and put strain and anxiety on me and my family who were frustrated at my inability to resolve this personal crisis by appealing to the Draft Board. And I was one of the lucky ones. I avoided killing or being killed in an unjust war of choice, begun by a lie. We don't need another memorial wall on the Mall in Washington. This latest rumbling about a draft must be opposed at all costs. And if my step-son should come to me for advice about what to do should he find himself in such a situation, I will tell him to do the honorable thing and go to jail.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Takin' It To The Street
When I read that the Southern Republican Leadership Conference was to be held in Memphis at the Peabody Hotel with 2500 hardcore Southern True Believers in tow, I decided to protest the event. If I can sit at the computer in my lounging clothes and encourage others to take action, it was the least I could do to drive downtown and join the hundreds of other protesters certain to be there from all over. I have my priorities of course, and first had to watch the Memphis Tigers win their conference championship. I figured I would catch the Republicans for the afternoon session. But my sign was ready. I had made it the day before with posterboard, tomato stakes, magic marker, and staples. It said "Sheep," on one side and "Fools," on the other. I felt anyone who can still defend this administration is either a sheep or a fool. I added the address of this blog, just in case.
It wasn't the first sign I've made. I wasn't always a protester. In college, I was a raging moderate who believed that whatever the question, the answer was "love." Then I witnessed a peaceful demonstration by students at the University of Tennessee turn confrontational and then violent as a squad of Knoxville, helmeted, riot police charged the crowd in a club swinging melee that sent students scattering down the famous Hill, dripping blood into the new Student Center from their fresh head wounds. I realized that protest was a matter of conviction. Then when Richard Nixon announced he was coming to Knoxville to speak at a Billy Graham Crusade after the secret bombing of Cambodia, it fell upon me as a resident Knoxvillian to physically demonstrate against this political misuse of a religious gathering. That's when I made my first sign. It said "Crusade for Christ," but I had drawn an X through Christ and written "Nixon" below it. We picketed the main drag in front of the campus for the benefit of the afternoon Knoxville rush hour, and just to show that we were there. I didn't ask for it. It came to me. Same thing with the Republicans last Sunday. I was obligated to show my face in the place.
I got into a minor confrontation the minute I arrived. I grabbed my sign and headed for the sidewalk on Union Ave. in front of The Peabody when two policemen told me I could not protest on that side of the street. I asked if this wasn't a public sidewalk and was told, in fact, "no," that The Peabody owned the sidewalk all around the block. I was skeptical but crossed the street. Then as a measure of civil disobedience, I walked to Third Street and down the sidewalk on the Peabody side but the back way where the service entrances are. No one stopped me but the hostility was palpable for a single picket. I decided I would feel better when I found the rest of the protesters. I returned to the Union Ave. entrance of the Peabody, (across the street), and found three others. A young gay man with a back-pack holding a sign that said "Impeach Bush Now;" a young man of college age holding a sign that said "Stop Republican Fascism;" and a former hippie housewife from Lakeland who's sign read "Evildoers." I asked the woman where everyone else was and was informed that this was it. There were four of us.
You could spot the Republicans in a second. Everyone was in their Sunday, go-to-meetin' clothes, and wearing a laminated badge around their necks held together with a red ribbon which they wore like the scarlet letter. No sooner had I staked out my spot when a heavyset, red-ribbon wearing man in his forties walked behind us and paused to say, "Well, aren't you all proud of yourselves?" There was something in his sneering condescension that set me off. I replied vociferously, "I'm very proud of myself for standing out here in opposition to people like you." He said, "It's people like me that guarantee your right to stand out here." I lost it a little,"People like you? I thought the Constitution gave me that right..." and then I called him a synonym for a donkey's sphincter. I was sorry as soon as I said it, but the guy froze and looked at me very hard. I thought, "My God, I haven't been here five minutes and I'm about to be in a fistfight." Thinking that the best defense was a good offense, I immediately said in my best Chuck Norris, "You better just keep on walking, mister." The fat Republican looked at the ground and shook his head, paused for a second and walked on. I was relieved not to have to throw or duck punches. I apologized to my fellow demonstrators and told them it had been a long time, but now I remembered that if you plan to demonstrate where you are not in the majority, you can prepare to take a little abuse.
I had no idea how much abuse could be packed into a few hours, most of it drive-by name calling, some of it confrontational. The ugliest remarks were from the Republican women. Although, Kathryn Harris had cancelled her appearance at the shindig, most of the women I saw looked like Kathryn Harris impersonators, only longer in the tooth. They had that 60s Mary Tyler Moore hair-do shellacked in place, deep lipstick scars on their faces and lots of cosmetic surgery. What looked like startled shock on one woman's face was actually a brow lift gone terribly wrong. She said to the protesting housewife, "Is Osama Bin Laden your best friend?" (BTW, just writing that name gets me on a list somewhere), to which the protester replied "What the hell does that mean?" There was a tense stand-off until the GOP women remembered their dinner reservations.
I tried to time my protest to be there when the Republicans ended their afternoon session. They were all there. Frist, Hastert, George Allen, Mitt Romney, Trent "Highty Tighty" Lott, and the rest of the contenders. When a girl came up to me and asked what I thought of Mitt Romney, I replied that I liked his Daddy because he was a Democrat. When the three o'clock hour arrived, no grand poohbahs came out of The Peabody, but we caught the delegates' eye. The four of us posed for photographs for the next half-hour. We were indeed a collective curio. One guy even had me put my arm around him and hold the sign on the "Fools" side so his wife could take the picture. And dozens of cell phone memories were imprinted with our images. I reminded my fellows that someone among these happy few was from the FBI. They looked alarmed but being the oldest, I chuckled and said with false bravado, "they can just dust off my old picture from the 60s." Then several carloads drove by shouting "Faggots," and the antiquated "Commies." I laughed at that one thinking the closest Commie to Memphis was an old man in Cuba. A smaller number of drivers honked in support or gave the thumbs-up sign, but although there were numerous black Republican delegates in attendance, every African-American that drove by, without exception, honked or waved in approval. I forgot to mention that I was also wearing my "George W. Bush is a Punk-Ass Chump" tee shirt.
Chris Matthews from "Hardball," walked outside and looked up at our signs. I waved to him and he smiled back and removed his sportcoat. For a moment, I fantasized about arguing my position with Matthews on MSNBC, being the oldest of four demonstrators, but Matthews asked a policeman which way to Beale Street, then turned his back and walked in the opposite direction. The crowd thinned. The Republicans were eating and resting up for the evening session and we were discussing calling it a day when a homeless black man wearing a choir robe with a velvet collar and a broad-brimmed Jack Abramoff hat approached. He thanked us for being there and said even though he was homeless, he kept up with the news and knew that the Republicans under Bush were not looking out for the poor. I asked him if he had heard what Rev. Joseph Lowry had said at the Corretta Scott King funeral, and to my astonishment he told me he was at the funeral and proceeded to quote from the various speakers at length. He said that an elected city official looks after him sometimes and gave him the money for the bus ride to Atlanta and it was one of the greatest events in his life. Just when I was beginning to feel good about that, from the corner of my eye I saw a rough looking man in a dirty shirt and an unkempt moustache rushing towards me. I braced myself and turned to confront this wild man when he handed me a fountain coke with ice and a straw and said, "thank you for doing this." I was glad that I did and would do it again if some others would join me.
That's why I want you to know about the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy sponsored by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. People will gather at the First Congregational Church at 1000 S.Cooper at 1PM, this Sunday, March 19th and walk somewhere. It marks the third anniversary of "Shock and Awe." I felt better after having exercised my right to freely assemble and protest my government's policies, and you can probably be home in time to watch the Tigers in the NCAA Tourney. Before our merry band of four protesters at The Peabody finally parted company we shook hands all around and agreed to meet at the Peace March. I said to them in closing, "We didn't do much, but at least we did something."
It wasn't the first sign I've made. I wasn't always a protester. In college, I was a raging moderate who believed that whatever the question, the answer was "love." Then I witnessed a peaceful demonstration by students at the University of Tennessee turn confrontational and then violent as a squad of Knoxville, helmeted, riot police charged the crowd in a club swinging melee that sent students scattering down the famous Hill, dripping blood into the new Student Center from their fresh head wounds. I realized that protest was a matter of conviction. Then when Richard Nixon announced he was coming to Knoxville to speak at a Billy Graham Crusade after the secret bombing of Cambodia, it fell upon me as a resident Knoxvillian to physically demonstrate against this political misuse of a religious gathering. That's when I made my first sign. It said "Crusade for Christ," but I had drawn an X through Christ and written "Nixon" below it. We picketed the main drag in front of the campus for the benefit of the afternoon Knoxville rush hour, and just to show that we were there. I didn't ask for it. It came to me. Same thing with the Republicans last Sunday. I was obligated to show my face in the place.
I got into a minor confrontation the minute I arrived. I grabbed my sign and headed for the sidewalk on Union Ave. in front of The Peabody when two policemen told me I could not protest on that side of the street. I asked if this wasn't a public sidewalk and was told, in fact, "no," that The Peabody owned the sidewalk all around the block. I was skeptical but crossed the street. Then as a measure of civil disobedience, I walked to Third Street and down the sidewalk on the Peabody side but the back way where the service entrances are. No one stopped me but the hostility was palpable for a single picket. I decided I would feel better when I found the rest of the protesters. I returned to the Union Ave. entrance of the Peabody, (across the street), and found three others. A young gay man with a back-pack holding a sign that said "Impeach Bush Now;" a young man of college age holding a sign that said "Stop Republican Fascism;" and a former hippie housewife from Lakeland who's sign read "Evildoers." I asked the woman where everyone else was and was informed that this was it. There were four of us.
You could spot the Republicans in a second. Everyone was in their Sunday, go-to-meetin' clothes, and wearing a laminated badge around their necks held together with a red ribbon which they wore like the scarlet letter. No sooner had I staked out my spot when a heavyset, red-ribbon wearing man in his forties walked behind us and paused to say, "Well, aren't you all proud of yourselves?" There was something in his sneering condescension that set me off. I replied vociferously, "I'm very proud of myself for standing out here in opposition to people like you." He said, "It's people like me that guarantee your right to stand out here." I lost it a little,"People like you? I thought the Constitution gave me that right..." and then I called him a synonym for a donkey's sphincter. I was sorry as soon as I said it, but the guy froze and looked at me very hard. I thought, "My God, I haven't been here five minutes and I'm about to be in a fistfight." Thinking that the best defense was a good offense, I immediately said in my best Chuck Norris, "You better just keep on walking, mister." The fat Republican looked at the ground and shook his head, paused for a second and walked on. I was relieved not to have to throw or duck punches. I apologized to my fellow demonstrators and told them it had been a long time, but now I remembered that if you plan to demonstrate where you are not in the majority, you can prepare to take a little abuse.
I had no idea how much abuse could be packed into a few hours, most of it drive-by name calling, some of it confrontational. The ugliest remarks were from the Republican women. Although, Kathryn Harris had cancelled her appearance at the shindig, most of the women I saw looked like Kathryn Harris impersonators, only longer in the tooth. They had that 60s Mary Tyler Moore hair-do shellacked in place, deep lipstick scars on their faces and lots of cosmetic surgery. What looked like startled shock on one woman's face was actually a brow lift gone terribly wrong. She said to the protesting housewife, "Is Osama Bin Laden your best friend?" (BTW, just writing that name gets me on a list somewhere), to which the protester replied "What the hell does that mean?" There was a tense stand-off until the GOP women remembered their dinner reservations.
I tried to time my protest to be there when the Republicans ended their afternoon session. They were all there. Frist, Hastert, George Allen, Mitt Romney, Trent "Highty Tighty" Lott, and the rest of the contenders. When a girl came up to me and asked what I thought of Mitt Romney, I replied that I liked his Daddy because he was a Democrat. When the three o'clock hour arrived, no grand poohbahs came out of The Peabody, but we caught the delegates' eye. The four of us posed for photographs for the next half-hour. We were indeed a collective curio. One guy even had me put my arm around him and hold the sign on the "Fools" side so his wife could take the picture. And dozens of cell phone memories were imprinted with our images. I reminded my fellows that someone among these happy few was from the FBI. They looked alarmed but being the oldest, I chuckled and said with false bravado, "they can just dust off my old picture from the 60s." Then several carloads drove by shouting "Faggots," and the antiquated "Commies." I laughed at that one thinking the closest Commie to Memphis was an old man in Cuba. A smaller number of drivers honked in support or gave the thumbs-up sign, but although there were numerous black Republican delegates in attendance, every African-American that drove by, without exception, honked or waved in approval. I forgot to mention that I was also wearing my "George W. Bush is a Punk-Ass Chump" tee shirt.
Chris Matthews from "Hardball," walked outside and looked up at our signs. I waved to him and he smiled back and removed his sportcoat. For a moment, I fantasized about arguing my position with Matthews on MSNBC, being the oldest of four demonstrators, but Matthews asked a policeman which way to Beale Street, then turned his back and walked in the opposite direction. The crowd thinned. The Republicans were eating and resting up for the evening session and we were discussing calling it a day when a homeless black man wearing a choir robe with a velvet collar and a broad-brimmed Jack Abramoff hat approached. He thanked us for being there and said even though he was homeless, he kept up with the news and knew that the Republicans under Bush were not looking out for the poor. I asked him if he had heard what Rev. Joseph Lowry had said at the Corretta Scott King funeral, and to my astonishment he told me he was at the funeral and proceeded to quote from the various speakers at length. He said that an elected city official looks after him sometimes and gave him the money for the bus ride to Atlanta and it was one of the greatest events in his life. Just when I was beginning to feel good about that, from the corner of my eye I saw a rough looking man in a dirty shirt and an unkempt moustache rushing towards me. I braced myself and turned to confront this wild man when he handed me a fountain coke with ice and a straw and said, "thank you for doing this." I was glad that I did and would do it again if some others would join me.
That's why I want you to know about the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy sponsored by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center. People will gather at the First Congregational Church at 1000 S.Cooper at 1PM, this Sunday, March 19th and walk somewhere. It marks the third anniversary of "Shock and Awe." I felt better after having exercised my right to freely assemble and protest my government's policies, and you can probably be home in time to watch the Tigers in the NCAA Tourney. Before our merry band of four protesters at The Peabody finally parted company we shook hands all around and agreed to meet at the Peace March. I said to them in closing, "We didn't do much, but at least we did something."
Thursday, March 02, 2006
All Wet
I wish to apologize to Michael Brown. I have just seen the Associated Press video footage of FEMA's pre-Katrina briefing to President Shemp, and it appears to me that Brownie was, indeed, doing a heckuva job. He anticipated a storm of historic magnitude and even anticipated the chaos in the Superdome as a possible "catastrophe within a catastrophe." He inquired about medical and mortuary services and told his subordinates if there were any territorial disputes to do what they needed to do and he would take the blame. I have seen hours of news footage and read hundreds of press accounts regarding Katrina and the FEMA response. I thought I knew, yet I did not know. Now I have seen and heard and realize that Brownie wasn't the weak link in the criminally neglectful non-action after Katrina. It was President Shemp himself.
My first reaction to the Bush briefing video was "so what?" He's inept and we know it, so what's new? President Shemp did what he always does; say whatever he needs to say at the time, in this case "help is on the way," and leave it to his underlings to take care of the details. What is so blatantly obnoxious is President Shemp's bald-faced lie five days after the hurricane struck that "No one could have anticipated the breach of the levees." Hell, I anticipated the breach of the levees. That's the first thing they teach you as a visitor to New Orleans. "They have to bury the dead above ground here because it's all below sea level." Maybe President Shemp forgot that they call those funny drinks at Pat O'Brien's "Hurricanes" for a reason. And his stammering response about "no situational awareness" (a statement that would make Al Gore wince) on the ground after the hurricane would be more credible had we not now seen evidence that he had detailed situational awareness before the storm hit. I just thought he was vacationing and detached. Now I'm starting to agree with Kanye West, he just doesn't care. There was campaign money to be raised and photo-ops on the schedule. President Shemp knows his priorities.
I understood the gravity of the situation listening to Jeanne Meserve, normally a composed CNN reporter, break down while relating the breaking grim news that after the levee breach people in New Orleans were drowning in the dark with no one to help them. The online headlines read "New Orleans Descends Into Chaos," and because I have a heart, I cried reading those stories. Now, I'm repulsed by the President's conduct, just as I was in watching his conduct for the first ten minutes after he was informed that "the nation is under attack" on 9/11. In fact, during President Shemp's "fly-over" the Gulf Coast to assess the damage, his recorded words were, "It's devastating. It must be doubly devastating on the ground." And then some, Bubba. Maybe President Shemp has a heart, just no soul.
A supervisory board in San Francisco just made news by being the first governmental body to call for the impeachment of the President and Vice President for High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Thirty five years ago, the Bay area was the first to have Free Speech demonstrations and anti-Vietnam War marches, and the rest of the country dismissed them as "peaceniks," and Communists. Big ideas often start in small ways.(Please refer to my previous post "President Hastert"). I am also convinced that this government must be held accountable for their crimes. But I am not in such a hurry to insure that we must prioritize and, IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST.
The tragic thing about this President is that though of good heart but slight of head, he never really wanted to be President in the first place. He is entirely a creation of Karl Rove (read Molly Ivans' "Bushwacked"), who had to first talk him into believing he could be Governor of Texas. Karl Rove first saw President Shemp as a young man with a steely gaze and a lot of charisma and thought, "I can make him president." That is a long way from having an ambitious young man or woman with ideals and ideas of their own who actually wants to be President and sincerely wishes to serve. Bush accepted the Presidency much as he might have accepted the presidency of his college fraternity; like it was a popularity contest or a feather in his cap, and no matter what damage he does to the bylaws, there's no permanent harm done. Now he has done permanent harm. It's there for anyone to see who wishes to see. And those who will suffer the worst, Katrina victims aside, are the Congressional Republicans and administration apologists who have to face the voters in 2006. Then we will see a hurricane of a magnitude that not even President Shemp can ignore.
My first reaction to the Bush briefing video was "so what?" He's inept and we know it, so what's new? President Shemp did what he always does; say whatever he needs to say at the time, in this case "help is on the way," and leave it to his underlings to take care of the details. What is so blatantly obnoxious is President Shemp's bald-faced lie five days after the hurricane struck that "No one could have anticipated the breach of the levees." Hell, I anticipated the breach of the levees. That's the first thing they teach you as a visitor to New Orleans. "They have to bury the dead above ground here because it's all below sea level." Maybe President Shemp forgot that they call those funny drinks at Pat O'Brien's "Hurricanes" for a reason. And his stammering response about "no situational awareness" (a statement that would make Al Gore wince) on the ground after the hurricane would be more credible had we not now seen evidence that he had detailed situational awareness before the storm hit. I just thought he was vacationing and detached. Now I'm starting to agree with Kanye West, he just doesn't care. There was campaign money to be raised and photo-ops on the schedule. President Shemp knows his priorities.
I understood the gravity of the situation listening to Jeanne Meserve, normally a composed CNN reporter, break down while relating the breaking grim news that after the levee breach people in New Orleans were drowning in the dark with no one to help them. The online headlines read "New Orleans Descends Into Chaos," and because I have a heart, I cried reading those stories. Now, I'm repulsed by the President's conduct, just as I was in watching his conduct for the first ten minutes after he was informed that "the nation is under attack" on 9/11. In fact, during President Shemp's "fly-over" the Gulf Coast to assess the damage, his recorded words were, "It's devastating. It must be doubly devastating on the ground." And then some, Bubba. Maybe President Shemp has a heart, just no soul.
A supervisory board in San Francisco just made news by being the first governmental body to call for the impeachment of the President and Vice President for High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Thirty five years ago, the Bay area was the first to have Free Speech demonstrations and anti-Vietnam War marches, and the rest of the country dismissed them as "peaceniks," and Communists. Big ideas often start in small ways.(Please refer to my previous post "President Hastert"). I am also convinced that this government must be held accountable for their crimes. But I am not in such a hurry to insure that we must prioritize and, IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST.
The tragic thing about this President is that though of good heart but slight of head, he never really wanted to be President in the first place. He is entirely a creation of Karl Rove (read Molly Ivans' "Bushwacked"), who had to first talk him into believing he could be Governor of Texas. Karl Rove first saw President Shemp as a young man with a steely gaze and a lot of charisma and thought, "I can make him president." That is a long way from having an ambitious young man or woman with ideals and ideas of their own who actually wants to be President and sincerely wishes to serve. Bush accepted the Presidency much as he might have accepted the presidency of his college fraternity; like it was a popularity contest or a feather in his cap, and no matter what damage he does to the bylaws, there's no permanent harm done. Now he has done permanent harm. It's there for anyone to see who wishes to see. And those who will suffer the worst, Katrina victims aside, are the Congressional Republicans and administration apologists who have to face the voters in 2006. Then we will see a hurricane of a magnitude that not even President Shemp can ignore.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Chimpeach
I figured no one needed me to chime in on the Cheney shooting incident, especially after the professional comedians chewed him a new one. I heard every Dead-Eye Dick and "Administration That Couldn't Shoot Straight" reference that they could pepper the old bastard with. Still, it was an unfortunate accident,especially for poor Harry Whittington who, as part of the White House clean-up, had to get out of bed, put on a suit, and apologise for getting shot. If Cheney had not been so taciturn and surly, he might have absorbed the ridicule for a few days and the whole matter would have been over. Cheney's post-accident conduct, however, gives genuine cause for alarm. His disdain for the media is so thorough, his aloofness from the electorate so complete, that Cheney doesn't feel that he is accountable to anyone on matters both public and personal, including the President.Cheney's delay in reporting his accident to the President shows that he either outranks him, or has the same contempt for Bush shared by most of the world. Can you imagine such an accident happening to Walter Mondale and he decided to wait a couple of days before informing Jimmy Carter. Or Quayle not being immediately forthcoming to Bush the Elder? They would both be asked for resignations and be out on their respective asses the next day. This situation should even convince the Bush partisans what the real hierarchy of power is in this White House. Cheney is, and has been, the de-facto president who is responsible for government policy decisions in league with his secret underworld of advisors. Karl Rove makes all the political decisions, in case a Cheney policy, like torture, falls afoul of the polls. And GeeDubya, the amiable global village idiot, is merely a meat puppet for corporate interests who looks good in a suit and can lead the traveling road show doing what he so accurately describes as "catapulting the propaganda." I would think the Bush voters might be feeling a little buyer's remorse about now.
I was resigned to enduring the three years left in this circus. But there is a real crisis within the administration itself that does not bode well for anything other than damage control to continue from here. No more speeches about men to Mars or America's "ownership society." The United States is now practically a wholly owned subsidiary of China and Japan. And all Bush can do is try to outrun the looming financial crisis like a tourist in Pamploma about to be gored by a bull. This nation cannot afford three more years of this irrational and destructive behavior. So, for the good of the nation, after Mr. Cheney's full involvement in the CIA leak case is made public, he should resign his office and be replaced. Bush and Rumsfeld deserve Impeachment for lying to the American people and taking this country to war without sufficient planning or equipment. Rove just needs to be arrested, and like Ambassador Joe Wilson said, "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."
This government is the worst fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. The Iraqi war has the Muslim world in a rage, Iran has become a present danger with our armed forces too stretched to respond if necessary, and for the first time since the Reagan years, new Latin American leaders, contemptuous of the Bush government, are being elected by railing against U.S. imperialism. Bush has made this a much more dangerous world. If his intentions were to roll back social progress to the fifties, he succeeded in returning us to the twenties. We will be a very long time cleaning up the wreckage left behind by this bunch.
And the blundering, inept Homeland Security Department just granted rights to the United Arab Emirates to operate some of our most vital ports. I guess they figure that Arabs are better at finding the bad apples in their bunch who wish us ill, and will prevent them from infiltrating the Port Authorities better than our government. Sort of like how the military outsourced the job of capturing Osama Bin Laden to the Pakistanis at Tora Bora. Michael Jackson already lives in Dubai. Following the logic of the Bolton and Brown appointments, Bush should just go ahead and make him ambassador. I'd bet he would do a "heckuva job."
Homeland Security's bastard child, FEMA, has yet to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina. People on the Mississippi Gulf Coast are sleeping in tents while acres of mobile homes lie sinking in a field in Arkansas. Say what you will about Bill Clinton's integrity, but had this hurricane taken place on his watch, you can bet that things regarding housing and health would be fixed by now. These wretched citizens are still waiting for loans, trailers, and assistance, while millions of dollars intended for the victims have already been stolen and the levee problem has yet to be addressed. Hurricane season is right around the corner.
After the 2001 attacks on this country, I recall feeling grateful that experienced men like Cheney and Rumsfeld were in power. I never believed that they would cynically use those attacks to manipulate the American people into backing their distorted and discredited world view. Now, I am bone weary of them and I just want them to go. There is criminal conduct to be accounted for and justice to be meted out for all the people in this White House that helped push the fraudulent case for war. Since this administration continues to morph into the Nixon model, when they are convicted and gone to prison, President Condoleezza Rice can tell us, "our long national nightmare is over."
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The Critical State of the Union
Is he delusional? Is he insane? Or is there just not enough oxygen getting into that bubble he is in? What in the hell was he talking about? Is some evil scientist somewhere about to perfect a cloned centaur that I don't know about? Then what was all that business about banning inter-species cloning? We already have Ted Williams' head in a freezer somewhere and some DNA from Secretariat. Just think of the baseball playing racehorse we could create if the President would relax the regulations a little. He has on everything else, why not cloning? We could clone Bush and impeach him twice.
The wonderful thing about our President is that it does not matter what you say or write about him. He is not listening so he is not concerned. Bush is the walking example of the axiom "ignorance is bliss." As long as there is another hill to climb on his mountain bike, the world is a wonderful place. As evidenced by the State of the Union speech last night, that's too bad for the rest of us. Usually, Bush says whatever he needs to say to get through a crisis, (i.e. "We'll build back New Orleans better than ever," or, "Listening to Americans' conversations without a warrant is covered under Congress' vote to give the President power to wage war.")But last night, he did not even attempt that. It was the same old bovine leavings. "9/11, terrorists are trying to kill you, don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, God bless America, Git-R-Done."
Bush speaks of the dangers of isolationism and protectionism. Are we back to the Monroe Doctrine? Who in the United States is speaking of "isolationism" except President Bush? Back in college philosophy, we learned that such an argument is called a "straw man." You create a bogeyman from whole cloth, create fear or confusion about it, then you knock it down. Saddam Hussein has proved to be very much of a straw man except he keeps walking out of court and defying the law. Who does he think he is, George W. Bush? And the only protectionism I've heard about comes from Republicans, horrified by our trade deficit, who wish to put tariffs on goods coming from other countries who's labor is cheaper than ours. Bush realizes his corporate donors along the Texas border need that cheap labor, but he engages in doublespeak because the people who vote for him want to build a wall.
Bush says "freedom is on the march." Unfortunately, it's a forced march at bayonet point. If he has admitted intelligence failures caused him to "adjust" his battle plan, why in five years has he done nothing to improve our intelligence capabilities? What good does it do to read Americans' e-mail but miss the fact that the Palestinian elections are not going the way you thought? Bush pointedly warned Hamas about conditions they must meet before being recognized by the United States. My question is, do you think they care? The Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization to represent them right under the nose, and financial aid, of the U.S. government. Are they concerned that the Bush administration scolded them? Judging from the news footage from the West Bank, the outcome of this election could have been predicted by the administration just from finding out who had the concession for green baseball hats in Nablus.
It has reached the sad point where it does not matter what the President says. Most people just don't believe him anymore. Last night, Bush read a Karl Rove "strategeried" speech poorly. It was a waste of an hour for all concerned. Now that it's over, we can turn our attention this week to the largest case of corporate fraud ever, and hope that somewhere during the Enron trial it will be pointed out that they were the Bush team's major corporate donors since his first run for Governor of Texas. What I am eagerly awaiting is the State of the Union address for next year. I realize that it is twelve months away, but the mid-term elections are only ten months away. And if the American people have finally drawn the conclusion that our engineer and his crew are, and have been, asleep at the switch, they just may rise up in righteous indignation and decide to throw the bums out. In that case, without the cloak of a Republican Congress to protect him, next year's address may come while the President is under indictment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Come on, calendar! Meanwhile, no cloning Granny along with Fluffy to try and create a housecat that bakes cookies.
The wonderful thing about our President is that it does not matter what you say or write about him. He is not listening so he is not concerned. Bush is the walking example of the axiom "ignorance is bliss." As long as there is another hill to climb on his mountain bike, the world is a wonderful place. As evidenced by the State of the Union speech last night, that's too bad for the rest of us. Usually, Bush says whatever he needs to say to get through a crisis, (i.e. "We'll build back New Orleans better than ever," or, "Listening to Americans' conversations without a warrant is covered under Congress' vote to give the President power to wage war.")But last night, he did not even attempt that. It was the same old bovine leavings. "9/11, terrorists are trying to kill you, don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, God bless America, Git-R-Done."
Bush speaks of the dangers of isolationism and protectionism. Are we back to the Monroe Doctrine? Who in the United States is speaking of "isolationism" except President Bush? Back in college philosophy, we learned that such an argument is called a "straw man." You create a bogeyman from whole cloth, create fear or confusion about it, then you knock it down. Saddam Hussein has proved to be very much of a straw man except he keeps walking out of court and defying the law. Who does he think he is, George W. Bush? And the only protectionism I've heard about comes from Republicans, horrified by our trade deficit, who wish to put tariffs on goods coming from other countries who's labor is cheaper than ours. Bush realizes his corporate donors along the Texas border need that cheap labor, but he engages in doublespeak because the people who vote for him want to build a wall.
Bush says "freedom is on the march." Unfortunately, it's a forced march at bayonet point. If he has admitted intelligence failures caused him to "adjust" his battle plan, why in five years has he done nothing to improve our intelligence capabilities? What good does it do to read Americans' e-mail but miss the fact that the Palestinian elections are not going the way you thought? Bush pointedly warned Hamas about conditions they must meet before being recognized by the United States. My question is, do you think they care? The Palestinian people elected a terrorist organization to represent them right under the nose, and financial aid, of the U.S. government. Are they concerned that the Bush administration scolded them? Judging from the news footage from the West Bank, the outcome of this election could have been predicted by the administration just from finding out who had the concession for green baseball hats in Nablus.
It has reached the sad point where it does not matter what the President says. Most people just don't believe him anymore. Last night, Bush read a Karl Rove "strategeried" speech poorly. It was a waste of an hour for all concerned. Now that it's over, we can turn our attention this week to the largest case of corporate fraud ever, and hope that somewhere during the Enron trial it will be pointed out that they were the Bush team's major corporate donors since his first run for Governor of Texas. What I am eagerly awaiting is the State of the Union address for next year. I realize that it is twelve months away, but the mid-term elections are only ten months away. And if the American people have finally drawn the conclusion that our engineer and his crew are, and have been, asleep at the switch, they just may rise up in righteous indignation and decide to throw the bums out. In that case, without the cloak of a Republican Congress to protect him, next year's address may come while the President is under indictment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Come on, calendar! Meanwhile, no cloning Granny along with Fluffy to try and create a housecat that bakes cookies.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Clinton's Sin Pt.II:Hillary
Hillary Clinton has been listening to her political advisors again, and I'll bet that Bill is not one of them because she's getting bad advice. Her "Congress as Plantation" remark in a church in Harlem on Martin Luther King Day was hamfisted and insulting. Bill would have been much more nuanced and said something like, "the Republicans run Congress like a company store." Then he could have made his black reference so appealing that all those listening would believe they were in on the same inside joke. Bill grew up in 1950s Arkansas, and the cadence and pitch of black oratory come naturally to him. Hillary grew up in a Chicago suburb and attended private schools. Her attempt at relating to an African American church congregation sounded more like Vivian Leigh than Hattie McDaniels. Something happens to white people when they address a black audience. Their speech becomes more Southern and measured and if they receive a response from the audience, it starts feeling good to them and they believe that they, too, can pontificate like Martin Luther King,Jr. And before you know it, they're talking about plantations and what-not. This manner of speech coming from Mrs. Clinton in that setting can be called only one thing; pandering.
Since it is no secret that Mrs. Clinton is the frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nomination, she is attempting to position herself to become more palatable to middle America. Thus, last month she announced her co-sponsoring of a bill in Congress with Republican Senator Robert Bennett to criminalize flag burning, even though the Supreme Court has already determined that the symbolic act of burning the flag is free speech protected by the First Amendment. That was then and this is now. A new Supreme Court with a decidedly conservative bent may decide to revisit the issue. If the bill has Hillary's name on it, she may look more patriotic to the yee-haws but ultimately, it won't work. Liberals know who she is and where she came from and so do Conservatives. Her stance in this matter is pure posturing and everyone can see it but her. This insults both the left and the right and though Hillary may well capture the 2008 nomination, I believe she will get rolled like George McGovern in 1972. She is as polarizing a figure as Bush and is perceived as someone who cares more about political power than the issues. The real shame is that this is a perception of her own construction.
So it is also with my hometown Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist. Junior is the son of the patriarch of the most powerful black political dynasty the city of Memphis has ever seen. He has been cautious to avoid the sort of rough racial politics his uncles and aunts played in the 70s and 80s. Yet, because he is positioning himself to be acceptable to the conservative voters of East Tennessee, he voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. This from a young man educated at the University of Michigan who inherited his father's congressional seat before he even graduated. This smacks of hypocrisy. I don't think he really believes in his vote, and instead tried to execute a "stealth" vote after the issue was already decided to show conservative voters he was no liberal like Dad. If Congressman Ford, Jr. actually believes that an amendment to the Constitution is needed to prevent gays from marrying, then it is doubly troubling. Regardless of how you feel about Jr.'s controversial family, they were political and civil rights pioneers, and it would be deeply upsetting to know that a person who benefited from the advances in civil rights would attempt to pass a constitutional amendment denying those same rights to others.
I am sick to death of political posturing and the ever increasing influence of the political advisor. It was widely reported and heavily criticized that in one phone conversation between Bill Clinton and his advisor Dick Morris, Morris put one of his call girls on the line to listen in on the President. When Bush was elected, however, Karl Rove went ahead and moved the entire whorehouse into the West Wing. Rove has proven how so much power in the hands of an unelected official can be misused with impunity. My sense is that voters are also tired of the political advisor and yearn for someone to emerge with real convictions and sincere intentions.
Last month, Senator Barack Obama spoke about his political philosophy and leveled a sober critique of the current government in a speech sponsored by the family of the late Senator Robert Kennedy. Ethel Kennedy was so impressed, she was quoted as saying that Obama reminded her of Bobby at that age because of his intelligence and his conviction. Obama is a freshman senator and needs more experience in office, but he seems to be the type of honest and forthright speaker this nation is seeking in a candidate. And in the three years before the next election, perhaps someone will rise from obscurity to capture that national imagination like Jimmy Carter did in 1976. Or a man of the people like West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin could be thrust into the forefront by unpredictable events.
I hope that whoever is the eventual Democratic nominee will get there without pandering or talking down to the American voter. And if there is to be any tampering with the constitution to garner votes, I hope someone will propose to do away with the 22nd Amendment setting Presidential term limits. This bill was forced into law by Republicans who were tired of being clobbered by FDR. Term limits thwart the will of the people by setting an artificial and arbitrary time for the President to retire. This seems to be the antithesis of true Democracy and counter-productive to our society. If we could repeal the 22nd, it would put an end to the problem of lame duckism and allow our chief executive to concentrate on the problems of the nation other than raising money for the next election. What I'm attempting to say is that I believe Bill Clinton is now ready to be President. Why settle for a pandering Hillary when we could have a contrite and polished Bill?
Since it is no secret that Mrs. Clinton is the frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nomination, she is attempting to position herself to become more palatable to middle America. Thus, last month she announced her co-sponsoring of a bill in Congress with Republican Senator Robert Bennett to criminalize flag burning, even though the Supreme Court has already determined that the symbolic act of burning the flag is free speech protected by the First Amendment. That was then and this is now. A new Supreme Court with a decidedly conservative bent may decide to revisit the issue. If the bill has Hillary's name on it, she may look more patriotic to the yee-haws but ultimately, it won't work. Liberals know who she is and where she came from and so do Conservatives. Her stance in this matter is pure posturing and everyone can see it but her. This insults both the left and the right and though Hillary may well capture the 2008 nomination, I believe she will get rolled like George McGovern in 1972. She is as polarizing a figure as Bush and is perceived as someone who cares more about political power than the issues. The real shame is that this is a perception of her own construction.
So it is also with my hometown Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist. Junior is the son of the patriarch of the most powerful black political dynasty the city of Memphis has ever seen. He has been cautious to avoid the sort of rough racial politics his uncles and aunts played in the 70s and 80s. Yet, because he is positioning himself to be acceptable to the conservative voters of East Tennessee, he voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. This from a young man educated at the University of Michigan who inherited his father's congressional seat before he even graduated. This smacks of hypocrisy. I don't think he really believes in his vote, and instead tried to execute a "stealth" vote after the issue was already decided to show conservative voters he was no liberal like Dad. If Congressman Ford, Jr. actually believes that an amendment to the Constitution is needed to prevent gays from marrying, then it is doubly troubling. Regardless of how you feel about Jr.'s controversial family, they were political and civil rights pioneers, and it would be deeply upsetting to know that a person who benefited from the advances in civil rights would attempt to pass a constitutional amendment denying those same rights to others.
I am sick to death of political posturing and the ever increasing influence of the political advisor. It was widely reported and heavily criticized that in one phone conversation between Bill Clinton and his advisor Dick Morris, Morris put one of his call girls on the line to listen in on the President. When Bush was elected, however, Karl Rove went ahead and moved the entire whorehouse into the West Wing. Rove has proven how so much power in the hands of an unelected official can be misused with impunity. My sense is that voters are also tired of the political advisor and yearn for someone to emerge with real convictions and sincere intentions.
Last month, Senator Barack Obama spoke about his political philosophy and leveled a sober critique of the current government in a speech sponsored by the family of the late Senator Robert Kennedy. Ethel Kennedy was so impressed, she was quoted as saying that Obama reminded her of Bobby at that age because of his intelligence and his conviction. Obama is a freshman senator and needs more experience in office, but he seems to be the type of honest and forthright speaker this nation is seeking in a candidate. And in the three years before the next election, perhaps someone will rise from obscurity to capture that national imagination like Jimmy Carter did in 1976. Or a man of the people like West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin could be thrust into the forefront by unpredictable events.
I hope that whoever is the eventual Democratic nominee will get there without pandering or talking down to the American voter. And if there is to be any tampering with the constitution to garner votes, I hope someone will propose to do away with the 22nd Amendment setting Presidential term limits. This bill was forced into law by Republicans who were tired of being clobbered by FDR. Term limits thwart the will of the people by setting an artificial and arbitrary time for the President to retire. This seems to be the antithesis of true Democracy and counter-productive to our society. If we could repeal the 22nd, it would put an end to the problem of lame duckism and allow our chief executive to concentrate on the problems of the nation other than raising money for the next election. What I'm attempting to say is that I believe Bill Clinton is now ready to be President. Why settle for a pandering Hillary when we could have a contrite and polished Bill?
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