Peacemongering

The Iraq War turns ten today. The heaviness of that sentence does not escape me. I never supported it.

Ten years ago, I lived on the Mendocino Coast with the man and my two then school-age daughters. My memories of that phase of our lives are fairly bleak. The man was struggling with some mid-life issues, mostly with his family of origin. He was depressed and I felt helpless to help him. I wondered whether our relationship would survive those harsh days. Thankfully, it did. He went through his own personal hell, and came out of it stronger and much wiser. His issues with his family were worked out, and he enjoyed a renewed relationship with his dad. Which I am so grateful for, since his father died just six years or so later.

We both worked full-time--he at the local brewery, me at the local coffee company. We lived next to the harbor, where we could smell the sea and hear sea lions barking. That region is one of the last bastions of raw, rugged beauty left in California, and we were thrilled to have moved there from the central Sierras about a year and a half earlier. My daughters were 10 and 16, had good friends, and a supportive, loving family.

The man and I were still disgusted that Bush II had slithered into office, and was now beating the drums of war. Because, he told us, we had to keep America safe from more attacks like on 9/11.
Even though Saddam and Iraq were not responsible for that day, nor did they possess the capability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, which we were led to believe. And which many DID believe, blindly.

The mood at home during that period was increasingly somber,
and we adults felt voiceless and powerless as we continued to express our disagreement with the now inevitable invasion of Iraq. At work, we were both surprisingly outnumbered by those who thought we had no other alternative, and the anti-war protests in our town were matched by very vocal, very redneck-ish groups of war supporters. Even my own father, a lifelong progressive democrat and pacifist, was reluctant to voice any dissent. He just wasn't sure it was wrong. Yet.

But it was wrong, and it is still wrong. Millions of people's lives have been and will continue to be impacted in countless ways, mostly of the horrific variety. We apparently have learned nothing from the Vietnam war... Which my hero, Rachel Maddow
reported on last night. It seems that some L.B.J. audio tapes have surfaced, from the Thursday before the 1968 presidential election. The year that Dick Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey by a narrow margin. President Johnson was very close to a peace treaty with Vietnam. In fact, he even made a speech to the American public that an end to the war was within reach. Days within reach, even. Tricky Dick managed to back burner the democrats plan to end the war, since that would have almost certainly spelled defeat for republicans, if the democrats stopped the war. He said that we should hold off and let him take office first, and then he could stop the Vietnam war in a more practical manner. Nixon won that year, and the war we could have ended went on for five more years. All in the name of political victory.. How many additional lives were lost or otherwise decimated during that five year span?


I'm tired of war, and war profiteering, and increasing numbers of young people coming home destroyed by this illegal war. Even if they were lucky enough to come home alive, and not lose limbs, they are too often seriously damaged... With not enough support here to recover from all manner of PTSD. These soldiers will be our police, firefighters, and school bus drivers in the near future.
Even though they could have unchecked serious emotional and mental health issues. I find that worrisome-and tragic.


So, forgive me for not patting myself on the back today. I never wanted this war or the war in Afghanistan to begin with. I believe strongly in the power of peace, still. And always will.

Smiling Faces Tell Lies

It's almost over. Kind of like a horse race, when you wish someone would put that poor, injured horse out of his misery. These are good days to avert my bleary eyes and do things like work outside. Watching my fellow citizens spew their long-held bigoted opinions as though they are somehow justified is just too much for me to take. I always knew that plenty of folks see the world much differently than me. What I didn't know is how stupid a certain segment of this country is. Scary stupid. And they've found their leader in John McCain.

Off to plant prunella vulgaris....

This Is The End

So... just viewing some of the republican convention. Wow. The crowd (and I use that term loosely) is not exactly diverse. If they are there to represent, yikes! It's a train wreck and I'm a-gawking. The contrast to last week's convention is palpable.

There aren't many wide shots, since there are a lot of empty seats. Like the whole upper section! Our first lady stayed true to her catatonic roots. Fred Thompson said 'my friends' almost as often as his candidate does. Sweet.

The Ronald Reagan promo piece reminded us all of those grand times, when he was president. (With "mommy's" help) I couldn't even watch LIEberman. And it's only Tuesday!

A really good week for gardening, I think.

I Won't. Back. Down.

Bear in mind that the last two elections were stolen.

Is It Just Me?

Although his opinions have sickened me for many years, I feel as though I should express that I am saddened as a fellow human that Mr. Novak is one of cancer's latest victims. Because that does suck. I've lost enough people in my life to know that to my core.

Additionally, I can't help wondering how many (other) fellow humans are dead as a result of this man. I feel compassion and disdain for him at the same time. Weird.

Or does Robert Novak remind anyone else of Simon Bar Sinister?

*Update: My man begs to differ. He says that Richard Perle, one of the key architects of the Iraq war is the real Simon Bar Sinister look-alike.

Same As The Old Boss

What's new? Still moving in. I must be older, because it's taking forever. I really will take some pictures here one of these days. Just haven't been inspired much lately. Go figure. We begin the task of painting the kitchen this weekend, among other tasks. The house is really something. I still wake up amazed that we are here, despite the work ahead.

I am noticing racism more and more. It's everywhere. Carefully disguised to blatant. Luckily, I feel all warm and happy inside when I imagine these folks on election and then inauguration day. Deal with it, you ignorant fools. A new world is fast approaching, and your time is UP! The same with the religious fanatic homophobes. Go crawl back in your caves, cretins. If people want to marry, let them. I for one am avoiding that particular institution these days, but if others choose to tie the knot, so be it. Hey, we've made it for over nine years without a wedding-why jinx it?! Besides, as a recovering catholic girl, I rather like living in sin. (mmmmmmmmmm...sin)

School's out in less than two weeks. It's been rocky, but we made it through the sophomore year. Two more years and my youngest child goes out into the world. I sure hope it improves between now and then. I feel sad for all the young people just starting their lives in this recession-bound economy. Not fair in the least. And nothing like the world I went out into in 1974. We thought Nixon and Vietnam were bad---that was nothing compared to now. I never thought I'd be saying that.

Okay, So

I was going to write about the new place and life in general. Instead, more ugly images. Something that is really bugging me. I have noticed a trend in a few blogs out there. People stating that they will vote for John McCain if Barack Obama wins the nomination. Are you (fucking) kidding? Talk about your sore losers.

I detest Hillary Clinton as a candidate, but would not hesitate to cast my vote for her to beat McCain in November. I am really shocked at the stubborn stupidity of this sort of non-thinking. Have these last 8 years taught them NOTHING? How selfish. I can say in all honesty that this makes me really angry. Hence the spooky photo montage.

Sorry. Sometimes it's hard for me to not pay attention. Which is why the blog break was good.

John McBomb

Caption, anyone?

This Is The End

Back to our regularly featured McCain image...
Begs a clever caption, right? Have at it.

Dick Cavett has some thoughts about the General Petraeus/Ambassador Crocker debacle of last week.

Forty Years On...

Martin Luther King Jr.

Are we there yet?

Think !

Before you slip back into apathy (if applicable) consider this photograph.
Please.

Here's a Mark Fiore Funny.

Public Service

Listen, I don't particularly like looking at his mug on my blog anymore than you do. I consider it my duty as a citizen and a blogger to remind people who the republican nominee is. Often, until the general election. There~you've been forewarned. Apologies in advance if the images upset or repulse you. They should.

Who's Your Daddy?

The R Word

What would it take for you to hit the streets? Just wondering.

Monkey To Man

Consider this:
Last week, at end of the working day. Me-refilling my water bottle for the 1.5 mile walk home. In strolls one of the network dudes. I say something about the California primary energy really picking up. He says: "You must take all of that fairly seriously" I tell him that if seriously means that I am paying attention, then yes. Also that I had voted in every presidential election since 1976, when I voted for (guess who?)

I told him I hoped Hillary wouldn't win here. He said he thought she probably would. I say he shouldn't count Obama out yet. He looks mortified, and proclaims that he'd never vote for him, strictly because of his middle and last names.This isn't Oklahoma, mind you. It's Nor Cal. And this young man is a well-paid, college-educated, very savvy network guy. I was stunned. The walk home felt really good that day.

People sure do scare me sometimes. No wonder I hide away more and more.
Take it, Declan.

Trouble Every Day

The 935 Lies Of George W. Bush

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Oh sweet Jesus, someone actually counted.

Two independent nonprofit journalism groups apparently took enough laudanum and beat down whatever healthy sense of human decency they had in order to plunge straight into that quivering mountain of incompetence that is the official record of the Bush administration, all the false quotes and all the lie-strewn press conferences and all the squinty-eyed fabrications from Dubya, Colin Powell, Condi and Cheney and Rummy et al, that took place in the two years after September 11, 2001, and added them all up.

Is it helpful to know the exact number? Does it make a difference? After all, presidential lying isn't exactly a revelation. Pretty much a national pastime, really. Hell, Bill Clinton lied in a harmless civil lawsuit, and was even impeached for it. Of course, his little oral fixation didn't lead us into an unwinnable trillion-dollar war that will scar the nation for multiple generations and which has wasted 4,000 American lives and resulted in tens of thousands of wounded, crippled and brain-damaged U.S. soldiers. But that's just splitting hairs, really.

After all, it's common knowledge that, say, George Bush Sr. lied about Iran-Contra and "read my lips," Ronald Reagan lied like a nasty old rug about Iran and aiding the Contras, Lyndon Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to gain support for the Vietnam war, Harry Truman probably lied about Hiroshima and John F. Kennedy probably lied about the Bay of Pigs and, well, all presidents lie, really, to some degree or another and with varying degrees of success and historic consequence. Is it not sort of pointless to whine about it?

Fair enough. But there is something truly special about Bush 43. Something so unique, so poisonous and strange that historians are busy right this minute rewriting not only their books, but their entire way of thinking about how we measure and interpret political malfeasance.

It has to do with matters of scale. It has to do with audacity, with sheer recklessness, with BushCo's stunning contempt for all national and international law and historic precedent and human decency. It is the sense that, at bare minimum, the most significant lies told by previous administrations were, by and large, not massive, calculated stabs to the very heart and infrastructure of the entire nation. They were not designed, as Bush's clearly were, specifically to pervert the entire American experiment, to violently shift us from peace-promoting and defense-oriented protector to an arrogant, insular, pre-emptive attacker, widely loathed and mistrusted worldwide.

See, BushCo rewrote the formulas. From WMD to tax cuts, AmeriCorp to Iraq, this administration has officially reset the bar to an all-time low as to what's possible for a truly dreadful, inept president to get away with without some sort of significant repercussion, impeachment, numerous lightning bolts raining down on his soft little monkey skull. Sure, it took leveraging America's most brutal and heartbreaking tragedy in a generation to pull it off, but does the fact the administration exploited 9/11 like a pedophile exploits a child take anything away from the astonishing depth of the abuse?

But maybe you still argue that, even at a whopping 935 calculated lies told specifically to lead us into a bogus war, it makes no difference. Maybe you argue that a lie is a lie and Bush is no better or worse than Clinton or Reagan and here is a giant cocktail of jaded, raging apathy. Let's all chug it together, shall we?

Fine. If it's a fact that all presidents lie anyway, if there's little we can do to stop them, then let us put forth a new hope. Let us now wish for the next president to lie just as passionately, as powerfully, as strategically as BushCo, and get away with it just as extraordinarily.

But let's make one significant change. Let's urge the new president to lie, well, in the other direction, to lie not in the service of horrific war or in the name of powermongering or so as to line the pockets of corporate cronies, or even to cover up stupid personal behavior, but rather in the name of sliding through an agenda of — oh my God can you believe I'm going to say it? Peace, nonviolence, international respect, humanitarianism, sex positivism, religious tolerance, progressive education. I know. Crazy.

Yes. Give us now a president who lies, calculatedly and strategically, straight in the face of the hard right neocons and the evangelicals and the corporate cretins. Let his or her army of lies lull these groups into a false sense of complacency and/or utter soul-deadening fear so they will keep their mouths shut while the rest of us get some real work done.

"As an angry, well-armed God is my witness, I will never push through a national handgun ban," would be a good lie for this new president, thus shutting up the NRA and assuaging the bogus American cowboy mythology, as his army of crazy hippies do the exact opposite and quietly work to make the nation safer and more humane. The horror! The outcry! Whatever.

Or how about this: "All foreign religions clearly hate and wish harm upon America, and therefore it shall be the policy of this administration to never, under any circumstances, attempt to understand other beliefs, to open our schools and textbooks to include honest religious information, or generally reeducate the absolutist, Christian-drunk American populace." And then begin a quiet, subversive national program to revolutionize the spiritual IQ of upcoming generations. The terrible lie!

"America must remain aggressive and antagonistic to all questionable nations who do not cower properly to our demands. We shall close our borders and police the Internet and maintain nasty vigilance on all citizens at all times. This is the only way to true national security." What's the direct opposite of such a promise? Do it, prez!

"And finally, I shall never abolish the death penalty, legalize marijuana, approve gay marriage, promote honest sex education for teens, honor habeas corpus and the Geneva Convention, or eliminate the insidious farm subsidy program. We shall never stop lying about ethanol or offer solar subsidies for every household in America. Our direct ties to horribly misogynistic, terrorist-supporting Saudi Arabian power regimes shall remain deeply corruptive and powerful forevermore."

Go ahead, Mr. or Mrs. Next President. Lie your tail off if you must. But this time, let's try to make it a real party.

He rules. Amid all the phony election year bickering, I think it's important to remember what's at stake this time around, and the issue most of us agree on. That is that the last seven- years (feels like decades) have destroyed a great deal, and we have to insure that the republicans are not given another chance to fuck up the world. Although the democratic candidates will never be all things to all people (not even close), we have to stop the madness.

Waterboarding Makes A Comeback

Check this page out: waterboarding.org

via BoingBoing

and

Yesterday's Special Comment on Waterboarding and Torture
Keith Olbermann

I realize that a post like this elicits undesirable thoughts. Pretty photos are so much more pleasant. The concept of torture-as-an-interrogative-tool has been in my head. It makes me sick, to be associated with the people that consider this a viable option. If you now support or previously supported this insane administration, you've basically rubber-stamped the practice of torture. Which is illegal, immoral, and a sad reminder that we are really not evolved. Are you O.K. with that? Can you say Spanish Inquisition? Sure, I knew you could.

Every Picture Tells A Story, Don't It?

Code Pink protester Desiree Farooz confronts Condoleeza Rice with blood-stained hands, calling the Secretary of State a war criminal who should be tried at the Hague.

Turkey Before Thanksgiving?

Turkey Sends More Troops To Iraq Border

Truth Or Fiction?

Last Night's Real Time Shake-up
(via Raw Story)

Who saw Bill Maher last night? It was wild. There were some in the audience who were representing the 9/11 Truthers ...The folks who believe that 9/11 was an inside job. A while back, Bill said some disparaging things about them, because he does not believe their theory. Even if they are wrong, shouldn't he at least give them a forum to discuss and debate this obviously intense issue? I mean, a large percentage of the populous believes it. I would guess that their numbers will grow.

My thoughts about it? So much deception has been perpetrated upon us all.
Is it that much of a mental stretch to at least wonder about the details. Like the collapse of Building 7 ,for instance? It's abundantly clear that there will always be Americans who are just not willing to entertain such scary, controversial ideas. I've learned a lot about that phenomenon, these last six or so years. This conclusion breaks my heart. Especially seeing it occur in some that I know and love. Battle lines have been quietly drawn. Us and them, to some degree. Even (my beloved) Bill Maher has chosen a side. Why is he afraid to talk about it? He discussed Ellen Degenerates meltdown, for fuck's sake. Obviously, Maher answers to big media. His bosses. He is certainly not as liberal as he claims to be.



While I am not (yet) 100% convinced about the Truthers theories, I absolutely believe that this insane government will do anything necessary to achieve it's goal of Middle East domination. Anything. What do you think? The link up there takes you to last evening's shake-up. Something tells me we have not seen the last of civil disobedience like this. Especially on live shows. When people get pissed-off enough about not being heard, they eventually rise up and fight for it. Remember?