Headlines

Headlines

After 24 years, Dan Rather will be stepping down as CBS anchor, effective March 9, 2005. Also, see Whither Dan Rather, SF Chronicle editorial.
Note: I agree there will be a temptation, especially among Dan Rather's legion of rabid right-wing critics, to attribute his departure to the forged-documents scandal. I find it interesting that he is going out on this controversial note, because he spent his entire career vociferously chasing down and exposing the most corrupt politicians. This was a fight to the finish, and even with his mistake, knowing that he was trying to expose George W Bush in a realistic light is not something I consider to be evil. We're living in a time when too many media stars are licking the boots of the Bushites, and we got an unnecessary war handed to us because of it. Talk about lies! Rather's rushed mistake cost him - and only him. Bush's rushed lies to take us to the Iraq war have killed a hundred thousand, and the count is not yet final.

Our Moral Values, by George Lakoff, The Nation, November 18, 2004
"We came together because of our moral values: care and responsibility, fairness and equality, freedom and courage, fulfillment in life, opportunity and community, cooperation and trust, honesty and openness. These are traditional American values and principles, what we are proudest of in this country. The Democrats' failure was a failure to put forth our moral vision, celebrate our values and principles, and shout them out loud.."
[RELATED: Cast Away- Our Vanished Values- Where they went, and why—and how they might come back, by Michael Feingold, Village Voice, November 9th, 2004]


Intelligence Reform: If Not Now, When? (2 Letters to Editor, NYT)
Here, you'll find two letters to the NY Times editors.
The first is from Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband Ronald was killed in the terror attack in NYC on 9/11. She's disgusted. Can you blame her?

The second letter makes a point similar to my own on November 4. I had said: "President Bush wonders why Washington D.C .is bitter. He still wonders that, after four years? Is he daft? Is he that much of an overly sensitive boob? Does he not understand that he has had a direct effect on the DC mood and environment?"

Hugh Crossin from Walnut Creek, California says:

"In the third debate, President Bush expressed his disappointment at how partisan Washington politics has become. In this instance, when the "war on terror" is actually the subject, the president must either confront the Hastert-DeLay tactics or accept responsibility for the continuing, partisan disorder."

Americans Show Clear Concerns on Bush Agenda
By Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder, NYT, November 23, 2004
"[Bush] won despite the fact that Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy, foreign affairs and the war in Iraq. Americans now have a better opinion of the Democratic Party than of the Republican Party; 31 percent of respondents said they thought that evangelical Christians had too much influence over the administration; 66 percent said they thought big business had too much influence over the administration; 48 percent of the respondents said they believed four more years of a Bush presidency would divide the nation more than it would unite it; Americans were evenly divided on whether television, movies and books were including too many gay themes and characters; Americans said they opposed changing the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which Mr. Bush campaigned on in the final weeks of his campaign.."


Chasing Its Tale - The Chron gets scooped on Bush -- by one of its own, by Michael Serazio, Houston Press
"The gems that emerged from their conversations had Baker believing that he'd stumbled upon a "self-scoop" -- one that might even affect the election. According to Baker's report, Herskowitz said that Bush felt frustrated with his image as an "underachiever" compared to his father, that he had "failed" to complete his National Guard requirement during the Vietnam War and that his private business efforts had been "floundering." Perhaps most consequential: Herskowitz said that Bush had Iraq on his "to do" list as early as 1999. "[Bush] said, 'If I have a chance to invade…if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it,' " Baker writes, adding later that the ellipses were for a pause and not words omitted.."


Hawks push deep cuts in forces in Iraq, by Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, November 22, 2004
My Notes: Ken Adelman has shown himself to be a completely untrustworthy failure. Bush will cut and run, I'll bet. He knows his long-desired folly has been a sheer disaster. God forgive us for what we've done to Iraq- its infrastructure and its people. I predict these neoCons who got us into this mess and want us out of Iraq now will bring us to the brink of a new regime-changing war in Iran.

EXCERPT:
"..a report completed over the summer calling for a complete pullout next year has struck a chord...."Our large, direct presence has fueled the Iraqi insurgency as much as it has suppressed it," said Michael Vickers, a conservative-leaning Pentagon consultant and longtime senior CIA official who supported the war. Retired Army Major General William Nash, the former NATO commander in Bosnia, said: "I resigned from the 'we don't have enough troops in Iraq' club four months ago. We have too many now." ..President Bush has said the US military will stay "as long as necessary" to set the country 'on the path toward democracy'...Even leading war supporters such as Max Boot, an influential neoconservative thinker derided by critics as one of those who believe the United States must stick it out for an undetermined amount of time, contends that the US presence is beginning to threaten long-term goals..."Bush will surprise his opponents by disengaging from Iraq," predicted Edward Luttwak, a longtime Pentagon consultant who has argued that the push to create a democracy in Iraq will prove futile...Said Ken Adelman, a member of the Defense Policy Board who predicted the Iraq war would be a "cakewalk": "If there is a [stable] Iraqi government after January you can withdraw. I would be OK with that."


Josh Marshall's eagerness to find out more about who in the GOP caucus was for and who was against the "DeLay rule" -- the new rule allowing Tom DeLay (R-TX) and future indictees to continue in their House leadership roles after being indicted-- has caused him to do some great investigation. Read Talking Points Memo to update yourself on the developments as they occur.

Josh is also tenaciously keeping up with the "Istook amendment" story.

Petition: Draft Howard Dean for DNC Chair

Petition: Draft Howard Dean for DNC Chair

There is no substitute for the real thing.

Go here.

From an e-mail from the DraftHoward.com group:

"Here are some things that we need to remember as the debate goes on:

This is a contest between centrists. All of those being mentioned have centrist bona fides. Some pundits, egged on by a delighted GOP, insist on some ideological divide in our party -- but evidence of such a divide in scarce. Bill Clinton's two terms as president set the new paradigm for the Democratic Party and everyone in this race has followed his lead on innovative, moderate policy. As for Dean, centrist groups like the DLC praised Dean's re-election as Governor of Vermont.

This is a contest between the establishment and the reformers. We must decide between a party of insiders, lobbyists and consultants who want to keep the status quo, and a party that looks to real people, small donors and new ideas. Howard Dean -- who breathed new life into the party with his campaign -- is the candidate of reform. The people who oppose Dean believe that the party is on the right path. The insiders even admit that they don't want change: Rep. Bob Matsui, who chaired the DCCC this cycle, said recently, "We need someone who is part of the Democratic establishment. Someone who is more of a known quantity."

This contest has nothing to do with policy issues. The vast majority of Democrats — including Dean and virtually all of the other potential chairmen -- agree that we need health care for everyone, but not a single-payer, government-run system. And that we need to invest in schools, but only while balancing our budgets at the same time. And that the world's strongest military is much stronger when it leads a global alliance built on our moral leadership and sustained by trust and respect for America.

This is a contest about who we are. Are we a party that says, "We're for everything the president says, except for the truly horrible things"? Or are we a party that says "This is our agenda of new ideas and fundamental reform"? Do we hem and haw, and let Republicans dictate the terms of debate? Or do we define ourselves, our values and our ideas on our own terms? Do we worry, fear, and play defense? Or do we speak clearly, stand up for ourselves, and play offense?

We need a leader who will not only convince America that we are right — we need a leader who will inspire us to stand up for the fundamental values we know are right.

Make sure you forward this email to everyone you know who cares about the future of our party. And ask that they sign the petition:

www.drafthoward.com

You can also write to any DNC member about why we need to Draft Howard as our next leader. We have all the information on the site.

Please send along your ideas about how we can promote our cause and what you can do to help. Thank you so much for joining and I will be in touch again soon.

Sincerely,
Kevin Thurman
contact@drafthoward.com
DraftHoward.com"

Poem: A Miracle Complete

A Miracle Complete

Crimson rose through cracked macadam
Waters flow ‘neath world-worn feet
Troubles in this life, I’ve had ‘em
Our love reveals a miracle complete

Hard packed clay can’t stop the thrust
Of desert flow’rs on this high plain
Move toward sun for which they lust
Your friendship will restore my faith again.

Some say God grows from these places
Ethereal light hid by arid day
From those myst’rious rigid spaces
Awareness. the path on which I find my way

Delicate extrusions surprise the doubtful
Thomas would have felt this pain
Until he touched the gentle crop
Whose seeds encase the bounteous ambient rain.

Your love
Your friendship
Gives me faith
I find my way
I feel the rain
A miracle
A miracle
Complete

- by Jude Nagurney Camwell

*Note- During this Thanksgiving week, this poem is dedicated to my friends, my lovers, my fellow-dreamers. I'm eternally grateful for the gift you've brought to me, each in your own way.

Jet Crash-Was to Have Carried "41"

Jet Crash-Was to Have Carried "41"

It's a shame about the jet that went down this morning. My condolences to the families of the victims.

"41" must have many mixed feelings today. Sorrow for his would-be companions, gratefulness to God he wasn't on the jet when it went down.

Kevin Sites: Open Letter to Marines

"The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you'll become.

-Kevin Sites

Kevin Sites:
Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1

Kevin Sites gives his assessment of what he saw in the November mosque shooting, which he happened to catch on video in the course of performing his professional duties. (See my original post). I wish there were more like him. I'm sure there are, we just aren't hearing from them.

I believe Kevin sees his job the same way I wish all freedom-loving Americans would see it. Some questions are very hard to ask. But we have to start somewhere, don't we?

excerpt:

I'm also well aware from many years as a war reporter that there have been times, especially in this conflict, when dead and wounded insurgents have been booby-trapped, even supposedly including an incident that happened just a block away from the mosque in which one Marine was killed and five others wounded. Again, a detail that was clearly stated in my television report.

No one, especially someone like me who has lived in a war zone with you, would deny that a solider or Marine could legitimately err on the side of caution under those circumstances. War is about killing your enemy before he kills you.

In the particular circumstance I was reporting, it bothered me that the Marine didn't seem to consider the other insurgents a threat -- the one very obviously moving under the blanket, or even the two next to me that were still breathing.

I can't know what was in the mind of that Marine. He is the only one who does.

But observing all of this as an experienced war reporter who always bore in mind the dark perils of this conflict, even knowing the possibilities of mitigating circumstances -- it appeared to me very plainly that something was not right. According to Lt. Col Bob Miller, the rules of engagement in Falluja required soldiers or Marines to determine hostile intent before using deadly force. I was not watching from a hundred feet away. I was in the same room. Aside from breathing, I did not observe any movement at all.

and-

For those who don't practice journalism as a profession, it may be difficult to understand why we must report stories like this at all -- especially if they seem to be aberrations, and not representative of the behavior or character of an organization as a whole.

The answer is not an easy one.

In war, as in life, there are plenty of opportunities to see the full spectrum of good and evil that people are capable of. As journalists, it is our job is to report both -- though neither may be fully representative of those people on whom we're reporting. For example, acts of selfless heroism are likely to be as unique to a group as the darker deeds. But our coverage of these unique events, combined with the larger perspective - will allow the truth of that situation, in all of its complexities, to begin to emerge. That doesn't make the decision to report events like this one any easier. It has, for me, led to an agonizing struggle -- the proverbial long, dark night of the soul.....

finally-

....when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera -- the story of his death became my responsibility.

The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.

I pray for your soon and safe return.

The Company of Other Goodnesses

All lovers of the spiritual life know the name Rumi, great mystic Sufi poet. But until now, only a scholarly few were aware of the gifts of his father, Bahauddin, 12th-century Persian religious leader. Coleman Barks, poet and admirer of Rumi, and John Moyne, a Persian linguist, have collaborated to correct this deficit and introduce Bahauddin to a more popular audience...

-from a review of The Drowned Book



The Company of Other Goodnesses

..There are lines of sacred poetry that say if the objective is valid, you should take the path all the way to the end and not mind the suffering. If the goal, though, is not true, you will be wasting time no matter what comes of your effort. It's like turning gold into copper. Everybody loses.

Good projects succeed in the company of other goodnesses. If you pass through a cloud of soot, you will feel the grime descend. As you walk the orchard musk, you feel absorbed in fragrance.

This world is an open sky and also a dustbin, giving life to some and death to others; the outcomes are not controlled by this world. Press your finger into the world and put it to your nose. You may smell sweetness, or you may smell dung. Discernment is possible in these matters.



True hearts stay awake if love is possible. The others have no need for beauty, nor hope of it.

If you are holding gold in your hand, don't imagine ways to turn it into mud.

Sunday Recommendations

Sunday Recommendations

To European Friends: Explaining the 2004 Election Disaster, By Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers." November 16, 2004
"Foreigners have difficulty understanding how Bush could have done so well in the election. Here's an attempt to explain how and why Bush may have won, and why Kerry may have lost. The answers aren't always pretty."


Absolute Power Erupts, By Maureen Dowd, NYT
"It's a paradoxical game plan: imposing democracy abroad while impeding it here."

House Republicans Block Intelligence Reform, by Mary Curtius, LA Times
"Defying their leadership and direct appeals from President Bush and Vice President Cheney, two powerful House Republicans on Saturday blocked intelligence reform legislation that would put a single director in charge of the nation's spy agencies."

Getting Smart, by Karen Kwiatkowski, LewRockwell.com
"When we want to chuckle or point out a flaw in Washington, we may soon require a Cone of Silence."

Intelligence Overhaul Bill Blocked, by Babington & Pincus, WP

Congress Is Losing Leaders and Unifiers, by Dewar & Pianin, WP
"The numbers themselves are modest, but it's quality that's lost," said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, who studies Congress. While Congress is an "extremely adaptable institution" with a constantly changing membership, it is losing some of its best bridge-builders as well as party leaders -- "a huge loss of experience and wisdom of people who know how to get things done," he said."


There's no one left to stop them, by Paul Craig Roberts
"The United States is in dire straits. Its government is in the hands of people who connect to events neither rationally nor morally."


Depression -- And Its Activism Antidote -- Will Lead to Bush's Downfall, By Bernard Weiner Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers, April 7, 2003 (Blast from the past)
*You depressed? I'm depressed, I must admit. If you're a Democrat, if you love your country and are concerned about her and all her people, and you aren't depressed in the least bit, I suggest you check yourself for a pulse! The same radical right wing dolt is still at the wheel, and he's steering us directly toward the rocks of the shallows.

"Americanism", Paralysis, and Progress

"Americanism", Paralysis, and Progress
"Americanism" means freezing half a nation, wholesale
Forecast for Progress: cloudy skies, freezing reign



What is this notion of "Americanism"? How has one half a nation become paralyzed?

"If George W Bush wins, according to a scientist I met, who escaped Nazi-dominated Europe, America will surrender many of its democratic trappings and succumb to its totalitarian impulses."
-John Pilger, Nov 1, 2004

Muscle, when not used, suffers from atrophy. Democrats have become 98-lb weaklings and sand is regularly being kicked into our faces by the bullies of the new Washington DC. We Americans who wish to exercise our freedom are being restrained by an abuse of concentrated power in Washington. Those who were once-free are becoming weak, despite our effort to maintain our personal liberties. Our voices are choked by the powers that be, with the bootlickers of the near-worthless mainstream media, and most disturbingly, in concert with half a nation-full of individuals who seem to wish to cooperate with those wicked powers.

"In a supposedly free and open society, the degree of censorship by omission [in the US] is staggering.....The most enduring silence is that which guards the system that has produced these catastrophic events. This is Americanism, though it dares not speak its name, which is strange, as its opposite, anti-Americanism, has long been successfully deployed as a pejorative, catch-all response to critical analysis of an imperial system and its myths. Americanism, the ideology, has meant democracy at home, for some, and a war on democracy abroad."

-John Pilger

Make no mistake, we American citizens can be 'anti-Americanists' and still be as patriotic as James Madison or Thomas Jefferson. "Democracy for some" will never suffce in a land that bases its heritage in the promise of sweet freedom.

Thomas Jefferson said, in all his wisdom, with tongue firmly in cheek, that "a democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." And then, with his good mind attuned to an ideology that, if faltering, would fall on the side of freedom, said: "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

I hereby vow to be exposed to such inconveniences. Small degrees of liberty will not facilitate a strong and lasting nation. I will not abandon America, and I proclaim that I am pro-American while being an "anti-Americanist" for the sake of the good of my nation.

I love her, America, from 'sea to shining sea'. I won't leave her, as my divisive brethren suggest that I make a choice to love or leave her. I won't allow her to be laid to waste by those who allow the word "freedom" to roll cheaply out of their lips like three-hour old chewing gum to the waste basket as we await the next wad to go tasteless and useless to their lying tongues. I stand by Walt Whitman, who averred that "once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty."



A state of paralysis for meaningful progress in US foreign policy:
Iraq war has been wrong all along. How can we expect it to ever become "right"?

I respect every soldier that is doing their duty on the bloody streets of Iraq. I would rather be struck deaf, dumb, and blind than to sit here with my mouth shut tight and fail to point out that they have never belonged in that place, that they were lied to in order to obtain their loyal duty, and that we want them to come home now. Iraq was always the wrong focus, and I don't think John Kerry, as good a man he is, ever made that fact crystal clear. I think it's why he failed to get an overwhelming margin of support in the election. Many Americans were never made to understand the folly of the rush to this war (the media certainly never did their duty as truth-informers of a democratic society), and the American people were rendered paralyzed for lack of reality-based knowlege.



A continuum of paralysis:
The Middle East is the key. We know it. We've systematically ignored it at civilization's peril.

We all know what needs to be done to "settle up" on the terrorism issue. We need to resolve the Middle East crisis, and I don't mean Iraq, Iran, or Syria. I mean Israel and Palestine. A man can only look at his fellow man suffering for so long before he explodes with a pent-up rage. There are good people on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict who have suffered for far, far too long while we've sat here in big-sofa American comfort and paralzyed fear of offending the Jews. Heavy intimidation from hardline Israeli government should not deter America from her duty. An honorable, civil, and justice-minded American government would not be intimidated by false accusations of anti-Semitism. They would not rest until there was a path to Palestinian statehood, regardless of the never-ending violence between both sides. If we wait for an end to violence, we'll wait until the end of time.

Listen to this interview between John Pilger and Dori Gold, Senior Adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, and pay close attention to when Gold says 9/11 should have been a "wake-up call". He's wrong, you know. Terror wasn't born on 9/11/01, nor was it invisible before 9/11. Terror was a convenient tactic for some warriors to employ until it was tried on the American populace. A giant was, indeed, awakened that day, but history reminds us that tiny Israel and their Palestinian neighbors studied terror long before that fateful day.

If you think 9/11 had nothing to do with Israel and Palestine, I pity you and the entirety of civilization, because there will never be a necessary progression from a warring and hateful animal instinct; the progress that will be required to save us. We may as well blow ourselves up now to save some other power from doing it for us. We’re on the wrong path.

We've watched the Middle East burning with terror for nearly 60 years and have not been an honest broker for peace (although President Clinton really did try, attributing to great respect for him in the eyes of the world).

Paralyzed and wrong-minded, the Bush administration has paid only lip service to the reason for terrorism. If Palestinians began to hope that they were on a road to being an independent and supported state, 'terrorists' would be rendered obsolete and impotent. Why hasn't the Bush administration made an authentic, good-faith effort to begin a dialogue?

"What will happen if the nightmare in Iraq goes on? Perhaps those millions of worried Americans who are currently paralysed by wanting to get rid of Bush at any price will shake off their ambivalence, regardless of who wins on 2 November. Then, as during the civil rights campaign, the Vietnam war and the great movement to freeze nuclear weapons, will a giant awaken? One must trust so; the alternative is a war on the world."

-John Pilger

A paralyzed epilogue:

The word "paralysis" and "paralyzed" has appeared in my column today, quite a few times.

The writer James Joyce offered a strange and thoughtful exhibit of paralysis in the first paragraph of the first story in The Dubliners, titled "The Sisters". Joyce believed that the Irish society and culture, as well as the country’s economy, had been paralyzed for centuries by two forces. The first was the Roman Catholic Church, the teachings of which most Dubliners of Joyce’s day adhered to passionately. The second was England, which had conquered Ireland in the seventeenth century and resisted granting the country its independence until 1922. I cannot help but to draw parellels between Christian fundamentalism and the foreign policy known as "Americanism" with Joyce's own display of wretched paralysis:

"THERE was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse. He had often said to me: "I am not long for this world," and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.'

The end of my story? Well - it's up to all of us now. Will Pilger's imagined "giant" awaken or will we sit back on our sofas, say we can't do anything more about it, and watch our liberties, the rule of law, and civilization, as we know it, be smashed under the new Washington DC?

My first attempt to loosen my frozen and atrophying ‘muscles of liberty’ would be to suggest that we, of like-mind, must find a brand new self-descriptive name, because the perjorative connotations of the term “anti-Americanism” will never win an election for us.

Friday Recommendations

Friday Recommendations

I wrote an article for the American Street yesterday. Legislators and activists in the Republican party have been carrying things too far, deliberately driving our civil population farther and farther apart. It's time we began to see them for who they are. See: GOP: The Anti-Unity Party



Listen to Richard Reeves. I believe the man knows exactly what's going on.

"Looking back, I think [John Kerry] might have been better off if he denounced the war in Iraq as national folly -- if that is what he believes, and I don't know if it is."

"Rather than urge cautiousness, such automatic counter-claims quash all discussion of electoral fraud, as if the very notion were far-fetched. “This charge was false, so all charges must be wrong,” is the response that Karl Rove wants from us, as we will then conclude, conveniently for him, “Case closed!”.....

To forget or ignore all this and to accept—on faith—the mere say-so of Bush & Company (and our compliant media) is to make clear that you are not a member of what the Busheviks deride as “the reality-based community.” Those who help discredit false reports are doing that community, and this erstwhile democracy, a precious service. But, those who would abort the whole inquiry in the name of science or journalistic probity and “closure” are putting that community, and this nation, at grave risk."

- Mark Crispin Miller



I would like to say that I think that Evan Bayh is just about the most boring and uninspiring political creature currently existing on Planet Earth and I wish the mainstream media would stop featuring him as 'the next big thing'. I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of CNN telling me who my next candidate will be.

cabin (poem)

cabin
by Jude Nagurney Camwell


soul aroused by roaring elucidation
exhausts its remembrance of God
rumbling words like subway trains

junk of language cluttered
the greater the dignity of angels
the fewer the words they use


it’s said the Lord spoke to Hosea
“Allure the aristocrat’s soul to the
wilderness and I shall speak to her heart.”





moving our selves to move a world
striking out for new communion
emerging from an embodied quietude

we retreat to a cabin in the woods
pining for stillness, simplicity
we find Life is still Not simple








grey wolf stands atop the hill
motionless above the wooded glen
over a cabin and its complication

alone his breath blowing ice mist
meeting cold morning wan light
cryptic simplicity an unnecessary art







the jay unacquainted with compassion
or finding the safe haven of truth
is driven to toil for his gravid mate

his song jars us from reverie
Tull-ull the anvil call he makes
divinity dwells in dissyllabic notes

desiring enlightened days in fences captured
children of our jeweled intuition presently
fly like beams of light through our hopeful clutch





reflection too painful too loud
silence, caretaker of our wisest thought
haunts us like ghosts of the dead

wood floors sing their patterns
wind makes windows tell tales
Failed Solitude Cacophonous Elusion

any road will take us nowhere
if that is where we choose to be
this cabin is our last defense

the dead who make their world
in dreams safe from realms of fact
awaken us, recalling ancient dreams



faith is kept to the inner fires
we’ve carved the inroads to know
the cabin shall not burn to the ground




This poem of mine is featured today, at Billy the Blogging Poet's IdlehandsMag weblog. I'm a regular reader and I hope you will pay Billy a visit and enjoy the website as much as I do.

The Way It Is

The Way It Is

[I've chosen snippets of various articles around the internet. Read them and understand the way it is out here in 'left-out' America.]

--Thanks to the competent yet generous leadership of George W. Bush, the military invasion of Fallujah will certainly cure what ails us in Iraq. To be sure, the deaths of thousands of civilians will further inflame the Iraqi populace. To be sure, the number of 'insurgents' killed in Fallujah will be immediately replaced by fresh recruits. To be sure, fierce battles have erupted in Mosul, Tal Afar, Ramadi, Beiji, Baquba, Buhriz, Khabbaza, Baghdad, and indeed all across the country. To be sure, we will have to grind all these cities to powder, along with all the residents of these cities, to make sure no one thwarts our aforementioned God-given right to bomb and shoot and burn and smash whomever and whatever we please.

Fear not, however. All is well. [LINK]

--Gonzales goes from White House Counsel to Attorney General; Rice goes from NSC to State; Spellings goes from Domestic Policy Advisor to Education Secretary.

Each of them defined mainly by their loyalty to President Bush.

...the shift is not toward right, left or center, but toward more direct White House control and the silencing of dissident voices in the civil service. [LINK]


--House Republicans voted to change their rules today to allow members indicted for a felony to remain in a leadership post. [LINK]


--[The left is feeling abandoned]...
During the campaign, the Kerry campaign spent unlimited time, money and effort on denying the public the ability to vote for Ralph Nader. The attacks were political, personal, procedural---and endless.

But after spending all that energy attacking the left, the Kerry campaign lost to the most powerful and dangerous crew of right wing extremists this nation has ever seen---and then had no time at all to make sure the vote count was fair or accurate. Kerry's hurried, feeble plea that George W. Bush heal the wounds of disunity in this country must have been greeted with gales of laughter in Karl Rove's White House.

At the grassroots, among those of us who labored long and hard to unseat that vicious, hateful, anti-democratic regime, Kerry's sorry surrender has evoked utter horror.

This election saw an unprecedented grassroots outpouring. Kerry was not an inspiring candidate. Until the last month, his campaign was a study in ineptitude.

But tens of millions of Americans were (and are) terrified of who and what now controls the federal government. Uncounted thousands came out to make phone calls, canvass door-to-door and drive likely Democrats to the polls.

But when it was so dubiously over, Team Kerry had no such commitment. Not to victory. Not to fair play. Not to the hard work of those who volunteered with such amazing energy and commitment.

Kerry's sad, premature swoon gave the Republicans a totally open field to claim victory for their hateful "moral" values, for infinite deficits, for environmental destruction, for an extremist judiciary, you name it.

On TV, "strategists" like James Carville, Robert Shrum and so many other slick operators grovelled shamelessly at the "brilliance" of Karl Rove while ignoring the miserable campaign they mis-handled right from the start. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the Democrats a bunch of losers, and this is exactly who he meant. [LINK]


--[In the halls of New Europe..]
The European Union is now, arguably, the world's largest superpower. Militarily, the US is the undisputed champ. But in eceonomic terms, and in notions of freedom, the welfare of its citizens, and in human rights, we've been lapped. [LINK]


-- "I am a democrat," James Joyce wrote in 1916, while an entire generation of Europe's young men were slaughtering each other in the fields of Flanders. "I'll work and act for the social liberty and equality among all classes and sexes in the United States of the Europe of the future." People read that and laughed bitterly. Europe seemed poisoned by mustard gas and history; America was the land of liberty, democracy and the future. Nobody's laughing now.[LINK]



--[On Powell resignation..]
If the second Bush term is going to be mainly full of Fallujahs, - I suppose Colin [Powell] is well out of it. Seeing the iron fist lowered over and over again to little political advantage would be the more depressing the closer you were to the decision-making process. [LINK]


--[Thanks to twits like Al From, some disappointed Dems are thinking of going toward a third party]
"Democratic activists have been alternately attacked and ignored for too long now. I am genuinely starting to see the rationale behind leaving the party and putting down stakes in some third party organization. I'm not sure what, exactly, although Cobb's Green party is far more amenable than Nader's. But I'm simply tired of being treated like nothing more than an ATM. I'm tired of the party choosing to spit on my beliefs while insisting I support them. I'm tired of losing while cringing; if we're going to lose I'd rather lose fighting.

I know many of you will talk about intraparty reform, but I'm not convinced. I saw what they did to Howard Dean. And I know my history. I know about Bill Bradley, Jerry Brown, and Eugene McCarthy. I know there were probably many others as well. It seems the Establishment has enough power to control the primaries. Indeed, that may be why they're pushing Vilsack and his Iowa Protection Plan so strongly.

The party cannot exist without an ideological base. In order for the "party leadership" to mean anything, they need people to lead. And this, ultimately, is where "we have the power". We have the power to walk out.." [LINK]

Rock your baby

"Wo--man
Take Me in your arms
Rock your baby."

-George Mc Crae (circa 1975)

National Review Reviews Only Half of Nation

"Liberals of America, unite! Leave this horrid and wicked and irredeemable backwater!"

National Review Reviews Only Half of Nation
The rest can go screw themselves somewhere in Canada

Somebody should let Stephen Moore know that America is ours just as much as it's his, and we never planned to abandon it to divisive assholes like him.

We need to be a "United" States, and this little weasel is jumping on the open wounds of a nation. You'd think he'd be all for contributing to a new vision for the future - after all, his team won.

We can only conclude this IS the National Review's "vision" - and it's a dismal one at that - the vision that only half the nation should be 'left behind' to own America, and they hope the other half will disappear. Matter of fact, they'll help make them disappear.

So much for the greatness of the ideas of these jerkweeds.

Some great Americans. I submit to you, dear readers, exactly what is wrong with America today.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration aggregates as much concentrated power as it can gather while the wound oozes and democracy is left to die like the wounded in Fallujah's mosques.

"Wait!" Stephen Moore says as he sees half the nation is still alive - although barely - "They're fu*king faking they're dead!" BANG! BANG! Moore shoots half the nation dead in order to save his barely-half majority...

"They're not faking anymore!"

It's time to change National Review's Name to 'Half Nation Review'.

Oh, no- Not Hadley!

"In the interviews," the Times reported, "two officials, Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy defense secretary, and Stephen J. Hadley, deputy national security adviser, were cited as being most eager to interpret evidence deemed murky by intelligence officials to show a clearer picture of Iraq’s involvement in illicit weapons programs and terrorism..."

--Michaelangelo Signorile

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"A World Policy Institute (WPI) review of major Bush appointees published in May found that 32 major policy makers had significant financial ties to the arms industry prior to joining the administration, as compared with 21 appointees with ties to the energy industry. As an example, they discussed links with Lockheed Martin, the largest US defence contractor, with Pentagon contracts worth a total of nearly $30 billion in 2000 and 2001 alone. The WPI writes:

"In all, eight current policymakers had direct or indirect ties to the firm before joining the administration. Officials with indirect connections to the company include Vice President Dick Cheney... and Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, who worked at Shea and Gardner, the powerhouse DC law firm that represents Lockheed Martin (along with numerous other corporate clients)...."

- Media Lens

Oh, no- Not Hadley!

Stephen Hadley should have been made to leave the White House in summer, 2003, after falling on a sword for Bush, implicating himself in the State of the Union "yellowcake" misleading.

How is he rewarded?

He gets Condi Rice's old job.

God bless HELP America.

From Iddybud, July 25, 2003:

The fact that Stephen Hadley still has his job this week tells me that Bush is intentionally harboring criminals in his administration...and I ask you to question why he is doing this. It can only be that he supports their lying and covering-up for him.
Hadley story commentary references:
-Stephen Hadley-Can This Guy Do Anything Right?

We Must Never Forget: February 5, 2003

From the pages of Daily Kos:
We Must Never Forget: February 5, 2003
by Al Rodgers

Colin Powell went to the UN and engaged in one the most infamous acts of Propaganda in World history.
We must never forget.

He fed the lie. He left his repuation slithering somewhere underneath that desk when he left the UN on that fateful day.

With Powell's resignation, at least we don't have to worry about the radical cleric Pat Robertson nuking Foggy Bottom.

Kevin Sites Catches A Killing on Film

Kevin Sites Catches A Killing on Film

*Update and Note: I originally titled this blogpost Kevin Sites Catches a Murder on Film. I felt this title was too judgemental, and thus changed it, along with adding some updates today.


BBC News--click photo

I could hardly believe my eyes. I know war is horrific and soldiers do what they feel they have to do, but I don't think this soldier had to shoot a man through the head in cold blood for "faking death". I don't know what was going on in the soldier's mind, though, and I won't pretend to know. He didn't want to be in that place, on that day. How do I know that, you ask? Do an experiment: Ask any human being within earshot if THEY would have wanted to be there on that day. Ask them what THEY might have done. War is hell. Fu*king hell. Kevin must be haunted by these occurrences. So many of the journalists and troops must be haunted by the things they've seen and the things they've done - or had to do.

I've seen people who are complaining about Mr. Sites' reporting. I think these complaining people are being quite unfair and untrue to America by wishing to stifle reality. This is a democracy and we all are charged with a civic responsibility to choose our leaders. If we don't understand the truth, which comes in many small shapes, glimpses, and forms, then we'll always be a blind society and the quality of our democracy will be piss-poor and headed for death's door. If we're at war. its because our Representatives agreed to send us there. And we, the people, are the ones who are supposed to be taking a major role in guiding our Representatives.

My comments to the Sites blog:

"We need to show some repect for the journalist who was a mere witness. Don't put your frothing agendas onto him! The innocent community members in Fallujah are trapped between the soldiers and the insurgents. A humanitarian disaster is being created, which is no surprise. This is what happens in war.

There are no uniforms worn by the enemy to tell our soldiers who is out to kill them and who is pleading for their innocent life. Ask yourself or the person next to you: if you were in that soldier's shoes, what would you have done? None of us can say we know. If we think we do, we're fantasizing.

You are all naive to think anyone is going to be "civil" when there is a war and it's either you or them who shall die on any given day. This is what happens when we make a decision to put our troops in harm's way. War, when it's YOU participating in it, strips away all mythic pretense.

To the grunt, this isn't Gods and Generals or Geneva Convention Watch. It's getting back to your wife and kids. It's insuring your next breath.

Playing armchair judge and jury is pointless. Accusing Kevin Sites, the journalist who only shows you reality, of being a non-patriot is agenda-driven extortion and abhorrent to any of us who believe in true freedom. War is war, war's rotten. If you think for a minute any of those soldiers WANT to be there and play "hero", you're nuts. They want to do their duty and go home. They'll do anything to get there, and if you sit in judgement of them, you ought to take their place for a while.

If you're going to be angry about this shooting in Fallujah, think of the people (the neoCon-soaked administration) who SENT the soldiers to the hellhole on a false pretense to begin with.

Get real."

A Magical Spell for Refreshment

A Magical Spell for Refreshment

From a C.S. Lewis story:

On the next page she came to a spell "for the refreshment of the spirit'. The pictures were fewer here but very beautiful. And what Lucy found herself reading was more like a story than a spell. It went on for three pages and before she had read to the bottom of the page she had forgotten that she was reading at all. She was living in the story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real too. When she had got to the third page and come to the end, she said, "That is the loveliest story I've ever read or ever shall read in my whole life. Oh, I wish I could have gone on reading it for ten years. At least I'll read it over again."

But here part of the magic of the Book came into play. You couldn't turn back. The right-hand pages, the ones ahead, could be turned; the left-hand pages could not.

"Oh, what a shame!" said Lucy. "I did so want to read it again. Well, at least I must remember it. Let's see . . . it was about . . . about . . . oh dear, it's all fading away again.

And even this last page is going blank. This is a very queer book. How can I have forgotten? It was about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill, I know that much. But I can't remember and what shall I do?"

And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book.


~C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chapter 10: The Magician's Book (1952)

We will not be able to turn back to the days when we were terror-free. The days of American respect, strength, and power seem to have faded, much like the back pages of Lucy's book. It's almost impossible for us to believe we once lived in a time when we could send our children off to school and never think twice about their safety. It's nearly impossible to recall leadership that brought out the best in us, revealing to us the angels of our better nature. The war has torn us asunder, not because we are simply "at war". It isn't that we are pacifists. No, we've learned that freedom sometimes has to mean defending ourselves with intelligent strength. Yet, these days - dear God - these days have given us a leader who does not care for our uniting in the most stressful of times. This leader does not seem to care how we feel about the fact that he misled us to the point where we offered up our own beloved sons and daughters; our very life's blood and meaning. We waited for one word from this leader to show us there was a trace of remorse for his many errors in judgement, and we got silence and a stare as blank as the runaway pages of our precious book. Our hearts are broken.

We are in great need of inspiration, direction, and hope in such times and it's missing - as surely as the twin towers at the World Trade Center are missing. As surely as the beloved family members of the 9/11 victims are missing. It is as if we are living in the pre-9/11 story as if it were real, and all the pictures were real too. When we get to the end, we say, "That is the loveliest story we've ever read or ever shall read in our whole life. Oh, we wish we could have gone on reading it for ten years. At least we'll read it over again." But, we find we cannot turn back.

It's a queer book, indeed, with the fading of the memory of the comfortable days before 9/11. Ghosts from the empty pages float in and out of the dreaming mind. Halcyon days return in flashes of remembrance. A husband's smile, a son's embrace, a wife cuddling her children. Missing. Lost in flaming towers or lost somewhere on a road outside Baghdad.

We remember the beauty from the old, faded story - even though we now only have fragments of the tale remaining in our tortured minds. We still have the ability to turn the pages ahead of us. I pray we can write the rest of the book together, as a truly united nation, and I would recommend that we do not allow the divisive talk radio hosts, the flaming fundamentalists, and the FOX News team to co-author our future narrative. I also hope our leader, who is our leader whether we like it or not, will find his lost heart somehere among the lost items in his own story. May he come to understand that, more important than focusing in on ugly partisan comeuppance and exercising hardline power he thinks he deserves, he needs to heal a nation of millions waiting for him to come to his long lost senses.

Lewinsky silently haunts James Carville

"Omigawwwwd! Like, I'm never
gonna go away, okay?"

-Monica, Stigma Ghost,
Killer of good ol' fashioned
American morals

Lewinsky silently haunts James Carville
Time for a change.

Boooooooo! I can still hear the ghost of the Monica Lewinsky scandal eating away at the Democrats.

I've stopped watching CNN, MSNBC, and FOX because their credibility, for me, has gone completely down the shitter. I do, however, tune in to the Sunday morning shows for a small taste of the new myths..and for a glimpse of the slow death of democracy as it progresses toward the boneyard of Empire. I can't do much about it, but I assure you I'll have a good time writing about it.

Breaking an egg over his own head on today's Meet the Press, snotty yolk running over his bald pate, James Carville looked like the political loser he actually has proven himself to be. I have a wonderful sense of humor, but rather than giggling at his clown-like antics, I felt tremendously sorry for him. But not sorry enough to stay silent about it. It was when he cracked the egg that it was all made clear to me: James Carville is no longer a serious or effective or winning contender. I thought back to many episodes of the dreadful circus known as CNN's Crossfire. Carville and Begala have, far too often, played the idiot jesters while Douchebag Robert Novak outed CIA and both Novak and Carlson parroted (ad nauseum) meaningless-but-effective RNC talking points.

If any of you think we're going to find future success with these Democratic party leaders, the Begalas, the Carvilles.. I have to say that I think you're absolutely insane in your hopeful delusion. To everything there is a season, and their season is long past.

The "rightest" of the Red folk were culturally empowered, most unfortunately, by Bill Clinton's wet tongue dalliance with Monica Lewinsky and his subsequent lies to America about the sad affair. I think Bill Clinton was one of the greatest presidents we've had for all he accomplished during his time, I really do. However, for Democrats linked to Clinton, that time was up when the Lewinsky affair came to light, empowering and encouraging "Red and Right America". Don't shoot me for saying it - someone has to. Rush was empowered by Monica. FOX, the worst, tilted, one-sided journalism in any supposed free society, was able to be hatched - quite successfully, thanks to Monica. A "Right and Red" powerhouse began to steamroll the political landscape and it hasn't stopped.

I hate to have to say it, but I think the elephant in the room is still Monica Lewinsky. (Pun intended - meow).

Boooooooooo - she's never going away. She's a big old Stigma Ghost and her wet tongue has made fetid all in her glossy-lipped wake.

In 2000, Al Gore took a bloody electoral beating in his own state of Tennessee because of her.

You can blame Ken Starr if that makes you feel good.
But Stigma Ghost isn't going away.

You can blame America's definition of "Morals" if you'd like. Heh. Tightass America can't have a president who cheats on his wife and lies about it. They can, however, support an abuser-president who lies to them and sends their sons and daughters to lose their lives and become maimed in unnecessary warfare.

Either way, it's time for a change in the Democratic party. Let's face it, we are NEVER going to win over the Rush and FOX crowd with appeasement. More importantly, why on earth should we try?

I'm just as American as any of those total loons of the right, and I will continue to assert my vision of America as I learned to love my vision of America - without surrender or apology. Surrender and apology would be as unnecessary as the Iraq war!

On the FOX Sunday show, I heard Senator Joe Lieberman, the BIG loser in the Democratic primary, dare to say that Howard Dean, the highly popular primary candidate who was eaten by his own party during the primaries, was not a viable representative for the Democratic party. Talk about living in a sudden alternative universe! Dean was the only candidate able to successfully come up with a perfectly sound and consistent narrative for his Democratic campaign. And look at what the Democrats did to him.

Lieberman says that 3.5 million more people voting for Bush than Kerry is enough to cause Howard Dean to be impotent and for the centrists to swarm back toward ultimate Democratic power. Lieberman thinks we millions of Dean supporters were no more than a bunch of anti-war folks. He is creating a centrist-propping myth - neglecting to mention it was the IRAQ war that we Dean supporters saw through...no other wars were involved in our protest. And we see through all those fake rationales for the Iraq war to this day. And we still do not appreciate our Democratic congressmen who gave Bush carte blanche on Iraq. It was an abandonment of duty and sense. It was no less than malpractice in our Representative's responsibility to appropriately represent the American people. Lieberman is a pathetic opportunist. Period.

Josh Marshall has some great commentary geared toward the Democratic power center, spiced with a cautionary air:

The Dems did not get 48% of the popular vote for nothing. They got it because of what they were clearly for and clearly against. 48% isn’t enough for the White House or enough to be the country’s majority party. But it’s nothing to sneeze at either. And many changes that would gain Democrats votes in the Red States would lose them votes or unity in the Blue ones.

This doesn’t mean Dems should just stand-pat or be satisfied with what they have. They shouldn’t; indeed, they can’t. It is only to say that there are real limits to how many positions and rhetorical styles Dems can ape to good effect. And it means having a little more respect for themselves, their voters and what they claim to believe in than to collapse into a puddle of self-doubt just because this election didn’t go their way.

I agree with Josh. My kingdom - for an ounce of honesty and respect for all the voters who came out on November 2nd!

If any of this sounds like hand-wringing, you can bet your sweaty palm pilot that's exactly what this is. It's brutally honest hand-wringing.

Let's take a hard look at the Democratic party.

Call it tough love.

Some people might say, Jude, do you want to stand for something or do you want to win? To them, I say, the powers that be in the Dem party haven't done either thing -- in the last four years. I say "Move out the way" and let the new blood in.

If there's no change, I am not going to stick around.

To the Democratic party:
I don't want to leave you, honey, but if what you do to yourself is killing me and my vision of America as a wholly respectable and truly free society, then 'Goodbye' it may have to be.

I'm waiting.
Millions of us are waiting.

Sorry / Not sorry

LINK


LINK

Ms. Goodbody has no conscience, but she still has quite a bod, eh?

Lesson learned: Real women of conscience don't need fake boobs?

Saturday at Iddybud

Saturday at Iddybud

This is what I can imagine myself doing to folks who chose the culture wars over rational, ethical morality in this last election. Thanks to Biomes Blog for the photo.



Blogger Ron Brynaert's recent discussions, Theories about Tom Zeller Jr., Kucinich Still In It, and Simon Rosenberg Will Destroy The Democratic Party, are all valuable to those who feel the world didn't magically change on November 3rd and that we didn't suddenly shape-shift into a bunch of kooks. Powerful sources in the Democratic party seem eager to leave their energetic base behind and eager to neglect the integrity of the American electoral system. Hearing the mainstream media (the Bush bootlickers) calling concerned Americans "conspiracy theorists" - accompanied by no strong vocal defense of the public from any Democratic leader - shows me that we have an extremely serious problem in our nation, and I fear it will not come to a good ending for the Democratic party if they remain on this road. We may see a whole new "Left Behind" series, in manifesto form...and this time it will be the Democrats who are left behind. They've relied too long on us decrying Bush while they languished in complacency themselves. Bush's re-election is where the rubber meets the road. What the Democratic party does NOW will make or break them. Here's a facetious-yet-interesting thought: If the Democratic powers-that-be fail their base and prove themselves to be no more than Republican-lite, perhaps we should ALL join the ONE party in the nation, the GOP, and force change from the inside.



I'm directing you to David Chin's "A Picture's Worth". Go to the Gallery section and look for the photo that inspired a young man to contemplate the supreme value of quiet simplicity.



He found it in the face of his pet.

Any bystander who walks by my room nowadays may think I’m off my rocker. A quick stroll by will reveal a 15 year old boy lying on his floor, tracing the patterns under his desk with his finger, something that has managed to keep this boy entertained for almost an hour. What is there to look at, one might say? The patterns. The weaving of so many lines in the wood display a true beauty of nature. An estranged glance of “what the hell?” is usually expected, and then turning to leave the room to keep themselves occupied with something else. Sigh. The art of nothingness and doing nothing is an art that is truly missed. People wish for it, yet when they get it, spend it foolishly. Perhaps one day, more people will realize what they’re missing if they just stop for a minute to look around....

In these days of political unrest, my dear readers, it's important to remember how to return to the innocence of nothingness. Your inner strength depends upon it. Quoting Max Ehrmann's Desiderata, "With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."



Last, I'd like you to enjoy the ending of this autumn, wherever you are in North America.

For many of us, this Autumn has represented itself as a grave disappointment, much as we sometimes note the passing away of life as leaves fall from the trees and our gardens die away.
Rebirth comes with time and effort. We great Americans who are feeling crushed by the weight of this election must take heart and never lose hope. What we do now will help America to be true to herself and to thrive for our children when we're long gone. We can do it by never letting untruths pass by without pointing them out and debunking them, regardless of what is politically popular. A kindred spirit named Jerry Katz wrote of such feelings, and I will quote him:

"Author E.B. White captured the tension in an essay admiring his wife's
passion on the fall day each year when she lays out the spring bulb
garden. The passing of the years and any thoughts of her own approaching
death cannot stop her from assuring her garden's rebirth.

There was something touching, he wrote, in "her studied absorption in
the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious
to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near
at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in
the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection."-

Let's plot the resurrection of our secular freedom, which is the only true and uniting American religion.