We're Doing It Again!

I can’t believe we’re doing it again. Not only have we lost 3,752 American lives and a stunning number of Iraqi lives in a war of choice since May 1, 2003 when Bush declared an “end to major combat operations” in Iraq, but we have 23,417 seriously wounded military personnel whose lives will never be the same. This isn’t even counting the huge number of people who will come home but may never come back – those who suffer with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – some of whom will eventually end their own lives in despair.

A Vietnam Veteran I once knew had gone to Vietnam at 17 and returned with a serious case of PTSD. It was heart-breaking to watch his angst, witness his nightmares, and listen to him talk about joining the Mercenaries because he no longer felt “fit” to associate with normal people. He’d been trained to kill, he said, and that’s what he knew best.

When are we going to get it? The human being is not built, nor psychologically suited, to kill. Sure, there are exceptions – those with deeply rooted anger and other emotional problems – but the majority are decent, caring humans who want to do the right thing. Those who join the military do so for a variety of reasons, but in the end, they are ready, willing and able to defend their country with honor. When are we going to afford them the same honor, consideration and protection?

Personally, after seeing what happened to Vietnam Veterans – from Agent Orange to rejection to PTSD and homelessness – I thought we’d never have a willing Army again, let alone a volunteer Army. And yet, here we are again, treating our vets as abominably as ever. Not only are we paying low salaries and cutting benefits, we’re even charging them for military equipment that was lost or damaged in the line of duty! Have we no shame?!

It’s mind-boggling to realize that, in the 21st century with all of our technology and education, we have not found a way to end war. Needless to say, our current administration is clueless when it comes to the meaning or use of diplomacy, but almost worse than that, we have no leader in this country who is willing to step up and say, there is a better way and it’s time to implement it. No more war as a problem solver, no more war for any reason.

Until then, I propose that we make one simple change. It should be the job of every government official – and each of their family members – to be our warriors as well. Those who legislate war should be the ones to fight it. Period.

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John Kerry's Foot

November 1, 2006

What is it with the Democrats lately? Those who aren’t struck dumb by the Bush administration’s rhetoric open their mouths and insert their feet.

It’s an understatement to say that John Kerry, or Howard Dean, would have been far superior to George Bush as the president of the United States; as Cheney would say, “that’s a no-brainer”. But when it comes to getting out messages, they stumble all over the place.

I think it’s anger. Righteous anger, but delayed – and even misplaced – anger. Kerry – like Al Gore before him – seems to have what a friend calls the “dinosaur syndrome”. You hit a dinosaur on the head today and he reacts to it much later.

It took Al Gore a couple of years after he “lost” the 2000 election to start making angry speeches about the policies of the Bush administration. But even then, he never really funneled that anger (as so many of us longed for him to do) into the fact that – as evidence has shown – he was the rightful winner of that election. And now, two years after “losing” the 2004 election, Kerry is fighting mad... finally. But, instead of talking about the theft of the 2004 election – the Ohio debacle, the voting machines, even directly addressing the Swift Boating itself – he blurts out a statement meant to attack George Bush’s failed policy in Iraq, but which instead sounds more like an attack on the American troops.

Now John Kerry is so angry about being Swift-Boated in 2004 that he was initially reluctant to apologize for what even he called a “botched joke”, which is understandable, but it took Imus repeated attempts this morning to get him to make a coherent statement about what he really meant to say.

Maybe it’s something in the water in Washington. After all, George Bush can barely string a series of words into a clear sentence and John Kerry’s history with mis-statements goes back to his most infamous: “I voted for it before I voted against it”.

Kerry appears to be a very bright and thoughtful man with his heart in the right place, but the complexities of his mind are not serving him – or us – well. More importantly, where was he when we needed him to stand up and speak out? There was a time when speaking up would have made the difference between war and peace, when it would have protected our Bill of Rights from being dismantled and our country from being sold out to the interests of big money.

As he postures himself for another possible run at the presidency, John Kerry’s latest foot-in-mouth episode reminds us that in 2008 we need a candidate with a cohesive message and the ability to express it coherently and consistently.

With the 2006 elections a week away, the Democrats really need to pull together and to help or get out of the way.

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A Deer In Headlights

October 4, 2006

Watching the Mark Foley scandal unfold has been amusing in a sad sort of way. You could almost see his mind working feverishly to get out of it.

Friday September 29th: Oh God! I’ve been caught. What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Why me? Why now? I thought we were invincible! If only I could find a way that it’s not my fault. Let’s see. Who’s fault could it have been? How could I have been the victim here?

Wait! I’ve got it! It wasn’t my fault because I’m an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a disease, right? I’m the victim of a disease. I didn’t know what I was doing because – I was drinking!

His attorney, David Roth, might have countered with something like: ‘But Mark, are you really an alcoholic?’

‘Doesn’t matter. I’ll check right into rehab to prove it. Do you think the doctors can tell whether I’m an alcoholic?’

Roth: ‘I think they’ll have to take your word for it.’

‘There you go! I’m an alcoholic – a victim. Demon Alcohol made me do things I would never have done. Phew!’

Then came what seemed to be an interminably long weekend. Mark Foley is left alone with his thoughts. He begins to worry all the more. This is bad! I hope being an alcoholic is enough. My defense needs to be fool proof. What else? And then he hits on just the thing.

A-ha! I went to parochial school! I could have been molested by a pedophile priest when I – too – was just a young teenager! It scarred me for life, and made me an alcoholic. I had no choice but to act out with teenagers the age I was when it happened to me. This is perfect! And credible. I’m a victim – the ultimate victim!

Monday finally comes, but Mark Foley continues to worry. What else? What else can I say? In a conversation with Roth, he asks if the media is buying his story, then he has what he thinks is a stroke of genius:

“Oh! And did I mention I’m gay?”

And so it was that, in trying to save himself, former Congressman Mark Foley took alcoholics, priests, victims of sexual abuse and gays down with him.

***

PLEASE Get Our President Some Therapy!

September 30, 2006

The emperor has no clothes! There. Someone had to say it.

What’s more, it’s time we acknowledge that we the people are in a truly dysfunctional relationship with our president, and that far too many of us are “staying the course” in the hope that everything will work out in the end. Guess what. That’s as likely to happen as staying in an abusive love relationship will eventually pay off.

Sadly, we have a president with a classic alcoholic personality (making all the more ironic the 2004 poll results which indicated that a large percentage of voters liked him because they thought he would be more “fun to have a beer with”). We’re told that he quit drinking some fifteen years ago, and maybe the rumors that he’s drinking again aren’t true. It doesn’t matter. Drinking or not, the dysfunctional personality of an addict rarely changes without therapy or the 12 step program used by A. A. They call people who quit drinking without therapy “dry drunks”.

Any recovering addict, and anyone who’s ever lived with an addict, knows the symptoms all too well: the unwillingness to admit a mistake or take responsibility, instead blaming others when things go wrong; angry outbursts and even bullying; lecturing (often about religion) rather than sharing information; secrecy; acting like a petulant child, and – the hallmark of an alcoholic personality – denial. Sound familiar?

Those of us who grew up with an alcohol- or drug-addicted parent (and there are at least 76 million of us) are also programmed to live in denial. They call alcoholism a family disease. No matter how bad things get at home, the unspoken but silently agreed upon position of the family is “if you don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist”. The addict demands this “loyalty” of us and we assume that others will go along with this charade. As a result, we become Enablers.

Bad enough when we enable those people whose behavior is hurting us at home, but many of us are so deeply mired in our mutual denial we can’t see that it’s extended to enabling the “leader of the free world” – the man who could also push a button and destroy the earth – to operate not with intelligence but by following his personal “instincts”. Simply put, our president is living in denial of reality and he bullies anyone who doesn’t go along with him, using such phrases as “You’re either for us or ag’in’ us”.

Years ago on a talk show, actor John Larroquette made a comment that summed it up perfectly, even prophetically in this case. “Alcoholics,” he said, “don’t have relationships; they take hostages.”

George W. Bush has some powerful Enablers, not only in his cabinet – whose jobs are to enable him – but also in those employees who make up our Congress. The republicans apparently feel duty-bound to support their party at any cost and the democrats have been bullied so much that they’re afraid to speak the truth, lest they (again) be labeled “weak on national security”or worse – and all of them feel obligated to enable the corporations who put them there (many of which are profiting from this war). This president – who once commented how much easier it would be if this were a dictatorship “as long as I’m the dictator” – also bullies the media by threatening to withhold information (amusing, considering how little information is released anyway) and labels as unpatriotic those citizens who disagree with him.

So far, at least, this is still a democracy, and yet we’re letting it get away from us by enabling this dysfunctional man and his administration to – among so many other things – operate in secrecy; to trash international support for America; to launch an ill-planned, ill-equipped unilateral war based on a lie; to “stay the course” against public opinion; to strip away our civil liberties; to take and hold prisoners indefinitely without charge and even torture them (despite the Geneva Conventions and the best intelligence that torture doesn’t work). Meanwhile, over $300 billion dollars have been spent with no end in sight, nearly 3,000 American and more than 130,000 Iraqi lives have been lost, thousands of Americans are permanently disabled and our country is less prepared for disaster than ever.

As reported by Bob Woodward in his latest book, appropriately titled State of Denial, even former President George H. W. Bush is enabling his son by withholding his (informed and valid) concerns about waging war in Iraq because somehow he thought it more important to let the boy “be himself.” Say what?! It seems that Woodward himself might have further enabled Bush by withholding, for his third book, information that might have affected the 2004 election and saved thousands of lives. Is anyone looking out for our country here?

Now, despite escalating chaos in Iraq and a critical shortage of troops, our president is fixated on Iran. Will someone please get this man some therapy before he gets us all killed. That’s not going to happen until we come out of our mutual denial and stop indulging our president’s petulant behavior. As hard as it can be to accept that a loved one has become dysfunctional, how much more difficult it is to admit when it’s our president we’re talking about – but how much more important.

What we need right now is a healthy grownup; one who can admit mistakes and deal with facts. And an electorate who will stop enabling dysfunctional leaders. Maybe we all need therapy.

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The 2004 Election

November 5, 2004

I know it's time to let go and accept the inevitable. Bush won. Somewhat fair and square. At least that's what 59,054,087 Americans think. The "uniter" has now officially and totally divided this country.

Making it all the more difficult to accept are the facts that the purging of names from the lists of eligible voters went on — again -- as it did in 2000; the new touch-screen computer voting machines of Florida started out with a several-thousand vote lead for George W. Bush and thousands of absentee ballots were reportedly thrown away in Florida, Nevada and elsewhere. According to CNN today, 120,000,000 people used e-voting machines this year -- machines, by the way, that have been highly controversial and are supplied by Diebold -- the head of which had promised a victory for Bush. This is just what we know about.

But, unlike the outcry in 2000, no one seems to be fighting this time. Everyone seems to have accepted their fate. I suspect one of the reasons for this is:

Most of us are in shock. For me, I've now realized, it's a kind of psychic shock. My entire being is having trouble assimilating what's happened this week.

A president who stole his way into the white house and vacationed through the first eight months of his presidency, refusing to listen to the warnings of the previous administration about Al Qaeda or even take to a heart a presidential briefing entitled "Al Qaeda Determined to Strike Within The U.S.", is now praised by half of this country for his "war on terror" and the resulting 1,100 military deaths, 10,000 military "casualties" and 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths. Despite all evidence, and even proof, to the contrary, he and his "regime" have continued to convince about 60% of this country that Saddam was somehow working with Al Qaeda to kill 3,000 of our people on 9/11. Polls have continued to show this stat. And why? Because Karl Rove and Karen Hughes, Bush's creators, have carefully written speeches and manipulated responses to say as much without actually saying that Saddam was responsible for 9/11. The message came through clearly in its vagueness. Each speech by a cabinet member echoed the same sentiments.

Anytime this administration wants to get a message out, they formulate one phrase, used by all, over and over and over again, whether it's to sell the war in Iraq or smear the good character of John Kerry, making him look more like Benedict Arnold than a war hero. Anyone who knows anything about "the power of positive thinking" knows how well this works. Repetition. Hammer it home. Iraq was "a gathering threat". "We can't afford to wait until the smoking gun becomes a nuclear cloud." And so on. Damn the truth, just get the message sold. And Fox Cable News anchors are more than happy to perpetuate the messages, misleading and even lying while they cry out against the unfairness of the "liberal media" (read: anyone who doesn’t agree with them).

Throughout the past four years, this president has made numerous promises that he's never kept and even withheld proper funding from his own highly-touted program "No Child Left Behind." (I've read that teachers planned to vote against him in this election for this reason.). The promises have been believed as if they were a done deal; the lack of follow-through (and in some cases even policy reversals) has not been perceived by most because it's a well kept secret unless one does one's own research. The media in general ("liberal" and otherwise) has allowed this president to skate through four years of lies, mistakes and misjudgments, largely unchecked. He and his cabinet — packed full of people who came from big corporations, still rife with corporate connections (not to mention conflicts of interest) — have stripped the power from each and every important program that took decades - if not centuries - to put into place on behalf of the welfare of Americans, and even the world at large -- as in the case of global warming. I have yet to do full research on this subject, but it seems to me that this is the first administration in American history comprised more of business executives than career politicians. A very frightening change. But how can it be a surprise that corporations now hold power over us?

We all know (some of us, anyway) about our vice president's connections with Halliburton (now under investigation), the corporation that was granted a no-bid contract in Iraq. And his relationship with Ken Lay of Enron fame. And, I might add, we might not even have known about Halliburton were it not for Michael Moore. Here are just a few lesser known examples, starting with my favorite and her spokeswoman.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman previously served on the board of directors for Calgene Inc., the first company to bring genetically-engineered food, the Flavr Savr tomato, to supermarket shelves. Calgene, bought out by Monsanto, the nation's leading biotech company, became part of the pharmaceutical company Pharmacia in 2000. Monsanto, which donated more than $12,000 to George Bush's presidential bid (this is an old figure - more now), wants two things this year: no mandatory labeling of biotech foods and better access to international markets.

Alisa Harrison, Spokeswoman for Ann Veneman was, in 2003, overseeing press releases, etc. re the Mad Cow disease scare post the discovery of a cow with the disease in the U.S in late 2003. Previous job: director of public relations for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association — "the beef industry's largest trade group, where she battled government food safety efforts, criticized Oprah Winfrey for raising health questions about American hamburgers, and sent out press releases with titles like ‘Mad Cow Disease Not A Problem in the U.S.'"

No conflict there, huh?

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld joined the private sector in 1977 as the CEO of G.D. Searle, a pharmaceutical company that's now a subsidiary of Pharmacia. He was also the CEO of General Instrument, a telecommunications parts supplier that was eventually bought out by Motorola. Lately, though, Rumsfeld has spent his time serving on the boards of several companies: Gilead Sciences, a fledgling biotech company; newspaper giant Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune; Amylin Pharmaceuticals; Swiss firm Asea Borwn Boveri; and Fortune 500 behemoths, including Kellogg, Sears and Allstate. As a director for Gulfstream Aerospace, his stock in the company reportedly was valued at $11 million when the company was acquired by defense contractor General Dynamics in 1999. But Rumsfeld scrupulously avoided any direct dealings with defense companies, either serving on
boards or purchasing stock, apparently to avoid the appearance of impropriety in case he was asked to fill a defense department post again.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was the No. 1 recipient of campaign contributions from the automotive industry, receiving more than $700,000 for his failed Senate run in 2000 from contributors like General Motors, Ford and Lear Corp. One of his top contributors, DaimlerChrysler, was introducing an extra large SUV to the U.S. market in 2003. Daimler's SUV, considered a "military spin-off," is a foot longer than the SUVs currently on the road and will only get about 10 miles per gallon. The debate over whether to raise or lower fuel economy standards is expected to surface again this year, especially as the country struggles with an energy crisis. Daimler is one of 139 companies that joined the Coalition for Vehicle Choice, a lobbying group that opposes setting fuel economy regulations. (The current standard for SUVs is 20.7 miles to the gallon.) The coalition gave Abraham $178,674 in 1999-2000. Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson's corporate connections include Philip Morris; Amtrak; America Online; Time Warner; General Electric; Merck and Abbott Laboratories.

Again, this is just a sketch. For more information on the corporate connections within this administration, and their donors, go to The Center for Responsive Politics website: www.opensecrets.org, from which this information came.

Polls have shown that the 59,054,087 people who voted for this president did so not over their fear of terrorism, not over the war in Iraq, not over the 800,000 lost jobs in this country due to outsourcing and unemployment (if you can even believe this number), not over affordable health care -- but largely over "moral values". Or, as Jon Stewart said the next night whilst trying to grasp the facts, "so... the idea of two dudes kissing trumps everything else."... including, I guess, our international standing in the eyes of those allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with us post 9/11 and now look aghast at what's happening here.

Somehow this dry but not treated alcoholic spoiled brat of the privileged, who used to blow up small animals for fun as a child and literally brand freshmen as if they were cattle as a ritual at Yale, who reportedly suffers from A.D.D., who lies as a matter of course and otherwise twists and spins the truth, has sold over half of our people on the idea that he represents their core values. That fact alone is almost impossible to get one's mind wrapped around. What does that make us, the immoral, valueless left? I don't know about you, but I became a Democrat in the interest of helping people.

Also almost impossible to digest is the fact that over half of this country would vote for a man who is cutting taxes for the rich during war time, asking nothing of the populace, and increasing the deficit at the speed of light for their grandchildren. Is it just me?

One thing is for sure. Never underestimate the intelligence of this president, not to mention his mentor, Karl Rove — who spent four years masterminding this campaign and managed to get the gay marriage initiative on the ballot in 11 states, among other things — or his "wise, grand-fatherly" vice president. They are apparently very bright. The problem is that, not unlike Adolph Hitler, they are using their intelligence for evil rather than good. They have outwitted even some of the best and the brightest among us. Why should we be surprised that they successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of a substantial portion of the population? Rhetoric is all, we now find. Truth is unimportant. Apparently all anyone has to do is talk the talk. Don't bother to walk the walk. Heil Bush. A new day has dawned in America.

Our forefathers must be rolling in their graves to see the increasing interjection of church into state affairs. The Religious Right has been working on this for years and, in fact, Norman Lear's People For The American Way was founded to counter this trend. Bad enough, this manipulation through religious beliefs, but when we get taken over by the ideologies of Evangelical Christians, where does this leave the rest of us? And where, I have to wonder, does it leave human compassion and kindness? Our country hasn't been so divided since the Civil War. It least it was clear cut then. And as for the Religious Right -- when you and your pals in the corporate world start taking care of the citizens of this country, we'll talk.

As for the media and the "pundits", who spent four years kissing the asses of this administration in fear that they'd be cut off from information, I can only say I hope they can sleep at night. (Truth is, though, they probably sleep better than we who worry about this country. They seem more concerned about their hair and makeup.) As we all know, Murdoch's Fox news personnel appear to be bought and paid for. But what happened to CNN? I've read that they took a look at the margin by which they saw Fox news beating them in the ratings and decided to make changes in order to compete. Meanwhile, did you see that Fox News is now being broadcast in Walmart -- a company that cares nothing for its employees or those customers it “serves”? Perfect.

There are a few lone voices on television trying to get the truth out, but they are out-shouted by the cable news outlets. Republican Lou Dobbs on CNN is trying to get us to see how outsourcing (and other things) are undermining this country, Jon Stewart (ironically, being his is a comedy show) does everything he can to illuminate the situation and put some perspective on it, and Bill Moyers on PBS. They're trying, but only "the converted" are hearing them. One can only wonder how people would have voted if they'd known the truth.

If that's all there is, then let's keep dancing. And eat, drink and be merry. For tomorrow...

What's the worst that can happen? Shall I go there? Put it all out?

Let's see. We can experience a large scale terrorist attack and not have the world's support. Needless to say, Al Qaeda can continue to recruit troops, as they already have thanks to our war on Iraq, and grow into a force that will ultimately result in the end of this planet as we know it. Our citizens can and will become LESS educated. (One of the scarier thoughts, but don't forget the stats we've read on functional illiteracy in this country. Wrap your mind around THAT one!) We've already given carte blanche to this administration to curtail our liberties. Adding to that, a less educated populace who will continue to roll over (in the name of moral values???) and, there goes the most beautiful and idealistic country on the face of the earth. We can watch the demise of our Social Security program and the demise of the middle class as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer at the hands of the man they elected. The worst case scenario? This country falls into bankruptcy and is taken over by those with evil intent. If it hasn't already been. I walked into a store the other night and heard the most heart-rending version of "God Bless America". It brought me to tears.

Is it all about politics now? Is it just one big board (or computer) game to these people who will do anything for power? It shouldn't come as that big of a surprise that so many people can be so easily manipulated. And yet it has. The corporations have taken over. And we have somehow let them. It can't help that we as a society place so much value on materialism.

Is it time for a revolution? Or another civil war -- both coasts against the middle as indicated by the electoral map? Nothing's that simple. After all, a substantial number of people in the red states did vote against this man... hard as that may be to believe when you listen to the news shows, now promoting what was, in Bush's words, "a mandate". "The people have spoken", there but for a 3,000,000 vote difference in a country of roughly 295,000,000.

I think, as I said, that we're all in a kind if psychic shock. With all the facts we know and have known for some time BECAUSE WE READ AND STAY INFORMED staring us in the face, we've seen lies prevail. We've seen a negative become a positive. We've seen the laws of science... not to mention common sense... defied. Turned on their heads, so to speak. Lies have become truth, truth has become lies. The world has been turned upside down for us and we're trying to get our bearings.

As much as I'd like to, I know it's not time to give up. It's time to fight. And with this in mind, I'm starting a new To Do list. Abolish the electoral college. Get the lobbyists out of D.C. Work very hard to join the forces of the Democratic Party with the Independent Party, The Green Party, etc., for the common good. Give Ralph Nader a call. And an apology. Howard Dean too. Join with Moveon.org, People For The American Way, and every other group working for our common good. The news media is largely to blame for what has happened and there will be more to come. Fight them and force them to tell the truth. Force them to interject facts and corrections into partisan statements and into everything they deem to broadcast. Force them to provide the service to our citizens that they were supposed to provide in the first place. Get the news business out of the entertainment business. Break up corporate monopolies and replace greed with human compassion. Stem the flow of outsourced companies by increasing taxes if they choose to do that. Tax corporations their full share and, while we're at it, let's start taxing churches too, especially if they're going to have the kind of power over us that Bush seems to be promoting. Redefine moral values. Place value on all life and take care of those who are here already before worrying about adding millions more potentially illiterate to our population. (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) Find those functional illiterates and teach them to read. And hopefully to think. Reregulate the eneregy and telecommunications industries. Show the other 59,054,087 what being safe really is by electing someone who places the welfare of the people above the money in 2008. And by the way, from what I've put together from the consensus of opinion: it needs to be someone from a red state. A southerner who speaks the lingo. Take a lesson from the Republicans. Somehow.

It's a big job, but someone's got to do it. I think it's safe to say that there are those — like Michael Moore, Al Franken and Greg Palast, to name only a few — who will continue to work to get the truth out. We must join them. Our democracy is worth it.

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