She said it! I never thought this day would come. Change has truly arrived in America, even before the Presidential Inauguration. Today, on Fox News, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, the only person who could, the woman who for so long would not, stated, she is Open to the Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials. Oh joy! Oh, bliss. Never did I imagine this moment might become a reality. Even the idea that this could be a possibility eluded me. Today, on January 18, 2009, finally, I have hope. I believe in the future, as Michelle Obama expressed, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, or I will be when I see an actionable censure.
In March 2008, as Americans pay homage to the thousands of soldiers and civilians lost in five years of battle we discover that the Administration and the elite allied with earlier Executive Branches are more contemptuous of the citizenry than we ever thought possible.
Brilliance rang out on the airwaves on July 3, 2007. MSNBC broadcast an Olbermann observation, an opinion piece. For me, the commentary was extraordinary, eloquent, exquisite, and erudite, just as the man delivering such a dictum is. The words of Keith Olbermann speak for me, to me. I hope these statements resonate within you.
The actual number is higher in total days, but our local peace group has now stood vigil on more than 200 Friday nights. And we won't even count the Saturday mornings and other special days when we marched or stood vigil against the war in Iraq. The first of the Friday night vigils started even before the actual invasion. With a single exception for dangerous travel conditions, the group has been in place every Friday night since the inception. Some of our experiences have been described here and here.
9/11 Photograph, By Ted S. Warren, Associated Press. WABC News. Photograph July 10, 2006.
A building in New York City is buried. Fires are blazing. It is highly possible people were killed or injured. The public speculates. Could it be a bomb blast, an act of terrorism, homegrown or international? Might the cause be a gas leak or an electrical explosion? Perhaps, it is a crime of vengeance. Early on, suicide was not considered. For me, while the cause is important, it pales in comparison to the fact.
War is in the air; it blows with the wind. Acts of violence travel. They cannot be isolated or contained to lands far from our shores. If we accept war anywhere, we consent to it here. Warfare is not a concept; it is concrete. Combat comes easily to the minds of men or women in conflict. Witness today, yesterday, and everyday. We as a nation are at war. While the struggle is far from our shores, it looms large in our collective psyche.
Americans were under attack. It was September 11, 2001. Ultimately, this peace-loving country initiated all out war. The United States sought a broad coalition; however, the President and others were willing to go it alone. This nation, its leaders, and citizens concluded their safety and stability were being threatened. Our countrymen thought enemies were everywhere and thus, the battles began. Policies were adopted. The idea of privacy was altered. The Patriot Act was drawn and passed. The National Security Strategy for the United States of America was accepted.
People throughout America were ready to protect themselves no matter what the cost. Aggressive reactions were booming. Americans declared loudly, "You are either with us or against us." If you choose to terrorize me or mine then you will be taken, "Dead or alive!" Thus, the cycle begins again. America believes, we must aggressively attack.
On this day of Memorial, our Commander and Chief advocated war. He professed his strident belief in conflict. President Bush was speaking to the graduating class at West Point. Mr. Bush proclaimed their futures would be filled with battle. He should know; he started so many of these, Afghanistan and Iraq to name a few. The Emperor is plotting and planning for more. Many suspect that Iran and Korea are his next [possible] targets.
King George II proclaimed his pride in the country's newest leaders. With the terrorist rhetoric, post September 11, 2001, Bush was able to breed this force for the future. This class was the first to complete their studies after the "terrorists attacks." Baby Bush was pleased; he beamed with delight.
Today, Saturday, May 27, 2006, the first day of this Memorial Day weekend, our leader praised wars of the past and those of his making. The Commander and Chief spoke little of love or life. He only honored his killing machines, men, and mechanisms.
Congratulations graduates, you have entered a world not of your making. I salute your lives; long may you live these.
With deep regrets for the losses, I offer many missives I wrote in honor of our soldiers, fallen and injured, fighting, and surviving. May they all rest and go in peace. May the future be tranquil and serene. May war never be considered an option.
The history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] is long and varied. Now, it may end; a Renaissance is proposed. There are formal recommendations; this agency must be abolished. Co-chairs of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Liebermann held a press conference this morning declaring FEMA a disaster.
The 800-plus-page accounting is titled, "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared." This text is a summation of three government studies. Earlier House and White House evaluations are present in this report; however, they are cursory in contrast. This final record is far more comprehensive; its assertions are less delicate.
Katrina survivors and those lost in this storm, deservedly required this attention. The 2005 hurricane killed an estimated 1,460 people. Seven hundred and seventy thousand individuals were forced to flea their homes. Many are still not able to return some eight months later.
All the talk of Catastrophe Funds seems silly to me; the reasoning is apt. I think there are better sources for these subsidies than the government. In my mind, our efforts are misplaced.
It is true; we as a nation and as a world have seen an increase in the number and intensity of cataclysmic storms. Tornados, droughts, hurricanes and other recent disasters have caused great calamity. We are mired in misfortune. However, we are working to pay for what we caused. We are closing the barn door behind us; our prides and joys are all long gone. We now, belatedly, prepare for what was our own ignorance. We elected George W. Bush, twice. Well actually,
Which would you condemn, a president that feels a need to manipulate his phallus while in the Oval Office or one that cannot control his conscience? Would you rather rescind the privileges of a President that knows right from wrong, and; therefore tries to hide his folly, or do you believe impeachment is a process meant for leaders that think they are above the law?
Each and every week, the Bush administration offers inconsistencies. This week a contradiction seems so strikingly absurd, I cannot ignore it. I feel compelled to comment on the recent change in the Bush energy policy.
In September 2002, the President of the United States spoke emphatically of energy concerns. He spoke of consumption and the importance of this. At the time Baby Bush said, "Congress also must understand they've got to pass an energy bill. You see, an energy bill will be good for jobs. An energy bill will be good for national security. We need an energy bill that encourages consumption [sic]."
It was a Friday evening, September 23, 2005. The program was Public Broadcasting Services New Hour; Jim Lehrer was the host. The topic was Katrina. What was the cost of the storm, and what of the monies President George W. Bush promised for rebuilding?
Brooks, in an honest moment, muttered the words, "George Bush has spent money at a faster clip than Lyndon Johnson." Hearing this utterance from David Brooks was so shocking to newscaster Lehrer, he was visibly taken aback. Mr. Lehrer said, with a noticeable lilt in his voice, "Say that again."
Trailers are temporary housing for hurricane Katrina evacuees. Many ask of the wisdom of this move. Mobile homes cannot endure category 3 storms; and yet, since Katrina there have been two tempests. Each of these was more powerful than a category three. [Photograph By Rogelio Solis. Associated Press]
The Katrina story is a mess, as is all that George Walker Bush touches. This "muddle" began a natural disaster and while these can be chaotic, to say the least, they are nothing in comparison to what Georgie Boy can, and indeed, does create. He can take an adversity and make it into a cataclysmic calamity, and, he has.
Yes, George Bush II is King. However, he does not have the Midas touch. All he touches tarnishes.
This man does not plan and then act; he reacts. As a businessman, he had many failed ventures, Arbusto and Spectrum 7 among these. His success as a President is nominal. He is considered personable, not professional. Professionally, he is, as he was throughout his life, a catastrophe. He creates the same.
I have written much on the wars, the war on terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq. I spent much time protesting, signing petitions, writing letters, and building installations in homage. I have since Bush began bellowing.
I recognize that my voice is, as those of others, ignored. The words are as water; they roll off the President's back. King George II has said, and continues to say, dismissively, that he has heard the arguments of people such as myself. He has listened to the reasoned and rational thoughts of the millions. Yet, he has not.
Only today, while taking a break from his five-week long vacation, the fair-haired Commander in Chief stopped to speak with the press. The President stated his [supposed] intent was to speak "sympathetically" to the circumstances of Cindy Sheehan.
Again, the powers, super-powers that be, deny what is. Al-Qaida forces released a videotape. The intent was to share the Al-Qaida message with the Western-World. One of the top leaders of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned Britons and Americans, the policies of Prime Minister Tony Blair were to blame for the attacks on Britain. Al-Zawahiri assured an anxious public; more attacks will follow. Mr. Zawahiri stated, America will bring assaults on itself; "policies of aggression against Muslims" are the cause. Allies will experience the same.
Nonetheless, United States President George W. Bush stays strong. When asked of the terrorists tape, Mr. Bush asserted, the remarks of this al-Qaida leader do not threaten him. Mr. Bush said Mr. Zawahiri was and is a member of the terrorist group that attacked the United States on 9/11. King George II claimed it is because of persons such as Zawahiri that we are "at war." He stated Americans must stay the course; he declared they would. With the help of allies, the people of this nation will continue in their quest. We will, as he offered in years past, hunt down terrorists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri.
While speaking from his Crawford ranch, the President said, "We are defeating the terrorists in a place like Iraq so we don't have to face them here at home." He said the United States would press on, helping Iraqis write a constitution. The Western world will train Iraqi troops, and assist citizens in electing a permanent government.
Though Mr. Zawahiri warned Britons that Mr. Blair's policies "will bring upon them more destruction after the London explosions," the Prime Minister is declining to comment. Tony Blair offered no words of wisdom to the media or to any other source.
In the past, Blair strongly rejected any tie between the attacks and Britain's role in Iraq. Days after the Pew Charitable Trust Project reported that Muslims do support aggressions against the Western-World, specifically because of Iraq war policies, Blair denied the connection.
President Bush blames the Democrats for blocking his judicial appointments. He claims "courtrooms sit empty." He states the cause is clear; Democrats in the Senate refuse an up-or-down vote on his nominees. Mr. Bush maintains this is causing a crisis in our courts. While there is much evidence to the contrary, it is true; there is calamity, though not in the courts per se.
As a child, my grandfather taught me that two wrongs never make a right. I have honored that wisdom throughout my life and I still do. I thought that everyone did. However, after hearing yet another report on how this Whitehouse produces political propaganda, presents it to the public as though it were objective news, and then justifies the practice, I wonder.
At a recent press conference, Whitehouse spokesperson Scott McClellan was given an opportunity to discuss the ethics of this. He declaratively offered, "The informational news releases that you're referring to are something that have been in use for many years. It goes back to the early '90s." Trusting this to be true, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell reiterated the claim, stating that the Clinton Administration was the first to engage in such questionable antics. Nonetheless, she added, "the Bush Administration has spent a quarter of a billion dollars on public relations, mostly for videos," and apparently, this is "double what Bill Clinton spent."
While speaking of the policy, neither of these comments addresses, what for me is the truer issue of "right" [otherwise considered admirable and amenable] or "wrong" [otherwise considered cruel and corrupt]. These proclamations seem as childish games. First, they hopscotch; then, they move from that game onto another. Mr. McClellan begins on the square marked "two wrongs make a right." He then jumps to the equally childish box titled the "blame-game!" Ultimately he lands solidly on "Follow the leader." Ms. Mitchell, on the other hand, is playing "Gotcha," and "Can you top this?"
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