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.

Vaughn Ververs gets weird on us

Vaughn Ververs gets weird on us

The National Journal's Vaughn Ververs' recent commentary has me concerned and I am beginning to question CSPAN's reliance on him as a regular, credible source of reliable and open information. I plan to make CSPAN aware of this and I think you may want to drop them a line as well.

First, he sings the praises of William Safire, while portraying Maureen Dowd as the forked-tongued redheaded she-devil who will have nowhere to turn now that she allegedly cannot effectively throw her Satan-darts and laser-beams-from-Hell at the Bush administration.

Demeanor, style, and tone should have nothing to do with the future effectiveness of an individual journalist's sharing of core ideas, nor should it reflect upon their capacity to generate interest and/or produce resulting (necessary) civic dialogue, especially in the light of a divided America (a fact so many of these totally unrealistic media folk desire to ignore).

I can't help but wonder which flavor of Koolaid Ververs has been sampling.

Slap-slap-slap. Wake up, Vaughn Ververs!

Ververs also suggests that exit poll data be kept a total secret in future elections.

"So here's our suggestion for the next election: Share all the demographic and issue breakdowns. Go crazy telling people that 49 percent of NASCAR dads who think that gay marriage should be allowed voted for Candidate X. But keep those horse-race numbers out of the hands of all but a handful of National Election Pool officials. Do not share them with news anchors, reporters, producers or anyone else.

That idea really gives me the creeps. It should give you the creeps, too. If it doesn't, there's something wrong with your sense of what it means to live in an open society with an allegedly free press.

I'm writing to CSPAN today. Please, join me.

Watch 'Mr. Smith' Die

"Just get up off the ground, that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won't just see scenery; you'll see the whole parade of what Man's carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so's he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties...it's not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!"

--Jimmy Stewart as Jefferson Smith

Watch 'Mr. Smith' Die

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington will soon be rendered a quaint, obsolete democratic tale of sheer fantasy, for it will no longer be possible for one American to dare to dream of effecting change in our nation's Capitol.

From today's NYT:

"Senator Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican who is chairman of the Rules Committee, has been among the Republicans who have also suggested that the Republicans try to win a change by seeking a ruling from the chairman, a position that a Republican would hold, that filibusters against executive nominations are unconstitutional. A favorable ruling would require just a majority to uphold.

Some Republicans have been reluctant to try that maneuver. They call it the nuclear option, because it could come back to haunt them if they are in the minority. Democrats have also threatened to tie up the Senate in knots if they lose their right to filibuster in that manner.

"To implement it would make the last Congress look like a bipartisan tea party," Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who is on the Judiciary Committee, said. "For the sake of country and some degree of comity, I would hope and pray that the majority leader would not take away the Senate's time-honored, 200-year-old tradition."

As Mr. Smith dies, so dies American democracy.

How easily are you willing to allow that to happen?

Veterans Day

"Wheel of Misfortune", a classic example of the "OK, we did our job, now get us the hell home" attitude that settled in after a while during Operation Desert Storm.

Veterans Day

I wasn't sure what to do here at Iddybud to honor veterans on Veteran's Day.

I watched the film "Three Kings" this morning. It reminded me of Operation Desert Storm. I pulled out some old letters from family members serving in the first Gulf War.

I chose part of one letter to share with you, not to evoke some wild emotion in you, but so that you may simply appreciate the everyday life of a soldier serving his country at a time of war. He could be you, he could be me. He could be your son, your brother, your Dad, your lover. Maybe he's there because he loves his country. Maybe he's there because it's simply his duty. Maybe he wants to be there. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he agrees with his Commander in chief. Maybe he thinks the Commander in chief is wrong. He won't publically say, as a rule. But, rest assured, that soldier has his private opinion, and he's going to let his family and friends know about it. He may do courageous things, but he never planned on being a hero. He's human. He's trusting. He's loyal. He's brave in the face of danger he never thought he'd have to face. He deserves a Commander in chief who truly and humbly understands what the soldier's life is worth to him and to those who love him. (Or her, I do not forget our women who serve).

24 Nov 1990
Letter from APS/Soldier serving in Kuwait


Things are pitifully the same. Last week, a helicopter pilot was sitting in his chopper on the runway, surrounded by other helicopters and people, doing a maintenance check on his equipment. I guess he pushed a red button by mistake and he launched a HELLFIRE MISSILE - it shot about a mile just above the ground - didn't hit anything - and blew up an Air Force Ammunition Supply Point! Believe it or not, nobody was even hurt.

In the last week, we've had one soldier who shot himself in the leg with his rifle - another stabbed himself in the chest. I could never imagine doing anything like that. NEVER! Now, I may sock someone in the chops if I really wanted to get back to the States. (A general, maybe :)

Two of my latest/greatest statements have been:

A. If something doesn't happen soon I'm gonna "wack out".

B. After getting chewed out for not having my hat on when I was supposed to, I imagined saying to the superior, "You know, in the big overall scene of my life, you don't amount to very much."

With that, I'll end this note. I miss you a lot. Write soon.

Love,
John

p.s. Just found out Jay Leno is going to be here in a couple hours. I won't see him since I'm working. :(

Vets- thanks for all you do and all you've done.
You are honored, loved, and deeply appreciated.

The Wise Sy Hersh says....

The Wise Sy Hersh says....

When the experienced and wise Seymour Hersh speaks, we listen. A Daily Kos diarist, leftwingnut, attended a speech given by Mr. Hersh at Iowa State last night. Here are some of his main talking points:

• Our democracy is fragile and easily tilted in another direction. He didn't mention the "F" word, instead referencing an "-ism."

• We are dropping more bombs in Iraq since 6/28 (the installation of Allawi) than before. This is a bad sign that things are not moving in the right direction.

• The same false logic that operated during Vietnam, that we have to destroy the village in order to save it is motivating the current drive on Fallujah.

• It is Kurdish Army units fighting alongside U.S. troops in Iraq, not trained Iraqi Army troops, as the media has reported.

• We are not fighting an insurgency, we are fighting the Baathist elements who melted away during the early phase of the invasion and are now operating in cells of 5-15 all over the country.

• Guantanamo is going to be a stain on U.S. history, like the Andersonville prison from the Civil War era.

• The terrorist bad seeds from Fallujah are now back in Samarra, which we "secured" weeks ago. And so the game will continue...

• Putin is playing games in the region, probably helping Iran nuclearize. Now that Bush has been "re-elected," the EU may take collective action. And whether they do or don't, expect European citizens, who really hate Bush, to take it out on U.S. companies like Ford, EuroDisney, etc. Hersh thinks the EU might attempt to become an interlocuter in the Israel-Palestine conflict because the U.S. has failed in this role under Bush.

• Nobody in the military believes they can speak out for fear of retribution. There is wide agreement among the branches of the service that Iraq is a lost cause, but no one wants to tell the President.

• The press corps has totally turned into Bush bootlickers. Start reading the Financial Times of London and Israeli daily Haaretz to get your news about what is really going on in the Middle East.

• There is wide agreement among the military that you don't use torture against hardened terrorists because they are quite willing to die for their cause, and it doesn't work--you just get disinformation. You also don't do to them what we don't want done to us.

Mullah Dobson: Norwegians Destroying Planet Earth!

Mullah Dobson: Norwegians Destroying Planet Earth!


Josh Marshall shows us how Mullah Dobson fills his following fundamentalists with fear. [Those wicked 'Wegians!]

Beat a child for Jesus and Mullah Dob.

Radical Cleric Pat Robertson:
A woman's search for equal rights turns her into a killer witch commie lesbo sinner from Hell

Obey, she-devil, obey!

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

Blumenthal: The lowest ignorance takes charge
Having helped Bush to office, the religious right is exerting its power

(*A group associated with the radical cleric Pat Robertson advised 45,000 churches how to work for Bush's re-election.)

Thursday Thoughts

Thursday Thoughts

One of the best Thomas Friedman columns I've read is in today's NY Times. With clarity, he asks relevant, common-sense questions about the war in Iraq.

The new Third Way Democrat's movement sounds like a surefire way to kill off newfound excitement among new, young Democratic voters, who are the face of our future. A 48% minority in America is no excuse for the Democratic party to move further from the base. I smell the prospect of more rotting away of an already-decaying party. How do you tell them they're taking a wrong turn - how do you tell them they are handing Grover Norquist and Karl Rove assured victory in 2008? I'm not sure how you can get it through their thick Republican lite noggins, all I know is that we'd damned well better do it soon.

Frank Rich raises a very important question in his column:

"Prime time was bestowed upon the three biggest stars in post-Bush Republican politics: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger. All are supporters of gay rights and opponents of the same-sex marriage constitutional amendment. Only Mr. McCain calls himself pro-life, and he's never made abortion a cause. None of the three support the Bush administration position on stem-cell research. When the No. 1 "moral values" movie star, Mel Gibson, condemned the Schwarzenegger-endorsed California ballot initiative expanding and financing stem-cell research, the governor and voters crushed him like a girlie-man. The measure carried by 59 percent, which is consistent with national polling on the issue.

If the Republican party's next round of leaders are all cool with blue culture, why should Democrats run after the red?"

Sticking with the theme of values and Democratic hand-wringing, I saw a truth-telling letter to the DLC's failure of a strategist, Bruce Reed. It was written by a Daily Kos diarist. It was a reply to a WaPo column by Reed titled Ending Our Losing Ways

"..Finally, you said, "The last two campaigns have been short on such shock therapy." And I find myself a little amused. I was and am a supporter of Howard Dean. I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Gov. Dean for providing us with exactly that. It was clearly Gov. Dean that shocked the Democratic Party out of it's slumber and made it clear that it was ok to go on the offensive against the Republicans rather than being their doormat as we had been the previous couple years....We Democrats ran from him. We voted for "electability" rather than strength of message. And we lost.."

What I believe we need in America today, to bring us back to sanity-in-democracy, is a media that supports a realistic reporting format. [There's a great Jay Rosen blogpost about this HERE].

Many in the media are far removed from the suburban American street, as David Brooks wrote about earlier this week. I think Brooks has recently been too much of a partisan hack, and I don't agree with his statement that "These exurbs are conservative but also utopian - Mayberrys with BlackBerrys. The Republicans won in part because Bush and Rove understand this culture." Most Washington, DC journalists are out of touch with Suburbia, U.S.A. Many of them think that suburbians are a bunch of Bush-loving Bible thumpers. I live in the suburbs and I know just as many people who would spit in Bush's eye as those who would fall on their knees for him. Brooks has raised an interesting point, however.

I believe that a realistic dialogue needs to begin in "Red" America and the media needs to show that, most realistically, there is a large "blue" minority who live and work alongside their intolerant neighbors. Perhaps a religion/faith dialogue is necessary. The Republicans tend to appeal to Christian voters in an extremely narrow way, sticking to 'Gods, guns and gays' while shutting off Democratic candidate's "faith" voice with accusations of hypocrisy surrounding those narrow issues. Topics such as the death penalty, social justice, and unjust war are totally avoided by Republicans, and I'm always amazed that no Democratic candidate will challenge them on their lack of moral reconciliation on such topics. Many "Blue" voters are people of strong faith who choose not to allow their faith to be reduced to a pitiful political agenda. Their faith is rich and deep, and no Democratic candidate ever acknowleges that fact in a way that drives home the truth (other than Howard Dean, who tried and was eventually destroyed by his own party). The "Blue" voters practically wind up getting labeled as 'heathens' by the Republican strategists. We know that isn't true. Christianity is damaged in the political process, as Michael Feingold points out in the Village Voice:

"The majority that voted for Bush—the slimmest an incumbent president has received since 1916 — did so not because they agreed with him on any important issues, but because they viewed his opinion on matters like abortion and same-sex marriage as good, and any alternative opinion as evil. The two great failures of this election were the failure of democracy as a concept in the public mind, and the failure of Christianity as a religion."

It's time for Democrats to stop being afraid to touch forcefully upon the subject of Christianity, with all cynicism set aside.

Speaking of religion, Omri Elisha, at The Revealer, has an extremely interesting article comparing Bush to the Biblical Esther. Link: God Save the Queen

Excerpt:

"In Farenheit 9/11, Michael Moore wonders what Bush might have been thinking while he sat in the classroom looking bewildered for those seven minutes after learning that a second plane struck the Twin Towers. In light of political and business links between the Bush family and its Saudi bedfellows, Moore speculates that Bush must have been thinking “Hmm, which one of my friends screwed me?” Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. Sadly, that question is already beside the point.



What remains significant is how conservative evangelicals read that moment, and every presidential moment since then. If we come at this from a perspective that they might take, it follows that evangelicals did not see a bewildered politician, a man in over his head, stymied by his own inexperience and geo-political entanglements. Rather they saw the reluctant Queen Esther struggling to come to terms with the abrupt realization that she is implicated in a drama much larger than herself.

At that moment, Bush, like Esther, represented the evangelical’s greatest ambition and anxiety -- that one day he/she will be called upon to surrender him/herself to an irreversible state of being where personal faith and historical destiny become one and the same...."

It is not surprising, after such manipulation of faith by Republicans, that frustration and cynicism are pervasive among decent "Blue" voters. In an open letter to the "Red State victors", an author from the New Democrat Outreach Program writes:

"Understandably, you resent us, so you've fabricated an imaginary measure of superiority: Christian "values." Yet you talk about values the way a pre-teen girl talks about "love" in fan letters to Ashton Kutcher. You recycle quasi-religious platitudes and received slogans. You know nothing of moral theology, a rigorous philosophical pursuit that hardly exists outside the Catholic Church and its elite universities. You make of the Bible what you will; you attend prayer meetings with other semi-literates, where you reinforce each other's sloppy understandings of the text, and combine them with half-digested bits of old-timey Hallmark-card "wisdom." And when you spout gibberish, you call it "speaking in tongues." You actually fancy that you're saints, you silly, narcissistic creatures."

Stupidity and Danger Flies In Face of American Division

Stupidity and Danger Flies In Face of American Division

Bush had best get a rein on the Grover Norqistians, wingnuts, and fundamental Christians.

Mike Thompson may be accused of treason - or simply of utter stupidity. His team won - they have our government lock, stock, and barrel..and he wants to secede, losing two of the most profitable markets in the world (NY and CA)?? What a complete dumbass.

Norquist aims to break anyone (including RI Senator Lincoln Chaffee) who dares stand up to his plan to drown liberal power for good. I hope he keeps it up..he's going to wind up choking in the dustbin of temporary American insanity.

Michael Ledeen should be strung up for complete idiocy with this idea - see his recommendation for Zell Miller. (Although it might be fun to see ol' Spitballs lose a duel with Jacques Chirac or Vincente Fox).

Speaking of Ledeen, we are just beginning to find out his Neocon crowd (in this case, Senor) seems to have performed a total end run around poor Paul Bremer in Iraq last Spring. Another case of our President allowing chaos and divisiveness to run rampant within his own secretive, battling and confused administration. No accountability, no one fired. Failure results on a battlefield where we never should have been in the first place.

These creatures are empowered by an unapologetic, inept, and radical rightwing President.

This isn't going anywhere productive. America needs serious help.
We're at the most pathetic civil state since the Civil War days.
No wonder poor Mike Thompson thinks secession is the only answer.

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

Most predictable news of the day (yawn):
Bush nominates a divisive character for Attorney General

Funniest comment upon the nomination of
Alberto 'I Like torture' Gonzales:

But Does He Like Naked Statues?
by Mad Kane

"The Geneva Conventions are quaint,
Said Gonzales. A scholar, he ain't.
But he's Dub's nominee
For the post of AG,
Where no doubt he will rule sans restraint."

Fallujah Updates

"Dr. Salih al-Issawi, the head of Fallujah's main hospital, said he had asked U.S. officers to allow doctors and ambulances go inside the main part of the city to help the wounded but they refused."


Not many rightwing bloggers are talking about this.

Fallujah Updates
Barbara O'Brien writes about the reality of Fallujah in "Orange Fireballs" (American Street).


This is NOT a terrorist.
The method to our madness is murderous.

MSNBC:

"On Tuesday, a 9-year-old boy died after being hit in the stomach by shrapnel. His parents were unable to get him to hospital because of the fighting and so resorted to wrapping a sheet around him to stem the blood flow.

But he died hours later of blood loss and was buried in the garden of the family home.

“We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go out,” said his father, teacher Mohammed Abboud. “We did not know how long the fighting would last.”

..One mother and her three daughters had intended to flee but their home was hit by a bombardment earlier this week and all died, neighbors who escaped told aid workers.

..In one case, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee camp west of the city after the mother unexpectedly aborted and no doctors were on hand....

more to come..

Progress Still Has a Friend in John Kerry

Fired-up, Sen Kerry returns to Senate

Progress Still Has a Friend in John Kerry

When I think of John Kerry, I think of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". In an atmosphere of social divisiveness, fear and hatred, perhaps John didn't have a presidential win in the cards, but he won't let it stop him from being the man of integrity that he has always been.

In the film version, with Gregory Peck, there is a poignant courtroom scene where Atticus Finch seems very much alone in the wake of his heart-wrenching loss in the downstairs chamber of the courtroom, but above him, there are seats still filled upstairs and every person stands in homage while Atticus passes below.



I stand with all who supported Mr. Kerry and salute him for what he tried to do, and what we know he could have done for America. I'm so very glad he'll be fighting for us in the Senate. There's a lot he has learned from this experience and it will make him the most valuable Senator we could have on realistic democracy's side.

Thank you, Senator Kerry.
Godspeed.

Divisive Dobson Promotes Fear, Anger, Hate

Divisive Dobson Promotes Fear, Anger, Hate
..with no apologies

Read this exchange between George Stephanopoulos and James Dobson (Talking Points Memo)It seems clear, that for all his hype about Christian values, that Dobson doesn't actually believe it himself with this public breakdown of humility on ABC, as you will read. Perhaps he'd be more credible if he practiced what he preaches.

More importantly, I don't think Mr. Dobson has any serious place on a political talk show. A slim margin of a win favoring Mr. Bush should not subject the record-setting millions of people out here (many of us people of deep personal faith) to be subject to this sort of insult to our secular/political intelligence. We understand that Mr. Dobson's repressive "family values" agenda will be used as an excuse to roll back every attempt at progressive social thinking, and half the nation prefers a progressive approach.

Neither the network media nor the cable news media is a friend of progress. They are a friend of controversy and cold hard cash. Their employees look like stooges. I wish they were fair, realistic, and honest. I have abandoned them as a credible source of information for subjecting us to this sort of hype. The ratings-generating circus is more important to then than the truth. As I passed by the cable news networks with my television remote today, I saw more tripe about Kobe Bryant and Laci Peterson than I saw the truth about the razing of Fallujah.

I'm thankful for the internet for the sane voices of my own people here in America. The blogs are far more reality-based. Josh Marshall, Daily Kos, Kid Oakland (at Daily Kos), American Street, William Rivers Pitt (Truthout), Atrios, Raw Story, Anonymoses, The Revealer, American Amnesia, Voice of a Veteran, Hope4America, Buzzflash, G.D. Frogsdong, The Moderate Voice (Joe Gandelman), Lew Rockwell.com, are just a few of the bloggers and internet writers I am grateful to have as my companions on the road toward the saving of American sanity within our democracy.

Will Liberal Tradition Survive Bush?

Will Liberal Tradition Survive Bush?

"We will soon discover the meaning of the old warning "Be careful what you wish for…....For those who are worried that four more years of Bush are going to be really awful, relax in the knowledge that at least Kerry won’t be blamed for it..."

Karen Kwiatkowski, The Real Way Ahead, Lew Rockwell.com

"The world was waiting hopefully for the sensible American people to rectify the ill-advised actions of a rogue neoconservative administration. Instead, Americans placed the stamp of approval on the least justifiable military action since Hitler invaded Poland. In the eyes of the world, Bush’s reelection is proof that Ariel Sharon’s neoconservative allies in the Bush administration speak for America after all. The world’s sympathy for America that followed the September 11 attacks has been squandered. If the US suffers terrorist attacks in the future, the world will say that America invited the attacks and got what it asked for...The world is amazed that Americans do not care that they have been deceived, lied to, and incompetently led and that Americans have chosen to continue along this path. Bush’s reelection has ended forever respect for America. New and unflattering sobriquets for Americans are emerging. The American century is over."

Paul Craig Roberts, An Election That Will Live In Infamy, VDARE.com/Center for American Unity

"..The missing piece in all of this [re: the presidential election] is the forgotten liberal tradition, which affirms the dignity of all human life, believes in the rights of all, and fights for freedom against the never-ending attempts by government, all government everywhere, to restrict and destroy it. The liberal tradition believes that individuals and society can work out their own problems in the absence of top-down management. It denies to government any role in managing the nation or the world. It embraces private property, cherishes freedom of association, and sees peace as the mother of civilization. The great intellectual strain of this liberal tradition spans 500 years and longer, and has survived every onslaught from left and right, and will continue to do so. It is the liberal tradition to which we owe the world's prosperity and well-being, all technological innovations, and improvements in health, housing, nutrition, and information distribution. The liberal tradition will continue to thrive, but with no help from the elites in power."

Lew Rockwell, Liberty Yet Lives, LewRockwell.com

A Soldier's Letter Home

A Soldier's Letter Home


Jesse

A letter home from Pfc. Jesse A. Givens, 34, of Springfield, Mo. Private Givens was killed May 1 when his tank fell into the Euphrates River after the bank on which he was parked gave way. This letter was written to be delivered to his family if he died. Melissa is his wife, Dakota his 6-year-old stepson and Bean the name he used for his son, Carson, who was born May 29.

My family,

I never thought that I would be writing a letter like this. I really don't know where to start. I've been getting bad feelings, though and, well, if you are reading this. . . .

The happiest moments in my life all deal with my little family. I will always have with me the small moments we all shared. The moments when you quit taking life so serious and smiled. The sounds of a beautiful boy's laughter or the simple nudge of a baby unborn. You will never know how complete you have made me. You saved me from loneliness and taught me how to think beyond myself. You taught me how to live and to love. You opened my eyes to a world I never dreamed existed.

Dakota . . . you taught me how to care until it hurts, you taught me how to smile again. You taught me that life isn't so serious and sometimes you just have to play. You have a big, beautiful heart. Through life you need to keep it open and follow it. Never be afraid to be yourself. I will always be there in our park when you dream so we can play. I love you, and hope someday you will understand why I didn't come home. Please be proud of me.

Bean, I never got to see you but I know in my heart you are beautiful. I know you will be strong and big-hearted like your mom and brother. I will always have with me the feel of the soft nudges on your mom's belly, and the joy I felt when I found out you were on your way. I love you, Bean.

Melissa, I have never been as blessed as the day I met you. You are my angel, soulmate, wife, lover and best friend. I am sorry. I did not want to have to write this letter. There is so much more I need to say, so much more I need to share. A lifetime's worth. I married you for a million lifetimes. That's how long I will be with you. Please keep my babies safe. Please find it in your heart to forgive me for leaving you alone. . . . Teach our babies to live life to the fullest, tell yourself to do the same.

I will always be there with you, Melissa. I will always want you, need you and love you, in my heart, my mind and my soul. Do me a favor, after you tuck the children in. Give them hugs and kisses from me. Go outside and look at the stars and count them. Don't forget to smile.

Love Always,
Your husband,
Jess

From Last Letters Home, an HBO Special to be aired Veteran's Day

Fallujah Assault Will Damage Iraq Ballot

Fallujah, 2003
Their Holy War. Our....??

Fallujah Assault Will Damage Iraq Ballot -
Allawi Making Decisions for US Troops

It doesn't make me confident to know that our military is at the beck and call of an interim foreign leader.

"...about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault if Allawi gives the green light."

"You can feel the energy. You can feel the chemistry.."

The UN isn't saying the Fallujah assault might effect the ballot - they are saying the assault will, indeed, sabotage the ballot.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others have warned that a military offensive could trigger a wave of violence that would sabotage the ballot.

This is more than a case of cutting off our own nose to spite our face.

It is a case of ruthless and violent killing (with the whole world watching) and putting our troops at extreme risk under the leadership of a foreign power - while sabotaging our own goals.

Partisan Division Over A Suicide at 9/11 Site

Bobbie Jensen, 54, a Republican from Phoenix, said that while she understood how Bush's victory disturbed those who dislike him, Ground Zero is not the place to act on those emotions.

"You can be upset about the war, about Bush, but this is a sacred place," she said. "You got to accept what happened and not kill yourself."

(DOH!!!!!!)

Partisan Division Over A Suicide at 9/11 Site

Despondent over the Bush win, a man has committed suicide at the site of the World Trade Center attacks.

How easy it seems to be for any of us to argue over the body of this man, who had a fire running through his veins, and who apparently believed that the fire could only be extinguished by stopping the beat of his troubled heart.

I only wish I'd been there for him in his time of need.

Seeing partisan opining on this matter is indicative of the level of sickness that prevails our here in the real world, beneath the fantasy radar emitted by the mainstream zombies in the press.

There's a slow fire burning out here in the real America.

When we parse a man's decision to end his life over partisan politics, we know we have a genuine problem.

"I'm very moved by it. Obviously, this person was devastated. I can see why he would come here."

(DOH!!!!!!)

Shame on CNN

Shame on CNN
..the stupid bastards

They're skewing. dumbing down, and misrepresenting the meaning of "Moral Values"

Photo/Dreams

From the Blog of an Unfinished Dream Pursuer

If one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams, and endeavors to lead a life which they have imagined, they will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

--Henry David Thoreau

US Asks For New Bin Laden Tape Not to Be Shown

"The victory of "Bush, the despicable, is good, because it opens the way to Jihad (Holy War) in several Arab countries where despotic (regimes) will be, God willing, removed,"

- A man called Abderrahman on an Islamic website

US Asks For New Bin Laden Tape Not to Be Shown
11/4/2004
Raw Story Update: Bin Laden tape said to be on ice
Alleged to contain pre-recorded response to American election

At least one ‘new’ Bin Laden video, said to be in the possession of the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, is nearing the end of an embargo allegedly enacted at the pressure of U.S. authorities, though the tape may still be withheld.

The site reporting on the video, TrackingTerrorism.com, told RAW STORY in private correspondence that they are respecting the embargo. They have been tracking unconfirmed reports for more than two days.

The tape is said to be currently leaked online on a few remote and clandestine Al-Qaeda websites. Militants are already praising its release, making comments such as, “soon the American People will see the edited version,” the site reports....

LINK to story


If you do not understand that the wrong man won this election, then I can only assume you are one of the dumb shits who voted for him.

Do you think the Bush administration would have hesitated for one moment to allow the tape to be shown if it was before the election (when they needed to terrorize America to vote for them?)

World Wound Deepens

This was the political cartoon in newspaper Aftenposten after it emerged that George W Bush would be the US president for another four years. The text reads: "...and now I'd like to send a little greeting to all my friends in Europe."
The thought of another 4 years of Bush rule may end up pushing Norway into the European Union.

Osama's War of Ideas Sprouts Lighter Wings on Bush Re-Election
World Wound Deepens

As division deepens in America, divisions deepen in Europe.

We needed France, Germany, and Spain as partners, and not as a "counterbalance".

While some may be feeling joyous over the results of the election, I think we should be weeping for ourselves. We've gained ourselves strong adversaries instead of willing partners in fighting terrorism.

Osama wins. Sorry, I have to say it. Even if the brave men of our military catch him today (and I hope they do), his war of ideas has sprouted lighter wings on the winds of Bush's re-election.

In the western world, what could have been rejoicing and reuinion is now a deepening of wounds.

With the appearance, to the world, that fundamental Christians have chosen Bush (and don't kid yourselves, that is how it looks), so goes the appearance that we are fighting a lone holy war against the Muslim world.

Bush and his Congress Will Change Rules To Further Silence the Large Minority

Bush and his Congress Will Change Rules To Further Silence the Large Minority

This is clearly not what the Founding Fathers intended. James Madison warned that the majority must be rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression. His warning rings true today. Participation in government is becoming an unbelievably unattainable goal to the people (meaning all of the people) who are alleged to own and be a part of it.

I'm not surprised to hear the Bushites say they'll change the rules to suppress the minority. I've come to understand the radical nature of Mr. Bush and his base. For all of those people, such as Nicholas Kristof in today's New York Times, who are rationalizing and wringing their hands and saying we'll have to become more like the Pat Robertson crowd in order to find our power again, I have a message. Take a vacation. You sound insane and depressed. Remember the 48% of us who not only didn't vote for Bush, but understand, with perfect reason and reality, that our nation is headed over a cliff. (Probably more than 48% since there is such doubt about the election's integrity).


From a FOX News article:

As it stands today [Democrats] can block [a nominee] ... But I also believe that the president and majority leader may well decide to change the rules given the elections ... The president has a very strong political support, potential support, for asking for and getting this change.

Blogger Josh Marshall comments:

"..what I fear will be a growing pattern in this second term: an effort to use a narrowly secured majority not only to govern, even govern aggressively, but to make institutional changes that strip away the existing powers and rights of large minorities. These formal and informal checks and balances constitute the governmental soft-tissue that allows our political system to function."

A Soldier's Opinion of Bush Victory

".. No more heat. No more bad food. No more sand. No more being shot at. No more pulling the trigger. No more guard duty. No more bullshit missions. No more cold showers. No more explosions. No more friends lost. No more lines to talk to my family. No more body armor. No more bad water. No more warm water.
No more Iraq."

- From soldier's Live Journal

.
A Soldier's Opinion of Bush Victory

4 more years America

"If you voted for Bush, didn't vote, or voted no on gay marriage, I hope you get drafted.

I hope they stick you in my unit, and you go with me to Iraq when my unit goes back in September. I will laugh when you see what soldiers in that country face on a daily basis. I hope you work with gay soldiers too. I did. One of them saved my life. Think he shouldn't have the right to get married? Fuck you. He fought just as hard as I did and on most days, did his job better than me. Don't tell me gays don't have the same rights you do.

Think the war in Iraq is a good thing? I'll donate my M-16 to you and you can go in my place."

LiveJournal
Link1
Link2

The Constitutional Right of Secession

Political Thought
for the Day:
"The Constitutional
Right of Secession"
by Andrei Kreptul
from the Journal of Libertarian Studies

Austro-libertarian Jorg Guido Hulsmann has concluded that secession is "to break the compulsory ties between the secessionists and a government which they no longer accept."

Mr. Kreptul explores the idea of secession and the aspects of its constitutionality.

Also at the Von Mises institute,
Is Laissez-Faire a Threat to Freedom?
An Answer to George Soros
by George Reisman

"At one point, Soros even goes so far as to say: "Why does nobody have access to the ultimate truth? The answer became clear: We live in the same universe that we are trying to understand, and our perceptions can influence the events in which we participate. If our thoughts belonged to one universe and their subject matter to another, the truth might be within our grasp: we could formulate statements corresponding to the facts, and the facts would serve as reliable criteria for deciding whether the statements were true." This statement, which suggests an element of Platonism, appears to imply that we are in a better position to acquire knowledge concerning conditions in a remote galaxy than we are to acquire knowledge concerning conditions here on earth..."

What do you think?

After the Election - Quotes

After the Election - Quotes

ELECTION FALLOUT
What do we do now?, Salon.com, November 4, 2004
"Politicos, academics and artists -- Huffington, Paglia, Lamott, McInerney, Moby and more -- respond to the prospect of four more years of Bush. . . . [Arianna Huffington]: Unless the Democratic Party wants to become a permanent minority party, there is no alternative but to return to the idealism, boldness and generosity of spirit that marked the presidencies of FDR and JFK and the short-lived presidential campaign of Bobby Kennedy. Otherwise, the Republicans will continue their winning ways, convincing tens of millions of hardworking Americans to vote for them even as they cut their services and send their children off to die in an unjust war. Democrats have a winning message. They just have to trust it enough to deliver it. This time they clearly didn't." (11/5)


Gary Wills: The Day the Enlightenment Went Out, New York Times, November 4, 2004
"This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution... America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed "a candid world," as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush's supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11." (11/5)

Will Lester: Bush won battle of values, Salon.com, November 3, 2004
"President Bush combined his reputation for strong leadership in a time of war with a campaign about traditional values to win re-election despite voters' doubts about his job performance and policies. In a dozen swing states that decided the presidential election, moral values tied with the economy and jobs as the top issue in the campaign, according to Associated Press exit polls. Terrorism was close behind. Bush won among those in swing states who picked moral values by 84-15 and he won among those who picked terrorism by 85-15. Sen. John Kerry won by a wide margin among those who picked the economy." (11/5)

David Corn: The Great Divide Continues, The Nation via AlterNet, November 3, 2004
"The good news: America is a divided nation. Despite the pundit hand-wringing over this fact, it is a positive thing. Nearly – nearly – half of the electorate rejected Bush's leadership, his agenda, his priorities, his falsehoods. . . . Other good news: Second-term presidents often hit the skids. The last three second- terms were marked by scandal (Watergate, Iran-contra, Monicagate). . . . More good news; Bush will not be able to hand off his own wreckage – Iraq and the gargantuan deficit – to a new man. But this does not mean he will accept responsibility and deal with it. Bush has the ability to deny and defy reality. And if he cannot see that the trash has piled up, he will not be hauling it to the curb." (11/5)

Josh Marshall: [Portents of Very Bad Things], Talking Points Memo, November 3, 2004
"Setting aside my general political leanings, my personal views and feelings of partisanship, I think the result portends very bad things for America's role in the world and the well-being on all levels of this country. Changes in domestic politics, in theory at least, can be shifted back at a following election. The world, though, is different. There we are just a ship -- though the largest one -- on waters we can never truly control. And I fear that this result will set in motion dangerous dynamics that even the relatively young among us will be wrestling with and contending with for the rest of our lives. I've referred to this in the past, and hopefully will have a chance to return to it, but here's the essence of the matter, as I see it. Before today, the course that America had charted in the world over the last three years could be seen as the result of a traumatic event (9/11) and the choice of a president who was actually put in office by a minority of the electorate. This was a referendum on what's happened in the last three years. And it's been validated." (See also Politex: Fascists Lead by 2 As Ohio Counts , and, for a more upbeat take on the election, see also W. David Jenkins III's: Yes, Virginia, There Is a Bright Side ). (11/5)


Rabbi Michael Lerner: Democrats Need a Religious Left, Via E-Mail, soon to be on Tikkun, November 4, 2004
"Yet liberals, trapped in a long-standing disdain for religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that underlie the move to the Right, have been unable to engage these voters in a serious dialogue. Rightly angry at the way that some religious communities have been mired in authoritarianism, racism, sexism and homophobia, the liberal world has developed such a knee-jerk hostility to religion that it has both marginalized those many people on the Left who actually do have spiritual yearnings and simultaneously refused to acknowledge that many who move to the Right have legitimate complaints about the ethos of selfishness in American life. ... Instead of assuming that most Americans are either stupid or reactionary, a religious Left would understand that many Americans who are on the Right actually share the same concern for a world based on love and generosity that underlies Left politics, even though lefties often hide their value attachments. ... The last time Democrats had real social power was when they linked their legislative agenda with a spiritual politics articulated by Martin Luther King. We cannot wait for the reappearance of that kind of charasmatic leader to begin the process of re-building a spiritual/religious Left." (See also Todd Purdum: Bush Proves to Be Galvanizing Force in Heartland). (11/5)

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Stand and Fight, The Nation, November 3, 2004
"Progressives, who were on the defensive two years ago, added millions of new voters as well, and tapped a new energy and activism that will last far beyond November 2nd. The extremism and incompetence of this rightwing cabal has sharpened our focus to a razor's edge. But for me, one of the fundamental questions about this campaign has been whether you could defeat a terrible but clear incumbent without a substantive policy alternative, and this time at least we couldn't. Kerry offered intelligence, a return to fiscal discipline, a bulwark against a rightwing court, and a health plan that few understood. He failed to use the moral message of "Two Americas" to erode Bush's edge. He mounted a late challenge to Bush's disastrous war in Iraq-- but he also talked about "staying the course." That wasn't enough of a coherent positive, populist or moral message to complement the impressive mechanics. We've got to build a politics of conviction, of passion and substance. ... This is war at a very deep level about how this country will proceed and this war isn't over, it's just renewed. " (11/5)

Sidney Blumenthal: Bush Unbound: Winning on fear itself, the GOP is ready to take the country even farther right, Salon.com, November 3, 2004
"The campaign was one long camp meeting, a revival. Abortion and stem cell research became a lever for prying loose white Catholics. (Rove's designated Catholic leader, his own political pontiff, had to resign in disgrace after being exposed for sexual harassment, but this was little reported and had no effect.) To help in Florida, a referendum was put on the ballot to deny young women the right to abortion without parental approval, and it galvanized evangelicals and conservative Catholics alike. While Kerry ran on the mainstream American traditions of international cooperation and domestic investment, and transparency and rationality as essential to democratic government, Bush campaigned directly against these very ideas. At his rallies, Bush was introduced as standing for "the right God." ... The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican Party is far more decisive than the loss by the Democrats. And there are no checks and balances." (11/5)



BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Maureen Dowd: The Red Zone, New York Times, November 4, 2004
"The president says he's "humbled" and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don't get their way. If W. didn't reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a "broad, nationwide victory"? While Mr. Bush was making his little speech about reaching out, Republicans said they had "the green light" to pursue their conservative agenda, like drilling in Alaska's wilderness and rewriting the tax code... Vice continued, "Now we move forward to serve and to guard the country we love." Only Dick Cheney can make "to serve and to guard" sound like "to rape and to pillage." He's creating the sort of "democracy" he likes. One party controls all power in the country. One network serves as state TV. One nation dominates the world as a hyperpower. One firm controls contracts in Iraq." (11/5)



BUSH CAMPAIGN

Dan Froomkin: How Did He Do It?, Washington Post, November 3, 2004
"Much of the media is justifiably caught up in the dramatic endgame today, but here are some of the possible factors that emerge from the overnight press coverage: The Bush campaign super-charged the "moral minority." Exit polls showed 21 percent of voters said moral values were the most important issue -- and 78 percent of them voted for Bush. That's about 18 million Bush votes right there. Bush profited hugely from thee dramatic social, cultural and geographic divides that we first saw so clearly in 2000, that were if anything deeper this time around, and that assured him of enormous swaths of rock-solid support.• He was successful at stoking voters' fears about terror, vesting himself with the cloak of a commander in chief at war and defining his opponent as a weak and vacillating leader. He kept to his plan and kept his message simple. He didn't get bogged down in details and didn't admit mistakes. He divided -- and conquered." (See also Noam Shreiber: More on the GOP Base ). (11/5)



ELECTION 2004

Anthony Wade: The Day America Died, The Mugging of Democracy, and John, You Let Us Down, opednews.com, November 3, 2004
"It is time to move forward. It is time however to understand the lessons we all need to learn from what just transpired. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat its failures. Forget words like “healing” and “uniting”. They are rhetoric designed to make us all weak for the next three years, so we will not have sufficient mobilization to truly address the underpinnings of what is now beyond doubt, a failed system. America died today. This is not about bitterness. This is not about denial. This is not, and never has been about me. This is about believing in the country you grew up in, and then watching it hijacked and stolen before your eyes while we all stand by in seeming helplessness. I am tired of feigning helplessness. It is time for action. Before that, a moment of retrospection... In the two states that required paper trails for their computer machines the margin of error on exit polling was within 0.1 percent. In Florida , with more than 3 million polled, Bush had a lead of only 5,355, yet he ended up winning by 326,000 votes. In Wisconsin there was an 8 point swing in Bush’s favor. In New Mexico a 7 point swing. In Minnesota , a 5 point swing. Exit polling accurately predicted the results in most states with very little error. Where there were discrepancies, they were significant in the +5 percent range, always favored Bush and always when there was no paper trail to check the veracity of the votes. We have a word for this where I come from, it is called a mugging." (11/5)

Randolph T. Holhut: We tried. We failed. We must try once again, Smirking Chimp, November 4, 2004
"It's now official. We are no longer a reality-based country. A majority of Americans voters apparently want decades of perpetual global war. They want to see their sons and daughters sacrificed on the altar of the neo-conservative dream of an American empire in the Middle East. They want more giveaways to corporations and tax cuts for the rich. They want to see Social Security privatized and see their retirement funds gambled away in the stock market. They want our air and water polluted and our natural resources plundered. They want to see more Supreme Court justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas and a federal judiciary that will likely turn the legal clock back to the Gilded Age. In short, a majority of American voters must really want their nation to be a corrupt one-party theocracy run by a president who thinks he's on a mission from God has total disdain for democracy, the rule of law and truth itself." (11/5)

Claudia Long: 'Mourning in America,' The Smirking Chimp, November 4, 2004
"The terrorists have won. How could they lose? They had everything on their side - fear, greed, superstition, ignorance. They even had Osama Bin Ladin. Yes, after the administration warned us for months that 'terrists' were going to try to disrupt the election, Osama appears, just like they said, just in the nick of time to scare the hell out of people, scare them enough to vote for a war that has already killed 100,000 innocent women and children... And of course, they own the voting machines, don't they? Who cares if the exit polls in Florida and Ohio were wildly out of sync with the 'results'? So what if the chief executive of Diebold, the Ohio corporation that makes most of the voting machines, promised publicly to deliver Ohio for Bush? Will anyone investigate? ... It is difficult even to think about all that could be lost - objective reality, tolerance, the Constitution, clean air and water, health care, public education, the middle class, the Rockies, science, the Age of Reason. Is that an exaggeration? At this point, I don't honestly know. I do know that all these things are threatened, and that vast changes can overtake a society in a relatively brief period of time. Germany in the 1930's comes to mind." (11/5)

Mark Morford: Wallow in chaos, and laugh, San Francisco Chronicle, November 3, 2004
"It simply boggles the mind: We've already had four years of some of the most appalling and abusive foreign and domestic policy in American history, some of the most well-documented atrocities ever wrought on the American populace and it's all combined with the biggest and most violently botched and grossly mismanaged war since Vietnam, and still much of the nation still insists in living in a giant vat of utter blind faith, still insists on believing the man in the White House couldn't possibly be treating them like a dog treats a fire hydrant. Inexplicable? Not really. People want to believe. They want to trust their leaders, even against all screaming, neon-lit evidence and stack upon stack of flagrant, impeachment-grade lie. They simply cannot allow that Dubya might really be an utter boob and that they are being treated like an abused, beaten housewife who keeps coming back for more, insisting her drunk husband didn't mean it, that she probably had it coming, that the cuts and bruises and blood and broken bones are all for her own good." (11/5)


Dan Froomkin: How Did He Do It?, Washington Post, November 3, 2004
"Much of the media is justifiably caught up in the dramatic endgame today, but here are some of the possible factors that emerge from the overnight press coverage: The Bush campaign super-charged the "moral minority." Exit polls showed 21 percent of voters said moral values were the most important issue -- and 78 percent of them voted for Bush. That's about 18 million Bush votes right there. Bush profited hugely from thee dramatic social, cultural and geographic divides that we first saw so clearly in 2000, that were if anything deeper this time around, and that assured him of enormous swaths of rock-solid support.• He was successful at stoking voters' fears about terror, vesting himself with the cloak of a commander in chief at war and defining his opponent as a weak and vacillating leader. He kept to his plan and kept his message simple. He didn't get bogged down in details and didn't admit mistakes. He divided -- and conquered." (See also Noam Shreiber: More on the GOP Base ). (11/5)

Eric Blumrich: Okay, Honeymoon's Over, Bushflash.com, November 4, 2004
"After spending a lot of time, worrying about Bush's october surprise, I totally lost sight of his November surprise. There were a ton of conspiracies flying around, and the signal-to-noise ratio had shrunk to an all-time low, and it pretty much slipped, right uder my radar. I've read innumerable articles, and hearing innumberable news reports, though, that the Katherine Harris-style voter disenfranchisement was going to go nationwide. People consistently warned of the diebold voting machines. I saw the Ohio Secretary of State, and saw him puruing the same strategies ....But, I chose to ignore it. Buzzflash raised warning after warning- Greg Palast broke the story a week ago- but I was confident- I figured that the overwhelming voter turnout would swell things to the point that even the most crass Diebold political operative would have problems with messing with the results. But no. They did it again, people. THEY DID IT AGAIN. This election was STOLEN once again, through mass disenfranchisement, and those voting machines. Exit Polls have NEVER been out of synch with final results, as they were in Florida, and Ohio. It was universal- go to CNN.com, and look at the county-by-county results, as opposed to the exit polls, in the counties that DID use the machines, compared with counties that didn't. And the beauty of it? THERE'S NO PAPER TRAIL- just as folks warned. There's absolutely NO WAY to challenge these results- the opposition has NO recourse." (See also Daniel Patrick Welch: It's the Policies, Stupid ). (11/5)

Tom Engelhardt: [Volunteers to Their Own Impoverishment], via e-mail, soon to be on The Nation.com The Nation, November 4, 2004
"A little over half of voting Americans -- and there were a lot of voting Americans this time around -- have now signed on to the rashest presidency in our history (short perhaps of that of Jefferson Davis); they have signed on to a disastrous crime of a war in Iraq, and a losing war at that which will only get worse; they have signed on to whatever dangerous schemes these schemers can come up with. They have signed on to their own impoverishment. This is the political version of the volunteer Army. Now, they have to live with it. Unfortunately, so do we. My small guarantee. Much of this will change over the years to come. This world of ours already spins on a dime, economically, politically, militarily, environmentally. (Just wait, for instance, until the tactic being developed in Iraq, thanks to our President, the blowing up of oil pipelines, spreads beyond that country's boundaries, as it certainly will, and then check out oil prices and the stock market.) But, to sound a small note of hope, as the world spins on a dime, so often do administrations. And you just never know when one of them will indeed implode. Take Richard Nixon, who sailed through a disastrous war in Vietnam and into office as second time in 1972 on a veritable landslide of votes, and then slide slowly into Watergate and disgrace. These will not be quiet years and, I suspect, they will not prove good ones for George Bush." (11/5)

Kos: Values, Daily Kos, November 3, 2004
"We need to retake the language. We need to reframe the notion of "value". That's why Obama's speech below is so brilliant. He speaks of God in a way that not just fails to offend this atheist, but inspires me. It's faith used for the purpose of living a good life, rather than faith wielded as a weapon against a whole class of people. The wedges: gays, abortion, and guns. Democrats have abandoned guns as an issue, and over the next three or four cycles it will prove an increasingly ineffective wedge. The NRA won. Good for them. That leaves the two "faith based" wedges -- gays and abortion. And with great skill, the Republicans have equated those two issues with the word "value". That's going to have to change." (See also Benjamin Wallace-Wells: The Great Black Hope: What's Riding on Barack Obama?). (11/5)

Garry Wills: The Day the Enlightment Went Out, New York Times, November 4, 2004
"President Bush promised in 2000 that he would lead a humble country, be a uniter not a divider, that he would make conservatism compassionate. He did not need to make such false promises this time. He was re-elected precisely by being a divider, pitting the reddest aspects of the red states against the blue nearly half of the nation. In this, he is very far from Ronald Reagan, who was amiably and ecumenically pious. He could address more secular audiences, here and abroad, with real respect. In his victory speech yesterday, President Bush indicated that he would "reach out to the whole nation," including those who voted for John Kerry. But even if he wanted to be more conciliatory now, the constituency to which he owes his victory is not a yielding one. He must give them what they want on things like judicial appointments. His helpers are also his keepers. The moral zealots will, I predict, give some cause for dismay even to nonfundamentalist Republicans. Jihads are scary things. It is not too early to start yearning back toward the Enlightenment." (11/5)

Carolyn Kay: What's Next?, Make Them Accountable, November 3, 2004
"The forces of fear, greed, and hatred have won again. They used lies, thuggery, and other illegitimate methods, to be sure, but considering the list of Bush administration failures, the presidential race should not even have been close enough to steal. And we should have had more victories in the House, but especially in the Senate where two Republican winners have sounded almost insane in their vilification of their Democratic opponents. There are two things we the people have to do, and we must start immediately. We have to take back the Democratic Party and we have to take back the political discourse in America." (See also Alexander Cockburn/Jeffrey St. Clair: Democrats in End Time: As Republicans Gain Shattering Victory, Who Is to Blame This Time?). (11/5)



IRAQ OCCUPATION

Scott Ritter: The war on Iraq has made moral cowards of us all, The Guardian, November 1, 2004
"Civilian deaths have always been a tragic reality of modern war. But the conflict in Iraq was supposed to be different - US and British forces were dispatched to liberate the Iraqi people, not impose their own tyranny of violence. Reading accounts of the US-led invasion, one is struck by the constant, almost casual, reference to civilian deaths. Soldiers and marines speak of destroying hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles that turned out to be crammed with civilians. US marines acknowledged in the aftermath of the early, bloody battle for Nassiriya that their artillery and air power had pounded civilian areas in a blind effort to suppress insurgents thought to be holed up in the city. The infamous "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad produced hundreds of deaths, as did the 3rd Infantry Division's "Thunder Run", an armoured thrust in Baghdad that slaughtered everyone in its path. . . . [W]e all are moral cowards when it comes to Iraq. Our collective inability to summon the requisite shame and rage when confronted by an estimate of 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians in the prosecution of an illegal and unjust war not only condemns us, but adds credibility to those who oppose us." (11/5)


Peter Dale Scott: Why the U.S. Must Withdraw from Iraq, Salon.com, October 28, 2004
"We face a different specter today: the sibling specter of escalation and imperial overstretch. The true Vietnam syndrome is our country's proven pathological history of involvement in unnecessary and unwinnable wars. These sibling Vietnam specters, one of withdrawal and one of escalation, haunt different sectors of our bitterly divided country. The first haunts those who fear America might lose control of the world. ... The second Vietnam specter haunts those who fear America is becoming trapped again by delusional dreams of domination. The immediate danger in Iraq, unfortunately, is not that we will pull out our troops and come home. On the contrary, it is that we will commit more and more troops, incur greater and greater casualties on all sides, and quite possibly expand the war beyond Iraq's frontiers, before we finally reach the relatively happy and simple outcome of withdrawal. ... It is time for Americans to go back to a saner Middle East policy that once again rejects impossible rollback ambitions in Iraq and the rest of the region. We need above all a policy that will help the Middle East to resolve its own problems, rather than seek to impose a solution. ... But first, it is time for America to realize not only that its continued military presence in Iraq serves no purpose, but also that it is a source of danger for America, the region and the world." (11/5)



MEDIA

Robert Parry: Too Little Too Late, opednews.com, November 4, 2004
"George W. Bush’s electoral victory is chilling proof that the conservatives have achieved dominance over the flow of information to the American people and that even a well-run Democratic campaign stands virtually no chance for national success without major changes in how the news media operates. It is not an exaggeration to say today that the most powerful nation on earth is in the grip of an ideological administration – backed by a vast network of right-wing think tanks, media outlets and attack groups – that can neutralize any political enemy with smears, such as the Swift boat ads against John Kerry’s war record, or convince large numbers of people that clearly false notions are true, like Saddam Hussein’s link to the Sept. 11 attacks. The outcome of Election 2004 also highlights perhaps the greatest failure of the Democratic/liberal side in American politics: a refusal to invest in the development of a comparable system for distributing information that can counter the Right’s potent media infrastructure. Democrats and liberals have refused to learn from the lessons of the Republican/conservative success." (11/5)

Cynthia L. Webb: Bloggers Let Poll Cat Out of the Bag, Washington Post, November 3, 2004
"In the thick of a historic and obsessively watched Election Day, bloggers shook up the mainstream media by providing an early look at election exit polls, proving once and for all their influence not only in the coverage of politics but perhaps in the electoral process itself. The early-afternoon posts of the numbers -- purportedly based on the data that media organizations get from people who have actually voted, which the media then use to predict outcomes and make correlations between votes and issues -- indicated bad news for President Bush, stoking early-afternoon chatter that grew to a roar and sparked a stock market sell-off. ... The article noted the importance of the blog race against the mainstream media outlets: "Many polling experts had warned that such shifts were almost inevitable since the bloggers were posting exit poll numbers hours before they could be considered reliable. ... The attention paid to blogs last night highlighted their increasing prominence in the worlds of politics and media." (11/5)



NEO-CONS

Peter Kononczuk: A Hawk's View: Perle Speaks Out, Benador, October 28, 2004
One of the neocon architect's of Bush Administration foreign policy has been kept under wraps in the runup to the election. But here, in a Prague panel discussion, we learn what may well be coming in 2005: "He believes a "surgical strike" against North Korea is one way of ensuring that it is not pursuing a nuclear-weapons program that is a threat to the United States. ... "We were probably all wrong" about Iraq's alleged weapons stockpiles. Regardless, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Perle said, "Americans were no longer ready to wait until it was too late." ... I think a year from now people will not be talking about a quagmire." What about the wider "war on terror" -- can it ever be won? "It can be won in the sense that with enough engagement and skillful policies, they [the terrorists] will look like the losing side and will find it difficult to recruit people," Perle said. "Will there still be people who will put on an explosive belt and go into a shopping center or on a bus and destroy themselves? Sure. But will there be an organized campaign on the scale we have seen recently? I think that we can defeat." (11/5)




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Cultural Civil War
Kos: Values, Daily Kos, November 3, 2004
"We need to retake the language. We need to reframe the notion of "value". That's why Obama's speech below is so brilliant. He speaks of God in a way that not just fails to offend this atheist, but inspires me. It's faith used for the purpose of living a good life, rather than faith wielded as a weapon against a whole class of people. The wedges: gays, abortion, and guns. Democrats have abandoned guns as an issue, and over the next three or four cycles it will prove an increasingly ineffective wedge. The NRA won. Good for them. That leaves the two "faith based" wedges -- gays and abortion. And with great skill, the Republicans have equated those two issues with the word "value". That's going to have to change." (See also Benjamin Wallace-Wells: The Great Black Hope: What's Riding on Barack Obama? ). (11/5)



Democrats

Katrina Vanden Heuvel: Stand and Fight, The Nation, November 3, 2004

"..We've got to build a politics of conviction, of passion and substance. ... This is war at a very deep level about how this country will proceed and this war isn't over, it's just renewed. "

Carolyn Kay: What's Next?, Make Them Accountable, November 3, 2004

"...considering the list of Bush administration failures, the presidential race should not even have been close enough to steal. And we should have had more victories in the House, but especially in the Senate where two Republican winners have sounded almost insane in their vilification of their Democratic opponents. There are two things we the people have to do, and we must start immediately. We have to take back the Democratic Party and we have to take back the political discourse in America."

(See also Alexander Cockburn/Jeffrey St. Clair: Democrats in End Time: As Republicans Gain Shattering Victory, Who Is to Blame This Time? )

Rabbi Michael Lerner: Democrats Need a Religious Left, Via E-Mail, soon to be on Tikkun, November 4, 2004

"Yet liberals, trapped in a long-standing disdain for religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that underlie the move to the Right, have been unable to engage these voters in a serious dialogue...

"

(See also Todd Purdum: Bush Proves to Be Galvanizing Force in Heartland )