Musings from a Failing Mind

First, let's think about immigration (legal or illegal). Our middle class, upper class, and the I-don't-have-to-work class all benefit from the slave labor which provides many of our wants, but we are furious that OUR taxes have to provide for their health and education needs. It hasn't occurred to most of us that if they earned a living wage they might be able to provide for health and education themselves.

Now let's think some more about the wars in Iraq and elsewhere. Have any of you ever heard of the word "propaganda"? There has been a ton of it issuing from the Bush administration ever since 9/11, and it is particularly useful in recruitment and training of the armed forces. Keeping in mind the fact that the propaganda and outright lying began with 9/11, I would divide the groups of members of the current military into the following categories:

Men and women who had chosen military service as a career.

Patriots of any kind and from any level of society who enlisted in the service in their country's time of need.

People who were out of work and facing few alternatives.

Young people, many uneducated and not yet mature in their view of life.

Macho types who are turned on by the idea of the HUNT.

(Feel free to add, subtract, or criticize the above. We need statistics on these.)

There is a great deal of handwringing about the loss of American lives, but practically none about anyone else. That tells you something about religion and values right there.

At his press conference today, Bush indicated that he hasn't the slightest intention to follow anything proposed by the Iraq Study Group. Instead, he wants to increase our military forces, adding to the permanent standing forces. He mentioned the word "recruitment" but not a whisper of the word "draft". The people who are rich and the people who are enlightened about this war and this leader are unlikely to sign up.

Finally, Bush does not know, although he has used the words "victory" and "peace" that they are not synonymous.

To end on a positive note, hot damn if I didn't hear our Great Leader call again for the American people as a whole to SHOP.

Our Debt to and for Iraq

I'll say it again:

There is only one morally right and conceivable solution to the horrific error made by our deeply religious man in the White House. He should admit to the world that he bears total responsibility for the fiasco that he has visited upon us. Because of his enormous ego and sense of self-importance, he invaded Iraq under false pretenses, and he is personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, ours as well as theirs, and the misery of millions more across the globe.

He should withdraw all of our troops immediately, regardless of the military consequences from all sides, apologize daily for the rest of his life to the Iraqis, as well as to the American people, especially to those who have endangered their lives at his behest, and submit himself to Congress for impeachment, without taking the coward's way out by resigning.

By his decisions, he has made it certain that what we leave behind will be a greater hell than exists in Iraq at this moment, and there is nothing that can be done about it. It will just have to evolve. God, do not forgive the people who put him where he is.

Person of the Year

Time Magazine has Named the Person of the Year
and it's . . . .


You!

Yes, you.

You control the Information Age.

Welcome to your world.

The World Wide Web of the Internet has exploded as a Big Bang allowing unprecedented collaboration and community of shared information. Web-based logs have become known as 'blogs. Annually printed encyclopedias have been reinvented or morphed into a continually updated Wikipedia. And there's also a million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace, none of which I pretend to understand as yet.

Time thinks this cosmic and dynamic compendium of knowledge will will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Maybe.

Inconvenient Truth Must Move On To Congress

Al Gore says:

Now comes the hard work. We have to take this message to Washington. And we can't do it without you.

Yes, the new majority in Congress will be much more receptive on the importance of global warming. That's the good news. But I know from personal experience that the only thing that will make Washington really take notice and do more than give lip service to the problem of global warming is the prospect of millions of committed citizens taking action. It's time to join together and make that happen. Can you help?

I'm asking folks to hold house parties, in thousands of homes across the nation, to show the film and spread the word. Please sign a postcard!

Happy Un-Hallmark Christmas!

This morning I awoke to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Joy to the World, and I realized that I was in fantasyland again. As with Christmas last year, I am in a quandary. Shall I write my Christmas letter as if I worked for Hallmark, or shall I let LittleBill do it? (LittleBill, as those of you who do not have computers may not know, is one of my cats. He is the author of my personal blog, In the Humble Opinion of LittleBill.) He has been acting strangely all week, and he drove me nuts until I finally got up and gave him the go-ahead to say what he wants. He wrote my biography, which you who read him found in my blog some time ago, and you know he's pretty strange, so don't blame me.

The major change in my life this past year took place last December when the friend of a friend gave me an old computer. I had never touched one in my life until that was all hooked up. Then a friend insisted that I start a blog, and he set it up for me. This has worked out very well, especially since the local paper here went to hell and many of its readers and contributors, including me, have cancelled our subscriptions. Much to my amazement, it has opened up a whole new world for me. There is a downside too, however, the main problem being that I am shaped like a cashew nut. But LittleBill is chewing my ear and clawing at my hands, so I have to let him go ahead.

If you remember my biography, the first half of my life was an ocean of misery as an unloved child in a privileged family. That must have been the reason that rescuing animals became so important to me. I have rescued (and kept for the rest of their lives) over 100 animals of various types, mainly cats and dogs. Now that I am too old to go where there are animals in trouble, I adopt them from adoption centers, and I always ask for the one that no one else wants. My little secret is that they are the best kind. In fact, when my family went to school recently so that my son-in-law could give the children a look at Mercury crossing the face of the Sun, someone was giving away a litter of kittens. To make a long story short, I ended up with the runt of the lot, who fit comfortably in my hand at that time. I named her Mercury and LittleBill adores her. She is now a hellion, and when I went to see the source of a crash, I found a lamp shade on the floor, and triumph on her face.

In a nutshell, I have my daughter and her family living nearby, my son living happily on Kauai, and my dear 7 cats and one remaining dog living in our little pool of happiness.

Most of my friends have been birdwatching companions, which was a major turning point in my life. I will never forget my first time out, when I saw a brown bird at some distance sitting on a fence. I raised my newly purchased binoculars to my eyes for the first time and saw that it was a Western Bluebird, with a lovely blue back and rosy breast. Unlike nature lovers who like to kill, birders are undoubtedly the major sponsors of the environmental movement.

It is hard to think that oceans of happiness spending money and time consuming what the earth has to offer for one's particular comfort and pleasure should be a person's main goal in life, as it has come to be for so many Americans. At the same time that many of us are treating ourselves to bawbles and huge SUVs, women of Africa are being raped and slaughtered in front of their children, and thousands are starving to death. And at the very moment you read these words, there are dismembered bodies still writhing and screaming on the streets of Baghdad. It is virtually impossible to realize that such disparate lives coexist on this planet.

OK, LittleBill, I know you had to get this off your mind, but that's enough. For the rest of you, I love you all and care for you and wish you happiness living in what I hope are little pools of happiness. I will be mailing pictures to some of you after Christmas.

Anne, LittleBill, Mom, Grandma, Duck Duck, Rudy

We Are Not Going To Give Up

Bush appeared before the press a short time ago to announce that virtually nothing has changed in his ossified mind. He was flanked by officers whose expressions were inscrutable, but interesting.

We really ought to add Our Interestststs to our list of revealing subjects in his book of brainwashing, right up there with the Terroriststs. (He loves S's.) The interests of the rest of the world, or even the citizens of this country, are immaterial. Losing is the one thing he cannot accept, at any cost.

As usual, he said that if we turn the leadership of Iraq over entirely to the ELECTED leaders before they are ready, the terrorists will surely use Iraq as a base from which to attack us here at home. There are a couple of things about that:

1. I thought I heard him announce after the "democratic" election that the government was now in the hands of the people and the government of Iraq to work out for themselves. Now there is continuing talk about possibly changing the democratically elected government, though it is being denied at the moment.
2. If we withdraw our forces before we WIN, it is certain that the terrorists will follow us here.

Hell, the so-called terrorists (which all of them may or may not be) are making up for not killing us here by killing us over there through the deaths of our armed forces. Not only that, they will shortly surpass the numbers killed in 9/11 over here.

Big Al Sounds Off!

Al Gore Tells It As It Is!

Matt Lauer:

So you know, probably, what we know about this Iraq Study Group's report. What stands out in your mind?

Al Gore:

Well I haven't read it yet. I've read some of the newspaper accounts. There are a lot of very good people who are part of the group but whether it's a lowest-common denominator committee result or not I really don't know. The fact is this is a very bad situation. Our country has to find a way to get our troops out as quickly as possible without making the situation worse, even worse in the manner of our leaving. . . .

And they're all basically saying the same thing, Matt. This is an utter disaster, this was the worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States and now we, as a nation, have to find a way in George Mitchell's words to manage a disaster. But I would urge the President not to, to try to separate out the, the, the personal issues of being, of being blamed in history for this mistake and instead recognize it's not about him, it's about our country and we all have to find a way to get our troops home and, and to prevent a regional conflagration there.

. . . . There were clear warnings before the decision to invade Iraq that it was gonna be a catastrophe. This was predictable. And the, the head of the Army said, 'We don't have enough troops.' Others said this is a terrible mistake. And now what we're seeing with this report and all of the others is a situation that really where there are no good outcomes because the warnings were . . . .

What Now in the Middle East?

This was an excellent article entitled What Now in the Middle East? in the Chroncicle for 30-Nov. It is in Open Forum on the Opinion pages. The author is Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister and vice chancellor from l998 to 2005.

Here are some excerpts:

The political and security situation in the vast region between the Indus Valley and the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean is a cause for grave concern. When the United States intervened militarily in Iraq in 1991, the intention was to effect fundamental change in the entire region. Today it is clear that hardly any aspect of this policy has succeeded. Even the success of free elections in Iraq is threatening to divide rather than unite the country.

The existing power relations in the Middle East have indeed been permanently shaken and, indeed, revolutionized. The effect however, has not been a domino-like democratization; instead we are threatened with a domino effect of descent into chaos.

The decision to go to war against Iraq to liberate Kuwait, back in 1991, marked the beginning of America's role as the sole hegemonic military power in the region. The decision to go to war against Iraq for a second time, and then to occupy the country in March 2003, transformed this hegemony into direct U.S. responsibility for the future of the Middle East.
. . . .
The very character of the war in Iraq has been transformed from a democratizing mission into a stabilizing mission high in casualties and in cost. Instead of the intended radical realignment of power relations in the region, the aim is now to simply maintain the status quo.

The most the United States can hope for at this point is a withdrawal that saves face. The November elections in America were a referendum on the war in Iraq. Their results, in fact, set a timetable for the "Iraqization" and U.S. withdrawal -- before the next presidential election.

Behind the all-too-foreseeable end of the American stabilizing mission lurks a civil war in Iraq, which threatens to turn into an Arab-Iranian proxy war for dominance in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and beyond. Moreover, there is an acute risk that the power vacuum created in Iraq will fuse the Israeli-Arab conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan into one regional mega-crisis.
. . . .
Washington's realization that Iraq can no longer be won or even stabilized unless the regional framework changes, has come late -- perhaps too late. . . .

If this policy shift had taken place a year ago or even early last summer, the prospects would have been better. And with every passing day, America's position in the region is weakening further and the chances of a successful new political strategy become more remote.

. . . . there remains a chance to stabilize the situation. . . it will be necessary to offset, or at least balance, the interests of the most important actors in the region. This means a strategy based on political leverage not a threat of military intervention or regime change. In their stead must come direct talks, security guarantees and support in political and economic integration.

A new Middle East policy will thus have to concentrate primarily on four aspects:

1. a comprehensive offer to Syria to detach the country from Iran and settle open conflicts;
2. an offer to Iran for direct talks about the perspective of a full normalization of relations;
3. a decisive and realistic initiative to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict
4. a regional security architecture that centers on stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan.

This came out ahead of the Iraq Study Group's report, and bears it out.

I'm Not Saying Nuthin'

'ceptin' that I liked this picture...

But if Lil'Bill doesn't like it, it'll be gone in a New York minute!

Winning and Losing

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that the Supreme Leader had gone through a number of motivations for the War On Iraq, coming to rest finally on the terrorristststs. But now I realize that I was wrong. The real motive, from the day of 9/11, was Bush himself, and WINNING. Looking back at the picture of Bush standing on the ruins, with his arm around a rescuer and a megaphone in his right hand, you can see that that was the moment when he was deified by God to remake the world.

None of Bush's other motives, from spreading democracy and Christianity throughout the world, to getting rid of Sadam, to destroying a hell of a lot of lives in the hope that some of them were terroristststs, have panned out exactly as he had planned. The result is that he has turned into one of the most prolific killers in human history.

But WINNING is of paramount importance to him and his view of himself. Odd, isn't it, that the primary slogan of his first "election" was that he was a uniter, not a divider? He has sewn hate over most of the surface of the earth. He has divided his own country as it has never been divided before. And he has nothing to show for it but ruin wherever he looks, including into the future.

Funny thing is that it has never occurred to him that the best way to win is to have all sides win, whether it is within families, towns, countries, or cultures. To WIN means that someone else has to LOSE. You would think that a man who is so devout in his beliefs could figure that out.

Ode to LittleBill

What is a cat
if his chief good and sweetness of his soul
be both to
play and sleep,
that's LittleBill for sure.

The rescue of kitten Mercury

gave rise to godlike gentleness and care
which my dear
LittleBill has used.

E pluribus unum?

Does everyone still remember what that means?







Keith Ellison wins his seat in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District. He made national news by becoming the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. And he said weeks ago that he'll use his religion's holy book, the Koran, when he takes his oath.

But the right wing fear mongers are up in arms. Dennis Prager argues that America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on:

. . . . because the act undermines American civilization. . . . and exemplifies multiculturalist activism . . . . America is interested in only one book, the Bible . . . .

Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the Nazis' bible, for his oath?

. . . . Ellison's doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal -- the Islamicization of America.

. . . . If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11 . . . .

Note that the photo of the Koran along with the caption displayed above appears imbedded in Prager's column.

These are unbelievable statements, IMHO. I would use much, much stronger language, but Lil'Bill would kick me out of these pages if I did. Let me just say, as an American, America should celebrate its diversity, not restrict it.

Rosa Brooks recently reminded us that ‘E pluribus unum’ means We’re in This Together. She asks if everyone still remembers what that means. If not, she says, it's never too late to change it: just recall all our currency.

World Terrorist

This man is getting scarier and less realistic day by day and hour by hour. He has, of course, talked about "terroristststs" ever since he embarked on his catastophic adventure in the middle east.

Now, however, his motivation has definitely changed again. First, it was Sadaam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, but that didn't pan out exactly as planned (we found out). Next it was bringing democracy to Iraq (with all eyes on the future and the distance). That is not going well, either, with more and more Iraqis demanding that we get the hell out. They, a people unused to voting, were suckered into the process on the day the vote began, motivated by hope, but with little knowledge of what it was supposed to achieve for them. (That is not hard to understand, seeing as how we, the citizens of the world's greatest democracy, were suckered into two of the most preposterous elections in human history, with hangers-on reportedly still at work on the same tactics in the election earlier this month.)

So now he is highlighting the terroristststs and stressing that if we do not defeat them over there, they will attack us over here. Unless his government can do alot better at preventing the terroristststs from attacking us here at home, it won't make any difference if we prevent them from attacking from Iraq. On what basis can he make a reliable claim that killing everyone in Iraq through the deaths of thousands of our own forces will be successful at anything beyond reducing the populations of both countries? And, of course, this does not take into account the morality of his methods, if morality is high on your list of values.

It is very likely that if you took transparent copies of all of his speeches and laid them, one on top of the other, that all of the words would line up. They are heavily laden with words like freedom, values, liberty, freedom of religion, peace, happiness, families, freedom, liberty, faith, values, freedom, etc. on one side, as opposed to terroristststs, hate, killing, terroristststs, etc. on the other.

As of today, Muqtada al-Sadr and his coalition have left the government, supported by members of other groups, as promised, following the meeting between Bush and al-Maliki. Their meeting, incidentally, accomplished nothing but a carbon copy of his earlier speeches.

It is apparent in every word and gesture from Bush, that what he wants most to defend is his claim of calling from God to bring democracy and (Christian) faith to the world.

What Does Charlie Want?

I think he wants either Bush out or the draft in.

Frank Schaeffer's most recent book is Baby Jack a novel about class, politics, service, God, the military, and the America of today---where a few are asked to give their lives while most are asked to sacrifice nothing. Here's what he has to say about, Charlie Rangel, the Draft, And Bush:

Charles Rangel is right to call for a draft. The present system is unfair. We don't really have an "all-volunteer" military. We have a recruited military and the recruiting is mostly done where it works, in other words in middle class and working class neighborhoods and from "legacy" families where someone is already in the military. Where recruiters usually don't bother going---and often aren't even allowed to go---is to elite private high schools and colleges.

The spirit of the Vietnam-era deferments has carried into the all-volunteer era. There is a subtle unstated, unplanned but nevertheless real collusion between the upper middle class, the military and the civilian government. Everyone is happy to leave things the way they are. The upper classes aren't asked to serve. The government doesn't have to spend money on expensive ROTC programs in top schools or fight to get recruiters on anti-military campuses.

No one has done more to perpetuate the recruiting status quo than President Bush. After 9/11 he asked our military to go to war. He asked the rest of us to travel, go on vacation and shop.

Following 9/11, like most Americans, I rallied behind our president. And I had a very personal stake in the success of the "war on terror." My youngest son was a Marine. I desperately wanted to believe in the man who held my son's life in his hands. My response to friends who spoke against Bush was basically; "Go to hell, how dare you criticize my son's commander while my beloved boy is in harm's way?"

Bush said we were in a "global war" then sent fewer soldiers to Afghanistan than there are cops in Manhattan. He let bin Laden get away with murder and let jihad-funding Saudi Arabia off the hook. Bush called two-faced, terror-sponsoring Pakistan an "ally" and then attacked Iraq. The Commander in Chief changed his "reasons" for war from eliminating weapons of mass destruction to "building democracy." Then---by not sending enough troops to Iraq, for the post-war "reconstruction" phase---he showed himself to be one of the most incompetent war leaders in American history. And throughout Bush has never asked his own class, the most privileged Americans, to step up.

Do you remember after 9/11 how we were so ready to do whatever was asked of us? What did President Bush NOT ask?

My fellow Americans we are at war. I am calling on every American of military-service-age to consider volunteering including those of you fortunate enough to be in our best private colleges or employed in highly paid jobs. The spirit of defending our democracy requires that Americans of all classes fairly share the sacrifice we must now make.

. . . . Our response to unprovoked aggression must involve every American. So I'm proud to tell you that my military-age children walked to a military recruiting office this afternoon and volunteered. We are all in this war together. . . .

Rangel was quoted as saying*:

There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way.

I think he is right.

We are now so used to the anti-democratic and immoral status quo where we ask some to give everything while most Americans are asked to give nothing, that I'll bet Rangel's bill doesn't stand a chance. If the leaders of both parties haven't even asked their own children and their own class to volunteer why would they support a draft?

The Democrats and Republicans are as frivolous in wartime as the nation they represent. Today the Democrat's idea of a good potential Commander in Chief is Barack Obama, a man who never served, has no international experience and whose "qualification" for the presidency is that he's spent about as much time in Congress as he has on Oprah. And the Republicans have given us Bush, a president who is so incompetent a war leader that tolerating his "leadership" is an immoral act. If the Republican Party cared about our troops they would be asking President Bush to resign.

And the rest of us are little better. We prove every day that we are unworthy of the sacrifice our troops are making. We're still driving terrorist-funding gas guzzlers. And we're still playing "red-state" "blue-state" gotcha-political games. If 9/11 didn't get our attention what kind of cataclysm will it take?

"Bobby"

Yes, I too am reveling in reading and hearing the words “The majority party, the DEMOCRATS!” as much as I savor reading and hearing “The minority party, the REPUBLICANS.” God, what a long, nasty fight it has been and now our moment has finally arrived. Oh, how we deserve this! I pray it will bring about a sea change.

I am hesitant about seeing the film. I was at The Ambassador all those years ago with my husband and friends who had worked for RFK. Our friend, Joel Siegel, was a speechwriter for him and my (ex)husband, a photographer, was on the stage next to RFK and Rosie Grier. (Just this year, via e-mail, he told me he never got his film back from the FBI.) I will never forget the exuberance and hope that filled that room as Bobby left the stage. The camera lights had been turned off and I was shuffling through the crowd toward the exit to look for my husband. Suddenly I heard what sounded like firecrackers. Then a tsunami of panic and pain hit me and the people around me and then spread behind us in fan-shaped waves to the back of the room and out into the foyer. People were screaming that he had been shot. I recall so vividly watching the wave as it engulfed smiling, laughing people turning the smiles and laughter to screams and tears. People in the front of the room were crying and shouting while people in the back of the room were still innocently smiling and laughing. The present, the past and the future in the same moment, in the same room. It was amazing. I jumped up on a table to look into the kitchen. I was worried about my husband who I had last seen right behind Bobby as he walked into the kitchen. I could see a crowd of people standing and kneeling around something on the floor. I kept hearing howls of “He’s been shot, God-damn it, he’s been shot. Not again, God-dam it. He’s been shot.” The helpless anger, rage and anguish in those voices I will never forget, nor have ever heard again.

After the shots I found myself in a stupor in the foyer. Men were getting into fist fights over whether he was dead or not and were shoving each other into the fountains. Women were screaming and crying. I was holding some strange man as we sobbed together. Suddenly I heard loud shouts of “He’s got a gun, watch out, get down, he’s got a gun.” I was shoved to the floor. I heard lamps breaking, more screaming as the lights were going out. A sofa was overturned onto the man and myself. I managed to raise my head off the floor long enough to see Sirhan Sirhan being rushed through the crowd surrounded by police with long guns pointed outward like a moving human mace. I don’t recall how I found my husband or friends that night. I must have given my name and phone number to the FBI because they called me days later. I don’t know what I said. I wanted to say something helpful, something that would catch who had really done this because I just couldn’t believe, nor do I today, that 3 great men, all with similar dreams, were all gunned down in such a short time. I think that is when this new evil began.

Back at home with our baby son, mesmerized with horror, we watched over and over, as a 22-year-old mini-skirted me kept jumping onto the table. We heard over and over Walter Cronkite telling the audience to watch the young women jump onto the table and throw her hands over her face in horror and grief and then a hand reaches up to my back and I disappear into the crowd. My mother was on the phone when we got home(the FBI kept us there until early morning) as she had recognized me from the news and thought I had fainted and been hurt.

I remember waking in the morning and being devastated that he had died. I simply couldn’t comprehend that such a grand man could have been brought down even though we had just lived through the eerily similar murder of MLK and before that JFK. How could it have happened yet again I screamed. I grabbed my baby and ran to the elderly neighbor’s house and collapsed in tears. I cried for days. I gave up on politics for a long time after that. It was only this current poisonous administration that awakened that old passion in me. I wonder if we will ever return to something even close to what we had back then.I was watching the PBS special about RFK this year and burst into uncontrollable sobbing watching that scene again. It was grief not only for my lost youth but for a time when I had hope, when I never imagined anything like the administration we have(HAD!) today. The spectacular chasm between a man like RFK and bush was so overwhelming that it racked me with pain so deep, so profound and unexpected that I paced the floor and wept all night. Oh, God, what we lost that night!

I wonder who they interviewed for the crowd’s reaction to that terrible night at the Ambassador Hotel. It would interesting for me to know.

Thank you for your blog and for your dedication. Keep celebrating!!

Election Dichotomy

In the days following the recent elections, when the Democrats came out to announce their new leadership positions, it was with expressions not of glee but of joy. They stated first and foremost that they looked forward to reaching out to the Republicans, and that they were anxious to make headway on important matters such as healthcare, education, and the economy.

When the Republicans came out to announce their soon-to-be minority leadership positions, led by House majority leader John Boehner, their expressions were angry, and they stressed that their primary purpose for the next two years would be to take back the leadership of Congress. If they mentioned any specific programs, such as healthcare or education, I didn’t catch them.

Interesting dichotomy.

Presidential Qualifications

The Republicans are stepping up in droves to announce that they are forming exploratory committees to determine if they should run for president.

The Democrats, so far, have only Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and a couple of relative unknowns who are making moves in that direction. Hillary is a very divisive candidate, and both she and Obama have chosen to make their first conciliatory moves toward the religious right. (In that regard, Republican John McCain has gone so far as to be filmed courting Jerry Falwell and his followers.)

It is time for those of us who rely on reason more than on faith to make ourselves known and demand our right to be heard. There are millions of us out here, and our group consists of people of faith who also rely on reason, as well as those of us who may not subscribe to belief in a religious faith, but very strongly subscribe to the creation in which we find ourselves and the reverence it deserves.

There is no one I can think of who is better fitted than Al Gore. He has more qualifications than anyone else, having served in the Senate and as Vice President, as well as undoubtedly having won the presidency in 2000. But, of all his qualifications, I can think of no one who can contend with him on the most important issue of our time, the environment. Add to that, he is a man of faith as well as a man of reason.

If you are a person of faith, you must believe that the earth was created by a God in some form. If you are a person of reason but not a person of faith, you still must be unsure of creation, but in awe of this wondrous globe which we are riding through the heavens. What Man has been doing to it is obscene. We need a leader who can think beyond mere politics and into the future which none of us will see, but for which we will all be responsible.

A Four Word Phrase

I realize that the recent election is barely over, not even a week, and the Democrats have their hands full trying to put democracy back into this Democracy. There is much, much for them to do, and as a Democrat who voted for Democrats, I fully support them and don't want to push.

But tragedies continue to follow tragedies, and catastrophes continue to follow catastrophes, and there are four little words that keep running through my mind, and they are getting louder and louder every day: High crimes and misdemeanors, high crimes and misdemeanors, high crimes and misdemeanors. I hope the Democrats will be able to clear my mind of these four little words before it is too late.

Monday

By Richard Earnhart:

It's 3am and I have a happy cat in my lap. The sky is blue gray from moonlight. It is so still that the stars don't even twinkle. I can't sleep. There shouldn't be a reason why. I am emotionally exhausted from months of politics. Maybe it's because I can hear glaciers melting in my dreams or that I can sense the spirit of a child leave its body in Darfur. I don't know.

The Democrats won Last week. More people will die in Iraq today, and tomorrow, and the day after that. The world, even if you press really hard on the brakes, won't stop on a dime. There is still a very dark momentum. But we came to the precipice and collectively looked over the edge and those of us who thought that maybe we shouldn't jump considered something different, like living, for instance.

Of course there is a lot of work to do. Of course there will be monumental failures along the way. The world really won't feel terribly different at breakfast. Or lunch. Or maybe even dinner. But slowly we will start to push the creeping darkness back. We will talk wiretaps. We will talk about feeding the hungry again instead of cutting taxes. We will start talking serious tax credits for alternative energy and home food production. We will start rewarding people for what they save instead of what they spend. We can start investing in our children again, in education and health, and see that that is the best savings account you can have.

We will still be a materially lustful society, committed to waste. But we didn't go over the edge of the chasm. At least not yet. Collectively we chose hope. We rejected the mantra of hate that we've had shoved in our faces 24/7, for a long time now. Instead, we decided to give ourselves another chance.

I can tell from the clarity of the sky that today is going to be another gorgeous day. There will be deer in the driveway. I will have fewer iris in the morning. If I am really quiet, I can hear the javalina snoring down in the arroyo. It is another magical night in New Mexico. It will be another miraculous day on planet Earth.

Health Club

You can't read this without laughing out loud. This is dedicated to everyone who ever attempted to get into a regular workout routine.

Dear Diary,

For my fiftieth birthday this year, my wife (the dear) purchased a week of personal training at the local health club for me. Although I am still in great shape since playing on my college football team 30 yrs ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try.

Called the club and made my reservation with a personal trainer named Belinda, who identified herself as a 26 yr. old aerobics instruc tor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My wife seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.

MONDAY: Started my day at 6:00 a.m. Tough to get out of bed, but it was well wor th it when I arrived at the health club to find Belinda waiting for me. She was something of a Greek goddess -- with blonde hair, dancing eyes and a dazzling white smile.

Woo Hoo!!!!!

Belinda gave me a tour and showed me the machines. She took my pulse after 5 minutes on the treadmill. She was alarmed that my pulse was so fast, but I attributed it to standing next to her in her Lycra aerobics outfit. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class after my workout today.

Very inspiring, Belinda was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week!!

TUESDAY: I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door. Bel i nda made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air, and then she put weights on it! My legs were a l ittle wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Belinda's rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT!! It's a whole new life for me.

WEDNESDAY: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot.

Belinda was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when she scolds, she gets this nasally wh ine that is VERY annoying.

My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Belinda put me on the stair monster. Why the hell would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Belinda told me it would he lp me get in shape and enjoy life. She said some other shit too.

THURSDAY: Belinda was waiting for me with her vampire-like teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late; it took me that long to tie my shoes.

Belinda took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the men's room.. She sent Lars to find me, then, as punishment, put me on the rowing machine -- which I sank.

FRIDAY: I hate that bitch Belinda more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic little cheerleader. I f there were a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her with it.

Belinda wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the *&%#(#&**!!@*@ barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich .

The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?

SATURDAY: Belinda left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her made me want to smash the machine with my planner. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel.

SUNDAY: I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and thank GOD that this week is over. I will also pray that next year, my wife (the bitch), will choose a gift for me that is fun, like a root canal or a vasectomy.

Facial Body Language

Even though the election is over and has been decided, take a little time to watch the difference in facial body language between Republicans and Democrats. Almost universally, whether separately or in face-to-face discussions, Republicans tend to exhibit a supercilious put-down smile. Bush tends to show a face distorted by anger when he is not making demeaning jokes at the expense of reporters who are forced by the norms of courtesy and official deference to reply with respect. His smile, when he appears in public tends to reflect that he, rather than the audience, is what really matters.

Democrats, on the other hand, usually show serious expressions which reflect the seriousness of the discussion and personal awareness of the problems being considered. Smiles, when they appear, are genuine.

Somebody check this out for me and tell me if I am nuttier than I thought.

Three Strange Days

Transitions

What a strange three days these have been for me! On Monday, I was trying to think of a vocabulary of triumph expressive enough to convey my joy at the possibility of a whole new world on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, it suddenly crossed my mind that I had no idea what kind of world we would have by afternoon, so my emotional slate sent blank.

On Tuesday afternoon, just as the returns started to come in, I was at the vet's office having my dear beagle Holmes put to sleep. His body, likely full of cancer, had finally and suddenly given out. Oh, how I miss his baying, which always came at times of my concentration on breaking news or when the phone rang! And last night I watched as my six cats and his best friend, my Jack Russell mix, spent the evening wandering around the house looking for him in vain.

This morning, political things were looking good, but my emotional self had been drained and numbed. I just sat staring into space, not really thinking about anything. At noon my daughter called and said she was coming to get me and drive me to her daughter Anmai's School, where her husband Carl had set up their telescope with a solar filter so that the children could look at Mercury traveling across the Sun. There were children all over the place and cars parked everywhere. It was a madhouse of activity, and someone made it even worse by bringing a bunch of 6-week old kittens to give away.

Anmai came running back and asked her mother if she could have one, but got no for an answer. But there was Grandma. So I asked her if there were any left, and there was just one, the little black runt of the litter. I told her to bring it back to me, and after a great deal of loving mauling by numerous children, he finally settled down in my arm. I named him Mercury in honor of the occasion, but he will be called Merc. (The view of Mercury crossing the Sun by the way, was spectacular.)

This evening, I am calmly excited about the election (if you can comprehend such a reaction), but my loss of an old dog at the end of his life has been tempered at the thought of a little black body in a carrier in the next room who is at the beginning of his.

Altogether Now.....

Everybody, purse your lips together, take a breath, and see if we can't learn how to say....

Madam Speaker!

Not So Much of An Election, As It Is an Intervention

Andrew Sullivan to raise the question of Bush's mental fitness. Sullivan told CNN Bush is so delusional,

so in denial . . . this is not an election anymore, it's an intervention.... It's unhinged. It suggests this man has lost his mind. No one objectively could look at the way this war has been conducted, whether you were for it, as I was, or against it, and say that is has been done well. It's a disaster.

For him to say it's a fantastic job suggests the president has lost it. I'm sorry, there is no other way to say it.

Informed Comment

More Hypocrisy of the Ayatollah Christians?

Oh, no! Tell me it ain't so!!??

Republican Pastor Ted Haggard has resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a male escort claimed he has been having a sexual relationship with the pastor for the past three years.

A statement from the New Life Church says Pastor Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals Thursday and put himself on leave from his church. Haggard is the founder and senior leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The church has 14,000 members. Haggard is married with five children and an outspoken critic of gay marriage.

Mike Jones, a gay man and admitted male escort, said on talk radio Wednesday he and Haggard had been in a "sexual business" relationship for the past three years. after being accused of paying the man for monthly trysts over the past three years. Jones also says Haggard used methamphetamine in his presence.

The statement from Martin Nussbaum, legal counsel for New Life Church, says Haggard put himself on administrative leave pending an investigation and a decision by the church’s board of overseers. Haggard said in the statement,

I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance.

Carolyn Haggard, spokeswoman for the New Life Church and the pastor's niece, said a four-member church panel will investigate the allegations. The board has the authority to discipline Haggard, including removing him from ministry work.

The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that Haggard admitted that some of the accusations were true.

I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed but there is an admission of some guilt

Oh no....! They let me down again......

It's the Solution, Stupid

On Wolf Blitzer’s program just now, the subject was who had what plans for getting out of Iraq. Bill Bennett told Wolf that Bush was “doing the best he can with the world he has inherited.” HELL! IT’S THE WORLD HE HAS CREATED! Bennett was talking about the fact that Bush has certain principles and that he will not give up on them even if it means just himself, his wife, and the dog left holding on! How noble for a man who is surrounded by security and has sent thousands of other men to be killed and to kill hundreds of thousands of others!

As for those who keep asking, well, what plans do the Democrats have for getting out, there can be no plans because there is no solution to the mess that Bush and his tribe have created.

No, I’ll take that back. The only way out is to accept defeat and surrender. And if he had a hint of the values and heroism he professes, he would beg his countrymen, both alive and dead, to forgive him for what he has done to his nation, to the world, and to the Earth.

SWIFTBOATING AGAIN

I am sick to death of the Republican attack on Kerry again. In my opinion as an enlistee in World War II, Kerry was being both ironic and honest at the same time.

There are many educated and wealthy men and women who have enlisted for patriotic and principled reasons. At the same time, military service also appeals to people who, because of lack of privilege and education, find it as a hopeful way out of a life with no future, a way in which to achieve some pride in themselves through serving their country and others.

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle stated that new administration policy with regard to recruitment has lowered its requirements to include people with mental deficiencies, health problems, and trouble with the law and with drugs.

Bush’s spinmeisters, and of course, Bush himself have managed to turn things around so that Kerry’s remark is interpreted as an insult to the military, especially those serving in this terrible war. Bush also is positioning himself so that his successors will be saddled with his extreme pronouncements, such as that we will not leave Iraq without total victory for us and total defeat for the enemy, and that we will stay until the job of creating democracy and freedom in an area of the world where it has never existed and probably is not wanted or possible has been accomplished.

You notice that Bush still hasn’t called for a military draft, because that would mean calling up his base on the religious extremes, as well as those of great wealth. Have you also noticed how few from those groups have enlisted?

Bush, Cheney, and Tony Snow should be ashamed of themselves, and shamed by this country.