What the Hell Is Happening to Us?

I wrote a comment somewhere this morning, but can’t seem to find it now. (I just came home from the doctor, so I’m starting over.) At any rate, I want to retract my vote for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I wrote my recent post after hearing his interview with Bill Moyers and evidently missed his later speeches during which he went ballistic. Sorry about that. I apologize profusely for any harm I may have done. I’ll try to do better.

Obama has been on the air all day, trying to get his good name back. For God’s sake, he’s our only hope for a NEW direction. The thing that appeals most to me is his pledge to TALK to other leaders, both friends AND enemies.

The news media have certainly been no help, using this crisis for making news, ANY news, and it’s more fun and profitable to really stir the pot. Another president whose main interests are war and capitalism are beyond the pale. And another president who threatens more war will only continue up the path to annihilation.

And, as I have warned, don’t forget Lou Dobbs, who wears the face of hate (literally), and who is poised as I speak to run as an Independent.

I’ve been wrong before, and I can be wrong again, but Obama’s hope for something better rather than just being safe is the best hope we have. If ANYONE becomes president, he or she can still, and probably will, make mistakes, but that’s all we can hope for or expect.

The face he shows to the world wears the only expression of humanity we can see.

ARW
4/29/08

I've Changed My Mind

Rev. Jeremiah Wright for President!!

ARW
4/28/08

There's a Big Difference

If you don’t know the difference between dedication and intent on one hand, and awareness and response on the other, then you don’t understand the difference between the faithful follower and the thinking nonbeliever.

Remember I.F. Stone!

I just found the late I.F. Stone's Website, thanks to a program on C-SPAN's Book TV. Everyone should know about I.F. Stone.

My quote of the day comes from Izzy:

If something goes wrong in America. the press will find out about it and then it can be fixed.

But if something goes wrong with the press, then America will go straight to hell.

Economics According to Bush

Well, our dear president’s great and generous giveaway has begun! Needy American citizens will soon be receiving checks for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. I chhhheeertainly hope the government will discourage the receipients from starting – or even adding to – a savings account of any sort. And, like so many other grateful and loyal Americans, I hope none of the money will come from my hard-earned bank account.

As I understand it, this is a one-time deal, so I wonder how long it will take for all the money to be used up. How many more months do you think it will last, especially if you’re heavily in debt? And what will you do then?

Oh! Wait!! I almost forgot! This generosity is for the purpose of jump-starting the economy again. And the Emperor has expressly told us to spend the money, especially at the mall. The businesses there and elsewhere need the money even more than we do. So we’ll have to keep going back even after our stipends have evaporated.

Well, I’m sure we can trust our Great Leader to have all these decisions well thought out ahead of time for us as well as he has during the past seven years until his last glorious day in office. We’ll certainly miss him. And what do you want to bet, especially if a Democrat takes over, the next president won’t have a clue as to how to get us out of this mess?

Green Products, Good and Not So Good

This excellent article from the San Francisco Chronicle for 4/23/08 gives guidance on the many green products available. Some are very good and some are not quite as good as advertised. If you are not an authority on the subject but want to become one, this is well worth reading. Here is the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/19/MNHGVQQIC.DTL

McCain re Summer Gas Tax Cuts

We’ve recently been given one of our more serious warnings about global warming and all the ways it is descending upon us, and, like Bush, what does McCain do but try to delay an outcome that only Nature can decide upon! Bush is trying to take credit for talking “environment” while putting off doing anything about it until some twenty years after he is out of office.

And McCain, with no sense of urgency, is suggesting that we suspend our gas taxes until next fall so that we can go where we want, when we want, and at any speed we want during our summer vacations.

Great! Doesn’t anyone around here know that Nature is giving us all sorts of alarms about what it can do to us? Doesn’t anyone learn any lessons about considering life-style changes? In a country with just about the highest standard of living in the world
(except when you are at the bottom of the heap) doesn’t anyone ever consider lowering your standard of living even an eensy weensy bit?

McCain chooses to use American me-firstism as en election come-on, but you don’t have to. You and your family can decide on lifestyle change, not only on the highway, but all across your daily family habits as well. This could also become a large part of your religious life and thought , and an excellent education for your children.

How to Vote

Rumor has it that many Democrats are threatening to vote for Sen. McCain if they don’t like whichever of the Democratic nominees is chosen to run for President. This seems to be a rather “nose to spite your face” choice. Unless you like war and killing, and if you haven’t tried it, it might be a good idea to give it a try first. A flag in your lapel just doesn’t cut it.

Unfortunately, we don’t get many pictures of mutilated American bodies in the news. An even more instructive example might be more pictures of Americans who have been permanently physically maimed for life, and especially those who are the mentally, psychologically, and emotionally walking dead.

I might even mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis who are dead or injured, but they don’t really count because they are either the enemy or the unfortunate collateral damage. (By the way, I wonder what kind of medical and financial aid they get compared to our armed forces and their families.)

You can choose to vote for or against whomever or whatever you are voting about. It seems more logical and productive to vote “for.” Let’s start with the party. If you are a Democrat, the differences between the parties seem rather stark. And if you plan to vote that way, you, at least, have a choice. Fortunately, or not, the choices have been decided by the American voting public, so it would be well to deal with that. (I voted for Kucinich because I believed in him and decided to vote for him even though I knew he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, and I hope it made him feel good because it made me feel good.) But now I accept the people’s choices that remain and am glad to deal with those, and am in the process just as you are.

A vote for McCain, if you don’t think Republican, is also a vote against the Democratic party. The guru of voting against is Lou “Angry Teeth” Dobbs. Now, he doesn’t seem to be for the Republicans either, and that is because he is against just about anything I can think of. He and his coterie of sycophants (those are elitist words which you can look up in the dictionary just the way I did if you don’t know them) are spreading the doctrine of Hate like peanut butter over the ether (another elitist word.) I can’t think of anything positive he has ever said, and I must give him credit for doing more to increase hatred for immigrants (would you recognize one as legal or illegal if you saw one?) than anyone else in this country. He’s a master at inviting a guest he doesn’t agree with, asking him a question, and then talking over him as he answers.

Just as an aside, early on in the voting process, I remember Angry Teeth coyly smiling when his fans suggested that he should run for President, and I notice that he mentions at least once on every program that he is an Independent. He is apparently converting many fans to that party as well. It might be a good idea to ask him if he has any policies to put forward just in case he decides to run. So far, I haven’t heard him say a word on that subject.

To conclude, try to remember (despite Bush’s most recent propaganda) that we are preparing to vote for a President, not a priest or a Pope. Let’s hope we can do a better job this time.

Religion Run Amok

First we have the spectacle of Texas authorities “rescuing” the children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from their ranch in West Texas and keeping them in custody until their disposition can be determined by law.

From the description of the sect which we are beginning to learn from news reports, this sect is certainly about as strange as they come. However, speaking as a nonbeliever, in this country wallowing in religious freedom and liberty (both words mean the same thing, but it makes them more pithy if used together,) I have yet to hear those words in this particular case from any of the better known Christian groups in this country. Curious!

Next we have derision piled upon derision against Barack Obama for his insightful remarks concerning the people at the bottom of the American good luck heap. There must be many of them who are “bitter.” That word, as well as the values which give them some meaning in their lives, undoubtedly are felt as Obama described them. The reactions of Clinton and McCain are becoming less and less improptu and more and more manufactured tactics. Of the three of them, Obama has had the most direct experience with the needs and the sorrows of those who feel that life is passing them by in favor of the rich and socially elite, whose wealth grows on the backs of the underpaid poor.

And today the Pope is making his first visit to this country as Pope, to be welcomed to the White House. He plans to apologize for the sexual transgressions of the Catholic clergy, few of whom have been properly punished, while the innocent children of the Mormon sect, at this very same time, do not understand what is happening to them.
Quite a week!

I Haven't Finished Yet-The Olympics

While I was composing my previous blog, I was watching the progress of the Olympic Flame through San Francisco. It reminded me of the immigrant march on Washington on 4/11/06. I wrote an article about it, probably even before I started my blog, which I am reprinting below:

I watched or listened to C-Span almost all day yesterday, and I was very moved by the immigrant march in Washington, very much as I felt about the march led by Martin Luther King. It was thrilling to see underdogs in life asserting themselves as human beings.

On the other hand, out of the many calls that came in to C-Span from the public only a paltry few were positive. Most were absolutely vitriolic. Remember “I’m a uniter, not a divider”? He has united party against party, nation against nation, religion against religion, and now nationality against nationality. Through his administration’s use of propaganda since 9/11, we are suspicious of anyone who even looks Near Eastern. And we have now added suspecting anyone who looks Mexican to the list of the “terrorists.” If they are not terrorists, they at least have to be criminals and/or gang members.

It is not hard to see where this is going. (It is now Wednesday April l2.) Immigrants, both legal and illegal, are planning to stage a work walkout on May lst. There will undoubtedly be instances of individual and mob violence. It could have a serious effect on the economy, many people will lose their jobs, and worst of all, there will be a very long period of ill feeling between whites and Mexicans, no matter that many of them are loyal American citizens.

4/9/08

(By coincidence, I see that the immigrant march and the run of the Olympic Flame through San Francisco both fell on the same month and almost the same day two years apart.)

Since this country, especially under Bush, has not done well in the area of international, racial, and political, unity, it is not suprising that the result of the current uproar may be similar to that of Mexico. The last I heard was that Bush had decided to to show the world what a courageous leader he is by attending both the opening ceremonies and the Olympic Games (armed with nothing more than a huge number of armed personal guards, both uniformed and not.) On the other hand, he may be forced by his advisors or by second thoughts to abandon his original plans. Haven’t heard a definitive answer on TV yet. What a great Photo Op his appearance in China would be! I wonder if he thought of that.



In any event, there are many Chinese, at least in San Francisco, who are thrilled at the thought of the Games in China, as well as many US citizens of all races, including Chinese who do not approve of the human rights abuses of China. The result was a near-riot along the route of the Flame, which was only averted by very careful planning on the part of San Francisco police and authorities.

I wonder what will be the future relationship between Chinese citizens and those of other races here, especially on the West Coast. So many Americans have been whipped up, especially by men like Lou Dobbs, into hating the Others, it seems very possible that such racial poison can also easily spread from the West Coast across the nation through the efforts of those who are quick to react to the call of racism.

ARW
4/9/08

New and Old Odds and Ends, Part Three

Just before going to bed last night, I took time to catch up with my issues of the San Francisco Chronicle, and there IT was again, a picture of Bush practicing the carefully honed gambit of Bush as the guest guiding another world leader on hs own turf. (I had to take sleeping pills to get even a fitful night’s sleep.) In this case it was Putin, and the photo shows Bush with his arm across Putin’s back midway between the shoulders and the waist as they leave a press conference. This technique is known as the “World Leader Assist,” and if need be, it will be followed by a similar gesture known as the “And Don’t Forget It.”

A similar photo op found Bush in Australia, where he and Prime Minister Howard left a press conference, with guest Bush walking a step ahead of his host. In this case, I couldn’t see the Prime Minister’s back, but Bush’s left arm was graciously extended forward to indicate to the Prime Minister the path which they should take.

Have you ever had someone (other than a lover) put his or her arm around your back without feeling a shudder of revulsion and the desire to say, “get your goddam hands off of me?” Why didn’t each man, especially Putin, push Bush’s arm away and tell him they knew where they were going? If Putin had done that, I would have voted for him for president.

On to Iraq. There are increasing calls for Iraq to pay for its own reconstruction, and the American public, guided by Bush propaganda , apparently is showing support for the call to Iraq to rebuild its own damn country. Am I missing something here? Aren’t we the ones who invaded and bombed the hell out of Iraq so that Bush could make up for his father’s failure there? And didn’t we let loose the Dogs of Hell in the entire area? I’ll bet we’ve buried a whole lot more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein did – if they are even buried. It seems to me that we should be held responsible for the costs, but that we should get the hell out of there, send them the check, and let them run their own country.