Liberty vs Security

I am kind of appalled at the idea that our security needs to be purchased at the cost of our freedom from government intrusion into our private phone conversations without due process under the law.

And if we dare speak against this blatant usurpation on the part of bush and his advisors, then we are giving aide and succor to the enemy. Neat. Question their right to tap your phone without a court order, or to torture detainees or to lock people away in Guantanamo even when they are found to be innocent of any crime and they run to that nice shield to hide behind. Helping the enemy, helping the enemy, 9/11, 9/11, mushroom cloud, mushroom cloud. Neat.

Who Let the Dog Out? Woof, Woof, Woof, Woof, Woof!

I see the bush administration's trained rottweiler, dick cheney, was brought out to chomp on the leg of critics of the war in Iraq. Same old tactics here. And really, there's nobody better at snarling and chomping than dickie boy.

Remember? He is the one who thinks it's okay to use profanity in the halls of Congress. Who can forget his memorable rejoinder "Go f___ yourself"?

Anyway, he came out snapping and spewing at a GOP gala Wednesday night (11/16). Good idea; if you have no strategy you can point to, you can always bring out the rottweiler to snarl and spit and spew vitriol. Maybe if you're really lucky, people won't notice that you haven't actually answered the charges, because you can't, and just maybe they'll keep on buying those cheap tricks like they did during the campaign.

.....Maybe.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

I'm really sad about Bob Woodward. He was a heroic icon from my youth. Turns out he hasn't been telling us the whole story in more recent times. Now, he says his job is keeping secrets. Really? Could have fooled me. The uninformed among us might think that his job actually is telling the American public the whole story, the truth. I count myself among them. Silly me.

Way back when, he sort of acted like he also thought his job was making sure we consumers of his craft got the unobscured truth. Isn't that what Watergate was all about....highly placed people in government thinking they could act in secret and these two young, wonder-journalists not letting them get away with that???

Woodward has certainly come a long way from those days. He's actually part of the establishment now, maybe he even believes his own press releases, the ones saying what a geat and powerful journalist he is.

........Sigh.

You gotta check out Joe Conason's article in Salon.com on the subject of Woodward. To read the article click on the title below. FYI, to read the article you have to watch a commercial first.
Woodward's Disgrace

Republicans have a Lott to worry about

So, events are becoming very interesting in our nation’s capitol…again….still. Here's Senator Bill Frist busily composing yet another indignant response to perceived Democrat perfidy. Frist is in a snit this time because of the leak to the Washington Post about the purported use of "black site" torture prisons in Europe and elsewhere by the CIA for "special" interrogation procedures. Senator Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, two very upstanding representatives of our government, were in the midst of composing a letter of complaint hinting at Democrat dirty tricks and calling, from atop their high horse, for an investigation into the leaks, when Senator Trent Lott stepped on their line and blabbed that the leak probably came from a Republican senator.

Drat!

The boys had to beat a hasty retreat to the strategy room to plan their next move. They eventually did send the letter calling for an investigation, but their rhetoric was ratcheted down considerably and the whole stunt came off as a rather embarrassing flop.

The word “botched” comes to mind……..

If you’re interested in reading more about this click below:
Another Leak Probe?
Bungling Meant Leak Letter Leaked.

Or if you just want to write and compliment them on their smooth handling of this situation here's their contact info:

Frist, Bill- (R - TN)
509 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3344
Web Form: frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm

Dennis Hastert (R- IL)
DC Office:
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-2976
Fax (202) 225-0697
Web Form: http://www.house.gov/hastert/write1.shtml

Strange Bedfellows

As I think about this whole business with recently unemployed Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby's indictment, I have the nagging and uneasy feeling that there is an altogether too cozy relationship between the insiders at the White House and the esteemed members of the 4th estate.

I mean, think about all the chit-chat calls going back and forth between Scooter and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, et al and the media the summer of 2003 that were mentioned in the Fitzgerald news conference. Casual conversations where information is subtlely passed, complete with spin, to the media who either leave out or downplay "inconvenient" information or dutifully publish favorable information, attributing it to "high placed officials" in the administration.

Is this why there was no questioning of the rationale for going to war with Iraq by the usually skeptical media? Because they were cozying up to the administration with these myriad chats "on background"?

So much for probing journalism.

Hubris

Do you want to understand how decisions are made in the bush administration? Decisions that have resulted in the death and maiming of thousands of Americans, not to mention the Iraqi's we're supposed to be saving? What's your best guess on the action plan for matters of import in the executive branch these days? For a clue, read "Without a Doubt" by Ron Suskind in the New York Times magazine Oct 17, 2004 issue.

Having read the article I couldn't stop myself from asking, did they really say that on the record? And did the American public really hear this? Can this be okay with the American public?

Here's a little snippet from the article. The writer is meeting with a senior advisor to bush:

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Hubris......

If you want to read the article, click on the title below. Its from the October 17, 2004 issue of the New York Times Magazine. The article is written by Ron Suskind:
Without a Doubt

Looks Like We Got What We Conspired to Get....And We Don't Like It!

Last year this country succumbed to a snake oil salesman. This guy used all his craftiness to sell us a bill of goods and we fell for his line of overblown rhetoric (...spread freedom around the world...) hook, line and sinker and voted him back into office. Now we're starting to find out just what we bought ourselves because we were such willing pawns. All it took was a slick appeal to our fears, our prejudices and our uncertainties. All it took was playing to the lowest part of ourselves, and we gave away the store. This man, this george bush has staffed government agencies with his political cronies, putting into place a leadership that is vastly less experienced and less qualified, putting into place people whose most significant qualification for their jobs is their allegiance to w.

We let him back in, we let him put unqualified people in these jobs and watched while the experienced veterans of these agencies have been leaving wholesale, leaving the political hacks in charge. Now the glaring inadequacies of just one of these political appointees is exposed in the face of the most catastrophic natural disaster in our history. There are others. They are quietly gutting agencies that are supposed to protect and keep us safe.

This was the administration that got into office because it convinced an audience willing to abdicate its responsibility to think for itself in favor of a falling for a cheap play on the emotions of a frightened nation, this man managed to convince the voting public that he could protect us better than "the other side". Now we're angry because the government did such a poor job of protecting and rescuing victims in this disaster. But we didn't really ask anything of him, did we? We took what he said at face value and didn't bother to check the facts. When its all said and done, We have only ourselves to blame.

For more details about these political appointments, read these articles (Some require subscription):
All the President's Friends New York Times
Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience - The Washington Post

Catastrophe in New Orleans

I've been watching coverage of the devastation going on in New Orleans all evening and my head is filled with the images I've seen. At one point I could only weep as I watched...so much tragedy. The last thing I watched was Nightline. Ted Koppel interviewed a Louisiana congressman who was so angered by the lack of response by the government. He said the Louisiana governor had asked, even begged for federal help, for 40,000 troups to help with the evacuation of the hurricane victims and yet no help came. Ted explained that the governor had not put her request in the right form so the government couldn't help until they got a correctly posed request! My god, could he really have been saying that the governor forgot to say "Please"?

And, by the way, why are the people "refugees" and not "victims"? These people need our help, let's everyone please do all we can to support these hurricane victims. Send money, clothes and food. There are also requests for anyone willing to open up their homes. Do what you can, okay.

Them Bums!!!

Why do we (American lemmings) continue to believe this person whom we have again and again learned plays it fast and loose with the truth? This person who finds it unnecessary to heed facts that don't fit into his plans, or to even make any attempt at fact checking, a man who relies instead on his gut to make decisions, a man who, based on his gut, made decisions that have resulted in nearly 2,000 American deaths and still counting some 2 years later.

This is a man who has the effrontery to speak the untruth as though it were fact. And still we go on believing him despite knowing his previous statements which were issued as fact, which were spoken with heartfelt fervor and conviction have, in fact, been proven to be just plain wrong.

This person, and his gang of brutes have the philosophy that if you say it, it becomes true (even if it isn't) and we mindless sheep let them speak their version of the "facts" to and for us virtually without challenge. We don't question them, we give up our young for them, we gullibly swallow each successive distortion. Their behavior demonstrates blatant contempt for us.

Maybe this man and his gang of liars are right.......

Had the grandkids for a week!

Normally, sane people my age would not even consider single-handedly taking on 4 very active grandkids, ages 6 to 12, for a day much less a week! What was I thinking!?! Now that the week is over I am not as worn out as I thought I would be, I think the kids enjoyed their short vacation and I know I certainly did.

While they were with me I was reminded yet again how wonderful it is to look into those eyes that are filled with such wonder at things we adults consider mundane. I was also reminded how right if feels to have the house again filled with the sound of children's laughter and the endless questions that a 6 year old can think up. The boys are like frisky puppies, playing and tumbling all over each other at play, and my littlest is a girl in every sense of the word; all princess and pretty.

The house is turned upside down, but I wouldn't trade a minute of the past week for a "neat and orderly" empty house. Of course it was not all fun and games, I found myself calling on my old skills of deciding when to referee and when to send them back to settle some grievance for themselves, playing drill sargeant when it was time to clean up, and kissing the inevitable boo-boos.

Now I'm gonna go back to work so I can get some rest, but I'll be thinking about my week with the kids and remembering how priviledged I am to have these little people in my life. They really do bring a joy and peace that puts everything else in perspective.

The Great American Intellect

I find myself mystified as I consider the goings on of the past several days in regards to the uncovering of Karl Rove's involvement in disclosing the identity of a CIA operative, saying she's the wife of former Ambassador Wilson. As has been oft reported over these days, a simple search on the internet very easily reveals Wilson's wife's name, Valerie Plame. In this light, the assertion that he did not break any rules because he "did not mention her name" seems, in my judgment to be a bit disingenuous. It is rather a lot like splitting hairs for Rove and his supporters to base their defense on that. Through it all, the American public has been pretty quiet on this.

You realize, of course, this outing incident did not occur in a vacuum. It's been speculated that Rove was feeling a bit peevish because Wilson had not joined lockstep with the rest of the lemmings in bush administration, whose main function was to rubberstamp all the claims by the bushies to support their decision to go to war. Rove may possibly have felt that Wilson needed to be taken down. At any rate, it was at this point that Karl Rove, on deep background, made his comment to Matt Cooper of Time Magazine. He also sneered to MSNBC's Chris Matthews that Wilson's wife was "fair game".

Rove, as those of us who are aware of his past track record know, has a nasty little habit of expertly using character assassination to demolish those who stand in his way. If you're interested, look into his tactics against political opponents in Texas like Ann Richards, or in Georgia like Max Cleland.

Take a moment, if you will, to consider Rove's work on
Cleland, described in this quote from GNN School of Rove, by Liam Scheff http://gnn.tv/articles/951/School_of_Rove:
"When ... Senator Cleland was up for re-election, the Republicans ran an ad on television that showed Max Cleland – a veteran who left three limbs in Vietnam, an American hero, who’s spent every day of his adult life in service to his country – on the same screen with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein – and said that Cleland voted to stop the Homeland Security bill."

Given the gaping holes in the premis of the ads, this would have been a good time for the much vaunted American intellect, at least the Georgia branch, to show up. Sadly, it did not, and Cleland was defeated, in large part due to these ads which succeeded in convincing Georgia voters that Cleland was no better than Saddam and bin Laden.

It will be interesting, if not necessarily uplifting, to see if that intellect is anywhere around for this whopper. Or maybe we'll just get the beer guzzling, Jerry Springer watching, reality television loving, gullible, brain-on-hold-so-play-to-my-biases-so-I-don't-have-to-think-for-myself kind that seems to be taking over in our country.

The American intellect.....unh-huh.

Karl Rove is Deep Throat?

Well isn't this just an interesting kettle of fish? The bush meister of dirty tricks, Karl Rove, the man with his hand clearly visible in back of bush's jacket pulling the strings, is allegedly a source in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. In case you don't remember this one, the ascertion that Iraq was buying weapons grade uranium from Niger was an important piece in the buildup to war with Iraq. Plame's husband, former ambassador (and White House critic) Joseph Wilson, was assigned to investigate these reports. He reported finding no evidence to support those allegations. Shortly after his findings were released, his wife was publicly named as a CIA agent, putting her personal safety at risk.

Now it seems likely that Karl Rove played a role in this sordid situation. I want to have the "shaking my head, asking how this could happen" moment until I remember that old worn out truism, "Absolute power corrupts, absolutely". And, there is no question in my mind that the bush acolytes have absolute power.

This culture of unquestioning acceptance by our Stepford nation of people, who allow their emotions to be inflammed by broad-brush rhetoric, who allow their opinions to be easily manipulated, who can't be bothered to take to time to find out information both pro and con before making a decision, who let themselves off the hook because they don't have time to inform themselves, this culture borne of all these may just wake up one day to find that we have conspired to bring about our own undoing.

Anyway, I see this nation's looking the other way when all these dirty tricks are played as tacit approval of the tactics. Karl Rove has been in the cat-bird's seat all this time because he is willing to play the dirty tricks and bush is willing to let him. Is winning by cheating really the American Way????

The results of the Schiavo autopsy are back. I think it's interesting to compare political speak back during the height of the controversy over Ms. Schiavo with the political speak now. Take a look and decide for yourself.
This is what Dr. Frist said then:

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." (Washington Post March 19 05)

This is what Dr. Frist says now:

The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, defended himself on Thursday, a day after an autopsy report showed that she had suffered irreversible brain damage.

"People said: 'Bill Frist, you're making a diagnosis. Doctor, you're trying to wear your white coat on the floor of the Senate,' " said Dr. Frist, a heart-lung transplant surgeon. "I never made a diagnosis. I wouldn't even attempt to make a diagnosis from a videotape."(New York Times, June 16 05)

Hmmmmhh......okay.

My Trip to Rome

These are just some of the shots I took during my trip to Rome in May. You can click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

The weather was warm, the people were great. Everyone spoke English, except one taxi driver, and I think I was kind of glad he didn't - at least he got us back to the hotel intact.

We liked the tours, they allowed us to see and hear the history of many of the famed sites in Rome. The Roman Forum we were told dates back to 79 AD. We walked through all the areas you see in the pictures posted. Our tour guide spoke to us via those radios you may have noticed hanging from our necks. We had earbuds so we could hear her. She walked around with a little orange flag so we could easily find her in a crowd. There wasn't much time for dawdling on the tours and if any of us lagged behind we were treated to a public announcement that we were lost and to please report back to the tour guide. Each evening we returned to our hotel and fell into bed, exhausted but happy.

On the On-our-own days we explored the shops in the Piazza del Popolo. All of the Italian couturiers were there - Prada, Armani, Ferragamo, Gucci, you name it. Sandy bought a bag and I bought a pair of shoes - from Italy, yet! We also had dinner in one of the charming little restaurants with outdoor seating that are all over that area. We spent the last day at the Rome Hilton. Boy, I see what I have been missing at the Ramada Inn!

Il Musei Vaticani (The Vatican Museum) 

In the Vatican Museum 

This is a half-barrel type ceiling in the Vatican Museum covered with fantastic artwork. 

San and me waiting to go into the Vatican 

More from the Vatican 

Vatican art 

Me in St. Peter's Square. 

The Scupture in the Vatican is incredibly beautiful. 

Swiss Guards at the Vatican 

Beautiful! 

Vatican Art 

The Spanish Steps in Rome 

More of the Roman Forum 

This is a Smart Car. They're everywhere in Rome. 

This is the ruins of the Roman Forum. I think this part is near where the vestal virgins were kept. 

The Collesium in Rome 

Sandra and My Trip to Rome 

Welcome To My Blog

I thought that I'd give this a try as an alternative to walking around my house talking to myself out loud. Feel free to join in on the discussion. You don't really have to agree, you only need to be civil. Ah yes, civil discourse, an archaic concept wherein there is an open exchange of differing viewpoints on issues rather than on the proponents of those views. So I go boldly on.....
What is the deal with liberals, anyway? They have decided it's no longer politic to use the term "liberal" so they call themselves "progressives" not to be confused with the dreaded L word. Hmmmhh..... so who's not going to know that's the same thing, except maybe it's the chicken version? Personally, I think liberal is a perfectly fine characterization, and will be sticking with that one to refer to myself. All you "progressives" out there, to paraphrase James Brown, say it loud, I'm Liberal and Im proud! That's me for today.