I’ve traveled half way across the country. I spend two and three nights a week meeting with others of like mind, planning and plotting an end. I write here. And letters to my representatives. I’ve written a novel with an anti-war theme. I protest with signs, candles, and prayers I don’t believe. I’m doing what I can to stop this war. I’m not bragging. I know many of you have done more.
It was a crock from the beginning. That is the thing. I am not a genius. But anyone reading the fucking newspaper – or with access to the Internet – and possessing just a modicum of common sense, knew it was a crock.
And we all know now. Everyone in America who is not just willfully ignorant. There were no WMDs. There was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. This was a war based on lies. We have invaded a country based on lies. We have killed innocent civilians – tens of thousands – based on lies. We have killed nearly 2,000 of our own based on lies.
Am I self-satisfied that I was right? A little. Do I feel good I am trying to stop it? A little. But there is nothing like a Democrat on national television to wake me up and make me realize that resistance within the boundaries of the traditional political structure is futile. Fucking futile. I should have known that, too. If I wasn’t so fucking naive.
How does one become so morbidly depressed? Well. I guess I shouldn’t be watching MSM television coverage. My bad, there. But I’m desperate for any news about indictments, you know. So there is me. Watching fucking Tim Russert interview the wise minds of the U.S. Senate. And this is what pushes me right over the fucking edge:
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Schumer, there’s been a widespread discussion that this is bigger than just Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame and White House aides; that it really goes to the core of the Iraq War, what cases were made to the American people about weapons of mass destruction and other systems and other analyses and other intelligence data. Based on what you now know today, do you regret having voted for the war?
SEN. SCHUMER: Well, no, Tim, because my vote was seen and I still see it as a need to say we must fight a strong and active war on terror. But I would say this, Tim, and I would take your point in a slightly different direction. I think what we’ve seen in the last several months is a White House in some real degree of disarray: the war in Iraq where nobody knows what the game plan is; the budget, which is just out of control and nobody seems to have a handle on it and could wreck our economy; the prescription drug bill, the major accomplishment and everyone’s confused about how it’s going to be administered. The Web sites don’t even work. And, of course, Katrina.
Gosh. Thanks Chuck. I’m ready to go to jail to oppose my country’s illegal act of aggression. And you, as a distinguished member of the so-called opposition party are on national television, unable to even admit you made a mistake voting to authorize war when the evidence is in – and it is overwhelming – and it didn’t support your case for war. Yes you fucking made a mistake you dumb bastard! And you probably made it knowingly, because I know you had better information than I did. You made it for cynical fucking political reasons, so you wouldn’t be kicked around as the “wimpy” party. But the game is over. Give it the fuck up. We are never getting out of this stupid fucking war until you and your god damned party grow some balls, own up to your pre-war stupidity, and stand up for what is right. Viet-fucking-nam. Stupid fucker. Remember it. We don’t need to re-live it in full. Just start telling the fucking truth.
You aren’t alone. You can all – the entire Democratic Party – start telling the truth together. Here is Hillary Clinton earlier this year, sounding a whole fuck of a lot like a slightly more intelligent George W. Bush on estrogen:
MR. RUSSERT: Then you would disagree with any call for immediate withdrawal of some troops or a specific timetable?
SEN. CLINTON: Well, Tim, I understand the feelings behind that call. I mean, there is a lot of reason when we’re back at home to argue about this policy. But at this point in time, I think that would be a mistake. I don’t believe we should tie our hands or the hands of the new Iraqi government. Now obviously, as this government has stood up and takes responsibility, there may come a time when it decides for its own internal reasons that we should set such a deadline and withdrawal agenda. But right now I think it would be a mistake.
We don’t want to send a signal to the insurgents, to the terrorists that we are going to be out of here at some, you know, date certain. I think that would be like a green light to go ahead and just bide your time. We want to send a message of solidarity. And in addition, I would hope that at this point now, we could get more international support. It is not in anyone’s interests, not, you know, the people in this region, in Europe or elsewhere around the world, for the Iraqi government to be brought down before it even can get itself together by violent insurgents. So it’s not only U.S. commitment, I think and hope that there should be commitment from others as well.
And John Kerry. Trying to run for President on the oh-so-brilliant notion “I would have went to war, but I’d have done it better” all in an effort not to be labeled any more effectively as a “flip-flopper:”
LEHRER: All right, new question. Two minutes, Senator Kerry.
Speaking of Vietnam, you spoke to Congress in 1971, after you came back from Vietnam, and you said, quote, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Are Americans now dying in Iraq for a mistake?
KERRY: No, and they don’t have to, providing we have the leadership that we put — that I’m offering.
I believe that we have to win this. The president and I have always agreed on that. And from the beginning, I did vote to give the authority, because I thought Saddam Hussein was a threat, and I did accept that intelligence.
But I also laid out a very strict series of things we needed to do in order to proceed from a position of strength. Then the president, in fact, promised them. He went to Cincinnati and he gave a speech in which he said, “We will plan carefully. We will proceed cautiously. We will not make war inevitable. We will go with our allies.”
He didn’t do any of those things. They didn’t do the planning. They left the planning of the State Department in the State Department desks. They avoided even the advice of their own general. General Shinsheki, the Army chief of staff, said you’re going to need several hundred thousand troops. Instead of listening to him, they retired him. The terrorism czar, who has worked for every president since Ronald Reagan, said, “Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor.” That’s what we have here.
And what we need now is a president who understands how to bring these other countries together to recognize their stakes in this. They do have stakes in it. They’ve always had stakes in it.
The Arab countries have a stake in not having a civil war. The European countries have a stake in not having total disorder on their doorstep.
But this president hasn’t even held the kind of statesman-like summits that pull people together and get them to invest in those states. In fact, he’s done the opposite. He pushed them away.
When the Secretary General Kofi Annan offered the United Nations, he said, “No, no, we’ll go do this alone.”
To save for Halliburton the spoils of the war, they actually issued a memorandum from the Defense Department saying, “If you weren’t with us in the war, don’t bother applying for any construction.”
That’s not a way to invite people.
Transcript of the First Bush-Kerry Presidential Debate on September 30, 2004.
Of course, this tortured rhetoric, dancing around the Democratic Party’s support for the war is not without solid reason. Evidence of their complicity in these war crimes.
U.S. Senate Iraq War Resolution (Yes vote to support war).
Yes No
Dem. 29 21
Rep. 48 1
Ind. 1
77 23
Record of the Senate Roll Call on U.S. Senate Iraq War Resolution, October 11, 2002.
But please. Party of my forefathers. It is time to confess your errant ways. The people are ready to be led. They are leaving you behind. They understand this was a colossal fuck up. Now it is a race to see which party can get us the fuck out of Iraq fastest. Look at the fucking polls.
CBS News Poll. Oct. 3-5, 2005
“Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq?”
Approve (32)
Disapprove (64)
Unsure (4)“Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq, or not?”
Worth It (32)
Not Worth It (64)
Unsure (5)“Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the U.S. have stayed out?”
Did Right Thing (41)
Should’ve Stayed Out (55)Pew Research Center for the People & the Press – Oct. 6-10, 2005
“Do you think the U.S. made the right decision or the wrong decision in using military force against Iraq?”
Right Decision (44)
Wrong Decision (50)
Unsure (6)Record of the Senate Roll Call on U.S. Senate Iraq War Resolution, October 11, 2002.
Please pull your heads out of your butts and become the party of peace. Or is it time to find another party to represent the will of peace-loving people?
God damn it BostonJoe. Well said. Send this letter far and wide. Get your heads out of your fucking butts and lead, Democratic “leaders”.
Viet-fucking-nam indeed.
Doesn’t seem all that effective, really. But sometimes you have to vent. Like once a week, I think, in my case.
A perfect summary of the situation. Thank you.
We need a new situation to summarize.
The R words are ready when you are. 😉
As per usual, I wasn’t sure at first what you were talking about, Ductape. Of course, given your history, I figured your comment was a) witty, b) insightful or c) all of the above. I shut-down the computer and went to bed last night without comment to anyone on this thread. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered, “What the fuck are the R words?”
I woke up this morning with a partial answer. If I speculate that you were talking about a “Revolution” do I get an “Incomplete” on my report card?
[Leaves, muttering to himself and scribbling notes: Chakras = Ears/Eyes. Probably Indo-Persian Language. Has already covered Latin, German, etc.]
Hey Joe here’s a link that might cheer you up a bit. http://www.kucinich.us/ Kucinich doesn’t get any coverage but he gets on the floor of the house and says all the right things…so it’s in the record.
He just called for a resolution to have all the emails, phone records etc of everyone in the WH involved in the ‘WHIG’ cabal. Now that would be interesting although I don’t know if we’ll get it…maybe we should send some emails to him in support right?
But to answer your point here, yeah, with friends like these dems who needs enemies. Have to go, time for my nephew to take over the computer.
I love Dennis. He is one of the only Dems that is speaking to me. Problem is, I am an idiot. I wouldn’t vote for him in the primaries (my wife did) because I was a “strategic” Kerry voter. I am so done with being a “strategic” anything.
On his site, lead article was about the Department of Peace. I’ve heard a bit about this. Thing is, if our government was actually being run by human beings, it seems to me that the Department of Peace already exists. It is called the State Department. But with neo-cons running it, it looks a bit more like the Department of War. (I know the Department of Peace has an entire domestic agenda that does not exist at State — but, I do sincerely question the need of another cabinet level agency to make America sane. It is like believing that the Department of Homeland Security is going to save us from some parent, who after losing a child to one of our cruise missiles, decides that he/she is going to blow up as many Americans as possible.)
Some character at the orange place was saying that we just had to hold our noses and vote dem. I told him that we heard that in 2000 and 2004 and never no more would I pay any attention to that again!
OK, let’s carry the “depression” metaphor just a tiny bit further: Depression comes in cycles.
The worst time is when the depression begins to lift _ that’s what we are seeing with the cratering of the White House, the loss of confidence in the President, the disarray and leakage of a here-to-fore stonewall of silence in the administration.
When depression begins to lift, you are in fact better off, but you fully see how bad your condition truly is, and how very far you have to go to get back to an even keel. That’s when you feel the worst, and that’s when the temptation is to check out, bugger off, and quit.
That’s where we are now. And just as in real depression (the mental disorder, not economic depression – I’m a shrink, not an economist), lift of the depression does not fix the problems that the depression created. And we know we will have problems aplenty. That is very very discouraging.
You don’t need to hear “buck up” “things are looking better! The idiots are on the run. . .” etc. A lot of pain and the long slog back up the hill, pushing that stone in front of us, is still before us.
But it is moving up, no longer moving down, squashing and flattening, and driving all motivation away day by day. And there are more of us than before, BJ. More. Keep thinking about that.
I’m not personally clinically depressed. I don’t think. And I bet my diagnosis of the political shpere is too mild. I bet they are schizophrenic, the whole lot of them. Breaks with reality and such.
Oh, I certainly did NOT think you were depressed, at least not on the basis of what you said here. – I was just having a little fun (if you can call it that) with the idea. But I think you are pretty accurate about the atmosphere in parts of the Dem/progressive universe.
As to the other side of the spectrum, I’m not sure there’s a diagnostic category that fits them very well. Off in their own little delusional system, on the part of some (paranoia), deliberately manipulating public perceptions is the case for others (antisocial personality disorder), believing that they are God’s gift to the world – we know who these types are (narcissistic personality disorder). . .
Dude, I left the party and went independent after Dems handed Bush a blank check to go into Iraq. This is not the party that generations of my family belonged to. I’m past the disillusionment and depression and all that’s left is disgust. Schumer makes me nostalgic for Alfonse D’Amato. He was a dick too, but at least he provided comic relief. Here’s a newsflash. The wheels aren’t just coming off the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is falling apart, too. They are no more in a position to reclaim leadership than when they Jeffords handed them the Senate with his defection from the GOP. They squandered that moment, and they’ll squander this one. None of the movers and shakers on the political left are talking about the Dems. If we’re waiting for the Dems to rescue us from 5 years of Bush mismanagement, we’re going to be very disappointed. The cavalry is us.
I don’t even know where I am anymore. In political terms. But the bastards who are supposed to be the opposition need to get some spine. We can’t have two choices with one option. It isn’t even a good illusion of choice anymore.
Excellent summary BostonJoe.Almost all the life-long political activists I know are of very similar sentiments. They too are extremely frustrated and disappointed with their D Reps and Sens.
Cindy Sheehan has made a commitment to nonviolent political action in the tradition of MLK, Gandhi, and others.
On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict delves into the question of how to build a strategy for nonviolent struggle. Covering a variety of topics–such as ways to identify a movement’s objectives, preparing a strategic estimate for a nonviolent struggle, and operational planning considerations…
[ BTribbers, On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict is a free, 189 page pdf download. I know of no better resource on this subject. Download it now, while you still can… ]
I’ve been reading very similar things of late. I am convinced that this needs to happen in our country. I am imagining all the good things that we could do with the 90% of our military budget that is spent enriching the military-indusrial complex.
This will be another good resource. Thanks.
Twenty-three in the Senate, and 133 in the House voted against the Authorization.
Thank you to those members.
My rep, Anna Eshoo, voted Nay, as did Barbara Boxer (natch); Feinstein voted Aye, stupid DINO. I may just vote for the Green candidate next fall if DiFi runs, just to assuage my conscience…
I can no longer support those who voted for the war. Perhaps I would make an exception, with a heartfelt apology and some record of trying to rectify the error. But I’m not seeing it.
Thanks for House vote. I was too lazy. Sorry damn state of affairs.
What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s on the FRONT PAGE of the Democratic Party website. Way to get the message out.
It gave me a chill to see Wellstone’s vote. That was likely the last major vote in which MN was represented by two liberal Senators.
The Senate change from Wellstone to Coleman pretty much sums up the state of politics in general. Where we used to be represented by a passionate, liberal voice, we’re now represented by a boot licking lackey.
Fucking plane crash. I loved Sen. Wellstone. A great politician. A great liberal voice. A great wrestler.
Nancy Pelosi sent out a Democrat Survey along with a “please donate”… I wrote all over that damn thing that they are SILENT and aren’t getting one damn dime from me till they start working. How many attrocities are they going to ALLOW due to their lack of anger.
Part of the survey asked if I considered myself a liberal, moderatre or conservative…
I said LIberal and wrote next to it. Pissed Off at Spineless, Apathetic Democrat Leaders.
I’m so angry… Today I have to stay off the phone (no call waiting crap due to a past experience with ‘beep beep’ during an emergency call from overseas). Hoping we get the ‘news” about the job deets today so Mr. Damnit can call it quits with the job from hell.
Fucking Pelosie survey… asked what was important to me… didn’t list Stopping the Red Regime as an option.
They are still going on about Social Security and Confirmation hearings.
That bitch isn’t qualified for the job. PERIOD!!!! What more do they need? Money and time for confirmation hearings while our men and women DIE on foreign soil.
Fuck the Democrats because they are fucking us.
Wish I could disagree with you about Dems, Janet. I can’t. Good luck with job waiting.
I’m so sick of the “liberal,” “conservative,” “moderate,” labels. Got pleasant e-mail from a friend in our upper-middle suberb last week about book. “Hope it isn’t a ‘liberal’ diatribe.” Or something to that effect.
I started looking at definitions of liberal. I’m a liberal because I seek progress through new ideas, was about what I found. She is a conservative because she wants to cling to traditional values and ways. It is all a crock. I was nice in my response. But I am getting damn sick of being labeled a “liberal” as if it were a curse. Liberals are simply thinking people trying to make a better world in my book. And somehow we on the left have flocked away from the term. Fuck the terminology, though. We need to make changes. Basic changes. Start caring about people, not mutli-nationals. National health care as a right. Eliminating war and defense spending to maintain an empire. Beginning an economy based on principles of sustainability/survivability instead of exploitive profit and greed. These are things most agree on, I think. But we’re being prevented from having them by propaganda and a two-party system beholden to elite interests. (I wish I knew how to bring about this change — I’m still working on that one).
I prefer the term….
Human
always have.
Wasn’t untill this Regime and the March that I decided to use the term Liberal to try and explain that I’m not willfully ignorant (just blonde sometimes) and that I CARE about the planet, which is dying, and our children. That I CARE about the world.
Me and Momagainstthedraft were talking about this this week.
She basically said that she never considered herself a “radical liberal”. But due to the attrocities and the apathy all around us – she’ been pushed in that direction.
We people, we moms and dads and sisters and brothers haven’t really changed – it’s just that our leaders are static so we have had to be more dynamic.
Liberals could take a lesson from us queers in this department. People called us “queer” like it was an insult for a very long time, and they used that insult to brand us, weaken us, and control us. But eventually we realized that it requires a certain power relation in order for the word to function that way, adn that power relation requires a certain degree of our cooperation. So we decided to stop playing the victim to it, even though that was risky, and along with a huge internal argument amongst ourselves over this strategy, we nonetheless employed it and took the word back. We started calling ourselves “queer” all the time. We put it on t-shirts. We wore those shirts to Pride marches. We got tattoos, we labeled a whole branch of academic theory “queer”, we got ourselves a damn TV show full of flaming queers with “queer” right in the name.
Of course, ignorant people still attempt to use the word as an insult. But now when people call us queer we are often safe to respond with a grin and a casually sardonic remark, “Quite, thanks.” Overwhemlingly, the word simply no longer functions as the same sort of insult, as the same mechanism of “putting us in our place”, and we consciously made that happen.
Since it’s definitely the same general strategy deployed from the other side that has made “liberal” into a sketchy word, there’s aboslutely no reason why the same general strategy shouldn’t work for liberals to reclaim the word.
The only word I can’t see that can be “empowered” or taken back is the word that I hear the most… “Retarded”.
Other than that – you’re so right Indy.
I’m a Liberal.
Oh… I saw a fantastic t-shirt this weekend.
“I don’t mind straight people. Just as long as they act gay in public.” 🙂 (((Indy))))
I agree with the word retarded, DJ. I worked with men with MR/DD for several years and it pisses me off when people say “that’s so retarded” or “you’re such a retard.”
The other word that I can’t accept as empowering is nigger. Even though many young black people use it to greet one another or in rap songs, it just has such a hateful history that, in my mind, it’s not something you can ever take back or redeem.
I actually like what many hiphop artists have done with that (while not being a big hiphop fan — heh, my taste in music makes me tragically unhip) but I agree that all of it is very uncomfortable. I think it will continue to be very uncomfortable for generations yet.
It is also true that many older gays and lesbians are abjectly horrified by the use of “queer” from the younger ones. I mentioned an internal community struggle, and it continues to this day over this issue.
We’ll have to differ on the use of the “n” word as empowering. Certainly, as a middle aged white woman, my opinion doesn’t hold much weight, but there it is. That word was spit out of the mouths of bigots as they strung men up from trees or dragged them behind a truck. It just can’t be made right again…IMO.
I can see where queer would be a different story. It is a somewhat inocuous word, meaning to me anyway, kind of odd. As a person who revels in being “kind of odd” though not gay, (gaydiation notwithstanding)I would wear it as a badge of honor.
It (n*) is not a word I use personally, I feel I should make that clear. I am uncomfortable using it even in academic discussions, or political discussions such as this one.
You should pick up a good book on gay history some time — those bigoted bastards did the same kinds of things to us while they called us “queer”. We’ve been categorically institutionalized, disowned, excommunicated, raped, beaten, and killed. I have personally been the target of more than half of these acts, and I have been threatened with all of them on multiple occasions. I’ve also been openly discriminated against — legally, mind you — on several occasions in both housing and employment. I’m 35. It has not been the exact same history (no two groups have the exact same history) but it is not nearly as different as many people seem to think it is.
I’m not saying that queer isn’t an emotionally charged word or that it hasn’t been used to persecute gay people. I’m sorry if it sounded that way. I certainly don’t know much about gay history, but I think I’m as aware as your average guilt-ridden liberal straight person can be about the difficulties of being in a group that is traditionally marginalized and abused by society.
Let me just say in my defense that nigger is a singular word, with only one hateful meaning. Not being an expert I may be wrong on this, but I’m aware of only the one meaning. Just wondering…wasn’t “gay” at one point considered a slur? I know from raising 4 teenagers that one of the most rampant insults in high school is “you’re gay.”
Reclaiming is precisely about changing the meaning of a word.
Not ironically at all, “gay” became an insult (again) among teens right about the same time it became apparent that we’d successfully reclaimed “queer”. It used to be that kids called each other “gay”; then gay people came out and “gay” started to be associated with “pride”; so kids called each other “queer”; then the reclaiming movement, and kids, as usual, were the first to learn that “queer” didn’t mean the nasty thing anymore, so then they went back to “gay” again. This was also around the same time that high school kids were able to have some success with forming gay-straight alliances at school, so I imagine that had something to do with it as well. New efforts at marginalizing a group that’s trying to empower itself and all that.
I still can’t get my head around those clubs at high schools. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re great, it’s just that they would never have happened at my high school.
But at my best friend’s prom in 1986 the King and Queen were a black and white couple (who went on to marry in college and have a gorgeous daughter), and my parents could barely get their heads around that because they’d gone to segregated schools. The idea that I had friends and classmates of all colors and ethnicities was abstractly a good thing to my mom (my father was the more racist of the two), but it was always hard for her to fully understand that my friends and I didn’t have the same “issues” with race and ethnicity as her generation had been programmed to have.
I’m embarrassed that I can’t think of a good gay history book title to give you off the top of my head, it’s just been such a long time since I did that reading. But the books are not hard to come by anymore, like when I was a teen I had to try to find a gay bookstore when they couldn’t advertise in mainstream media. Good thing I’m tricksy, lol. But if you get the chance, do pick up a book for casual reading. I find that most straight people who do are: a) surprised gays had it so bad historically; and b) horrified that they were never told or taught how bad it was.
You know, I do what I can in my little corner of the world. It just so happens that my kids have all been active in the drama department in high school, so the older 2 boys have both had their share of being mistaken for gay just because they like to act. Go figure. They both have gay friends, ironically not in the theatre department….and my daughter’s dorm at college is at least 40% gay. She knew that going in and it didn’t bother her at all.
All I can do as a person is to respect everyone. All I can do as a mother is to raise my kids to respect everyone, regardless of race, socioeconomic status (which I think is by far the biggest source of discrimination) sexual identity or preference, or religion. It’s a hard thing to try to be sensitive to everyone’s differences, but it’s worth the commitment to do so. I was raised with a father who regularly used the “n” word…so much so that as a very young child I used it too until I learned how awful it was. When we know better we do better.
I sometimes get sensitive about being accused of having all kinds of prejudices by virtue of my being white and straight.
I will read up on gay history if you read up middle-aged women suffering from depression and undergoing a severe idenity crisis at the impending loss of her children. 🙂
Is something I’m saying making you feel defensive? I hope not. I consider you an ally, I hope you know that.
I was a women’s studies minor in college, so I’ve definitely done my share of reading about the issues underlying your current ID crisis — that’s part of what’s fueled the feminist movement for decades. I offer you a hearty thanks for all the [under-paid, under-appreciated, under-acknowleged] work you’ve done as a woman and a mother! Also, fwiw, I also think that the class war is the connective tissue amongst the other wars, always present in its insiduous and repulsive ways no matter what other issues are involved.
If you ever want to talk more about any of these subjects in more private detail, you have my email address, please don’t ever be afraid to use it. I’ve been enjoying conversations with you a great deal and I hope I’ve not done anything to make them less appealing to you.
I love you both.
This is the pitfall of chat. Sometimes things don’t get carried over – like facial expression, intonation and… giggles. 🙂
Crappity crap. I’ve got some good info and I don’t kknow where to put it. Fuck it – putting it in the Froggy Pond. Race ya!
I bought a great t-shirt last week. Says “Frodo failed…Bush has the ring”.
I agree that “retarded” is an exception to the reclaiming possibility — and if you look at it in light of power relations, it makes sense why. People who have the kinds of conditions that assholes call “retarded” are generally at a disadvantage when it comes to subjective social power due to the specific nature of their conditions. Just like I struggle to walk sometimes due to autoimmune disease, they struggle to negotiate social power due to their difference.
My favorite t-shirt lately has been an old one I dug out of a drawer; it has a little face illustrated on it with the person’s fingers stuck in their ears and it reads: You’re boring. I need to get one that says: PROUD LIBERAL.
😉
Exactly, they can’t empower it themselves. And they can’t fight against it themselves.
If you say the “N” word in the wrong crowd… you will be “notified” of your boo boo. But so many well-meaning people use “retard or retarded” and not even think about it. Because who is gonna tell them? Some tired Mom?? Dann straight I will… 🙂 I have “educated” some in my own way 🙂 I’m called “PC” because of it.
Well some names do hurt.
That guy wearing that shirt got a shock. I went up to him and said, “I have to hug you for wearing that fantastic shirt” 🙂 Yeah, Baby, I’m a friend. LOL
I am so sorry about the autoimmune difficulties. Damn!
in a comment about John McCain’s mental state. And I felt it was wrong while I was doing it, and agonized for a few seconds, then submitted it anyway since I judged that even here on BMT no one would squawk.
But you’re right, and I was wrong. Being sensitive to others is a virtue, and I appreciate your reminder.
I remember posting to that comment. I said McCain wasn’t retarded… but that he was emotionally, spiritually and intellectually CONSTIPATED 🙂
Intellectually constipated… it kinda rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? 🙂 I like it using it ever so much.
“Liberal?” he said. “Quite.” And he winked with a sardonic smile.
Yes. I think that workds. Thanks IndyLib.
Tell him to read the book and get back to you — then have HIM look up both “liberal” and “diatribe” — it is neither!!
PS Sent you and email re: the book!
I have signed the pledge. I’m sure many of you have, too.
Therefore, I will no longer support any Democrat who does not say “we were misled into war” and does not actively work on an exit plan.
That’s most of them.
Please join me by signing. I agree wholeheartedly with BostonJoe that the Democratic Party is in the throes of a crisis at least as wrenching as that of the Republicans, just without the media fanfare.
Anyone who can’t say “they lied, we enabled them, we need to get home and fix our own country now” is not my leader, and I would further argue is bereft of common sense as well as political instincts. We have to do better.
I’m listening to my Animal House strack CD…. might’ve gotten’ carried away…. I kinda cussed in my reply. Oh fucking well 🙂
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Cause I’m tired of apathetic pusswad Democrats not speaking up over the every day new attrocities.
To remain silent: GUILTY!
Signed a LIBERAL former military wife, mother of 2 and pissed off American who won’t take the Democrats silence any longer.
GET TO WORK or GET A PINK SLIP!
Sounds like something I’ll sign. I was thinking we need to form a Peace Party. But I’ll try anything.
we all know Peace is for
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/azulism/DSC00333.jpg
🙂
was that word” and he can’t remember and I still don’t know. I’m assuming that my husband had heard it used pertaining to war from one or more of the Vietnam Vets who taught him how to fly and told him their stories. He was pacing the house though after returning home from Iraq. He was frustrated about his mission being changed three times while he was there and now there is no clear mission at all, this all runs contrary to how soldiers operate, are trained, and function. He was talking about Vietnam and how because Vietnam was even brought into existence it began to create its own reasons for being…..economic reasons and moral reasons and such. My husband had one word though for it and I can’t remember it. He was very scared though that if we didn’t get out of Iraq very very soon, the war would begin to create a solid self sustainment structure that will cause someone “loss” when the war is “gone” and that will impede the war from coming to the END. Perhaps it is too late and Iraq has begun to do that now and it will eat soldiers and their families until everything breaks and nobody will be able to hide from the insanity of it any longer. I hope not, but it ain’t looking so good right now today is it? Soldiers are not peacekeepers or police officers either. They weren’t trained that way, so they aren’t going to function that way in a large group either when they all have to reach back in their brains for their training (another thing that gives my husband the freaking screams). Soldiers are here to protect their nation and they are trained and ready to act swiftly and decisively and deadly – just like I would if someone attacked my children. Of course a clear mission statement for all the soldiers could enable them to be better at being peacekeepers or policing until they get home. We all know that there isn’t a peacekeeping portion of training when anybody goes to bootcamp though, so come on!
No prob. I think of you every time I write anything on the war these days. There are all kinds of people getting their ass kicked by the war. But mostly it is just us. Those out of powers. Reminds me of a line from It’s A Wonderful Life. “Listen here, Potter,” says George Bailey. “These riff-raff are the people that do most of fighting and living and dying around here.” Something like that. We’re all in it together. But it has to stop. War is eating us. Has been for a century. Maybe forever. Like a wolf on the door. But we have to stop it.
Peace is priceless and sure as hell doesn’t cost as much as killing.
Load those ships and trucks with food, clothing and love – instead of tanks, guns… and gawd knows what else.
I will never get the images of the dead children left in the streets of Fallujah out of my mind… It’s not worth it. Death and killing never are.
The voices I hear speaking up and against this war the most have been the returning Veterans. They aren’t waiting decades. They are speaking now.
I’ve had similiar conversations with my husband, Tracy.
My husband was not trained to “SPREAD FREEDOM”.
He and all of them were trained to KILL. KILL and NOT BE KILLED.
My husband went through more training than most and learned how to KILL again.
With no agenda and changing missions: All they can do is KILL AND NOT GET KILLED… to you get your ass home.
Anyone who thinks are troops are there to spread love and freedom, to rebuild that country are completely blind. Bring them home now.
Bring Tracy’s loved ones home. NOW.
Remember… there were so many there. We’re not alone
From DamnitRyan’s camera 9/24
We were there. So were others.
Boston Joe all these guys who voted for the war…there ought to be an orgainization that seeks to vote them out of office.
They are war criminals if they don’t admit that their vote was the wrong vote.
What’s the point of all this?
What good is this goddamn investigation of Valerie Plame if all they are going to do is indict Rove and Libby on lying to the Grand Jury and nothing about Plame and Niger documents etc?
So the Republicans get defeated in 2006 and democrats take their place who want to do a “better job” in fighting in Iraq.
Bullshit is right!
Well. I can’t disagree with you Stu. But still I sense some hope. That maybe some change is possible.
Example. Even on a site as left as our present surroundings, I would have never felt comfortable speaking out about the ideas that rattle around inside my head from time to time, before. But now I do feel comfortable. And others seem to be feeling much the same. So there are a lot of us maybe, in the wide world, and it is becoming our time to talk. Our time to lead. Our time to put an imprint on the world. I don’t know if I believe all that just yet. But I am growing more and more confident that it is so. It is that tag line from the World Social Forum I keep hearing in my head. Another World Is Possible. It is. It is just a matter of enough people waking up and realizing it. I think. I hope.
Hey BJ, I just got the signed copy of your book. Thanks a lot, I can’t wait to read it.
You’re welcome. Thank you for the Booman Tribune. From all of us. And don’t forget to forward your copy on to Bill O’Reilly when you are done. (Let me know what you think — even about the hacky bad parts).