Author: Carnacki

George W. Bush at a press conference Aug. 8, 2006:

“You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists.”

Barbara Bush on “Good Morning America” March 18, 2003:

“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

It has been said that George W. Bush takes after his mother. I am not a psychologist and I won’t pretend to understand this strange lack of empathy that they share for others.

But read President Bush’s quote again: “You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists.”

What he does not say is “Nobody wants innocent people to die.”

He does not say it because the loss of innocent life apparently is not  important to him. What is important is that nobody sees it.

This is more than just semantics. Tens of thousands of Iraqis who never had anything to do with the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, Saddam Hussein, terrorism, crime of any sort, have died in Bush’s illegal, unjust and unnecessary war.

It is the loss of innocent lives that is appalling. Americans should see the results of this tragedy. Then perhaps people would be less eager for war, less eager to seek military action against Iran. If people saw the results of war on their televisions — not the far off drifting smoke from distant explosions, but the horrific results — perhaps people would support diplomacy and negotiation at every opportunity and war would be seen only as a failure of effort and not a cause to support.

Despite the war not being seen in all its graphic horror, Americans have turned against the war. Of course President Bush (nor his mother) does not want us to see the casualties. Because if we did, we’d see how much of their blood covers George W. Bush’s hands. And the stain of innocent blood can never be washed clean.

To his crimes, we should all bear witness.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is best known for the raid by abolistionist John Brown on the federal armory.

But Harpers Ferry also played a prominent role in African American history outside of the Civil War.

Storer College was set up to educate the recently freed slaves after the Civil War. And 100 years ago this month, the Niagara Movement held its meeting there, an event commerated with events this weekend at by Harpers Ferry.

Here’s information about the [history ]:

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the outlook for full civil rights for African Americans was at a precarious crossroads. Failed Reconstruction, the Supreme Court’s separate but equal doctrine (Plessy v. Ferguson), coupled with Booker T. Washington’s accommodationist policies threatened to compromise any hope for full and equal rights under the law.

Harvard educated William Edward Burghardt Du Bois committed himself to a bolder course, moving well beyond the calculated appeal for limited civil rights. He acted in 1905 by drafting a “Call” to a few select people. The Call had two purposes; “organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believed in Negro freedom and growth,” and opposition to “present methods of strangling honest criticism.”

Du Bois gathered a group of men representing every region of the country except the West. They hoped to meet in Buffalo, New York. When refused accommodation, the members migrated across the border to Canada. Twenty-nine men met at the Erie Beach Hotel in Ontario. The Niagarites adopted a constitution and by-laws, established committees, and wrote the “Declaration of Principles” outlining the future for African Americans. After three days, they returned across the border with a renewed sense of resolve in the struggle for freedom and equality.

Thirteen months later, from August 15-19, 1906, the Niagara Movement held its first public meeting in the United States on the campus of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Harpers Ferry was symbolic for a number of reasons. First and foremost was the connection to John Brown. It was at Harpers Ferry in 1859 that Brown’s raid against slavery struck a blow for freedom. Many felt it was John Brown who fired the first shot of the Civil War. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, John Brown’s Fort had become a shrine and a symbol of freedom to African Americans, Union soldiers, and the nation’s Abolitionists.

Harpers Ferry was also the home of Storer College. Freewill Baptists opened Storer in 1867 as a mission school to educate former slaves. For twenty-five years Storer was the only school in West Virginia that offered African Americans an education beyond the primary level.

Here’s the main story on this weekend’s events from our local newspaper, The Martinsburg Journal:

HARPERS FERRY — Picking up a colored ink marker, the 5-year-old girl from Philadelphia, Pa., wanted to make a statement rather than simply write a word.

But she needed a little help.

She turned to her mother.

“I think you should love each other,” Ebony Jade asked her mother to help her write on the small, smooth wooden block. A block which would be glued on to The Freedom House located at the J.R. Clifford Youth Discovery Tent.

Here’s a sidebar on one of the panels:

HARPERS FERRY — The Rev. Walter Fauntroy steadily fanned Juanita Abernathy as she spoke of little-known efforts by women that pre-dated the well-known history of the civil rights movement.

Abernathy said the scene during a panel discussion that was part of the Niagara Movement Centennial Commemoration in Harpers Ferry Saturday played out differently than it would have in the heyday of the civil rights movement.

Back then, black men spoke out for freedom, and the women served up the refreshments, Abernathy said.

The audience twittered with surprise when Abernathy told them local black women were negotiating with bus drivers well before Rosa Park’s defiance sparked the Montgomery bus boycott.

She continued later, “We opened doors, and we marched 381 days. There were women who had been pressing for civil rights before Martin Luther King came along. That was a time when a meeting started and the women were told to get the cookies or pour the coffee. It was a man’s world.”

Turning to more modern day concerns, Abernathy blasted religious leaders for leading voters astray during the last national election to the applause of the audience gathered on the campus of Storer College.

And here’s a story on who else showed up:

HARPERS FERRY — The audience barely missed a beat when about 20 members of the Ku Klux Klan showed up at the beginning of a Niagara Movement Centennial Commemoration event in Harpers Ferry Saturday afternoon.

Children, who were among the nearly 2,000 people of various races waiting to hear a panel discussion on racial issues, gawked in confusion. Most apparently knew little about the group.

“Could they bomb us here, mama,” asked one boy.

“Yes,” was the answer, and the boy looked mystified.

The adults, who remembered when the KKK wore white robes and hoods and terrorized blacks and others, seemed to stiffen as the black-clad group took their seats to the rear of the tent. Klan members were wearing an alternate uniform Saturday, consisting primarily of black clothing and Nazi regalia.

Another boy sized up the black jeans, T-shirts and red emblems the men, women and teenagers wore.

“Aw, we could take them, couldn’t we,” he said.

The crowd laughed and turned their attention to the stage as six black barrier breakers shared stories of overcoming racism and offered words of advice.

snip

Panelists included the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, the first District of Columbia delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives; Monte Irvin, a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame who was among the earliest black players in Major League Baseball; Eddie Henderson, the first black to compete in the National Figure Skating Championships; Cheryl White, the first black female professional jockey and Joseph Wilder, a musician who helped to integrate Broadway.

The KKK members left the panel discussion after Juanita Abernathy, widow of civil rights leader the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, spoke to the audience about the importance of education and responsible voting.

Their exit, under escort by several federal police officers as was their entrance, went unnoticed by most of the audience.

In all seriousness, the 20 probably represented their entire numbers. And my guess is nearly all of them came from Maryland, where they occasionally hold marches and cross burnings in Washington and Frederick counties.

The Rev. Otis James, who I’ve met and walked with during an MLK Jr. Day event, summed it up well:

“This is America, and this is an open event for this town, this state and the nation at large,” said the Rev. Otis C. James of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Charles Town following the panel discussion.” They have a right to come here as long as they are peaceful and non-destructive. I hope — I pray — that they leave having learned something from this discussion.”

But truthfully,” he added. “I don’t think they learned anything from what took place today, or enlarged their insight on humanity.”

There are so many bad votes by Republican Rubber Stamp Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, the largest recipient of crooked Tom Delay’s lobbyist money, that I’m surprised the West Virginia Democratic Party were able to narrow the list down to her 10 worst.
They’re listed on the jump along with a way to replace her in Congress with a great candidate who’ll work for the people of the United States instead of being a Rubber Stamp for George W. Bush.

1. Voted against a motion to the FY 2007 Department of Defense Authorization bill that would have ended the Military Families Tax (HR 5122, Vote #144, 5/11/06).

When she says she supports the troops, she doesn’t mean it.

2. Voted for George W. Bush’s first tax cut measure that amounted to a $958 billion tax cut that gave the majority of the benefits to the wealthiest Americans— 44.3% going to the wealthiest 1% (HR 3, Vote #45, 3/8/01.

She looks out for her fat cat friends in the corporate interests. I guess that’s why Don Blankenship, who would mine his own mother’s grave if money were to be made off it, is supporting her and why she supported an administration that fought cut mine safety inspections up to the Sago mine collapsed.

3. Voted for budget bill that would permanently eliminates the Estate Tax set to expire in 2010 which is estimated to cost nearly $1 trillion in revenue between 2012 and 2021— a tax that effect only the most wealthy Americans and exempts 99% of estates (HR 8, Vote 102, 4/12/05).

Imagine the tax cut that the middle class and poor folk could have received if this tax had not been eliminated. She’s willing to let the federal tax burden be carried by everyone else so the rich can get richer and the rest of us get poorer

4. Voted for a budget conference report that cut veterans health care by $13.5 billion over 5 years (HCR 95, Vote #149, 4/28/05)

Despicable. Just plain despicable. At a time when she can support the most corrupt administration which shells out billions to Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton — much of which isn’t properly accounted for — she cuts funding to help those injured and maimed in war.

5. Voted for a budget resolution that proposed cuts of $92 billion from Medicaid, $14 billion in veterans’ programs, $2 billion in student loans, $6 billion in child nutrition programs and $7 billion in assistance to farmers over the next decade in order to help fund tax cuts favoring the wealthy (HCR 95, Vote #82, 3/21/03)

These are programs that are used by ordinary West Virginians. To me it shows Shelley Moore Capito does not like ordinary folk. I guess only rich folk get support from her.

6. Voted against a measure to require company executives to personally certify the accuracy of corporate financial statements and would have enabled the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to punish executives for falsifying their statements (HR 3763, Vote # 108, 4/24/02)

After Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals, this should have been an easy decision for her. Once again, the corrupt are supported by Shelley Moore Capito. When they contribute to her campaign, she’s got to give them what they want in the corrupt Republican controlled Congress.

7. Voted against amendments in a budget bill to increase funding for state and local law enforcement and community policing and to restore $286 million to cuts made to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants which are a primary source for law enforcement to combat the production of methamphetamines (HR 2862, Vote ## 244 and 245, 6/14/05)

Of course Republicans are cutting law enforcement funds. They don’t care about catching crooks. AFter all, they’re busy stealing America blind.

8. Voted against a proposal to make it illegal during an energy emergency to sell crude oil, gasoline and petroleum at unconscionable levels (HR3402, Vote 500, 7/28/05)

She’s got to support price gouging when she’s in Tom Delay’s pocket.

9. Voted to delay implementation of a new rule to reduce the allowable levels of arsenic in drinking water (from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion) (HR 2620, Vote # 288, 7/27/01)

This is just plain sad for America. I’m not sure how she sleeps at night.

10. Voted against a motion that would allow the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors and would ease requirements for importation pf lower priced drugs from Canada and instead voted for the Republican Medicare prescription drug bill that gives billions of dollars in subsidies to the health care industry, increases premiums and deductibles to seniors and produces a gap in coverage (HR 1, Vote ## 668 and 6691/21/03. 1/22/03)

Corporate payback for contributions.

So what can you do to oust someone this awful from Congress?

You can support Democratic candidate Mike Callaghan. He will be holding a community discussion in Berkeley County at 3:30 pm Tuesday at his headquarters at 123 South Queen St., Martinsburg.  Unlike Capito, who closed off events to the public following criticism of her support of President Bush’s privatization of Social Security, Callaghan wants to hear what people think about the war, Medicaid, education, policing. A rally will follow at the headquarters at 5:15 p.m.

Visit Mike’s web site for more information or to contribute to his campaign.

Other diaries on the race:

The most important Lamont-Lieberman diary you’ll read tonight

My kind of candidate

21 candidates tied to Abramoff

WV-02 Followup to the Bush fundraiser that cost taxpayers

The Bush affair

Capito and the Have Mores

Protest of Bush’s fund raiser for Capito

Here in wild and wonderful Connecticut, I am eager to see Ned Lamont defeat a Bush-loving, rubber stamping Joe Lieberman.

Ned, as you may know, was a federal prosecutor for nine years and Connecticut Department of the Environmental Protection Secretary. He’s taken on the corporate millionaires eager to exploit Connecticut’s workers and resources. The same coal mine operator that would “mine his mother’s grave if there was money to be made” is pumping in tons of resources to defeat Connecticut’s Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont.

You can check out Ned’s positions on the issues.

You can ignore what Lieberman is doing in Connecticut or you can help Ned so we can take back Congress in 2006 because every race counts.

Don’t trust me? Here’s what other people say about Ned:

Justin Williams, Buckhannon – “I like Ned because he is very genuine and he connects well with people. Ned should be elected because he works very hard for the people and he can help get this country on the right track.”

Joyce Creel, Cottageville – “I like Ned because he is inline with labor issues and he believes in the issues that affect working families. His positions on healthcare and education are what we need for this state. We need a change, and Ned is a great leader to help get us that change.”

Jane Yearout, Martinsburg (and one of my canvassing partners) – “I like Ned because he listens, he’s smart, and most of all, he puts his fellow Nutmeggers first.”

Robin Truax, 2005-2006 Berkeley County Teacher of the Year, Martinsburg – “I like Ned because he believes in the strength of the child/teacher relationship. He recognizes that No Child Left Behind was a failed policy, and will work to enact legislation that will actually help our schools. Better pay to keep the quality teachers here in our state is an important issue, and I know Ned will work to make that happen.”

Eloise Jack, South Charleston – “I like Ned because he will defend our Constitutional rights. At the same time, he will not tolerate the corruption going on in Washington among the leadership. He will defend our national security without compromising our personal freedoms.”

Patrick Bartram, Disabled Veteran, Charleston – “I like Ned because he wants to actually do something about the war. It’s time to quit making more disabled veterans.”

Rhonda Golden, Martinsburg – “As a Republican, I like Mike because of his integrity and approachability. Mike is fair and his genuine concern lies with the people of West Virginia. He is a strong believer in national security, and I think his belief that every man, woman, and child should access to quality and affordable healthcare is important to the future of our state.”

Mike Bright, Sheriff & Vietnam Veteran, Ripley – “I like Ned because he is an outstanding person with integrity beyond reproach. I’ve known Ned since he was in the U.S. Attorneys Office, and have been in court and trials with him. He is the most capable and intelligent attorney I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with a lot of them. He will do an excellent job as our Congressman.”

So won’t you join me and my fellow Nutmeggers in supporting Ned Lamont for Congress in 2006? We need your help to win this race.

An earlier version was posted at skippy and Panhandle (WV) Grassroots for Democracy

The other day I received a message from Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito saying she should be re-elected since she’s an “independent voice” in Congress.

The thing is, she can’t run from her record of being a Rubber Stamp Republican. She’s not just one of the largest recipients of the corrupt Tom Delay’s campaign contributions, she was at the very top of the list. And now she has President Bush fundraising for her.

How independent from Bush’s failures do you think she can be when he’s campaigning for her?

She’s been nothing but a Rubber Stamp Republican who has provided no oversight of the run-amuk corruption and incompetence of the Republican leadership and this administration. She’s earned an F when it comes to protecting the middle class. Indeed, she’s benefited by it, receiving campaign contribution after campaign contribution from Delay and from corporations eager to profit off the Iraq War at the expense of our soldiers and eager to see the elimination of worker safety regulations and inspections. From the invasion of Iraq to lack of oversight of federal mining inspections before the Sago Mine Disaster, she’s been with the administration in lock-step all the way.

From the Charleston Gazette:

President George W. Bush spent a few hours in Charleston Wednesday afternoon, raising money for a political ally at a private fundraiser and getting jeered by opponents of the war in Iraq.

Air Force One touched down at Yeager Airport at 4 p.m. Bush and U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., got off the plane and were first greeted by Gen. Allen Tackett, head of the state’s National Guard.

Republican officials said about 275 people attended the fundraiser, which raised an estimated $500,000 for Capito. Many paid the maximum of $2,100 per person. She is seeking a fourth two-year term in a race against Democrat Mike Callaghan.

snip

Callaghan, Capito’s opponent, said Bush’s visit shows Capito’s vulnerability this November and her solidarity with the Bush administration’s failed policies. He held his own fundraiser Wednesday evening, asking $21 per person for dinner, or 1 percent of the maximum allowable donation.

“The Callaghan campaign is about changing the direction of this country, which includes pushing the administration to find a way to end the war in Iraq, pushing the administration into providing health care for every man, woman and child, and pushing the administration into making prescription medication affordable to our seniors,” he said.

If we really want an independent voice who’ll fight for the working people of West Virginia and not just for the wealthy people outside of the state, we need Mike Callaghan in Congress.

I’ve met Mike Callaghan twice at local events. He’s the real deal who’ll be able to talk to regular West Virginians. He grew up fishing in the stream in his front yard and hunting for deer in the woods behind the back yard. Religion is important to the people of West Virginia. Callaghan is a long-time member of the same church as Capito and even was her son’s mentor at the church.

He was chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party — which still has Democratic control with the Governor, the majority in the Statehouse, and nearly every statewide office in the state.

So what are his positions?

Ethics

Mike Callaghan is tough on criminals and strong on ethics.  As a former federal prosecutor, Mike Callaghan will fight to end the culture of corruption in Washington, and he will put our hard-working families ahead of big money, big business and big influence. The days of Enron rip-offs, no-bid contracts and lobbying scandals will be over when Mike Callaghan is in Congress.  He will not hesitate to use his power as a Congressman to call for accountability from those who violate the law and trust of our country, especially those who are elected to serve the people.  He will not be led astray by lies from Republican leaders, and he will demand justice for the American people just as he did as a prosecutor.

Ethics. Now there’s an idea. What won’t Shelley Moore Capito (more Corrupto, I say) sell out when it comes to protecting our soldiers, our workers and our country? Look for yourself here.

War in Iraq

Mike Callaghan will defend our country in its fight against terrorism.  Mike will never take a back seat to the Republicans in defending this country.  He will demand swift action and hold our leaders accountable.

Mike believes we need to work towards a quick resolution in Iraq that includes a detailed withdrawl plan.  We pray for and honor our men and women who have admirably served our country.  Our top priority should be creating and executing a solid plan of action to bring families home.  The best way to ensure an end to this war is to elect Democrats to Congress.

The highlighted portion is key to me and has swung me from lukewarm to strong support.

When I met Mike Callaghan the first time early in his campaign, I asked straight out his position on Murtha’s plan of pulling out of Iraq. He was not strong as a supporter of withdrawal as I was. If I recall, he was not ready to commit to the plan then. And that was what I wanted. But Callaghan reached out to those of us supporting his anti-war primary opponent here in the Eastern Panhandle immediately after he won the nomination. He listened to them (I was unable to attend that meeting, but I heard good feedback from those who had). Callaghan is not somebody who waited for the party leadership to tell him how to stand on an issue. He listened to the people. He learned and studied.

He’s a judicious man and that came across in my meetings with him. And I confess, I personally wanted more of a firebrand. But I recognized that what I personally want and what is best for my Congressional District and for winning that seat in Congress and maybe even in healing the deeply partisan divisions in the country are not always the same thing. I want an attack dog, but deep inside I know a judicious man is needed more than that.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got the sense he can be as dogged in his pursuit of what is right as much as an other federal prosecutor we admire. And if the Democrats win a majority and hold long overdue oversight hearing and investigations, a former federal prosecutor who went after coal mine owners with hearts of coal would be extremely useful as a representative.

National Security

Mike Callaghan is strong on national security and will never take a back seat to Republicans when it comes to defending this country.

Mike opposes the Bush/Capito unlimited spying and wiretapping program. Protecting our country and protecting the rights of our citizens are both cornerstones to our democracy. Mike believes that not even the President is above the law and he will hold everyone who violates our rule of law accountable.

Mike grew up in a small West Virginia town where it was safe at home, safe at work and safe in his community. He understands these are the values important to West Virginians. He will work tirelessly to make every American safe at home, work and in their community.

That’s what I’m talking about. He knows the value of law and the important of protecting liberty and he knows people want to be safe. And he recognizes those things are not incompatible with each other.

You can read more about his positions here.

This seat is highly winnable. Capito is a candidate who should be ousted for her overly close ties to Delay and Bush.

Even if she wasn’t one of the worst in the House of Representatives (and she is) at representing regular folk, Callaghan would still be deserving of our strong support because of his intelligence, background and positions. He’s not just an anti-Capito choice.

His positions are good positions and just the type of person needed to make the United States government of the people, by the people and for the people.

If you think Mike Callaghan is worthy of support like I do, you can contribute to his campaign here.

From the White House press briefing July 27:

Q In terms of world opinion, you keep saying the “what if” game, if it seems as though the strategy is to isolate Hezbollah. Is there a risk with the United States and Israel gets isolated in terms of world opinion by not saying, let’s cut the shooting now, cut the rockets now, and work it out? I hear what you’re saying about —

MR. SNOW: Let me counterpose.    There’s an even greater danger that if the U.S. looks ineffective in doing this, that you not only have a loss in terms of world opinion, but credibility.  And you cannot — we’ve said it many times, you cannot run foreign policy on the basis of public opinion polls.    Quite often there are perceptions that people may get from fractional coverage of the situation that don’t expose the real realities on the ground.    We are in very constant consultation with people in the region to try to find out exactly what the facts are.

From The New York Times:

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.

Listen. Some where at this moment in Israel or Lebanon or Iraq, a father like me is wailing in agony because his child is dead from an explosion or gun shot.

With each birth of my daughters I thought my heart would swell and explode through my chest because I was so filled with so much love and happiness by their arrival.  I love my life, but if I ever had to trade it to keep one of them safe from harm, I would make that bargain with a glad heart for I love them so.

And some where in Lebanon or Israel or Iraq, a father who felt the same way about one of his children is holding a still-form. No torment in hell holds worse suffering.

Listen. Close your eyes and listen. You can hear his screams even here on the other side of the world.

The world should stop spinning in orbit to hear such a tormented soul’s cry of despair.

Dear Lord, people are dead because the president failed to listen. Children are dead. They cannot listen. They cannot hear their father’s cries. They cannot hear their mother’s desperate screams to come back to them. They cannot hear their brothers and sisters calling out their names.

Listen. Diplomacy begins with listening to each other. George W. Bush just wants to speak and have people follow his orders rather than listen.

Listening never killed anybody.

He did not listen to those who warned of the dangers of invading Iraq.

He did not listen to the screams of the tortured.

No, he believes he can govern by photo ops. They do not require him to listen.

So when Bush’s spokesman speaks of a “greater danger,” what danger is he speaking of? There is no danger in asking people to stop killing each other and to sit down and listen. What is more dangerous than the bombs dropping and the gun shots flying? Snow claims that the administration is in consultation with people, but certainly the Lebanese people will no longer listen to us. They are going to listen to Hezbollah for standing up to those that sent the bombs that were dropped on them.

The same is true for the Israelis and the Iraqis. They are not going to want to listen to those that shipped death and destruction their way.

And so the world trembles at the anguish of the fathers and mothers with their children dead. You can hear them, but Bush cannot. He does not listen.

Listen.

Crossposted at Political Cortex, skippy, and my blog, The Mystery of the Haunted Vampire.

Asked to explain the differences between the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Hamdan and President George W. Bush’s description of the case, the U.S. Department of Justice’s head of the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Bradbury told the Senate Judiciary Committee: “The President is always right.”

In decision after decision, we have seen that this was not a lone statement from a sychophant. Remember, George W. Bush could not think of any mistakes he had made despite failing to prevent the worst attack to the United States in modern history. “The President is always right” is a view  held by George W. Bush himself.

On a spring afternoon in May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal was anything but equal.

“We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate ­but­ equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

But the schools did not become desegregated overnight. When the Little Rock Nine enrolled and were scheduled to attend school in September 1957. It prompted one of the most dramatic moments in U.S. history.

When Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School to keep the nine students from entering the school, President Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to insure the safety of the “Little Rock Nine” and that the rulings of the Supreme Court were upheld.

What is often forgotten, but important to remember today, President Dwight Eisenhower had opposed desegregation. Before the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Topeka, Eisenhower had appealed personally to Chief Justice Earl Warren. He invited him to the White House to meet with segregationists in an attempt to persuade Warren to maintain “separate but equal” as the law of the land.

President Eisenhower, who later described the appointment of Earl Warren as chief justice as the worst decision he had ever made, was not as jubilant. At a White House dinner, he told Warren, “[Southern whites] are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.” Eisenhower added, “It is difficult through law and through force to change a man’s heart.”4 His heart, however, seemed to be with the opponents of integration.

One can say many things about President Eisenhower’s personal views on racial inequality.

But when the time came, he set aside his own desires. He sent the federal troops in to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision.

Eisenhower knew the president is not always right. And that alone makes him a better human than George W. Bush will ever be.

The Grit

Karl Rove: “The Internet for the Left of the Democratic Party has served as a way to mobilize hate and anger — hate and anger, first and foremost, at this President and Conservatives, but then also at people within their own party whom they consider to be less than completely loyal to this very narrow, very out-of-the-mainstream, very far Left-wing ideology that they tend to represent.”

Serenity

Dr. Mathias: [referring to Dr. Simon Tam who has just helped his sister, River Tam, escape] “Gave up a brilliant future in medicine as well. It’s madness.”
The Operative: “Madness?”
[Ambles over to the holographic projection of River and Simon escaping through an air vent]
The Operative: “Have you looked at this scan carefully, Doctor? At his face? It’s love, in point of fact. Something a good deal more dangerous.”

1 Corinthians

13 But now faith, hope, and love remain-these three. The greatest of these is love.

Dear Mr. Rove,

You recently described the blogs on the left as mobilized over “hate and anger.”

I know you didn’t mean it. It is just another of your Orwellian lies. But in case anyone on your side politically believes you, I thought I should explain the difference between love and hate.

Hate is telling someone who they can and cannot love and hold, in sickness and health and for better or worse.

Hate is accusing widows that they were happy when their husbands died in the attacks that your boss failed to take action to prevent despite numerous warnings he had received.

Hate is comparing the murder, rape, torture and degradation of fellow human beings as no different than a fraternity hazing.

Hate is lying to the nation in order to lead the people into an unjust and unnecessary war.

That is hate.

You see, I’m angry because I do love my country. I love her Constitution. I love her people in all their glorious variety.

If I did not love, I would not struggle so hard to stop you. I would simply walk away. I would be apathetic. I would surrender.

But I love.

I love my ability to speak my mind. I love my privacy. I love my daughters so I want them to be treated fairly and equally. I love peace. I love my friends. I love the truth. I love scientific discovery.

You fight for the things you hold dear: your brothers in arms; your family; your nation; your liberty.

You mistake us, sir. We do not hate. We love. And that should frighten you.

Apparently I am one of the “forces of hell.” This might or might not come as a surprise to those in my Sunday school class. And it certainly won’t shock readers of my blog.

Nevertheless, it took James Dobson to out me as one of the “forces of hell.”

On Tuesday, during his daily radio show, Family News in Focus, Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson said: “…as you all very well know, marriage is under vicious attack now, I think from the forces of hell itself. And it’s either going to continue to decline, and as I told you in my office a few minutes ago, I believe with that destruction of marriage will come the decline of Western civilization itself….We’re really in a crisis point, right now, right now…where the family is either going to survive or it’s going to fall apart and it will happen in the next few years….” In the past, Dobson has said same-sex marriage will destroy the U.S., destroy the earth, and is more important than the war on terror. He also has compared marriage equality advocates to Hitler and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

I blame DCDemocrat for making me part of Dobson’s “forces of hell.”

I always thought of myself as being open-minded about  equal rights for gays.

I didn’t know anyone who was gay until I was 17 when one of my best friends told me he had to talk to me. I was terribly worried because I had seen him hanging out with my favorite girlfriend and I was certain he was going to tell me he was going out with her. He was very serious and stammered and couldn’t get to the point. I finally cut him off and asked him point blank about my suspicions.

He began laughing. “No, I’m gay,” he said.

I felt relief. His coming out as gay to me I could deal with. His going out with my favorite girlfriend would have ended our friendship.

What James Dobson fails to see is that whether someone is gay or not gay doesn’t affect us. Tony didn’t change me. His relationship with his boyfriends didn’t change my relationship with others.

Tony, by the way, was deeply religious. I was the agnostic/atheist in high school.

I saw how difficult it was for Tony to tell me he was gay.  And I empathized deeply with him. He was a good friend, but like all of my high school friendships I lost track of him over the years due to distances and time.

But Tony is part of why I’m in Dobson’s “forces of Hell.”

Flash forward 10 years.

I was between marriages living in a beautiful  two-bedroom apartment on the top floor of an old mansion converted into an apartment building. A great place. My roommate took a job elsewhere so I had to find another roommate. A paramedic I knew told me his boyfriend was looking for a place to live. I worried about Scott’s age (he was 19). I didn’t worry about his sexuality. We had a few simple rules. Rule No. 1, the most important rule of the apartment was this:

If you drink the last of the Kool-Aid, you had to make another pitcher.

This rule could not be violated. Both of us skirted this rule terribly though, leaving just enough Kool-Aid at the bottom to pretend the pitcher was not empty. One time he was so worried about not violating the rule that he used packets of raw sugar to make the Kool-Aid because we were out of regular sugar.

The other rule was no one was allowed to have sex in the living room. He didn’t want to see me getting it on with the revolving door of women I dated at the time any more than I wanted to see him getting it on.

And that was it. We hung out watching programs about autopsies on The Learning Channel and playing Scrabble with friends. Scott stole cookies from his job as a waiter at a restaurant and we lived well together.

So Scott is part of the reason why I’m in Dobson’s forces of Hell.

Flash forward to the summer of 2004.

I volunteered at the Kerry-Edwards campaign in Martinsburg, W.Va. One of the first volunteers I met was a tall, well-spoken man from Washington, D.C., who had come out to the county to protest a visit by Bush once and ended up returning often to help volunteer for the campaign.

We got talking about different things and we learned we both posted on DailyKos. After he met me, DCDemocrat uprated a couple of my comments to salvage them from the hidden comments and a friendship was borne.

DCDemocrat worked his ass off for Democrats in a county 90 minutes away from where he lived.  He shouted himself hoarse on waves and he wore his fingers to the bone on phonebanks.

DCDemocrat, out of a feeling of necessity, had kept his sexuality private while working in the Republican-dominated Berkeley County. The bigots were pushing gays as a boogeyman to fear.

Until then, I had always been a silent supporter of equality for gays. I made a promise  I would be silent no longer on the issue.

Here’s some other diaries I’ve written on equal rights for gays and on gay-issues.

WV Dem blocks anti-gay issue

Fred Phelps: West Virginia ‘By Far the Worst’ WhooHoo! Take that San Fransico

A win for gay equality

Radical homosexuals seek to destroy me

Look to Montana for gay equality

and my favorite:

God bless gay-bashing Rev. Fred Phelps which might offer a lesson to the conservatives supporting George W. Bush’s faux marriage amendment.

When the bigots go after the Tonys, Scotts, and DCDemocrats of the world, they’ve unleashed the forces of hell all right. Except they’re the ones who are doing the Devil’s own work.

Cross posted at skippy the bush kangaroo and Political Cortex.

Via James Wolcott, comes this wailing lament for George W. Bush.

Perhaps I am a dim bulb, but President Bush has never surprised me, and that is probably why I have never felt let down or “betrayed” by him. He is, in essentials, precisely who he has ever been. He did not surprise me when he managed, in August of 2001, to find a morally workable solution in the matter of Embryonic Stem Cells. He did not surprise me when, a month later, he stood on a pile of rubble and lifted a broken city from its knees. When my NYFD friends told me of the enormous consolation and strength he brought to his meetings with grieving families, I was not surprised.

I am feeling agreeable so to The Anchoress, I’ll say, yes, perhaps you are a dim bulb.

This is the Bush Apologist at her purest. The praising of Bush for his response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when what anyone with the ability to think critically would recognize as one of the greatest failures ever by a president.

There’s the standard misrepresentation by the conservatives too…

There were no surprises when he went after an Iraq which everyone believed had WMD…

As Wolcott points out, The Anchoress writes like Peggy Noonan at her most shrill although even Noonan has shown an inclination of late to throw Bush under the bus. She at least recognizes Bush is an anchor to sink the conservative movement whereas The Anchoress just can’t seem to understand that if everyone is running away from George W. Bush, it is because he is a monster and not the hero she wishes him to be.

But what really shows how dishonest or insufferably unobservant The Anchoress to be was this:

When my NYFD friends told me…

Would anyone who really has friends on the Fire Department write “NYFD?” I’ve only visited New York twice in my life. Once on my honeymoon and once after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when the New York Times wrote an editorial pleading for tourists to return to the city to save the city’s economy. I passed by many fire stations on that grim day caused by Bush’s inattention to the numerous warnings given to him of an impending attack. (Just as he ignored the Hurricane Katrina warnings later.)

And I know this. Anchoress, it is FDNY. This is a long standing point of pride with the firefighters and EMS workers. It is not the kind of mistake anyone who really has friends on the FDNY would ever make.

The Anchoress is not attached to reality in believing the American public failed Bush and not the other way around. Nor is she much attached to telling the truth. And those explain why she is able to be a proud supporter of George W. Bush.