Soapbox

Because the Republican National Convention has started, last night I watched a show on the Discovery Times channel about reporters who were in Iraq when the invasion began last April. It was a very powerful and moving show, and one that I wish the woman from my writing class (who yelled at me about dead babies’ feet) could see. I made the right choice to watch it. The Iraq story only made me cry: the Republican Convention would have made me nauseous.

As expected, the speakers were all but wrapping themselves in the shrouds of the dead from September 11th. Rodolph Guiliani, former mayor of New York, gave a speech in which he described watching a man jump to his death from the 100th floor of the World Trade Center. As the man’s body hit the ground with an explosive impact, he told his rapt audience, he grabbed the sleeve of the Police Comissioner and said “Bernie, thank God George Bush is our President!”

Wow- that has to win some kind of an award for shameless exploitation of a tragic death! Nice job Rudy. You sank to a new personal low, exploiting your own citizens- for George Bush? I mean, it’s not as if our God-given President has actually done much for New York or the rest of the world to make sure that tragic day is never repeated!

“Anti-Americanism has a long and complex history. But most observers agree that the Bush administration’s bellicose and unilateralist foreign policy has greatly enflamed smoldering animosities and even managed to turn the United States into a universal hate object. …” ~Professer Stephen Holmes

But I admit that this is a matter of opinion, and not everyone shares mine: namely that the world is a more dangerous place since Bush started the war in Iraq.

A second common theme of the night (that would have set the back of my teeth swimming if I had heard it) was the refrain, repeated several times, “We did not seek this war”.

Excuse me? Yes, Mr. Bush, actually, you did. Sorry- this one is not just my opinion.

After 9/11, a lot of people who are much smarter than I feel that the war in Afghanistan had to happen. Of course, it did not have to happen in the lousy, cheap, half-assed way that you have conducted it, but it does seem an inevitable outgrowth of 9/11. Leaving aside the whole thorny issue of pre-9/11 intelligence failures, the Afghan war, to some extent, came looking for us.

But Iraq? Mr. President, you begged for that war! We now know that you planned for that war from the day you took office. (Don’t you think, with all that time to prepare, you should have done a better job?) You were willing to traitorously expose your own CIA agent Valerie Palme to keep that war on track, and willing to lie to the American people and to the world to keep your dirty little dream alive.

No, George W. Bush- you OWN the war in Iraq! It’s yours: destroyed schools, open sewers, maimed soldiers, violent insurgents, dead babies and all- it has YOUR name on it! In fact. I am going to start referring to this little conflict as “the Bush War” or maybe “WW- W” from now on, because I want your name to be forever connected with what has happened there. So don’t you get your sycophants to stand up there and claim that you did not seek this war, because that dog won’t hunt. Remember the “Pottery Barn” rule Colin Powell talked to you about before the whole thing started: you break it, you own it!

Speaking of war, that brings me to the last little bit of fun the Republicans had at the country’s expense. Seems the big thing last night at Madison Square Garden was to get one of the little “Purple Heart bandaids” they were passing out. This is, of course, in mockery of one of the Purple Hearts John Kerry won in Vietnam, which many Republicans take glee in informing us was for a mere scratch. Apparently his combat decorations don’t count any more because he wasn’t wounded badly enough.

Badly enough for whom? They were apparently bad enough for whatever committee awarded Purple Hearts.

No one could claim that John Kerry was horribly wounded in Vietnam, and I admit I get tired of hearing Democrats go on about the Purple Hearts he won. I don’t think that the fact that he served (honorably, according to his service record) in Vietnam automatically makes him a great candidate for president, and I wish I could say to both candidates, “yeah yeah, Vietnam was 35 years ago. What about today? What about tomorrow?

But doesn’t it set a nasty prescedent to publicly mock the Purple Heart won by anyone? These awards are given for wounds earned in combat, by members of the beloved “troops” that the Republicans all claim to support so wildly. They are not a thing that anyone, particularly someone who did not serve in the military, has any business denigrating.

But the Republican machine has no shame, and they showed that last night with their little bandaid stunt. Did it ever occur to them that they were, in effect, announcing open season on all war wounds with this joke?

Here’s a question for you, Mr. President: how much blood does a person have to spill in order to be wounded enough to count with your crowd?

Does one need at least 10 stitches?
100?
A lost limb?

This is a very important and timely question, because to date there have already been nearly 7,000 wounded in the Bush War. Tell me, Mr. President, when they come home in a wheelchair, will they all be respected as real, patriotic Americans for their sacrifice- or are some of their wounds not good enough for you?

First your administration cut the soldiers pay, then their health benefits, their housing, death benefits and even combat training for those about to go to combat, for Christ’s sake! Now you are letting your supporters cut their medals right out from under them.

During the Democratic convention, while plenty of charges were leveled at you, NO one called you a draft-dodger or a deserter, although many people think you are both. John Kerry quickly and decisively denounced a 527 ad questioning your military service because the Democrats, for all their faults, decided that this subject should not be fair game. I expect they are beginning to regret that decision. They should have leveled their guns at you and fired with both barrels.

Well, what’s your answer, sir? The eyes of the nation are upon you, Mr. Bush. Our sons are fighting in this war because YOU sent them there. Is the quality of their wounds now fair game any time they speak their minds? Do they have to sign a loyalty oath to keep you from turning your attack dogs lose on them as well? Is their blood not red enough for you, that blood which is on your hands?

You need to pull the plug on this stupid stunt, and do it quickly and unambiguously, not the way you responded to the Swift Boat vet ads. Because this little “joke” is not about John Kerry: it is about every wounded service man and woman in America.

Isincerely hope all the troops, past and present, are watching the RNC this week , so they can see how much their service and sacrifice means to the Bush administration, and can revel in all the “support” they have from the Republicans. Tell you what: you guys can clap and put little signs on your cars all you like, but this week, a bandaid is worth a thousand words.

I was just reading about a little girl in New Jersey with severe celiac sprue. Her body cannot digest the gluten found in wheat flour (among other sources) and when she ingests it, the gluten can cause illness, damage the lining of the intestine and lead to bone thinning and malnutrition. I had a very mild form of this when I was a baby, which I apparently outgrew, but not before my mother worried half to death about me.This child’s condition is apparently much more severe, and she reacts to the smallest amount of wheat.

For this reason, as she approached the occasion of her first Holy Communion, her mother requested that she be given a rice wafer instead of one made with wheat. The Catholic church, in all its wisdom and compassion, said “no”.

That’s right. This 8 year old must chose between a lifetime of getting ill every time she takes communion- or a lifetime without communion. Way to go, Pope!

The reason for this gracious and loving refusal to give a girl a communion that won’t make her vomit? The vatican has ruled that all communion bread or wafers must contain some wheat because the bread Jesus ate was wheat.

Is that not the most manure-laden foolishness you have ever heard? I guess critical thinking is NOT a skill they require in seminary.

The bread Jesus ate probably had bits of sand and bugs in it too: should we make that a requirement for our communion wafers? The diciples may not all have washed their hands- must we all forgo washing before church?
This reminds me of Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian” when Brian was running and lost his shoe. The his followers found it and some decided this meant that they too, must cast off their footwear and follow the shoe!

This willful blindness should, I suppose, come as no surprise from a demomination who only recently got around to saying “Oh by the way, turns out Gallileo was right about the whole revolving around the sun thing…our bad. Sorry about all the torture and burnings…” Still it is sad to see yet another example of how people can take what seems to have been a pretty straight-forward message from Jesus: “love God, love each other” and get it so screwed up!

After 2000 years of worship we are left with a child who wants to partake of the Lord’s table but cannot, because apparently, God can’t come into a chunk of Rice! He can come into wheat alright, but rice- no. Won’t work.

Not much of a God then, is he? I mean, really , couldn’t a real God bless a child through a rice wafer, and wouldn’t a loving God want to? Didn’t Jesus anger the pharises because he told people that all those rigid and confining rules of the Old Testament weren’t necessary?

The Catholic church used to insist that the bread truely turned into Jesus’ actual flesh at communion through the power of God. For them now to say that a rice wafer can’t possibly “commune” with God displays an appalling lack of imagination, and of faith.

It also demonstrates the utter failure by the church heirarchy to grasp the core principle behind communion: it’s about God, not about the bread. Bread is, after all, made by man, and the last supper wasn’t about food for the body.

Apparently the church also ruled this way in 2001 with another child who is unable to digest wheat, and her family left the church over it. Wow! Score two for the triumph of rigid adherance to meaningless orthodoxy over actual ministry to God’s children. And the Pope wonders why the numbers of U.S. catholics are declining!!

So when I ask myself that over-used but still relevent question, “What would Jesus do?” I keep coming up with the same answer: give the girl the rice and be happy that she wants to take communion! I mean, if the exact nature of the bread is that important, then you’ve missed the point. As far as I’m concerned, you can have a twizzler for communion, if you want to- it’s your heart that counts.

It’s a God thing, not a bread thing.

I found this man’s web site and plea for attention through Air American Radio. thought it was a telling example of the many ways Geroge Bush and John Ashcroft have made us all safer since 9/11.

On June 30, 2004 Penny McClurg responded to a letter she had received in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security. The letter requested her to report to Tampa International Airport Airside F. Penny made the necessary arrangements to have her children cared for, while she attended this appointment.

A Department of Homeland Security officer finally arrived and escorted her through to the secured airside F terminal and asked her to be seated in an office area. She was greeted by a Department of Homeland Security officer by the name of Mr. Guthier and told to remain seated. Approximately two hours went by before Mr. Guthier motioned her into his office. Inside his office he questioned her about a 1997 felony conviction that she had on her record. She acknowledge the felony conviction and informed him that she he had completed her sentence and probation for this incident.

Penny was sent back out to be seated again and waited another three hours. She had now been in the office approximately five hours.

Mr. Guthier finally came out of his office and informed her that she should report back the following morning at 9:00am. Penny reported back the following morning as instructed and this time remained in the seated office area. During this time officer Guthier told her that he was still waiting to get a hold of the person he had been trying to reach the previous day.

Approximately three hours went by before Mr. Guthier told Penny that he had some bad news for her and that she was officially being detained. Penny asked what that meant and officer Guthier informed her that she was basically being arrested and that everything would be explained to her when she arrived at her next destination. Penny asked where she was being taken and she was told by Guthier that he did not know and that someone else would tell her.

Penny did not in her wildest imagination realize that this appointment letter was going to result in her being arrested and perhaps never seeing her children again.
Continue Reading »

I keep seeing complaints in the newspaper from local conservatives upset that the “good news” about Iraq is not being covered.
Well here’s a little news for you that isn’t being covered either! And if you don’t think this has a direct realtionship to the kids who keep coming home in black bags, think again.
I condensed this for easier reading. To read the entire article go to http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20040830&s=parenti

Fables of the Reconstruction

by CHRISTIAN PARENTI

[from the August 30, 2004 issue]

As we speed down the Tigris River, Iraq almost seems like Vacationland–but only for a moment. Soon we’re dodging the half-submerged barges and ferries sunk in last year’s bombing. Then two Black Hawk helicopters dash low overhead, their menacing door gunners fully visible.

Farther on, there are more bad signs. A strange column of dark smoke rises from a lush palm grove. And suddenly, huge nauseating plumes of raw sewage spill from pipes at Baghdad’s southern edge.

Not far from these fetid torrents are several major water-intake stations and a handful of fishermen setting long gill nets from wooden boats. “Sometimes the fish tastes and smells like sewage,” explains one. Downriver, millions of people in cities like Basra draw their water from the Tigris.

The sorry state of this river is just one piece of Iraq’s failed reconstruction. Throughout the country, vital systems, from water and power to healthcare and education, are in woeful disrepair. The World Bank estimates that bringing Iraq back to its 1991 level of development will cost $55 billion and take at least four years.

In the past seventeen months, US taxpayers have set aside a total of $24 billion to rebuild Iraq. Most of that sum has not been spent, though billions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenues have been expended, or at least allocated to (mostly American) contractors. ( some with little or no accounting of where it went. Poof! Another million gone. Oops!)

Humanitarians see reconstruction as a moral obligation. From a military standpoint, reconstruction is central to the US counterinsurgency effort. The occupation’s star officers, like Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, readily acknowledge that a broken economy means more violence. But seen up close, reconstruction in Iraq looks less like a mission of mercy or security, and more like a criminal racket.

At the Rustimiyah South sewage-treatment plant, all is quiet except for a handful of Iraqi construction workers building a brick shed to house a new generator. This plant and its sister facility, Rustimiyah North, have been sitting dry–waiting for Bechtel, the largest US construction company and one of the lead contractors in occupied Iraq.

As soon as Baghdad fell, Bechtel was in Iraq making deals with USAID, the government agency tasked with overseeing reconstruction. In total, the firm now has more than $2.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction jobs. Its initial April 2003 contract stated:

“The contractor will commence repairs of water infrastructure in 10 urban areas within the first month. Within the first 6 months the contractor will repair or rehabilitate critical water treatment, pumping and distribution systems in 15 urban areas. Within 12 months potable water supply will be restored in all urban centers, by the end of the program approximately 45 urban water systems will be repaired and put in good operational condition, and environmentally sound solid waste disposal will be established.”

None of those deadlines have been met–but luckily Bechtel’s contracts are indemnified with loophole phrases like “depending on the availability of equipment.”

The Rustimiyah sewage plants are among the few facilities given explicit mention as priority projects in Bechtel’s contract-related documents. Together the two plants should handle all the sewage from Baghdad’s populous east side, known as Rusafa; before the war the plants were fully functional but working beyond capacity. During the invasion they were knocked out by fighting and were then further damaged by looting. The sister plants haven’t processed any sewage since April 2003.

Now their daily flow of 780,000 cubic yards of human and industrial waste–a nasty cocktail of organic solids, heavy metals and poisonous chemicals from light industry–goes directly into the Diyala River, which joins the Tigris seven miles southwest of the plants.

Rustimiyah South’s director is Riyidh Numan. Since Bechtel took over a year ago, his job has mostly consisted of sitting around and waiting for the foreign contractors to execute the repairs. Numan says the first thing Bechtel did when it showed up was to start painting buildings. He demanded that they stop and switch to repairing the plant’s primary functions. Since then work has been slow, and all Numan can do is complain to the Baghdad Sewage Authority, which in turn dispatches impotent letters to Bechtel.
Continue Reading »

Hello everyone. Thanks for coming.
My name is Tracy Meisky, and let me tell you a little about who I am and why I am here.

~ I am tired of being called a traitor for speaking my mind, so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe that too many kids are being left behind by our schools, like my nephew whose Head Start program just closed completely- so I”m voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in clean air for my children to breath and clean water to drink- so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in fiscal responsibility and I refuse to pass on a massive national debt to my grandchildren- so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in the United States Constitution- so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in equal rights and decent jobs with fair wages- so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in international friendship and co-operation, not belligerance and isolation. I believe in a government of both strength and sensitivity, of courage and wisdom, so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe in the power of the truth, and in open, honest government that doesn’t isolate itself from its own citizens- so I am voting for John Kerry.

~I believe that America can be a better place and can once again be a leader in the free world- so I am voting for John Kerry.

If you believe in these things too, please vote for John Kerry and Jon Edwards this November.

My proposed precinct captain speech.