Soapbox

It’s a good thing I have this blog to post letters on, because it seem like the Dispatch has me blocked. Ouch. Maybe I hit a nerve? Or maybe I’m just getting boring.
Here is my latest letter that they didn’t want to even read.

Thank goodness the United States senate is doing important things for America! No, they can’t manage to provide decent leave time for war-weary American soldiers (Republicans said this would be damaging to the troops!) and they can’t even stand up to restore to all citizens the most fundamental of human rights, habeas corpus (something the Dispatch didn’t even think was important enough to mention!). Nor did they make headway yet on providing health care for more uninsured children,  stopping graft and fraud in Iraq war spending,  do anything to repair our hemorrhaging economy, or even consider reasonable ways to end this war.

But don’t be fooled into thinking this congress does nothing! Yesterday the senate voted to condemn MoveOn.org… for an ad they didn’t like!!  Yes, these zealous defenders of the American dream put all other tasks aside and cast that all-important vote in condemnation of a political opinion they didn’t share.
Because isn’t that what American democracy stands for: trying to silence people you don’t agree with? Apparently free speech, like habeas corpus, scientific accuracy and transparency in government before it, is being tossed under the bus of 21st century political stupidity.

Way to go, senate! Who needs terrorists when you guys are out there taking away our rights for us?

I didn’t see it that day, or I’d have been all dandered up a few days ago. But this damn cartoon in the Columbus Dispatch made national media, it was so bad. It was a map of the middle east with a big drain like a shower floor labeled "Iran" with hundreds of cockroaches scurrying into it.

OK, I wax a little melodramatic here, but I thought the subject called for it.
Welcome to America, the home of the brave.

Editor

When the Rwandan genocide reared its ugly head and the waters of that nation ran red for months, the voices of evil that whispered and shouted from the radio urged their fellow Hutus to "kill the Cockroaches!" And so encouraged, relieved of guilt because what they exterminated was, after all, less than human- they slaughtered their own friends and neighbors by the thousands. They dragged them out of their beds, out of their schools and churches, and they hacked them to bits, because they were cockroaches.

Here in civilized America we shuddered at the news, called it "barbaric" and wondered how people could be like that? How backward that Rwanda must be!

And this week the Columbus Dispatch printed a cartoon which whispered that Americans should think of Iran not as a nation whose government we have serious differences with, not as a people who might also be suffering under a war-mongering leader who does not listen to their wishes- but as cockroaches. Vermin, scurrying into the darkness.

And when the rivers of the middle east run red, will you have a cartoon about that too?

Well I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. President Bush says that poor Alberto Gonzales resigned because of "mud slinging."

Yes, that’s the new term for asking someone to tell the truth, if that someone is a member of the Bush administration. And trying to find out the truth anyway when the Bush flunky refuses to answer questions, ignores lawful subpoenas and Freedom of Information act requests: why that’s called a witch hunt. Just ask Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly and the president’s other designated mouthpieces- they’ll be telling us this all week. It was all nothing but a witch hunt!

Forget the late night verbal assault on ailing A.G. Ashcroft in his hospital bed and subsequent lies about it. Forget attempts to pressure United States Attorneys into filing lawsuits for purely political reasons and subsequent lies about it. Forget the ever-shifting stories about warrantless spying on Americans, blatantly ignoring the U. S. Constitution when one sees fit, the justification of torture, and letting Karl Rove and the White House virtually run the justice department. Forget about all of it! That’s what you must do, if you swallow Bush’s manure about "mudslinging" and "witch hunts."

Some of us, however, will not forget, though we know we will be called "partisan hacks" for it. We know we will be accused of hating America, of being rabid liberals and wanting terrorists to win (and probably of hating Jesus, just for good measure) for thinking that the rule of law is more important than the rule of Bush.

But we won’t forget any of it. Because we want our country back, and we’re just crazy enough to think that if we keep looking for the truth, we might one day find it, buried under all that manure.

6/14/07

    I am writing in response to Thursday’s letter "Creation Museum doesn’t Stray from Facts". I have not seen the new creation museum myself, so I will not comment on that claim. The author of the letter does, however, stray from facts.
    I strongly disagree with the writer’s statement that the laws of thermodynamics can not be true if evolutionary theory is valid. I find no scientific evidence that  this statement is anything but the author’s personal opinion. Further, I was appalled at his misstatement of the second law of thermodynamics. The second law says that energy systems have a tendency to increase their entropy. It does NOT state that energy and matter are moving from order to disorder! However, it is worth noting that a lot of creationist literature does misrepresent the second law of thermodynamics in exactly that way.

    The writer claims a college degree in "a scientific field". Politeness prevents me from speculating what type of science he is referring to, but I suggest that, in the future, the writer try getting his scientific facts from an actual scientific source rather than from a religious webiste masquerading as science. I realize that our current government frowns upon too much truth in its science, but it does prevent ones foot from ending up wedged in ones mouth in print.

    I have only a degree in an "Arts field" myself, but a 30 second Google search was enough for even me to discover the truth about the subject. Of course, that assumes one is interested in discovering the truth.

I’ve been falling down on the job lately, I guess. Weeks, perhaps months have passed since I wrote an outraged letter to the newspaper reminding the American people of the assault de jour upon the constitution perpetrated by the Bush administration. Sorry, everybody.

When I woke up this morning and heard George Bush promising to fight to the death to keep his pals Harriet Miers and Karl Rove from having to speak to congress under oath (the way Valerie Plame just did) I guess I felt that old fire in my belly and managed to summon up a short rant for the lucky folks in the Dispatch editorial department.

Editor:

There he goes again.

With his administration caught telling 5 different stories in as many days, President Bush got on his high horse yesterday and said that calls for Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to appear before congress under oath are “partisan fishing expeditions”. Instead, he  says they may drop by for a chat – but only if they are not under oath and with absolutely no record or transcript  made of any word they utter.

I’m confused. How is asking a Republican to promise to tell the truth a witch hunt? Why is trying to restore public confidence in the impartiality of Department of Justice  “partisan”? And since when is holding Rove and Myers to the same standards of honesty as the rest of the country outrageous?

The president’s bluster and threats of a showdown with congress over a simple oath begs the question: what are Rove and Miers afraid of? Unless they plan to lie, why refuse to have them even speak on the record?

What is the point of Congress questioning Rove and Miers at all, if there is no expectation of honesty? The record of honesty from Bush appointees to date is abysmal. So-called “Loyal Bushies” seem to prevaricate, spin and outright lie as easily as they breathe. Given the gravity of the situation and the possibility that some U.S. attorneys were fired for putting loyalty to the constitution above loyalty to the president, there are questions that must be answered under conditions where loyalty to the truth is paramount.

The president and his attack dogs are fond of reminding us  that U.S. attorneys “serve at the pleasure of the President.” Perhaps someone needs to remind George Bush that he serves at the pleasure of the American people- and it is our pleasure to hear the truth for a change.