Blogging For Kicks

I just have a short thought to write down today, not much, but it’s something that’s on my mind.

I just read that Bush is going to appoint Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. during the Congressional recess, effectively freezing them out of the whole thing until the next session opens next January, and there are a lot of people who are upset at this. However, I’m of a different opinion.

I’m thinking this just might be a good thing, and Democrats might want to just sit back and watch it all happen. I mean, what have they got to lose, right? If the guy turns out to be good at it, not the rude, raucus trouble maker they think he could be, it would be a good appointment. On the other hand, if he turns out to be exactly as they thought, and he gets the world even more upset with us than they are now, it will all be squarely on Bush’s head and will make great campaign fodder for 2006 and 2008. What a deal, right?

I could be looking at this wrong, but I can’t see why his appointment would be such a bad thing. I mean, like they say, when you’re handed lemons, make lemonade. That’s my thoughts on the matter, anyway.

Getting toward the Winter of My Life seems to bring more contemplation with it. More “Gee, I wish I’d done that”, and “Wow, why on earth did I do that?”, and it occurs more frequently. No more youthful “Fiddle dee dee, tomorrow’s another day” for me, no sir.

The reality that there aren’t that many tomorrow’s left may be the reason for my increasing introspection, coming to grips with my own mortality or something, but whatever the cause, I spend a lot of time looking backward and wishing forward.

I remember my childhood, when my brother, my friends, and I could go anywhere we wanted to without fear of never getting back home; When we could all hop in the car, drive to town and shop for hours, leaving our doors unlocked the whole time, and we never locked them at night, either; When I could take my 25 cents a week allowance and buy two comic books and a big candy bar or soda, and Mom complained about Levi’s that cost $1.50 a pair; Rent was $25 a month for two bedrooms and a yard big enough for a good sized garden, a huge tree just made for tire swings, and room to run around and play hide-and-seek all day; When people smiled and asked “How you doing?” when you met them on the street or in the store, even tho you’d never seen them before.

I remember when my biggest worry was whether boys would like me or not, not whether my world was going to end because someone I’d never met decided the people where I lived didn’t deserve to exist. Oh, there was the whole Atom Bomb thing, with the drills and all, but I truly felt I would be safe if I ducked under something, knelt down and made a ball of myself, and covered my head with my arms. I really did. Not until high school did it become clear that unless I could run clear across town to the only bomb shelter our town had I’d be dust no matter what I did.

As a child my world was limited only by how far I could walk before I got really, really tired and had to sit down and rest. Then, once rested, I turned and walked back home, knowing that no one I came across was going to hurt me. My parents never worried about anything happening, except when we lived in Los Angeles. Even when we moved to Long Beach, my brother and I could walk with the mailman on his route, or walk the four blocks to a friend’s house who lived right across the street from the beach, then spend the afternoon playing in the waves before heading back home. Heck, we walked about 12 blocks to get to school, so going to the beach was nothing. Now I’m afraid to let my grandson play in my front yard because having gone to a site on the Internet I found that there are at least three sex abusers in on our block, and those are the one’s they know of.

The point of this post is to put in writing what I’ve been thinking lately, so here goes. My perfect world would be at peace, first of all. Scientists would be working on cures for diseases, not new weapons to destroy more people faster. Churches would be full every Sunday, and bars would be empty until sundown. Sports would be about fun and sportsmanship (remember that word?), and spectators would root for their team but be courteous when the other team won. And the records set or broken would be because of the skill of the players, not the drugs they were taking. Food would be plentiful, safe, and affordable for everyone in any country, while cars would run on water, leaving no poison emissions. The air would be clean and so would the rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans, and you could eat the fish you caught without wondering what deadly chemical might be in it. People would really love their neighbors, all of them the world over, and would care about what happened to them. If anyone needed something we would all turn out to help, and not complain about doing so, or expect anything in return except their help if we were ever in need. Love would be an adventure again, not something to be afraid of, and there would be no need for abortions because there would be effective, safe birth control. All children would be born because they are wanted, and child abuse would be done away with. People would know how to love because they had been loved all their lives, and taught to love everyone else.

There would be no crime, therefore no prisons, and no need to argue whether killing someone who killed another person is right or wrong. Anyone who was hungry could eat, anyone who was ill could get treatment, and anyone who was lonely could drop in on a neighbor and be welcomed. Churches would do the job God created them for, telling the world about the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness, not sticking their noses into the political world in an attempt to force the world to live the way they want them to instead of waiting for God to do the work, as he’s promised he will. I mean, what do you think the words “Don’t worry about the things of this world, keep your mind on your heavenly reward”, or “You are to live as an alien in this world, knowing your citizenship is in Heaven” mean? Obviously not enough “Christians” have read those parts of the Bible.

Now, I realize this is a total fantasy, but wouldn’t it be nice? Wouldn’t you love raising your children in that world, knowing they would never be hurt, never get sick, or if they did they could get the cure? I’ll never see that day, I guess, but it can’t hurt to dream.

Seven Tour de France championships, more than any other person has ever done. I think about that and it sounds so amazing to me, like something only Superman could do. I mean, have you ever watched the race, especially over those mountains? It’s unbelievable to me that any human could do that, let alone love it so much that they would do it again and again and again.

These people have to love doing this race or they wouldn’t keep doing it year after year. Once would be enough - done, over, buh-bye! I know that’s what it would be for me, if I even had the nerve to try it once, which I doubt. I’ve never been a masochist, and that’s what I would have to be to get myself into a trip like that on a bicycle. No, love is the only reason anyone would do it more than once.

But the seven wins isn’t the most amazing part of the story, because while he was getting those seven wins, he also spent part of the time fighting cancer all over his body, and winning! Actually, I guess when you think about that you have to admit that the trip over those mountains was pretty much a cakewalk compared to the fight going on in his body and mind. The simple truth is, this is a man who looks at a challenge and says “Prove to me I can’t conquer you”, then doesn’t even wait for the answer before he starts attacking it. He thinks he can, and, like the famous Little Train, he does it. What an amazing story, and what a marvelous example he is to all of us - man, woman, and child. You need a hero to emulate? Look no further than Lance Armstrong, the man who owns the yellow shirt and always will. There will be others who have it for a while, but it will always belong to him.

We’ve all heard of the Red Badge Of Courage, but I propose the standard be changed to Yellow, because the courage he has shown is unequaled. Facing one of those challenges and prevailing? Yes, and God bless all who have managed to do that, they are all heroes, too. But facing both and triumphing so spectacularly over them - there may be others who have done something like it, but none that I know of, and none that have the opportunity to be the most visible beacon of hope for so many people the world over.

So once again let me say “Thanks for the memories, Lance”, and thanks for the inspirational way you’ve led your dual battles over the years, the way you’ve kept you humility and good humor, and the way you’ve instilled in all of us the knowledge that if we try our hardest we, too, can overcome any obstacle in our path. We may not all become household names the world over, but we can all learn to fight our battles wisely and uncompromisingly, giving ground to no one who want’s us to fail, and we can all conquer the things that scare us and challenge us the most if we follow your lead.

Good luck in the future with whatever you choose to do. I know you will succeed in whatever that is because you’ve already shown you can. God bless you, and just keep on climbing upward and onward. We will be right behind you.

Another day, another cover up. It’s amazing how a man who is at the scene of the crime in so many, many instances of leaked information, either truthful or not, isn’t it? Karl Rove is no new comer to the position of being outted as Chief Rumor Monger and CEO of Rumors, oh no. There was the dirt he threw at John McCain in South Carolina; Several instances of confidential information being put out about opponents of the person Rove was working for; A myriad of stories of back stabbing, etc, through the years; And last but not least, this little goody:

                     "In 1992, Mr. Rove was fired from the Texas campaign to re-elect
                the first President Bush because of suspicions that he had leaked 
                information to Mr. Novak about shortfalls in the Texas organization's
               fund-raising."    New York Times, 7/15/05

Isn’t that something? And don’t we wish Baby George had paid closer attention to the morals of Daddy George when it comes to having people around who play fast and loose with the truth, and even worse, confidential information. Daddy Bush fired the man. He didn’t need tons of proof, the taint of corruption was enough to make the man move to cut the cancer out of his campaign. Now, I don’t think he liked doing it, but he recognized he would have no moral leg to stand on in all his mudslinging against Bill Clinton if he allowed a sleeze like Rove to remain after something like that.

No, folks, what happens with Baby George is the muzzles go on, the heavy thinkers get together, and the parsing and stretching of truth begins, along with the finding of stooges to secretly leak the things they come up with, never mind an open investigation is in progress. No, this apple certainly landed no where near the tree, and if I had my guess I’d say that was deliberate on Daddy’s part. I mean, who’d want that kind of immorality and recklessness associated to closely them, even if it is their own child.

So, the sleaze continues, more people get tarred with their brush simply to keep the lying, big-mouthed, un-believable, and untrustworthy scumbag going. I mean, can you imagine the amount of things he knows about these people that they want kept quiet? And who’d want to take the chance someone with his proclivity for leaking such information getting mad at them? Just one more example of Republican hypocrisy at work, folks. Move on, there’s nothing to see here.

A while back, after the speculation that the person who leaked Valerie Plame’s ID to the press had come from the White House, you said that you wanted to know who did it more than anyone, and if that person was a White House employee you would fire them. So now we know that the leak came from your buddy-in-crime, Karl Rove, and we’re waiting for you to keep your word. I mean, you would never lie, would you?

LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Sorry, I just couldn’t hold that in. Bush would never lie? If you believe that after all this time you really need a reality check. The man has made a cottage industry of lying to get what he wants. He lied when he was running for President, both times. Even the “True Conservatives” are seeing the truth of that statement, and they are not happy. They call him a Democrat, one of the worst things these guys can think of to call someone, especially if he is another Republican. He lied about his “service” in the National Guard, he lied about WMD’s in Iraq, he lied like a dog about Kerry, ruining the reputation of a true American hero, he lied about the war being over, he lied about almost everything he’s ever said he would or did do. The man is a walking, talking, lie machine.

You know, they constantly accused Bill Clinton of lying about everything under the sun, and they finally proved their point by catching him in a sex trap and forcing him to answer the question of questions in a taped proceeding that was going to hit the airwaves before he got his rear end out the front door after it was over. Tell me, guys, which of you would like to have your wife and child(ren) hear you say on national TV that you’ve been unfaithful in your marriage? I dare say none of you would. Now, lying about having had an affair is not uncommon. As a matter of fact it is pretty much par for the course, and yes, it is done in court under oath every day in this country and probably others as well. Yet, when Mr. Clinton does it, it becomes front page news as the worst crime committed in all the years man has been on this planet, while Bush lies about things that get almost 2000 of our young people killed (so far), and that’s somehow ok. I don’t get it.

But let’s get real here. BC promised to cut the dificit, and he did. He promised to improve employment, and he did. He promised to help those in the lower income brackets and he did. He promised to end big government as we had known it, and he made a pretty good start of it. He kept his campaign promises as best he could, something that is almost unheard of these days. Remember Reagan? “I can cut taxes, increase spending, and get rid of the almost 2 trillion dollar deficit Carter left in four years “, yet it didn’t turn out that way. He actually doubled that deficit in three years! And by the time he and then Bush I were through it had become the largest in the history of the US - until Bush II got ahold of it, that is. They had 12 years between them to get the deficit down, yet they only “grew” it, while Bill Clinton totally erased it and got us a surplus within his 8 years. No, Clinton isn’t the real liar, not in the things that matter. Now George W. Bush can claim the clear and undeniable title of Presidential Liar of All Time.

So, we’re still waiting, Mr. President. Where’s the pink slip for your good buddy Rove? You promised you would do it. He has been shown beyond doubt to be the one who leaked the information, his attorney has finally admitted it since the e-mails to Time left him no wiggle room, and after months of swearing he had nothing to do with it, the truth has come out. Karl Rove, the President’s right hand man - the architect of his winning-by-lying campaigns - deliberately gave a reporter the news that the wife of Pete Wilson, the man who rightly challenged the Bush Administration’s claims that Saddam had gotten hold of some uranium in Niger to make nuclear weapons with, was a CIA agent. He says he never gave him her name. Ok. I’ll buy that. He had to have some way to try to exonerate himself if it ever came out. But what intelligent person wouldn’t know that a good reporter would have the woman’s name before he could turn around once? You know it. I know it. You can’t tell me Karl Rove didn’t. It just won’t wash. He knew Cooper would find it, and when it wasn’t put out soon enough, you can bet your backside that Rove got impatient and went to Good Buddy Novak, knowing he would get it out faster than the speed of light. He accomplished what he wanted, and that was to punish and denigrate the man who dared tell the truth in response to the lies Bush wanted the world to believe.

Rove has a long history of lies, as reported by people who have been the target of those lies and some people who have worked with him, and this is just another day at the office for Karl. But it shouldn’t be. He shouldn’t be able to spread lies to discredit perceived enemies of W, like waging a phone call campaign telling South Carolinians that John McCain had an affair with an African American woman and she had a child that he and his wife adopted while they were campaigning there with their adopted daughter of African descent. Like recruiting Richard Nixon’s hand-picked antagonist of John Kerry to gather men around him who NEVER SERVED WITH KERRY to denounce him and say he didn’t do the things those WHO WERE WITH HIM said he did and he never deserved the medals he got. And that’s only two of the lies they told about him.

If you want to see how a campaign of flat out lies and distortions can hurt a candidate, look for the PBS POV story about the race between Sharpe James and Cory Booker for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey a few years back. Booker was drawn and quartered by James, the incumbent Mayor, and anyone who posted his signs or showed support were harrassed by police, while business owners who allowed Booker signs in their windows were hit by inspectors, etc, and told they’d be closed down for violations that didn’t exist if they didn’t get rid of the signs. One restaurant where Booker had scheduled a fundraiser dinner backed out at the last minute because of the intimidation by Jame’s people, and a lot of what he did and said was on tape. The man is a disgrace and should be impeached. If there ever were a reason for impeachment it is the actions of the Sharpe James campaign. I would like to add that the Bush campaigns were made up of much the same kinds of things, and that’s on the record.

Anyway, to get back to the real issue here, if you really care about truth, justice, and the American Way, get off your duff and let the Bush administration know you expect him to keep his promise, for once. Don’t let him slip out of this lie, too, because he’s just so darn funny and cute. The man is a liar, always has been and always will be because it works for him, but this time don’t let it. Let him know he can’t keep jerking us around all the time. I know, the Rove thing is small beans compared to the Iraq war, etc, but it’s a start, and maybe if he finally sees we all expect him to say what he means and mean what he says he will get the message and stop lying to us. George W. Bush, do the right thing. Fire Karl Rove, the person who uncaringly put a woman’s life and livelihood in jeopardy simply to exact revenge on someone who outted you for lying. Be a man this time, Georgie Boy. DO THE RIGHT THING!!

 It doesn't hurt, Mama
It's only just a hole
It really isn't nothin'
Oh, man, I'm gettin cold!
I think I'm gonna make it
I'm still too tough to die
I'll be home someday soon now
So Mama, don't you cry.
I followed all the orders
They gave me all along
I did just what they told me
I don't know what went wrong.
I didn't see that guy there,
The one that shot at me
He blended in so well that
I really couldn't see.
He saw me, tho, and got me
It's just below my rib
I don't think it's too bad, Mom
I think I'm gonna live.
I wish the doc would get here
I really want to know
Just what got hit and how bad
He thinks it is. Oh, no.
It's gettin dark now, Mama
I could have sworn it's noon
The time has passed so quickly
I can't see through the gloom
I think I'll go to sleep now
I really am just beat.
I'm waiting for the medic-
I wish there was some heat.
I think I'll close my eyes now
And catch me 40 winks
I'll just lie here and rest now
This waiting really stinks.
Mom, it's time to go now
I'm not coming home today
I left to serve my country
And now I'm going away
Where there isn't any fighting
And there isn't any war
And no one seems to miss it
I'll not fight anymore
But when you get to heaven
I'll be there, arms outstretched
To wrap you in and keep you there,
My head upon your breast.
I love you, Mom, I miss you
I hope you will agree
That I fought well and died here
For the cause of Liberty. 

 
I watch the clouds trundle across the sky
Bumping, swelling higher, then fading away
Into sunlit blueness.
Rain is gone, and the clouds seem happy
To scurry away, hide behind the mountains
And wait for another day.
Teasingly, they peek
Over the mountain tops,
Then duck behind them again
Until they tire of the game,
And move on to other pursuits.
I sit, and watch.

 
The sun got up, the buzzer screamed
The sunlight slapped my face in streams
The shower hissed it's cleansing tune
And me - I stumbled on.
The henfruit scrambled, the bacon spat
The toast got tanned, the 'cakes got fat
The T.V. ranted, raved, cajoled,
And me - I stubbed my toe.
The clothes don't fit, the color's wrong
The butt's too big, I HATE THAT SONG!!!
The makeup looks like Tammy Faye
And me - I broke a nail.
The starter grinds, the pistons knock
The guage seems weighted with a rock
The car might make it - maybe not
And me - I limp along.
Why did you leave? How could you go?
What does she have? What don't I know?
How can I manage on my own?
And me - I just don't know

Well, well, well. So it turns out that, indeed, the mouth that outted a CIA agent - the wife of a guy who contradicted Bush, et al, on one of their main reasons for invading Iraq - does belong to a White House insider. None other than Karl Rove. Now, this man’s penchant for slamming anyone with anything he can come up with to discredit them when the go up against his Fuhrer, W, is well known. The fact it is argued by those on the right makes not one whit of difference, since people close to the snake have come out and said so, more than once. But now he has not only opened his ample mouth, he has shoved his foot in clear up to his hip at the same time.

I don’t like to gloat, but it really is a thrill to finally have this liar’s head handed to the world on a silver platter. Oh, I know, his lawyers are working overtime to try to “explain” it all away, but I have a feeling this time it won’t work. He’s been caught red-handed at what he has always done best, and the fact is he has not only brought the anvil down on his own head, he’s also conked the head of his Lord and Master as well.

Now, I’m sure he will probably try to fall on his own sword, protecting his Glorious Leader from being found out as the liar he really is, but if there is any justice in this world, it won’t work. This time W is going to be shown for the lying little scumbag he really is, and I’ll lay odds he’s going to go down squealing like a pig, swearing he had no idea what Rove was doing.

Well, all I can say is, there have been too many dirty tricks in too many campaigns for him to get away with that. He has to know what his campaign manager does, right? I mean, if it were just one thing you might be able to say he did it on his own, but when there is a pattern of the same kind of thing that has gone on since he took over the reins of G.W.Bush campaigns it’s been one thing after another, so there’s no way the Boss wouldn’t have started asking what was up long ago. He simply has to be aware of how Rove works.

Now, I don’t expect the fool to go down easily. I’m sure he’ll find a way to lie his way out of it if possible. My hope is that they will have the noose so tight he will strangle himself before he ever manages to get loose. One less scumbag in the political world isn’t going to hurt one bit. My preference, however, is that the case will be airtight and the fat little cockroach will be tried for treason or something similar and spend the biggest part of the life he has left in jail, or, with even better luck, he’ll be there until he goes to meet God and He hands down the real punishment for Rove’s lies and character assassinations.

I am sorry if I offend anyone with my open display of glee at this turn of events, but after what he did to John McCain, and then again with John Kerry, I can’t think of a better way to make up for it than this. God willing he will end up in that jail, and it won’t be a cushy vacation spot he goes to. No, it has to be a real jail, with enough Bubbas and Bruces to keep the cockroach busy day and night.

Man, it’s been a while since I’ve checked in here. It’s not that I’ve been so busy, just that I never get around to it. I should come in and write something every day, I know, but there are just times when I don’t want to be bothered, so I don’t. Also, believe it or not, there are times when I have absolutely nothing to say. I know, some would say even when I do post I’ve nothing to say, but this is for real.

So, Justice O’Conner has resigned. Now, that was a shock to me, and to many others, but in watching Washington Week on Review last night I learned that it wasn’t such a surprise to others. Now, being the conspiracy theorist that I am, this news set off alarms in my brain. The sane part of me says I’m crazy, there is no reason to believe the fix was in, but the strange side of me says there is just too much here to be a coincidence. Let me explain myself.

Gwen Ifill was the “moderator”, and there were three reporters who exclusively cover the Supreme Court, and one lady who is writing a book about Justice O’Conner and has been close to her, and to a person they were all shocked at the news. They had no idea, and one of the reporters who is good friends with the court clerk, who knows everything, said she had called her yesterday to ask if anything was up. Everyone was expecting Rehnquist to resign, of course, but the woman told her there was nothing as yet. Then yesterday morning this person called the reporter and asked where she was, then told her she had better get to the court, quickly. The woman got there just in time to be handed a copy of the resignation letter, and everyone, including the friend, was surprised by it.

A TV reporter who’s first name is Pete, I think, said that he had gotten news of some kind of announcement from the Heritage Foundation that said something like “O’Conner has jumped the gate in front of Rehnquist. She is resigning today”, and then a few minutes later the official release came out. Now, I don’t know about you, but my first thought was “How did they know ahead of time, before it was even announced to anyone but Bush?” He went on to say that for about a week or two now there have been rumblings from different Conservative Orgs. saying they should keep their eye on O’Conner, she might be ready to go, yet no one else had a clue. And that’s the rub. How did these organizations know about something that no one else had a clue about, not even those working closest to the woman herself? And how did the Heritage Foundation, a highly Conservative group, get the news in time to put it out ahead of the official announcement?

I can think of only two ways. Well, three, if you believe in prescience. Anyway, the only two ways I can think of are, first, that pressure has been put on the woman to leave now, instead of Rehnquist, since she has been the swing vote on a lot of things the Conservatives dearly want to go the other way. If they get her out and get a strict Conservative appointed, the votes will go their way, since Rehnquist rarely, if ever, goes against Conservative wishes on anything. If he were to go first, they would still have O’Conner there, voting with the “opposition” far too often on things of importance to them. Second, as soon as Bush got the letter of resignation he called Jerry Falwell, or someone else in the Foundation, to tell them the news. Now I have to ask myself why he would do that, and the only answer I get is that he wanted to rejoice with them about the fact he was getting his chance to stack the court in their favor. Now, I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, either choice points to corruption of the highest order.

Now, no one is asking Bush to put aside his personal beliefs in these matters. That would be an unfair thing to do. However, if he is working with people who are not elected officials to decide what decisions to make on matters concerning all of America, then that is simply wrong. If he, either at their behest or on his own, forced her to resign so he could finally pack the court with far-right wing radicals, that is wrong, and if he was “following the orders” of a far-right wing religious group, then that is wrong, too.

I don’t know what the answer is here, whether one or both things are true or false, but I do think there is enough question about it to merit some kind of investigation, even if it’s only from a newperson’s perspective. I really want to know the answers to these questions. Not that it matters, I guess, it won’t change anything, but if there is evidence of the President of the United States bringing undue pressure on a Supreme Court Justice to resign, that’s something we need to know. And if there is evidence that the President of the United States is allowing a far-right religious organization to call the shots in something this big, then that needs to be known, too. You all know if it were Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry as President who allowed NOW or the AFL-CIO to do the same thing it seems the Heritage Foundation has done, we would be well on our way to the impeachment trials again. There should be no double standard here. We all know Bush is on their side, but to allow them to set national policy in this manner would simply be wrong, and I hope both sides can see that.